THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 \
 
 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 
 
 mes 0f i 
 
 SUGGESTED BY THE VARYING EVENTS OF THE WAR 
 FOE THE UNION. 
 
 BY GEOEGE PECK, D.D. 
 
 N t ro |) o r It : 
 
 PUBLISHED BY CARLTON & PORTER, 
 
 200 M U L 15 E R U T - 8T R E E T. 
 1805.
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1865, by 
 CARLTON & PORTER, 
 
 in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the 
 Southern District of New York.
 
 53*. 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 THE discourses which compose this volume were 
 
 suggested by the events of the day, and were deliv- 
 
 uj ered while those events were still current in the 
 
 ^ thoughts and the hearts of the people. They are 
 
 arranged here chiefly in accordance with the order of 
 
 time. The sermon on " Our Heritage " occupies the 
 
 H 
 
 ** first position, because it forms a fitting introduction 
 
 CM 
 
 g to the general subject. The second, on " Obedience 
 
 to the Civil Authority," was preached in the summer 
 
 Q of 1861, when the nation began to realize that a war 
 
 n f gig an tic proportions was upon us, and Christian 
 
 ^ men were earnestly inquiring the path of duty. The 
 
 f 
 
 % third, on " The Signs of the Times," was preached at 
 
 a camp-meeting in the valley of Wyoming, about the 
 time of the second battle of Bull Bun. The fifth 
 is a sermon delivered in Scranton, Pa., on the day 
 
 461835
 
 4 PREFACE. 
 
 of National Thanksgiving after the victory at Get- 
 tysburgh. Thus, one by one, as the varying events 
 of the war suggested, the discourses were prepared 
 and delivered, and a number of them were published 
 in the local newspapers. They have been .carefully 
 revised, and are now offered to the public with the 
 hope that their publication may not be wholly in 
 vain in this the day of our national trial. G. P. 
 SCRANTON, PA., March 4, 1865.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 MM 
 
 I. OUR HERITAGE . 7 
 
 II. OBEDIENCE TO CIVIL GOVERNMENT 20 
 
 HI. THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES 36 
 
 IV. STRENGTH IN THE DAY OF ADVERSITY ... 57 
 V. FIERY TRIALS OF OUR FREE INSTITUTIONS 69 
 
 VI. RADICALISM 90 
 
 VH. THE LORD'S CONTROVERSY 104 
 
 VIII. THE WRATH OF MAN SHALL PRAISE GOD. 122 
 
 IX. SLAVERY 139 
 
 X. A COMPROMISE REJECTED 169 
 
 XL NO NEUTRALITY 187 
 
 XH. NO FALSE PEACE 203 
 
 XHI. HARDER BLOWS, AND MORE OF THEM. . f . ? 21T 
 XIV. THE SECESSION DEVIL. . ,...,...,,,.,...,,,. 231 
 XV. THE GOOD SAMARITAN .., 856
 
 OUR COUNTEY: 
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 
 
 OUR HERITAGE. 
 
 THE LINES ARE FALLEN UNTO ME IN PLEASANT PLACES ; TEA, I HAVE 
 A GOODLY HERITAGE. Psa. Xvi, 6. 
 
 IN this world, though crowded with moral and 
 physical evils, there are "pleasant places." In the 
 midst of wars and rumors of wars there are intervals 
 of peace. While the ear is stunned with bacchanalian 
 revels and noisy mirth, there may be found the tem- 
 ple of worship and the quiet family altar. 
 
 When surrounded by jagged rocks, yawning 
 chasms, and stagnant pools, myriads of beautiful 
 landscapes, variegated by the greensward, the yellow 
 grain, and the waving corn, greet the eye. Beautiful 
 flowers regale the sight and delicious fruits invite the 
 taste. Among the monarchies and despotisms which 
 wage war against human progress and crush out the 
 freedom of the soul, there is one free republic where
 
 8 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 liberty has full scope. While large portions of the 
 world are surrounded by the moral blight of heathen- 
 ism and popery, there is a true Church of God 
 crowned with salvation and reflecting the glory of the 
 Redeemer. The prospect is not all dark and forbid- 
 ding, but the eye is cheered with physical beauty, 
 while the heart is charmed with moral splendors. 
 The people whose local habitation is surrounded with 
 pleasurable objects are happy. 
 
 If there is a country on the map of the world truly 
 favored of God it is our own America. "We have a 
 country, a government, and a Church bequeathed to 
 us, primarily by God, and secondarily by our fathers, 
 which constitute a rich heritage, and which demand 
 of us in return patriotism and religion. 
 
 "We have a goodly heritage. 
 
 This country has " lines," or definite boundaries. 
 The text refers to the lot which fell to the Israelites 
 in Canaan. Their land originally included the coun- 
 try from the Arabian desert on the south to the 
 mountains of Lebanon on the north, and from the 
 river Jordan on the east to the Mediterranean sea on 
 the west. Under the reign of David it embraced all 
 the territory between the Euphrates and the Mediter- 
 ranean, or " from the river to the ends of the earth," 
 or the land's end. (See 1 Kings iv, 21, 22, and Psa. 
 Ixxii, 8.) The larger "territory was all embraced in 
 the promise given to Abram. (Gen. xiii, 15.)
 
 ITS TEIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 9 
 
 There is a striking analogy between the lines of the 
 land of Israel and those of our own country. Orig- 
 inally the land divided by Joshua embraced little 
 more than a narrow strip of country between the Jor- 
 dan and the Mediterranean ; but ultimately, under 
 Solomon, it covered the whole country between the 
 Euphrates and the border of Egypt. (1 Kings iv, 21.) 
 Originally we only had thirteen states, embracing the 
 country from the Atlantic to Lake Erie, and from the 
 Canada line to the southern boundary of Georgia. 
 Ultimately we became possessed of the whole ter- 
 ritory between the Atlantic and the Pacific, and 
 from the British possessions on the north to the Gulf 
 of Mexico on the south. These are our lines to-day. 
 This vast territory has come into our possession, so 
 far as human agency is concerned, partly by conquest, 
 and partly by purchase from other nations and the 
 Indian tribes. The providence of God being con- 
 cerned in the whole arrangement, we should regard 
 our country as a divine gift, an inheritance conferred 
 by Him who rules over the affairs of nations, " setting 
 up one and putting down another." 
 
 The lines are fallen to us in pleasant places. 
 This is truly " a delightsome land " in the beauty of 
 its natural scenery ; its towering mountains, with 
 their fertile slopes; its vast rivers, with their luxuriant 
 vales clothed with every variety of flowers and fruit- 
 age, loaded with agricultural wealth, and crowded 
 with animal life of every variety. "We have the gay
 
 10 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 bloom and golden fruit of the tropics, and the glisten- 
 ing glaciers of the Kocky Mountain heights; the 
 rapid but short-lived vegetation of Lake Champlain, 
 and the perennial verdure of the gulf states. What- 
 ever of beauty invites the eye upon the plains of Italy 
 or on Alpine heights, is found here in profusion. 
 
 The splendid moving palaces which crowd our sea- 
 board, and thread in all their windings the Connecti- 
 cut, the Hudson, the Ohio, the Mississippi, and the 
 Missouri, add a new element of beauty to the rock- 
 bound ocean, and the streams which rush from the 
 mountains, meander through the vales, and form bays 
 in connection with the great ocean. The rapidity of 
 transit unites all extremes, bringing together autumn 
 and spring, winter and summer, and heightening the 
 interest by the contrast. 
 
 Hitherto I have dwelt mostly upon the sources of 
 pleasure opened in the beautiful and interesting 
 scenes presented to view in such abundance in this 
 goodly land. Let us next survey the resources of 
 this country as it regards material wealth and phys- 
 ical comfort. 
 
 We have a soil of unsurpassed productiveness, fur- 
 nishing every variety of grains, grasses, roots, and 
 fruits in luxurious abundance. The hand of industry 
 is everywhere rewarded with the most ample yield 
 of food for man and beast. Our commerce pours in a 
 ceaseless tide of weulth, our merchant ships visiting 
 every part of the world, and our sails whitening every
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 11 
 
 sea. Our mineral wealth seems without bounds. 
 The gold of California, and of the slopes of the 
 Rocky Mountains ; the lead and copper of the west- 
 ern states, and the coal and ores of Pennsylvania, are 
 sources of boundless wealth to the nation. Our man- 
 ufactories produce an abundance of the means of do- 
 mestic comfort and a state of advanced civilization. 
 Our artisans excel in skill, and our discoveries rival 
 the genius of the world. I speak of all this as sober 
 truth, which should call forth the nation's gratitude, 
 and be matter of just pride. 
 
 This glorious land is ours let it never be divided. 
 Let no profane hand ever " remove the ancient land- 
 marks." Let not an inch of it ever be conceded to 
 rebellion. The politicians of Europe tell us that our 
 " lines " embrace too much territory, that the magni- 
 tude of the great Republic endangers the peace of the 
 world, that it is necessary that we should be weak- 
 ened by divisions and subdivisions. The govern- 
 ments of the old world may find out that their peace 
 may not be secured by their intermeddling with our 
 affairs, and the best way to preserve the peace of the 
 world is for them to let us alone. As to gratifying 
 their wishes for a southern slaweholding confederacy, 
 it may be done when the patriotism of the nation 
 dies out never before. The integrity of the whole 
 country is the motto of every loyal citizen, and will 
 continue to be, in storm and in sunshine, in light and 
 in darkness, in weal and in woe.
 
 12 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 We have a heritage of free institutions. 
 
 Our fathers, and the God of our fathers, bequeathed 
 to us civil and religious liberty. The "inalienable 
 right of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness " is 
 accorded to all who have not forfeited these inestimable 
 blessings by crime. The only other exception to the 
 rule is southern slavery, and this great nuisance is 
 rapidly being abated, and there is no reasonable 
 doubt but it will soon be utterly extinct. Civil and 
 religious liberty is the natural birthright of every 
 human being, and that right is enjoyed here to a 
 greater extent, and with fewer exceptions, than in 
 any nation upon the globe. 
 
 Liberty of conscience and of worship is an in- 
 valuable privilege. Here no man's conscience is 
 restricted. Every one may select his own mode 
 of worshiping God. If his professed worship does 
 not infringe upon the rights of other individuals or 
 the peace of society, or violate the laws of public 
 morals, he is left to worship God "under his own 
 vine and fig-tree, and there is none to molest or make 
 him afraid." 
 
 Our system of education is Christian without being 
 sectarian. The temple of knowledge is open to all, 
 not excepting the poorest of the people. None are 
 necessarily ignorant of anything which is necessary 
 to make the useful citizen. The rich are obliged to 
 help educate the poor, and to assist in the improve- 
 ment of the masses ; thus contributing to the happi-
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 13 
 
 uess and usefulness of the people, and to the greater 
 security of life and property. 
 
 We have the heritage of a true Church. 
 
 It is a New Testament Church. 
 
 The effete institutions which claim to be the only 
 true Churches stand upon a traditionary succession. 
 It is claimed that these Churches were founded by 
 some apostle, and are administered by his lineal suc- 
 cessors, and they are the divinely-appointed channels 
 of salvation. It need not be made a question whether 
 Churches were founded by the apostles at Rome, at 
 Jerusalem, at Antioch, at Corinth, at Alexandria, 
 and many other places. The question is, whether 
 those same Churches are s^ill alive. The question 
 who originally founded a Church is not of so much 
 importance as the question whether it is still u upon 
 the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus 
 Christ himself being the chief corner-stone." Tradi- 
 tion is variable, doubtful, and often self-contradictory ; 
 but Scripture is uniform, truthful, and always con- 
 sistent. A Church leaning upon Christ as the chief 
 corner-stone, with the open Bible in her hand, pro- 
 claiming " to the law and to the testimony, if they 
 speak not according to this word it is because there 
 is no light in them," is a biblical Church, and conse- 
 quently a true Church of Christ. The visible Church 
 of Christ is a " congregation of faithful men, or of true 
 believers, in which the pure word of God is preached,
 
 14: OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 and the sacraments duly administered, according to 
 Christ's ordinance, in all those things which of neces- 
 sity are requisite to the same." Such a Church we 
 have, embracing all the faithful of all evangelical 
 denominations. 
 
 It is a spiritual Church. 
 
 A pure Church is not corrupted by traditions, 
 superstitions, or will worship. It is baptized with 
 the Holy Ghost, and is thoroughly alive. The Spirit 
 of God lives in it and animates it. Such a Church is 
 the Church of the Keformation. It is full of puri- 
 tanic fire, and cherishes the old puritanic morality 
 and strictness. 
 
 It is alleged in certain quarters that Puritanism is 
 fanaticism, cant, and hyjrocrisy. No greater slander 
 was ever uttered. Puritanism is a love of New-Testa- 
 ment order, a repudiation of all foreign mixtures with 
 the Gospel, the spirit of rational liberty, and a recog- 
 nition of the natural equality of men. The fact that 
 the men of the Puritan stock hate slavery, and pray 
 for universal emancipation, has brought this form of 
 faith into great contempt at the South. No form of 
 Christianity will pass current there but that which 
 holds in fellowship " the peculiar institution." 
 
 We have a free Church, untrammeled by alliances 
 with the State. 
 
 The Church asks of the State simple protection, 
 and in return she promises true allegiance and earn- 
 est support. A true Christian cannot be an enemy
 
 ITS TKIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 15 
 
 to the government which gives him protection in the 
 exercise of the freedom of conscience. The Master 
 he serves commands him to " render to Cesar the 
 things which are Cesar's, and to God the things that 
 are God's," and he can no more mistake the first of 
 these precepts than he can. violate the second. 
 
 Leave to the Church an open field and unrestricted 
 liberty, and she will win her way to universal empire. 
 For " the kingdom, and the dominion, and the great- 
 ness of the kingdom under the whole heaven shall 
 be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, 
 whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all 
 dominions shall serve and obey him." Dan. vii, 27. 
 
 I have said the Church will render obedience for 
 protection, but I would not by this intimate that she 
 will turn rebel when she is not protected. It was 
 under the most tyrannical rule that St. Paul issued 
 that noteworthy precept, " Let every soul be subject 
 to the higher power." Under ordinary contingen- 
 cies there can be no such thing as a Christian rebel. 
 Those who were our Christian brethren at the South, 
 who have entered into the spirit of the great rebellion, 
 we are obliged to repudiate as apostates from the faith 
 and practices of the Gospel. 
 
 " The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places ; 
 yea, I have a goodly heritage." The hallowed scenes 
 which the Christian passes through, and which con- 
 tinue to live in his memory, associated with the 
 Church, give power and reality to these words. He
 
 16 OUR COUNTEY: 
 
 remembers the day of his espousal to Christ, recol- 
 lects the songs of Zion, the fervent prayers, and the 
 earnest, faithful sermons to which he has listened, and 
 exclaims with the Prophet, "How goodly are thy 
 tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel !" To 
 a soldier in. the army, to a sailor at sea, to a pris- 
 oner in a loathsome dungeon, how precious appears 
 the heritage which we enjoy. Nothing more strongly 
 marks the estimation in which David held the sacred 
 courts of the Lord's house than his longings for them 
 'after a brief absence in the time of Absalom's rebel- 
 lion. He says, " As the hart panteth after the water 
 brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My 
 soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the 
 Lord." So many blessings, so much sweet commun- 
 ion with the saints, so many powerful demonstrations 
 of truth, so many conversions, such overwhelming 
 showers of salvation, are associated with the Church 
 of God, that to the pious soul it seems very near 
 heaven. 
 
 The American Church commends herself to the 
 American people. She is comprehensive, progressive, 
 and effective. She is a power in the earth. She not 
 only has a mission here at home, but she extends her 
 benevolence to foreign lands. Her sympathies, like 
 the waves of the ocean, roll on until they reach the 
 most distant shores. The Churches are "the bul- 
 warks of our land," and are entitled to the confidence 
 of all who seek the highest prosperity of the country
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 17 
 
 and the permanency of our free institutions. The 
 American Church has a perfect adaptation to the 
 breadth and progress of the American Republic. 
 Her missionary spirit impels her toward the setting 
 sun. She is essentially aggressive, and actually 
 keeps pace with the tide of emigration westward, 
 offering salvation to the hardy emigrant on the 
 Rocky Mountain slope and the Pacific coast. She 
 seeks the Indian in the western wilds, and the 
 African in the southern swamps. She has trophies 
 gathered from every locality of our broad land, and 
 every nationality of which its heterogeneous popula- 
 tion is composed. Let us then sing with Dr. 
 Dwight : 
 
 "I love thy Church, God! 
 
 Her walls before thee stand, 
 Dear as the apple of thine eye, 
 
 And graven on thy hand." 
 
 What a government have we! How free, how 
 just, how strong ! Who would prefer the upstart 
 despotism of Jefferson Davis, or the weak republics 
 of Central America? We are now contending 
 against a malignant usurpation, secretly encour- 
 aged by England and France, and possessed of vast 
 resources. The administration is engaged in the 
 most gigantic civil war that history records, and it 
 has- neither degenerated into tyranny, nor failed to 
 maintain itself through weakness. To-day it stands 
 out before the gaze of the world a monument of the 
 
 wisdom, justice, adaptation, and strength of a well- 
 
 2
 
 18 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 balanced popular government. By however much 
 the government has been tried in the furnace' of 
 affliction, by so much the true patriot cleaves to it, 
 and pledges in its defense his life, his fortune, and his 
 sacred honor. His inmost soul is in harmony with 
 the stirring popular song : 
 
 " Rally round the flag, boys, 
 
 Spread it to the breeze, 
 Shouting the battle-cry of freedom." 
 
 Let tyrants rage, and anarchists gnash their teeth. 
 God will avenge our wrongs, and our glorious flag 
 will continue to wave over the land of the free and 
 the home of the brave. 
 
 What free citizen of this great Republic does not 
 feel that he has reason to thank God for his country. 
 Let him travel in other countries; for instance, 
 through the German States, and have his passport 
 demanded half a dozen times in a day. Then let him 
 return home and travel from Maine to New Orleans, 
 up the father of waters to St. Paul, then let him 
 cross the plains to California, then visit Oregon and 
 the partially settled territories on the eastern and 
 western slopes of the Rocky Mountains, and then let 
 him return to his home in the east, and recollect that 
 he has traveled for thousands of miles, and has not 
 crossed the boundaries of his own country and has 
 not once been asked for his passport ; what must be 
 his admiration of the real sublimity of this great Re- 
 public ? Would he wish it cut up into petty inde-
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 19 
 
 pendencies ? Would lie not be willing to make large 
 sacrifices, and to strike heavy blows, and endure the 
 dangers of the camp, and the privations of the prison, 
 and expose himself to death itself, rather than see this 
 grand heritage dismembered ? Let that tongue be 
 palsied that does not shout in the highest key, 
 "Long live the glorious Union !" 
 
 The "heritage," then, which God has given the 
 American people, embracing all the peoples who come 
 to this land to find a home, comprehends a country 
 almost boundless in extent and wealth, a government 
 founded upon popular rights, and a Church of heav- 
 en's own appointment. A glorious inheritance ! 
 
 " My country ! 'tis of thee, 
 Sweet land of liberty, 
 
 Of thee I sing: 
 Land where my fathers died, 
 Land of the pilgrim's pride, " 
 From every mountain side 
 
 Let freedom ring. 
 
 " My native coxintry 1 thee, 
 Land of the noble free, 
 
 Thy name I love ; 
 I love thy rocks and rills, 
 Thy woods and templed hills : 
 My heart with rapture thrills 
 
 Like that above. 
 
 " Our fathers' God ! to thee, 
 Author of liberty I 
 
 To thee we sing: 
 Long may our land be bright 
 With freedom's holy light : 
 Protect us by thy might, 
 
 Great God, -our King !"
 
 20 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 II. 
 OBEDIENCE TO CIVIL GOVERNMENT. 
 
 LET EVERY SOUL BE SUBJECT UNTO THE HIGHER POWERS. FOR THERE IS 
 NO POWER BUT OF GOD : THE POWERS TEAT BE ARE ORDAINED OF 
 GOD. WHOSOEVER THEREFORE RESISTETH THE POWER, RESISTETII 
 THE ORDINANCE OF GOD: AND THEY THAT RESIST SHALL RECEIVE TO 
 THEMSELVES DAMNATION. FOR RULERS ARE NOT A TERROR TO GOOD 
 WORKS, BUT TO THE EVIL. "WlLT THOU THEN NOT BE AFRAID OF THE 
 POWER ? DO THAT WHICH IS GOOD, AND THOU SHALT HAVE PRAISE OF 
 THE SAME. FOR HE IS THE MINISTER OF GOD TO THEE FOR GOOD. 
 BUT IF THOU DO THAT WHICH IS EVIL, BE AFRAID : FOR HE BEARETH 
 NOT THE SWORD IN VAIN : FOR HE IS THE MINISTER OF GOD, A RE- 
 VENGER TO EXECUTE WRATH UPON HIM THAT DOETH EVIL. "WHERE- 
 FORE YE MUST NEEDS BE SUBJECT, NOT ONLY FOR WRATH, BUT ALSO 
 FOR CONSCIENCE' SAKE. FOR, FOR THIS CAUSE PAY YE TRIBUTE ALSO : 
 FOR THEY ARE GOD'S MINISTERS, ATTENDING CONTINUALLY UPON 
 
 THIS VERY THING. Rom. xiii, 1-G. 
 
 THE origin ai\d authority of civil government are 
 at all times important subjects of study, but especially 
 BO at the present time.- And as the apostle treats 
 this subject specifically, it should not be ignored by 
 the pulpit. No duty is more explicitly enforced than 
 that of obedience to the civil authority, and yet none 
 is more lightly cast off. 
 
 The recklessness, or the levity with which our civil 
 obligations are often treated may be the evil fruit of 
 infidelity, but doubtless it is often the result of de- 
 fective education, or of thoughtlessness. When it 
 results from the latter cause, instruction and warning
 
 ITS TEIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 21 
 
 may be the means of reformation ; but when it is the 
 fruit of jitter depravity, the case may be considered 
 hopeless. 
 
 My object in the present discourse shall be to 
 arouse the conscience and to stimulate the activities 
 of such as retain a reverence for God's word, but have 
 given no special attention to the moral and theo- 
 logical bearings of this great question. 
 
 I understand the text to assert, 
 
 That civil government is a divine institution 
 " The powers that be are ordained of God." 
 
 Any form of government which secures the rights 
 of the governed is covered by the apostolic rule. The 
 writers of the New Testament give preference to no 
 specific form of government ; but while they recog- 
 nize the authority of government in general,' leave 
 the particular details to the discretion of legislators, 
 or of the people. 
 
 Government always has for its object, justice, the 
 protection of individual rights, and the preservation 
 of the public peace. Some forms of government are 
 better adapted to these ends than others ; but an im- 
 perfect government is vastly better than none. The 
 thing itself and the ends it proposes are from God, 
 and the imperfections of its forms do by.no means 
 vitiate its authority. 
 
 This principle cannot be made to cover such 
 abuses of civil authority as violate the principles of
 
 22 OUR COUNTRY : 
 
 natural law and natural justice. The ends of govern- 
 ment are sometimes utterly subverted by a corrupt 
 administration, and in such cases the divine sanction 
 of government is no defense. The immorality and 
 the cruelties of Nero and Cesar Borgia were simply 
 abuses of power, and not the legitimate exercise of the 
 functions of government. 
 
 Government is a coercive power. It holds "the 
 sword." It is "a revenger to execute wrath upon 
 him that doeth evil." 
 
 Government of necessity is invested with the moral 
 right of its own protection, preservation, and perpe- 
 tuity. This right necessarily implies the right of 
 coercion. The end of administration is the enforce- 
 ment of obedience to law. This end is accomplished 
 by the infliction of pains and penalties, and is entirely 
 secured in the proportion in which the penalties of 
 fiolated law are uniform and certain consequences of 
 crime. If the minister of justice " beareth not the 
 sword in vain," if there is no compromising the 
 claims of law, nor escape from its penalties, govern- 
 ment is then a mighty power for good. 
 
 The supposition of a civil government without the 
 power of coercion is an absurdity upon the face of 
 it ; and coercion implies the power of appropriate 
 punishment in extreme cases the power of life and 
 death. Sacred as human life is, it may be taken 
 when necessary for the preservation of the govern-
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 23 
 
 ment or the public safety. It is a fearful alternative 
 to take human life, but there are alternatives still 
 more fearful. It would be a terrible thing to take 
 the life of a midnight assassin in the act of breaking 
 into your house ; but it would be a greater evil to 
 lose your life and to have your wife and children 
 murdered. The police of a city would be justified 
 in shooting down a gang of robbers who should rush 
 upon defenseless citizens in the quiet and helpless- 
 ness of their nightly slumbers. A nation is justified 
 in taking up the sword and entering the field of 
 deadly strife when invaded by a foreign foe or by 
 bands of rebels. War is not to be compared with the 
 loss of liberty nor the annihilation of a nationality. 
 
 All subjects and citizens are under the most solemn 
 obligations to submit to the civil authority. " Let 
 every soul be subject unto the higher powers." 
 
 Subjection or obedience to law is necessary to the 
 existence of government, and it is but reasonable 
 that we should be subject to the power that gives us 
 protection. If law is set at naught, it loses its power 
 of protection and leaves the community in the con- 
 dition of anarchy. " Resisting the power " is " resist- 
 ing the ordinance of God." Rebellion against a 
 legitimate government is rebellion against God, and 
 a high crime. A Christian cannot be, in the true 
 sense of the term, a rebel, nor can a rebel be a Chris- 
 tian. An individual is indeed justified in refusing
 
 24 CUE COUNTRY ! 
 
 obedience to a law which is plainly contrary to the 
 divine law. He may say with the apostles in a cer- 
 tain case, " "Whether it is right to obey man rather 
 than God, judge ye." If he is restrained by his con- 
 science, he is bound to refuse obedience, and, if need 
 be, suffer martyrdom. 
 
 Again, when a government tramples upon the 
 rights of the governed, and becomes intolerably op- 
 pressive, and there remains no other mode of redress, 
 the people may resort to revolution. The resistance 
 of the American colonies to British oppression we 
 deem a legitimate assertion of their natural rights. 
 That admirable bill of rights, the Declaration of 
 American Independence, has commanded the respect 
 of all civilized nations, and will be admired through 
 all succeeding ages. There we have laid down the 
 true grounds upon which a people may throw off 
 despotic rule and fall back upon their natural rights. 
 In such cases successful resistance becomes revolu- 
 tion, and revolution involves the necessity of recon- 
 struction. Here is a clear exception to the obligation 
 of obedience to the civil power, but it is altogether a 
 different case from acts of treason and rebellion 
 against a just government, where all grievances may 
 be redressed in an orderly manner, under constitu- 
 tional provisions, and the rights of every man, every 
 class of men and section, may be maintained by law. 
 
 In a representative government like ours, it is 
 indeed difficult to conceive -of a case in which the
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 25 
 
 redress of grievances is beyond the reach of law, and 
 where, consequently, rebellion would be justifiable. 
 In all the cases which may be rationally supposed, re- 
 sistance to the constitutional authorities would be a 
 high crime against God and against society. 
 
 We have seen the apostolic rule; we next proceed 
 to consider its high sanctions. " Not only for wrath 
 but for conscience' sake." " Do that which is good 
 and thou shalt have praise of the same." " And they 
 that resist shall receive to themselves damnation." 
 
 "We gather from the language of the apostle a three- 
 fold motive to obedience. 
 
 The first I shall notice is the approbation of con- 
 science. This implies the approbation of our better 
 judgment. Enlightened and unbiased conscience is 
 God's witness, and bears testimony to the truth. 
 "When biased by education, interest, or passion, men 
 lose the benefit of this clear light, and often become 
 so blinded as to put evil for good and good for evil. 
 Hence the Saviour's caution : " Take heed that the 
 light that is in you be not darkness." In this per- 
 verted state of the conscience men often commit the 
 worst crimes in the name of religion, and even mutter 
 prayers while imbruing their hands in the blood of 
 their brothers. Saul verily thought that he did God 
 service when he persecuted the Church; but when 
 the light of God shone upon him he saw his error. 
 It is an enlightened and purified conscience which 
 bears true testimony : and such a conscience always
 
 26 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 approves of obedience to law, and makes the faithful 
 Christian citizen. 
 
 Secondly. Duty to the civil authority receives the 
 approbation of enlightened public sentiment. "Do 
 that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the 
 same." 
 
 The approbation of the public is sought as a good 
 thing ; but the approbation of men in high positions 
 is especially desirable. Kone are so well prepared to 
 appreciate the loyalty of the worthy citizen as the 
 ruler who feels his responsibility as a "minister of 
 God for good." Fidelity^ to the state, in his eye, is 
 something more than a simple matter of expediency ; 
 it is a religious duty, and is indispensable to the good 
 citizen. To the loyal citizen he looks for support in 
 the execution of the laws, to him he accords his con- 
 fidence, and to him he renders the meed of his high- 
 est praise. 
 
 Thirdly. The " avenger " shall pursue the track of 
 the disloyal and the disturber of the public peace. 
 He shall be surrendered to the sword of the minister 
 of justice, who is divinely appointed to cut off capital 
 offenders. In addition to this, a fearful retribution 
 awaits him hereafter ; for such " shall receive to them- 
 selves damnation." A reckoning of fearful signifi- 
 cance awaits the disturbers of public order. The 
 engines of divine power will be set in motion against 
 them, and a storm of divine indignation will break 
 ivpon their heads.
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 27 
 
 Such is the Pauline doctrine upon the subject of 
 obedience to civil rulers, and such are the sanctions 
 by which it is enforced. In the next place I shall 
 proceed to make an application of the teachings of 
 the apostle to existing national affairs. 
 
 This government is now contending with a formi- 
 dable rebellion. Several states have professedly se- 
 ceded and organized a confederation ; have seized a 
 vast amount of public property, and levied war 
 against the legitimate government. Vast armies are 
 now in the field upon both sides. Numbers are en- 
 gaged on each side who profess to be Christians. 
 The question with every man who reverences the 
 Bible should be, What is the morality of this move- 
 ment of the rebellious states? Is the biblical rule 
 which requires obedience to the civil authority ap- 
 plicable to this case ? If the present rebellion is such 
 an instance of " resisting the power " as the apostle 
 supposes, no motives of ambition, policy, or interest 
 can either justify it, or in the least mitigate the guilt 
 of its leaders and promoters. And I take it upon me 
 to prove that the seceding states are guilty of the very 
 crime which the apostle condemns. 
 
 The Constitution and government of the United 
 States were organized by our fathers in an orderly 
 manner, and adopted by the several states. The 
 Constitution and the federal laws are paramount 
 law to the people. The United States constitute 
 one government. The motto originally adopted
 
 28 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 was "E Pluribus Unum" which truly expresses not 
 a mere theory, but a fact. 
 
 Now it is against this government that a portion of 
 the United States are in open rebellion. Are they 
 not "resisting the power?" To this question there 
 can be but one answer. A justification, however, is 
 set up; and that is, that the federal government has 
 usurped unconstitutional powers and grievously op- 
 pressed the southern states ; that, under the circum- 
 stances, they are excepted from the general rule ; that 
 it is a case in whicli the governed have the right of 
 resistance, and may resort to revolution. Let us hear 
 them patiently : 
 
 1. They say that the Northern states are made up 
 of abolitionists, who are eternally denouncing slavery. 
 Admitting all this, what then ? Are not freedom of 
 thought, liberty of speech, and the freedom of the 
 press, essential to a free government ? Are they not 
 conferred by the Constitution and the laws framed by 
 our fathers ? Supposing we of the North have em- 
 braced wrong views of human rights, and have talked 
 and published too much upon the subject, is this suf- 
 ficient cause for breaking up the whole system of the 
 government? "We are opposed to human slavery, 
 and so were the fathers of the government ; and what 
 of all that ? Has our talk, our folly, if you please to 
 have it so, oppressed the South, or so wrecked the 
 Constitution that it may now be repudiated by the 
 slave states ? Southern slaveholders have talked too,
 
 ITS TEIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. -29 
 
 and talked foolishly enough ; but none of the North- 
 ern states has ever thought of seceding, and breaking 
 up the government on that account. Fanatics as we 
 are accused of being, we have not yet reached such a 
 pitch of madness as that. 
 
 2. It is alleged that several of the free states have 
 refused to carry out the Fugitive Slave Law, and in 
 contravention of the provisions of the Constitution 
 
 
 
 have aided slaves in their flight to Canada, and have 
 enacted Personal Liberty laws for the protection of 
 fugitives. Much is said on these points with very 
 little reason. Fugitive slaves have been surrendered 
 under the fugitive law from most of the free states. 
 
 zj f 
 
 and the Personal Liberty laws of the states where 
 such exist were enacted to prevent the kidnapping of 
 free persons of color. And if any of them contravene 
 the provisions of the Constitution, they may be set 
 aside by the Supreme Court of the United States. 
 For these alleged violations of Southern rights there 
 are ample remedies provided, to which the Southern 
 people might resort were they disposed so to do. 
 A majority of the judges of the Federal Court have 
 long been in favor of what is called Southern rights, 
 and, as is evident in the decision of the Dred Scott 
 case, have not been indisposed to favor the South as 
 far as possible. 
 
 3. It is made a grave matter of complaint that the 
 representatives in* Congress from the free states are 
 opposed to the admission of any more slave states into
 
 30 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 the Union, and wish to exclude slavery from the free 
 territories. Even so. And is not this a fair subject 
 of debate ? Does the Constitution forbid this opposi- 
 tion to the desires of the South to extend the area of 
 slavery? What constitutional right has slavery in 
 the territories, or what right of indefinite extension ? 
 Should Congress, by a majority of votes, say to slav- 
 ery, " Hitherto shalt thou come, and no further, and 
 here shall thy proud waves be stayed," what provis- 
 ions of the federal compact would thereby be viola- 
 ted? Clearly there is nothing in any of these 
 allegations to justify or even in the slightest degree 
 palliate rebellion. Here is no oppression, no invasion 
 of Southern rights; and there is no possibility of 
 grievances for which a remedy is not provided in the 
 Constitution and the laws. 
 
 "What, then, is the real occasion of this dreadful 
 outbreak ? 
 
 We must not ignore another grievance, and that is, 
 that the people have elected a " black republican " 
 president! Well, had not the free electors of the 
 TJnited States a right to elect whom they pleased ? 
 Must the majority submit to the dictation of the mi- 
 nority in selecting a president ? There was nothing 
 in the character or precedents of Mr. Lincoln which 
 threatened Southern rights, no overt act to be com- 
 plained of. He is not allowed so much as to enter 
 upon the duties of his office before tfie South inaugu- 
 rates rebellion. O tempora ! O mores !
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 31 
 
 The real cause of this rebellion, and the philosophy 
 of the whole movement, are to be found in the simple 
 fact that the free states have the long arm of the 
 lever, and have finally made up their minds not to be 
 dictated to and governed by a minority. Southern pol- 
 iticians, who have hitherto controlled the government 
 by wire-pulling and chicanery, have come to the con- 
 clusion that their game is played out, and that hence- 
 forth their numbers and the justice of their cause are 
 to be the measure of their power, and hence they 
 pause, secede, and set up for themselves. They were 
 in a fair way to lose control of the government and 
 the spoils of office, and could not brook it. Now, 
 forsooth, the poor, abused, oppressed, insulted South 
 strikes for freedom and justice, takes up arms, and ap- 
 peals to the God of battles to maintain the right ! 
 They cry aloud for vengeance ; they pray for help, 
 and march to the field of deadly strife to redeem their 
 injured honor ! 
 
 Is not this a grand farce ? Before the civilized 
 world, under the light of the nineteenth century, and 
 before high Heaven, these men openly rebel against 
 the best government that ever was constituted since 
 the world began, for no good reason whatever ! This 
 is a stupendous crime. 
 
 I take the position that armed resistance to an 
 armed rebellion is right, and that it is the solemn 
 duty of the government. 
 
 If the civil power " bears not the sword in vain,"
 
 32 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 here is an occasion for its being drawn from the scab- 
 bard. The war on the part of the government is a 
 necessary and a righteous war, one for whose success 
 a Christian may devoutly pray to a God who loves 
 justice and punishes outrageous wickedness. It is 
 strictly a defensive war. It is for the defense of the 
 public property, the defense of the capital, the defense 
 of the Constitution and the laws, the defense of the 
 rights of the people, the defense of our nationality. 
 It is a war for a government against anarchy ; a war 
 for freedom against usurpation and despotism. If 
 government has a divine commission to protect itself, 
 and protect the weak and the helpless against op- 
 pression and despotic rule, the government of the 
 United States is bound to oppose force to force, and 
 to crush out this foul spirit of rebellion. It is a war 
 of civilization against barbarism, of liberty against 
 slavery, of order against confusion, of right against 
 wrong. If ever the sword was drawn in a holy cause, 
 it is so in the present war of the United States gov- 
 ernment against the great southern rebellion. 
 
 The crimes of the rebels against the government 
 are most flagrant their insolence is beyond en- 
 durance. 
 
 "What are the issues between the parties? The 
 government has been over-indulgent to the South. 
 She has had an iindue proportion of its patronage, 
 and an unreasonable amount of special legislation for 
 her benefit. All the legislation of Congress on the
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 33 
 
 subject of slavery has been for its protection. In 
 this the convictions of the North have often been 
 violated and her conscience sorely wonnded. All 
 this we have borne with as good a grace as pos- 
 sible. Southern politicians in the halls of Congress 
 have been overbearing, insulting, ruffianly, and amid 
 all these provocations they have been endured. They 
 have robbed the public treasury, stripped the govern- 
 ment of its arms and munitions of war, and, hurling 
 defiance in its teeth, have inaugurated rebellion. 
 
 More recently, the southern rebels have insulted 
 the national flag, taken forcible possession of our 
 forts, arsenals, mints, and government vessels; and, 
 to cap the climax of their crimes against civilization, 
 their pretended government has authorized a system 
 of piracy on our commerce upon the highway of na- 
 tions. What more can they do to characterize them- 
 selves as a huge band of brigands and outlaws ? This 
 grand scheme of rebellion and wholesale plunder has 
 been years maturing, and has the aggravation of 
 being a matter of cool deliberation. The worst pas- 
 sions have been enlisted, but the final action has been 
 the result of malice aforethought. 
 
 This war is sure to result in the destruction and 
 overthrow of the rebels. 
 
 God is against them. They " resist the ordinance 
 of God, and shall receive to themselves damnation." 
 Their controversy is with God, and he will judge 
 
 them. If our government has so grievously offended 
 
 3
 
 34 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 that it is deemed unworthy to be the instrument of 
 Divine vengeance, some other instrumentality will 
 be employed to confound their counsels, scatter their 
 forces, and wind up their career of wickedness and 
 shame. The lightnings of Divine indignation will 
 shiver them, and the fierce storms of resistless power 
 will scatter them to the winds of heaven. Should 
 the rebellion for a time be attended with success, it 
 will nevertheless meet with ultimate defeat. Partial 
 triumph will only make final ruin more complete 
 and overwhelming. 
 
 It is a fearful reckoning that awaits the usurpers 
 and petty despots of the South when they shall pass 
 from the present scene of things to eternal retribu- 
 tion. The violence they employ, the blood they shed, 
 the hearts they break, the tide of woe they drive over 
 the land, the anguish of the dying upon the battle- 
 field, the tears and groans of helpless widows and 
 orphans, the voice of "lamentation and mourning 
 and woe " from mothers " mourning for their chil- 
 dren and refusing to be comforted because they are 
 not," shall bring down upon them a storm of venge- 
 ance. That vengeance will surely come. "They 
 have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirl- 
 wind." " They shall receive to themselves damna- 
 tion." What waves of sorrow, remorse, and shame 
 shall come back upon the actors in this dreadful 
 tragedy it is not for us now to know. "We leave 
 them in the hands of eternal justice, assured that a
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 35 
 
 righteous retribution will finally overtake them. 
 Their sins have darkened the heavens and made the 
 earth tremble, and their punishment will be a warn- 
 ing to traitors and rebels in all after ages. They 
 have made a page of history which they will ere long 
 wish to blot, but which will stand against them, and 
 will be the handwriting upon the wall which will 
 make their knees smite together. O that they might 
 pause where they are, before the cup of their iniquity 
 is quite filled ! As unhappy men, we pray for them ; 
 we pity them as poor wretched sinners ; but we must 
 meet them upon the ensanguined field as enemies, 
 with sharp steel, whistling bullets, and thundering 
 cannon. A fearful alternative this, but not so great 
 an evil as slavery, the loss of nationality, and a retro- 
 gression of Christian civilization back into the dark 
 ages. 
 
 Fellow-citizens, while southern traitors resist " the 
 higher powers," let us obey and fight ! yes, fight 
 bravely -fight like Christian heroes, and may God 
 give us the victory ! Amen.
 
 36 OUE COUNTRY: 
 
 III. 
 THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES. 
 
 YE HYPOCRITES, YE CAN DISCERN THE FACE OP THE SKY, BUT CAN YE 
 NOT DISCERN THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES? Matt. Xvi, 3. 
 
 IT seems to be assumed by the Saviour that it is 
 easy to discern the signs of the times ; much easier 
 than to understand, from the appearances in the 
 heavens, the probabilities of storm or of sunshine. 
 Some appearances in the face of the sky are prog- 
 nostics of fair weather, others of foul weather. These 
 signs may require some study and observation ; yet 
 we may learn to discern them. Why do we not un- 
 derstand the more palpable indications in the moral 
 heavens? Is it not because of some defect in our 
 spiritual vision ? The terrible epithet " hypocrite " 
 here implies that there is some false pretension in the 
 matter. The point of the falsehood, in this case, may 
 be the profession of inability to discern the signs 
 which Providence displays of coming events, or of the 
 present condition of things, and in the demand for 
 some miraculous revelation. The face of the sky is 
 more enigmatical and doubtful than these times. 
 You understand the indications of the more difficult, 
 and how is it that you do not understand the fore-
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 37 
 
 shadowings of that which is even plainer, but must 
 have a sign from heaven ? 
 
 "We shall take occasion, from this text, to indicate 
 the signs which loom up in the present condition and 
 the future prospects of the Church and the world. 
 
 Mark the civil and political condition of our own 
 country. 
 
 There are unmistakable signs of great depravity. 
 
 The present rebellion is an evidence of the corrup- 
 tion of the national heart. How could it have been 
 matured, and have reached its present gigantic pro- 
 portions, without a deep and widespread sympathy 
 in the country ? How could the rebels in the cabinet 
 and in Congress ever have dared to broach their her- 
 esies, and to commit the overt act of treason, but for 
 an idea that the nation was corrupt, and that the pa- 
 triotism of the olden time had forsaken us, or had be- 
 come weak and sickly? Unprincipled themselves, 
 they judged that a large portion of the people were 
 like themselves; and the state of political morality 
 warranted the conclusion not only that the Union 
 could be dissolved and the nation broken to pieces, 
 but that they could forswear themselves, and rob, 
 plunder, and murder, on the most gigantic scale, in 
 the name of liberty and justice. Sin is never so dar- 
 ing when it is not warmed into life by the sympathy 
 of numbers. 
 
 The extreme corruption of party politics in the 
 
 461835
 
 38 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 country is moreover evident from the rancor -with 
 which political discussions are conducted, and the 
 villainous measures which are resorted to in order to 
 gain and maintain the ascendancy of a party. False- 
 hood and slander, buying and selling votes, and flat- 
 tering and fooling the ignorant, especially foreigners, 
 are the common tactics of professional politicians. 
 The abominable maxim that " all is fair in politics " 
 has been practiced upon by all political parties, and 
 the popular mind has become debased by the lies of 
 unprincipled party hacks. 
 
 Undoubtedly some will charge me with preaching 
 politics instead of the Gospel. I do not intend any 
 such thing. I claim the right, as a minister of Christ, 
 to bear a faithful testimony against wickedness 
 wherever found. The vices of trade, the vices of the 
 professions, and the vices of politicians as well, are 
 legitimate objects of stricture from the pulpit. When 
 the watchmen become such " dumb dogs " that they 
 cannot or dare not sound the note of alarm when 
 the simple are liable to be deceived, and the masses 
 to be corrupted by the trickery of politicians, both 
 the State and the Church will become demoralized. 
 
 That selfish and unprincipled men so often suc- 
 ceed in blinding and enslaving the people is a proof 
 that the people need more information and inde- 
 pendence. 
 
 The success of a republican government must ever 
 depend upon the intellectual and moral elevation of
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 39 
 
 the masses. In theory we govern ourselves. All are 
 sovereigns. We make our decisions at the ballot 
 box. The man who goes to the polls an unintelligent 
 tool is not fit to exercise the high functions of a voter. 
 A simple story will illustrate the point : At the battle 
 of Antietam a Union soldier was deprived of his eye- 
 sight by a ball which crossed the bridge of his nose. 
 He wished to get away from the bloody field, but 
 could not see his way, and no help came. He heard 
 a poor fellow, who was wounded, moaning not far 
 away. He called to him, and, crawling to him on 
 his hands and knees, found him to be a rebel, and to 
 be wounded in one of his legs. " Well," said he, 
 " you want to get off of the field, and so do I. You 
 can see, can you ?" " Yes, I can see, but I can't 
 walk." " Well," said the Yankee, "I can walk, but 
 can't see ; now I will take you on my back, and you 
 shall tell me where to go." The blind Yankee took 
 the lame rebel upon his back and went on until he 
 found himself in a rebel colonel's tent ! Kow it was 
 the poor Yankee's misfortune, not his fault, that he 
 came into the power of the enemy. But he who al- 
 lows these limping politicians to fasten themselves 
 upon his back, and put both hands over his eyes, will 
 go to certain destruction, and will be a voluntary vic- 
 tim of their wiles. There are enough of this sort who 
 desire the stalwart laboring classes to carry them into 
 office. They fasten themselves upon their dupes, 
 saying, " You must have no eyes of your own". I
 
 40 OTJK COUNTRY: 
 
 will tell yon where to go." On they go with their 
 precious burdens until they bring them in safety to 
 their desired place of rest, and then they are left to 
 shift for themselves until another emergency arises. 
 This is a humiliating picture, and God only knows 
 where this vicious policy is to terminate. 
 
 There are signs of immense resources in the 
 country. 
 
 The expenses of the present war have been im- 
 mense, and yet there are no signs of exhaustion in the 
 resources of the government. English politicians pre- 
 dicted that the war would soon exhaust our credit, 
 and the " London Times " warned English capitalists 
 not to lend us money. As yet the government has 
 carried on the war without asking English capitalists 
 for a penny, and the national resources have scarcely 
 been touched. Under the blessings of heaven the 
 nation has been growing rich for the last ten years to 
 an unparalleled extent ; as though God had been pre- 
 paring her for the present fearful struggle. We have 
 plenty, money is easy, labor is well rewarded, and so 
 far as the means of living are concerned, scarcely any 
 one feels the pressure of the war. 
 
 There is evidence that the nation has great power 
 of resistance. 
 
 The rebellion took the nation by surprise. The 
 leading cabinet officers were in sympathy with it, and 
 the whole course of the administration was calculated 
 to cripple the arm and palsy the heart of the nation.
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 41 
 
 The treasury was exhausted, the navy scattered 
 to the four winds, the army distributed among the 
 southern forts, under the command of southern 
 officers, and, the arms and munitions of war sent 
 south. Such was the condition of things when the 
 war broke out. 
 
 The rebellion assumed gigantic proportions, and 
 had the sympathies of France and England, but has 
 been withstood now into the third year. We have 
 created a splendid navy, have raised vast armies, and 
 have steadily gained ground upon the rebellion, until 
 it has lost nearly one half of its territory, and is stag- 
 gering to its fall. The free states have several times 
 been invaded, but in every instance the invaders have 
 been met and hurled back with vast losses of men and 
 munitions of war. The capital has often been threat- 
 ened, and has sometimes been in danger, but is now 
 safe against all probable contingencies. 
 
 There are signs, which cannot be mistaken, of 
 the downfall of the institution of slavery in this 
 country. 
 
 The war waged by the rebels for the perpetuation 
 of slavery is fast working its ruin. Already sentence 
 has gone out against the great abomination. It has 
 received its deadly wound, and will expire with the 
 termination of the rebellion. There never was a 
 more fatal infatuation than that which moved the 
 slave states to rebellion. If they had designed to 
 make a speedy end of " the peculiar institution
 
 42 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 
 
 could not have devised more effectual measures than 
 to engage in open rebellion against the government. 
 If the great traders in this stupendous wickedness 
 had not been judicially blinded they, would have 
 foreseen what has come upon them. There is truth 
 in the principle expressed in the old heathen maxim : 
 " "Whom the gods design to destroy they first make 
 mad." 
 
 There is a glorious future in reserve for the poor 
 degraded and down-trodden children of Africa. 
 So far all the predictions of the pro-slavery party 
 have failed. With them it was a fixed fact that the 
 emancipation proclamation would bring on a servile 
 insurrection ; that the blacks would not make sol- 
 diers ; that white men would not fight in the same 
 army with them, and the like ; all of which has 
 been falsified by history. The signs to-day are 
 that the African slaves of the South will constitute 
 an important arm of the service, and that put- 
 ting arms in their hands will prove to be the first 
 step of their onward march to the condition of true 
 manhood. 
 
 No nation has ever been subjected to a severer test, 
 and none could have borne itself more nobly under 
 the trial. And this she has done with a large and 
 influential minority in stern opposition to the policy 
 of the administration. Partially crippled by opposi- 
 tion at home, still the government has astonished the 
 worm with the splendor of its achievements. A
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 43 
 
 greater pressure never bore on the heart of a nation, 
 and a more majestic resistance was never made to a 
 hostile power. 
 
 There are evident signs of the early triumph of 
 the national cause, and a future of great prosperity. 
 
 God can make the wrath of man to praise him and 
 restrain the remainder. He knows when to over- 
 rule and when to restrain. He is not in haste in his 
 providential arrangements. They are often covered 
 with the vail of uncertainty for a long time. Na- 
 tions as well as individuals are often disciplined by 
 delay, and required to walk by faith and not by 
 sight. He reads Providence to little profit who in- 
 terprets delays and partial reverses as indications of 
 final failure. The star of hope often glimmers 
 through stormy clouds, and a lowering sky may give 
 place to bright sunshine. 
 
 The national firmament is brightening, and hope 
 gilds the whole heavens. If, as the signs of the times 
 seem to foreshadow, the gigantic rebellion with which 
 the government is now contending shall be put down 
 by the present administration, this result will be one 
 of the most splendid passages in the history of the 
 world. It will prove that republics are not neces- 
 sarily weak, and that an administration constitution- 
 ally elected by the people, although opposed by a 
 strong minority, can stand against a local rebellion 
 of terrible power and at the same time against pj^ty 
 factions within its own acknowledged jurisdiction.
 
 4A OUR COUNTRY : 
 
 Let us survey the nations of the old world and see 
 what the signs of the times are there. 
 
 There are signs of corruption there. 
 
 The nations of Europe rival us in falsehood. How 
 fearfully have they falsified all the facts which have 
 made up the history of the present struggle ! Have En- 
 gland and France tried to do us justice ? They have 
 refused to acknowledge our victories, or have turned 
 them into defeats. England especially has misrepre- 
 sented our generals in the conduct of the war, and 
 charged them with crimes which they never commit- 
 ted; has laughed at us for fighting bloodless bat- 
 tles ; and then has affected to weep over the whole- 
 sale slaughter and savage cruelties of our sanguine 
 encounters. England and France both have been 
 wanting in good faith as neutral powers. They have 
 encouraged the rebellion ; they have played into the 
 hands of the rebels. Englishmen have helped them 
 to a navy, and have been largely concerned in a con- 
 traband trade with their blockaded ports. So long 
 as by agitating the subject of slavery she could create 
 dissatisfaction at the south she was for abolition ; but 
 when the slaveholders rebelled she became the advo- 
 cate of slavery, that she might help the South to 
 achieve its independence. An ardent friend of abo- 
 lition, as England always claimed to be, a slavehold- 
 ing empire in the southern states to her is preferable 
 to a mighty free republic on this side of the Atlantic. 
 
 lew years ago she sent over George Thompson and
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 45 
 
 others to preach up abolition, and to agitate the 
 country on the subject of the horrors of African 
 slavery ; now she seeks to make this terrible evil per- 
 petual. In this England seems to be inconsistent, 
 but she is fearfully and wickedly consistent. In both 
 cases she seeks to promote the spirit of the rebellion at 
 the south and effect a permanent separation of the 
 slave states from the free states, that the great republic 
 may no longer be a formidable rival. A strong and 
 prosperous republic is a greater evil in the view of 
 English statesmen than African slavery. The daugh- 
 ter has grown too fast and acquired too much wealth 
 and power to suit the old mother, hence her posses- 
 sions must be divided, and constitute two weak gov- 
 ernments instead of one strong one. 
 
 France sympathizes with England in her general 
 policy toward us, but pursues another route to en- 
 compass the same object. Intervention in Mexico 
 undoubtedly has for its object the limitation of the 
 power and influence of the American Republic. 
 France was our old ally, but is now becoming our 
 most formidable foe. She was our friend when we 
 w r ere weak, but now that" we have become strong she 
 turns against us, but not until we become divided 
 among ourselves. There is a meanness about this 
 that French'pride ought to scorn. She becomes pur 
 foe, and seeks to strike us with a fatal blow when our 
 hands are tied and we are in a manner helpless ; 
 while we have full employment with the
 
 46 OUR COUNTRY : 
 
 she assumes a threatening attitude. This is the time, 
 says Napoleon III., to humble the pride and break 
 the power of the fast-growing republic, and I will 
 begin by annihilating the Monroe doctrine. This 
 doctrine disposed of, I will watch the opportunity 
 for striking a blow at a more vital part and bring 
 American progress to an end.. Little comfort will 
 come to him by his policy in the long run. 
 
 There are signs of weakness in the two great 
 powers, to which we principally confine. our remarks 
 under this head. 
 
 The jealousy and envy, which are but poorly con- 
 cealed in the English and French governments, in 
 view of American prosperity, can originate in noth- 
 ing so much as a sense of weakness in themselves. 
 We are not jealous of those far below us, nor do we 
 envy the weak or the degraded. It is as a com- 
 petitor, a dangerous rival, that those proud nations 
 watch us with an evil eye. Their leading papers say 
 that united we are dangerous to the peace of the 
 world, but divided into two hostile governments they 
 can take care of us. An alliance with one part will 
 enable them to manage the other. Hence they have 
 done everything by way of encouraging the rebellion 
 except to send armies to sustain it. 
 
 These nations are jealous of each other.' 
 
 They are perpetually watching the balance to see 
 where the evidence of the greatest weight concen- 
 triffes. England and France went into an expensive
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 47 
 
 war ostensibly to protect a weak ally, but really to 
 prevent Russia from becoming too strong. They 
 have an alarming sense of lightness, and when an- 
 other power becomes a little more ponderous they 
 fear they will go up. France and England are rival 
 powers, but at present they are in close and intimate 
 fellowship. The reason is, they can, by a close and 
 intimate union, best secure their own ambitious ends. 
 They each wish to hold in check Russia and Ameri- 
 ca, an object which, singly and alone, neither of them 
 would be able to effect. A common interest will 
 drive together thieves and cutthroats, but when the 
 occasion has passed they will rob and murder each 
 other. 
 
 It is a fair question, "What right has one nation to 
 set bounds to the growth and prosperity of another ? 
 If my neighbor makes money faster than I do, have 
 I any right to abridge his income or his power of 
 accumulation ? An individual has as mucli right to 
 insist on the balance of power as a nation has ; why 
 not? 
 
 Let us survey the condition and prospects of the 
 Church. 
 
 In comparison with the other institutions and 
 interests in this great world the Church occupies the 
 highest elevation. It is made up of believers, pro- 
 fessedly sanctified men and women. It is the school 
 in which we are prepared for the heavenly state, it
 
 48 OUR COUNTRY : 
 
 is then a question of the highest interest, What are 
 the signs which indicate the present status and the 
 future progress of the Church ? 
 
 First of all let us turn our eyes to Asia, the 
 cradle of Christianity. 
 
 Although the sacred places have been trodden down 
 by the foot of Mohammedans for a thousand years, 
 and the old Greek literature and civilization have been 
 nearly annihilated, a few sparks of the old Jerusalem 
 fire are beginning to show themselves in Palestine, in 
 Syria, in Armenia, and in Persia. India has been a 
 field of missionary labors and missionary designs for 
 more than forty years. The great Chinese wall is 
 broken down, and European civilization and the mis- 
 sionary are there. Japan will soon be a missionary 
 field, where the Bible will be read, Christ will be 
 preached, and converts to Christianity that religion 
 hated and persecuted since the days of the Jesuit 
 missionaries will be multiplied like the drops of the 
 morning. Asia will be restored. The work is pro- 
 gressing, and the star of hope shines gloriously in 
 the distance. 
 
 "We come next to Africa poor, degraded, and 
 down-trodden Africa. 
 
 Christian colonies are planted upon the southern 
 and western coasts of the land of Ham. From the 
 interior the Macedonian cry is heard, " Come over 
 and help us." "Ethiopia is stretching forth her 
 hands unto God." The enslavement of the African
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 49 
 
 race, which has scattered her children over the west- 
 ern hemisphere, is fast being overruled by the provi- 
 dence of God for h'er Christianization and the resto- 
 ration of her ancient civilization. The Christian 
 republic of Liberia is now exerting an influence far 
 back among her wild and wandering tribes, while 
 Christian travelers are penetrating her vast and long- 
 hidden and unknown center, and opening the way 
 for the commerce of the civilized world and the 
 spread of the Gospel. A spirit of deep and earnest 
 inquiry is found among the tribes and petty states of 
 the African race furthest away from European civil- 
 ization. All this shows that the day of her redemp- 
 tion is at hand. 
 
 We next take a glance at Europe. 
 
 As we are returning from the East, we will first 
 notice Italy. Rome once gave law to the world ; 
 now she is the center of a base kingdom. Italy has 
 recently made great advances toward liberal institu- 
 tions, but the temporal power of the pope is an incubus 
 upon her heart. She is struggling to relieve herself 
 of this intolerable burden, but is met with French 
 bayonets If Louis Napoleon should take his hand 
 off from Italy she would be free in a day. That 
 proud but weak ecclesiastic Pius IX. rules his estates 
 not with masses and groans and allocutions, but 
 through the instrumentality of a foreign police. The 
 press, speech, and worship are made to conform to 
 an antiquated policy and an effete system of will-
 
 50 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 worship. But the throbbings of heart among the in- 
 telligent and educated classes for liberty of con- 
 science, of faith, and of worship, are deep and earnest, 
 and the object of their yearnings will by and by be 
 realized. 
 
 France is semi-infidel,' professedly Catholic, but in 
 her there is a living Protestant Church, a portion of 
 it supported by the state and a part by the voluntary 
 contributions of the people. Since the expulsion of 
 the Huguenots by the revocation of the edict of 
 Nantes, Protestants have been tolerated only for a 
 portion of the time. "Within the past century it has 
 made substantial progress under great difficulties, 
 and enjoys a vigorous life. "With a fair chance, 
 that professedly popish but really skeptical people 
 would become thoroughly Protestant, if not Method- 
 istic. 
 
 Germany is experiencing a shower of salvation, 
 mostly the fruit of American missionary labors. The 
 mother of the Reformation, after a long course of 
 wandering in the mazes of rationalism, seems bid- 
 ding fair to repose in evangelical Christianity. 
 Spiritual religion is now being extensively propa- 
 gated by Germans who had imbibed its spirit in 
 America, and returned to the fatherland to spread it 
 abroad. 
 
 Spain and Portugal are now as dark as in the 
 dark ages. Building a superstitious worship upon a 
 traditional foundation, the Bible almost entirely pro-
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 51 
 
 scribed, the masses of course ignorant of divine truth, 
 these are semi-heathen countries. Some mighty up- 
 heaving of the nations by and by will break the 
 chains of civil and spiritual despotism and let light 
 shine upon this darkness. 
 
 England, Scotland, and- Ireland enjoy liberty of 
 conscience, but the national Churches are hampered 
 by their connection with the State. The English 
 Church has an orthodox creed and an evangelical 
 liturgy, but no power of discipline. Although the 
 old English reformers maintained that "a godly 
 discipline " is one of " the essential notes of the 
 Church," the Church of England has lost that essen- 
 tial attribute of a true Church of Christ by her mar- 
 riage with the State. Iligh Churchmen have main- 
 tained that the Articles and Liturgy of the Church of 
 England constitute an impassable barrier against her- 
 esies and schisms. The time is now within the rec- 
 ollection of many when Churchmen boasted that they 
 were a unity. The denominations were divided into 
 innumerable small bodies, but " the Church " is one, 
 built upon the glorious foundation of her Articles, 
 Liturgy, and Homilies ; she has " One Lord, one 
 faith, and one baptism." In this she enjoys a glori- 
 ous eminence, and challenges the admiration of the 
 world. More than all this, she has the " apostolical 
 succession," and is secured from the danger of fatal 
 heresies by the special promise that " the gates of hell 
 shall not prevail against her."
 
 52 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 This is a beautiful theory, but it has been refuted by 
 two facts which have transpired within our own time. 
 
 But a few years since the Oxford divines com- 
 menced publishing their " Tracts for the I'imes," in 
 which there was exhibited a strong leaning toward 
 Home. The Romish dogmas there broached were 
 condemned by a portion of the clergy and laity, but 
 nothing could be done authoritatively and effectually 
 to correct these gentlemen and to remove the scandal. 
 The majority of them remained in the Church until 
 they became tired, and then went over to Rome at 
 their leisure ; while others, with Dr. Pusey, himself 
 the leader in the movement, remained in the com- 
 munion of the Church. Here sprang up a mighty 
 defection despite the Thirty-nine Articles, the Litur- 
 gy, the Homilies, and the apostolical succession ! 
 
 Later still a number of Church-of-England minis- 
 ters commenced publishing "Essays and Reviews," 
 which were not merely of infidel tendency, but con- 
 tain the most barefaced infidelity itself. And 
 finally one English bishop, Colenso, published a vol- 
 ume setting forth and vindicating these same infidel 
 heresies ! There he is ; he cannot be disposed of. 
 The scandal still remains. The most which can be 
 done, it seems, is for a number of the orthodox bishops 
 and clergy to advise the Right Rev. Heretic to resign 
 his episcopal office, a thing which he stubbornly re- 
 iuses to do. Bishop Colenso cannot be disturbed 
 unless by a decision of the civil courts.
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 53 
 
 Such is the effect of the union of Church and State. 
 Discipline is lost, and, according to the old English 
 fathers, one essential characteristic of the Church is 
 wholly wanting in the present Church of England. 
 
 In England, Scotland, and Ireland there are 
 numerous bodies of evangelical Christians which 
 maintain "a godly discipline," are orthodox in 
 essentials, and recognize each other as a part of the 
 family of Christ. So also in the national establish- 
 ment there is an influential though not a numerous 
 party who contend for vital godliness, and eschew the 
 dogmas of both the High Church and infidel parties. 
 
 These various bodies are increasing in influence and 
 strength, and there arises hope for the rising tide of 
 evangelical religion in the British Isles, and that the 
 English Church proper will stand in her lot in " the 
 day of decision," when the final battle shall be fought 
 between truth and error, sin and holiness, God and 
 " the prince of the power of the air." 
 
 We come to the American Church. 
 
 In America we have the true theory of liberty of 
 conscience, and of the independence of the Church 
 from the State. Here the Church has an open field 
 and the chance of a fair fight. She has nothing and 
 wants nothing from the State but protection from vi- 
 olence, and the right of faith, of worship, and of pros- 
 elytism. With this liberty, and the same protection 
 extended to citizens generally, the Church will con- 
 quer the world.
 
 54 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 Here tlie Church is many, but still one. The 
 various evangelical denominations agree in essen- 
 tials. This is the age of good feeling among the liv- 
 ing Churches, Since the meeting of the great 
 "Evangelical Alliance " in London, in 1846, the ran- 
 cor of sectarian feeling has, in a good degree, sub- 
 sided, and spiritually-minded Christians have been 
 constantly approaching each other. That grand 
 assemblage of living Christians in Freemason's Hall, 
 in London, was like a great love-feast. All hearts 
 were melted and ran together. A clearer evidence 
 could not be afforded that religio'n is the same in all 
 nations and among all denominations of Christians. 
 The days I spent in this great Christian conference 
 were among the happiest of my life, and I see the 
 fruit of this grand demonstration of the essential 
 unity of evangelical Christians to-day. 
 
 The evangelical Churches of the United States of 
 America are living Churches. The unmistakable 
 signs of life are a godly discipline, spiritual worship, 
 soundness of faith, and a warm support of the cause 
 of missions. They are growing, and growth is an ev- 
 idence of life. They are militant, and war, or fight- 
 ing, is a sign, of life. The Churches of this land are 
 encompassed with evil, but they are in general taking 
 a bold stand against it. A great fight is going on in 
 which all true-hearted Christians of every name are 
 engaged. The battle rages fiercely, but the victory 
 is sure, Already have many glorious victories been
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 55 
 
 won in the name of Christ, and the signs of final and 
 universal triumph are numerous and . significant. 
 Glorious revivals at home, and the successes of our 
 missions abroad, are among the most striking signs of 
 the times. The increased light, the increased activ- 
 ity, and the increased power of the Church, are an 
 evidence that she is hastening on to the completion of 
 the objects of her mission, and the consummation 
 of her hopes. She is successfully at work at home, 
 she is successfully at work in the army. Many are 
 the evidences of her successes on the battle-field. 
 The poor dying soldier-boy lisps the prayers learned 
 in the nursery from his mother, and the labors of the 
 Christian Commission inspire hope in the bosom of 
 the wounded until the fields of conflict and slaughter 
 are made vocal with prayer and praise. 
 
 The day of the regeneration is dawning. I see the 
 genius of Christianity making the circuit of the world. 
 She- flies from mountain top to mountain top. She 
 overshadows our fertile valleys and broad plains with 
 her balmy wings. She crosses oceans and islands and 
 continents, proclaiming with her clarion voice to all 
 nations a present, a free, and a full salvation. A 
 train follows her of peoples and nations redeemed 
 from sin and death, who lift up their voice like the 
 sound of ten thousand thunders, saying, halleluiah, 
 Amen. This is the universal language of the last 
 triumph. 
 
 It is said that two men met on the banks of the 
 

 
 56 DUE COUNTRY : 
 
 Nile. Each saw sympathy in the countenance of the 
 other, but they spoke different languages. They 
 gazed at each other with intense interest. Finally 
 one exclaimed "Halleluiah!" Instantly the other 
 responded " Amen !" They rushed into each other's 
 arms, and mingled their tears together. This com- 
 mon language will be the glorious summing up of 
 the labors and the conflicts of the Church of Christ. 
 We begin our halleluiahs here. Halleluiah! Let 
 all shout halleluiah ! halleluiah ! Amen and amen !
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 
 
 IT. 
 STRENGTH IN THE DAY OF ADVERSITY. 
 
 IF THOU FAINT IN THE DAY OF ADVERSITY, THY STRENGTH IS SMALL. 
 
 Prov. xxiv, 10. 
 
 DAYS of adversity are appointed to all. The most 
 favored meet with reverses. "Wise foresight and 
 wary precaution may be employed, but adversity 
 comes in to baffle the best concerted schemes, and to 
 interrupt the current of general prosperity. As it is 
 with individuals, so it is with communities. Churches 
 and nations have their flood and their ebb tides. It 
 is a point of great practical wisdom to know how to 
 meet adversity. Prosperity is a test of our humility ; 
 adversity tests our faith and our patience. Many fail 
 under each of these trials. The one who preserves 
 his humility under a tide of successes, and the one 
 who bears up under a series of reverses and keeps in 
 heart, are moral heroes. Especially he who under 
 the discipline of afflictions keeps his faith and forti- 
 tude unimpaired, exhibits true elements of greatness. 
 On the other hand, those who fail under adversity 
 show evident signs of weakness. That we may be 
 armed against either failure in the time of trial let us 
 proceed to survey
 
 58 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 The classes of adversities to which we are liable. 
 
 One class of adversities is made up of those which 
 befall individuals and families. The tide of prosperity 
 is at any time liable to ebb out. " Man is born unto 
 trouble, as the sparks fly upward." It is a part of 
 the discipline of our probationary state. Pecuniary 
 resources are cut off, health fails, friends sicken and 
 die, sons, brothers, fathers, and husbands fall upon the 
 battle-field, or waste away in hospitals. Gloom and 
 despondency brood over the family circle, and hearths 
 are made desolate. Opulence is succeeded by pov- 
 erty and want ; the full board is swept of its luxu- 
 ries; plain and scanty fare, hunger and threatened 
 starvation, show their grim visages not far in the dis- 
 tance. The body and the soul are subjected to the 
 severest tests, and happy is the one who does not 
 utterly fail in these days of adversity. 
 
 Another class of adversities is composed of such 
 as befall the Church. The Church is in a militant 
 state ; she has her foes and her conflicts, her successes 
 and her reverses. The Church sometimes declines in 
 her strength, sometimes suffers from apostasies, is 
 sometimes divided, and is sometimes persecuted. 
 All these trials afflict and harass her individual 
 members, and severely try their graces. It is in sea- 
 sons of declension and backsliding, of schisms and 
 persecution, that the faith of the living members of 
 the Church in the promises of God is brought to the 
 severest test. When persecution raged, as under
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 59 
 
 the Roman emperors ; when heresies were rampant, as 
 in the days of the Mcene fathers ; when schism ruled, 
 as in the Tridentine age, the faith of God's elect was 
 subjected to the sorest trial. "When the truth of the 
 Gospel was condemned by councils, and scouted by 
 the dignitaries of the nominal Church, and had to 
 conceal itself in dorters among the lower orders of 
 the clergy and in the cottages of the poor, "the 
 word of the Lord was precious in those days," and 
 the true servants of God rested wholly and only upon 
 the promise that "the gates of hell shall not prevail" 
 against the Church. Martyrs and confessors then 
 bled or were sent to the stake, and none stood the 
 test but the brave and the strong but those who 
 " endured as seeing Him who is invisible." 
 
 Still another class of adversities is made up of those 
 which befall the country which we call our own. As 
 a nation we are now suffering the calamities of a 
 dreadful civil war. After about eighty years of al- 
 most uninterrupted prosperity, embattled hosts of men 
 of the same nationality, language, political creed, and 
 religious faith, are arrayed against each other in 
 deadly conflict. Civil war is war in its worst form. 
 A war of brothers, a war between united states, a 
 war in a government adopted and administered by 
 the people themselves, is an anomaly, a scandal, and 
 a judgment. Can a greater calamity to a nation be 
 imagined, aside from total destruction and utter 
 annihilation ? It was indeed a dark day when the
 
 60 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 slave power at the South resolved to hazard the 
 experiment of a war of rebellion to take up arms 
 against the most liberal and beneficent government 
 in the world. This was an event to try men's souls. 
 This government had passed through many severe 
 tests ; it had been established after the terrible revo- 
 lutionary struggle had maintained a war with the 
 most powerful nation of the world, and bravely con- 
 tested her claims to supremacy upon the land and 
 the sea, but it had never before been called to march 
 into the field of deadly strife against its own sons. 
 Nothing could so severely tax-the national patriotism 
 and the confidence of the people in popular govern- 
 ment, and in the stability of free institutions, as this 
 war of the rebellion. The bravest heart has at times 
 been almost crushed, and the best soldier has been 
 tempted to turn coward. The slaughtered thousands 
 of our brave men, and the sighs of an army of widows 
 and orphans, wafted upon every breeze, are sickening 
 and heartrending ; they are national adversities which 
 admit of no parallel. 
 
 An aggravation of this dreadful war just now is 
 the fact that it is traveling north, and at this moment 
 a large army, under the command of a great general, 
 is in Pennsylvania, and is moving upon the capital 
 of the state. Already skirmishing parties have 
 reached the Susquehanna, and are threatening Har- 
 risburgh, Philadelphia, and our coal valleys at the 
 north. The horrors of war are brought to our doors,
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 61 
 
 and men's hearts are failing them for fear. Unless 
 our army is able to put a check upon the invading 
 force it is impossible to tell where the mischief will 
 end.* 
 
 There is danger of fainting, or losing heart in the 
 day of adversity. 
 
 It is adversity that tries a man's mettle. No one 
 can tell whether he has endurance or not until he is 
 put to hard service, nor can one's strength of heart 
 be accurately judged of until he is tried by adversity. 
 "Whether we have the power of enduring hardness as 
 good soldiers of Jesus Christ will appear when we 
 come into the fight. Courage is tested by danger, 
 patience by delays, and faith by dark dispensations. 
 Many sustain themselves with what may seem like 
 fortitude when no danger is near, but when the 
 heavens lower they tremble. They stand up strong 
 in prosperity, but in adversity they faint away. 
 "When they meet with reverses they say, as did the 
 patriarch Jacob when he had to part with his be- 
 loved Benjamin, " all these things are against me." 
 "When the Church is in trouble they seem to think 
 God's promise about to fail. And when the ship of 
 state is assailed by storms they predict her utter 
 wreck. Some minds are not equal to the slightest 
 
 *This discourse was delivered at Providence, Pa., on Sunday, the 5th 
 of July, 1863, before the news of the victory at Gettysburg!!, on the 
 3d, had arrived.
 
 62 oun COUNTRY: 
 
 pressure, but break down under the first wave of 
 trouble, and give up all for lost. They " faint in the 
 day of adversity." 
 
 The cause of fainting in the day of adversity is 
 want of strength. "If thou faint in the day of 
 adversity thy strength is small." 
 
 Our strength is measured by adversity. 
 
 Our strength of faith. 
 
 I use the term faith here for trust or confidence. 
 It implies confidence in God, confidence in truth, 
 and confidence in man. No one can really have a 
 strong soul without great confidence in God. There 
 is uncertainty in everything else but " the everlasting 
 arms." Here is strength for all emergencies. The 
 soul that reposes on God is firmly fixed. " Here is 
 solid rock while all around is sea." In all perils the 
 language of this faith is, " God is our refuge and 
 strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore 
 will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and 
 though the mountains be carried into the midst of 
 the sea ; though the waters thereof roar and be 
 troubled, though the mountains shake with the swell- 
 ing thereof." Psa. xlvi, 1-3. 
 
 A weak faith sees no God in the storm, almost 
 fears he has forsaken his throne and given up the 
 aifairs of the world to the sport of chance. Like 
 Peter, they look at the boisterous waves and lose 
 sight of Him who is able to control them, and they
 
 ITS TRIAL A1STD ITS TRIUMPH. . 63 
 
 then begin to sink. The promises of God, his provi- 
 dence, history, past experiences, all have little weight ; 
 no power to inspire confidence. To those in a sim- 
 ilar condition of mind the Saviour said, " Why are ye 
 fearful, O ye of little faith ?" He reproves weak faith 
 as though it were a reasonable expectation that 
 Christians should have strong faith. It is so. There 
 are reasons enough for strong faith, and the want of 
 it is a culpable defect. 
 
 Faith in the principles of our government is a part 
 of our support. At the present time it is highly im- 
 portant that we should see something indestructible 
 in our institutions. If we really believe in republican 
 institutions as best suited to secure the ends of govern- 
 ment, we ought not to give them up in despair so 
 long as a ray of hope is left for them. Who can be 
 so faithless as to doubt the final success of the best 
 form of government the world ever saw ? Strong 
 faith just now in the truth, justice, and consequent 
 permanency of our government is most important. 
 A true Christian and patriot will never give up the 
 principles upon which our free institutions are based 
 while he believes them founded in truth and justice, 
 and he will never despair of their final triumph, 
 whatever embarrassments for the time may seem to 
 gather around them. 
 
 Faith in man ; faith in the administration of the 
 government ; faith in the army and navy, should come 
 to our aid just now. I am among those who see good
 
 64 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 grounds for this faith. Political prejudices, the 
 blindest and most obstinate of all prejudices, will 
 allow of no good thing in the opposite party, and 
 hence may see no grounds for confidence in the gov- 
 ernment. Everything to them forbodes mischief 
 and ruin. It seems not to have entered their minds 
 that Providence often delays and brings about its 
 great purposes by circuitous routes. Our faith and 
 patriotism may have to be tried more severely than 
 they have yet been, and it may all be in harmony 
 with the design in due time to bring us out of our 
 present national troubles " into a large and wealthy 
 place." 
 
 Adversity shows our strength of hope. 
 
 The want of strong or confident hope is attended 
 with despondency, and the utter absence of it is 
 despair. Hope keeps the heart from breaking. Any 
 amount of present suffering of which humanity is 
 capable can be endured while hope promises re- 
 lief; but when that promise is cut off the heart 
 sinks. 
 
 O what were life, 
 
 Even in the morn and summer light of joy 
 Without those hopes that, like refreshing gales, 
 At evening from the sea come o'er the soul, 
 Breathed from the ocean of eternity ! 
 And O, without them who could bear the storms 
 That fall in roaring blackness o'er the waters 
 Of agitated life ? WILSON. 
 
 I hear some say that they have lost all hope for the 
 country. They must be in a lamentable condition ;
 
 ITS TRIAL AXD ITS TKIUMPH. 65 
 
 of course they are faint. They barely have life and 
 breath enough to groan and complain. All their 
 utterances are desponding; their very look is 
 freezing. 
 
 Adversity tests our fortitude. 
 
 Fortitude is that quality of the soul by which we 
 endure with firmness and patience the ills of life. It 
 is a manly quality, giving dignity to the character 
 and stability to the position and movements of one 
 who is assailed by opposition or in peril of being jos- 
 tled by adversity. History furnishes no more illustri- 
 ous examples of fortitude than the heroes and hero- 
 ines of our Revolutionary struggle. Our half-fed 
 and nearly naked soldiers bore themselves with 
 dignity and patience while their wives and daughters 
 at home plied the wheel and the shuttle to procure 
 food and clothing for themselves, and often chopped 
 their own wood and carried it from the woods to 
 their own doors in the winter to avoid freezing. 
 All this and much more they did and suffered for 
 liberty. 
 
 The brave Marion invited a British officer to dine 
 with him. His dinner consisted of sweet potatoes 
 roasted in the embers, and his table was the trunk 
 of a fallen tree. The officer was greatly astonished, 
 and from that time resolved to leave the British army, 
 and finally resigned his commission, alleging as the 
 reason that upon entering the lines of the Revolution- 
 ary army he found one of its most distinguished gen- 
 
 5
 
 66 OUK COUNTRY: 
 
 erals living on roots and in the utmost contentment. 
 From what he there saw he had come to the conclu- 
 sion that a people led by officers sustained by such 
 fortitude and self-denial could not be subdued. Now 
 let us say, 
 
 Ay, there we stand with planted feet, 
 Steadfast where those old worthies stdod ; 
 
 Upon us let the tempest beat, 
 Around us swell and surge the flood ; 
 
 We fall or triumph on that spot ; 
 
 God helping us we falter not. WHITTIEB. 
 
 Are we the children of the heroes of the Revolu- 
 tion, and shall we "faint in the day of adversity?" 
 If we have a tithe of the pluck of our fathers and 
 mothers we are not now about to whimper and whine 
 out "All is lost." No, no. There is hope. Be 
 strong. 
 
 The star of the unconquered will, 
 
 He rises in my breast, 
 Serene and resolute and still, 
 
 And calm and self-possessed. 
 O fear not in a world like this, 
 
 And thou shalt know ere long ; 
 Know how sublime a thing it ia 
 
 To suffer and be strong. LONGFELLOW. 
 
 The most critical period of the Revolutionary 
 struggle was the winter of 1777-8. After the 
 bloody battle of Brandy wine "Washington went with 
 his army into winter-quarters at Valley Forge, on the 
 Schuylkill. The winter was a very severe one, re- 
 membered and spoken of by survivors as " the hard 
 winter." The army was deficient in supplies of food 
 and clothing. Under these terrible circumstances the
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TKIUMPH. 67 
 
 soldiers were beard to utter in tones of sadness if 
 not of discontent, "No pay, no clothes, no provi- 
 sions." The great soul of the commander-in-chief 
 was well-nigh overwhelmed with sorrow, and it was 
 under these circumstances that he was found on his 
 knees in the forest earnestly pouring out his soul in 
 prayer to God for help. Congress was tardy in its 
 action, and aid was delayed beyond endurance. On 
 the 16th of February Washington wrote to Gov. 
 Clinton, " For some days past there has been little 
 less than a famine in the camp. A part of the army 
 has been a week without any kind of flesh, and the 
 rest three or four days. Naked and starving as they 
 are, we cannot enough admire the incomparable pa- 
 tience and fidelity of the soldiery, that they have not 
 been, ere this, excited by their sufferings to a general 
 mutiny and desertion." To add to the horrors of the 
 scene, the small-pox broke out in the camp with great 
 virulence. Many died of this dreadful malady, and 
 many more suffered untold miseries through expo- 
 sure and want of nursing. "Washington deeply sym- 
 pathized with his men, and shared with them in 
 their privations; and truly, as Dr. Thatcher, one of 
 the historians of the Revolution, says, " He rises in 
 the midst of distress, and gains strength by misfor- 
 tunes." What an iron will, what patience, what 
 strength of heart, had Washington. Like the sturdy 
 oak beaten by the tempest, every blast adds to its 
 strength, and sends its roots deeper into the ground.
 
 68 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 What examples of fortitude and endurance were the 
 soldiers of the Revolutionary army ! They did not 
 " faint in the day of adversity." They were men of 
 great " strength." Let these glorious heroes be our 
 examples in these times of trial.
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 69 
 
 Y. 
 FIERY TRIALS OF OUR FREE INSTITUTIONS.* 
 
 THE BUSH BURNED WITH FIRE, AND THE BUSH WAS NOT CONSUMED. 
 Exod. iii, 2. 
 
 THE burning bush was a supernatural appearance, 
 and was symbolical both of the condition of the chil- 
 dren of Israel in Egypt and of the Church of God in 
 all ages. 
 
 The doctrine taught in " this great sight " is, 
 
 That there is a discipline of severe trials ap- 
 pointed. 
 
 That these trials are not destructive, for 
 
 God is in them. 
 
 I shall apply these doctrines to the history and the 
 present condition of our country as furnishing rea- 
 sons for thanksgiving to-day. 
 
 The first instance of severe discipline which I 
 shall notice is the policy of the mother country 
 in the government of her colonial possessions in 
 America. 
 
 That policy was extremely oppressive ; better 
 suited to the condition of slaves than of free men. 
 The colonies complained chiefly of taxation without 
 
 * Delivered in the Presbyterian Church in Scranton, Penn., 
 on the occasion of the National Thanksgiving, Nov. 26, 1863.
 
 70 OUR COUNTRY : 
 
 representation ; but they had many other serious 
 grievances, all of which are eloquently set forth in 
 the immortal Declaration of Independence : a Bill of 
 Eights unrivaled in the lucid and compact manner in 
 which it teaches the philosophy of government. The 
 rights of the governed are- here clearly set forth and 
 vindicated, and the fact that governments are insti- 
 tuted for the benefit of the governed, and not for the 
 sole advantage of governors, although then a novel 
 doctrine, in this instrument is boldly maintained. 
 The civil and ecclesiastical oppressions which had 
 driven the old Puritans away to the wilds of Ameri- 
 ca had created in them a strong sense of injustice 
 and oppression, and a stern resolve to vindicate their 
 rights. The fiery ordeal through which they had 
 passed had disciplined them for the stern conflict 
 which followed. England thought to school a con- 
 tinent of colonies in the principles of passive submis- 
 sion, that they might be held in vassalage and be 
 made tributary to her wealth and overshadowing 
 power ; but, under the hand of God, she was really 
 creating a nation. The cruel oppressions of the 
 mother country were not crushing, for God was in 
 them. 
 
 The next serious trial to which this country was 
 subjected was the war of the Revolution. 
 
 The colonies were forced to the alternative of vas- 
 salage or a war of resistance. "War with the parent 
 government was dreadful, but slavery was still more
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 71 
 
 dreadful, and was not to be thought of. The col- 
 onies were without an army, without munitions of 
 war, without a navy, without money, and almost 
 without credit. They had a conviction of the right, 
 and courage to defend it ; this was their strength and 
 their hope. " Thrice armed is he who hath his 
 quarrel just." . 
 
 The fearful struggle commenced with the bat- 
 tles of Lexington and- Bunker Hill. It progressed 
 with the usual fortunes of war. Successes and re- 
 verses succeeded each other. The untrained troops 
 of Washington, but half clad and half armed, were 
 often brought down to the borders of despair. When 
 the general was driven across New Jersey, and it was 
 not certain but he would be obliged to flee across the 
 Alleghanies, it was a dark day ; but still he trusted in 
 God and watched his opportunity. With the capture 
 of the Hessians at Trenton the tide turned, and after 
 a hard struggle of six years the surrender of the two 
 armies of Burgoyne and Cornwallis opened the way 
 for peace, based upon the acknowledgment of Ameri- 
 can independence. The arbitrament of war is at all 
 times terrible, but in some instances it is the only 
 alternative, and in this case it was the condition of 
 giving birth to a nation. 
 
 The formation of the federal Constitution was 
 the occasion of another severe trial of the patriotism 
 and virtue of the people. 
 
 The Articles of Confederation, by which the states
 
 72 OUR COUNTRY : 
 
 were united for mutual defense, did not constitute a 
 national government. They furnished no basis of na- 
 tional credit, nor a uniform system of commerce. After 
 an experiment of seven years of peace, from 1783 to 
 1790, under the old order of things, the federal Con- 
 stitution was adopted by a popular vote. The con- 
 flicting interests of the different states, as to trade and 
 commerce, originated parties upon the question of 
 state rights and the provisions of the Constitution. 
 An excise law was passed by Congress which was 
 opposed in "Western Pennsylvania. Seven thousand 
 armed men threatened to resist the power of the 
 general government, and actually resisted the collec- 
 tion of the tax. President "Washington made a 
 requisition on New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia 
 for fifteen thousand militia, and putting them under 
 the command of Governor Lee of Virginia, they were 
 marched across the Alleghany Mountains, and the 
 insurgents were scattered without killing a man 
 or firing a gun. Here is an instructive lesson. 
 Promptness on the part of the chief magistrate easily 
 quelled a rebellion. The cheapest method of dealing 
 with rebellion is to meet it early, and with a strong 
 hand. 
 
 President "Washington seemed not to have enter- 
 tained certain views of the Constitution which have 
 been propagated in our days that the militia of the 
 state are only designed for the service of the state, 
 and that the President lias no authority under the
 
 ITS TKIAL AND ITS TEIUMPH. 73 
 
 Constitution to require them to cross state lines, or to 
 call them out for the defense of the Union. "Wash- 
 ington knew that section 2, paragraph 1, of the Con- 
 stitution declares that " the President shall be corn- 
 man der-in-chief of the army and navy of the United 
 States, and of the militia of the several states when 
 called into the actual service of the United States," 
 and every school-boy ought to know as much. It is, 
 indeed, humiliating to know that three out of five 
 judges of the Supreme Court of the State of Pennsyl- 
 vania seem not to be aware of any such provision in 
 the Constitution. Yerily this is a progressive age. 
 
 The Constitution underwent severe scrutiny. The 
 interests of different classes of citizens naturally led 
 them to different views of the provisions of this great 
 instrument. Two great political parties grew up in 
 the country, which contended fiercely for the ascend- 
 ency, and their contests were sometimes more deeply 
 characterized by the spirit of faction than of patriot- 
 ism. Washington clearly saw the tendency of the 
 local feelings and political strifes to the dissolution 
 of the Union, and the destruction of the hopes of the 
 country, and in his farewell address left us an earnest 
 warning against those fearful evils. Well had it 
 been if the warning had been duly heeded by the 
 present generation. 
 
 The doctrine that each separate state is a sover- 
 eignty in itself, was maintained by the anti federal 
 politicians of the southern states, such as Jefferson,
 
 74 OUR COUNTRY : 
 
 Randolph, and Calhoun. The South is an agricul- 
 tural country, and was more naturally led to adopt the 
 doctrine of free trade versus a tariff for the support 
 of the federal government, and for the encourage- 
 ment of home manufactures. They wished to sell 
 their cotton, tobacco, and rice to European traders, 
 and to receive their fabrics in return without the inter- 
 ference of the federal authority. They maintained 
 that it was their right to do so, and any interference 
 with this right on the part of the federal govern- 
 ment was a usurpation, and an attempt to reduce the 
 separate states to slavery. The antifederal party 
 called themselves Republicans, while the federal 
 party were called Federalists. 
 
 The conflicts between the two parties upon the 
 above and other subjects imposed a severe test upon 
 the federal Constitution and the union of the states 
 under it. Under the ordering of divine Providence, 
 however, a regard- for the Constitution, and a love of 
 the Union, became deeply fixed in the public mind, 
 and local interests were yielding to the demands of 
 the national welfare, until another severe trial came 
 upon the Republic. 
 
 The war of 1812 with the mother country. 
 
 The great war between France and England, which 
 desolated Europe, seriously interfered with the com- 
 merce of neutral powers. The United States govern- 
 ment made earnest complaints through her represent- 
 atives to both courts without receiving any satisfactory
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 75 
 
 redress. At length the question of retaliatory meas- 
 ures was seriously entertained by the United States 
 government. On the recommendation of President 
 Jefferson, Congress laid a general embargo, pro- 
 hibiting the exportation of all commodities from 
 the United States. The commerce of the country 
 was at once reduced to a coasting trade. A stagna- 
 tion of business followed which spread ruin among 
 our merchants on the seaboard, raised the price of 
 foreign goods, and caused extensive dissatisfaction 
 among the people. The self-denying spirit of '76 had 
 died out, and instead of considering the embargo a 
 necessary measure of national defense and security, 
 it was regarded as a party measure, and judged of by 
 its local bearings on trade and commerce. A great 
 cry was raised against the national administration, 
 particularly in the New England States, and a sep- 
 aration from the Union was sometimes spoken of as 
 a remedy for the existing evils. 
 
 The difficulties between the United States aud 
 Great Britain seemed to mock all diplomatic efforts, 
 until they culminated in a war between the two na- 
 tions. On the 1st of June, 1812, President Madison 
 sent a message to Congress in which the causes of 
 complaint against the government of Great Britain, 
 from 1803 down to that date, were ably stated, and in 
 the conclusion of which a declaration of war was rec- 
 ommended as the only resort left for the vindication 
 of the national honor.
 
 76 DUE COUNTRY: 
 
 The message was referred to the Committee on 
 Foreign Relations. After due deliberation upon the 
 whole subject the committee reported a bill declaring 
 war between Great Britain and her dependencies 
 and the United States of America. Six reasons were 
 given in support of the measure : 
 
 1. The impressment of American citizens while 
 sailing upon the high seas and forcing them to fight 
 against nations in amity with the United States. 
 
 2. Violating the rights and peace of our coasts and 
 harbors, and wantonly spilling American blood with- 
 in our territorial jurisdiction. 
 
 3. Plundering our commerce on every sea, under 
 pretended blockades, without the application of fleets 
 to render them legal. 
 
 4. Committing numberless spoliations on our ships 
 and commerce, under her Orders in Council of various 
 dates. 
 
 5. Employing secret agents within the United 
 States, with a view to subvert our government and 
 dismember our Union. 
 
 6. Encouraging the Indian tribes to make war on 
 the people of the United States. 
 
 The bill passed both houses, and on the 18th of 
 June was signed by the President. 
 
 The war was opposed by the federal party on the 
 ground that it was stimulated by sympathy with 
 Bonaparte, was wholly unconstitutional, was more in 
 hostility against the states on the seaboard than
 
 ITS TKIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 77 
 
 against the government of Great Britain, and would 
 result in the utter ruin of the country. Politicians 
 and newspaper editors denounced the President as a 
 traitor to the country, and members of Congress did 
 not hesitate to assert the right of the separate states 
 to secede from the Union and to make open resistance 
 to the federal government. 
 
 A convention of delegates from the states of 
 Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, the 
 counties of Cheshire and Grafton in New Hampshire, 
 and the county of Windham, in Yermont, convened in 
 Hartford, Conn., Dec. 15, 1814. This celebrated 
 convention sent out a report in which the wrongs of 
 the government were enumerated, and remedies pro- 
 posed. In this report, though guarded in its lan- 
 guage, the spirit of faction is dominant. Bitter hos- 
 tility to the government and strong sympathy with 
 Great Britain were apparent, although not so clearly 
 developed as in some of the opposition newspapers 
 and by political orators. Patriotism ran low, and 
 faction ran high. 
 
 The doctrine of state rights was now the doctrine 
 of federal New England, as it had previously been the 
 doctrine of the southern states. This may seem to be 
 a strange fact, but is accounted for upon the princi- 
 ple of human selfishness, the same principle which 
 first gave it birth in the South. Southern politi- 
 cians opposed the administration of the general gov- 
 ernment under Washington and John Adams from
 
 78 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 this stand-point, and New England opposed that of 
 Jefferson and Madison from the same. Tariff laws, 
 though necessary to the existence of the general gov- 
 ernment, were a tax upon the South; hence the 
 South opposed them, and claimed the right to resist 
 them. The war ruined the commerce of New En- 
 gland; hence she opposed the general government, 
 which declared and sustained the war, and contended 
 that it was her right to secede and rebel. How much 
 party politics are governed by interest is apparent in 
 more instances than one. How few are influenced by 
 a regard for the whole country, and are willing to sac- 
 rifice local interest to the general good. A narrow 
 local policy has ever been the bane of the country, 
 and the greatest obstacle to its unity and permanent 
 prosperity. 
 
 The fears and predictions of party politicians are 
 usually proved groundless by the logic of events. 
 The South grew and prospered under what they de- 
 nounced as a ruinous system, and the most flagrant 
 outrage upon their rights upon the part of the federal 
 government ; and the commerce and resources of New 
 England outlived a war which, according to the 
 Hartford Convention, ought to have buried them 
 in eternal oblivion. 
 
 The party feuds and sectionalism growing out of 
 the war were in themselves great evils, and a severe 
 test of the strength of the Union ; but God presided 
 over the great interests of the nation, and she came
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 79 
 
 out of the fiery ordeal purified and strengthened. 
 The history of the -last war with Great Britain fur- 
 nishes the most ample and satisfactory proof of the 
 power of the government to resist a foreign enemy, 
 to struggle with domestic factions, and to prove 
 itself indestructible. "The bush burned with fire, 
 but the bush was not consumed," because God was 
 in it. 
 
 The Nullification movement in the state of South 
 Carolina, in 1832, is another instance of a severe trial 
 of the strength of the federal government. 
 
 John C. Calhoun was the southern leader of the 
 ultra states rights party, and headed a movement to 
 nullify the tariff established by act of Congress, and 
 to carry South Carolina out of the Union. A con- 
 vention of delegates, chosen by the people of that 
 state, passed an ordinance of nullification and seces- 
 sion, Nov. 24, 1832, and the state legislature sanc- 
 tioned the act. Gen. Jackson, then the President of 
 the United States, proceeded in the most prompt and 
 energetic manner to head off what assumed every ap- 
 pearance of a rebellion against the general govern- 
 ment. He sent Gen. Scott to Charleston, giving him 
 and the collector of the port the necessary instruc- 
 tions to provide for the defense of the harbor and of 
 the government property and the enforcement of the 
 laws. The nullifiers found themselves completely 
 forestalled, and with as good a grace as possible 
 finally receded, for the reason that they could not
 
 80 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 proceed. The proclamation of the President is as 
 logical and eloquent as it is patriotic, and was re- 
 ceived with great enthusiasm everywhere, excepting 
 in South Carolina and some of the other southern 
 states. 
 
 Jackson had been a zealous supporter of the doc- 
 trine of state sovereignty, and had followed Jefferson 
 in his notions of a strict construction of the language 
 of the Constitution ; yet as Jefferson had to give up 
 his theory in the purchase of Louisiana, so Jackson 
 was obliged to give up the same theory for the salva- 
 tion of the Union. He did more than to give up the 
 Jeffersonian theory of state rights; he proceeded to 
 refute it, and actually took up the last plank of the 
 old platform. After completing his argument, the 
 sturdy old patriot proceeded to pour out a torrent of 
 warnings' and expostulations to the people of South 
 Carolina, which are now refreshing to every patriot 
 heart. This proclamation is a document of rare 
 merit and of great power. If James Buchanan had 
 adopted it, just as it is, in 1860, when South Caro- 
 lina tried her hand at secession again, and had 
 followed it up with the same energetic measures 
 with which it was followed up by Andrew Jackson, 
 secession would have again been stifled in its 
 birth. 
 
 American Slavery. 
 
 The enslavement of the African race was entailed 
 upon us by the mother country, and has been one of
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 81 
 
 the greatest evils with which we have had to con- 
 tend. While slavery was abolished in the eastern 
 and northern states, in the South, by reason of the 
 climate, the character and social habits, and the 
 business interests of the southern people, it became 
 established there as a permanent institution. Becom- 
 ing local in its character, it finally became a subject 
 of controversy and a source of dissension between 
 the North and the South. As the cotton interest 
 advanced, the value of slave labor was enhanced, and 
 slavery was considered a source of wealth. At first 
 the southern people endeavored to excuse slavery as 
 a thing of necessity, but finally they came to justify 
 it as a right. The two systems of free and slave 
 labor are antagonistic. As free labor is most pro- 
 ductive, the free states gradually gained upon the 
 slave states in resources. The more rapid advance 
 of the free states in wealth and numbers excited the 
 envy of the South, and brought on angry collisions 
 between the two parties in Congress and in the news- 
 papers, which resulted in mutual dislike. The south- 
 ern people were educated to despise labor, and north- 
 ern congressmen and senators were often treated with 
 the bitterest scorn, and occasionally with personal 
 violence. 
 
 Though in the minority, southern politicians man- 
 aged to hold the balance of power. Their hatred 
 of the free North and their insolence finally became 
 intolerable. Thcv demanded and obtained a fugitive
 
 82 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 slave law, which was offensive to the North. They 
 procured the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. 
 They tried by mob violence and brute force to fasten 
 slavery upon Kansas. Frequent raids of slave catch- 
 ers into the northern and eastern states, and their 
 dragging away into slavery respectable and well-to-do 
 colored people, who had enjoyed the blessings of 
 liberty for ten and even twenty years, increased the 
 hatred of the North for the institution of slavery, and 
 continued to widen the chasm which yawned between 
 the two great antagonistic systems of northern free- 
 dom and southern bondage. To increase the moral 
 sentiment of abhorrence of " the peculiar institution" 
 at the north, scores and it may be hundreds of north- 
 ern men were tarred and feathered, whipped and 
 hung at the South under the pretext of their being 
 Abolitionists, without the slightest evidence of any 
 overt act of contempt for the laws of the slave 
 states, or of offense against the peace of southern 
 society. 
 
 The question of slavery in the territories became a 
 source of great discontent at the South. Although 
 Congress pretended to no right to interfere with the 
 question in the states, yet it had the undoubted right 
 to legislate upon it within the territories; and the 
 northern policy was to prevent the extension of 
 slavery., neither allowing it in the domain of the 
 United States, nor admitting new slave states. This 
 the South pretended to consider -an infringement
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 83 
 
 upon their rights, and a violation of the compromises 
 of the Constitution ; and they for a long time found 
 sympathizers enough among northern members to 
 enable them to maintain their position. Southern 
 insolence had finally reached bounds beyond which 
 northern forbearance could by no means be com- 
 pelled to go. The repeal of the Missouri Compromise 
 and the Kansas outrages had fully aroused the North ; 
 then came on a reaction against the aggressive spirit 
 of slavery which threatened an end of its further 
 progress. 
 
 The dissensions which arose upon these great 
 issues were .a severe trial to the Union under the 
 federal Constitution ; and it was but too evident that 
 the southern politicians were contemplating a plan 
 for a final separation, and the organization of an 
 independent government. In the midst of these 
 fearful storms the ship of state bore itself nobly, and 
 promised to outlive the peril. 
 
 Then came the slaveholders' rebellion. 
 
 In the presidential canvass of 1860, the republican 
 party succeeded in the election of Abraham Lincoln. 
 This was made the occasion of an outbreak of the 
 rebellious spirit of the southern slaveholders. Mr. 
 Lincoln was elected by a majority of votes under the 
 Constitution ; but the southern chivalry said an 
 abolitionist should never be President of the United 
 States. South Carolina, always the first to engage 
 in factious proceedings, inaugurated the rebellion ;
 
 84 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 and all the other slaveholding states followed, except 
 Maryland and Delaware. 
 
 The North were not prepared for the movement 
 few indeed believed the thing possible. President 
 Buchanan allowed the time from the election in 
 November to the 4th of March, the day of the inau- 
 guration of the new president, to pass without the 
 slightest preparations for the emergency, affording 
 the rebels every opportunity to mature their plans 
 and prepare for the conflict. Several of jMr. Buchan- 
 an's cabinet were in the conspiracy, and used their 
 position to weaken the North and to strengthen the 
 South. The Secretary of War, John B. Floyd, of 
 Virginia, robbed the treasury, and sent from the 
 depots of arms and ammunition at the North, large 
 stores to the South. The rebels seized our forts, 
 navy-yards, ships of war, revenue cutters, and mints, 
 and indeed everything which they could make avail- 
 able in the struggle. Many officers, who had been 
 educated in our military schools, joined the rebels, 
 and turned over to them their commands. The first 
 overt act of hostilities was committed at Charleston, 
 by the bombardment of Fort Sumter, on the 16th of 
 March, 1861. This act was followed by a call from 
 the President for 75,000 volunteers for the recovery 
 of the property of the United States and the suppres- 
 sion of the rebellion. 
 
 The government was totally unprepared for war 
 upon a gigantic scale. It was almost without an
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 85 
 
 army, without arms, and without money. The reb- 
 els had been long in their preparations and were 
 fierce for the combat. "Washington was threatened, 
 and Baltimore gave unmistakable signs of disloyalty, 
 and the whole country was thrown into the most terri- 
 ble state of excitement. The patriotic feeling of the 
 North was strong, and all seemed to anticipate uni- 
 versal success and an easy conquest over the rebels. 
 The cry of " On to Richmond " was raised by news- 
 paper editors, and echoed by the people. The disas- 
 ters of Bull Run, Ball's Bluff, Fredericksburg, and 
 Chancellorsville superinduced a considerate state of 
 mind, and had the effect to awaken the nation to a 
 sense of the real magnitude of the struggle in which 
 we are engaged. These lessons were severe, but they 
 were necessary, and it is to be hoped will be salu- 
 tary. 
 
 Since last July the federal arms have been crowned 
 with a series of successes, which it is to be hoped has 
 inflicted upon the rebellion a deadly wound. The 
 monster dies hard, but evidently is consuming away. 
 May he soon expire without benefit of clergy, receive 
 the burial of a dog, and never know a resurrection ! 
 
 The problems of this terrible civil war are being 
 solved by the logic of events. The question of 
 finance, the disposition of the freedmen, confisca- 
 tion of the property of rebels, all have had their 
 difiiculties ; but the light has gradually been dawning, 
 and difiiculties melting away, until the ground for
 
 86 OUR COUNTRY : 
 
 confidence seems strong, and hope of the final result 
 bright. 
 
 The spirit of lawless violence which broke out in 
 the city of New York was a severe test of the strength 
 of the government. 
 
 The great riot in ]STew York, but a few months 
 since, had many sympathizers scattered through the 
 free states. Threats of terminating the present ad- 
 ministration by violence had been uttered through 
 some of the opposition newspapers, about the time 
 our armies were achieving their glorious victories at 
 Gettysburg and Vicksburg ; and if instead of these 
 victories our arms had met defeat, it is impossible to 
 tell what the consequences of the lawless spirit, which 
 had become so rife in the country, might have been. 
 That I am not mistaken in the indications of a pur- 
 pose forcibly to resist the government will appear 
 from the following, taken from a series of resolutions 
 passed at a celebration in our own county July 4, 
 1863, and published in a newspaper thoroughly in sym- 
 pathy with the proceedings of that factious meeting : 
 
 " Abraham Lincoln has nearly brought the free citi- 
 zens of the ISTorth to a line of universal resistance to 
 his mandates, which the signs all over the North 
 plainly indicate. Multiplied wrongs, sufferings, and 
 insults, if further attempted by the President, may 
 bring forth their bitter fruits before the fourth day of 
 March, 1865 ; and we say to the President and his 
 cabinet, ' beware of the Ides of November ;' remem-
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 87 
 
 her the history of other usurpers and tyrants who 
 have gone before yon, or you may have use for the 
 army of the Potomac besides that duty they are now 
 engaged in, in order to secure you a safe conduct 
 from the White House to Springfield, 111. Self- 
 preservation is nature's first law. Imbecility and 
 rottenness are but poor safeguards for any tyrant 
 and usurper when the people become aroused. You 
 have sown the wind, and ominous clouds are gather- 
 ing in the north, east, and west portending a coming 
 storm." 
 
 This and much more to the same purpose in a 
 wordy, windy report of that veritable celebration 
 clearly indicates the spirit of the New York mob, 
 and the anticipation of a general outbreak against 
 the administration. Such was the condition of things 
 when the victories of Gettysburg and Vicksburg 
 gave new strength to the administration and relief to 
 the country. 
 
 Through all these trials and perils our country has 
 passed without being wrecked. She has passed 
 through many a fiery ordeal, and as yet " the smell 
 of fire " is scarcely upon her. It is to God's super- 
 intending providence that we owe our continued 
 existence and our present prosperity. To him be the 
 praise ! 
 
 Fellow-citizens ! we have assembled to-day, in obe- 
 dience to the call of the chief magistrate of the nation, 
 to give thanks to God for OUT recent victories in the
 
 88 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 field. It is assumed that these triumphs are a bless- 
 ing, and that we owe them to the God of battles. 
 Let us glance over the operations of our armies for- 
 the last few months. The rebel generals Lee and 
 Jackson invaded Maryland and Pennsylvania with 
 an army of seventy thousand men the latter part of 
 June, and were severely defeated by Gen. Meade at 
 Gettysburg on the third of July, and on the fourth 
 were in full retreat. After the loss of at least twenty 
 thousand of his men Lee fell back toward Richmond 
 to recuperate. On the same fourth of July the rebel 
 Gen. Pemberton surrendered Yicksburg, the key of 
 the Mississippi, to Gen. Grant. On the eighth of 
 July Port Hudson was surrendered to Gen. Banks. 
 The Mississippi was now opened to ISTew Orleans, 
 and the rebel states severed in twain. Important 
 victories in Arkansas and Tennessee, and the advance 
 of Gen. Rosecranz to the borders of Georgia, are also 
 to be taken into this account, and for the whole do 
 we to-day, as a nation, offer devout thanksgivings to 
 God. 
 
 There is a religious spirit in the army. Many 
 prayers are there offered up. Multitudes of the 
 brave men who have fallen upon the battle-field have 
 pillowed their heads upon the bosom of Jesus as 
 they bid adieu to earth. 
 
 Still the nation is in the fire, but is not likely to 
 be consumed, for God is in the fire. Under his 
 supervision the fire is melting away the chains of
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 89 
 
 slavery, humbling and purifying the nation, and 
 preparing her for a glorious future. The work is 
 not yet fully accomplished. God grant that it may 
 be " cut short in righteousness." May the American 
 eagle, carrying the national motto, " E PLURIBUS 
 UNUM," soar unimpeded from the Atlantic to the 
 Pacific, and from the Canadas to the Gulf of Mexico, 
 and in answer to the shrill cry of the mystic bird 
 may the whole people respond, in the noble language 
 of Webster, " Union and liberty, now and forever, 
 one and inseparable." The shout of GOD AND LIB- 
 ERTY, sent up from our high mountains and broad 
 plains, shall be echoed back by the peoples and na- 
 tionalities of the eastern hemisphere, and universal 
 man shall be one great brotherhood.
 
 90 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 VI. 
 RADICALISM. 
 
 HR THAT DASHETH IN PIECES IS COME UP BEFORE THY FACE: KEEP 
 THE MUNITION, WATCH THE "WAY, MAKE THY LOINS STRONG, FORTIFY 
 THY POWEE MIGHTILY. NahuiU ii, 1. 
 
 THE work of building up, and the work of breaking 
 down, each has its agency and its period. If it were 
 not for incendiaries much of this world's labor would 
 be saved. Some periods seem to be specially charac- 
 terized by systematic eiforts to break up old founda- 
 tions, long-established systems and usages. Revolu- 
 tions which improve the condition of things are real 
 reforms, but many changes are retrogressive, pushing 
 society back toward barbarism, or tending to anar- 
 chy. The active working of destructive elements in 
 the social system at the present time is apparent. 
 Radical reformers are now the most dangerous ene- 
 mies to real progress. Some real or supposed evil in 
 the social system is made a reason for a wholesale 
 destruction of its very framework. A destructive 
 and a constructive genius are seldom found in the 
 same mind ; and hence an old fabric is often pulled 
 down without the erection of a better one in its 
 stead. 
 
 In this discourse I shall mark the tendency to in- 
 jurious changes, and then proceed to find the remedy.
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 91 
 
 Observe the tendency to break down and destroy. 
 
 There is a tendency to break down parental au- 
 thority. 
 
 " Children, obey your parents in all things ; for this 
 is well-pleasing to the Lord." Col. iii, 20. This is a 
 revealed truth, which former generations of parents 
 enforced and children respected. In the good old 
 times the father was the head of his family, and the 
 children revered his authority. Now, in too many 
 instances, the strict old Puritan rule is denounced as 
 arbitrary and cruel, and what is considered the more 
 philosophical plan is that of giving children some 
 good lessons occasionally, and then leaving them to 
 follow their own promptings until reason corrects 
 their childish passions and habits. The modern 
 theory is, that children should never receive physical 
 punishment : that would do for the barbarous ages, 
 but is inconsistent with the refinement of the present 
 improved condition of society. Solomon said, " He 
 that spareth his rod hateth his son ;" and St. Paul 
 said, " We have had fathers of our flesh, which cor- 
 rected us, and we gave them reverence." Those are 
 teachers of the ancient schools, and will hardly bear 
 criticism in these days. Now it seems to be seriously 
 believed that if you punish a disobedient child it 
 makes him worse, but leave him to his own wont and 
 he will correct himself. 
 
 I would only favor punishment, in parental disci- 
 pline, as a means of maintaining authority, and of
 
 92 ' OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 course it must always be in reason. Excessive pun- 
 ishment provokes resentment and generates hatred, 
 and consequently counteracts its own ends. On the 
 other hand, to allow downright impudence and will- 
 ful disobedience to pass with impunity destroys all pa- 
 rental discipline. The absence of early restraint and 
 suitable punishments is likely to result in a harvest of 
 infamy. The little urchin who breaks crockery and 
 pounds his head on the floor, and is pacified with 
 sugar, will be likely at length to curse his father and 
 his mother, and to trample them under foot. Many 
 sad specimens are seen in these days of filial ingrati- 
 tude, which can only be accounted for upon the ground 
 of the inefficiency of family discipline. Young people 
 are too often brought up in idleness, and indulged 
 until their habits of extravagance become unendura- 
 ble, and they are utterly spoiled for any useful or 
 honorable position in society. Labor is becoming 
 disreputable. Our fathers were apprenticed to trades, 
 but our children must be taught to dance and read 
 novels, have plenty of money, and time to seek 
 their pleasure. 
 
 The same tendency to the breaking down of au- 
 thority in the family is discovered in the schools of 
 our times. 
 
 It is no unusual thing for parents to interfere with 
 the discipline of the school. Their children, who 
 have been pampered and spoiled at home, can 
 scarcely brook restraint abroad. One of the greatest
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 93 
 
 burdens of a teacher now arises from the irregular 
 habits of the pupils their aversion to order and 
 method, and their impatience of restraint. Our 
 schools and colleges in too many instances are used 
 as places of recreation for idle young people merely 
 necessary as a gangway between childhood and man- 
 hood, or womanhood. Who takes lessons in subor- 
 dination and respect for authority in the schools of 
 our time ? The teacher who is excessively indulgent 
 is well spoken of, but the strict disciplinarian will be 
 dubbed with some outlandish nickname, which is sure 
 to have the prefix old connected with it. Then they 
 will be talked of as cross, and the parents at home 
 very soon get a horrible idea of the temper of the 
 teacher, and come to regard their sons and daughters 
 as veritable martyrs, whom, out of sheer humanity, 
 they call home. Poor creatures ! 
 
 Church discipline, it is to be feared, is going into 
 neglect, if not into contempt. 
 
 Legitimate ecclesiastical authority is often branded 
 as popish, and a godly discipline is resisted as an in- 
 tolerable burden. The old strictness of living is now 
 scarcely attempted to be enforced. A breach of 
 Church rule is regarded as a venial offense, while the 
 pastor who watches over his flock as he who must 
 give an account reproving the unruly, and lop- 
 ping off dead branches soon becomes unpopular. 
 Turbulence and open resistance of authority in the 
 Churches are by no means unknown ; but an exceed-
 
 94: OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 ingly weak administration, through, the fear of 
 downright rebellion, is too common. Outward and 
 inward pressure have borne upon ecclesiastical au- 
 thority until it is fast becoming nerveless ; and its 
 restoration to its original vigor and efficiency is all 
 but hopeless. 
 
 Old formulas of faith are dashed to pieces. 
 
 The present age is famous for a love of novel- 
 ties. Who reveres the old platforms? Who reads 
 old authors? How many are prepared to reject a 
 formulary or a dogma merely because it smacks of 
 age, or has been handed down from the fathers? 
 How common is it to hear unfledged pulpit ora- 
 tors expatiate upon independence of thought and 
 the fruit of original investigation ? All this is 
 well enough in its place, and when properly qual- 
 ified; but not so well when it means the rejection 
 of the wisdom of past ages and the reckless swallow- 
 ing down of every novelty which appears in these 
 stirring times. A descendant of the Puritans will 
 occasionally swell to a vast bulk of personal import- 
 ance, and tell you that he does not ask what says 
 Calvin or the Confession of Faith of the Westminster 
 divines, but what is truth? In like manner you 
 sometimes hear a disciple of Wesley vaunt his supe- 
 riority to human authority by saying, I ask not what 
 Wesley has said, but I go to St. Paul. Very well ; 
 let him, if our stripling has studied St. Paul so much 
 more thoroughly than Wesley did, that the father of
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 95 
 
 Methodism can give him no light upon the original 
 text of the apostle. I am not against original inves- 
 tigation, but I oppose the rejection of systems of doc- 
 trine and forms of faith without investigation mere- 
 ly because they are old. 
 
 Old Constitutions have been broken to pieces or 
 changed until they have lost much of their original 
 excellence. 
 
 Perhaps every state constitution has been revised, 
 and some of them several times. The changes in 
 them generally consist in abstracting the conserva- 
 tive element and replacing it with the democratic or 
 popular principle. To instance in one thing: Our 
 judiciary has almost universally became elective. 
 Our judges and magistrates are now elected by the 
 people, which none will be so bold as to deny has 
 opened a wide door to corruption. Appeals are 
 made to the populace for votes, and the votes are 
 given with the expectation that such judgments will 
 be rendered as will be palatable to the voters; and in 
 this expectation the voters are not often disappointed. 
 The stern old-fashioned justice of our courts would be 
 an improvement upon the present order of things. 
 Political judges and political magistrates are often, 
 I will not say how often, weak in the knees, and, 
 through fear of giving offense to political partisans, 
 fail to render impartial justice. All feel that the old 
 securities are gone, but many are not aware of the 
 cause.
 
 96 OUE COUNTRY : 
 
 A conscientious regard for law and order has 
 diminished. 
 
 In proof of the fact here assumed may be noticed 
 the numerous instances of personal violence and 
 breaches of the public peace. Unbridled passion 
 often rules, while the demands of law and justice are 
 either ignored or utterly despised. The principle of 
 brute force and mob violence rules a numerous class, 
 and the majesty of the laws is often utterly despised. 
 I shall not enlarge upon, this feature of the times, 
 but will next proceed to notice the culmination of 
 this lawless tendency. 
 
 The great southern rebellion, against which the 
 government is now struggling, is the ripe fruit of all 
 the corrupt principles and bad passions which have 
 for years been taking root in American soil. 
 
 This grand incendiary experiment began in break- 
 ing down the barriers of the southern conscience. 
 The moral obligations resting upon every citizen, as 
 well as upon every state of the Republic, to bear true 
 allegiance to the general government, was first repu- 
 diated by the leaders of the movement, and then the 
 people were instructed and tempted to follow their 
 example. Having made out a case which seemed to 
 satisfy their minds, although it was wholly founded in 
 falsehood, the southern politicians proceeded to the 
 overt act of treason. The act of secession in every 
 instance was in violation of public law, and a breach 
 of the most sacred obligations. Its natural conse-
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 97 
 
 quences, unrestrained, would be to dash to pieces a 
 great and prosperous nation. The right of secession 
 once admitted, the federal Constitution and the 
 Union are broken up, and our nationality is gone 
 forever. When the federal Constitution was adopted 
 by a popular vote, an obligation was entered into, 
 by the whole people, to bear their part in sustaining 
 the credit of the government, and providing for its 
 defense. The compact entered into is not only be- 
 tween the individuals of each state and the general 
 government, but between the individuals of each 
 state and those of all the other states, and also be- 
 tween each state and all the other states ; and this 
 compact is necessarily made for all time. If a nation 
 at any time can dissolve itself, what basis is there for 
 national credit ? The very idea of a nation supposes 
 adhesiveness and permanence. Thence as the sepa- 
 ration of one state may be injustice to the others, no 
 one state can have a right to secede without the unan- 
 imous consent of the rest. 
 
 These plain principles of law and justice were 
 stricken down by the southern secessionists with as 
 little compunction as they would crack their .whip 
 around the ears of a tardy slave. Having dashed to 
 pieces the Constitution and the obligations of public 
 justice, they next proceeded to take possession of all 
 the property, and to destroy the power of the federal 
 government within the bounds of the seceding states. 
 A bloody war has been the result, which has cost the
 
 98 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 country a million of precious lives, and many mill- 
 ions of treasure. What an immense dashing to pieces 
 of towns, railways, forts, munitions of war, ships of 
 commerce and ships of war, armies, and human hopes 
 has followed the march of this dire rebellion. The 
 work of the rebels is the work of incendiaries ; de- 
 struction follows in their train. The laws of civilized 
 warfare are mocked, especially by their pirates on the 
 high seas and their guerrilla bands, whose peculiar 
 mission seems to be that of plunder and murder. 
 Capturing and murdering unarmed citizens and burn- 
 ing unprotected towns it seems ought to be reserved 
 for savages and barbarians ; but to this species of sav- 
 age warfare the chivalry descend. 
 
 Having given warning that a destructive enemy 
 was at hand, the prophet next proceeds to advise 
 measures of defense. Let it be observed here that no 
 terms of peace are proposed ; nothing is said about a 
 parley or an amnesty, but only measures of defense. 
 A war wisely planned and bravely prosecuted is coun- 
 seled by the prophet. 
 
 What is the duty of the government under the cir- 
 cumstances ? 
 
 " Keep the munition." 
 
 The fortification is to be kept. This is just what 
 President Buchanan did not do. He left all the 
 southern forts, with the exception of Fortress Monroe 
 and Fort Pickens, unprotected, and one of them after
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 99 
 
 another fell into the hands of the rebels. The south- 
 ern members of Congress, and of the President's cab- 
 inet, warned the President that any force sent to the 
 South would create an excitement, and bring on a 
 collision between the United States forces and the 
 state authorities ; and either through fear of this, or 
 some more unworthy motive, he left the rebels in 
 possession of nearly all the defensive works at the 
 South, which, if he had taken timely measures to se- 
 cure, would have saved rivers of blood. 
 
 Thanks to the present administration, and to our 
 able commanders of the land and naval forces, these 
 fortifications have nearly all been recaptured, and are 
 now being kept for the defense of the government 
 and the country. To keep these forts vast forces and 
 immense supplies of munitions of war are necessary. 
 Heavy batteries, immense siege guns and men to 
 use them, with powerful gunboats and ships of war 
 ably manned, are also indispensable. These prepara- 
 tions all contemplate opposing force by force, and 
 shedding human blood if necessary. Our war depart- 
 ment are resolved upon keeping " the munition " at 
 all hazards, and for this the country holds them re- 
 sponsible. 
 
 " Watch the way." 
 
 All the avenues through which an insidious foe may 
 approach are to be guarded. The railroads, the high- 
 ways, the rivers, the harbors, the ocean the highway 
 of nations are all to be guarded with sleepless vig-
 
 100 OUR COUNTRY : 
 
 ilance. The mode -of approach through spies and 
 traitors at home will require special attention. The 
 government must be broad awake to every vulnerable 
 point, and never be caught napping. 
 
 " Make thy loins strong." 
 
 The resolution or purpose of the government must 
 be made strong. A government wants " loins," or 
 what in modern phrase is called back ~bone. This 
 is especially necessary in the present administration. 
 Amid the conflict of opinions and theories, and the 
 vast pressures which have been brought to bear upon 
 the President and his cabinet, it has required no 
 ordinary strength of will to pursue a consistent 
 course of administration and to carry out measures 
 of reform. To displace inefficient and unreliable 
 officers in the army and the navy has been a fearful 
 tax upon the nerve of the President. That he has 
 nobly and promptly met every emergency is not too 
 much to say. I may also say that as a nation we 
 have great reason for devout gratitude that God has 
 given us a chief magistrate and a commander of the 
 army so well suited to the exigencies of these trying 
 times. The opposition have by turns called him 
 weak and strong, as the fit has taken them. On one 
 occasion his back is weak, his knees are feeble ; and 
 on another he is a headstrong, relentless tyrant, just 
 as the caprice of political partisanship may suggest, 
 or the exigencies of party politics may demand. 
 Consistency is a jewel.
 
 ITS TEIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 101 
 
 " Fortify thy power mightily." 
 
 Here is authority for a sufficient force in men and 
 a sufficient amount of arms for every occasion. A 
 weak resistance to a strong foe is a foolish piece of 
 policy. The case is aptly stated by Christ : " Or 
 what king, going to make war against another king, 
 sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be 
 able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh 
 against him with twenty thousand ? Or else, while 
 the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an em- 
 bassage, and desireth conditions of peace." The 
 national cause has suffered more in this war for the 
 want of an adequate force than can well be estimated. 
 The government, fully awake to the greatness of the 
 struggle, is now pursuing the wise policy of strength- 
 ening the army by a large number of recruits. The 
 true economy is to have a large army. A sufficient 
 force will save life and sooner end the war. " Fortify 
 thy power mightily." 
 
 Here is also clearly a divine warrant for extraor- 
 dinary powers to meet extraordinary emergencies. 
 A louder outcry has been raised against the Presi- 
 dent for using the war power than for anything else. 
 Suspending the writ of habeas corpus and authorizing 
 what is called " arbitrary arrests," and denounced 
 as. despotic and without authority of law. The 
 measures complained of are to be justified upon the 
 ground of necessity, and, under the circumstances, 
 they are clearly covered by the Constitution. The
 
 102 OUR COUNTRY : 
 
 Constitution admits of the suspension of the writ of 
 habeas corpus " when, in cases of rebellion or invasion, 
 the public safety may require it." (See art. i, sec. 9, 
 par. 2.) Now when it is considered that there are 
 partisan judges enough who would grant writs of 
 habeas corpus in favor of traitors, and taking them 
 out of the hands of the military authorities, set them 
 at large, and thereby endanger " the public safety," 
 what common sense is there in this croaking about 
 depriving citizens of the privilege of the writ of 
 habeas corpus. 
 
 As to " arbitrary arrests," there may have been 
 some arrests made which were not expedient, al- 
 though I am not now prepared to name them. Cer- 
 tain I am that more cases of this kind might have 
 occurred to advantage. If all the rank traitors at 
 the North could have been taken up and caged long 
 ago we might have had peace. The sympathies which 
 have been wasted upon that arch traitor Yallandig- 
 ham would have been equally appropriate if they had 
 been lavished upon Jefferson Davis or Sterling Price. 
 Let those who have so much sympathy for the miser- 
 able traitors whom the government has had the wis- 
 dom to put where, for the time, they can do no 
 harm, transfer a little of their sympathy from these 
 vagabonds to our suffering, bleeding country, .and 
 thereby honor their own good sense and give proof 
 of their patriotism. 
 
 Lastly, "fortify thy power mightily " with the divine
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 103 
 
 help and protection. No government was ever 
 really strong without God. Our government has 
 not been slow to acknowledge that our successes are 
 all instances of the divine interference, and call for 
 special thanksgiving to the Author of all good. 
 Equally careful has the President been to admonish 
 us that our sins have deserved all our reverses, and 
 to call the whole people to fasting, humiliation, and 
 prayer. Thus has our worthy chief magistrate been 
 fortifying his power by laboring to secure the favor 
 of the God of armies. " By my God," says David, 
 " I can run through a troop or leap over a wall." 
 The almighty power of God will be enlisted for 
 the government in answer to prayer. It is for this 
 reason that the prayers of the Churches are invoked. 
 They have influence with God, and the President, 
 sensible of this, says, " Blessed be God who giveth 
 us the Churches." By God's special help may he 
 continue to " fortify his power mightily."
 
 lOi OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 TIL 
 
 THE LORD'S CONTROVERSY. 
 
 THE LORD HATH A CONTROVERSY WITH THE INHABITANTS OF THE 
 LAND, BECAUSE THERE IS NO TRUTH, NOR MERCY, NOR KNOWLEDGE 
 OP GOD IN THE LAND. BY SWEARING, AND LYING, AND KILLING, 
 AND STEALING, AND COMMITTING ADULTERY, THEY BREAK OUT, AND 
 
 BLOOD TOUCHETH BLOOD. Hosea iv, 1, 2. 
 
 action is here brought against a guilty people. 
 The charge is formally made and the facts produced 
 in evidence. It is terrible that God should cause an 
 indictment to be filed against us, and that allegations 
 should be sustained by the most indubitable facts ; 
 but after all, an indictment and a trial are not the 
 worst things which might occur. The cause is not 
 decided, sentence is not yet pronounced, and the 
 guilty party handed over to justice. There is a small 
 space allotted for the defendant to make a plea, or to 
 throw himself on the mercy of the court. This is 
 the only hopeful view of the case. If the arraigned 
 sinner were put upon the expedient of self-justifica- 
 tion he would fail of course. There is no doubt but 
 the charge is fully sustained, and it is not of a nature 
 to admit of either justification or palliation. "With- 
 out humiliation, confession, and forgiveness, convic- 
 tion and condign punishment are absolutely certain.
 
 ITS TRJAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 105 
 
 We are called upon by the government to fast and 
 pray, to humble ourselves before God for our sins, 
 national and personal. Several such appointments 
 have been made since the breaking out of the present 
 civil war, the last one being attended by the extra- 
 ordinary circumstance of an authorization by act of 
 Congress. Such days should be solemnized by a 
 devout, humble, and earnest spirit. Our prominent 
 and aggravated offenses should be brought into re- 
 membrance and heartily bewailed. 
 
 This discourse has the advantage of having been 
 prepared and delivered subsequent to the late national 
 fast, (August 26, 1864,) and is retrospective. It not 
 only contemplates the particular occasions we have 
 as a nation for fasting, humiliation, and prayer, but 
 also the manner in which special days of fasting have 
 been improved, and the condition of the national 
 heart under all the evidences of divine displeasure, 
 and after all the efforts- made to bring about the 
 nation's repentance. 
 
 "With these preliminaries I shall proceed to con- 
 sider, 
 
 The grounds of the Lord's controversy. 
 
 " There is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of 
 God in the land." 
 
 The first count in the indictment is that there is 
 no truth in the land. 
 
 Let it be first premised that although the charges
 
 106 OUR COUNTRY-: 
 
 presented are in general terms they do not exclude 
 exceptions. So that which is charged is not the abso- 
 lute absence of " truth, mercy, and the knowledge of 
 God," but a fearful deficiency of these virtues, and 
 the general prevalence of their opposites. 
 
 Is there, then, a sad want of truth in the land ? 
 Truth is a principle which has its seat in the soul. It 
 is simple honesty ; a desire and purpose to represent 
 everything in accordance with fact; a horror of 
 all deception or falsehood. This virtue is to be ac- 
 quired by the diligent study of facts, and a t constant 
 effort to conform to them in thought and word. A 
 love of truth is essential to its proper development, 
 and especially to its ripening into habits. The pur- 
 suit of truth is the most ennobling of all pursuits ; a 
 disregard of it is the most degrading of all mental 
 conditions. 
 
 The want of truth in a community, as in an indi- 
 vidual, is an evidence of deep-seated depravity. It 
 is a branch of a deadly tree. The soil not friendly 
 to truth is productive of all the corruptions and vices 
 of the depraved human heart. The -want of true sin- 
 cerity advertises the want of all the virtues. 
 
 There is a want of mercy in the land. 
 
 Mercy is goodness exercised toward the suffering. 
 The want of sympathy for the unhappy is one evi- 
 dence of the want of all goodness ; for wherever an 
 object is presented mercy is the first impulse of good- 
 ness. What claim has he to goodness who can look
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 107 
 
 upon suffering humanity without any bowels of com- 
 passion ? ~No sect, no nationality is excluded from 
 the sympathies of the really good. Not because a 
 man was born in a certain country, or because his 
 skin is of a particular hue, is he to be excluded from 
 the consideration due to the common brotherhood of 
 man. Mercy is disinterested. It is not that charity 
 which gives " hoping to receive again," but love for 
 the helpless and the undeserving. Purely selfish men 
 may be bound together by common interests; but 
 good men. will feel that those unfortunate ones, who 
 have nothing with which to repay acts of kindness, 
 are their brothers, and have claims on them for their 
 kind consideration. 
 
 The want of mercy is developed in the form of 
 cold selfishness, unconcern for the woes of others, 
 want of feeling, hard heartedness, a cold disregard of 
 human misery. 
 
 No knowledge of God in the land. 
 
 Ignorance of God in this country is not a mere 
 misfortune, but a crime. God has manifested him- 
 self in his works and in his word, and ignorance of 
 him is wholly voluntary and consequently criminal. 
 The knowledge of God referred to in the text is more 
 an experimental than a theoretical knowledge. It 
 is an understanding of the character of God which 
 impresses itself upon the heart and the life; such a 
 knowledge of his holiness as begets deep repentance ; 
 such knowledge of his truth as inspires faith; such
 
 108 OUR COUNTRY : 
 
 knowledge of his goodness as calls fortli love and 
 obedience. The want of this knowledge of God is 
 the absence of all piety ; and the want of piety neces- 
 sarily implies the presence of every attribute of de- 
 pravity. ' 
 
 In this fearful indictment, then, we have added to 
 a false heart and malice prepense the awful sin of im- 
 piety. These are kindred sins but of different bear- 
 ings. A false-hearted man sins against himself, a 
 malicious man sins against his fellow-men, and an 
 impious man sins against God. The whole together 
 makes up at once a rebel against God and nature. 
 
 Tour attention is next invited to the facts by which 
 the charges presented are sustained. The charges 
 refer to the moral condition of the soul ; the facts or 
 testimony is derived from the life. The conduct of 
 the life is the evidence of moral character. Malice is 
 the indictable offense, but we cannot see malice or 
 know it to exist except through the infallible signs 
 which exhibit themselves in words and deeds. This 
 is the ground upon which the prophet rests the 
 cause. The charges are "no truth," "no mercy," 
 "no knowledge of God." The proofs are "swear- 
 ing," "lying," " killing," " stealing," " and commit- 
 ting adultery." Let us now see whether the facts 
 contained in the specifications sustain the charges. 
 
 " Swearing." Two descriptions of the crime here 
 alleged may be noticed, profane swearing and false 
 swearing. Profane swearing is unnecessarily calling
 
 ITS TEIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 109 
 
 God to witness, or using the name of God on 
 trifling or common occasions. Profane swearing is so 
 common that it, in a measure, has ceased to be wit- 
 nessed with horror. The old and the young, even 
 little children, the ignorant and the learned, the vul- 
 gar and the polite, males and females, swear pro- 
 fanely. 
 
 Swearing when indulged in always becomes a 
 habit. The common swearer says he means no harm ; 
 he swears without thinking of it. That he should 
 have formed the habit so perfectly as to commit the 
 Bin without thought is one of the most terrible aggra- 
 vations of the offense, albeit it is often employed as a 
 ground of apology for the crime. Sir Robert Boyle 
 says : " I doubt not but that it is much easier to 
 make most swearers proselytes than to make them 
 converts, and a task of less difficulty to convince their 
 judgments than to reform their practice. Customary 
 and unnecessary swearing is so confessedly unlawful 
 that they are ashamed to defend it that blush not to 
 practice it ; and even they renounce it in their opin- 
 ions that most cherish it in their discourse." Another 
 author truly says : " The swearer continues to swear. 
 Tell him of his wickedness, he allows it is great, but 
 he continues to swear on." 
 
 We need scarcely quote the divine precepts: 
 " Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God 
 in vain," " Swear not at all," and the like, to con- 
 vict the swearer. He confesses it to be both sinful
 
 110 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 and foolish, and yet he swears. There is really less 
 excuse for it than for almost any other species of 
 oifending. It is demanded by no appetite, it satisfies 
 no fleshly desire, yet the profane indulge in it with an 
 apparent relish that seems to evince a strong tendency 
 to the very wickedness of the thing. It is an instance 
 of malice against God that might be expected in a 
 devil, but might well be astonishing to angels and 
 men when witnessed in a human being. 
 
 The other instance, that of perjury, is perhaps not 
 so common as profane swearing, and yet is fearfully 
 prevalent. Persons are often convicted of perjury ; 
 others are known to have committed the crime ; 
 still others are suspected of the guilt of false swear- 
 ing. It is also worthy of remark that legal men gen- 
 erally, in a multitude of cases, regard the testimony 
 offered in court with evident suspicion. This fact is 
 in proof that those who have the best opportunity to 
 judge in the case consider perjury a common sin. 
 The false swearer stakes his all upon a lie. He repu- 
 diates his hope of heaven, and invokes eternal venge- 
 ance upon his soul if his tale of falsehood is not true. 
 Perjury is sometimes influenced by interest, and at 
 other times by malice ; but in all cases is the same 
 God-provoking sin. Archbishop Sharp says, " In the 
 case of other sins there may be an appeal made to 
 God's mercy; yet in this case of perjury there is 
 none, for he that is perjured hath precluded himself 
 of this benefit because he hath braved God Almighty;
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TEIUMPH. Ill 
 
 and hath, in effect, told him to his face that if he 
 was foresworn he should desire no mercy." 
 
 This dreadful sin cries to heaven for vengeance 
 from every court-house and every justice's office in 
 the land. And then what of official perjury officers 
 of the law sworn to keep the peace and defend the 
 law, who are among the most notorious law-break- 
 ers. Government officials, who are sworn to be 
 faithful to their official duties, compromise their 
 trust for the sake of gain. If there is one place in 
 hell hotter than another these scoundrels will find 
 that place. Among these enormous sinners may be 
 ranked all those government officials, with those offi- 
 cers of the army and of the navy, who have gone into 
 rebellion. 
 
 The crimes of profane and false swearing, which 
 are prevalent in the country, are enough to bring 
 down the vengeance of God upon any nation. They 
 constitute a dismal cloud which darkens the heavens, 
 and spreads desolation over the land. The language 
 of the prophet Jeremiah is fearfully applicable to 
 our own land : " For because of swearing the land 
 mourneth; the pleasant places of the wilderness 
 are dried up, and their course is evil, and their force 
 is not right." 
 
 " Lying " is falsehood spoken with an intention to 
 deceive. Dr. S. Clarke says, " The proper notion of 
 a lie is an endeavoring to deceive another by signify- 
 ing that to him as true which we ourselves think not
 
 112 OUK COUNTRY : 
 
 to be so, in tlie ordinary way of communicating our 
 thoughts." Paley says, "A lie is a breach of promise ; 
 for whosoever seriously addresses his discourse to an- 
 other tacitly promises to speak the truth, because he 
 knows that truth is expected." Sir Walter Raleigh 
 says, " He which promised that he would pay money 
 by a day, or promised anything else, whenever he 
 faileth hath directly lied to him to whom the promise 
 hath been made." Lying is a breach of one of the 
 conditions of the social compact, and tends to the 
 dissolution of human society. The divine rule is, 
 "Let every man speak truth with his neighbor." 
 Lying is stamped with the deepest criminality in the 
 representation that " the devil is a liar, and the father 
 of lies." 
 
 Where are fhe liars? /They are in all ranks of 
 society. Lies are told in business, in the common 
 intercourse of life, in the strifes of politics. Political 
 debates are so marked by efforts to deceive that lies 
 in politics are hardly thought to be out of order. The 
 great southern rebellion is sustained by stupendous 
 lying. 
 
 "And killing." There is an awful disregard of hu- 
 man life in the country, independent of the demoral- 
 izing effects of the war. Murders are fearfully prev- 
 alent. Once a murder was so extraordinary an oc- 
 currence as that it convulsed the whole community ; 
 now it is so common as to be little thought of. What 
 a tide of blood flows from the dreadful civil war now
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 113 
 
 raging in this country! and how much of this is real 
 murder ', the day of judgment will reveal. The blood of 
 this war will be found on somebody's skirts. Jefferson 
 Davis says he is not responsible for it. He is fight- 
 ing for the independence of the South the North 
 resists their claim, and must take the responsibility of 
 all the consequences which follow. This would be 
 legitimate enough if the independence of the South 
 were a natural right, or if it were guaranteed by the 
 Constitution and denied by the federal government ; 
 but neither of these things is true. Under the Con- 
 stitution the southern states were as free as the north- 
 ern states, and just as secure in all their rights and 
 privileges. The rebellion is without the least provoca- 
 tion. It was inaugurated and is continued by wicked 
 and ambitious leaders, on no just or honorable 
 grounds, without the slightest necessity, and the con- 
 sequence is that the guilt of all the bloodshed of the 
 war rests upon their souls. 
 
 Saying nothing of the blood shed in battle, the 
 cold-blooded murders, which are of every-day occur- 
 rence, reach a fearful aggregate. Hanging men upon 
 the mere suspicion of Abolitionism shooting colored 
 prisoners, and slaughtering unarmed citizens upon 
 pretense of their concealing their property, or refusing 
 to take the oath of allegiance to the rebel government, 
 or to be conscripted into their army. The aggregate 
 of murders which have been committed in one or the 
 
 other of these ways numbers thousands. 
 
 8
 
 114 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 All this blood rests upon some portion of " the in- 
 habitants of the land," and cries to heaven for venge- 
 ance. As God said to Cain, so may he say to-day to 
 the southern chivalry, " The voice of thy brother's 
 blood cries to me from the ground." Dr. South 
 says, " The first great disturbance in the world, after 
 the fall of man, was by a murderer, whom the venge- 
 ance of God pursued to a degree that he professed 
 that his punishment was greater than he could bear, 
 though he himself could not say that it was greater 
 than he had deserved." 
 
 If murder is against the laws of humanity, what an 
 accumulation of proof is there in the "killing " which 
 is constantly going on, that there is a fearful defi- 
 ciency of " mercy " in the land. 
 
 " Stealing." Locke says, " The taking from another 
 what is his, without his knowledge or allowance, is 
 properly called stealing ; but that name being com- 
 monly understood to signify also the moral pravity 
 of the action, and to denote its contrariety to the 
 law, men are apt to condemn whatever they hear 
 called stealing as an ill action, disagreeing with the 
 rule of right." Thieving is the meanest of all call- 
 ings ; and yet there are many proud spirits who con- 
 descend to steal. That the business has many votaries 
 none can doubt. At present thieves and burglars 
 eeem to be upon a rampage. No man, when he be- 
 takes himself to rest, can be certain that, when he 
 awakes, he will not find his doors forced and his
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TEIUMPH. 115 
 
 house rifled. Professional thieves those who make 
 stealing a business go out from our cities in bands and 
 penetrate the villages and the back counties. High 
 functionaries of the government steal from the public 
 purse. This is so genteel a method of getting money 
 that it is scarcely thought to be either wicked or mean. 
 If an officer takes any amount from the government, 
 be it great or small, without authority, and not ren- 
 dering a fair account of the same, he commits a theft : 
 and those who commit theft, from the petty thefts 
 of the servant-girl to that of the notorious Governor 
 Floyd, are thieves, and are to be ranked with other 
 classes of abominable sinners. 
 
 "And committing adultery." The sin here named 
 is one of the crying sins of these times. The sin itself 
 and its connections what leads to it and what fol- 
 lows it permeate the very texture of society. These 
 are vulgar vicefe, but they are by no means confined 
 to what is called vulgar society. They exist to an 
 alarming extent among the higher classes in edu- 
 cated and fashionable society. We have not yet 
 reached the depth of licentiousness which sapped the 
 foundations of the Roman empire, and brought about 
 the French Revolution, yet we are taking fearful 
 strides in the same direction. How many wrecks, 
 scattered all along the coast, warn us of its perils. 
 Broken family circles and bleeding hearts testify of 
 the fearful prevalence of the mischief. 
 
 What shall I say further? I must not say too
 
 116 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 much, for by so doing I might help on the evil which 
 I would fain remedy. This crime is one of the most 
 corrupting of all the vices. It strikes in all direc- 
 tions. It is a sin against God, against human society, 
 and against one's self. It shows at once the absence 
 of "truth," of "mercy," and "the knowledge of 
 God." Where it prevails and God knows it does 
 almost everywhere it marks the decay of all the 
 virtues. 
 
 The fearful prevalence of the aforesaid crimes is 
 indicated in the expression, " they break out." They 
 are seen in terrible outbreaks. As a smoldering fire 
 breaks out of a building ; as the burning lava breflks 
 out from a volcano, sending down the mountain sides 
 torrents of fire, overwhelming towns and cities, and 
 desolating fertile plains, one outbreak follows another 
 until all animal life and every green thing are de- 
 stroyed. 
 
 "And blood touches blood." The blood of one 
 slain victim reaches to that of another, and the 
 whole surface of the ground is covered with gore. 
 What a figure is this! and yet scarcely a figure. 
 The land is deluged with the blood of the slain, and 
 yet the work of death goes on. Millions cry, "O 
 earth, cover not thou our blood, and let our cry 
 come forth !" 
 
 Now what is the condition of the public mind in 
 view of all this awful weight of criminality? I fear 
 that as a nation we are not penitent. To-day we are
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 117 
 
 indulging in pride and extravagant outlays, just as if 
 several hundred thousands of our sons and brothers 
 had not been swept away. Our people are swinging 
 out in pleasure in all forms, some of them new, while 
 the pall of death covers the face of the whole country. 
 The voice of weeping which is heard in every town 
 and neighborhood is overborne by the noise of music 
 and dancing. 
 
 We have had our days of fasting and prayer ; but 
 have they been characterized by that evidence of 
 deep and hearty contrition which they should have 
 been ? Our fasts have not been much like that of 
 Nineveh. Nor have they in all cases been productive 
 of the fruits described by the holy prophet. Isaiah 
 Iviii, 3, 5, 6. 
 
 The controversy, and the method by which it is 
 prosecuted. 
 
 The present gigantic civil war is one of the means 
 which Q-od in his providence sees proper to employ 
 for the punishment of the nation for her sins. 
 
 The southern people have grievously offended, in 
 their cruel oppression of the African race, and in in- 
 augurating this war. These things they have done 
 in addition to having a full share in the corruptions 
 of 'which I have before spoken, and they are greater 
 sufferers from the consequences of the war than the 
 people of the North. Let the hundreds of thousands 
 of their slain, and their desolated fields, bear testi- 
 mony to the fury of the storm, which they have
 
 118 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 invoked. The war is working as a punishment of a 
 most fearful character for their terrible crimes ; yet 
 as we of the North are guilty of many and aggravated 
 offenses, we are awfully punished. As God often 
 uses one wicked people for the punishment of another, 
 he is permitting this slaveholders' rebellion to inflict 
 upon us terrible chastisement. How many Rachels 
 are mourning for their children, refusing to be com- 
 forted because they are not ? How many widowed 
 wives and orphan children are left in loneliness and 
 helplessness in every portion of the country ? This 
 war lays an awful tribute upon ihe population of the 
 free North, and the curse has not come causeless. 
 
 The explanation is what I have before premised, 
 that God often uses one wicked people for the pun- 
 ishment of another. He employed the wicked Assyr- 
 ian king for the punishment of his own people, while 
 that king was at the same time moved by ambition, 
 and treasuring up a fearful harvest of divine wrath. 
 The case is thus announced by the prophet : " O 
 Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their 
 hand is mine indignation. I will send him against a 
 hypocritical nation, and against the people of my 
 wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and 
 to take the prey, and to tread them down like the 
 mire of the streets. Howbeit he meaneth not so, 
 neither doth his heart think so ; but it is in his heart 
 to destroy and cut off nations not a few." 
 
 Our southern enemies have no intention of fulfilling
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 119 
 
 the councils of heaven in chastising us for our sins, in 
 which they themselves have had a prominent part ; 
 but their object is to destroy the unity of the nation, 
 and to build up an independent nationality resting 
 upon slavery as its chief corner-stone. Their ambi- 
 tious and diabolical project shall utterly fail, but in 
 the mean time they have inflicted upon us fearful pun- 
 ishment. 
 
 God has allowed us to suffer reverses, and by their 
 means suffers the war to be protracted. 
 
 This fact is no favor to the rebels, nor any indica- 
 tion of the final failure of our cause. The problems 
 of Providence are often slow of solution. We needed 
 humbling, and may be we need it still, and God may 
 see still further occasion to try us. And if I read 
 Providence aright this war is to be the means, in the 
 hands of Providence, of making an end of slavery, 
 and the extent and continuance of it are to be used, 
 in the divine economy, for this end. If the war had 
 lasted but a year the institution would have survived, 
 and the same elements of discord which have troubled 
 the country from the beginning of its history would 
 have remained. With every year of its continuance 
 the peculiar institution has been losing its vitality, un- 
 til it is in its dying agonies. The continuance of the 
 war is a scourge to the North, but it is breaking down 
 the slave power of the South. It is a severe disci- 
 pline to us, and a judicial punishment to the southern 
 slaveholders; while it is a furnace to melt off the
 
 120 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 chains of four million of slaves, and thus to restore 
 them to the rights of men. How much longer God 
 will contend with us he only knows. We pray that 
 the work may be cut short in righteousness. 
 
 The guilty South will finally fall. 
 
 We have seen that God used the Assyrian king to 
 punish \he disobedience of the Jews ; but what did he 
 do with that king at last ? (See Isaiah x, 8, 13-19, 
 24-27.) 
 
 The overshadowing Assyrian power, when the time 
 of divine visitation had come, was dashed to pieces 
 like a potter's vessel, and never recovered. Yitringa 
 remarks that " all the characters of this prophecy be- 
 long to Sennacherib, though possibly it may have a 
 more extensive scope, and refer to the destruction of 
 all the enemies of God, and the following great em- 
 pires which God made use of as rods and scourges to 
 chastise and amend his people." Bishop Newton ob- 
 serves that " as the Assyrians totally destroyed the 
 kingdom of Israel, and greatly oppressed that of 
 Judah, no wonder they are the subject of several 
 prophecies. The prophet here denounceth the 
 judgments of God against Sennacherib in particular, 
 and against the Assyrians in. general. God might 
 employ them as ministers of his wrath, and execution- 
 ers of his vengeance, and so make the wickedness of 
 some nations the means of correcting that of others." 
 
 The illustration is complete. When God had done 
 using Sennacherib as an instrument, he destroyed
 
 ITS TKIAL AND ITS TEIUMPH. 121 
 
 * 
 
 both him and his army. Some confidently believe 
 that when he has done using the southern slave oli- 
 garchy as a scourge, he will then destroy it. This 
 great "controversy" will terminate in the hopeless 
 and irretrievable ruin of the political power of Jeffer- 
 son Davis, and the utter annihilation of all his fan- 
 cies of a great slave empire in " the sunny South." 
 His schemes and his despotism will tumble into ruin 
 together, and " none will be so poor as to do him 
 reverence." May the God of the Universe hasten it 
 in his time ! Amen.
 
 122 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 Till 
 THE WRATH OF MAN SHALL PRAISE GOD. 
 
 SURELY THE WRATH OF MAN SHALL PRAISE THEE: THE REMAINDER OP 
 
 WRATH SHALT THOU RESTRAIN. Psa. Ixxvi, 10. 
 
 PROVIDENCE lias great problems which time some- 
 times solves. It is difficult for us to see how that 
 which is evil and only evil can be followed by benef- 
 icent results. Leaving God out of the question, we 
 can think of 110 rule of judgment except that which 
 declares that " an evil tree cannot bring forth good 
 fruit ;" we therefore estimate the result by the char- 
 acter of the cause. The doctrine of a universal and 
 particular providence will effectually guard against 
 the hasty conclusion that any event, however evil in 
 itself, or mischievous in its immediate results, may 
 not be overruled for good. " The wrath of man 
 worketh not the righteousness of God," and yet God 
 can so work by his providence that the wrath of man 
 may be made to go out of its natural course and sub- 
 serve the righteousness of God. " Surely the wrath 
 of man shall praise thee." 
 
 In the discussion of this subject I propose 
 
 To explain the doctrine that the wrath of man 
 shall praise God.
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 123 
 
 The Hebrew word W?L| 5 hamat, wrath, is from a root 
 which signifies heat, or to become warm, and is figu- 
 ratively applied to anger, lust, or any unholy excite- 
 ment in men. The text may consequently be applied 
 to anger, malice, envy, ambition, covetousness, or 
 lust. We here have a large class of the evil princi- 
 ples and impulses which inhabit the human heart, 
 and break out into forms of sin or crime against the 
 laws of God or of society ; and all these are sub- 
 ject to the laws of the divine government asserted 
 in the text, which I make the foundation of the 
 present discourse. All the malignant passions of 
 the depraved human heart are so overruled as to 
 be made subservient to the cause of truth and 
 righteousness. 
 
 Malice and envy are the passions of devils, but 
 they are found in luxuriant growth in the human 
 bosom. The evidence of them is cruel injustice and 
 oppression, wrong and misery inflicted upon others, 
 with evil intent. 
 
 * 
 
 Men that make 
 
 Envy and crooked malice nourishment, 
 Do bite the best. SHAKSPEAEB. 
 
 The ambitious man seeks his own glory at any cost. 
 If others stand in his way he pulls them down. They 
 may be much better than himself, but, as though he 
 had a divine right to the coveted position, he de- 
 mands that they succumb and allow him to rise upon 
 their ruins.
 
 124 OUR COUNTRY : 
 
 I charge thee, fling away ambition; 
 By that sin fell the angels : how can man, then, 
 The image of his Maker, hope to win by't ? 
 Love thyself least, cherish those hearts that hate thee ; 
 Corruption wins not more than honesty. 
 Still in thy right hand carry gentle peace, 
 To silence envious tongues. Be just and fear not; 
 Let all the ends thou aim'st at be thy country's, 
 Thy God's and truth's. SHAKSPEAKE. 
 
 Ambition is insatiable. It storms the giddiest 
 height, and yet looks higher; it feeds on empty air 
 and hopes to be filled, but is still empty ; it grasps 
 everything, and loses all. 
 
 Ambition, when the pinnacle is gained 
 With many a toilsome step, the power it sought 
 Wants to support itself, and sighs to find ' 
 The envied height, but aggravates the fall. 
 
 GEOKGB BALLY. 
 
 Covetousness incontinently desires the wealth of 
 the world. It ever demands more. Like the two 
 daughters of the horse-leech, it cries, " Give, give !" 
 
 cursed lust of gold, when for thy sake 
 
 The fool throws up his interest in both worlds ; 
 
 First starved in this, then damned in that to come. BLAIR. 
 
 The baser passions, when unrestrained, carry their 
 victim down the stream of indulgence to the stagnant 
 pool of dissipation. The excessive indulgence of the 
 animal passions sinks the rational into the animal 
 nature ; the image of God is degraded into mere bru- 
 tality, and the immortal nature receives the impres- 
 sion of the beast. 
 
 Earthly desires and sensual lust 
 Are passions springing from the dust ; 
 They fade and die ;
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 125 
 
 But in the life beyond the tomb 
 They seal the immortal spirit's doom 
 Eternally. MANBIQUE. 
 
 The vile principles and passions of men shall be 
 made to praise God. The outbreaking of human 
 corruption is intended to injure an individual or 
 society generally, but it is made to praise God. The 
 malicious and envious may plot mischief, but their 
 schemes are overturned, and God is glorified. Yil- 
 lains may contrive to circumvent the unwary and 
 enrich themselves, or gratify their evil passions ; 
 but God confounds them, and makes them unwilling 
 instruments of his pleasure. 
 
 God sets limits to human passions. 
 " The remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain." 
 The evil dispositions of men will not be allowed to 
 go beyond what God will make to praise him. 
 When human passions have reached the bounds of 
 divine permission God says : " Hitherto shalt thou 
 come and no further, and here shall thy proud waves 
 be stayed." What is permitted will be overruled for 
 good, and all that remains shall be restrained. No 
 more wrath than will be turned to God's account will 
 he allow. How far human passions would proceed if 
 it were not for God's restraining providence, we may 
 not be able to determine j but thus much we may- 
 know, to wit, that whatever occurs is subject to the 
 divine control, and is made to serve some valuable 
 purpose. What remains, if it were not restrained,
 
 12(3 OUK COUNTEY : 
 
 would lay waste \lie fair heritage of God. It is to 
 be attributed to divine restraint that wickedness has 
 not secured the mastery and blasted forever every 
 bud of promise in the moral world. The good there 
 is here exists in spite of evil, and not by its kind 
 indulgence. 
 
 The designs of wicked men are turned aside even 
 when they are permitted to accomplish their evil 
 schemes. They execute their evil schemes when the 
 ends which they propose to accomplish are wholly 
 disappointed. They have an end in view in their 
 calculations, and God has another in the plans of his 
 providence, and their objects and aims are thwarted 
 and the ends of divine wisdom are consummated. 
 When a wicked project begins to succeed it is a 
 great error to conclude that it will succeed in the 
 end, or that the wicked devices of the perverted 
 intellect engaged in it will finally succeed. There 
 are many ways in which Providence can frustrate 
 the whole scheme, even down to the very point of 
 success. 
 
 The effects of a wicked device may be wholly 
 turned aside. The poisoned arrow may miss its 
 object and fall harmlessly on the ground. God is a 
 shield to the righteous, and no weapon formed 
 against them shall prosper. So far as the cause of 
 God and the interests of the Church are concerned 
 they are safe in the divine keeping whatever instru- 
 mentality may be employed against them. 

 
 ITS TKIAL AND" ITS TRIUMPH. 127 
 
 Persecution has often been employed for the sup- 
 pression or ruin of a good cause, but has generally 
 proved a failure. It has indeed made martyrs, but 
 every martyr it has made has not been an instance of 
 defeat. An old father says, " The blood of the martyrs 
 is the seed of the Church." It is one thing to silence 
 the voice of a reformer, and another to crush a ref- 
 ormation. One set of agents employed in the sup- 
 port of a cause may be disposed of, but God can raise 
 up another, or, if need be, can sustain the cause with- 
 out agents. " There is no wisdom nor understanding 
 nor counsel against the Lord." 
 
 Infidelity has had its malicious plots against the 
 Church, and has laid science and learning under con- 
 tribution for the destruction of her strong foundations, 
 but its best laid schemes have failed of their desired 
 results. Organizations have been formed, lectures 
 founded, and books written against the claims of di- 
 vine revelation, but they have only had the effect to 
 call forth the talents of the Church in its defense, and 
 of adding new triumphs of the cause of revealed relig- 
 ion. Paine's " Age of Reason " has malice enough 
 in it to annihilate Christianity, and to curse the whole 
 world ; but it may well be doubted whether it has had 
 the least effect to impede the progress of the Gospel 
 in the world. God takes care that the natural con- 
 sequences of every assault made upon the truth of 
 Christianity shall be turned aside ; and that, in spite 
 of the malice of men and devils, the kingdom of Christ
 
 128 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 shall march steadily on to the consummation of his 
 grand and glorious purposes. 
 
 I shall finally proceed to give some illustrations of 
 the doctrine of the text. 
 
 Illustrations are scattered so abundantly through 
 the pages of the Bible and of profane history that it 
 is difficult to select. A few only among the many 
 can be employed. 
 
 For the first instance I take the oppression and 
 persecution of the children of Israel in Egypt. 
 
 Pharaoh's object was to prevent the too great in- 
 crease and growth of the Israelites, and to discipline 
 them to slavery. The terrible oppressions to which 
 the people of Israel were subjected were not allowed 
 by Providence to proceed so far as to annihilate, or 
 even to diminish them. Indeed, "the more they 
 afflicted them the more they multiplied and grew." 
 When the people had escaped from Egypt, Pharaoh 
 pursued them with his army and hemmed them in 
 at the Ked Sea; but there he was destroyed. 
 
 As a part of the system of God's restraining provi- 
 dence should be taken into the account the plagues 
 with which Egypt was visited and Pharaoh's infi- 
 delity was rebuked. The Lord said to Pharaoh, 
 " And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee 
 up, for to show in thee my power; and that my 
 name may be declared throughout all the earth." 
 Pharaoh's design was to hold the children of Israel in
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 129 
 
 bondage, and make their enslavement a source of 
 great gain ; but he reached a point -where his way 
 was hedged up, and he became the unwilling instru- 
 ment of a glorious manifestation of divine power and 
 providence. He kicked against the restraint until he 
 fell before it. If this great offender had ceased from 
 his furor of rebellion early in his conflict with God, 
 he might have escaped the terrible catastrophe which 
 befell him ; but he poured out his wrath to the bitter 
 end, and it was made to praise God. Here is a fear- 
 ful example of the fact that when a man is so satu- 
 rated with wrath that no indications of the divine 
 judgments will bring him to terms, summary destruc- 
 tion is at hand. 
 
 The next illustration I give is the case of Joseph. 
 
 There are two instances in the history of Joseph 
 which illustrate the doctrine of the text. The first 
 is his being sold into Egypt by his brethren. The 
 ruling principle which moved the brethren of Joseph 
 to sell him was envy. Joseph was his father's favor- 
 ite, and acted as a sort of spy to report to his father 
 the misdeeds of his brethren. His prophetic. dreams, 
 which foreshadow his elevation above his brethren, 
 were matters of serious offense and jealousy. Avail- 
 ing themselves of a favorable occasion, they sold him 
 to a caravan of Ishmaelitish merchants, and contrived 
 a scheme to make their father believe that he had 
 been devoured by a wild beast. The brothers in- 
 tended to remove Joseph from the family circle, and
 
 130 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 thereafter to be rid of his watchful and reproving 
 eye. There was a mixture of bad passions developed 
 in this transaction. There was added to envy, mal- 
 ice, wounded pride, jealousy, and some of the mean- 
 ness of cupidity. They sold him for twenty pieces 
 of silver, about three pounds sterling, or half the 
 price of a slave on the African coast in modern 
 times. Now they supposed Joseph fairly out of their 
 way. 
 
 The consequences of this flagrant instance of wick- 
 edness were taken under the guidance of Providence, 
 and, after several strange changes and threatening 
 reverses, Joseph became governor of Egypt and the 
 deliverer of liis family from death by famine. "When 
 Joseph made himself known to his brethren he gave 
 them his construction of the theology taught in the 
 whole matter of his coming to Egypt. " Now there- 
 fore," he says, " be not grieved, nor angry with your- 
 selves, that ye sold me hither : for God did send me 
 before you to preserve life." " Surely the wrath of 
 man shall praise thee, and the remainder of wrath 
 shalt thou restrain." The illustration is perfect. 
 Their wickedness was arrested at the precise point 
 where it was not to be made a further instrument 
 of showing forth the glory of God. 
 
 Another instance in the history of Joseph, in which 
 a vile passion was made to praise God, was the 
 wicked passion and the base falsehood of the wife of 
 Potiphar. A disappointed wicked woman stops at
 
 ITS TKIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 131 
 
 nothing. In tins case, to conceal her own shame, 
 she falsely accuses Joseph, and, to all human appear- 
 ance, effects his utter ruin. He is cast into a vile 
 prison among presumed felons. There God prepared 
 a train of circumstances which led to his elevation 
 to the position of a prince in the kingdom. What 
 human wisdom could have turned such malign dis- 
 positions and schemes to such glorious account? 
 That wicked w r oman thought to deprive Joseph of all 
 power as an informer or a witness ; but God used 
 her wicked schemes to invest him with the dignity 
 of a prophet, the power of a great civil ruler, and a 
 benefactor of the Egyptians and of his father's house. 
 
 The story of Joseph has the charm of a beautiful 
 and skillfully constructed romance. The hero of the 
 tale is a splendid character ; indeed, everything that 
 could be desired. His story is full of marvels, and it 
 ascends to the dkzy heights of power and influence 
 without being marred by a single vice or weakness. 
 A more wonderful character and a greater moral hero 
 than Joseph is not found in the history of man ; and 
 what is remarkable is that the great facts in his story 
 are illustrations and confirmations of the doctrine 
 that God uses the vilest instruments and the vilest 
 acts for the manifestation of his own glory. 
 
 Passing a multitude of historical facts and events 
 which might advantageously be seized upon as illus- 
 trations of my theme, I select the persecutions of the 
 Puritans.
 
 132 OUR 'COUNTRY : 
 
 The uncompromising war which commenced on 
 " popish rags " and English formalism, by an earnest 
 stern class of the- descendants of the Reformation, 
 resulted in a relentless persecution. After the Ref- 
 ormation from popery in England, the English sover- 
 eigns continued to administer the government upon 
 the principle of uniformity, claiming the right to 
 force the consciences of the worshipers into conform- 
 ity with the forms and usages of the national estab- 
 lishment. The Puritans demanded liberty of con- 
 science ; the government denied this right ; and the 
 consequence was that great numbers of godly pastors 
 were ejected from their parishes, and their hungry 
 flocks were deprived of their pastoral oversight. 
 
 The relentless persecutions which followed, with 
 fines and imprisonment, under the Stuarts, sent away 
 to the wilds of America both pastors and flocks in 
 great numbers. The New England colonies were 
 principally peopled with refugees, who loved liberty 
 of conscience more than the quiet possession of home 
 and plenty, and sought that precious boon in the 
 western wilderness. They chose liberty among the 
 wild beasts and merciless savages rather than to be 
 restrained in the free exercise of their consciences in- 
 honor and abundance. God smiled upon the fugi- 
 tive colonists, and the wilderness soon budded and 
 blossomed as the rose. The result has been a suc- 
 cessful experiment in the way of a free government, 
 and a Church untrammeled by the State.
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 133 
 
 The Act of Uniformity under the reign of Charles 
 II., and the persecution which followed, were designed 
 to stifle dissent, and to settle the question of the right 
 of the state to establish a uniform system of religious 
 worship. In the mind of God, however, this un- 
 Bcriptural and unphilosophical system of compulsion, 
 in matters of conscience, was to be judged and con- 
 demned by an experiment which it forced on by 
 its struggles for ascendency. Persecution which was 
 designed to annihilate dissent, organized and estab- 
 lished its fundamental principles and forms upon the 
 western continent, and sent over Europe a tide of 
 light in favor of "a State without a king and a 
 Church without a bishop." The whole history of the 
 American Church has been a standing reproof of the 
 system of constrained obedience to forms and cere- 
 monies of man's devising. The great principle of a 
 free Gospel, a free Church, and a free conscience, may 
 now be considered as settled forever. 
 
 The fourth and last illustration which I shall pre- 
 sent of the doctrine of the text is the great slave- 
 holders' rebellion, with which the nation is at pres- 
 ent contending. 
 
 It may be considered hazardous to use unfinished 
 history to illustrate a principle. The rebellion not 
 yet being completed, it may be supposed impossible 
 to say whether it will be an instance of successful 
 rebellion or an utter failure. The progress of the 
 conflict thus far, and the indications of what will
 
 134 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 probably occur at no distant date, afford data for a 
 tolerably correct conclusion with regard to the class 
 of instructive historical events with which the great 
 American rebellion is finally to be associated. Com- 
 ing events cast their shadows before them. The dis- 
 patches of these few days past unmistakably indicate 
 that the time for writing the history of the rebellion 
 has nearly arrived.* At all events I shall venture to 
 assume what will be the character of the lesson which 
 that history will teach. 
 
 Several theories, in turn, have been promulgated 
 by the rebel savans of the objects of the rebellion. 
 One is, that it is resistance of northern aggression ; 
 another, that it is in defense of their domestic insti- 
 tutions ; and another, that it is to establish southern 
 independence. Whichever of these be the cause 
 which has originated the movement, or whether all 
 have had a hand in it, is not material, so far as the 
 investigation in hand is concerned. In either case 
 the rebellion originated in false or vicious principles. 
 It is the offshoot of pride, ambition, lust of power, or 
 a love of human bondage, or all together. The ag- 
 gressions which they speak of are imaginary; the 
 slavery which they would protect and perpetuate is 
 a system of injustice ; and as for southern independ- 
 ence, it is not a right of the southern people. The 
 rebellion is based upon false assumptions, and is car- 
 ried on by a system of plunder and wholesale murder. 
 
 * Written December 10, 18G4.
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 135 
 
 the question is, How God is managing the 
 results of this deluge of wrath which the southern 
 slaveholders are pouring out ? If I understand the 
 movements of Providence, the rebellion is working 
 out the destruction of slavery and the humiliation of 
 the slave oligarchy. These results are evidently in 
 the mind of God in the whole process. The rebel 
 leaders meant to create a government with slavery for 
 its chief corner-stone, and to establish an order of 
 nobility an upper grade of society. God is work- 
 ing for the disappointment of these projects the 
 destruction of the system of slavery, and the humil- 
 iation and overthrow of the southern aristocracy. 
 'When, the rebellion shall have gone as far as God 
 sees good for the accomplishment of these designs, it 
 will be restrained. 
 
 War in itself is a terrible scourge and an awful 
 calamity. It is almost always the product of wicked 
 passions. Its evils are innumerable. It is a yawn- 
 ing gulf, which swallows up millions of treasure and 
 millions of precious lives without being satisfied.' It 
 will be a difficult problem to solve what is the 
 amount of destruction which the war of the rebellion 
 has occasioned. The judgment-day alone will bring 
 to light the terrible guilt of this war. We may 
 apply to the authors of it, with some little variations, 
 the prophetic curse which the patriarch Jacob pro- 
 nounced upon Simeon and Levi : " Instruments of 
 cruel tv are in their habitations. O my soul, come
 
 136 OUR COUNTRY : 
 
 not thou into their secret ; unto their assembly, mine 
 honor, be not thou united : for in their anger they 
 slew a man, and in their self-will they digged down 
 a wall. Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce ; and 
 their wrath, for it was cruel : I will divide them in 
 Jacob, and scatter them in Israel." Gen. xlix, 5-7. 
 
 Fearful as this war is in its destruction of life and 
 property, it will undoubtedly be overruled for the 
 good of the world. God has his own method in deal- 
 ing with it. It is a fact which history abundantly 
 establishes, that great national reforms are preceded 
 by a baptism of blood. Sometimes there are evils 
 in the body politic which the peaceful measures of 
 progress are not suited to remove they can only be 
 purged out by fire and the sword. Wicked men and 
 corrupt principles must be removed. War is waged 
 upon the peace and the rights of society, and the am- 
 bitious and wicked agents engaged in it, under the 
 control of Providence, destroy themselves, they and 
 their refuges of lies perishing together. God knows 
 how to manage the ship of state in a great national 
 tempest. He knows when to suffer the wrath of 
 designing and wicked men to proceed and when to 
 restrain it. When he has no further use for the 
 present civil war he will bring it to an end. He 
 will make it contribute largely to the advancement 
 of the race in knowledge and virtue. His kingdom 
 shall be advanced, and made to triumph by ".the 
 wrath of man."
 
 ITS TEIAL AND ITS TKIUJVIFH. 137 
 
 I shall close this discourse with a few observations. 
 
 The wrath of man is not occasioned or brought 
 about by God. The wrath is man's work, man's sin. 
 The overruling it is entirely distinct from the thing 
 itself. The guilt and responsibility of the wrong is 
 with the transgressor, but it is God's part to see that 
 it does not accomplish the destructive ends which it 
 designs : more, he will make it minister to the praise 
 of his glorious name. 
 
 The guilty originator of an evil scheme is just as 
 culpable as he would be if it had accomplished all 
 the mischief which was intended. That the flood of 
 wrath which is poured out by wicked men and devils ' 
 does not affect all the ruin intended is no credit to 
 them. They are just as responsible and as guilty 
 when it is all made to praise God, as they would have 
 been if it had desolated the land, and blasted every 
 bud of hope for the future of the Church and the 
 world. 
 
 Although God uses wicked men for the accom- 
 plishment of his grand designs, he is not therefore 
 dependent upon them. If men should cease to pour 
 out their wrath, it is not to be supposed God's re- 
 sources would fail. His praise would still be sounded 
 out through the vast universe by innumerable voices. 
 Heaven above and the earth beneath would be full 
 of harmony. The starry heavens would declare the 
 glory of God, and the firmament would show forth 
 his handiwork. If the wrath of man is made to
 
 138 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 praise God, his love and obedience would contribute 
 much more to the measure of glory to which he is 
 entitled. That Divine Providence uses the evil agen- 
 cies of earth and hell for purposes of good, is an ex- 
 hibition of the wealth and not of the poverty of the 
 divine resources. He who can glorify himself through 
 the very wrath of his enemies must be infinite in 
 resources. 
 
 We may rejoice to know that a time is coming 
 when there will be no more "wrath of man," but 
 love and the feelings of a common brotherhood shall 
 be universal. The day is not far distant when* men 
 shall " beat their swords into plowshares and their 
 spears into pruning-hooks ;" when the baser passions 
 shall be purged out from the earth, and the heavenly 
 principles of charity and mutual good-will shall grace 
 the various grades of society, sanctify the family, 
 give character to the intercourse of nations, and 
 crown the Church with millennial glory.
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 139 
 
 IX. 
 SLAVERY. 
 
 AND HORSES, AND CHARIOTS, AND SLAVES, AND SOULS OF MEN. 
 
 Rev. xviii, 13. 
 
 The word dco/mTv, rendered slaves, should be bod- 
 ies : bodies and souls of men. A parallel passage is to 
 be found in Ezek. xxvii, 13 : " They traded the per- 
 sons of men and vessels of brass in thy market." 
 The word persons does not give the specific idea 
 of the original, &"* B ^9?, in souls of men. Sept., 
 Souls of men. The bodies and souls of men were 
 matters of commerce in Tyre and in Borne; that 
 is, they traded in slaves the same as they did in 
 " vessels of brass," in " chariots," and in " horses." 
 The bodies and souls of men were mixed up with 
 beasts of burden and all sorts of material commodi- 
 ties. This is precisely the idea of southern slavery 
 under the laws of the slave states. Slaves in these 
 laws are defined " chattels personal, to all intents 
 and purposes ." 
 
 The exigencies of the controversy on the subject 
 of slavery have called forth a variety of definitions of 
 the institution. A learned doctor, who has written a 
 book upon the subject, defines slavery service. A
 
 140 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 wife owes to her husband service, a child owes his 
 parents service, and if it is a moral wrong for a mas- 
 ter to enforce service upon a slave, that gentleman 
 demands, is it not morally wrong to require service of 
 a wife or a son ? This is a palpable and a senseless 
 sophism. This definition of slavery is no definition 
 at all. A definition is a statement of the genus and 
 the diiference. We have the genus here, but have 
 not the species, or the difference between slavery and 
 any other species of service. Saying that slavery is 
 service is saying nothing. "We want to know the 
 conditions of the service, on what ground the master 
 claims it, how he enforces it, how long it continues, 
 and what effect it has upon the posterity of the 
 slave. Clearly, if the service of a wife and of a son 
 does not imply the right of property, and consequent- 
 ly the right of sale, we cannot reason from one to 
 the other. One may be consistent with the laws of 
 humanity and justice while the other is not. "What 
 then is slavery? What is African slavery in the 
 slave states of the South ? This is the question which 
 I shall attempt to answer. 
 
 What is African slavery in the slave states of 
 America ? 
 
 I do not now discuss Hebrew bondage nor the 
 slavery of the ancients, but the slavery of the Afri- 
 can race as it exists in this country. 
 
 This species of slavery implies complete ownership.
 
 ITS TEIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 
 
 The slave is the property of his master, subject to all 
 the conditions of any other species of property. He 
 is absolutely subject to the will of his master, liable 
 to sale as much as a horse or an ox, and consequently 
 liable to be separated from all his home associations 
 and relations. The wife is separated from the hus- 
 band, and the husband from the wife ; the child from 
 the parent, and the parent from the child. The slave 
 descends to heirs-at-law the same as any other prop- 
 erty, and is sold at sheriff's sale for debt the same as 
 oxen or horses. The slave is not regarded 'by the 
 slave code as a person, but as a thing, a mere article 
 of trade. 
 
 The slave's body and soul are sold in the market. 
 Strength and agility, health and comeliness, all go to 
 enhance the value of the slave, and these properties 
 are sold. Intellectual and moral qualities are taken 
 into the account in the sale of a slave. If the slave 
 has genius, that genius is sold ; if he has mechanical 
 skill, that skill is sold ; if he has moral qualities they 
 are sold ; if he has a conscience, that conscience is 
 sold ; if he is a Christian, his religion is sold ; if he 
 is a Methodist exhorter, or a Baptist preacher, his 
 gifts are sold. His soul goes with his body to the 
 auction block. The grace and the image of God and 
 the purchase of the Saviour's blood go under the 
 hammer like the qualities of a blood-hound or an old 
 wagon. Slave dealers " trade in the bodies and the 
 souls of men." It is essential to a man that he own
 
 H2 OUE COUNTRY: 
 
 himself; it is essential to a woman that she have con- 
 trol over her own person ; but the slave is wholly the 
 property of another, and, so far as it is possible, is 
 subject to his control, body and soul. Slavery con- 
 sequently denudes the slave of all that constitutes 
 him an intelligent, moral, and responsible being. 
 The slave may think in spite of his master, but so far 
 as thought comes out in actions he can only think in 
 'one way. He may love God, but his religious affec- 
 tions must be subordinated to the will of his owner. 
 
 In a limited sense it must be admitted that a 
 slave may be a Christian ; but it is only in such a 
 sense as, under compulsion, religion can survive a vio- 
 lation of the moral law. When this can take place 
 I leave for the Judge of all the earth to determine. 
 
 Under these conditions the responsibilities of a 
 slaveholder are fearful beyond all conception. He is 
 responsible for the actions, the life, the character, and 
 the eternal destiny of his slaves. If slaves are com- 
 pelled to minister to the brutal passions of their mas- 
 ters, and by that means are eternally lost, what a 
 weight of responsibility rests upon the shoulders of 
 the master. They are guilty of the blood of the vic- 
 tims of their lust. An awful weight >f responsibility 
 rests upon their souls which they will have to meet 
 before the bar of God. Slaveholding in the mildest 
 form involves too great a responsibility for any human 
 being, and by a good conscience should be shunned as 
 the gates of hell.
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 143 
 
 The slave is held for life. The Jewish servant was 
 set free from servitude on the year of release, but the 
 slave of the South is held absolutely at the pleasure of 
 his master ; and more recently the laws of the slave 
 states prohibit emancipation, or surround it with so 
 many difficulties that it amounts to a legal impossi- 
 bility for the slaveholder to give freedom to his slaves. 
 Death only releases the poor African slave from his 
 inexorable doom. 
 
 One of the conditions of slavery is that the 
 descendants of the slave, to the latest generation, 
 are slaves. Under the divine law " the son shall not 
 bear the iniquity of the father." Why should the 
 son be a slave because his mother was a slave ? If 
 all men are created free, as we have a right to assume 
 that they are, and as that immortal bill of rights, the 
 Declaration of American Independence, asserts, no 
 human being can be born a slave. The idea of hered- 
 itary slavery is only suitable to the barbarous ages. 
 The idea of individuality and individual responsibil- 
 ity, which is so clearly maintained in this advanced 
 period of the world's history, is utterly at war with 
 that essential feature of African slavery which entails 
 servitude upon the descendants of the slave forever. 
 Bad enough, too bad, that the slave should have no 
 hope of personal liberty during his natural life, but 
 overwhelmingly horrible that his offspring should be 
 doomed to the same condition of vassalage to the 
 latest generation.
 
 144 OUK COUNTRY: 
 
 I sliall next proceed to give a sketch of the history 
 of slavery. 
 
 Slavery had its origin in the barbarous ages. 
 Clans and nations of savages made war upon each 
 other, and made slaves of those who were taken cap- 
 tives. The patriarchs held servants, but although 
 they were sometimes purchased they were not sold, 
 but often became heir to their master's estate. They 
 were the stewards of the house, and oftenr transacted 
 all the outdoor business. " Eliezer of Damascus " 
 was Abram's servant, and before Isaac was born was 
 his " heir." It is universally held by comment- 
 ators that it was this same Eliezer with whom 
 was intrusted the important business of negotiating 
 for a wife for Isaac. Servitude under the patri- 
 archs was tempered with justice, confidence, and 
 forbearance, and it must have been a blessing 
 to slaves among the heathen to be purchased into 
 comparative freedom. There was little of the ele- 
 ments of the cruel heathen bondage, or of African 
 slavery, in the servitude which was in use among 
 the patriarchs. 
 
 The Jews held the heathen in slavery under a tem- 
 porary divine sanction. The ancient Greeks reduced 
 a caste to slavery. The Helots were bought and 
 sold as slaves, and were in a condition of abject bond- 
 age. The Eomans and the ancient Germans held 
 slaves. Captives taken in war from nearly all the 
 nations of the world were sold in Eome like beasts in
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 145 
 
 the shambles. These slaves were generally white, 
 and not inferior to their conquerors in intelligence 
 and civilization. In the sixth century Pope Gregory 
 saw Englishmen in the slave-market in Rome who 
 were of so fair a countenance, and so fine an appear- 
 ance generally, that he said, '* call them not Angli 
 but Angeli" Considering it a pity that such a race 
 should be without the Gospel, the Pope sent the 
 monk Augustine to England to convert the people to 
 Home. This piece of history is referred to in proof 
 that slaves were not anciently selected from inferior 
 races. 
 
 Negro slavery sprung up much later than the times 
 of which I have yet spoken. In the wars between 
 Carthage and Home, Romans and Carthagenians 
 were alternately made slaves. There was no enslave- 
 ment of color or of caste. The same was the fact 
 from the period of the highest glory of the Roman 
 empire to its decline and fall. African slaves came 
 into request in later times. 
 
 The African slave-trade had its origin after the 
 discovery of America, to supply the West Indies 
 with laborers. The Portuguese were the first to 
 engage in the murderous work of stealing the 
 poor negroes from their quiet bowers, selling them 
 into perpetual bondage. The Dutch navigators 
 brought the first African slaves to Xorth America. 
 In 1551 the English began to trade in negroes, and 
 
 in 1556 Sir John Hawkins sailed with two ships to 
 
 10
 
 146 OUK COUNTRY: 
 
 Cape Yerde, whence lie sent out men to capture ne- 
 groes. The following order to the colonial govern- 
 ment at New York from Queen Anne is remarkable. 
 They were to " take care that the Almighty should 
 be devoutly and duly served according to the rites 
 of the Church of England, and also that the Royal 
 African Company should be encouraged, and that 
 the colony should have a constant and sufficient 
 supply of merchantable negroes at moderate rates." 
 The British government had this nefarious trade 
 under its -supervision until it was abolished in 1807. 
 
 The hand which the parent government had in 
 bringing to her colonies such a vast mass of slaves 
 is made matter of complaint in Jefferson's orig- 
 inal draft of the Declaration of Independence. It 
 was a great branch of commerce which kept the 
 English vessels in profitable employment. Our 
 statesmen, at the formation of the federal Con- 
 stitution, did not allow the word slave or slavery 
 to be incorporated into that instrument, suppos- 
 ing that the institution would gradually die out. 
 The exigences of the cotton-growing business, how- 
 ever, created a demanc^ for labor in the southern 
 states, and African slavery came to be considered a 
 necessity. An " irrepressible conflict " between slave 
 and free labor sprung up, and has been in progress 
 until the opening of the existing -rebellion. During 
 the last thirty years especially the question of slavery 
 has been discussed in the country politically, econorn-
 
 ITS TEIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 147 
 
 ically, and morally, until the subject ought to be 
 well understood by all thoughtful people. 
 
 A multitude of books have been written upon the 
 various aspects of the subject of slavery. Its history 
 and bearings have been copiously delineated, and 
 the literature of the subject can scarcely be mas- 
 tered by a person of ordinary capacity in a lifetime. 
 I must content myself with having given a mere 
 sketch.* 
 
 I shall next notice the principal arguments by 
 which slavery is defended. 
 
 It was once quite a popular argument, or at least 
 an assumed reason in favor of African slavery, that 
 the African race is doomed to perpetual slavery by 
 the irrevocable decree of heaven. The proof of this 
 proposition is found in the prophetic curse of Noah : 
 " Cursed be Canaan ; a servant of servants shall he be 
 to his brethren." Gen. ix, 25. 
 
 In order to make out an argument from this text 
 two assumptions are made. The first is, that the de- 
 scendants of Canaan were Mack and secondly r , that 
 the curse in the case dooms them all to slavery. 
 
 In answer to the first assumption, let it be observed 
 that the Canaanites were not negroes. The denial 
 of this assumption is sufficient until proof is offered ; 
 but it may here be noted that Canaan settled on the 
 
 * An excellent sketch of the history of slavery may be Yound in Ap- 
 pleton's American Encyclopedia, article, Slavery.
 
 148 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 east of the Mediterranean in Asia, while the negro 
 race is universally admitted to have been first found 
 in Africa. 
 
 As to the second assumption, that Noah pro- 
 nounces the doom of perpetual slavery upon the de- 
 scendants of Canaan, it may be observed that noth- 
 ing more is necessarily to be understood by this curse 
 than that the Canaanites should be a conquered peo- 
 ple, as in fact they were under Joshua. Having 
 been subdued in the land of Canaan, the nations 
 which descended from Ham either remained in a 
 state of vassalage in the land of promise, or were 
 scattered among other nations. Calmet tells us that 
 the remnants of these conquered nations fled to 
 Greece and Egypt, and ultimately were settled in 
 many portions of Asia and Africa. 
 
 If we admit that Noah's curse is meant for the 
 descendants of Canaan, and they are the negroes, 
 what is the logical consequence ? It implies that the 
 negroes are servants to their "brethren." Are the 
 southern slaveholders " brethren " to the slaves ? 
 Southern slaveholders generally consider their slaves 
 an inferior race, scarcely human. They would con- 
 sider it an insult to be told that they hold their 
 " brethren " in slavery. Their sympathizers at the 
 North do not hold that " the niggers " are brothers to 
 their masters, and yet they use this " cursed-be-Ca- 
 naan " argument as though it made an end of the 
 controversy. Let slaveholders have the argument
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 149 
 
 for all it is worth if they will, but we will hold them 
 to the concession which their employment of it neces- 
 sarily implies that they hold their " brethren " in 
 cruel bondage. In whatever light this famous pas- 
 sage is viewed, it contains no warrant for negro 
 slavery. 
 
 It is often asserted that the natural condition of 
 the negro is that of slavery. He is ignorant and 
 degraded, incapable of self-government, and the like. 
 If ignorance and degradation, and a consequent ina- 
 bility for self-government, are reasons which justify 
 the enslavement of one people, why do not the same 
 reasons justify the reduction to slavery of all other 
 people who are in the same condition ? A strong 
 people has no more right to enslave a weak people 
 than a strong individual has a right to exact the 
 sweat and toil of him who is weaker because he may 
 be able to enforce it. Slavery is not the natural con- 
 dition of any human being. No one loses his rights 
 because he is weak or ignorant. The weak and the 
 ignorant are entitled to charity instead of oppression 
 at the hands of those who are their superiors in 
 strength and wisdom. 
 
 Jewish servitude is employed to prove the right of 
 slavery. 
 
 The law of servitude is found in the twenty-fifth 
 chapter of Leviticus. There is a distinction made in 
 the law between the Israelite and the stranger. The 
 Israelite was not to be ruled over " with rigor," and he
 
 150 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 should hav,e his freedom at the end of six years, or in 
 " the year of jubilee." There is nothing in this tem- 
 porary and qualified servitude analogous to negro 
 slavery. This will be admitted. It. is, lio we ver, con- 
 tended that the Israelites were authorized to hold in 
 perpetual slavery " the children of the strangers " 
 " the heathen," or the Gentile nations. 
 
 Let it be observed that this arrangement does 
 not subject one heathen nation ,. any more than 
 another to the condition of slavery, much less does it 
 say anything about the African race ; and who will 
 say that all who are not Jews are by this law sub- 
 jected to the conditions of slavery ? 
 
 No authority is here given to sell a slave. With- 
 out the right to sell, slavery loses a large portion 
 of its horrors. The separation of husbands and wives, 
 of parents and children, which is so common an inci- 
 dent in the slave states, would never occur after the 
 owner had come into possession of a slave under the 
 law. 
 
 This law does not entail slavery upon the children 
 of the slave. This, it may be plead, is a matter of 
 course, and is to be presumed. It is not a matter of 
 course. The law cannot be made to embrace any- 
 thing which it does not express, and it says nothing 
 about the condition of slavery descending to the pos- 
 terity of the slave. 
 
 The servitude authorized in the law in question 
 cannot be regarded as of permanent and universal
 
 ITS TEIAJj AND ITS TRIUMPH. 151 
 
 obligation. Like the Jewish law of divorce, it 
 was temporary and local. It is applicable to no 
 other people, and has long since been disused 
 among the Jews themselves. Concubinage was once 
 allowed, but is now condemned by all Christian 
 people. 
 
 Again, the law distinctly recognizes the right of a 
 slave to leave his master. There was not only an en- 
 tire omission of law for the reclamation of fugitive 
 slaves, but there was a direct statute for the pro- 
 tection of the fugitive. " Thou shalt not deliver un- 
 to his master the servant which is escaped from his 
 master unto thee : he shall dwell with thee. . . . 
 Thou shalt not oppress him." Dent, xxiii, 15, 16. 
 
 It is asserted that slavery is recognized and regu- 
 lated by Christ and his apostles, and consequently 
 we are to consider the institution as sanctioned in 
 the teachings of the New Testament. 
 
 Let it be observed that the condition of slavery 
 was sanctioned by the Roman -law, and was one of 
 the usages of civil society in the apostolic age. As 
 it was no part of the Saviour's mission to revolution- 
 ize governments, or to interfere with man's social 
 relations, he did hot command the Christian master 
 to give civil liberty to his slaves, but required him so 
 to modify his treatment of them that they would be 
 slaves but in name. That great law, " As ye would 
 that men should do unto you do ye even so to them," 
 is of universal obligation, and if practiced by the
 
 152 OUR COUNTRY : 
 
 master would give the slave his liberty, at least in 
 fact, if not in form. 
 
 St. Paul applies this principle to the treatment of 
 slaves. He says : " Masters, give unto your servants 
 that which is just and equal ; knowing that ye also 
 have a Master in heaven^' ~Col. iv, 1. Whatever 
 glosses may have been put upon this passage, I am not 
 able to avoid the conclusion that the apostle meant by 
 " just and equal " an equivalent for their services. 
 "What is just and equal in one case is just and equal 
 in another. Some of the commentators seem to 
 think that the apostle refers to food, clothing, and 
 physic what the Roman law allowed a slave. To 
 me it seems obvious that he meant more. It seems 
 to bring down to nothing the scope of a grave Chris- 
 tian precept to make it mean mere heathen honesty. 
 The mind of the apostle certainly contemplated a 
 higher rule of duty than that which Roman society 
 recognized, embracing the new relations of the par- 
 ties established by the new Christian life. The ad- 
 dition of the word equal after just gives double force 
 to the duty required, and would seem to forbid the 
 idea that all that is intended is a mere coming up to 
 the standard established by the custom of the country. 
 The apostle rather recognizes a common meed of just- 
 ice and equity which applies to all, and consists in 
 an application of our Saviour's golden rule. If the 
 man converted to Christianity finds himself a mas- 
 ter in possession of slaves, he is thenceforth to treat
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 153 
 
 the persons who, in law, hold the relation of slaves 
 to him with the justice to which men are entitled, 
 and this done, their bondage is merely nominal. 
 
 There is another precept which the apostle gives to 
 " masters" which must greatly modify the system of 
 slavery and ameliorate the condition of the slave. 
 " Forbearing threatening." (Eph. vi, 9.) The word 
 dvievres, rendered forbearing, I believe with Dr. Rob- 
 inson signifies, in this place, " to leave off, to cease 
 from" The Christian master is not to threaten his 
 servants. 'If not to threaten them, we may conclude, 
 d fortiori, that he is not to use the lash. If harsh and 
 threatening language is prohibited, certainly the se- 
 verer discipline of blows is also forbidden. Forced 
 service without physical punishment or threats would 
 be an anomaly, and slavery without either would 
 bear no resemblance to American slavery. 
 
 The various places in the Epistles in which the 
 servant is exhorted to obedience, and to render due 
 reverence to his master, have no bearing whatever upon 
 the question of the right of slavery. St. Paul uc- 
 quires subjection to the civil authorities, but certainly 
 cannot be supposed in this to sanction the despotic 
 government of Kero and other tyrants. To require 
 obedience to an unjust government is not to be un- 
 derstood as a sanction of its injustice. 
 
 In the study of the Scriptures we may be instructed 
 as well by what is not found there as by what is. 
 Now let it be observed that the traffic in slaves is a
 
 154: OUR COUNTRY : 
 
 * 
 
 part of the system of American slavery. In all tlie 
 slave states the two things have always gond together. 
 Pious men have had some conscience upon the subject 
 of breaking up families, and trading in slaves for 
 merely mercenary purposes ; but slaveholders in gen- 
 eral, and many professors of religion among them, 
 have not been so considerate. With them slaves have 
 been a commodity to be disposed of merely for the 
 benefit of the owner. My position is that buying and 
 selling slaves is a part of the system of slavery as it 
 exists in this country. It happens to be the fact, 
 however, that not a word is said by the apostle upon 
 the 'subject of the traffic in slaves. There are no di- 
 rections given as to how slaves may be bought and 
 sold in a Christian manner. This is one of the 
 things not found in the New Testament, but which 
 would most certainly have been found there* if the 
 traffic had been regarded as a legitimate Christian 
 business. 
 
 What we have in the writings of Paul on the sub- 
 ject of the condition of servitude may well be consid- 
 ered as a reproof to those ultraists who consider slav- 
 ery as sin per se, and who allow no circumstances to 
 be taken into the account as modifications of the legal 
 relations of master and slave, while it gives no sort of 
 sanction to the system of slavery. All we have in 
 the New Testament upon the subject is evidently de- 
 signed to extract the evils from the system and to 
 protect the slave. Under the influence of the salutary
 
 ITS TEIAL AXD ITS TRIUMPH. 155 
 
 teachings of Christ and his apostles the system of 
 servitude gradually lost its malignity, and finally 
 only existed in the Church in name.* 
 
 The acts of the councils of the Church called ecu- 
 menical, for several centuries, on the subject of slav- 
 ery, in nearly every instance were for the special 
 benefit of the slave. No rule of discipline is found 
 in the New Testament, no canon of any general 
 council excommunicating a slaveholder, or requiring 
 unconditional emancipation. One of the most popu- 
 lar American writers against slavery says that it is 
 evklent that the design of Christ and the apostles was 
 to eradicate the evils from the system of slavery, and 
 leave the framework to fall to pieces of itself, f 
 
 I conclude this discourse with objections to the 
 system of slavery. 
 
 The system of human bondage, however modified, 
 is inseparably connected with the slave-trade. 
 
 The domestic slave-trade, although much less offens- 
 ive to humanity than the importation of slaves from 
 Africa, is fraught with innumerable evils. Southern 
 slave-owners, as a general thing, have ever been im- 
 plicated in the traffic. Members of all the Churches 
 have been in the habit of buying and selling " the 
 bodies and the souls of men." Individual instances 
 
 * The reader will find the biblical argument pro and con in Dr. Van 
 Dyke's fast-day sermon, and Prof. Tayler Lewis's reply. See Fast-Day 
 Sermon ; or, The Pulpit and the State of the Country. 
 
 t Key to Uncle Toti.'s Cabin.
 
 156 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 have occurred wliicli may admit of some palliation ; 
 few of these, however, can be justified by the Golden 
 Rule. In general the purchase or sale of slaves is 
 stimulated by mercenary motives. In cases of slave- 
 holding which admit of the most favorable construc- 
 tion, such as possession by inheritance, or holding 
 them in order to keep families together, the inci- 
 dents of the system attach to the slave. "When the 
 owner dies, if his estate is solvent, his slaves are 
 divided among his heirs at law. If he dies in- 
 solvent, his slaves are Bold at auction to the highest 
 bidder, with his other effects, for the benefit of -his 
 creditors. 
 
 The owner may treat his slaves with humanity and 
 Christian kindness ; but every hour he is liable to 
 death, and that event will change the circumstances 
 of his slaves, and may transfer them to cruel masters, 
 and separate husbands and wives and parents and 
 children for life. These consequences necessarily ad- 
 here to the fact of regarding slaves as property. 
 
 Admitting all that may be pleaded in -behalf of hu- 
 mane and Christian masters, and it must be confessed 
 there have always been many of these, the general 
 fact is that in all the slave states men, women, 
 and children have been exposed for sale like cattle 
 in the market. The ancient Tyrians and the old 
 Romans " traded in the bodies and souls of men," 
 irrespective of nationality or caste ; but it has been 
 reserved for professed Christians to reduce an innu-
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 157 
 
 merable class of human beings to mere chattels, and 
 to treat them as merchandise. 
 
 There is a more aggravated view which justice 
 compels us to take of the slave-trade and of its rela- 
 tions to African slavery. The enslavement of the 
 African race originated in stealing the poor Africans 
 from their quiet homes and barbarously transporting 
 them to foreign countries and selling them for slaves. 
 At first the people found along the coast were kid- 
 napped and carried off. After a while, to meet the 
 demands of the market, the nearer tribes were in- 
 duced to make war upon those more remote, take 
 all the prisoners possible, and sell them to the slav- 
 ers. This system occasioned an immense loss of life 
 at the outset. A large per centage of those who 
 were shipped died on the passage from a want of 
 food, water, and air, while the remainder were sold 
 into hopeless bondage. 
 
 That we may have something like an adequate idea 
 of the terrible proportions of the African slave-trade, a 
 few statistics will be in point. Up to 1787 ten millions 
 of the African race had been sacrificed to this Moloch 
 of professedly Christian nations, the slave-trade. 
 "In 1768 the number of slaves taken from their 
 homes amounted to 104,100. In 1786, 100,000. In 
 1807, the last year of the English slave-trade, it was 
 shown by authentic documents, produced by the gov- 
 ernment, that from 1792 upward of 3,500,000 Afri- 
 cans had been torn from their country, and had either
 
 158 OUR COUNTRY : 
 
 miserably perished on the passage, or been sold in 
 the West Indies." * 
 
 I cannot now pursue this subject and give the 
 statistics of the trade in Virginia and other slave 
 states, during the progress of which the value of a 
 slave increased from $25 to $1,500. The foreign 
 slave-trade was prohibited by act of Congress in 
 1789, to take effect in 1808.f 
 
 It is quite enough for one of humane, not to say 
 Christian, feelings to know that the 'enslavement of 
 the African race originated in the nefarious slave- 
 trade, to beget in his soul an abhorrence of the sys- 
 tem of slavery as it has been practiced in the southern 
 states. Those who brought the poor Africans from 
 their peaceful haunts were " man-steal ers," and those 
 who bought them were parties to their enormous 
 guilt. It was the market made for slaves in America 
 that stimulated the trade, and that furnished the oc- 
 casion for all the measures of barbarous cruelty which 
 were incident to the slave-trade. If a man cannot 
 purchase stolen goods, knowing them to be such,' 
 without involving himself in the guilt of the theft, 
 how could the planter purchase negroes stolen from 
 Africa, knowing them to have been stolen and forci- 
 bly brought away from their own country, without 
 partaking of the guilt of man-stealing. 
 
 * The World's Progress: Slave-trade. 
 
 t For a glimpse at the horrors of the slave-trade, see Mr. Wesley's 
 Thoughts on Slavery.
 
 ITS TEIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 159 
 
 The African slave-trade has been proscribed by all 
 civilized nations ; but still- so vital is it to the system 
 of African slavery that, for several years, southern 
 politicians have openly agitated the policy of reviving 
 it in the southern states. Southern editors talked of 
 it as a right, and advocated the idea of demanding of 
 Congress the repeal of the act of -that body proscrib- 
 ing it. The measure would possibly have been pressed 
 but for the experiment of secession, by which the 
 rebel states thought to secure the renewal of the 
 slave-trade with other invaluable blessings. 
 
 Now who can consider the relations which exist 
 between the system of slavery and the slave-trade, 
 both domestic and foreign, without an utter horror 
 of that system ? That slavery originated in the slave- 
 trade none will deny ; and that it is kept in being by 
 the same cause is equally indisputable. The effect 
 of such a cause can but be bad. When I come to 
 the conclusion that it is morally right to desolate a 
 large portion of a continent, to sacrifice the lives 
 of millions of human beings, in order to enslave 
 millions more, I may conclude that African slavery 
 is right. 
 
 The next objection which I bring against the insti- 
 tution of slavery is its cruel injustice to the slave. 
 
 " He finds his fellow guilty of a skin 
 Not colored like his own ; and having power 
 T' enforce the wrong, for such a worthy canso 
 Dooms and devotes him as his lawful prey, 
 And, worse than all, and most to be deplored
 
 160 OUR COUNTEY: 
 
 As Imman nature's broadest,, foulest blot, 
 Chains Mm, and tasks him, and exacts his sweat 
 With stripes, that Mercy with a bleeding heart 
 Weeps, when she sees inflicted on a beast." 
 
 COWPER. 
 
 If it would be injustice to deprive a man of one of 
 his limbs, it would be a greater act of injustice to 
 deprive him of all his limbs, and a greater act of 
 injustice still to take possession of his whole body, 
 but greatest of all to take possession of his mind, of 
 his soul, of his immortality. What has the slave left 
 to himself ? He can think, he can pray ; but he can- 
 not appropriate his thoughts to his own advantage, 
 he cannot pray audibly ; he cannot lift up his voice in 
 prayer without the consent of his master ; he can 
 attend no social gathering for religious purposes 
 without his master's leave, and under the slave laws 
 he is not allowed to meet an assembly of his own 
 class without the presence of some white person ap- 
 pointed or authorized by his owner. The whole life, 
 body, and soul is to be used for the advantage of the 
 master, and is subject to his will or caprice. Can a 
 slave fulfill the conditions of slavery and remain a 
 man ? Does not slavery degrade him from the dig- 
 nity of human nature ? Can it be otherwise than 
 that^he should be imbruted should come as near to 
 the level of a beast of burden as it is possible for a 
 human being to be ? If he is not a mere animal, or a 
 tool, it is owing to the resistance of natural laws or 
 moral forces which are in stern hostility against the
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 161 
 
 necessary tendency of the condition of slavery ; and 
 so no thanks are due to the slave system if there is left 
 in the slave a particle of the intelligence or the mo- 
 rality of manhood. If God's image is not spunged 
 clean from the soul it is not because of any conserva- 
 tive power in slavery itself. 
 
 Now what more need be said to prove that slavery 
 is the greatest crime that can be committed against 
 humanity ? What act of injustice can be imagined 
 so flagrant, so heaven-daring, as making a human 
 being a slave, or holding him in slavery ? Is argument 
 necessary to prove that it is unjust to take from a 
 man or a woman his or her individual liberty, social 
 life, and hopes ; to annihilate the idea of family ; 
 to make marriage an impossibility ; to make man a 
 beast of burden, and woman an instrument of sensual 
 indulgence, and of producing stock for the market. 
 Is argument necessary here? "Would it not be an 
 insult to the intelligence of this age to attempt to 
 prove by formal reasoning that slavery, in all ordi- 
 nary circumstances, is a palpable violation of the rule 
 which requires us to do to others as we would have 
 them do to us ? And this, with a Christian, is the rule 
 of personal justice applicable to every human being. 
 
 I object to the system of human slavery, that its 
 influence upon the slaveholder is " only evil contin- 
 ually." 
 
 Thomas Jefferson, a Virginian and a slaveholder, 
 
 says, " There must be an unhappy influence on the 
 
 11
 
 1C2 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 manners of our people produced by the existence of 
 slavery among us. The whole commerce between 
 master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most 
 boisterous passions, the most UNREMITTING DESPOTISM 
 on the one part and degrading submission on the 
 other. Our children see this, and learn to imitate it. 
 The man must be a prodigy who can retain his man- 
 ners and morals undepraved by such circumstances." 
 Again he says the masters are, by slavery, " trans- 
 formed into despots." 
 
 Col. George Mason, also a Virginian, grandfather 
 of James M. Mason of secession notoriety, says of the 
 slaves, " They produce the most pernicious effect on 
 manners. Every master of slaves is born a petty 
 tyrant." 
 
 These are the sentiments of the southern statesmen 
 of the olden time, delivered in grave debate, without 
 passion ; and who better know than they the influ- 
 ence of slavery upon both master and slave? If there 
 were no other evidence of the demoralizing influence 
 of slavery upon the master, an abundance is furnished 
 in the present rebellion. The most fearful demon- 
 strations of despotism and inhuman cruelty have 
 marked the progress of the rebellion. The officers 
 of the southern army are either slaveholders or are 
 under the dictation of slaveholders. For their aban- 
 doned tyranny and remorseless cruelty, reference 
 only need be had to their hanging hundreds of north- 
 ern men, without judge or jury, upon mere suspicion
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 163 
 
 of abolitionism, both before and since the commence- 
 ment of the present war, the murders at Fort Pil- 
 low, and the treatment of Union prisoners in Libby 
 prison in Richmond, at Andersonville, Georgia, and 
 other places. These specimens of savage cruelty and 
 barbarism truly explain the influence of slavery upon 
 the heart of the master. 
 
 It is scarcely to be supposed that such a war as the 
 war of the rebellion, still in progress, could ever have 
 originated, and been so barbarously conducted, by any 
 except a community of slaveholders. 
 
 The arbitrary rule of the Confederate authorities 
 over the people of the rebellious states ; their merciless 
 conscription of all able-bodied men between sixteen 
 and fifty-five; their denial of state rights to the states, 
 a principle fundamental in southern policy ; repudia- 
 ting their securities ; paying no respect to private 
 property ; neglecting to pay their soldiers, and rob- 
 bing and starving the masses to feed and sustain the 
 army, and committing innumerable other acts of mis- 
 government, all of which would disgrace the most 
 heartless despotism the world ever saw, is further in 
 evidence of the demoralizing influence of slavery 
 upon the hearts and the social character of slave- 
 holders. 
 
 I object to slavery that it is antirepublican. 
 
 If a republican form of government is best calcula- 
 ted to promote the greatest good of the greatest num- 
 ber, whatever conflicts with it is opposed to the
 
 164 OUE COUNTRY: 
 
 general welfare, and ought to be opposed by all good 
 citizens. Slavery is the assertion of the one-man 
 power, and the maintenance of irresponsible author- 
 ity. It admits no check or control of other persons 
 or parties in the exercise of authority over the slave, 
 or the disposition to be made of him. The slave can 
 have no will ; his law is the will of his master. The 
 master, from his very childhood, is a " petty tyrant," 
 as say Col. Mason and Mr. Jeiferson ; and how is he 
 ever to become reconciled to a distribution of power 
 as in a popular government ? The participation of 
 the masses in the affairs of government in the slave- 
 holding states has always been merely nominal, while 
 in small influential quarters there has always been 
 a hankering for monarchical institutions. The facts 
 accord with the philosophy of the spirit of slavehold- 
 ing, and both show that it is at war with free institu- 
 tions. 
 
 I object to slavery that it is at war with the spirit 
 of the age. 
 
 The spirit of the nineteenth century is not merely 
 the spirit of progress, it is the spirit of amelioration. 
 The march of Christian civilization, of liberal princi- 
 ples, and of freedom, keeps pace with the progress of 
 discovery and improvements in the arts. As discov- 
 eries in the sciences lighten the burdens of labor, so 
 advancement in the philosophy of government and of 
 social life places arbitrary power at a discount. 
 
 The doom of human slavery is sealed by the decis-
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 165 
 
 ion of the civilized world. It dies hard. Its strug- 
 gles for existence increase in desperation as it 
 approaches the period of its demise. The great 
 American rebellion is one of its death spasms. In 
 the struggle it shows great tenacity of life, and its 
 friends and supporters clearly indicate the depth of 
 their unnatural love for the great abomination by 
 their willingness to sacrifice the nation's honor, if not 
 her very existence, in its support. Slavery is with 
 them so precious a thing that the unity, the peace, 
 the treasure, and the most precious blood of a great 
 nation are not too much to be put into the balance 
 against negro slavery. The fanaticism of the south- 
 ern fire-eaters is to be charged to the spirit of slavery, 
 a spirit which struggles to stop the progress of socie- 
 ty and to bring the world to a dead stand-still. 
 "While society is ascending slavery is descending. 
 While the world is improving slavery is waxing 
 worse. While humanitarian institutions are multi- 
 plying and accumulating power for good, and shed- 
 ding light upon the dark places of the earth, slavery 
 is blasting every green thing with its noxious vapors, 
 and laboring to its utmost to shut out the light of 
 heaven from millions of God's poor children. 
 
 Thanks be to God! the power of the institution is 
 broken, the day of deliverance has come. The proc- 
 lamation of President Lincoln, which proclaimed 
 freedom to all the slaves within the rebellious states, 
 ushered in a grand jubilee. One half of the four
 
 166 OUR COUNTRY : 
 
 millions of African slaves in the United States by 
 that beneficent measure are now restored to the dig- 
 nity of manhood. The remaining two millions,-, with. 
 God's blessing upon the Union arms, will soon shake 
 off their shackles and walk abroad upon the face of 
 God's earth in the happy consciousness that, under 
 God, they own themselves. The free Republic of 
 America has been groaning under the burden of 
 slavery since she began to be, and, although she was 
 the first of the civilized nations which abolished the 
 infamous slave-trade, slavery itself has been so deep- 
 ly rooted in some of the states of the Union that she 
 has been long in abating the nuisance, and finally it 
 seems likely to die in the convulsions of a great slave- 
 holders' rebellion. 
 
 Last, but not least, I object to slavery that it is op- 
 posed to the spirit of Christianity. 
 
 The great law of love, of doing to others as we 
 would have them do to us, can only be reconciled to. 
 exceptional instances of slavery, and such cases would 
 never arise if slavery were wholly abolished, and the 
 slave-code annulled. "What slave-owner would wish 
 to change places with his human chattels ? If not, in 
 holding them in servitude does he love them as him- 
 self? Does he do by them as he would be done by ? 
 The condition of dependence and helplessness of the 
 slaves does not change the state of the question, for 
 the incapacity of large numbers of these poor crea- 
 tures for self-support is the crime of slavery instead
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 167 
 
 of its justification. Slavery has kept the colored race 
 in a depressed and degraded condition ; and it is bad 
 logic to argue that, as the slaves are not able to take 
 care of themselves, it is a Christian charity to keep 
 them in slavery, that they may be taken care of by 
 their masters. Nothing is more certain in the history 
 of civilization than that if an enslaved race be invested 
 with liberty, they will very soon take care of them- 
 selves. 
 
 The principles of Christianity settle the ques- 
 tion of the unity and equality of the human race. 
 " God hath made of one blood all nations of men 
 for to dwell on all the face of the earth." In har- 
 mony with this divine truth is the great truth as- 
 serted in the Declaration of Independence, that all 
 men are created free and equal. What right, then, 
 has one man to restrain the liberties of another man 
 of the 'same blood, who has as fair a claim to liberty 
 as himself? Christianity enforces justice and broth- 
 erly kindness, and in no case furnishes an excuse, 
 much less a justification, for exacting the toil "and 
 sweat of a fellow-creature without compensation and 
 without his consent. That the strong should oppress 
 the weak is not tolerated by the spirit and maxims 
 of the Gospel ; and that a man should buy and sell 
 his brother man as he would buy and sell an ox is a 
 thing perfectly abhorrent to all the principles of the 
 New Testament. Slavery, in its spirit and form, is 
 antichristian. It desecrates the image of God, and
 
 168 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 insults heaven. Tlie devil is a slaveholder, and why 
 not leave him alone in his glory ? 
 
 I would not have a slave to till my ground, 
 To carry me, to fan mo while I sleep 
 And tremble when I wake, for all the wealth 
 That Binews bought and sold have ever earned. 
 
 COWPEB.
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 169 
 
 X. 
 
 A COMPROMISE REJECTED. 
 
 NOW IT CAME TO PASS, WHEN SANBALLAT, AND TOBIAH, AND GES11EM 
 
 TUB, ARABIAN, AND THE REST OF OUK ENEMIES, HEARD THAT I HAD 
 
 BUILDED THE WALL, AND THAT THERE WAS NO BREACH LEFT 
 
 THEREIN ; (THOUGH AT THAT TIME I HAD NOT SET UP THE DOORS 
 
 UPON THE GATES;) THAT SANBALLAT AND GESHEM SENT UNTO ME, 
 SAYING, COME, LET US MEET TOGETHER IN SOME ONE OF THE VIL- 
 LAGES IN THE PLAIN OF ONO. BUT THEY THOUGHT TO DO ME MIS- 
 CHIEF. AND I SENT MESSENGERS UNTO THEM, SAYING, I AM DOING 
 A GREAT WORK, SO THAT I CANNOT COME DOWN : WHY SHOULD THE 
 WORK CEASE, WHILST I LEAVE IT, AND COME DOWN TO YOU? YET 
 THEY SENT UNTO ME FOUR TIMES AFTER THIS SORT; AND I ANSWER- 
 ED THEM AFTER THE SAME MANNER. Neh. vi, 1-4. 
 
 NATIONS have their rise and their decline. Some- 
 times they are convulsed and sustain great disasters, 
 from which they recover and run a new race of pros- 
 perity. The holy land had been desolated by the 
 captivity of its people in Babylon for seventy years. 
 Conquering legions had profaned the soil which had 
 been consecrated by miracles, had borne a long line 
 of mighty kings, had been the subject of prophecies, 
 and celebrated in sacred song. Holy memories were 
 connected with every foot of the ground now dese- 
 crated and contemned. A vagabond population 
 roamed over the sacred mountains, while the tombs 
 of the kings and the temple of Gad were in ruins. 
 The period of the captivity had expired and the
 
 170 OUK COUNTRY: 
 
 
 
 time for reconstruction had come. Nehemiah, who 
 was a member of the royal household at Shushan, 
 was commissioned by royal proclamation to conduct 
 a body of captive Jews to the site of the ancient city 
 of Jerusalem, to rebuild the walls and re-establish 
 the old institutions. Nehemiah was the president of 
 the country, and was a man of great executive ability. 
 He had great courage, great prudence, and a pro- 
 found knowledge of human nature ; and last, but not 
 least, he was a man of much prayer and great faith 
 in God. Such a man with such a commission, and 
 such an object, it might have been supposed, would 
 have enjoyed universal favor, and been crowned with 
 uninterrupted success. 
 
 There was a mongrel mass of people scattered 
 through the country that had been accustomed to 
 have their own way, and they did not like the puri- 
 tan rule of the new governor. They were Arabians, 
 Ammonites, and Ashdodites. They had leaders, 
 three of whom are named Sanballat, Tobiah, and 
 Geshem. These leaders, and those who were their 
 tools, we shall call secessionists. They were the open 
 enemies of President Nehemiah and his administra- 
 tion, and they armed themselves and came up against 
 him to give him battle. The president armed his 
 men, however, and offered up prayer, for he believed 
 both in fighting and in prayer. 
 
 The secessionists"*finding it impossible to carry the 
 president's works by open assault, had recourse to
 
 ITS TEIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 171 
 
 other expedients. They now affected to treat him 
 and his party with great contempt. They called 
 them feeble Jews, and said that if a fox should go 
 up, he would break down their stone walls. The 
 men were nothing but "greasy mechanics" and 
 " mudsills." They are a pack of fanatics in religion, 
 are unskilled in war, and are mere bunglers in build- 
 ing walls and towers, and one of our chivalry will 
 chase five of them out of the country. Just look at 
 them,. praying and working and fighting. Now, as 
 for ourselves, we don't pray much ; we curse and 
 swear and never work, but we fight ; we are brave 
 warriors, and we will give them the steel, a little 
 taste of which will be quite sufficient to make them 
 flee. 
 
 All these measures failing, the secession leaders 
 then had recourse to another expedient. They now 
 invite an armistice. They propose to President N"e- 
 hemiah a friendly meeting " in some one of the vil- 
 lages in the plain of Ono." Lay down your weapons, 
 say they, stop your work, and meet us on neutral 
 ground, and let us see if our differences cannot be 
 compromised. Come on now, we are brethren, why 
 inclose your sacred city by a strong wall ? "Why 
 treat us as sinners above all other men ? Why con- 
 tinue this " fratricidal war ?" President Nehemiah 
 said to himself, " they think to do ine mischief," and 
 he gave them that noble answeF which has been the 
 admiration of all succeeding ages. " I am doing a
 
 172 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 great work, so that I cannot come down : why should 
 the work cease while I leave it and come down to 
 you?" They were not satisfied until they had "sent 
 four times after this sort," while the president " an- 
 swered them after the same manner." A most ob- 
 stinate man was President Neheiniah, and quite 
 stereotyped in his phraseology withal. 
 
 So ended the question of a compromise. The 
 proposition was exceedingly plausible, and "the 
 answer was no doubt talked of by the secessionists 
 and their sympathizers as captious and belligerent. 
 The old president was considered pertinacious and 
 uncharitable. The question of the armistice was set- 
 tled, but the untiring secessionists were not content 
 to leave the president to go on with his work of 
 reconstruction. 
 
 The next measure was to accuse the president with 
 a design to set up a kingdom of his own and to rebel 
 against the legitimate government. Lies are the 
 usual resort of interested politicians. This was a 
 most insulting falsehood and slander, but was of a 
 piece with all the other proceedings. 
 
 The last effort was to send an emissary to intimi- 
 date him, who advised him to shut himself up in the 
 temple, and thus to save his life at the expense of his 
 honor. His answer was : " Should such a man as I 
 flee ? And who is there, that, being as I am, would 
 go into the temple to save his life ? I will not go 
 in." The president found that the messenger was a
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 173 
 
 
 
 hired spy, employed by the secession leaders to 
 frighten him out of his propriety, and thus destroy 
 his influence. 
 
 Nehemiah was a man of a thousand. Neither 
 force nor fraud, threats nor flattery, could jostle him 
 a hair's breadth. "With him duty was imperative ; 
 he could sacrifice his safety and his life, but he could 
 not violate his conscience. The secession conspira- 
 tors failed at every point, and were obliged to confess 
 themselves totally vanquished. 
 
 In spite of the policy and power of the opposition, 
 the work of reconstruction proceeded, and the old 
 institutions were reared up ; the old patriotism was 
 revived, and prosperity gradually returned. 
 
 AYe have seen the main points of a most extraor- 
 dinary case, one which is exceedingly suggestive, and 
 which we shall now proceed to apply to our national 
 aifairs. 
 
 A portion of the country has been desolated by the 
 ravages of war, not waged by a foreign foe, but by a 
 portion of the people against the legitimate govern- 
 ment a rebellion instituted and carried on for am- 
 bitious ends, and without the least provocation. The 
 simple point to which I invite attention now is that 
 whole states have been overrun and ravaged by war. 
 Agriculture and commerce have been destroyed, 
 populous towns and cities desolated, and fertile fields 
 rendered utterly barren. 
 
 The legitimate government has been engaged for 

 
 OUK COUNTRY : 
 
 more than three years in the arduous work of restor- 
 ing the majesty of the laws, the civil institutions of 
 the country, and the peace and good order of society. 
 As the rebellion, which is armed and aggressive, has 
 been the source of all this evil, it was to be put down 
 by force before order could be restored, or the shattered 
 institutions of the rebellious states could be repaired and 
 re-established. The first measure of the government 
 was to reclaim the rebellious states. The rebellion 
 had assumed the form and character of a great mili- 
 tary despotism, and standing in the way of the benef- 
 icent objects of the government, it must first be put 
 down. The war is a war for civilization, for law and 
 order, for constitutional liberty, for the defense and 
 preservation of the nation's life. 
 
 The rebels have done all they could to isolate 
 themselves from the nation's heart, and to assume 
 the attitude of foreigners and enemies. They ignore 
 their national relations, and turn their back upon the 
 old flag. They become the Arabians, the Ammon- 
 ites, and Ashdodites, waging every sort of war 
 against good old Nehemiah, who is hard at work, 
 day and night, at the broken walls of the glorious 
 old union. 
 
 Their leaders are cunning men, and as wicked as 
 they are cunning. Sanballat of Richmond, Tdbiah 
 of New York, and Geshem of Ohio have enrolled and 
 armed their forces, and by open assaults, flank move- 
 ments, and profound strategy have sought to defeat
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. - 175 
 
 the good work of restoration. " Cursed be their an- 
 ger, for it was fierce, and their wrath, for it was cruel." 
 These three are great leaders, and their effort is to 
 make all the Arabians, Ammonites, and Ashdodites 
 affect to believe that the wall can never be rebuilt, 
 and that it will be much better to leave it as it is, 
 then their hordes can overrun the sacred soil without 
 hinderance. Every people, they say, have a right to 
 be independent, and to govern themselves. The 
 government of the old puritanic hypocrite who fasts 
 and prays so much is a downright usurpation, and, 
 to the chivalry, it is insufferable. We want Saribal- 
 lat for our king ; we do not believe in a government 
 by majorities, a thing which our great man of Rich- 
 mond says is an impossibility, and never existed in 
 fact. And who knows better how the people have 
 been fooled into the idea of self-government than the 
 great political magician who now leads at his pleas- 
 ure eight millions of people ; who binds them in 
 chains of adamant, and then has the impudence to 
 tell them that they are free ? Ah, Sanballat has long 
 known how to manage the Ashdodites of the South, 
 and the Ammonites and the Arabs of the North. 
 He used to talk of the sacredness of the ballot-box 
 and the government by constitutional majorities with 
 the eloquence of Mercurius, but now that he has got 
 the people of his sublime kingdom under his feet, he 
 tells them plainly that they never were anybody, and 
 the boasted theory of government by majorities is a
 
 176 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 farce. But those Ashdodites especially are a. most 
 glib set of talkers and deceivers. 
 
 The enemies of reform and reconstruction, like the 
 enemies of Nehemiah of old, resort to taunts and 
 gibes. This is an abolition and a black republican 
 war, a nigger war, brought on by a pack of fanatics. 
 The Yankees of the North have arrayed themselves 
 against the chivalry of the South. " What will these 
 feeble Yankees do ?" "Will they make an end in a 
 day ? Do they think to conquer the South with their 
 mercenary hordes ? And will they do this at a single 
 blow ? They are an ignoble race, wholly unable to 
 cope with the chivalry of the South. There is no 
 nobility in northern blood ; the men are " greasy 
 mechanics," and the women " factory girls ;" their 
 ruling idea is money-making. If they fight it is be- 
 cause they can make money by it. We Southerners 
 are from the " Latin races." The Yankees are from 
 the ignoble Puritan stock; we hate them, we con- 
 temn them, we will never be united with them in the 
 same government again. Robert Toombs, the very 
 pink of the Southern chivalry, is reported to have 
 said that there were two reasons why the South 
 would never be united again with the North : one 
 was original sin, and the other the landing of the 
 pilgrims on Plymouth Rock. I say nothing of the 
 common sense of this statement, but introduce it 
 only for the purpose of showing that even a great 
 southerner can talk like a fool. There is the bitter-
 
 ITS TKIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 177 
 
 ness of gall in the very nonsense and affected pleas- 
 antries of these " descendants from the Latin races." 
 
 The rebels at the South and their sympathizers at 
 the North laugh at the reverses of our arms, and de- 
 preciate all our successes, as well as grieve over them. 
 A speaker in the Chicago Convention said, " For 
 over three years Lincoln has been calling for men and 
 they have been given. But with all the vast armies 
 placed at his command he has failed, failed, failed, 
 failed ! Such a failure had never been known : such 
 destruction of human life had never been known since 
 the destruction of Sennacherib by the breath of the 
 Almighty." And for this the President is called " a 
 felon," " a monster," is charged with " perjury and 
 larceny," and the army is called " his slaughter-pen." 
 From sneers and gibes these Ammonites and Arabs 
 proceed to vile abuse, and from overstrained state- 
 ments to the most unblushing falsehoods. Hear them 
 shout when our army meets with reverses. " Aha," 
 they say, " so would we have it." And when our 
 brave men drive the enemy before them and scatter 
 them " like the chaff of the summer threshing floor," 
 they shake the head and curl the lip and express 
 grave doubts. 
 
 Now if what some of these enemies to the govern- 
 ment say be true, who is responsible ? If the govern- 
 ment had failed to put down the rebellion so signally 
 as the famous Chicago orator asserts, should it not 
 
 have the advantage of the extenuating circumstances 
 
 12
 
 178 OUR COUNTRY : 
 
 that a powerful party of sympathizers with the South 
 have done what they could to bring about this very 
 failure ? In Congress they voted against supplies in 
 men and money ; and the Supreme Court of Pennsyl- 
 vania issued an injunction to prevent the draft in the 
 state, and so far as the example would go to prevent 
 it also in other states, and thus to cripple the army. 
 But for this party of sympathizers at the North one 
 half of the blood which was spilled might have been 
 spared, and we might long since have had an honor- 
 able peace. A beautiful specimen of consistency this 
 for the men who have done their utmost to protract 
 the war by weakening the hands of the government, 
 to talk about the war's being a failure, and to groan 
 over the blood that has been shed. 
 
 Then they endeavor to draw the government into 
 an armistice, with the view to offer terms of peace 
 to the rebels. 
 
 In their efforts for an armistice the Ashdodites. the 
 Ammonites, and the Arabs are confederate parties ; 
 not " confederate states," but confederate clans. Old 
 Sanballat of Richmond keeps behind the screen. 
 
 He says that " amnesty applies to criminals, but we 
 have committed no crime." 
 
 What he proposes to demand is that the federal 
 government should withdraw its armies from the in- 
 surgent states, and then he will condescend to treat 
 with it on equal terms. There is no doubt, however, 
 but that Tobiah of the city of Gotham, and GcsJcem
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 179 
 
 of the Buckeye state, are under the instructions of 
 the wily Sanballat, and that he would rejoice greatly 
 if they could secure an armistice. Witness the Ni- 
 agara peace measures. The President was invited to 
 an interview in the plain of Ono. Ono ? he demanded, 
 and answered O no ! I wont ! albeit I will listen to 
 and respectfully consider anything coming to me 
 from the Confederate government, premising that no 
 offer of peace that will save slavery will be accepted. 
 " Insulting !" answered the sham legate from the 
 South, and the Niagara peace negotiations ended. 
 Still there is much talk among the Ammonites and 
 Arabs of an armistice, and peace on the ground of 
 mutual concessions. Come down " to one of the 
 villages in the plain of Ono." O no, answered the 
 pertinacious old Nehemiah. "I am doing a great 
 work so that I cannot come down ; why should the 
 work cease while I leave it and come down to you ?" 
 The great work in which the government is en- 
 gaged is that of subduing the rebellion and of restor- 
 ing government, and of establishing law and order in 
 the southern states. The grand difficulty in leaving 
 this work for an hour is that the reason for leaving it 
 at all would be a reason for abandoning it finally. 
 An armistice to rebels in arms'? "What for? To re- 
 ceive their submission ? The dogr to this has never 
 been closed. No armistice is necessary to secure this 
 end. Is it then to treat with them that the armistice 
 is urged ? What would this be but to give up all that
 
 180 OUR COUNTRY : 
 
 we are contending for, and granting all that the reb- 
 els claim ? The very idea of an armistice implies one 
 of two things : either that the rebels have rights, as 
 such, to be considered and accorded, or that the gov- 
 ernment is unable to conquer them, neither of which 
 can be concede'd without utter ruin. The Ammon- 
 ites and Arabs, in a grand council recently held at 
 Chicago, maintained both of these propositions, and 
 upon them built their peace platform. 
 
 In the Chicago Convention Captain Bynders said 
 " he had heard one of the speakers state that the peo- 
 ple of the South were traitors, which were very harsh 
 words, as the people of the South were as brave and 
 chivalrous a people as ever were put on the earth." 
 Judge Alexander said, " "We had tried the bayonet and 
 had failed." So according to Captain Bynders and 
 Judge Alexander the South have done no wrong, and 
 we are unable to subdue them,' and therefore we 
 ought to have an armistice, and form a treaty of 
 peace with them. In furtherance of this end the 
 convention nominated a war candidate for president. 
 And he acted upon the principle asserted by old sen- 
 ator Benton, that " platforms, like ipecac, are made 
 to be swallowed and then thrown up again." He 
 swallowed the whole, then threw up a part of it ; but 
 it seems probable wiU be, nevertheless subservient, 
 so that all the Ammonites and Arabs will give him a 
 united vote. In the mean time old Nehemiah will go 
 on with his work until his commission runs out,
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 181 
 
 when it is hoped by many of the good people who 
 are in love with the institutions of the country that 
 he may be commissioned again. 
 
 Since this wicked and barbarous war was com- 
 menced by the bombardment of Fort Sumter, there 
 has never been a time in which an armistice on the 
 part of the government would not have been both 
 foolish and false to the interests of the country ; but 
 the impolicy, cowardice, and wickedness of the thing 
 are more glaring now than ever. In what appears to 
 be the end of the final struggle, when victory perches 
 upon our banners at every great point of the conflict, 
 is it a time to talk of an armistice and peace with the 
 rebels? Sherman has just ended a most glorious 
 campaign, is in the possession of Atlanta, " the gate 
 of the South." Farragut has possession of the forts 
 which defend Mobile, and Sheridan has driven Early 
 out of the Shenandoah. "When Lee's army before 
 Richmond receives the shock of a general battle, 
 there will be but little more to be done in order to 
 conquer a permanent peace. 
 
 The alacrity with which men have volunteered to 
 augment the army since the last call was made is an 
 evidence of the disposition of the people to fight the 
 rebellion down. The rebel sympathizers have been 
 accustomed for the last few months to tell us that 
 enlistments were played out, and that the people 
 would not endure another draft. The statement is 
 falsified by facts. The army never was reinforced
 
 182 OUK COUNTRY: 
 
 with greater facility and never with better men than 
 at the present time. Our army is more numerous 
 and more efficient to-day than it has ever been since 
 the commencement of the rebellion. The people 
 say that this slaveholders' rebellion shall be put 
 clown, and if it is not put down it is evident enough 
 that the failure must be attributed to the weakness 
 of the government, and not to the want of patriotism 
 in the people. 
 
 The supporters of the peace platform are quite 
 zealous for the interests of religion, and become the 
 admonitors of the clergy. They put on pious airs 
 and tell us that our holy religion is a religion of 
 peace, and hence all true Christians ought to use 
 their influence in favor of " an armistice," and 
 "peace on any terms." A ruffian assails you in a 
 dark alley and points a dirk at your breast; you 
 parry the weapon and raise your cane to level him 
 to the ground, but he interposes : " Hold, my friend, 
 are you not a Christian ? Has not the Saviour told 
 you not to resist evil ? The religion of the Saviour 
 is a religion of peace." "All right," answers the 
 assailed party ; " in my haste I parried your blow ; I 
 should have allowed you to pierce my breast and 
 then have turned around and invited you to bury 
 the deadly steel in my back also." This is a spec- 
 imen of the peace theology. Let it be recollected 
 that the same great teacher who said " resist not 
 evil," said upon another occasion, " He that hath no
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 183 
 
 sword let him sell his garment and buy one," hereby 
 teaching us that there w are occasions upon which it 
 is lawful to take the sword. And if there ever was 
 such an occasion the present wicked rebellion fur- 
 nishes one. 
 
 Christian ministers are severely censured by the 
 peace men for their encouragement of the war to put 
 down the rebellion. They are told that ministers of 
 the Gospel should be men of peace. True, but some 
 of us think that the only. way to have an honorable 
 and a Christian peace is to put down the rebellion. 
 
 The last day of thanksgiving was noticed by the 
 Mayor of the city of New York, who took occasion 
 in advance to admonish the clergy of tfye city to 
 preach on that occasion in favor of peace, and to 
 pray for peace, and thus to keep within the terms of 
 their holy commission. I suppose the clergy pro- 
 ceeded upon the presumption that they understood 
 their own business as well as Mayor Gunther did. 
 Thank God the pulpit is yet free ! Some suppose 
 that a minister has no business to say one word in 
 favor of the government. St. Paul did not think 
 so. To enforce obedience to the civil authorities is 
 a part of the duty of the pulpit, whatever party pol- 
 iticians may say. They may try to badger the clergy 
 into their notions of an unconditional peace, but 
 they will lose their labor. 
 
 We have had an abundance of cant from poli- 
 ticians of a certain stamp upon " political preaching,"
 
 184 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 and "the clergy entering the arena of politics." 
 There doubtless is a line of propriety which governs 
 this subject which a clergyman should not cross, yet 
 there are multitudes of so-called peace men who do 
 not discern where this line is. A certain preacher 
 not long since in a sermon quoted the words of St. 
 Paul, in the 13th of Romans, " Let every soul be sub- 
 ject to the higher powers," etc., when, before he had 
 made a remark, one of our sensitive souls took him- 
 self away with -evident indignation at hearing politics 
 introduced into the pulpit. With him the language 
 of St. Paul was downright abolitionism. Another 
 illustration will show how little of conscience there 
 is in this carping about " clerical politicians." A 
 noted politician was accustomed to say from the 
 stand, "Let the clergy attend to their own peculiar 
 functions, and leave politics to laymen." But in 
 process of time he wanted the help of a Roman Cath- 
 olic priest in a canvass, and he invited the good 
 father upon the stand to make a speech. The speech 
 was made and he cheered the father lustily. This 
 was proof positive that it was not the fact of clergy- 
 men's entering the political arena that so horrified the 
 gentleman, but the fact that they are not on his side. 
 I find that clergymen who stand upon the peace plat- 
 form are very acceptable to our peace politicians ; 
 but, thank Providence, there are not many of them. 
 Let us have peace, but let us have it on principlea 
 which will give it unfailing stability.
 
 ITS TEIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 185 
 
 A part of the plot against President Eehemiah 
 was to accuse, him of a treasonable design to make 
 himself a king. The same slander is often heard 
 from the lips of the Ammonites and Arabs of 
 our times against our modern JSTehemiah. It has 
 often been said that President Lincoln intends to 
 establish a despotism in the country ay, that he 
 had already set up a despotism. In the Chicago 
 Convention it was said, " They talk of a rebellion in 
 the South ; but a greater rebellion has been in prog- 
 ress in the North." The same charge of subverting 
 constitutional liberty is brought against the adminis- 
 tration in the debates of the aforesaid convention in 
 a variety of forms. 
 
 It is assumed in the platform adopted by that con- 
 vention, that the President is likely to interfere with 
 the freedom of the elections through the military 
 force. To all these shameful slanders the President 
 may answer as did Nehemiah of old : " There are no 
 such things done as thou sayest, but thou feignest 
 them out of thine own heart." It is astounding to 
 see how far prejudice and party zeal will go. For 
 party ends the most improbable things, and even im- 
 possibilities, are asserted as facts, with an appearance 
 of sincerity by persons Vho on other subjects are gov- 
 erned by the ordinary principles of common justice 
 and common sense. 
 
 Finally, some have endeavored to frighten good 
 old Kehemiah by threats of personal violence. They
 
 186 OUR COUNTRY : 
 
 say to him, " Eemember the ides of March." " First 
 ballots, and if they do not answer, .then bullets." 
 " You had better abdicate your seat, or it will be 
 pulled out from under you." To all this he answers, 
 "Shall such a man as I flee?" No, Nehemiah, not 
 yet. It will be time enough for you to leave the 
 work of restoring the Union when the people so de- 
 cide by their votes. Resting on the strong arm of the 
 true-hearted people, and the protection of the strong- 
 er arm of God, you may defy the malicious acts of 
 all traitors and rebels.
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 187 
 
 XL 
 
 NO NEUTRALITY. 
 
 CURSE YE MEROZ, SAID THE ANGEL OF THE LORD, CURSE YE BITTERLY 
 THE INHABITANTS THEREOF ; BECAUSE THEY CAME NOT TO THE HELP 
 OF THE LORD, TO THE HELP OF THE LORD AGAINST THE MIGHTY. 
 Judges v, 23. 
 
 THE history of the Judges marks a peculiar period. 
 Three great leaders had preceded this period, and 
 the government had been uniform. -After these suc- 
 ceeded the Judges, who administered the govern- 
 ment, some for brief and others for longer periods. 
 They were generally called in an extraordinary man- 
 ner, and constituted no part of a line of succession, 
 according to the law of pedigree. 
 
 One of these Judges was a woman, a prophetess. 
 During the administration of Deborah, the children 
 of Israel were sorely oppressed by Jabin king of 
 Canaan. Twenty years of sore servitude under a 
 mighty tyrant had ground down the people, and well 
 nigh broken their spirit. Still they had confidence 
 in the prophetess, and some faith in God. Jabin 
 had nine hundred chariots of iron, and an innumera- 
 ble host of warriors ; but being summoned to the 
 field in the name of God, ten thousand of the chil- 
 dren of Naphtali and Zebulon followed Deborah and 
 Barak. The battle was joined, and the Canaanites
 
 188 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 were scattered like the chaff before the wind, and 
 the whole host was cut off, so that there was not a 
 man left. Sisera fled, on foot and alone, to a small 
 piece of neutral territory occupied by Heber the 
 Kenite, and was there slain by Jael with a nail and 
 a hammer. 
 
 Then Deborah composed a song, which is marked 
 by great poetic beauty and power. She celebrates 
 the victory, makes mention of the instrumentality 
 employed, but gives all the glory to God. The text 
 is a part of this song, but somewhat variant from the 
 general strain.. It is an imprecation upon a com- 
 munity who took no part in the battle. 
 
 Meroz was a city or a district which probably lay 
 near the battle-field, and upon the inhabitants of 
 which lay special obligations to take an active part 
 in the struggle for liberty. The people preferred 
 their own ease and safety to the obligations and 
 honors of patriotism and religion, and so stayed at 
 home, while the pious and the brave dared to fight, 
 and were rewarded with the honors of a glorious 
 victory. Meroz was cursed, and went into oblivion. 
 ISTow, no one is so wise as to know even its locality. 
 A terrible lesson this to neutrals in a great moral 
 struggle. 
 
 With these preliminaries I shall proceed to the 
 consideration of the lessons suggested by the history. 
 
 God and Satan, Heaven and Hell, Government 
 and Rebellion, are engaged in a mighty struggle.
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. . 
 
 What should we do in this great conflict ? 
 
 It is our duty to take ground decidedly and pub- 
 licly for our country and the right. 
 
 We are all concerned in the issue of this great 
 battle of principles, and have responsibilities to meet 
 in relation to it, and consequently our adherence 
 should be promptly and publicly given. A man who 
 would do his duty as a Christian or a patriot must 
 not try to do it in secret. Mcodemus came to Christ 
 by night, probably to avoid publicity. An awakened 
 conscience should not court darkness, but seek the 
 day. What is there in the matter of moral responsi- 
 bility to be ashamed of? The question is simply a 
 question of right ; and who should be ashamed to do 
 right? And who should hesitate in a question of 
 plain duty ? It is cowardly, it is weak and mean to 
 skulk when conscience speaks out plainly. In such 
 a case cowardice is criminal, and to be noncommittal 
 is a sin against God. A stand must be made. A 
 public commitment is the first condition of disciple- 
 ship and of citizenship. 
 
 Active service is required of every member of the 
 Church and of the State. 
 
 The world, the flesh, the devil, and the rebels are 
 in active opposition to God and us. They are only 
 to be overcome by prompt and stout resistance. No 
 compromise must be made with these foes; there 
 must be no relaxation in our efforts, no faintness 
 in our spirit, until they are finally put to flight.
 
 190 OUK COUNTRY: 
 
 Religion and patriotism are not the mere absence of 
 overt acts of iniquity and treason ; they constitute a 
 grand controversy, a lifelong fight. Passiveness in 
 this cause is as much out of place as it would be in a 
 soldier amid the roar of battle, or in a sailor during 
 a storm at sea. Action, onward, aggressive action, 
 is the only appropriate course and the true line 
 of duty. All hell is in motion. The devil goes 
 about like a roaring lion, hunting the souls of 
 men, and shall we sleep ? The enemy is upon us, 
 and shall not we arise and shake ourselves? The 
 foe thunders from afar, and shall not we shout for 
 the battle ? 
 
 We should hazard all upon the stake. Too much 
 cannot be sacrificed for the prize which is in contro- 
 versy ; too much cannot be done in the service which 
 is required. All our powers should be brought into 
 this work. 
 
 All we have and are should be laid upon the altar. 
 The man who found the pearl of great price went 
 and sold all that he had and bought it, and was in- 
 finitely the gainer by the transaction. The duty in 
 question is paramount, and nothing is too much to 
 give or to do in such a cause. Time, property, ease, 
 life itself, should be considered worthless in the com- 
 parison. Paul says, " I count all things but loss for 
 the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my 
 Lord: 1 ' ""What shall it profit a man .if he gain the 
 whole world and lose his own soul ?"
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 191 
 
 I shall next proceed to show the criminality of 
 inaction. 
 
 It is the cause of God which requires active sup- 
 port. 
 
 It is " to the help of the Lord " that we are requir- 
 ed to come. Not as though God were a weak party 
 who requires aid to save him from superior strength, 
 but he works by instrumentalities, and the instru- 
 ments being a part of his plan are essential to its 
 completeness, and their absence would be at least a 
 defect, and might prove the cause of failure. God 
 could carry on his work without the intervention of 
 means, and could save it from failure by a miracle. 
 But we have no right to look for any miraculous or 
 extraordinary intervention in a case in which human 
 agency constitutes one of the conditions of success. 
 
 God invites, yea, demands our help, and he has a 
 right to command; nor could he confer a greater 
 favor upon us than to embrace our agency in his 
 plans of working. What contempt of his condescen- 
 sion and wisdom, what disobedience to his commands 
 is inaction, or refusing to take the post assigned us 
 in the great pending battle ? The Church is God's 
 militant host, his great fighting army. He demands 
 that all enlist, and that all range themselves on his 
 side ; that all join in the battle and fight, fight val- 
 iantly, fight to the death under his banner. 
 
 The dearest interests are involved in the pending 
 struggle.
 
 192 OUE COUNTRY: 
 
 Human interests are so united that we are in a 
 measure made responsible for tlie well-being of 
 others. No human being can be lost without involv- 
 ing others in fearful guilt. Cain repudiated his 
 obligation to seek the welfare of his brother when he 
 demanded, " Am I my brother's keeper ?" The 
 principle involved in this question is essentially anti- 
 social; a denial of the relations and mutual obliga- 
 tions of man to man. In opposition to this principle 
 of selfish individuality, this presumption of isolation 
 from the interests of the world around us, it is true 
 that, by an unchangeable law, we are under obliga- 
 tions to all other men precisely in proportion to our 
 power to serve their interests. When we are able to 
 do anything for the benefit of a fellow-being we are 
 responsible to God and to society for doing that 
 thing, and are involved in criminality to the extent 
 of its importance to the interests of the individual 
 and the world, if we, for any cause whatever, neglect 
 or decline doing it. It is no light thing that God 
 has put the dearest interests of others within oui 
 power. If the souls of men and the existence of the 
 country are at stake, it is a fearful hazard ; and if we 
 are made answerable for their salvation, on us rests 
 a tremendous responsibility. 
 
 Thus far in this discussion I have considered both 
 spiritual and secular interests to be in imminent 
 peril ; both assaulted, and both seeking for help. God 
 is interested in both, and we are responsible for the
 
 ITS TEIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 193 
 
 security of both. That the world is not better is, in 
 part at least, our fault. Its errors, vices, and ruin 
 may be laid at our door. What countless interests 
 are at stake in the moral world, and calling us to the 
 rescue ! 
 
 What shall be said of the condition of the country, 
 and the call upon every citizen for sympathy and 
 prompt action ? What shall be said of him who 
 ignores his obligations and does nothing? What 
 more pitiable instance of selfishness and cowardice 
 can be imagined than one who enjoys the protection 
 of the state, and yet takes neutral ground while great 
 principles and interests are at stake, as in the present 
 struggle? Constitutional liberty is threatened; the 
 commerce of the world is in peril ; vast armies are 
 reaping the fields of death ; the wail of widows and 
 the cry of orphans, like the noise of the restless sea, 
 are wafted upon every breeze, and the sound is wax- 
 ing louder and louder. Our country's life is in peril ; 
 our country's life is in peril of being smitten out for- 
 ever ! The nation is suffering a fearful agony, and is 
 threatened with a death-spasm. Under emergencies 
 so terrible, who will fold his arms, or ask to be 
 excused from active participation in the responsibili- 
 ties, labors, and sacrifices of the fearful crisis which 
 is upon us ? 
 
 A fearful array of strength is to be met and over- 
 come. 
 
 It was "against the mighty" that the inhabit- 
 13
 
 194 OUK COUNTRY : 
 
 ants of Meroz refused to array themselves. To a 
 coward this might be a reason why he should avoid 
 participation in the contest, but to a true soldier and 
 a patriot it would be an urgent reason for instant 
 and persevering action. The greater the resources 
 of the foe in numbers, skill, arid treasure, the greater 
 the reason why lie should be met with all the strength 
 which can be brought into the field. All should 
 fight, and fight with a will, lest the good cause fail 
 through the weakness of its defenders. 
 
 The world, the flesh, and the devil are combined 
 against the government of God and the kingdom of 
 Christ. Mighty foes these ; a most fearful combina- 
 tion against the hopes and interests of humanity. 
 All the enginery of hell is brought into the field. 
 The* world, with its charms and false showing ; the 
 flesh, with its gratifications ; the devil, with his wiles 
 and fiery darts, are ready for the onset. The battle 
 is begun, the citadel of the soul is to be taken by 
 assault. See the marshaled hosts ; hear the shouting 
 of the captains. The clarion sounds loud and shrill. 
 Now cowards fly, but brave men and true rush into 
 the fray. Their language is, " Shall such men as we 
 flee ?" The hotter the battle the higher mounts their 
 courage ; the greater the hazard, the greater their 
 enthusiasm, and the harder their blows ; the more 
 numerous and powerful the - foe, the more energy and 
 skill and might they bring to the battle. 
 
 When the cause is a good one, the craft and power
 
 ITS TEIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 195 
 
 of the opposition are reasons why no true man should 
 avoid the conflict. When the emergency is press- 
 ing, when all that we value is in danger, when the 
 foe is mighty, then is the hour which reveals the 
 meanness of spirit and the heartless cowardice, or the 
 treachery of those who come not to the help of the 
 Lord. The very state of things which causes them 
 to keep out of sight, that they may be out of danger, 
 will in the final day cover them with infamy and 
 sink them in perdition. What will it then avail the 
 delinquent to say, "It was a terrible foe which I 
 was summoned to meet. I was afraid. I love an 
 easy and quiet life." Ah, the Judge will then 
 say, " Out of thine own mouth will I condemn thee: 
 Was the foe mighty ! So much the greater the de- 
 mand for valiant soldiers. Wast thou afraid ? Go 
 and contend with the devouring flames. Didst thou 
 seek thine ease when God's hosts were arrayed on 
 the battle-field ? Go away and lie down in sorrow. 
 ' Thou earnest not to the help of the Lord, to the 
 help of the Lord against the mighty.' " There is the 
 grand point of their baseness and their criminality. 
 
 Deliberate neutrality is, in some cases, the basest 
 species of treason. It shows a heart of enmity, where 
 there is not courage and manliness enough to take 
 the place of an open foe. Shall such enemies be 
 exempt from the fate of avowed rebels ? Shall they 
 not rather be considered worthy of special marks of 
 disapprobation ? Shall they not be punished both for
 
 196 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 their heartlessness in the cause and their hypocritical 
 professions ,of love for it ? 
 
 In the final judgment, as Christ describes it, those 
 who are cursed and banished are not charged with 
 overt acts of rebellion, but with the want of positive 
 qualities, the fruits of active piety. They may have 
 been willing that the hungry of God's little ones 
 should be fed, and the naked should be clothed ; they 
 may often have said, "Be ye warmed and be ye 
 filled," but this is not enough. They are banished 
 into everlasting fire because they are not found active 
 and faithful in serving God. The absence of open 
 hostility to the cause of God and religion is the vail 
 by which they try to cover a heart so base as to seek 
 the friendship of both parties, so destitute of the love 
 of God as to court the favor of mammon. All such 
 will have their portion with the devil and his angels. 
 
 From what has been presented, it will appear that 
 inaction, in the great question of duty to God and 
 society, is highly criminal. Let us now look at the 
 consequences. 
 
 The punishment which will be inflicted upon those 
 who prove recreant. 
 
 The curse ordered to be pronounced upon Meroz 
 was both judicial and prophetic. It was ordered by 
 " the Angel ;" probably " the Angel of the Cove- 
 nant" is to be understood, the Angel who led the chil- 
 dren of Israel through the wilderness, who appeared
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 197 
 
 to Joshua, who fought for God's people and discom- 
 fited their enemies. 
 
 The curse includes 
 
 Disgrace. 
 
 To be disapproved by God is to be dishonored in 
 the most fearful sense, and without the possibility of 
 escape. The scorn of the multitude can be borne, 
 but the frown of God withers all the laurels of men, 
 and covers them with shame. God says, " They that 
 despise me shall be lightly esteemed." 
 
 There is also the loss of power. 
 
 The wicked lose the power which they once had 
 of winning fame and a name of doing good or great 
 things. The talent is taken . from " the unprofitable 
 servant," who "hid it in .the earth." He may not 
 have injured it : he may say, " There thou hast that 
 is thine." It is all there safely concealed, and it can 
 be promptly returned. But the lord of that servant 
 says, " Take the talent from him." The barren fig- 
 tree cursed by the Saviour was, from that moment, 
 " dried up from the root :" thenceforth it was with- 
 out the power of yielding fruit a fit emblem of a 
 fruitless member of the Church of God, or of an able- 
 bodied man who refuses to face the foe. Buried 
 talents are useless, and will by and by be taken away 
 and given to the faithful and earnest worker, where 
 they will be turned to some account. Sloth and 
 narrowness of mind are in the first instance chosen 
 as privileges and blessings, but in the end they are
 
 198 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 judicial inflictions. " The sluggard will not plow by 
 reason of the cold, therefore shall he beg in harvest 
 and have nothing." He has chosen idleness, he shall 
 therefore be cursed with the eternal blight of all his 
 powers and privileges. He assumed the position of 
 a mere negative, he is therefore condemned to be 
 one ; to be good for nothing, and have nothing, and 
 be nothing. 
 
 The curse implies divine wrath, without mitigation 
 and without end. 
 
 We may gather some intimations of the meaning 
 of the curse in the text from the fact that the place 
 w r here lived the people so fearfully cursed is wholly 
 obliterated from the geography of the world. The 
 last we hear of it is, " Curse ye Meroz, saith the An- 
 gel of the Lord, curse ye bitterly the inhabitants 
 thereof, because they came not to the help of the 
 Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty." 
 The subsequent history of this delinquent people 
 is shrouded in darkness. Who can bless whom 
 the Lord curses? What power can deliver us out 
 of his hands, if he sends down his wrath upon us? 
 The curse of God is a thunderbolt of vengeance, 
 hurled at the transgressor, sinking him in outer dark- 
 ness. That curse is the worm that never dies the 
 fire that never shall be quenched. It is weeping, 
 wailing, and gnashing of teeth. It is remorse, de- 
 spair, and endless night ; starless, moonless night. 
 And what a doom awaits the sinner when ends this
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 199 
 
 gracious day of visitation ! Now he hopes for im- 
 punity; then his hopes will all die. Now he has 
 Christian sympathies ; then he shall be eternally shut 
 out from Christian associations. 
 
 The subject is fruitful of practical suggestions. 
 
 No favor to a good cause is of any value but that 
 which is practical. 
 
 In a great struggle, of what value is passive favor? 
 The people of Meroz might have had many good 
 wishes for the success of Deborah and Barak in the 
 great battle which was to take place ; but of what 
 avail were their good wishes when hard blows alone 
 were to decide the fate of the whole people ? What 
 weight has a community of neutrals in a war for 
 national existence ? They may be numerous, wealthy, 
 and influential, but if they will furnish neither men 
 nor means for the contest, of what value are they to 
 the state ? Ten thousand, or ten hundred thousand 
 such citizens would not be equal to one genuine 
 patriot. 
 
 We ask not for good opinions and fair words, but 
 we want brave hearts, noble daring, deeds which 
 tell, blows which will strike terror into the heart of 
 the enemy, an onward movement which will break 
 their ranks, scatter their hosts, and take their cita- 
 dels. Action, action is what the exigences of the 
 cause require. We ask you not what you secretly 
 think of theSe things, but what you will do ? What 
 ground will you take? What sacrifice will you
 
 200 OUR COUNTRY : 
 
 make ? What danger will you face ? "What estimate 
 do you put upon the cause ? Where action is duty, 
 inaction is sin. What defense would it be for an idle 
 servant to plead that he had not wasted your goods, 
 nor destroyed the products of your field ? Shall an 
 able-bodied citizen, whose services are required in. 
 times of national peril, answer the charge of refusing 
 to obey the call of his country by pleading that he 
 has not given aid and comfort to the enemy, he has 
 not been secretly confederate with the foe? Will 
 that meet the case? Will it be a valid ground of 
 justification against the accusation of delinquency in 
 duty to the government? Fancy a sinner coming up 
 to the judgment-seat and pleading, " Lord, I always 
 wished well to the cause of religion. I never reviled 
 or persecuted thy servants. I was not a murderer 
 nor a thief, nor a profane swearer, nor a Sabbath- 
 breaker, nor a libertine, nor a drunkard. Now what 
 have I done that I should be condemned ?" Would 
 not the answer be, " What have you done that you 
 should go to heaven ? What kind of a steward have 
 you been ? Did you take the office with the under- 
 standing that you were to do nofliing?" Such pleas 
 are often made here, but they will not answer before 
 the bar of God. 
 
 You may be an inoffensive creature, trying to do 
 no harm. This is not all that is required. .If you 
 have none of the positive elements of Christian char- 
 acter it is folly for you to count yourself a Christian.
 
 ITS TEIAL A2STD ITS TRIUMPH. 201 
 
 You neither go into battle nor "abide by the stuff." 
 You neither fight, nor strengthen those who do. 
 You occupy the place of a mere sponge : absorb all 
 and give out nothing. If you could be saved in this 
 way the credit would all redound to others. Do 
 you desire to be saved thus? Would you have the 
 Church do all for you, and you do nothing for her? 
 O shame! where is thy blush? You are a sinner, 
 and a great sinner, and God will so write you down 
 in the day of judgment. The unprofitable servant 
 will be cast into outer darkness. 
 
 These times eminently call for the spirit of ag- 
 gression. 
 
 The enemy is upon us, and there is no safety but 
 in a forward movement and a decisive victory. 
 There is no such thing as standing still. The tide 
 of iniquity is every day gathering force ; inaction is 
 certain destruction. National sins, individual sins, 
 sins in high places and in low, call aloud for instant 
 and continued action, energetic, aggressive action. 
 "We are to conquer or be conquered ; to fight bravely 
 and win a glorious victory, or be ingloriously de- 
 feated and driven from the field. O for a simulta- 
 neous movement upon the foe ! O for the aggressive 
 spirit of primitive times ! May God give the victory ! 
 
 The impossibility of neutrality -is as evident in civil 
 as in religious affairs. 
 
 The nation is engaged in a great war ; a war of de- 
 fense against a gigantic rebellion. There are but two
 
 202 OUR COUNTRY : 
 
 sides to the question at issue. The unity and the 
 very existence of the nation are on one side, and its 
 dismemberment and ruin on the other. There is no 
 middle ground. Kentucky made an effort at neutral- 
 ity, but finally gave it up as impracticable. Many 
 men at the North have tried to be on both sides, or on 
 neither, but have failed. In all cases they have been 
 found on the side of the rebellion. As Christ says, 
 " He that is not for me is against me," so it is, he that 
 is not for the government and the nation is against it. 
 Neutrality is treason as truly in relation to our na- 
 tional interests as in religion. 
 
 Let those then who refuse to give active support to 
 the government in this terrible crisis expect the curse 
 which fell on Meroz of old. For if the cause of Deb- 
 orah and Barak was the cause of God and truth, such 
 also is the cause of the American Union.
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 203 
 
 XII. 
 
 NO FALSE PEACE. 
 
 THEY HATE HEALED ALSO THE HURT OP THE DAUGHTER OF MY 
 PEOPLE SLIGHTLY, SAYING, PEACE, PEACE; WHEN THERE IS NO 
 PEACE. Jer. vi, 14. 
 
 THE word peace is understood to be used in the text 
 for concord between parties. In this sense I shall 
 use it. Some parties can never be at peace; it is 
 naturally and morally impossible. The impossibility 
 arises from the antagonism which exists between good 
 and evil, truth and error. Under some circumstances 
 an effort to make peace is to commence a war against 
 God and nature. In cases in which hostility is the 
 natural and moral condition of the parties, peace is 
 neither desirable nor attainable. All efforts to har- 
 monize invincible opposites are worse than foolish ; 
 they are so many assaults upon the laws of nature 
 and the order which God has established. 
 
 This much being premised, I shall proceed to dis- 
 cuss the two opposites, false and true peace. 
 
 False peace. 
 
 This peace is hollow, wholly outward, a mere sem- 
 blance. Where peace is nothing but a cessation of ex- 
 ternal hostilities it implies no radical agreement, and
 
 204 CUE COUNTRY: 
 
 is likely to be interrupted on the slightest occasion. 
 Such a peace is hollow but not empty. Like a bomb- 
 shell, it may be fearfully dangerous. 
 
 At the present time much is said about making 
 peace with the rebels. They desire peace; that is, 
 they wish to be let alone. They want the privilege 
 of casting off their allegiance to the government, of 
 repudiating the Constitution, of robbing the treasury, 
 of taking possession of our forts, ships of war, and 
 navy-yards, and of erecting a government based upon 
 slavery as " its chief corner-stone," and of being let 
 alone in all this. They ask, " Why send your armies, 
 to invade our territory and destroy our property and 
 kill our citizens? Why not grant us the boon of 
 peace ? Leave us in the peaceable possession of our 
 rights; this is all we ask." And there are some 
 among us who pretend to think this reasonable. 
 
 Were there no other objections to this plea for 
 peace, I object to it that no substantial peace can be 
 made with the leaders of rebellion. What basis for 
 confidence is there in men who have broken faith 
 with the government, and repudiated their oaths of 
 office, and plundered the public property ? What but 
 a hollow peace could be made with such a class of 
 men? With a frontier of thousands of miles, and 
 endless jealousies growing out of the peculiar consti- 
 tutions and commercial interests of the two sections, 
 how long would a peace last which should include the 
 recognition of southern independence 2
 
 ITS TEIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 205 
 
 Every vessel entering a southern port would be 
 searched to see if colored persons were on board. 
 Whatever stipulations for the free navigation of the 
 Mississippi might be entered into, that river would 
 not remain free for a twelvemonth. Every boat from 
 the ISTorth on its return would be hailed and brought 
 to a dozen times, to institute a search for contrabands. 
 The constant recurrence of such irritating causes 
 would soon bring on another war. 
 
 The idea that the United States can be divided and 
 constitute two governments, and they maintain ami- 
 cable relations with each other, is altogether Quixotic, 
 and not to be entertained for a moment. 
 
 Equally hollow and shortlived would be any pacifi- 
 cation of the present trouble founded upon a guaran- 
 tee of a continuance and perpetuity of slavery. 
 Slavery has been the great bone of contention from 
 the first. It is bound either to rule or ruin. It will 
 not consent to be stationary. It must be allowed to 
 push itself everywhere, and overshadow everything 
 near. It everywhere makes fight with the progress 
 of liberal opinions, and with the advance of free- 
 dom. He must be blind indeed who supposes that 
 slavery can be restored and protected by constitu- 
 tional provisions, and yet peace be maintained be- 
 tween the supporters of slave and of free labor. The 
 question is settled that human slavery in the United 
 States must die. The people have so decreed. In- 
 deed, already it is so nearly an accomplished fact that
 
 206 CUE COUNTRY : 
 
 it is scarcely a question of debate. Those politicians 
 who say, " Give back to the southern people their 
 slaves, and guarantee to them their constitutional 
 rights, and we will have peace," are a small company 
 and are growing " beautifully less." There is now 
 no light in this direction, if there ever was any. The 
 day for such diplomacy has passed. The southern 
 leaders themselves repudiate the idea of a. return to 
 the old Union upon the basis of constitutional guar- 
 antees for the protection of slavery. They say, 
 " Our independence is what we are fighting for, and 
 we are willing to sacrifice everything else to that ; 
 even slavery itself may go if it should stand in the 
 way." By slavery they mean their present slaves, for 
 if their independence were acknowledged it would 
 not be long before they would be engaged in the 
 slave-trade, and by that means would quickly replen- 
 ish their empty slave-pens. Jefferson Davis and the 
 southern editors may prate as much as they please 
 about giving up slavery : they are slave-drivers at 
 heart. If their slaves were all given up to-day, they 
 would have more to-morrow if they could. 
 
 The wounds of the state cannot be healed by such 
 nostrums as these. 
 
 A false peace is a dangerous peace. 
 
 A true peace is always safe. Any peace short of 
 that which is based upon the submission of the rebels 
 to the government must be fraught with peril. It 
 would hazard our national life, on whatever terms
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 207 
 
 the peace should be concluded. The only terms on 
 which the rebels will consent to end the war is the 
 acknowledgment of their independence. And how 
 can this be done without peril to our own? Two 
 independent nations in the same country, of the 
 same language, the same religion, and the same 
 political creed, are scarcely a possibility. Two na- 
 tions, with such antagonisms as have grown up and 
 been aggravated by civil war, not separated by nat 
 ural barriers, must of necessity be at war with each 
 other. Peace obtained on the condition of recogni- 
 tion would be the peace of a day, with endless hos- 
 tilities beyond. 
 
 More than all this, as we should lose our power 
 and prestige as a nation, we should be insulted and 
 injured by the nations of Europe, and embroiled in 
 wars with them, or obliged to submit to wrongs 
 which we would be unable to avenge. Our safety 
 lies in our power; our power once gone, we should 
 be the sport of tyrants and despots the world over. 
 Even second and third-rate powers would expect to 
 infringe upon our rights with impunity. 
 
 A beautiful way this of securing peace ! Better far 
 would it be for us to continue the war for twenty 
 years, or until our resources of men and money are 
 utterly exhausted. 
 
 "When we seek for peace to avoid the burdens of 
 war, we should always ask ourselves what other dan- 
 ger will this peace bring with it ? It would be of no
 
 208 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 avail to make peace with. Satan in order to escape 
 perdition. 
 
 A false peace is a wicked peace. 
 
 A peace made between contending parties at the 
 expense of principle is sin. Lord Bolingbroke says, 
 "All compromises are immoral." This is too sweep- 
 ing a proposition. We may in some cases compro- 
 mise a personal right ; we may sacrifice something, yea, 
 much, to the public good ; we may compromise any- 
 thing that is immaterial or morally in diiferent ; but we 
 cannot sacrifice humanity or justice or religion for 
 considerations of policy or worldly expediency with- 
 out incurring guilt. Such compromises are indeed 
 immoral. To make peace with the rebels upon any 
 other ground than that of submission to the laws and 
 the restoration of the Union, would be to concede the 
 right of rebellion against lawful authority and just 
 government. It would be not merely impolitic, it 
 would be as wicked as the rebellion itself. 
 
 The wickedness of* such a peace would be aggra- 
 vated by several marked circumstances. In the first 
 place, the government assumed at the breaking out 
 of the rebellion that it was without any just cause, a 
 high crime against Christian civilization and against 
 society, and a sin against God ; that it was destruct- 
 ive of civil government and public morals. On 
 these grounds the administration justified itself 
 before the world for defending itself by force and 
 arms. On these grounds Christian citizens have
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 209 
 
 taken up arms and marched into the field of deadly 
 strife with a good conscience, and ministers and 
 Churches have prayed to the God of armies for the 
 success of our brethren. To make peace with the 
 rebels now, without their submission, is to abandon 
 this high ground, and to confess that the rebels are 
 right and we are wrong. Should peace be declared 
 without the submission of the rebels, only one thing 
 could save the country from the guilt and shame of 
 a wicked abandonment of her high moral position, 
 and that would be the utter hopelessness of the Union 
 cause. Should the federal forces be finally and fa- 
 tally beaten, the claims of humanity might require 
 us to abandon a hopeless struggle, and to recognize 
 the rebels as an independent nationality. In such a 
 case the character of the rebellion would be set aside 
 in the necessities of a revolution. The present is no 
 time for a resort to peace on any such grounds, and for 
 any such reasons. For the last twelve months our 
 arms have scarcely had a disaster worthy of mention. 
 Victory upon victory has followed our brave boys, 
 and now the power of the rebellion is narrowed 
 down to a single point. Under present circum- 
 stances an act of pacification with the rebels could 
 only be construed as a humiliating confession that 
 the national cause is wrong. This would be a na- 
 tional apostasy from the principles of the Constitu- 
 tion and the grace of the revolution. It would be a 
 
 shameful acknowledgment that the great American 
 
 14
 
 210 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 Republic is nn worthy of national existence, because 
 it is too weak and cowardly to maintain it. 
 
 Another aggravation of the base compliance sup- 
 posed would be the necessary and wicked waste of 
 life and treasure which the war has occasioned. If 
 the war is wrong now, it was wrong at first, and 
 should never have been undertaken. If it has been 
 wrong from its inception, then our government, with 
 the approbation of nearly the whole Northern people, 
 has causelessly and wickedly shed rivers of blood, 
 and destroyed millions upon millions of treasure. If 
 the war for the Union is wrong, then upon our souls, 
 who have approved it and aided it, and not on the 
 government alone, lies the blood not only of our 
 slaughtered fellow-citizens who have perished in bat- 
 tle, but the blood of the hundred thousand rebels 
 who have been sacrificed. Such are the logical con- 
 sequences of a settlement of the present war upon 
 any other terms than that of the submission of the 
 rebels to the lawfully constituted authorities of the 
 United States. 
 
 Another aggravation of the sin of a false peace is 
 that it leaves a great emergency but partially met. 
 The war was commenced on the part of the rebels 
 for the perpetuation of slavery. On our part it 
 necessarily became a war for freedom. The procla- 
 mation of the President liberated the slaves of the 
 rebellious states so far as the arms of the United 
 States carried their authority. This was the period ;
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 211 
 
 this was the long-expected hour of release to hund- 
 reds of thousands of slaves. The logic of events 
 proved that the successful prosecution of the war for 
 the Union would be the means of the emancipation 
 of the multitudes still in slavery. These poor crea- 
 tures are now looking for the consummation of their 
 cherished hopes, and the answer to their many pray- 
 ers,. Now just as this great object is upon the point 
 of being gained, at the very moment the residue of 
 enslaved men and women are lifting the cup of lib- 
 erty to their lips, shall it be dashed to the ground ? 
 God forbid. President Lincoln has constantly refused 
 to listen to any terms which did not include the 
 restoration of the Union and freedom for the slaves ; 
 and an abandonment of this position would " break 
 hope to the heart " after giving it to the ear. It 
 would parry and turn away a grand stroke of Provi- 
 dence ; it would partially beat down one of the most 
 glorious achievements of the ages ; it would destroy 
 the faith and blast the hopes which the policy of the 
 government and its past successes have inspired. 
 
 Finally, the nation is suffering from a grievous 
 " hurt " or wound inflicted by the rebellion, and the 
 business of the war is to probe it to the bottom, 
 cleanse it, and prepare it for a radical cure. "Will it 
 not be both foplish and wicked to heal the surface 
 and leave the consuming gangrene, the festering 
 ulcer, to work its way to the vitals of the nation ? 
 To heal the wounds of the state slightly is to
 
 212 OUR COUNTRY : 
 
 vate them, and to become in a measure responsible 
 for the dire results which follow. This superficial 
 healing has its agents and its advocates. There are 
 an abundance of peace-mongers who cry, " Peace, 
 peace." Just now these men are the most trouble- 
 some, if not the most dangerous class of people with 
 whom the government has to contend. Let these 
 empirics stand aside, and leave Gen. Grant and Gen. 
 Sherman to cut the knot with their swords. Doubt- 
 less peace is desirable. We all want peace, but not 
 a false peace. We want no hasty, transient peace 
 which God does not sanction, and which will vanish 
 in smoke. Let us hear no more of this unholy peace. 
 Let not the people be deceived and disappointed by 
 rumors of a sudden cessation of hostilities. Let us 
 look for peace through the success of our armies in 
 the field, and not by compromise. 
 
 The government will not abandon its high ground 
 and yield to the unreasoning clamor of a few polit- 
 ical demagogues through mere weariness of their 
 noise. No peace which compromises with sin can 
 be approved of Heaven. " First pure, then peace- 
 able ;" " the fruit of righteousness is peace ;" are 
 the divine maxims. 
 
 Having discussed the different kinds of false peace, 
 I proceed to a brief notice of true peace. 
 
 True peace is that which " God has spoken " or 
 authorized.
 
 ITS TKIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 213 
 
 The peace which has the divine sanction is that 
 which is conservative of the civil power. 
 
 God has spoken out unmistakably in favor of the 
 maintenance of civil government, and especially of 
 the citizen's duty to sustain it. "Would he then ap- 
 prove of an abandonment of legitimate and just civil 
 constitutions and systems of public law ? Certainly 
 not ; we need no argument to prove this. God never 
 contradicts himself. He has settled the question of 
 the authority and the obligations of law and govern- 
 ment finally and forever. Any peace which removes 
 the stays and defenses of society and the public in- 
 terests cannot meet with the divine approval. When 
 God authorizes peace, it is a solid and lasting peace. 
 
 When a peace is settled between contending par- 
 ties under the divine approval, no public interest is 
 put in jeopardy. 
 
 God is a God of order, and not of confusion. Un- 
 der his "administration social and individual rights 
 are held sacred. His government is just, as well as 
 merciful. He never sanctions a weak leniency which 
 endangers the public safety. There is no authority 
 for setting at large thieves, robbers, and murderers 
 out of sheer clemency. Mercy to the offender in such 
 cases would be cruelty to the unoffending citizen. 
 The same principles obtain in the adjustment of 
 difficulties between contending parties, and in the 
 administration of public law in dealing with state 
 offenders. Fiat justitia, mat ccelum.
 
 214 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 Let it be distinctly understood that the govern- 
 ment is not now called upon to make terms with a 
 nation, nor with a belligerent power, a such a power 
 is understood in the law of nations, but the question 
 is one of peace with rebels. Now, in the name of 
 reason and religion, what terms of peace can be made 
 with rebels upon any other basis than that of submis- 
 sion to law and to the authority of the government ? 
 To give rebels against a just government the boon of 
 reconciliation upon the condition of submission is 
 Christian, is Godlike. To go beyond this, and grant 
 conditions of peace without submission, would be a 
 total abrogation of the dignity of the state. It would 
 be the end of civil authority and of all just govern- 
 ment. God has never " spoken " such a ' ; peace " as 
 this. Politicians may have contrived it, cowards 
 may have spoken it, rebels may have demanded it, 
 but no higher authority has given it sanction. Pa- 
 triots and Christians trample it under their feet. 
 
 A true peace is one which establishes law and gov- 
 ernment, and stamps rebellion with infamy. 
 
 After the fearful struggle which the nation has 
 maintained for nearly four years, after all the precious 
 blood which has been shed in a war with rebellion, 
 are the rebels to be let off scot-free, and have all they 
 presumptuously ask ? Are they to share the fame of 
 revolutionary patriots ? Is the rebellion to be christ- 
 ened a Revolution ? ]STo, the government is about to 
 do no such weak, mean, wicked thing. "With God's
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 215 
 
 help it will crush this unholy rebellion and stamp it 
 with infamy. It will teach ambitious aspirants to irre- 
 sponsible power, and rebels against the most just and 
 beneficent government in the world a lesson which 
 will humble them for life. 
 
 The masses, who are victims rather than responsi- 
 ble agents, should receive clemency, but the origina- 
 tors and leaders of the stupendous crime should be 
 visited with such condign punishment as will be a 
 terror to traitors for all time to come. In justice 
 they should be hung, shot, or banished, under mili- 
 tary law, as soon as they are caught. God has spoken 
 no peace for them, nor has he spoken a peace which 
 would give them the opportunity to repeat their 
 treason. 
 
 [The preceding portion of this discourse was writ- 
 ten before the result of the recent conversation be- 
 tween the President and the Secretary of State, and 
 the so-called peace commissioners of the rebels, in 
 Hampton Roads, was known.* Row the philosophy 
 of this peace movement contained in the preceding 
 thoughts is history, and what sensible, unprejudiced 
 man, under the circumstances, regrets the result ? 
 
 The firmness with which the President adhered to 
 his often-declared principles, granting no peace to 
 rebels without submission to the government as a 
 preliminary condition, meets with the approval of 
 
 * This Conference occurred in February, 1865.
 
 216 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 the country, and adds to his high reputation for un- 
 flinching patriotism. Indeed it is a sublime spectacle 
 to see ABRAHAM LINCOLN, stanch and honest, thus 
 standing resolutely upon the only sure foundation. 
 It seems now to be finally settled that peace, when 
 it comes, will be brought about by successful war. A 
 sad conclusion this, but the only one left to the coun- 
 try. Let prayer be offered up incessantly, that God 
 in his mercy may command the turbulent waves of re- 
 bellion to cease, and that we may soon enjoy an hon- 
 orable, a just, and a lasting peace.]
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 217 
 
 XIII. 
 HARDER BLOWS, AND MORE OF THEM. 
 
 AND HE SMOTE THRICE, AND STAYED. 2 Kings xiii, 18. 
 
 WE are now called to contemplate the conduct of a 
 king in the presence of the aged prophet Elisha. The 
 faithful old servant, who had led a life of singular devo- 
 tion to the interests of religion and of the kingdom 
 of Israel, who had been greatly honored of God with 
 influence over royalty and with miraculous gifts, " was 
 fallen sick of his sickness whereof he died." The king- 
 dom of Israel being greatly harassed by the Syrians, 
 Joash the king visited the holy seer in his sick cham- 
 ber, not only out of respect for him, but to obtain some 
 of the last rays of prophetic light touching the king- 
 dom. The meeting was affecting. The king wept 
 over the prophet, using the same significant language 
 in relation to Elisha that the prophet had used in 
 relation to Elijah when he was taken up to heaven 
 in a chariot of fire: "My father, my father, the 
 chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof;" inti- 
 mating that he was the strength and defense of the 
 state, as well as the great prompter and example of 
 purity and progress to the ancient Church of God. 
 The holy man had been faithful and honored for a
 
 218 OUB COUNTliY : 
 
 long lifetime. His last act was to give lessons to the 
 king, which ought to have prepared him better to 
 meet his high responsibilities. 
 
 The instructions, as was common with the old Jew- 
 ish prophets, were communicated through symbols. 
 The first lesson was given by directing the king to 
 take a bow and arrows, and to shoot from the win- 
 dow eastward, the venerable man putting his hands 
 upon the king's hands. The prophet then indicated 
 the import of the act by the words, " The arrow of 
 the Lord's deliverance, and the arrow of deliverance 
 from Syria;" and then predicted the discomfiture of 
 the Syrians. He then commands the king to take the 
 arrows and " smite upon the ground, and he smote 
 thrice, and stayed. And the man of God was wroth 
 with him, and said, Thou shouldest have smitten five 
 or six times ; then hadst thou smitten Syria till thou 
 hadst consumed it." 
 
 The prophet's object was to test the moral qualities 
 of his royal visitor, and to give such instructions as 
 the occasion might require. 
 
 By the symbolical act which he dictated, he 
 brought out the king's insight into the facts and 
 circumstances by which he was surrounded, the 
 strength and scope of his desires and purposes, and 
 his faith in God. A man's zeal and strength of heart, 
 and his general qualifications for a great movement, 
 will be indicated by the tone of his conduct in gen- 
 eral, and by the smallest preparatory arrangements.
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 219 
 
 His muscular motions, his step, his mien, his eye, his 
 whole bearing show the qualities of the soul he has 
 in him, and lay a foundation for hope or despair in 
 relation to his course of life or any great undertak- 
 ing. The king " smote thrice", and stayed. And the 
 man of God was wroth." 
 
 Why was the prophet displeased? The king 
 showed himself a dull scholar. He should have 
 known that his actions were io indicate his qualifica- 
 tions for the emergencies before him, and his success 
 in the struggle in which he was about to engage. 
 The prophet's explanation of the shooting from the 
 window ought to have taught him so much as this. 
 He should have known that the nerve he exhibited 
 upon the occasion would be a foreshadowing of the 
 character of his future administration and the meas- 
 ure of its success. In the first instance the old 
 prophet summoned up all his remaining strength, and 
 put his hands upon the king's hands and drew up the 
 arrow to the very head, that it might fly far and indi- 
 cate a mighty victory. The prophet's hand was in 
 the matter and the work was well done. When the 
 king was directed to strike upon the ground, without 
 the prophet's interference, if he had been broad 
 awake he would have said to himself, " Now- 1 am to 
 show how my work will be done when the old seer is 
 no more and I am left to act alone. I must now 
 smite many times and with all my might, or it will be 
 evident enough that I shall make a failure." He
 
 220 OUK COUNTRY: 
 
 had not, however, taken in the lesson ; he exhibited 
 lamentable dullness. The manner of his performing 
 the act seemed to say, " What is the use of all this ? 
 The thing is unmeaning. The prophet was once 
 wise, but now he i old and foolish. I will do as 
 directed to satisfy the old man, but it means nothing 
 and will amount to nothing." 
 
 Great dullness and little progress under the best 
 teachers, and with the best opportunities, are enough 
 to kindle the ire of the wise and the good. The 
 slothful and the indolent derive little improvement 
 from all the lessons of wisdom lavished upon them. 
 They " are ever learning and never coming to the 
 knowledge of the truth." 
 
 The king manifested little earnestness of spirit. 
 Coldness, slowness of motion, weakness of purpose, 
 feebleness and indecision, are great defects in a ruler, 
 and are not compatible with great moral breadth and 
 strength in any one. It is an occasion of grief to the 
 wise and good to see a man in an elevated and a 
 responsible position deficient in motive power, mov- 
 ing with hesitation, and devising half-way measures. 
 Such give little promise of success, and are not can- 
 didates for honorable distinction. Be he a civil or 
 military officer, a representative in the legislature or 
 a minister of the Gospel, he will be an occasion of 
 disappointment and mortification to his friends ; but 
 this is not all the evil which will follow. Great pub- 
 lic interests will be put at hazard, and will prob-
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 221 
 
 
 
 ably suffer serious damage. Those who may have 
 an interest in the reputation of the actor, and 
 those who may feel a concern for the interest com- 
 mitted to his hands, will naturally be unpleasantly 
 affected by the failure of the delinquent party. The 
 prophet was angry on both of these accounts. He 
 saw the king was not adequate to his position, and 
 was likely to suffer the disgrace of failure, and then 
 he saw a still more fearful evil in the sufferings which 
 would come upon his people, and the disgrace which 
 the nation would suffer. 
 
 The want of nerve in a public functionary is a 
 great disgrace to him, and often a great public calam- 
 ity. An irresolute, a weak, or a lukewarm officer of 
 the civil government, or of the army, may be an occa- 
 sion of great disaster. 
 
 The want of spirit in any one is a melancholy 
 instance of shortcoming and a certain precursor of 
 defeat. The young aspirant for fame or usefulness 
 bids fair to succeed or fail, according to the earnest- 
 ness or half-heartedness with which he enters upon 
 life's great work. If he makes a bold strike and 
 pushes out his plans with energy he will probably suc- 
 ceed ; but if he is not more than half-resolved and 
 prosecutes his schemes feebly, he is sure to fail. En- 
 ergy, confidence in himself, and decided measures, are 
 indispensable prerequisites to a history that shall be 
 honorable to himself and beneficial to the world. 
 
 What perfect contrasts to the character of King
 
 222 OUR COUNTRY : 
 
 
 
 Joash were Alexander, Oliver Cromwell, Napoleon 
 Bonaparte, George "Washington, Lord Chatham, 
 Martin Luther, John Calvin, James Arminius, John 
 "Wesley, and Francis Asbury ! How largely decision, 
 promptness, and energy entered into the composition 
 of these historical characters need not be proved by 
 particular facts. Their whole lives were made up of 
 a continued series of earnest and decided efforts to 
 achieve great ends. In them there was no weakness 
 of purpose, no hesitation, no tardiness, no dozing over 
 great schemes, no delaying until the main chance was 
 lost ; but action was their motto, timely action, prompt 
 action, energetic action, persevering action. One of 
 them, the great Napoleon, was accustomed to say 
 that he considered nothing done while anything 
 remained to be done. 
 
 There was evident in King Joash a great want of 
 faith. Had the king been in possession of a strong 
 faith he would have appreciated the act dictated by 
 the prophet. A strong faith is of quick discernment. 
 It sees the hand of God in everything, and it puts 
 importance upon the smallest things which are mat- 
 ters of divine direction. It presumes that there is 
 wisdom in what seems unmeaning, if it be a divine 
 requirement. It presumes all to be right and wise 
 which God does or requires, and acts in accordance 
 with that presumption. King Joash, in this case, 
 seemed to look no further than the mere appearance 
 of a small and simple act which, according to the
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 223 
 
 conclusions of human reason, was of no significance ; 
 whereas, had his faith been active, he would have 
 said, " This thing is of God, and cannot but be full 
 of meaning. There must be something in it of inter- 
 est to the kingdom, and of course of interest to me 
 also." Such a faith would have been an inspiration ; 
 would have assured him of something sublime and 
 glorious connected with the simple act of striking the 
 ground with the arrows. 
 
 " The things unknown to feeble sense, 
 Unseen by reason's glimmering ray, 
 
 With strong commanding evidence, 
 Their heavenly origin display." 
 
 Faith not only is eagle-eyed to see God in his word 
 and in his works, but it begets action. It is a fire in 
 the soul, a mighty motive-power. One who is under 
 its inspiration will act with decision and strength. 
 "With him what is worth doing at all is worth doing 
 well. He resolves, and proceeds Immediately to act, 
 and he acts with heart. His soul is in whatever he 
 does. Faith produces works, and works are the evi- 
 dence of faith. " By works is faith made perfect." 
 Had the old king possessed the true faith, and pos- 
 sessed it in sufficient amount, he would have smitten 
 the ground until he had beaten the arrows to splinters ; 
 he would with them have jarred the earth and raised 
 a cloud of dust. There would have been work there 
 and a mighty clatter which would in some measure 
 have represented the noise of the battle, and a break-
 
 224 OUK COUNTRY: 
 
 ing to pieces of the old Syrian empire. But being 
 " of little faith," " he struck thrice, and stayed." . The 
 old prophet was " wroth." The Hebrew root t)?i? 
 signifies to cut up, to break in pieces* The man of 
 God was " cut up." His feelings were lacerated ; he 
 was wounded and grieved at the king's shortcomings, 
 and the consequences which he foresaw. 
 
 Let us now proceed to apply the principles above 
 brought out to our own time, and the circumstances 
 by which we are surrounded. 
 
 The rebellion against the government has assumed 
 a magnitude which requires vast outlays of -men and 
 money. Half measures but aggravate the evil. Our 
 disasters, in all cases, have resulted from insufficient 
 forces, or a want of understanding the magnitude of 
 the emergency. We want no more long pauses for 
 want of men ; we are weary with being met by " a 
 superior force." Let us now give the War Depart- 
 ment all the men which its necessities require. Par- 
 simony is often waste ; it is especially so in this case. 
 The more valiant soldiers we have in the field the 
 less liable we are to lose them. Liberality in the 
 supply is economy of life. Increase the army to the 
 requisite strength and blood will cease to flow, and 
 the war of the rebellion will soon be brought to a 
 close. Let the three hundred thousand men called for 
 by the President be forthcoming, and Jefferson Davis 
 will soon enjoy the luxury of losing his precious life 
 * See Gesenius's Hebrew Lexicon.
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 225 
 
 in bis experiment of a southern confederacy. The 
 government has a true appreciation of the magnitude 
 of the work on hand, and is now laboring hard to 
 bring the supply up fully to the measure of the de- 
 mand. The legislative and the executive depart- 
 ments of the government are both straining every 
 nerve to meet the necessities of the hour, and nothing 
 should be in the way. 
 
 There is in many quarters a mortal horror of " the 
 draft," and cowards and secession sympathizers vie 
 with each other in their efforts to avoid it. Some 
 run, some hide, and others risk their necks in various 
 ways to avoid being shot on the battle-field. This is 
 all wrong, shameful. lie who is not willing to fight 
 for his country ought not to have a country ; and he 
 who would sacrifice the life of his country to save his 
 own places a higher estimate upon his life than any 
 one else does ; and while he considers himself as out- 
 weighing the country that gives him protection, it is 
 probable that history will not consider his name 
 worthy of a record. As to those citizens of foreign 
 birth who have come to our country to escape from, 
 oppression and to secure the means of a comfortable 
 living, and have exercised the right of voting at the 
 polls, who run away and leave their wives and chil- 
 dren to work for themselves, especially young men 
 of this class who have no families to provide for, lan- 
 guage furnishes 110 terms to express the contempt in 
 
 which they ought to be held. As the draft is the 
 
 15
 
 226 OUK COUNTRY: 
 
 only method by which the army can be reinforced 
 with sufficient dispatch to meet the emergencies of 
 the country, it is unpatriotic either to oppose or to 
 embarrass it. The necessities of the country have 
 demanded large contributions of men and money, 
 and the same necessities remain. Why withhold 
 now when the national arms are everywhere success- 
 ful, and only another campaign, well sustained by 
 recruits, and ably managed, as it will no doubt be by 
 our great army and naval commanders, will suffice 
 to bring the rebellion to a close. 
 
 It would undoubtedly be preferable to replenish 
 the army by enlistments if the thing were feasible; 
 but the demand is urgent; time is everything in a 
 campaign. There must be no delay ; there can be 
 none without peril to the country's cause. A large 
 reinforcement of the army is absolutely necessary, 
 and if the necessity is not met by volunteering, the 
 government must resort to compulsion ; and what 
 plan could be devised more equitable to decide 
 the question as to who shall go into the service than 
 by lot ? If a draft must be made, then all must be 
 drafted, or a part. If only a part of the able-bodied 
 men subject to military duty are needed, how shall 
 the question be settled, who the fortunate men shall 
 be who shall have the honor of periling their lives 
 for their country, if not by the method which the 
 government has adopted, and which meets with the 
 approval of all civilized nations? Jefferson Davis con-
 
 ITS TEIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 227 
 
 scripts all, from sixteen to fifty-five ; we only take one 
 sixth, from twenty-one to forty-five. Surely if it is 
 a hardship to be a patriot, it is a much greater hard- 
 ship to be a rebel ; and if the people of the rebellious 
 states submit to a merciless, indiscriminate conscrip- 
 tion of all who have physical strength to carry a 
 gun, surely we ought not to complain if the gov- 
 ernment, in an equitable way, selects a portion of 
 such as are capable of military duty to meet the 
 exigencies of this great war. Come on, fellow- 
 citizens, there is no time for paltering ; now is 
 the time to strike ; heavy blows now will do the 
 work. 
 
 Again, let it be observed that the demand of the 
 times upon our army and navy is for great skill and 
 great bravery. The cause of the country, thank 
 God, is not likely to suffer from a deficiency in the 
 leadership. At present we have at the head of the 
 army one whom Providence seems to have raised up for 
 the emergency, and' he is sustained by officers little 
 inferior to himself. While Grant, Sherman, Thomas, 
 and Sheridan are in the field, and Farragut and Por- 
 ter are leading on the navy, we have little more to 
 desire in the way of leadership. Many other names 
 are entitled to be placed in the category of meritori- 
 ous and distinguished officers who have the full confi- 
 dence of the country, and have already won for 
 themselves a name in history. With such leaders at 
 the head of our brave boys we do not anticipate a
 
 228 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 failure. Failure there cannot be with such a cause 
 as we have ; but we want early success, complete suc- 
 cess, success with as little loss as possible in over- 
 throwing the rebellion. 
 
 The spirit of the army and navy is. good, the brav- 
 ery of our troops is without a parallel, our command- 
 ers were never excelled in the annals of war ; and now 
 what is wanted is heavy blows and a great many of 
 them, and this is what we shall have. We want such 
 blows as were struck at Fort Donelson, at New 
 Orleans, at Yicksburg, in Georgia, at Nashville, in 
 the Shenandoah, and at Fort Fisher. Such blows 
 we want struck at Mobile, at Charleston, and at 
 Richmond. At the last-named place we hope ere 
 long to see the finishing stroke given. 
 
 The present crisis calls for harder blows, and more 
 of them. Let this be our motto. We want substan- 
 tial victories, not such as the rebels have had hund- 
 reds of. They report their victories dayly, but 
 through some mysterious cause they are all " without 
 results ;" they are either just where they were before, 
 or " a- little back of their old lines." Nor do we 
 want such victories as several which we have had on 
 our side. Such, for instance, as those of " the seven 
 days' fight " down from Richmond, w r hen, although 
 the general in command whipped Lee and Jackson 
 every day, he " fell back every night " to find " a 
 more advantageous base." 
 
 Indeed, we want something a little different from
 
 ITS TKIAL AXD ITS TRIUMPH. 229 
 
 the victories of Antietam and Gettysburg!!. There 
 "they smote thrice and stayed." The rebels were 
 whipped, but got away; they should have been 
 " smitten until they were consumed." Following up 
 one blow with another in quick succession is the 
 secret of telling victories. This striking and then 
 staying is not the thing ; we want more unconditional 
 surrenders. That must be the watchword at Wil- 
 mington, at Mobile, at Charleston, and at Richmond. 
 Hannibal, one of the greatest captains of ancient 
 story, crossed the Alps with a vast army of his Car- 
 thaginians and beat the Romans in four great battles. 
 The last of the four was that of Cannae, upon which 
 the old historian, Collier, remarks : " A prodigious 
 victory, the consequences whereof must have been 
 the ruin and downfall of the Roman commonwealth 
 had Hannibal known how to use it ; but instead of 
 going straight to Rome he went to Capua, where he 
 wintered, and the delights of the place debauched his 
 whole army, while the Romans recovered themselves." 
 The result of this relaxation of his zeal, of staying his 
 hands, was his retreat from Italy and the destruction 
 of Carthage. 
 
 It has not been the method of Grant, Sherman, 
 and Thomas to strike thrice and then stay, and, after 
 the example of the Garth aginian general, allow their 
 troops to indulge in ease and luxuries until they 
 become demoralized, and the rebels have time to 
 recover their strength and begin another campaign
 
 230 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 with invigorated and largely increased forces. Grant 
 is holding Lee's great army at Richmond, Sherman 
 is moving upon Charleston, and Thomas upon Mobile. 
 These winter campaigns in the South and Southwest 
 bid fair to terminate the rebellion in that direction 
 within the next few months, so we now hope and 
 believe. 
 
 The enemy must have no time to rest and recuper- 
 ate. The pursuit must be ardent and close ; 'blow 
 must follow blow in quick succession. Let the tread 
 of our cavalry, the huzzas of our brave boys, and the 
 thunder of our cannon, haunt the rebel armies day and 
 night, and hurry them from one retreat to another, 
 until they are captured, surrender, or are "con- 
 sumed." Now, brave fellows, 
 
 " Strike 1 
 
 Strike for your altars and your fires ! 
 God and your native land."
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 231 
 
 XIV. 
 THE SECESSION DEVIL. 
 
 THIS KIND GOETH NOT OUT BUT BY PRAYER AND PASTING. 
 
 Matt, xvii, 21. 
 
 THE existence of invisible, malignant beings, who 
 exercise an injurious influence over the moral char- 
 acter and happiness of mankind, is directly or indi- 
 rectly acknowledged by all religions. It is also as 
 generally presumed that it is the work of religion 
 to counteract this influence. The appropriate and 
 effective provisions for the accomplishment of this 
 great and good object are, however, only to be found 
 in Christianity. 
 
 It seems that demons were permitted anciently to 
 exercise an influence over the bodies of men, though 
 this power, since the general spread of the Gospel, 
 has been restrained. *As to the particular reasons for 
 the difference in this respect I shall not at present be 
 curious to inquire. But that the demoniacal posses- 
 sions of which we have so many accounts in the New 
 Testament history were realities, and not, as some 
 insist, mere diseases, is evident from the fact that 
 these demons often conversed and reasoned, desired 
 and feared. These acts could scarcely be attributed 
 to diseases in the most impassioned poetry ; but to
 
 232 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 introduce them into sober narrative would be an 
 absurdity that would hardly find a parallel. 
 
 Several of the fathers supposed that the word yevog, 
 kind, referred to the whole genus of devils. The 
 same view is taken of the subject by Dr. S. Clarke 
 among the older, and by Dr. Bloomfield among the 
 recent English commentators. Others, as Doddridge, 
 Coke, and Benson, suppose that this hypothesis does 
 not account for the disappointment of the apostles in 
 not being able to eject this devil, nor for the answer 
 given by our Lord to their inquiry. Why some 
 devils should be more obstinate and difficult to eject 
 than others is not easy to perceive ; and yet there is 
 nothing in the fact any more inconsistent with reason 
 than that these malignant powers should at all com- 
 mune with the minds of men and exercise an influ- 
 ence over them. 
 
 " This demon," says Dr. A. Clarke, " may be con- 
 sidered an emblem of deeply rooted vices and inveterate 
 habits, over which the conquest is not generally 
 obtained but through extraordinary humiliations." 
 This is a practical view of the subject which is both 
 reasonable and safe. He who would root out cher- 
 ished lusts and long-established habits undertakes no 
 ordinary work, and stands in need of more than ordi- 
 nary preparation. 
 
 What are the evils which we as a nation most 
 severely suffer from at the present ? 
 
 Is there not a fearful amount of ignorance among
 
 ITS TRIAL AXD ITS TRIUMPH. 233 
 
 the great mass of our population? I mean not 
 merely ignorance of the arts and sciences, for this 
 species of ignorance sometimes consists with a high 
 degree of moral worth ; but more especially ignorance 
 of the great principles and requirements of religion, 
 and of the duties, responsibilities, rights, and priv- 
 ileges of citizens. These two branches of this deadly 
 upas always unite in the same trunk, and are always, 
 so far as they exert an influence, destructive of the 
 best interests of society. But we not only have an 
 abundance of this evil among us which is of native 
 growth, but vast masses of it are constantly drifting 
 upon our shores from the old world, and the whole 
 combining lies like an incubus upon the very vitals 
 of the body politic. Our institutions cannot be pre- 
 served in safety and prosperity by ignorance. They 
 are, indeed, eminently imperiled by the prevalence of 
 this curse of the human soul, and especially so when 
 it is united with a superstitious veneration for corrupt 
 forms of religion and implicit obedience to a design- 
 ing priesthood. And who does not see that there is 
 enough of this deadly leaven in our country to work 
 our ruin unless by some efficient remedy it shall 
 speedily be neutralized ? 
 
 Is not infidelity sadly prevalent in our country ? 
 This evil takes various hues, according to its various 
 associations. We sometimes see it assume the garb 
 of philosophy, at other times that of politics, and still 
 at others that of the most degrading vice. Philosoph-
 
 234: OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 ical infidelity is reason run mad ; political infidelity 
 is liberty without restraint ; and vulgar infidelity is 
 a full license of the grosser passions. Whatever its 
 form, it is the same enemy to the improvement and 
 happiness of man. A nation of infidels could not 
 long exist. It would very soon burst like a bubble, 
 and be numbered among the things that were. And 
 this obstinate demon is lurking about in all directions; 
 and though he may cover himself with the garb of 
 religion, he is no less a devil at heart, nor any less 
 dangerous to the public weal. I need not tell you 
 that this malignant spirit has shown himself in the 
 high places of power as well as in the haunts of vice 
 and dissipation ; that he has his trained bands firmly 
 organized and regularly disciplined; that he has 
 seized upon the press, and has flooded the country 
 with books, pamphlets, and periodicals, containing 
 the most alarming developments of his real malignity ; 
 that he has turned tract distributer, missionary, 
 prophet, and what not; that he has actually com- 
 passed sea and land to make proselytes. All this is 
 perfectly notorious. At present the monster seems to 
 have secreted himself; but he is still alive, and only 
 waits a fair opportunity to make new demonstrations 
 of his utter hostility, not only to Christianity, but to 
 the very existence of the social compact. 
 
 Does not pride exist to an alarming extent among 
 us ? We need not attempt to trace out and identify 
 this evil in all its various forms. It will be sufficient
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 235 
 
 * 
 
 to notice it as it influences individuals, as it affects 
 the national character, and as it shows itself in our 
 religion. We may call individual pride decency 
 and self-respect, national pride a patriotic concern 
 for the nation's honor, and religious pride a pious 
 regard to the decencies of divine institutions ; but it 
 is still the same accursed thing, which the Lord ab- 
 hors. And where are the footsteps of this rebellious 
 demon not seen ? I need not point you to his infalli- 
 ble tokens ; they are everywhere displayed before the 
 gaze of earth and heaven. 
 
 Nor should it be necessary to premonish you of its 
 ruinous consequences. The word of God and the 
 pages of history are replete with instructions upon 
 the subject. History, it is said, is philosophy teach- 
 ing by example. Let us, then, through this medium 
 look at Nineveh, Babylon, Tyre, Greece, and Rome, 
 and learn that "he who exalteth himself shall be 
 abased ;" that " pride goeth before destruction, and a 
 haughty spirit before a fall." Let us mark the fate 
 of Sennacherib, of Nebuchadnezzar, and of Herod, 
 and remember that the same God who in these in- 
 stances eminently punished pride, still reigns, and 
 has the same abhorrence of this accursed principle. 
 
 Is not selfishness a ruling principle among us ! By 
 selfishness I do* not mean a due regard to our own 
 best interests : this is so far from being wrong that 
 it is enforced by the obligations of religion. But I 
 refer to private ends arrayed against the general
 
 236 OUR COUNTRY : 
 
 * 
 
 good. And liow lias this principle shown itself, not 
 only in the various departments of business, and in 
 political maneuvers, but even in our benevolent en- 
 terprises ! How common is it, when a politician be- 
 comes extremely jealous of the liberties of the country 
 and of the rights of his fellow-citizens, for him to be 
 suspected of some little regard to the loaves and 
 fishes of office ! And is not this suspicion founded 
 on a numerous class of facts, which give but too 
 strong ground for a correct induction ? Witness the 
 violations of public confidence upon the part of this 
 class of men, and especially the peculations and de- 
 falcations of public functionaries, which are by no 
 means strange events. 
 
 I have noticed but a small portion of this species 
 of evil. We cannot go into detail without becoming 
 lost in the maze. Who can look away from dear self 
 and seek the good of the whole, losing his own inter- 
 est in the general welfare ? Such individuals, thank 
 God, there are ; but certainly they are quite too rare 
 for the honor and prosperity of our beloved country. 
 
 Is not avarice a prevailing vice in this land ? This 
 is a species under the genus selfishness ; but it figures 
 so largely as to require separate notice. What an 
 excitement! what a stir! what a rage does this mis- 
 erable demon constantly keep up ! Is it any w r onder 
 that intelligent travelers suppose mammon to be the 
 god of the Americans ? M. de Tocqueville, an intel- 
 ligent Frenchman, says :
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 237 
 
 "A native of the United States clings to this 
 world's goods as if he were certain never to die ; and 
 he is so hasty at grasping at all within his reach, that 
 one would suppose he was constantly afraid of not 
 living long enough to enjoy them. He clutches 
 everything, he holds nothing fast, but soon loosens 
 his grasp to pursue fresh gratifications. A man 
 builds a house to spend his later years in, and sells 
 it before the roof is on : he plants a garden, and lets 
 it just as the trees are coming into bearing: he brings 
 a field into tillage, and leaves other men to gather 
 the crops : he embraces a profession, and gives it up : 
 he settles in a place which he soon after leaves to 
 carry his changeable longings elsewhere. If his 
 private affairs leave him any leisure, he instantly 
 plunges into the vortex of politics : and if at the end 
 of a year of unremitting labor he finds he has a few 
 days' vacation, his eager curiosity whirls him over 
 the vast extent of the United States, and he will 
 travel fifteen hundred miles in a few days to shake 
 off his happiness. Death at length overtakes him, 
 but it is before he is weary of his bootless chase of 
 that complete felicity which is ever on the wing." 
 All we can say to this is, that it is but too true a 
 picture of what is every day passing before our eyes. 
 
 All these are personal sins which involve personal 
 guilt, but they may become so general as to bring 
 down the vengeance of God upon the whole land. 
 In addition to those individual delinquencies, we
 
 238 OUR COUNTRY : 
 
 have great national sins, for which God holds us 
 accountable as a nation; and as nations, as such, 
 cannot be punished in the world to come, we are 
 fearfully amenable to national judgments, which are 
 the ordinary means by which national offenses are 
 punished. 
 
 I am not aware that, as a nation, we have been 
 guilty of the violation of national law to the injury 
 of weaker powers. Although we have no occasion 
 fpr humiliation on this account, we have occasion for 
 deep repentance on account of wrongs done to classes 
 of men over whose destiny we have had absolute 
 control. 
 
 The first instance of national sin which I notice 
 here is gross injustice to the aborigines of this coun- 
 try. The poor natives of the soil have been driven 
 from their homes and the graves of their fathers, and 
 one compulsory remove after another, westward, has 
 brought them into many sad extremities, and to the 
 very verge of despair. The government has not 
 always kept the faith of treaties with these boor sav- 
 ages. Too often have voracious land-pirates and un- 
 scrupulous state authorities found the means of using 
 the United States government as a tool for the 
 achievement of stupendous robberies inflicted upon 
 the native tribes. As a nation we have to plead 
 guilty to this fearful indictment, and throw ourselves 
 upon the mercy of the court of heaven. Under later 
 administrations the government has been exerting
 
 ITS TEIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 239 
 
 itself commendably to make amends for former errors, 
 and has, to a great extent, regained the confidence of 
 the Indian tribes nearest to the borders of civiliza- 
 tion. Still it would not be wise in us to ignore the 
 fact of former wrongs. 
 
 Another instance of national transgression is that 
 of the enslavement of the African race. It is true, 
 that African slavery had its origin, in this country, 
 before our existence as an independent nation com- 
 menced; that African slavery was an inheritance left 
 to us by the mother country. We, however, have fear- 
 ful responsibilities in the matter. Although fenced 
 in by state rights, the whole country has been involved 
 in the responsibility in .various ways. The institu- 
 tion of slavery has been our great national sin, and 
 our greatest disgrace. This sin has brought upon us 
 the judgments of God with almost crushing weight. 
 
 Thank God, this national crime and national curse is 
 about to be wiped out. President Lincoln's proclama- 
 tion, emancipating all the slaves in the rebellious states, 
 and the passage of the amendment to the Constitution, 
 by a two thirds vote of both houses of Congress, pro- 
 hibiting slavery, or involuntary servitude, except for 
 crime, throughout the United States, have relieved the 
 general government of all further responsibility in 
 the matter. Now, if a majority of three fourths of 
 the legislatures of the several states pass the amend- 
 ment, slavery ceases tb exist in the United States. 
 It is devoutly to be hoped that the requisite majority
 
 240 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 of the state legislatures will do themselves the credit 
 to pass the amendment and so end the accursed insti- 
 tution of slavery in the country. If the amendment. 
 . should not obtain the sanction of the states, the guilt 
 of the institution will no longer be national, but will 
 rest upon the heads of the delinquent states. 
 
 There is one monster devil with which the nation 
 is tortured which must be placed prominently as the 
 great evil of these times. This is the SECESSION DEVIL. 
 
 Other evil spirits give us great trouble, but this 
 one the most of all, because he is the most obstinate, 
 the most malignant, and the most destructive of them 
 all. 
 
 The secession devil is a rebellious devil. 
 
 He rebels against law and order, against laws 
 which God has ordained, laws which the people have 
 enacted, and laws which he has sworn -to keep. He 
 despises the Constitution, tramples upon the Declara- 
 tion of Independence, and sets at naught all legiti- 
 mate authority, human and divine. 
 
 He is an ambitious devil. 
 
 He is, I suspect, that very devil whom Milton 
 reports to have said that he "had rather reign in 
 hell than serve in heaven." He seeks dominion, he 
 loves the highest places, he aspires to absolute power. 
 He says, " If he had a thousand lives he would sacri- 
 fice them all rather than not establish his rebel king- 
 dom." 
 
 He is a lying devil.
 
 ITS TKIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 
 
 He carries on his old game of deception. In old 
 times he tempted mother Eve with the forbidden 
 fruit, and said, " Ye shall not surely die," but eat the 
 fruit and " ye shall be as gods." So still he deceives 
 the people with his lies. He tells them that seces- 
 sion is right, is wise, and that if they hold out a little 
 longer England and France will acknowledge their 
 independence, and the federal government will ac- 
 knowledge it too. He tells them that he has the 
 best of it in every battle, and what he loses is not 
 worth having. These and a thousand other lies he 
 thrusts down the throats of his vassals, and some of 
 them think it all true as preaching. 
 
 He is a thieving devil. 
 
 He stole the government property. He plunders the 
 people, even his own dear subjects, and tells them to 
 charge all to the necessities of the state ; he steals 
 cotton to pay his confederate loan ; in fact, lays his 
 hands on whatever he wants, no matter whose it is, 
 or however needy its owner. 
 
 He is a wuel devil. 
 
 His heartless cruelty is seen in the blood he has 
 caused to be shed for the establishment of his slave 
 confederacy, in the widows and orphans he has made, 
 the hearths he has desolated, the broken hearts, the 
 tears and sighs which he has occasioned for a bauble. 
 In old times this devil had great power over his 
 subjects, and inflicted, upon them great tortures. He 
 
 threw them down ; they cried out, they were con- 
 
 16
 
 242 
 
 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 vulsed, they foamed, they wallowed in the dirt. The 
 torments which he inflicts upon those whom he pos- 
 sesses now are not inferior to those which he inflicted 
 then. If ever there was a people " scattered and 
 peeled," plundered,, whipped, thrown down, and 
 rolled in the mud, bedraggled, booted, and skinned, 
 they are the victims of secession. 
 
 He is a mean devil. 
 
 Of old he entered into the swine.', now he inhabits 
 guerrillas, his tenements growing more and more 
 despicable. He repudiates his bonds, robs the poor 
 to feed his soldiers, and deals in contemptible arts to 
 keep up a show of nobility. 
 
 Finally, he is a religious devil. 
 
 This strange devil prays and fasts and keeps 
 thanksgivings. In the days of Christ this same evil 
 spirit exhibited his proclivities in the Pharisees, 
 " making long prayers at the corners of the streets," 
 and fasting, to be seen of men. Now he prays for 
 the triumph of the rebellion, and for the destruction 
 of the Union troops and the Union cause. 
 
 These pious devils are the worst that ever came to 
 this poor unfortunate world. They have a conscience, 
 and who dare oppose the dictates of conscience? 
 They talk of the obligations of religion, and in the 
 sacred name of religion they break every precept of the 
 decalogue. See how pious these rebels are. Surely, 
 says the simple dupe, God must be on their side. 
 The devil prayed to Christ, saying, " Let us alone ;
 
 ITS TEIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 243 
 
 why art thou come to torment us before the time 2" 
 The secession demon makes the same prayer to the 
 Yankee government : " Let us alone ; why are you 
 come to trouble us ? I adjure you by God that ye 
 torment me not." All in character, praying and 
 swearing mixed together. 
 
 We have now noticed " seven abominations," as 
 many as there were devils in Mary Magdalene, which 
 more or less involve the national character. The 
 whole together may be " called legion, for they are 
 many ;" and they are most obstinate and inveterate 
 in their character. They are strongly posted, and 
 will never yield to mild measures. He who would 
 eradicate any one of them must gird himself for a 
 strong effort, and certainly if we would engage them 
 all we need most solemn preparation. 
 
 We come to inquire into the means by which 
 these evils may be successfully encountered. 
 
 But before we enter upon the discussion of the true 
 remedy, let us glance at sundry unauthorized means 
 which are often resorted to for the cure of national 
 evils. 
 
 Political changes are often relied upon. Were we 
 to believe our pseudo-patriots, we might expect that 
 a change in the administration of the government 
 would sweep all the disorders of the land, moral, 
 political, and physical, into eternal annihilation. If 
 we only mind them, they would fain have us expect 
 for ourselves and our children, health, peace, wealth,
 
 244 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 and happiness forever. But though such changes 
 might be really important, they by no means reach 
 the foundations and sources of the mischief. The 
 evils are of a moral character, and will yield only to 
 moral remedies. 
 
 This, however, is not the course taken by blind 
 zealots. They fall upon those they deem in error 
 with hard names and abusive epithets, and think 
 thus to drive the devil out of them. But their course 
 and their success are very much like those of " cer- 
 tain vagabond Jews " who attempted to imitate the 
 apostles in the exercise of their miraculous powers. 
 " They took upon them to call over them which had 
 evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, "We 
 adjure you by Jesus, whom Paul preacheth." But 
 " the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and 
 Paul I know ; but who are ye ? And the man in 
 whom the evil spirit was, leaped on them, and over- 
 came them, so that they fled out of that house naked 
 and wounded." Now upon this instructive piece of 
 history we may observe, first, that they proceeded 
 without any authority ; and, secondly, the result was 
 that the devil triumphed, and they were most miser - 
 ably disgraced. 
 
 But men may really have a good end in view, and 
 may be influenced by an ardent zeal, and yet only 
 prejudice the cause by the manner in which they 
 undertake to accomplish it. In all cases when self- 
 styled reformers undertake to remedy evils in their
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 245 
 
 own strength, and by their own wisdom, the devil is 
 more than a match for them. He falls upon them 
 without giving up his pvey, and so the evil is aggra- 
 vated in the subject, and reacts upon the self- 
 prompted instrument of deliverance. 
 
 How much of empiricism is there in religion and 
 politics ! For reigning evils there are many nos- 
 trums prescribed. The press teems with infallible 
 cures for all the disorders of the times; but how 
 many patients die under the treatment of empirics 
 perhaps will only be known in the great day of final 
 reckoning. They promise us long life and good 
 days ; but let us beware, there may be " death in 
 the pot." All these experiments are as unnecessary 
 as they are dangerous, for a remedy, a sovereign 
 remedy, is at hand. 
 
 The only remedy for the disorders of the human 
 heart is the abounding grace of God, through Jesus 
 Christ. The means then by which this grace is 
 obtained and made to bear directly upon the disease 
 is the matter of inquiry. 
 
 The leading condition is an operative faith. 
 
 Our Saviour tells the disciples that the reason they 
 could not eject the devil, in the case delineated, was 
 "because of their unbelief;" and then proceeds to 
 say, " Yerily I say unto you, If ye have 'faith as a 
 grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this moun- 
 tain, Remove hence to yonder place ; and it shall 
 remove ; and nothing shall be impossible unto you."
 
 246 OUR COUNTRY : 
 
 It is probable our Lord here refers primarily to the 
 faith of miracles^ the smallest amount of which 
 should be sufficient to remove the greatest obstacles. 
 But in a more general application of the text, " faith 
 as a grain of mustard seed " may, as Dr. Clarke says, 
 import " a growing, active faith." 
 
 The faith of the Church is the great conservative 
 principle, upon which depend the hopes and happi- 
 ness of a lost world. I speak not now of the faith of 
 miracles. This, for wise reasons, long since ceased 
 from the Church. I speak of that vital energy 
 which gives efficiency to the instituted means of 
 grace, and arms the Church against the charms of 
 the world and the powers of hell. Its essential prin- 
 ciples are a conviction of the truth of the Gospel, a 
 submission to the terms of salvation, and a trust in 
 the promises of God. This faith fails not to regulate 
 both the heart and life, and to give effect to all God'a 
 appointed means for the melioration of human con- 
 dition. 
 
 The great apostle of the Gentiles, in the eleventh 
 chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, pronounces 
 the greatest eulogium upon this faith that can be 
 conceived, by simply giving us a view of some of its 
 achievements. He defines it in the outset by giving 
 us a view of its practical workings. " Now," says he, 
 " faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evi- 
 dence of things not seen." He then proceeds to set 
 before us an array of the most sublime examples of it
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 247 
 
 recorded in the sacred story. In these we have prac- 
 tical demonstrations of the power and efficacy of this 
 great leading principle of Christianity. 
 
 Nor is this faith any less necessary for us than it 
 was for the patriarchs, prophets, and apostles of olden 
 time. "We can neither do anything toward working 
 out our own salvation, or helping to reclaim others, 
 without the constant action of a vital faith. "Without 
 this our arm will be nerveless and all our efforts fruit- 
 less. The devil will withstand us at every point and 
 foil us in every struggle. And how will go the war 
 that the American Church has waged against the 
 numerous forms of vice which are prevalent in our 
 land, unless she is deeply imbued with faith ? Alas, 
 she will come out of the battle " naked and wounded," 
 and hell will hold a day of rejoicing. Hear the 
 blessed Saviour say, " Have faith in God." Hear 
 him expostulating with us, " Why is it that ye have 
 no faith?" "Why are ye fearful, O ye of little 
 faith 2" In a conflict with the devil all human power 
 is mocked, and reason utterly confounded. How 
 will the Church " wrestle against flesh and blood and 
 principalities and powers, and against spiritual wick- 
 edness in high places," without a strong hold upon 
 " the mighty God of Jacob ?" Truly this is her only 
 hope ! 
 
 The next condition necessary to secure divine help 
 is prayer. 
 
 Prayer is the offering up of the desires of the heart
 
 248 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 to God ; it is the soul's converse with the Invisible ; 
 and it is acceptable only when associated with the 
 faith of which we have spoken. A mere form of 
 words, without any corresponding emotions and 
 affections, is nothing worth. Prayer is begging, and 
 hence the spirit, the language, and the posture should 
 all be appropriate. "Where would be the fitness in a 
 poor miserable beggar coming to your door with a 
 great parade of ceremonies, or a mere form of words ? 
 "Would it not rather be expected that his expressions, 
 his attitude, his sighs, his tears, his broken utterance, 
 would go to enforce his application ? I say nothing 
 against appropriate forms of prayer to be used upon 
 certain occasions, much less wduld I give place to an 
 incoherent manner of expression ; but I would have 
 all the members of the Church so many officiating 
 priests, offering up to God the sacrifice of pure devo- 
 tion, according to their several ability. I would have 
 the thoughts, the desires, and the words of the whole 
 Church combined and mingled in a common offering 
 to Almighty God. I would have every one bring 
 his own offering, be it ever so small, and cast it into 
 God's treasury, until the grand aggregate shall con- 
 stitute a unanimous expression, and go up to God 
 like the sound of many waters, and be an odor of 
 sweet smell unto our heavenly Father. 
 
 To prayer belong petition, deprecation, interces- 
 sion, and thanksgiving. "We ask for blessings for 
 ourselves ; we deprecate the divine displeasure ; we
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 249 
 
 bring our brethren of the human race in the arms of 
 our charity, and ask God to bless and save them ; and 
 finally we render thanks to Almighty God for what 
 he has done for us and them. The duty must be 
 performed in public, in the domestic circle, and in 
 the closet. But its acceptableness depends entirely 
 upon the spirit and temper of mind in which it is 
 performed. I have already suggested that it must be 
 offered in faith. To this quality must be added 
 humility, fervor or earnestness, and perseverance. 
 As we have always the same need of prayer, we 
 must "pray without ceasing," "pray always, and 
 not faint." As it is the language of dependence, of 
 poverty, and want, it' is never out of time. Indeed, 
 the Christian's very breath should be prayer. His 
 aspirations, warm from his heart, should come up 
 before God like the morning sacrifice, every hour. 
 He should cultivate a habitual sense of his dependence 
 on God, devotion should constitute his prevailing 
 mental state, and his whole life should be one 
 unbroken series of heavenly aspirations. 
 
 And if the Church were brought up to this state, 
 what efficiency would she possess, what power with 
 God, what triumph over sin, what burning charity, 
 what a halo of glory would surround her ! 
 
 To faith and prayer we must add fasting. 
 
 Upon the duty pf fasting we shall first make a few 
 general remafks, and then proceed to consider it in 
 relation to present circumstances.
 
 250 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 This duty is united witli faith and prayer. 
 "Thence learn," says Burkitt, "that fasting and 
 prayer are two special means of Christ's appointment 
 for the enabling us victoriously to overcome Satan, 
 and to cast him out of ourselves and others. We 
 must set an edge upon our faith by prayer, and upon 
 our prayer by fasting." 
 
 Christian fasting is a temporary abstinence from 
 food ; neither so excessive as to produce exhaustion, 
 nor yet so partial as to produce no sensible effect 
 upon the physical and mental frame. This duty, 
 accompanied by humble prayer and an obedient faith, 
 humbles and subdues the heart. There is a constant 
 tendency in our animal appetites to triumph over 
 reason and conscience. A perpetual effort is neces- 
 sary to enable the moral and the rational part to over- 
 come the animal. By mortifying and subduing the 
 flesh, and by cherishing the intellectual and moral 
 man, we become prepared for strong intellectual and 
 moral efforts. But fasting is a divine institution, and 
 its utility does not depend upon its natural effects 
 upon the body or the mind so much as upon the 
 blessing of God. For God will always visit with 
 special favor acts of obedience performed because he 
 requires them, and is glorified in them. Our true 
 attitude is that of submission; and even where we 
 can see no special adaptedness in the duty required 
 to promote good, still for us "obedience is bet- 
 ter than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 251 
 
 rams." God has the undoubted right to connect an- 
 tecedent and sequence as he sees best ; and when the 
 fact of such connection is revealed, it does not become 
 us to refuse obedience because we cannot perceive 
 the reasons for such connection. So if God require 
 us to fast he will bless us in so doing. This we might 
 infer from the character of God, if we had no facts 
 upon record which bear upon the point. But while 
 we have before us the instructive examples of Daniel, 
 of Esther, and of the Ninevites ; of Moses, of John 
 the Baptist, and of Christ himself, there is left no 
 room for question as to the acceptableness and the 
 efficacy of fasting rightly performed. 
 
 Fasting is one of the Christian duties that are not 
 to be confined to days set apart by the civil authori- 
 ties, but is to be resorted to voluntarily at set periods, 
 or upon any great and pressing emergency. I am 
 not now called upon to enforce the due observance of 
 a national fast, but to urge frequent fasting and 
 prayer with reference to our national troubles. The 
 nation is suffering fearfully, and although the princi- 
 pal cause is from a wicked rebellion, there can be no 
 doubt but God has permitted this rebellion for the 
 chastisement of the nation. It then becomes us to 
 fast and pray, and to humble ourselves before God. 
 
 The demon of secession, as has been seen, is a most 
 obstinate spirit, and hard to manage. He may be 
 conquered and broken down by physical force, but 
 he cannot be cast out without divine help. His
 
 252 OUR COUNTRY : 
 
 object is the ruin of all that is fair and glorious in 
 our free institutions. Whatever motives we have for 
 the salvation of our beloved country urge us to 
 humble ourselves with prayer and fasting, to depre- 
 cate the wrath of heaven, and labor for the removal 
 of the evils brought into the body politic, and those 
 which still threaten to enter through the agency of 
 the secession devil. 
 
 The battle is of the Lord, hence his aid is to be 
 sought as our only hope. We must have large and 
 well-appointed armies, brave and skillful officers, and 
 our armies must stand up manfully against the foe, 
 while the whole country must fast and pray. We 
 must follow the instructions of that brave old war- 
 rior Oliver Cromwell : " Boys, pray all the time, but 
 keep your powder dry." God works by authorized 
 means. Having done our best, we may safely com- 
 mit the cause of the country " to Him who judgeth 
 righteously." I will now close this disquisition by 
 reference to several motives which the Christian 
 citizen has for a large outlay of means for the pro- 
 motion of the moral improvement of the people and 
 the perpetuity of the union of these United States. 
 
 Our natural self-love should prompt us to such 
 efforts. 
 
 Is the security of life, of property, and of charac- 
 ter a matter of importance? Do we instinctively 
 desire it ? And shall we have no concern for the 
 safety and permanency of those institutions upon
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 253 
 
 which this security depends ? Surely, as we desire 
 our own peace and safety, and the happiness of our 
 children, we can but be disposed to do everything 
 within our power to elevate the moral character of 
 the people in these United States, and to restore law 
 and order. Here the people are the source of all 
 civil power. They have the government in their 
 own hands ; and if they become generally corrupt 
 and fail to sustain it, they will soon bring ruin upon 
 themselves. And the righteous will suffer with the 
 wicked. Though there might be multitudes of pious 
 and patriotic individuals, they could have no security 
 or safety in a general wreck of our civil institutions, 
 Anarchy and confusion would inevitably follow the 
 general prevalence of vice and licentiousness, and 
 the overthrow of the Constitution and . the laws. 
 Morality and religion constitute the bonds by which 
 society is held together, and without them the ele- 
 ments of the social compact will be dissolved. Inat- 
 tention to the moral character of the people is reck- 
 lessness of our own personal safety and prosperity. 
 It is suicide. 
 
 Patriotism calls aloud for these efforts. If the 
 prosperity and happiness of our country and the 
 permanency of our free institutions depend upon the 
 virtue of the people, and this none will dispute, how 
 can we more directly serve the interests of our be- 
 loved country than by seeking to promote her moral 
 improvement ? Tyrants know full well that the sue-
 
 254 OUB COUNTRY: 
 
 cess of free institutions in this country is the doom of 
 despotism throughout the earth. Of course they 
 watch for our halting. They mark with a kind of 
 diabolical satisfaction the progress of those causes 
 which tend to our ruin. When we stumble, they 
 gay, " Aha, so would we have it." Shall their pre- 
 dictions and their wishes be realized in the ultimate 
 dissolution of this purest and best of all human gov- 
 ernments ? As we love our country, we shall give 
 this interrogation a most emphatic negative. And 
 we will sustain our words by appropriate action. 
 
 Philanthropy will induce action. As we love our 
 fellow-men, we shall desire the blessings of political 
 freedom to be extended through the world. And 
 when will this be done if the experiment of a popu- 
 lar government in this country prove a failure ? 
 When will arbitrary institutions, with all their ac- 
 companiments, be annihilated, and man be free and 
 happy, if the genius of liberty is driven from our 
 shores ? If the war waged by us against rebellion 
 and oppression shall result in defeat, where is the 
 hope of the world ? 
 
 Finally, religion supplies many considerations to 
 urge us to action. 
 
 The Church has breasted many storms and tri- 
 umphed over a multitude of foes. But she has yet a 
 grand, decisive battle to fight here that will tell upon 
 the destinies of the world, and will hold an intimate 
 connection with the glorious millennium. The
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 255 
 
 American Church will constitute one grand division 
 of the sacramental host in the final struggle with the 
 prince of darkness, and upon her devolves high re- 
 sponsibilities. The manner in which she acts her 
 part is of great importance to the general result. 
 
 If Christianity is foiled upon 'American soil, where 
 can she hope for success ? Here she stands upon 
 vantage ground. Here she is- neither proscribed by 
 the civil power, nor so united to it as to weaken her 
 energies, or deprive her of the glory of her achieve- 
 ments. And shall she prove too feeble for the great 
 work she has undertaken under such favorable cir- 
 cumstances ? God forbid ! Let her friends rally 
 around her standard and shout for the battle. Let 
 all who love her come up to her help, push on her 
 conquests, labor, pray, fast, fight, until her " right- 
 eousness shall go forth as brightness, and her salva- 
 tion as a lamp that burneth ;" until rebellion, slavery, 
 and every other form of wickedness shall cease from 
 this renovated and glorious land.
 
 256 OUR COUNTRY : 
 
 XY. 
 THE GOOD SAMARITAN. 
 
 AND JESUS ANSWERING SAID, A CERTAIN MAN WENT DOWN FROM JERU- 
 SALEM TO JERICHO, AND FELL AMONG THIEVES, WHICH STRIPPED HIM OF 
 HIS RAIMENT, AND WOUNDED HIM, AND DEPARTED, LEAVING HIM HALF 
 DEAD. . . . BUT A CERTAIN SAMARITAN, AS HE JOURNEYED, CAME 
 WHERE HE WAS : AND WHEN HE SAW HIM, HE HAD COMPASSION ON 
 HIM, AND WENT TO HIM, AND BOUND UP HIS WOUNDS, POURING IN OIL 
 AND WINE, AND SET HIM ON HIS OWN BEAST, AXD BROUGHT HIM TO AN 
 
 INN, AND TOOK CARE OF HIM. Luke X, 30, 33-34. 
 
 THE story of the wounded Jew and the compassionate 
 Samaritan beautifully illustrates the method of God's 
 providence. It is a law of the divine administration 
 to follow evil with the remedy. The advent of sin, 
 which brought death into the world and all our woe, 
 was followed by the promise of the Saviour, who, in 
 the fullness of time, was manifested in the flesh. He 
 was the world's great Restorer. His grace presented 
 a remedy for the defection of humanity in all its 
 breadth. There is not an attribute or phase of 
 human depravity which has not its counterpart in 
 the Gospel. The doctrines of Christ, each and all, 
 stand in juxtaposition to the various manifestations 
 of human depravity. Where sin has reigned unto 
 death, there grace reigns through righteousness unto 
 eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
 The same economy of following the disease by 

 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 257 
 
 the remedy is found to characterize God's providen- 
 tial arrangements throughout. Supply follows closely 
 upon the heels of want. The mangled, bleeding vic- 
 tim, cast out and apparently uncared-for, is found by 
 the kind-hearted Samaritan, w],io binds up his wounds, 
 pouring in oil and wine, and carries him to a place 
 of safety and comfort. 
 
 The desolating war in which the country is en- 
 gaged, to a casual observer, presents a scene of un- 
 mitigated horror ; but a careful survey of the whole 
 picture will bring out the occasions which it furnishes 
 for the most splendid exhibitions of the better feelings 
 of the human heart, and the divine graces of Chris- 
 tianity. 
 
 The war has originated the occasion for two of the 
 noblest institutions which have graced modern civili- 
 zation : the Sanitary and the Christian Commissions. 
 The first is humanitarian, the second eminently 
 Christian. The first is auxiliary to the commissariat 
 and the medical department, the second is an expan- 
 sion of the functions of the chaplain ; each in its 
 way supplies a desideratum, and, united, they go far 
 toward mitigating the horrors of war. If war can 
 be civilized and Christianized, we have in these insti- 
 tutions the agencies for the accomplishment of these 
 great ends. The wars of the barbarous ages were 
 attended by no such modifying and relieving agen- 
 cies. Former wars, even of Christian nations, were 
 
 unattended by the good Samaritan with his oil and 
 
 17
 
 258 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 wine and ambulance for the relief of those who were 
 weltering in their blood on the gory field of battle. 
 
 War seen from afar dazzles the imagination. The 
 mind is filled with emotions (5f admiration as it con- 
 templates the pomp of martial array, the skill of 
 leaders, the valor of the contending forces, the attack, 
 the thunder of the battle, which shakes the earth and 
 darkens the heavens, the final charge, and the vic- 
 tory, the glad news that thrills along the wires which 
 form the nerves of the nation, the mighty joy which 
 rolls out from the field of strife in an ever- widening 
 circle. But viewed more closely the scene changes ; the 
 moral grandeur of the contest may remain, but we learn 
 the fearful price with which victory is bought. We 
 behold the weary march, the crowded hospital, the 
 horrors of the bloody field when the battle is over, 
 and the place of strife is a true Aceldama, where the 
 mangled forms of the living and the dying are some- 
 times left for days, because, though there are many 
 that pity, there are few that can be spared from the 
 ranks to save them. 
 
 In the fearful war which foul rebellion has brought 
 upon the land, our government has done all that lies 
 in its power to alleviate the sufferings of our brave 
 soldiers. Surgeons, hospitals, medical stores, have 
 been provided in abundance. Yet when a great 
 battle occurs, and thousands fall in an hour, some 
 agency is needed to supplement the appliances pro- 
 vided by the public authorities. When a single day's
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 259 
 
 fighting numbers half the officers and men of a regi- 
 ment among the wounded, the surgeon and his assist- 
 ant may do all that lies in their power, but many 
 must suffer and die, because there are so many that 
 they cannot all be reached in time. In the perma- 
 nent hospitals, too, there is work for the humane and 
 the patriotic ; a work of benevolence and love, as 
 well as of wisdom, in supplying various comforts and 
 delicacies, which the stern rules of military life never 
 provide, but of which the sick room even of the poor 
 at home is not destitute. 
 
 Here, then, is the field of the two Commissions, 
 whose agencies for good the present contest has called 
 into existence. They are the free outgrowth of a 
 nation's grateful regard for its defenders the voice 
 of peace and good-will heard even amid the lowering 
 storm of war. It is matter of congratulation to note 
 with what liberality the money of the poor and the 
 rich has been contributed, how many willing hands 
 and patriotic hearts have engaged in these blessed 
 ministries of humanity. The Sanitary Commission, 
 from its abundant treasures, the gift of a generous 
 people, has provided the means whereby many a 
 brave man has been saved to the armies of his coun- 
 try, many a husband, a brother, a son. has been pre- 
 served to return to the home which mourns his ab- 
 sence ; and it has also been laboring with great use- 
 fulness and success in behalf of the freedmen of the 
 Mississippi. The Christian Commission, in its pro-
 
 260 OUE COUNTRY : 
 
 posed department of labor, sweeps a still wider circle. 
 It looks to all the wants of the soldier, physical, 
 mental, and religious, and seeks to do what may be 
 done to provide for them all. It not only has food 
 for the hungry, and clothing for the naked, but sends 
 them by the hands of sympathizing Christian men, 
 who follow the sound of the battle, that they may 
 bear away the wounded and pray beside the dying. 
 At Gettysburgh, before the smoke of the deadly con- 
 test had been dispelled, the delegates of the Christian 
 Commission were at their noble toil, which they 
 prosecuted day and night till every bleeding sufferer, 
 patriot or rebel, was found and cared for. The num- 
 ber of delegates thus engaged was over two hundred. 
 Surgeons have declared that, through the agency of 
 the Christian Commission, at least one thousand lives 
 were saved on that field alone. Ministers, who were 
 there engaged in Gospel labors, under the auspices 
 of the Commission, estimate the souls converted in 
 the hospitals at Gettysburgh at one thousand. At 
 this present hour, while the fierce storm of battle 
 rages at various points, hundreds of the delegates of 
 the Commission, a large majority of whom are minis- 
 ters of the Gospel, are prosecuting their labors among 
 the wounded and the dying, striving with heart and 
 voice to save the lives and souls of those to whom 
 they minister. On every great battle-field, and in 
 every hospital in all the land, their presence has 
 brought comfort and hope ; and many a wanderer 

 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 261 
 
 have they led, through grace, to the fold of Christ. 
 The cash value of the benefactions of the Christian 
 Commission during the past year amounts to nearly a 
 million of dollars, and more than twelve hundred dele- 
 gates have responded to its call without fee or reward. 
 
 " THE CHRISTIAN COMMISSION is a voluntary asso- 
 ciation. It was organized in New York on the 16th 
 November, 1861. The persons by whom it was 
 organized were delegates from several societies exist- 
 ing in as many cities and other places, known as the 
 Young Men's Christian Associations. The delegates 
 were sent to New York for the purpose of organiz- 
 ing a body to be known as the Christian Commis- 
 sion. The purpose of this body, at the first and at 
 the present, is the performance of such service to the 
 disabled of the Army and Navy as Christian sympa- 
 thy suggests. In bodies consisting of large numbers 
 of men it is well known that there must be many 
 sick, and in the sad work of the battle-fields it is as 
 well known that there must be large numbers of the 
 wounded. It is to minister to the temporal and 
 spiritual wants of these sick and wounded men that 
 the Christian Commission performs" its voluntary 
 offices. 
 
 "The character of the Commission was fixed at 
 the meeting of the delegates at the instance of 
 George H. Stuart, Esq., by whose happy forethought 
 and succeeding labors the body was brought into
 
 262 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 existence. The philanthropic features of the Com- 
 mission have not been changed. The work as sug- 
 gested by Mr. Stuart of performing the service of the 
 good Samaritan to the sick of the army and the dis- 
 abled of the battle-fields is still continued. The area 
 of the work has been greatly extended, and the num- 
 ber of the workmen has been greatly increased. 
 Following, as the Commission has done, in the foot- 
 steps of the Army and in the wake of the vessels of 
 the Navy, in the expansion of its labors the obliga- 
 tion has been forced upon it of increasing its laborers 
 and means. Wonderful has been its success in meet- 
 ing this emergency. An all-wise and overruling 
 Providence has raised up friends as they were needed, 
 and means as they were demanded. Although at 
 the first it was difficult to accomplish the smaller 
 amount of necessary service, it has not been much 
 more so to perform the same over the greatly ex- 
 tended field that is now whitened for the harvest and 
 demands the laborers and the material necessary for 
 the performance of their work. It is not pretended 
 that the service contemplated has been fully per- 
 formed in the relief of all the suffering and privation 
 that have appeared in the view of the Commission's 
 agents and delegates. Our means have never been 
 adequate to this demand ; but as far as the men and 
 the means could be provided they have been appro- 
 priated, and although all the needed service could 
 not be rendered, a very great proportion of the suf-
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 
 
 fering necessarily occasioned by the war has been 
 relieved. Had there been more men and more 
 money, the greater had been the service and the 
 more nearly perfect had been its performance. 
 
 "As a voluntary association, the Christian Com- 
 mission has no official relation either to the Govern- 
 ment or to the Army and Navy. There is no detri- 
 ment to the service, however, on this account. The 
 work of the Commission is approved and sanctioned 
 by the Government, and directions have been given 
 that its delegates should be respected and protected, 
 and every possible facility afforded them in the pur- 
 suit of their labors. The name of the President of 
 the United States, and the names of a number of the 
 gentlemen of the Cabinet and Generals and other 
 officials of the Army and Navy, have been asso- 
 ciated with the Commission, and thereby the con- 
 nection of the Commission with the Army and Navy 
 service has been rendered as nearly official as is de- 
 sirable. No surgeon or chaplain of the Army and 
 Navy who understands the relationship of the Com- 
 mission with the service ever thinks of impeding the 
 progress of the work or of doing anything in its con- 
 nection that does not facilitate its purpose. But few 
 difficulties have arisen on account of misunderstand- 
 ings in this relation, and the few that have occurred 
 have been readily adjusted when the proper rela- 
 tionship of the parties were understood. 
 
 " An association known as the Baltimore Christian
 
 264 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 Association for the relief of the disabled of the camps 
 and hospitals, was in the service before the organiza- 
 tion of the Christian Commission. It was fairly at 
 its work in May, 1861, preceding the date of the 
 order establishing the United States Christian Com- 
 mission. As soon as the Committee of Maryland of 
 the Commission was appointed, the Baltimore Asso- 
 ciation became auxiliary to" the United States Chris- 
 tian Commission, and has ever rendered efficient 
 service in the connection. 
 
 "Previous to the date at which the Christian Com- 
 mission was organized, the Secretary of the Mary- 
 land Committee was in treaty with clergymen of 
 Baltimore for the purpose of making application to 
 the Government for the provision of a chaplain serv- 
 ice for the hospitals. A correspondence was en- 
 tered into with persons connected with the hospitals 
 for that purpose. On one occasion, that of a hos- 
 pital at which four clergymen were in the habit of 
 visiting, an application was made for assistance in 
 obtaining from the Government the appointment of 
 a chaplain for the hospital and one for each of the 
 hospitals then established. The reply to the appli- 
 cation was unfavorable. The number of unofficial 
 visitors was said to be, and doubtless were, so great 
 that they were in one another's way. What was 
 wanted was a proper head, and a system by which 
 the work should be regulated. The suggestion was 
 not appreciated that the appointment of a single
 
 ITS TIIIAL AND ITS TKIUMPH. 265 
 
 chaplain with official relations and authority would 
 regulate the attendance of others, and render their 
 assistance of much greater use by being more sys- 
 tematic and regular. Letters were written by the 
 Secretary to members of Congress, but without effect. 
 To President Lincoln is due the honor of having the 
 chaplaincy service established, and from him the 
 Christian Commission has received every necessary 
 evidence of favor, and by his encouraging efforts its 
 service has been rendered much more effective than 
 it could possibly have been without it. By a late 
 act of Congress the rank of the chaplain is that of 
 major, which gives them higher authority and 
 greater influence than they have heretofore had. 
 
 "The voluntary service of the United States 
 Christian Commission in the relief of the sick and 
 wounded of the Army and Navy, is rendered almost 
 official by the approval and protection of the Gov- 
 ernment. It is now making up the deficiencies in 
 the religious service, and in the administration of 
 delicacies to the sick and wounded, that probably 
 could not be otherwise supplied. It is not at all 
 probable that Army and Navy officials, however well 
 remunerated, and however well supplied with means, 
 would answer the demands made upon the Christian 
 Commission. The character of the service indicates 
 the voluntary supply, and in such relation only can 
 the labor "be properly performed. 
 
 " It is not to be inferred from our remarks in rela-
 
 266 OUR COUNTRY : 
 
 tion to the necessity of the service of the Christian 
 Commission that the Government does not make 
 ample provision for the pursuit of its purpose in the 
 management of the war, nor that the agencies pro- 
 vided are not sufficiently humane' for the purpose. 
 Never was there such provision made by any Gov- 
 ernment for the relief of the sufferings necessarily 
 occasioned in the conduct of a war as there has been 
 by the Government of the United States in the 
 present sad emergency. Surgeons and chaplains 
 have been supplied for regiments and hospitals ; and 
 these are sufficient for ordinary purposes. But all 
 the surgeons in the country would be insufficient for 
 the demand upon the service after such battles as 
 have been fought in the present contest. Nor in 
 such emergency could all the religipus service that 
 could be secured be sufficient for the supply of the 
 battle-fields and camps and hospitals. It were well 
 therefore that there should be an agency that could 
 wait on the outside and in calmness and with due 
 consideration measure the field demanding the relief, 
 and make provision for its supply. 
 
 " Such is the work of the United States Christian 
 Commission. It is waiting in its place outside of 
 the Army, and of any of the official relations of the 
 Government. It has its delegates composed of 
 Christian ministers and laymen of every religious 
 denomination. The supply is always at hand, and 
 with such means as we have, we send them forth
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 267 
 
 wherever their services are needed. The good 
 pleasure of the Lord has hitherto prospered in 
 their hands, and there can be no doubt of the 
 immense service they are now rendering, and may 
 continue to render in the cause of suffering, bleeding 
 humanity. 
 
 " The following letter from Secretary Stanton 
 expresses his approval of our Commission and its 
 purpose : 
 
 " ' WAB DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON CITY, 1 
 April 16, 1864. j 
 
 "'DEAR SIR: Among the benevolent associations 
 organized by patriotic and charitable men during 
 the present war, none has surpassed, and few, if any, 
 have equaled the Christian Commission in zeal, 
 energy, and disinterested devotion to the humane 
 objects of their -institution. Their efficient labors in 
 the field, in the hospital, and in the camp have been 
 felt by soldiers and officers, and have frequently 
 been brought to the notice of this Department. It 
 is not only a pleasure, but I. regard it as an official 
 duty to commend the Christian Commission to pub- 
 lic confidence and respect, as an institution whose 
 labors cannot fail to contribute greatly to the wel- 
 fare of our armies. 
 
 "'Yours truly, EDWIN M. STANTON, 
 
 Secretary of War? 
 
 "The following is an extract from a letter re- 
 ceived by the Secretary of the Maryland Committee :
 
 268 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 "'No one more heartily sympathizes with the 
 objects, or more highly appreciates the labors of the 
 Christian Commission than yonr very humble serv- 
 ant, WILLIAM H. SEWARD.' 
 
 "Letters of the same nature have been received 
 from President Lincoln and from other members of 
 the Cabinet, as well as from a number of the most 
 distinguished officers of the Army and Navy." 
 
 "A friend of the Commission, of active and ener- 
 getic habits, whose power of thought was rapid and 
 vivid during the process of his absorbing and trying 
 labors, has remembered the events that transpired 
 around him with an interest that has never yet 
 failed to produce an involuntary thrill through his 
 system whenever the recollection of them has oc- 
 curred. Like the ever-changing visions of a terrific 
 dream the ranks of the fallen have appeared. The 
 living who were badly wounded were seen struggling 
 under bodies of the dead, others crawling over them, 
 apparently for the purpose of reaching places of re- 
 lief and security, or spots upon which to die. 
 Among the living and the dead were the men of 
 both armies, the enemies that had fought in the san- 
 guinary conflict. The scene was terrific in its ever- 
 varying variety. There were mangled masses of 
 animal matter composed of the bodies and parts of 
 bodies of dead horses, human forms, limbs and 
 heads, with features yet horrible in the contorted
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TKIUMPH. 269 
 
 lineaments of the death agony; the web- work of 
 iron, wood, leather, and matted clothing, all the 
 shattered implements of war and warlike equip- 
 ments, and shred-worn habiliments of the soldier. 
 The area of horror thus presented was rendered yet 
 more horrible by the activity everywhere in motion 
 of hundreds of laborers with picks and spades, dig- 
 ging trenches, and dragging into' them the bodies of 
 the dead, and covering them with earth. Great was 
 the relief afforded the view in the appearance of the 
 delegates of the Christian Commission with their 
 towels and cloths and pails and basins of water. 
 They were quenching the thirst of the suffering, 
 bathing their foreheads and faces, and washing their 
 wounds, and applying the necessary restoratives to 
 the fainting and exhausted system. They were re- 
 moving gently, and with the most anxious concern, 
 the bodies of such as would bear it. They were 
 whispering the words of comfort and heavenly con- 
 solation to the dying. They were receiving the last 
 messages of love to friends and relatives at home. 
 They were receiving pledges of affection for loved 
 ones and giving assurances of remembrance, and that 
 their dying testimonials and requests should be faith- 
 fully and promptly delivered. The same attention 
 and services were rendered the fallen o'f the enemy 
 that were. given to the soldiers of the Union army. 
 Upon the arm of the delegate the head of the dying 
 rebel has reclined ; and while assurances of remem-
 
 270 . OUR COUNTRY : 
 
 brance to friends, were it possible, and words of con- 
 solation were spoken, the spirit has passed to its 
 place among the departed. 
 
 "On the several occasions when bodies of the 
 enemy, in various numerical force, have invaded the 
 territory held by our troops along the line of the 
 Potomac, in Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, 
 we have visited in person or sent delegates for serv- 
 ice amid the scenes of disaster and bloodshed. On 
 occasions of anticipated invasion, our delegates have 
 been in readiness with stores prepared for the pur- 
 pose, and they have followed swiftly upon the move- 
 ments of the armies and performed extended service 
 to the needy they have left upon the fields behind 
 them. In some instances they have barely escaped 
 capture, sometimes with loss. In several instances 
 their clothing and other property have fallen into the 
 hands of the enemy. One of our chaplains, the Rev. 
 Mr. Former, on one occasion, escaped with his life, 
 but lost all the clothes and property he had with 
 him ; his loss was nearly two hundred dollars. 
 
 " Religious services have been established, through 
 the agency of the commission, in many places where 
 they have been needed. At every possible point at 
 which our delegates are laboring, meetings for preach- 
 ing, experience and prayer have been held. The 
 benefits of this service have been repeatedly acknowl- 
 edged by government officials and others, who have 
 witnessed their effects not only upon the sick and
 
 ITS TKIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 271 
 
 dying, but upon the soldier in health, and in the 
 active service of the camp. Testimonials of the 
 dying of a most gratifying character are upon the 
 record, and many who are living bear continuous 
 testimony of their effect in the witness of faithfully 
 devoted religious lives. 
 
 "A number of terrific battles have been fought 
 during the last year. Through all these the 
 Commission has followed the army, rendering 
 needed service to the dead and wounded of both 
 the contending armies. The cases are but few in 
 which the sufferer of either army has been over- 
 looked; never do we believe has he been willfully 
 neglected. In the wake of these battles we have had 
 experienced delegates. The experience was attained 
 on former occasions of services, and it has rendered 
 the labors of delegates much more ready, as well as 
 much more efficient. Our own experience in ar- 
 ranging for the prosecution of our labors has been 
 valuable to us. It has forced upon us the knowledge 
 of the sort of work we have to perform, and enables 
 us to accomplish it with much greater readiness and 
 ease than were possible when we started in the enter- 
 prise. Our field is now much more systematically 
 arranged and much better worked than formerly. 
 Its points of duty generally are distributed with a 
 degree of regularity throughout the departments of 
 the army in the occupancy of our district. The 
 movements of delegates are ordered in such manner
 
 272 OUB COUNTRY: 
 
 as best enables them to communicate with field, local, 
 and traveling agents, with army officials, and with 
 each other. In this order the work of the Commis- 
 sion is rendered comparatively convenient, and is 
 accomplished with a good degree of satisfaction. 
 
 "It is a sad reflection that the cost of our continued 
 experience and attainment of proficiency should be the 
 blood of hundreds of thousands of our countrymen, 
 and of thousands of millions of treasure that might be 
 expended in the building up rather than in the destruc- 
 tion of cities, and in the beautifying rather than the 
 devastation of the valuable territory occupied and 
 trodden down by the hostile armies. But our mis- 
 guided fellow-citizens will have it so. The terrible 
 issue is forced upon us. Painful as is the process, we 
 must educate ourselves for the afflictive service, or 
 leave unaccomplished one of our most important and 
 necessary duties to humanity, to our country, and to 
 our God. 
 
 " To the suffering prisoners of the Union army at 
 Richmond we have been able to send relief on vari- 
 ous occasions. Our own supplies, without an excep- 
 tion that we have heard of, have reached their des- 
 tination. The benefits experienced by the starving 
 men, in the receipt of sufficient provisions to relieve 
 their necessities, may well be imagined. Letters 
 have been received from the prisoners acknowledg- 
 ing the receipt of boxes of first quality hams, beef, 
 bread, coffee, tea, sugar, with the best of wines that
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 273 
 
 could be found, etc. These letters have contained 
 expressions of gratitude, and desires for remembrance 
 of friends and families, which are of most touching 
 and interesting character. The like has hardly been 
 recorded in history of such abundance of provisions 
 being sent into the heart of an enemy's home for the 
 relief cf the needy captives taken in the pursuit of an 
 irnbittered and terrific and dreadfully afflictive war. 
 It is admitted that no such fighting has ever occurred 
 as that which has been recorded of the armies of 
 Anglo-Saxon descent now in the field. It must also 
 be admitted that no such concern has been experi- 
 enced for the suffering, and no such relief afforded 
 them as that which appears on the records of the 
 Christian Commission. Our history will be a tale of 
 mercy unknown among the archives of the nations of 
 either ancient or modern times. The fallen and 
 afflicted enemy of the battle-field finds a friend and 
 protector in the people against whom his hand has 
 been raised amid the fearful strife of rebellion and 
 war, and the captive in the distant prison of the 
 enemy finds relief and -support in the abundance 
 provided and transmitted by the friends from whom 
 he has been separated in his capture. 
 
 " Close upon the marches of the army,' and fast 
 upon its battle-fields, have been the movements of the 
 Christian Commission. We had scarcely narrated 
 the services of our delegates and ourselves in the
 
 274 OUR COUNTRY : 
 
 peared in different places along the line of the Poto- 
 mac, and not only threatened the States of Maryland 
 and Pennsylvania with invasion, but in several in- 
 stances actually crossed the river, and appeared on 
 the Maryland and Pennsylvania shores in pursuit of 
 whatever plunder they could find. 
 
 " On September 22, 1863, the rebels crossed 
 the Potomac and entered Maryland at Rockville, 
 Montgomery County. They scoured the country for 
 several miles, and secured a considerable amount of 
 plunder in cattle and different kinds of store goods, 
 when they were attacked by the Union troops, and 
 forced to return to their own camping grounds in 
 Virginia. It was not without several skirmishes, in 
 which many lives were sacrificed, and many of both 
 armies disabled, that they were allowed to escape. 
 As early after this raid as September 25, Moseby's 
 men attacked and destroyed a- portion of the Orange 
 and Alexandria llailroad. "While at their work they 
 were fallen upon by the Union troops and driven 
 back with some slaughter on both sides. Again, 
 October 5, Winchester and Harper's Ferry were 
 attacked 'and captured by the enemy, who, as usual, 
 held them but a few days, when the federal army 
 drove them out, and retook the captured towns and 
 vicinities. October 7 skirmishes took place near 
 Martinsburgh with various results, in the capture of 
 Union troops by the rebels, and the capture of rebels 
 by the Union troops. On all these occasions men
 
 ITS TEIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH.' 275 
 
 were killed and wounded, and work provided for the 
 delegates of the Christian Commission. Delegates 
 were sent from our office to the scenes of conflict, 
 where their accustomed services were performed 
 with their accustomed success. 
 
 " At different periods during the year these raids 
 were repeated. The invasion of July 6 is perhaps 
 the most formidable of the efforts of the kind that 
 transpired in the vicinity during the year. It com- 
 menced in the plunder of Frederick City, and was 
 continued in various depredations until after the 
 burning of Chambersburgh, which took place on 
 August 6. The result of these raids left by far the 
 most of the dead and wounded of the enemy on our 
 hands. In hurried retreats it was not possible for 
 them to bury their dead, or to take their wounded 
 from the field. Our hospitals were occupied by large 
 numbers of rebels, on account of whose sfl^Ferings the 
 sympathies of our people were excited, and a vast 
 deal of labor and money were expended in their 
 relief. The hospitals at Frederick City were some- 
 times filled with the wounded of the two armies, 
 while many of the disabled were sent to Baltimore 
 and Washington cities. 
 
 "While the raids were in progress along the 
 Upper Potomac, the most severe and sanguinary bat- 
 tles of the campaign were fought during the passage 
 of Gen. Grant's army toward Petersburg!! and Rich- 
 mond. The contest for Fredericksburgh had been
 
 276 OUR COUNTRY : 
 
 severe and bloody, and .while the power of possession 
 seemed to be alternately in the Union and rebel 
 forces, a number of very hardly contested skirmishes 
 took place, in which many were killed and wounded 
 on both sides. At length, when the scale was perma- 
 nently inclined in favor of the Union army, nearly 
 all the wounded of the enemy fell into our hands. 
 The provisions of the hospitals, which were sufficient 
 in all cases for our own wounded, were insufficient 
 for the accommodation of the crippled of both armies. 
 Shelter tents, and such temporary accommodations 
 as could be hastily provided, were brought into use 
 until the men could be conveyed to distant places of 
 security and comfort. On all occasions the delegates 
 of the Commission were near, and ready with their 
 stores for their work of Christian liberality, providing 
 for the sufferer with whatever means they had on 
 hand, laboring with ceaseless and untiring industry 
 until the objects of their greatly excited interest were 
 as comfortable as they could render them. 
 
 " Afterward came on the battles of the Wilderness, 
 Chancellorsville, Spottsylvania, North Anna, Coal 
 Harbor, Bermuda Hundred, Weldon, then the siege 
 of Petersburgh and Richmond. The slaughter in 
 these battles was immense. The numbers of the 
 wounded were counted by tens of thousands. They 
 were to be hunted out from among the dead. They 
 were to be taken to the ambulance, or if too badly 
 hurt for the jolting of the ambulance, to the shelter-
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 277 
 
 tent of the field. In these shelter-tents, rapidly con- 
 structed to screen the sufferer from the scorching 
 rays of the summer's sun, the surgeons were in wait- 
 ing with their instruments for amputation and for 
 searching the wounds. In the changes of the armies 
 here from Fradericksburgh to the Xorth Anna, thence 
 to the White House, thence to City Point, there were 
 perils to be encountered unknown in human warfare. 
 At every point the enemy was stationed in force, and 
 it was only through the most extreme perseverance 
 and at the most fearful risk and expense of life and 
 suffering that these necessary objects were accom- 
 plished. Sure as the battle and the bloodshed was 
 the appearance of the delegates of the Commission. 
 
 " In large numbers from Maryland, and in larger 
 numbers from the central office in Philadelphia, they 
 crowded into our apartments. We were well pro- 
 vided with haversacks and blankets and stores. 
 Haversacks and blankets were delivered to each del- 
 egate; the haversack was filled with articles for 
 immediate use, and the boxes were packed and sent 
 by the steamboat, or the railroad, or by the wagon 
 team, as became necessary. In some instances the 
 stores were sent in advance of the delegate, and were 
 in waiting when he arrived. It was indeed cheering, 
 amid the harrowing reflections occasioned by the ter- 
 rific slaughter of human life, and the fearful mangling 
 of the human form in such multitudes, to witness the 
 eagerness and earnestness with which our men buck- 

 
 278 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 led on their armor of peace and humanity, the haver- 
 sack and the blanket, and hurried out of the office to 
 the depot of conveyance for the field of their labor. 
 It was a sacrifice to them of time and money and 
 Strength, and a risk of sickness and accida&t. But 
 these drawbacks were not in their ^-consideration. 
 The cost was counted in the duty to which they were 
 committed in the relief of their suffering fellow-men. 
 The duty was imperative. It was counted in human- 
 ity's covenant with God. It was God's own work in 
 his care over his creatures, and the trust was in God 
 that he would bless his own work and lead his own 
 self-sacrificing servants through it. The hour for the 
 meditation and the formal prayer with them had 
 passed when they appeared for their equipments for 
 the service, and like men engaged in business trans- 
 actions, or in pursuit of journeys in business relations, 
 they entered their names, and received their supplies 
 and left for the conveyance. We say formal prayer, 
 because Christian men have their hours and their 
 postures for prayer, but they do not always wait for 
 the hours and for the opportunity of placing them- 
 selves in the posture. They pray while in the pursuit 
 of their purpose in God's service. They do not 
 always want the books nor even the immediate 
 thoughts of prayer. The very act is prayer ; the busi- 
 ness is prayer without a word, and apparently with- 
 out a conscious thought. There is its conscious 
 thought in the act, there is faith in the act, there is
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 279 
 
 trust in the act ; the unconscious thought, the faith, 
 the trust, each is prayer, all is prayer. The prayer 
 is in the act. It is the prayer of faith. It is heard 
 on high. It will be answered. 
 
 " As we have looked upon these men in the pur- 
 suit of their purposes, as anxious as if the large estate 
 were in their view and the extensive business profit 
 to be realized, we have inwardly rejoiced in the view 
 of the better type in which humanity presented itself, 
 and we have prayed that there might be guardian 
 spirits with their unseen protection to shield these 
 messengers of mercy from danger, and conduct them 
 safely through their work. We prayed that there 
 might be such guardian spirits, and w:e believed there 
 would be. We doubted not that God's invisible 
 leaders and protectors would be with his servants, 
 and that they would be conducted in safety through 
 the period wrested from other necessary life pursuits 
 and devoted to this humane, this Christian-like, this 
 noble service. 
 
 " There. they were, and there they are, at the front, 
 in the battle's wake waiting for it to subside, and 
 rushing as soon as it is over as if to make amends by 
 Christian services for the sad havoc that selfish 
 humanity would make of itself. In fierce conflict the 
 deed of blood was wrought. In the quiet composure 
 of the peaceful tent the flow of blood was stayed. 
 In maddened frenzy the unfortunate were thrown 
 violently down. In the labor of meekness the fallen
 
 280 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 was raised up. In the terrific onslaught the bullet 
 and the sword were the agents that brought the ruin. 
 In the merciful intervention the prayer and the word 
 of counsel were the ministers that would have pro- 
 duced the restoration. The intended victim was 
 seized by the hand of Mercy's minister and drawn 
 forth from the place of his peril to be restored to life, 
 to himself, and to the friendships that were as dear as 
 Kfe. The deeds have followed each other in rapid 
 succession. The sword and the bullet have scarcely 
 strewn the soil with their victims when the hand of 
 the delegate has been stretched forth for the relief. 
 The blood was stanched as it flowed from the wound 
 freshly made, and the life of the fallen one has been 
 prevented from passing with the current as it red- 
 dened the soil. The living principle still left in the 
 system has been nourished and nursed and encouraged 
 and strengthened, and from the very dust of death 
 the form has been brought forth and restored, and 
 the strong man has once more appeared upon his feet 
 and asked readmission into the ranks of his country's 
 defenders. It is thus that heaven's mercy follows 
 fast in the personnel of the Christian Commission in 
 the footsteps of war, and effects the relief of the 
 afflicted, and the restoration amid the ruin. 
 
 " It is a strange history that our nationality is now 
 writing. It is the record of the field that tells of the 
 friendly intervention. The tale is 'written in blood 
 and tears. The mourner stands by the bleeding form,
 
 ITS TEIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 281 
 
 and in the rage and roar and devastation of the battle 
 
 * 
 
 all is terrible, all is afflicting, all is heart-harrowing, 
 and working wretchedness. But silently, stealthily, 
 and imperceptibly, the relief agent appears. He 
 comes like Mercy's angel with the means of comfort, 
 and with words of consolation. He tells of the trials 
 of earth and of the triumphs of heaven ; he points to 
 the brief pilgrimage of sorrow that man passes below, 
 and to the enduring bliss that he is to possess in the 
 world above. The pilgrimage is soon over with its 
 woes and pains and wretchedness, but the bliss is to 
 remain forever. The passing spirit realizes the rela- 
 tion. It looks from its suffering tenement to the joys 
 that await its release. It springs from the clay that 
 holds it in its earthly thrall and flies away to its heav- 
 enly rest. So dies the soldier on the field. So passes 
 the humii spirit from the wards of the hospital to its 
 home in heaven. 
 
 " The history of the hospital must pass along with 
 that of the battle-field. The history of the hospital 
 not only tells of the triumph of the redeemed spirit ; 
 it tells also of the restoration of the sufferer, of the 
 reformed life, of the righteousness that superseded the 
 wickedness, of the usefulness that came after the pen- 
 itence on account of the waste of years, of the earnest 
 labors for Qod that the willing hands performed when _ 
 the heart was filled with the love of Christ." 
 
 Such is the strange history our nationality is now 
 writing. In this history the Christian Commission
 
 282 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 must have its part. In the generations of the future 
 its tale of love and mercy must be told. It were 
 well that the hand that binds up the wounds of the 
 sufferer on the battle-field should be painted on the 
 picture that represents the hand with the dagger in 
 its grasp. It were well that the bearer of religious 
 counsels and consolations should be represented on 
 the canvas that exhibits the bearer of the sword. 
 War may devastate and destroy, but the Christian 
 Commission will ever appear in its wake, with the 
 relief and the religious counsel. The field may tell 
 its tale of woe, but the hospital that of the relief. 
 
 THE DYING SOLDIER. 
 
 '"Tis sweet to die 
 When Jesus is nigh." 
 
 " ' Are you the man that sang and prayed last 
 night?' asked a dying soldier just at the break of 
 morning. ' I was one of them,' was the reply. Taking 
 my hand in his he pressed it warmly and said with 
 tearful eyes, ' God bless you, my brother.' ' It was 
 so sweet.' 'It soothed my aching heart so much 
 that the night did not seem half so long as the one 
 before.' A heavenly smile irradiated his counte- 
 nance and told of inward peace. ' I did not think,' 
 he continued, ' that I should ever hear the voice of 
 prayer and praise again -in time.' ' But O ! how 
 precious !' ' It brought peace and heaven to my
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 283 
 
 soul.' ' It fell on my crushed and bleeding heart as 
 the dew that descended on the mountains of Zion.' 
 
 " We breathed a short prayer for the dying Chris- 
 tian soldier, and left him with ministering angels 
 waiting to convoy his freed spirit to the land of 
 unfading brightness, where garments rolled in blood 
 are never seen, and where there is rest for weary 
 souls. An hour afterward we passed on our rounds 
 the spot thus made with the heavenly light of dying 
 grace. We lingered but a moment to close his eyes 
 and wrap around his manly form the soldier's shroud. 
 
 "His countenance, pale and serene, was touch- 
 ingly beautiful in death. 
 
 " The lines of sorrow that shaded his face when 
 we first saw him were no longer visible. They had 
 given place to an expression of peaceful resignation 
 that spoke plainer than words of his triumphant vic- 
 tory over death and sin. 
 
 " We gave him a Christian burial, and dropped a 
 tear of sorrow as we remembered the aged mother 
 far away, who for long years had indulged fond 
 hopes for her darling boy, never to be realized. 
 
 " God bless the stricken mother was our heartfelt 
 prayer as she reads the letter of Christian sympathy 
 announcing the death, in Christ, of her only son." * 
 
 J. R. MILLER, ESQ., field agent for the Christian 
 Commission in the Shenandoah Yalley, gives the fol- 
 lowing interesting particulars : 
 
 * Third Report of the Committee of Maryland.
 
 284 OUK COUNTRY: 
 
 " The battle of "Winchester was fought on the 19th 
 of September. It was a most important battle. 
 Previous to the campaign that so auspiciously opened 
 with this engagement, the Valley of the Shenandoah 
 has indeed been our '"Valley of Humiliation." 
 There we had suffered defeat after defeat, and the 
 brave men who had fallen on many disastrous battle- 
 fields lay scattered over every portion of the valley. 
 But the 19th was a new day in the history of our 
 military operations in that section. For constant 
 and disastrous defeats, we began a series of as brill- 
 iant successes as have marked the history of any 
 army of similar power and strength since the war 
 began. Morning saw the enemy proud, defiant, and 
 confident ; night found them routed, reduced in num- 
 bers by many thousands, flying in disorder, leaving 
 the machinery of war and the debris of battle scat- 
 tered all along his path. The victory was complete, 
 overwhelming, and destructive; and the news that 
 went to the world filled loyal hearts everywhere with 
 thrills of joy and rejoicing. But .victory always costs 
 something, always leaves sad wrecks behind ; and 
 amid the shouts of victory on the field, are mingled 
 the groans and wails of the dying ; and amid the re- 
 joicings at home over the news of victory, there are 
 always mingled the throbs of broken hearts, for 
 loved ones fall on every field of strife, and every vic- 
 tory sends sadness and desolation to many homes. 
 
 "The battle of September 19, while so complete
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 285 
 
 and successful, was bloody. Hundreds of brave men 
 fell to rise no more, and several thousands fell among 
 the wounded. For several days after the battle the 
 suffering was very great. In addition to our own 
 wounded, there were two thousand of the enemy's 
 wounded left in our hands. Winchester was liter- 
 ally one vast hospital. All the churches and other 
 public buildings were filled, while almost every pri- 
 vate house had its quota of wounded and mangled 
 men. There have been but few times since the war 
 began in which there was greater need of external 
 relief. There was nothing left in the country, the 
 Government supplies were all back, the nearest base 
 was Harper's Ferry, over thirty miles distant, and 
 the intervening country was overrun by guerrillas, 
 so that nothing could go forward unless under the 
 
 protection of a strong military escort. I cannot pass 
 
 * 
 over this period without bearing testimony to the 
 
 noble and self-sacrificing labors of the loyal ladies 
 of Winchester. When they saw the brave defenders 
 of the old flag, which they still so dearly loved, 
 stricken down in the streets of their city, they at 
 once entered on their work of mercy, and ceased not 
 till all the brave men were made comfortable. They 
 shared their own last morsel with them ; they washed 
 and dressed and cheered the weary sufferers, and 
 bent over the dying to catch the last whispered mes- 
 sages to dear ones far away. There are a few names 
 in Winchester which will, go down into history gar-
 
 286 OUK COUNTRY : 
 
 landed with honors and coupled with deeds of 
 heroism and magnanimity. 
 
 " At the time of the battle of the 19th the Chris- 
 tian Commission had no adequate organization in 
 the valley. But immediately after the battle we 
 hired wagons, and pressed forward with supplies and 
 delegates. Then began one of the most important, 
 necessary, and successful works of mercy that it has 
 ever been our lot to perform. Never was sympathy 
 or kind aid more opportune or more welcome. Night 
 and day these men labored among the wounded 
 thousands, washing, dressing, feeding, praying with 
 the dying, burying the dead, and calling upon the 
 living to repent and be saved. And thus the work 
 went on from day to day, .constantly increasing in 
 interest and importance. The battles of October 
 followed, and again filled up the hospitals at "Win- 
 chester with wounded and dying men, and again our 
 hands were full. 
 
 " As soon as the railroad was restored, Martinsburg 
 became a place of great importance to our work. 
 Almost every wagon train from the_ front brought 
 down two, three, or five hundred men on their way 
 to the hospitals of Baltimore and Northern cities. 
 During the first few weeks these men were taken to 
 the churches and other buildings from the wagons, 
 where they remained till the following day. Ride 
 all day in a rough army wagon over a macadamized 
 road, and although strong and healthy you will find 

 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 287 
 
 yourself at night sore and weary. But have your 
 body mangled and torn, and then go through the 
 same process, and you will think that there is no 
 suffering so intense as yours. In this manner these 
 poor sufferers were brought twenty-two miles or 
 more, with no rest and nothing to eat by the way. 
 We were always apprised of their coming an hour 
 or more before they began to arrive, and large camp- 
 kettles full of water were placed over the fire, and 
 soon forty or fifty gallons of tea were ready. Then, 
 with tea, crackers, cheese, meats and fruits, our dele- 
 gates hurried about from place to place till all were 
 fed. Then came the bathing and washing and 
 dressing, and it was usually well nigh morning before 
 all was done ; but after a night's hard labor our 
 delegates have always felt amply repaid for their toil 
 in the gratitude of many noble hearts. In the morn- 
 ing the same routine came again, and at noon the 
 brave fellows were placed in the cars for another 
 long, hard ride, and our last act was to make them 
 as comfortable as possible on their hard beds in the 
 cars. 
 
 " It does one good to minister to the wants of such 
 sufferers in such a cause, and to see how their hearts 
 overflow with gratitude to their friends who do so 
 much for them. As one of our delegates was bathing 
 the brow of a, noble young fellow, and putting on 
 clean garments instead o/ bloodstained ones, and 
 giving him some delicacies to eat, he raised his tear- 

 
 288 OUR COUNTRY : 
 
 ful eyes, and asked him what prompted him and 
 others of his fellow-laborers to leave their homes and 
 spend their days and nights on the battle-fields and 
 in the hospitals. He answered him : ' We do. it 
 because we love Jesus.' Yes, this is the true idea 
 of Christianity : a Christianity that works as well as 
 prays and believes. Jesus, our great pattern, taught 
 us in his life what is the true style of Christian liv- 
 ing. He went about doing good, healing the sick, 
 opening the eyes of the blind, unstopping the ears of 
 the deaf, cleansing the lepers, casting out devils. 
 And he says to all of his disciples in all ends of 
 the earth, he says to-night to you and to me : ' Go 
 and do likewise.' 'Freely ye have received, freely 
 give ! ' 
 
 " But this relief work is not our only work. 
 While caring for the temporal wants of our soldiers, 
 and giving them physical comforts, our delegates 
 never forget the thought that these men are beings 
 for immortality, and never fail to bring before their 
 minds, if but in a hastily spoken word as they hurry 
 from cot to cot among thousands, the great truth that 
 they have interests far higher than those of time. 
 Then during the winter campaign, which is always 
 more or less quiet, we enter on our great work of 
 preaching the Gospel. Chapels are erected in every 
 part of our armies, prayer-meetings organized every- 
 where, and religious newspapers, books, tracts, and 
 Testaments distributed in every regiment. Some of
 
 ITS THIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 289 
 
 the most interesting prayer-meetings I have ever 
 attended have been held in the army. It seems that 
 there is a warmth and feeling among soldiers in the 
 field and far from their homes that one never sees in 
 the too much stereotyped religious services at home. 
 
 " During the winter of 1862 and '63 I was in Fal- 
 mouth, Va. We organized a prayer-meeting there in 
 an old factory building. The number increased until 
 two or three hundred were present, and the house 
 was filled to overflowing. Evening after evening 
 men rose for prayers, and many expressed a hope of 
 a living interest in the Saviour. Of many remarka- 
 able conversions there during those few months I 
 will notice but one. It was so striking and remark- 
 able that I cannot pass it by. 
 
 " I was sitting in my office one morning in April, 
 when a strong, athletic man, with bronzed cheeks, 
 entered, and taking a seat, began to converse freely 
 and intelligently. Pretty soon he began to talk of 
 his home, and I could easily see that there was some 
 great load at his heart, and that he had come in to 
 unburden himself. He said he had a wife and two 
 little girls.- I asked him if he was a Christian. 
 He said, after a pause and through tears, that he 
 was not. He drew a letter from his pocket, and 
 asked me to read it aloud to him. He said it was 
 from one of his dear little girls. She was but ten 
 years of age, but had wisdom beyond her years. 
 
 She spoke of her mother and little sister ; she told 
 19
 
 290 OUK COUNTRY : 
 
 him of her Sabbath-school, and how she loved her 
 teacher and her Bible. Then the tender-hearted 
 child told him how she prayed for her absent father, 
 and then she began to beseech him to become a 
 Christian and to love her Jesus. She spoke of the 
 dangers through which he dayly passed, and im- 
 plored him to give his heart to God. As I read, 
 the great tears filled his eyes and trickled down his 
 coarse cheeks. He told ine he desired to become a 
 Christian. His little girls were praying for him, and 
 his wife and his mother, in Canada, were praying 
 for him, and all were writing to him. And then he 
 had been present at our prayer-meetings, and it 
 seemed, he said, that his way was hedged up; he 
 could not stand all these calls to repentance ; brave 
 as he was, this took all his courage away. 
 
 " That night at the prayer-meeting he rose and 
 asked the prayers of his fellow-soldiers. Next night 
 he expressed his hope of an interest in the Saviour. 
 From that time he led a consistent life. I believe 
 he was really converted to God, and I believe also 
 that it was by means of the prayers and letters of 
 that little girl that he found rest to his soul. God 
 hears prayers and answers requests. 
 
 " At the base of Round Top Mountain, on the 
 bloody field of Gettysburgh, when the angry strife 
 was over, I found his grave. He had fallen for his 
 country, but I trust he is with his Saviour. 
 
 " Among the first to fall on that bloody Sabbath,
 
 ITS TKIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 291 
 
 at Fredericksburgh, the 3d of May, was a young 
 man from Newburyport, Massachusetts. He had 
 been constant in his attendance on our prayer-meet- 
 ings, and faithful in his living, and had already 
 given evidence that he was a true soldier of the cross. 
 I found him soon after he had fallen ; a ball had 
 passed through his temples, destroying both eyes. 
 When I spoke to him he knew me by my voice, 
 grasped me by the hand and said, ' I am mortally 
 wounded and soon must die.' I said, ' Charlie, do you 
 feel willing to die here ?' ' O yes,' said he, ' I have 
 done the last for my God and my country. I have 
 a dear mother at home whom I would like to see 
 once more, and I would like to die at home with 
 them ; but I must die here, and God's will be done.' 
 ' Is Christ as precious to you now, Charlie, as he 
 used to be in the prayer-meetings ?' ' O yes,' he 
 said, ' far more precious. "Write to my friends, and 
 tell them that although my eyes are gone, this last 
 hour is the brightest hour of my life.' Thus died 
 this most noble young man. Far from home, and 
 far from the dear ones that make home happiest and 
 best, he died triumphantly. Jesus was near, and 
 that was enough to lighten the darkness, to smooth 
 the pillow, to ease the pain, and to bear the soul 
 high above the fears and anxieties of this world. 
 
 " A young officer was found on one of our battle- 
 fields mortally wounded. He had his Bible in his 
 hand as he lay calmly awaiting the moment of death.
 
 292 OUR COUNTRY : 
 
 His Bible was opened at the eighth chapter of Romans, 
 and with his pencil he had traced around the first 
 and last five verses of that chapter. Those verses 
 have ever since possessed a value and sweetness to 
 my mind that but few verses in the Bible possess. 
 Think of a dying man pausing on the brink of life, 
 while eternity's vast depths opened up before him, 
 to trace his pencil around that glorious truth, ' There 
 is therefore now no condemnation to them who are 
 in Christ Jesus;' and that other declaration, that 
 nothing in heaven or earth, nor among the powers 
 of the air, can separate him from the love of Christ. 
 It was worth living a whole lifetime in toil, privation, 
 and danger to witness such a death. When asked 
 if he had any message to send to his mother, he 
 answered, ' Send her my Bible and sword, and tell 
 her that I died in the arms of my Saviour.' "Worlds 
 could not buy that Bible from his mother. It is far 
 too precious. Those pencil tracings made by that 
 faint hand, just as death was completing its work, 
 and around such precious words, are worth more than 
 lines of gold, because they tell the story of that young 
 man's life and death for Christ." 
 
 Rev. L. Hartsough, of the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church, and agent of the Commission at Point Look- 
 out, made the following remarks : 
 
 He stated that his heart had been stirred by the 
 thrilling thoughts expressed by Brother Miller, and 
 could appreciate them the better on account of the 

 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 293 < 
 
 experience that he had had in the same work. 
 Among the many precious things that were coming 
 to the knowledge of the Christian Commission dele- 
 gates, that cheered their hearts and encouraged them 
 in their work, was the following beautiful waif that 
 will speak for itself, and which the speaker read amid 
 the tears of the audience : 
 
 " A young man in one of our southern hospitals,* 
 wounded in the first fight at Vicksburg. when asked 
 by a Christian gentleman (Bro. Burnell) if he had a 
 Testament, said, ' Yes, but my eyes are growing dim, 
 and I can't see to read such fine print now.' The 
 gentleman gave him his, which was larger type, in 
 exchange. In the young soldier's Testament were 
 written these words : 
 
 " LAWSON WOOD. 
 
 " FROM YOTJE MOTHER. 
 
 " My son, fear God." 
 
 And then followed, in a different handwriting, these 
 words : 
 
 " ' On the field of battle, mother, 
 
 All the night alone I lay, 
 Angels watching o'er me, mother, 
 
 Till the breaking of the day ; 
 I lay thinking of you, mother, 
 
 And the loving ones at home, 
 Till to our dear cottage, mother, 
 
 Boy again, I seemed to come. 
 
 " ' He to whom you taught me, mother, 
 
 On my infant knee to pray, 
 Kept my heart from fainting, mother, 
 
 When the vision passed away ; 
 
 * Nashville.
 
 294 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 In the- gray of morning, mother, 
 
 Comrades bore me to the town, 
 From my bosom, tender fingers 
 
 Washed the blood that trickled down. 
 
 " ' I must soon be going, mother, 
 
 Going to the home of rest ; 
 Kiss me as of old, mother, 
 
 Press me nearer to your breast. 
 Would I could repay you, mother, 
 
 For your faithful love and care ; 
 God uphold and bless you, mother, 
 
 In the bitter woe you bear. 
 
 " ' Kiss for me my little brother, 
 
 Kiss my sister, loved so well ; " 
 When you sit together, mother, 
 
 Tell them how their brother fell ; 
 Tell to them the story, mother, 
 
 When I sleep beneath the sod, 
 That I died to save my country, 
 
 All from love to her and God. 
 
 " * Leaning on the merits, mother, 
 
 Of the One who died-for all, 
 Peace is in my bosom, mother ; 
 
 Hark, I hear the angels call 1 
 Don't you hear them singing, mother? 
 
 Listen to the music's swell. 
 Now I leave you, loving mother ; 
 
 God be with you ; fare you well.' 
 
 " Two days after, this gentleman called to see Law- 
 son "Wood, but lie had gone home to Jesus."* 
 
 The work commenced by the Commissions, and 
 which has been so eminently successful, will be con- 
 tinued and expanded by other agencies, until our 
 bleeding country shall be healed of its wounds, and 
 its unity be restored and permanently established. 
 
 The government will adopt measures for the resto- 
 
 * Thanksgiving service, hold by the U. S. Christian Commission, on 
 the evening of November 24, 18G4, in Light-street Methodist Episcopal 
 Church, Baltimore.
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 295 
 
 ration of the disaffected states to their former position 
 and privileges, to their ancient love for the Union, 
 and sympathy with a sound national policy. The dis- 
 ruption of those states left the body politic ghastly 
 and gory; the measures of the government in due 
 time will be to bind up, to mollify, and to cure the 
 wounds. The present work is that of the skillful 
 surgeon, who, in certain conditions of a wound, finds 
 it necessary to use the probe and the scalpel; the 
 future will be more especially that of healing and 
 administering cordials. The people who have blindly 
 rushed into secession and rebellion will see their error 
 and return to their allegiance, and they will be wel- 
 comed to the common brotherhood of states, and 
 reinstated in all their legitimate rights and privi- 
 leges. Old feuds and heartburnings will be forgot- 
 ten, sectional animosities will cease, and a common 
 platform of human rights and equal justice will tend 
 to annihilate antagonisms, and to mould the whole 
 American people into one homogeneous mass. The 
 violence which has occasioned the temporary estrange- 
 ment of the southern states will yield to the stern 
 discipline of war, and be succeeded by the feelings of 
 confraternity and . brotherly affection. The unity of 
 the states will then be a common faith, and the object 
 and end of a united, continued, and uninterrupted 
 endeavor. As we have "one Lord, one faith, and 
 one baptism," so we shall have one political creed 
 and shall be one people.
 
 296 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 
 The several states will co-operate in tlie great and 
 
 good work of restoration. Commerce between them 
 will be revived. The old channels of intercourse and 
 trade will be opened and occupied. The rivers, har- 
 bors, and railways will be crowded, and interchange 
 of commodities between the North and South will 
 settle the conviction of mutual dependence and pro- 
 mote the prosperity and wealth of both sections. 
 The eastern, the middle, the western, and the south- 
 ern states will regard themselves, not as so many 
 independencies, but as parts of one grand nationality. 
 The rights of the several states will be considered as 
 the rights of sisters of the same family, and not as 
 the rights of independent governments. All the stars 
 of the national galaxy shall shine with their own 
 peculiar luster; and although one star may differ 
 from another in glory, there will be no conflicts 
 between them. The laws of commerce will be so 
 many bonds of union; mutual dependence will beget 
 mutual respect, and the advantages arising from the 
 exchange of commodities will encourage forbearance 
 and friendship. The union of the states will pro- 
 mote the happiness and prosperity of each, and the 
 prosperity of each will redound to the honor and 
 glory of the whole. Then shall be realized the spirit 
 and intent of the prophecy, " The envy also of 
 Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah 
 shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and 
 Judah shall not vex Ephraim."
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 297 
 
 O Peace 1 thou source and soul of social life : 
 Beneath whose calm, inspiring influence 
 Science his views enlarges, art refines, 
 And swelling commerce opens all her ports ; 
 Blest be the man divine who gives us thec ! 
 
 THOMSON. 
 
 The people by every possible means must encour- 
 age friendly intercourse and mutual confidence. All 
 distance and exclusiveness, envy and sectional jeal- 
 ousies, should be avoided, and a community of inter- 
 ests should be, a feeling more' than a mere sentiment- 
 ality. Let the people of the North and of the South 
 mingle together freely : let travel, business relations, 
 and matrimonial alliances be encouraged. Let those 
 refugees from the South who find it agreeable, and 
 can make it profitable to settle themselves in business 
 in the North, do so; and our soldier boys, whose 
 tastes and interests lead them in that direction, find 
 for themselves homes in the sunny South. A reci- 
 procity of kindly feelings and a thorough acquaint- 
 ance will finally overcome sectional prejudices. 
 
 Friendship is no plant of hasty growth ; 
 Though planted in esteem's deep-fixed soil, 
 The gradual culture of kind intercourse, 
 Must bring it to perfectly. 
 
 JOANNA BAILLIE. 
 
 It has often been aaid since the war of the rebellion 
 commenced that the South and the North can never 
 live together again under the same government; 
 that the friction of the war has so destroyed all 
 respect and confidence between the two classes that 
 they can never be restored. This is an ignorant and
 
 298 OUR COUNTRY: 
 
 prejudiced view of the subject. Time is a great 
 healer of the wounds of the soul and under proper 
 circumstances, will finally efface the deepest scars. 
 History furnishes an abundance of evidence that two 
 peoples may be reconciled and live in harmony after 
 the most terrible wars between them. The tribe of 
 Benjamin, after being nearly extinguished by a sud 
 den outbreak of war with the other tribes, occasioned 
 by the murder of a Levite's concubine, at Gibeah, in 
 the days of the Judges, became reconciled "by sym- 
 pathy and measures of conciliation, and ever after 
 lived in the most amicable relations with the tribe 
 of Judah. England and Scotland for centuries were 
 engaged in the most cruel wars, and seemed to be 
 influenced by the most invincible antipathies, and 
 yet they finally became united under the same gov- 
 ernment. The leaders in a quarrel, when it is over, 
 lose their power for mischief, and the masses, who 
 are their victims, settle down into quiet submission 
 to the natural order of things. It will be but a short 
 time before the fomenters of the great southern feud 
 will be out of sight an^ out of mind. The whole gen- 
 eration of them will pass away like the dew before 
 the rising sun. The people are not always to be 
 mystified. The reign of passion is short. After a 
 brief interruption by violence, reason and common 
 sense, conscience and religion, will finally resume 
 their sway. The better feelings of the human heart 
 once in the ascendant, mob violence and brute force
 
 ITS TRIAL AND ITS TRIUMPH. 299 
 
 give place to law and order, and peace returns to 
 bless the world. 
 
 Lend once again that holy song a tongue 
 Which the glad angels of the advent sung, 
 Their cradle anthem for the Saviour's birth, 
 " Glory to God, and peace unto the earth I" 
 Through the mad discord send that calming word 
 Which wind and wave on wild Gennesareth heard ; 
 Lift in Christ's name his cross against the sword ! 
 
 WHITTIER. 
 
 The last but not the least restorative which I 
 notice, and which the whole country should pray for, 
 is a general outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The 
 chastened feelings with which the sufferings and hor- 
 rors of the war will be regarded, it may be hoped, 
 will be favorable to religious reflection, humiliation, 
 and prayer. The Church should come out of the 
 struggle nerved with fresh power, and inspired with 
 an aggressive spirit. During the war she has lifted 
 high the standard of the cross, and has contended 
 nobly against abounding iniquity. She has inter- 
 posed her intercessions between an overwhelming 
 storm of divine vengeance and the country ; she has 
 sent her sons into the. army to fight, and her daugh- 
 ters have remained at home to pray. Her sympa- 
 thies and her prayers have reached to heaven. God 
 has witnessed her struggles, heard her prayers, and 
 sent down his blessings upon the government, the 
 army and navy, and the* whole people. She has 
 passed through experiences which will have prepared 
 her for a new and vigorous campaign " when this
 
 300 OUR COUNTRY. 
 
 cruel war is over." A great revival of religion will 
 be the pressing want of the country, and the natural 
 subject of thought and object of labor with every 
 devout heart. The earnest, active piety of the whole 
 Church will move, yea, is moving now straight 
 toward this mark. Already the cloud of mercy is 
 rising in the heavens the bigness of a man's hand, 
 betokening an abundant shower. A mighty rain of 
 righteousness will heal broken hearts, sanctify pov- 
 erty, cheer desolate hearths, and harmonize ihe dis- 
 cordant elements of society. The grace of God, rich, 
 full, and free, is the great resource of the nation in 
 these times of peril, and will be in all future emer- 
 gencies, and will be vouchsafed in answer to fervent 
 and believing prayer. 
 
 THE END.
 
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 Whedon's Commentary, 
 
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