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 3 1924 104 014 901 
 
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 a ID.E O N ' S WAT K R -1- A P P K R 8 . 
 
 A SERMON 
 
 ' On Friday, the 8th day of April, 1864. 
 
 THE DAY SET APART BY THE 
 
 CONGrlESS OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES, 
 
 kS A DAY Of 
 
 HUMILIATION, FASTIN(4 AND PRAYER 
 
 [Pt^BLISHKD BY EEQUEST. ; 
 
 "Vl!!rf tht I.o,d said nnto Qiiian, Bn the thru hmidrsil men that lapped niU 1 tave 
 you, and-asH-itr tha MldianUes into thtiis Anne'."— JODGXd Tin t, 7, 
 
 
 BURKE, BOYKIN & COMPANY. 
 1864. 
 
The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924104014901 
 
GIDEON'S WATER-LAPPEBS. 
 
 A' SERMON 
 
 On Friday, the 8th day of April, 1864. 
 
 THE DAY SET APART BY THE 
 
 CONGRESS OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES, 
 
 AS A DAY OF 
 
 HUMILIATION, FASTING AND PRAYER. 
 
 [PUBLISHED BY BEQUEST.] 
 
 " And the Lord said imto Gideon, By the three Tmadred men tluii lapped will I acme 
 you, and deliver Oie MidiOTdtea'into tMae Acmrf."— Jiroass tii : y. 7. 
 
 BUEKE, BOYKIN & COMPANY. 
 1864. 
 
So iUt (&Ut^\j 0i tht §imn (ft <&t9t0. 
 
 "Whereas, the Senate and House of Representatives of the Confederate 
 States of America signified, during the late session of Congress, their desire . 
 that Friday, the 8th day of April, should be recommended tp the people of the 
 said States as a day of Humiliation, Pasting and Prayer, and 
 
 Whebeas, I in pursuance of that desire, the President of the Confederate 
 States has issued his Proclamation, setting apart that day for the purposes of 
 religious observance, and inviting the people of the Confederate States to repair 
 to their'several places of public worship and beseech Almighty God "to preside 
 over our public counsels and to inspire our armies and leaders with wisdom, 
 courage and perseverance ; and so to manifest himself in the greatness of hia 
 goodness, and in the majesty of his power, that we may secure the blessings of 
 an honorable peace and of free government, and that we, as a people, may 
 ascribe all to the honor arid Gllory' of his namCi" 
 
 Now, therefore, I, Stephen Elliott, Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal 
 Church in the Diocese of Georgia, do direct the Clergy of said Diocese 'to call 
 the attention of their respective congregations to this reqOest on the part of 
 our Congress and President, urging upon them its observance in the true spirit 
 •of Humiliation and Prayer. 
 
 > And I do further direct the Clergy of the Diocese to assemble their congre- 
 gations upon the day appointed for the Past and to use the following service ; ' 
 
 Morning Prayer as usual to the Psalter. 
 
 I'salms for the Day— 94th, 144th, 146th. 
 
 First Lesson — Lamentations : oh. Ill, v. 37, to end. 
 
 Second Lesson — Romans: ch. 13. 
 
 Use the whole Litany. 
 
 Before the General Thanksgiving introduce the Confession which precedes 
 the Epistle for Ash Wednesday and the following Prayers : 
 
 The Prayer "In time of War and Tumults," introdticing after the words 
 "from the hands of our enemies,'' the words "abate their pride, assuage their 
 malice, confound their devices.'' 
 
Almighty God and Heaivenly i'ather, who hast taught us in thy Holy 
 Word, that, if our ways please thee, thou wilt make even our enemies to be at 
 peace with us, create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we worthily 
 lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedn^s, may obtain of thee, 
 the God of all mercy, such remission and forgiveness, such sanctifioation and 
 divihe favor, as that thou mayest grant unto us independence and peace. We 
 acknowledge.it thy goodness that we have not been delivered over as a prey 
 unto our enemies, and we beseech thde ^till to continue such thy merqies towards 
 us, that all the world may know that Thou art our Saviour and mighty Deliv- 
 erer, through Jesus Christ our Lord ; Amen. , 
 
 STEPHEN ELLIOTT,- 
 
 Bishop of the Diocese of Georgia. , 
 Savannah, March 29, 1864. 
 
^etmott* 
 
 JtTDGBS: OHAPj VIl, VV. 1—9. 
 
 1. Tlu/n, Jerubbaal {^wko.is Gideon,) and all the people that were with him, rose 
 up early, and pitched ieside the well of. Barod: so that the host of the Midia/nites 
 were on the north side vf them, by the hill of Moreh, in the vaUey. 
 
 2. And the Lord said unto Gideon, The people that are with thee are too ma/ny 
 for me to give the Mtdianites into their hands, lest Israel vavmt fhemselmes against 
 me, saying, Mine own Imnd hath saved me. 
 
 3. Now, therefore, go to, proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, Wlwsoever 
 is fearful and afraid, let him return, and depart early from Mount Gilead: and 
 there returned of the people twenty and two tho^ahd, and there remained ten 
 thousand. , 
 
 4. And the Lord said unto Gideon,, The people are yet too many; bring them 
 domn unto the water, and I will try them for thee there : and it shall be, that of 
 whom I say wnio thee. This shall go with thee, the same shaM go with 'thee; tmd of 
 whomsoever Isa/y unto thee. This shallnot go with thee, (he same shqll not go. 
 
 5. So he brought. down Ihe.people unto the water: and the Lord said unto Gid- 
 eon, Every one that lappeih of the water with his tongue, as a dog kppeih, him shall 
 thou set by himself; likewise every one that boweih down upon his knees to drmlc. 
 
 6. And the riumber of them that lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, were 
 three hundred men : butoM the rest of the peopfe bowed down upon their knees to 
 drink water, , 
 
 1. And ilie Lord said unfo Gideon, By the three hv/ndred men Dmt lapped wiV I 
 save you, and deliver the Midia/nites into thifie hand: and let aU the other people go 
 Biiery man rmioh/is 'place; 
 
 8. So the people took victuals in their hand, and their trumpets : and he sent aU 
 the rest of Israel, every m,an wdo his tent, and rdained those three hwidred men. 
 And the host of Midiem was beneathhim in the valley. 
 
 The fourth campaign of our struggle for deliverance from 
 the usurping tyranny of the United States is about to open 
 upon a scale of grandeur equal to any which has preceded it. 
 Foreseeing the fierceness of this last great effort of that nearly 
 exhausted power, our Congress has called upon us to meet it, 
 not only in the spirit of united and determined resistance, but 
 with humiliation before God and earnest prayer for his help 
 and guidance. We have so often seen the gathering fury of our 
 enemies dispersed by God in answer to our humble prayers— 
 
6 A SERMON. 
 
 scattered and rolled bkck in blood and confusion — 'that we 
 come to-day boldly to tbe throne of Grace, firmly believing 
 that our prayerS, and supplications, if offered with pure hearts 
 and clean lips, will return" to us laden with blessings from the 
 Lord of Hosts, the God of the armies of Israel. . 
 
 Upon such a critical occasion, it becomes us to prelude our 
 solemn fast, and the observations which arise naturally out of 
 it, with a song of thanksgiving for the favours which have 
 crowned us in thp past, and for the, position which we yet 
 maintain in the face of our enemies and of the world. "It is 
 of God's mercies that we have not bee^ consumed, " for we 
 have assuredly had everything against ■ us ; numbers over- 
 whelming, hate bitter and cruel, resources without stint, the 
 command by our enemies of the ocean and the rivers, the ear 
 of the world shut to us, the cry put upon us of slavery and 
 barbarism. With all these things have we been contending 
 for, three weilry years, through storm and sunshine, in cold 
 and hunger and nakedness, creating as^we fought, weeping 
 while we labored, reaping courage and endurance 'from, the 
 fields^ sown with the blood of our children, 'and yetthrough the 
 mercy of God, we stand this day unconquered. "and defiant, 
 looking to final success with as full assurance, as upon the day 
 when we threw down the gauntlet, under the walls of' the 
 ocean girdled Sumter. Army after army has been hurled 
 back from its desperate advances, as the iron bound coast 
 hurls back the waves, broken into foam,, which rolled up so 
 fiercely and ominously to the assault. General after General 
 has met his doom at our hands, not in bloody graves, but in 
 discom'fiture and disgrace, and they have passed in gloomy 
 procession, discrowned and-unwreathed, from off the stage of 
 action. Alas ! that one of Southern bifth should have led 
 that band of smitten heroes, and that the laurels of the great 
 Captain of two wars should have been withered, in such a 
 cause ! Just retribution ! that the hand which lifted itself 
 against its mother, should have lost its cunning as it struck 
 the blow. 
 
 Such is our cause for thanksgiving, when considered in a 
 general way and in its relations to the past. But we shall finct-' 
 
A SERMON. 
 
 it very much augmented, if instead of gazing gloomily into the 
 future, we should look calmly arotind us at the perplexed 
 scene amid which we standi Our great business undoubtedly 
 is, " not to trouble ourselves about what lies dirtily at a distance, . 
 but to do what lies clearly at hand." It is unbecoming- a 
 christian people to be throwing crude fears and murmurings 
 into the face of God, when we should rather be praising and 
 blessing his Holy name for his great goodness and loving 
 kindness towards us. It may be wellthat our enemies should 
 despise our strength and undervalue our resources, so that when 
 the truth bursts upon them, the reaction may be more over- 
 whelming, but it is not well that We should underrate our own 
 condition and be , despondent when there is no legitimate 
 occasioni for it. We must not permit the serpents which are 
 to crush us and our children to creep out of our own altars. 
 
 If we recall the brief history of our Grovernnient, we shall 
 perceive that, with the exception of Louisiana, the enemy has 
 made no conquests of moment in any of the seven States which 
 composed the original Confederacy. After three years of gigan- 
 tic warfare our foes have succeeded in planting their hostile 
 footsteps only upon the> shores and coasts of the States which 
 first defied them. The ocean line of South Carolina, Greorgia, 
 Florida, and TiBxas, and the river line of Mississippi and Ten- 
 nessee, just where their unopposed navies could rea^ch, comprise 
 all their conquests, and those gained at immense expense, held 
 within the narrowest limits and by a most precarious tenure. 
 For two years have they fitted out armament after armament, 
 provided with everything which mechanical ingenuity could 
 devise and a limitless issue of paper money could purchase, and 
 they have not advanced on^ foot within our territories. They 
 tried to advance at Charlepton' and were whipped at Seces- 
 sionville. They attempted it ftom Port Royal and were 
 whipped at Poc6taligo. In that direction they stand precisely 
 where Dupont left them in November, sixty-one. Again 
 they were bold to move inward from Jacksonville and were 
 shamefully defeated at Ocean pond. They made a like effort 
 from Pascagoula and were forced to beat a hasty retreat to 
 their vessels. Their last grand advance from Vicksburg has 
 
8 A.SEEMON. 
 
 ended, like all the rest, in discomfiture and disaster. All they 
 have really gained , in the thrdie years of the war, has heen 
 gained in Virginia^ Tennessee and Arkansas; States which 
 joined their fortunes with the Confederacy only after the war 
 had commenced.' Up. to this moment, therefore, the armies of 
 the tJnited States have been only regainingterritory which they 
 lost since the struggle began in the harb6r of. Charleston ! 
 This is worthy df notice and teaches ' us how idle is any 
 idea of subjugation. Our remaining territory is, at lea;stj 
 three times the area of France, and nearly one half the area 
 of that overshadowing power, Russia in . Europe. Was that 
 Empire in any real danger when Napoleon, with the greatest 
 army of modern times, had, reached and captured its ancient 
 capital ? In none at all ! His own danger it Vas that began when 
 he obtained that apparently grand position! With a distant 
 base, almost interminable, space stretching away around him, 
 in the midst of an intensely hbstile people, , with cavalry swarm- 
 ing upon his lines of communication, his defeat was certain 
 even before the cold descended upon his armies. ' And will not 
 this be the, position of every army attempting to advance within 
 our borders, if we are only true to ourselves ? Was France in 
 any danger of subjugation.when Marlborough and Eugene broke 
 through her frontier fortresses, and the bloody battles of Oude- 
 narde and Malplaquet had consigned to thie dust her best. and 
 most veteran warriors ? Or should we consider that Empire 
 in aay serious peril now, if England was to ravage her coasts 
 and take possession of her harbors ?■ Duri^g the' greater part 
 of the wars of Napoleon, France was under as strict blockade 
 as we are now. Why then. should we croak' and tremble 
 because of a few temporary reverses, which can give our 
 enemies no permanent possession of the country and which must 
 be maintained, if maintained at all, at -a cost past all calcu- 
 lation. I , , 
 
 But it may be said, this is a one-sided view of the case. 
 The enemy has been steadily gaining upon us, and every year 
 finds him in possession of some new territory which weakens 
 us and gives him confidence of final success. Admitting this 
 to be so, we must remember the cost at which these advantages, 
 
A SEEMDN> 9 
 
 such as they are, have been achieved. Already has the 
 United States government accuniulated a permanent debt 
 of Kfteen hundred millions of Dollars, besides a floating 
 debt, vrhiph it dares not look in the face, of several hundred 
 millions more, amounting together to one half the national de^t' 
 of Great Britain; already have their military drafts exceedjOd 
 a million of mep, some hundreds of thousands of whom have 
 been disabled, or whose bones lie scattered over the debateable 
 ground of Virginia and Tennessee ; and with no better result 
 than having regained, as I said just no"«(, a portion of the Terri- 
 tory which came to us from them after the war commenced. 
 Can they at this rate continue this expenditure long «noi}gh 
 to finish their work ? Will the people of the United States 
 consent to be maimed and slaughtered through an indefinite 
 series of years for the annual honor of marching from Wash- 
 ington to the Rappahannock, and from Nashville to Chatta- 
 nooga ? Impossible I for it would require, according to their 
 present rate of progress, at least two more Presidential terms 
 and the acqumulation of a debt unheard of in the annals of 
 the world, before they could overrun our territory, even sup- 
 posing that they should meet no such crushing defeats as they, 
 have encountered in the past. Truly their prospect is not a 
 bright one, even when admitting their own prehensions. 
 
 But it will be said that our resources in materials of war, 
 in food and in men are all failing us, and that we cannot 
 maintain the struggle for* a much -longer period. This is a 
 popular error,' uttered without proper consideration and with- 
 out those limitations which are necessary to make it true. ' 
 In materials of war, strictly so called, we were never so well 
 off as we are at this moment. I remember weH, when in the, 
 early days of this conflict, there was not powder enough in the 
 Confederacy to fight another battle, and now we have it in 
 rich abundance. I remember well, when in this very military 
 district, threatened too at the time with a serious attack, the 
 fortuitous 9,rrival of a foreign vessel alone enabled us to arm 
 the troops which had assembled for our defence. And now 
 who hears of any deficiency of arms f In the first years of 
 the conflict our supply of both heavy mi light artillery was 
 B 
 
10 A gEKMOW- 
 
 scanty, and for the most part, of very inferior quality, and 
 now we have quite an abundance of that arm of the service, 
 equal in most respects to the armaments of our adversary. 
 A^ain and again have our troops been reduced, in the past, 
 to great extremities for proper and sufficient clothing and 
 equipments ; they are now, according to the most authentic 
 accounts, well ordered in these respects- and^ sufficiently pro- 
 vided with jit least the necessaries of a camp life. When we 
 first grappled with oar enemy, their mechanical superiority 
 was what we had most to dread; now our workshops, our 
 armories, our powder mills, our minora;! bureaus, our foundries, 
 which have sprung up with wonderful skill and energy, can 
 compare in quality, if not in number, with the best which our 
 foes caij boast. If we turn to the question of food, my honest 
 opinion is -that the condition of the currency has had much 
 more to do with the scarcity of provisions than any actual 
 deficiency of the stapply. The food> is in ' the. country, and 
 unless God sends upon us the curse of a. special famine, will 
 always be 'in the country, in quantity sufficient for all the 
 purposes of life for both the people and the army, protideb' 
 the government will furnish a currency having value and 
 stability, and will turn its attention in earnest to the question 
 of transportation. This is, I freely admit, our weakest poiiit, 
 but putting it at the worst, we have not yet encountered any , 
 such difficulties as many nations, fighting successfully for inde- 
 j),endence, have safely passed through. What is very remark- 
 able upon this point, is the striking fact that the complaii^t 
 about food has never yet come from, the troops. Although 
 these gallant men have often suflered from coarse and insuf- 
 ficient rations, they have suffiared in silence, satisfied to believe 
 that the Government was doing "all. that it could for their 
 comfort. The cry of scarcity has come especially from those 
 who have desired to- obtain the very highest prices for what 
 they possessed, and it has been echoed by others, who have 
 been felicitous to make the war unpopular, and thus bring it 
 to a close through reconstruction or submission. I have no 
 doubt that our Commissarieshave had sore trouble to meet' the 
 demands of our armies, but provisions will hide when money 
 
A SEEMON. 11 
 
 is valuelesSj .and fear of the' guillotine could not force the 
 assignats of France down the throats of the farmers. How 
 quickly all that was remedied, when Buonaparte rose to the 
 head of affairs ! He fbund the troops of revolutionary France 
 very much in tha condition in which ours have been at times, 
 poorly fed, poorly clad, poorly equipped ; nay he conducted 
 the glorious campaign of Italy with soldiers in worse condition 
 than ours have ever been ; but the magic of his administra- 
 tive capacity very soon brought order out of chaos, a;nd plenty 
 out of scarceness. Let us hope that the intrepM firmness of 
 our late Congress, to whose acts too much praise cannot be 
 given, may enable our administration to produce in time the 
 like wholesome results. Those acts . may have special faults 
 and glaring deficiencies, but they have, I think, struck fairly at 
 the root of the mischiefs which have, been cursing the land, and 
 while their errors can be easily corrected by subsequent legis- 
 lation, the great principles of political science which underlie 
 them, of present and ample tstxation, of a sound and perma- 
 nent currency, of personal obligation upon every man, of 
 military age, to take up arms for his country, of entrusting 
 adequate power to the hands of our rulers, will sink deeply 
 into the hearts of the people and will ultimately lead us on 
 • to independence and greatness. 
 
 The rapid changes which have been made by our Govern- 
 ment in the ages of our conscripts, have led many ..to believe 
 that our armies cannot be long kept up to their proper stand- 
 ard of numbers. But this> position depends for its truth upon 
 something else than a mere naked arithmetical calculation. 
 Our proper standard of numbers is not any given amount, but 
 is the proportion which those numbers bear to the armies 
 that can be brought into the field against us, and the quality 
 of the trodps which we shall be' called upon to meet in battle. 
 Weighing the question of men in this point of view, there is 
 very little to. make us uneasy, for not only is the proportion 
 of our armies to those of the enemy greater now in actual 
 numbers than it has ever been before, but this proportion is 
 largely increased in our favor by the ever lengthening line of 
 their interior communications, which of course largely dimin- 
 
12 A SERMON. ' 1 
 
 / 
 ishes the number which they can actually lead into battle. 
 
 'Napoleon invaded Austria and fought the battle of Austerlitz 
 •with eighty thousand men, but he did not venture to move 
 upon Eussia, although the laurels of a hundred victories 
 wreathed his brow and made him almost invincible, with less 
 than six hundred thousand men, not because of the compara- 
 tive strength of-<the two empires, but because of the respective 
 distances of the fields of operation. And so with our enemies. 
 As they advance into Our interior, so many troops are abso- 
 lutely required to keep up lines of communication,, to guard 
 bridges and depots, to garrison important positions, that their 
 armies might increase and ours diminish in adtual numbers, 
 and yet the proportion be maintained, which has hitherto 
 enabled us to repulse them, or at least hold them in check. 
 But our deficiency in men is not such as has 'been supposed. We 
 mournfully count those who have fallen in battle and by disease, 
 but forget those who are attaining maturity throughout the 
 bounds of the Confederacy. It is i&possible, for lack of any 
 correct statistical taibles', to reduce this matter to actual cer- 
 tainty, but if we take a single city, our own for example, I 
 will venture tp- assert that more youths have come of military 
 age during the three years of the war, than can be named of 
 citizens who have been killed or disabled in the struggle. And 
 while what is true of us, may not be strictly true of' air other 
 places, it may be considered as a somewhat approximate cal- 
 culation, and may hinder us from supposing that we are 
 decreasing from the chances of war, without any corresponding 
 increase from natural causes. ■ 
 
 One of the great mistakes which our enemies have made 
 throughout this war, has-been in supposing that mere nunfbers 
 and 'material power were to decide this conflict — that right 
 was nothing^— that moral power was nothing— 'that the defence 
 of a great trust was nothing — that the maintenance of a 
 mighty principle was nothing. How grandly Carlyle strikes 
 down this wretched materialism when he says, " One man that 
 has a higher wisdom, a hitherto unknown spiritual truth in 
 him is stronger, not than ten men that have it not, or than 
 ten thousand, but than all men that have it not j and stands 
 
' A SERMON. 13 
 
 among them with a quite ethereal angelic power, as ,with a 
 sword out of Heaven's own armory, sky-tempered, which no 
 buckler, and no tower of brass will finally withstand." And 
 so with a, cause which has in it all the inspiration of a great 
 moral truth. Its success can never be measured by the mere 
 numbers who- defend it. It has in itself a spirit which can 
 never be crushed — which, like Antaeus, receives new life every 
 time it is struck to the earth — which rises above all mere 
 human calculations, and fetches power from Heaven — "ethereal 
 angelic power '' — and becomes gigantic in its tefforts. Such a 
 spirit as this has just flamed out from the masses of our armies, 
 and has darted, like an electric sparky from man to man, 
 until with an harmony grand in its self devotion, sublime 
 in its simplicity, they have bound themselves to the horns of 
 the alt|ir, a sacrifice to their country and their God. Such men 
 become irresistible, not because of their numbers, but from the 
 holiness of their cause and the enthusiasm of their temper. 
 Their strokes are like Rinaldo^s — 
 
 " More deaths than blows he deals, yet momeptly 
 
 " His falchion smites; and' as the angry snake 
 
 " Seems in its single tongue to vibrate three ' 
 
 " Witli such a fearful swiftness does Jt shake ; 
 
 " So in dismay these charged barbarians take 
 
 " The single sword, -which furiously the knight 
 
 " Wliirls round, for three. Tasso. Iee. Dstil , , 
 
 "Number in armies," says Lord Bacon, "imputeth npt 
 much, where the people are of weak courage, for as Virgil 
 saith, 'It never troubles the wolf, how itaany the sheep be.' " 
 Nor by this cfuotation would I depra^iate the courage of our 
 adversaries, cotiid I believe that their forces -were made up of 
 the native blood of the North and of the West, or if they 
 Were fighting in a like sacked cause, the defence of their 
 social institutions, their homes and their firesides. Thebattje 
 fields of the revolution would disprove so rash an assertion, 
 fiunker Hill, and Saratoga, and Princeton would rise to every 
 man'% memory and vindicate the ancient fame of the Republic. 
 But the true blood of the North and of the West has been 
 gradually withdrawing itself from the conflict, and that govern- 
 
14 A SERMON. 
 
 ment is now carrying on the war very much by mercenaries 
 and negroes. ■ " As for mercenary forces," says the same great 
 thinker, frpm whoni I quoted just now, "all examples show 
 that whatsoever estate or prince doth rest upon them, he may 
 spread his feathers for a time, but he will mew them soon 
 after." No man will quail, T trust, before any number of 
 negroes. ■ They may be mustered in to -swell the numbers of 
 our adversary, and to make false impressions abroad, but they' 
 can never be depended upon, and like the elephants of the 
 Eastern wars, will be as apt to trample down their friends as their 
 enemies. They are to be pitied, not feared, and I trust that 
 wher'ever mercy can be. shown them with justice to ourselves 
 it will be extended to them. , Their sin is, in most cases, one 
 of delusion, and those who seduced them and now lead them, 
 are the proper objects of vengeance, and not their ignorant and 
 silly victims. 
 
 In addition to these reasons for a renewed hope and a cheer- 
 ful future, God appears to have once piOre lifted up the light 
 of his countenance upon us. I took occasion, in August 
 last, in preaching to you upon that the gloomiest of all our 
 days of humiliation, to speak, of the unaccountable depression 
 which was weighing down* the spirits of all the people and of 
 our powerlessness to lift it thence. " It must be lifted from 
 our hearts," was my language upon that occasion, " where it 
 rests like a weight of lead, by the hand of the liord, which 
 placed jt there." We feel this day, that it has been lifted 
 from us, and, as I truly believe, by the hand of that Lord. He 
 has roused us, by his own spirit, from our supineness and' 
 faithlessness. He has rekindled the ardor of the past. Our 
 battle flag has been advanced in full faith of his good will, 
 and it moves forward in the van of our armies, flashing 
 in the eyes of our enemies, our sacred motto, "Deo Vindice." 
 Instead of opening this most critical campaign depiressed, dis- 
 heartened, embarrassed, we march to it^. encounter with the 
 prestige of victories, not so brilliant as some which have pre- 
 ceded them, but most important, because of the effect which 
 they have produced upon our armies, and the tone which 
 they have imparted to the country. May these victories soon 
 
A SERMoK. 15 
 
 swell into triumphs which shall force back -lipon their own 
 soil the forces ©f our adversaries, and convince them that 
 negotiation is safer than war, and a manly confession of wrong 
 more honorable than a persistence in cruelty and oppression. 
 Why then this day of solemn humiliation, fasting and 
 prayer? What occasion for calling upon a people in such 
 spirit and temper to kneel befoire the throne of Grace and 
 ask for mercy and forgiveness ? Occasion enough ! when we 
 remember what our past sins hav« brought upon us, and when 
 we calmly consider— if we can consider it calmly — what 
 mischief is brewing within the Confedferacy at the very mo- 
 ment when our armies are kindling with patriotic fervor, and 
 standing like a wall of fire around her borders! The humi- 
 liation should be at home, not with the armies. They will bow 
 themselves, to day, before God arid ask forgiveness of sins, as 
 men do, who are buckling on their harness for the struggle 
 which may be their last, who are shriving themselves per- 
 haps fo-r the grave, but with them there will be no shame. 
 Their vigils will be like those of the unspotted knight, who 
 has fought and suffered, witho,ut fear and without reproach, 
 for his country and his God ! But with our humiliation shame 
 must be largely mingled — shame, that we should be murmur, 
 ing, at such a time as this, about money, and property, and 
 meat, and drink, and clothing ! Shame that we shauld be 
 cavilling about points of questionable moment, when the 
 enemy is raging upon our outer walls ! Shame that we should 
 be fomenting discontent, when, all that is most precious to us 
 'is in peril ! Shame that we should be stirring up contemptible 
 jealousies, when independence and liberty are both at stake ! 
 It is true, that Nero fiddled while Rome was burning ; that 
 the Jews broke "up into fierce factions and slaughtered one 
 another within the walls of Jerusalem, while Titus was thunder,- 
 ing without to bring the abonkination of desolation into the. 
 Holy place ; that petty court quarrels occupied the time of 
 the degenerate Komans of the Western Empire while Alaric 
 was sweeping over Italy and ravaging up to the very gates 
 of the Eternal City! Are w.e about to imitate these wretched 
 examples ? Are we gOing to seize upon every pretext of 
 
16 A SEEMON. 
 
 legislation, hasty and immature perhaps, but yet necessary, 
 for making war against our own Government? Instead of 
 remembering that in union and harmony is our only earthly 
 strength, our only earthly hope, are we about, to introduce 
 into our conffict the folly of the Poles and conquer ourselves ? 
 It is the only mode in which we can be conquered, and woe 
 to him who brings us to this condition ! It were better for 
 him that he had' never been born! for living he will carry 
 upon his brew the mark* of unceasing infamy, and dying 
 curses will be heaped upon his grave so long as a southron 
 shall breathe to utter them I 
 
 All struggles for Liberty must pass through vcertain inevit- 
 able phases. History teaches us this lesson and a most useful 
 one it is, because it prevents iis from supposing that some new 
 * thing had happened to us. Such struggles always begin with 
 a burst of enthusiasm which promises to sweep every thing 
 before it. < The whole insurgent people appears to be united 
 and there seems to be but one heart and one soul. No sacrifice 
 is too ^reat to be made, no self denial too severe to be prac- 
 ticed ! One single thought occupies the Wind and that is the 
 success of the struggle. 'But when it begins to be understood, 
 that great results are not worked out by sudden bursts, but 
 come to their consummation slowly and through trial, q,nd 
 when defeat follows upon victory, and death becomes frequent, 
 and privation presents her stern visage, then ensues a period 
 of corresponding depression, which tries the faith and prin- 
 ciples of the people and leads many to<.regret that they had 
 ever entered upon such a struggle, and to long once again for 
 the ease and comfort of the past. It is then that such incon- 
 stant souls find out that they had never believed that the 
 struggle would succeed, and that it was the birth of folly and 
 »f madness. Then it is,'when the cause is a holy one such as 
 this, that the Lord says of, that people, as he said to Gideon, 
 " The people that are with thee are too many for rae to give 
 the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves 
 against me saying, ' mine own hand hath saved me ' Now 
 therefore go to, proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, 
 Whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him return and depart 
 
X SBBMON. ,1"^ 
 
 early from Mt. Gilead. And there returned, of the people 
 twenty and two thousand." These are the first who give up 
 the cause in heart and spirit, if not in act. Then comes on 
 a period of mingled success and defeat, of dternate triumph 
 and shame, when resources are failing, and the comforts and 
 even necessaries of life are scarce and things look dark and 
 unpropitious and ominous of a protracted war. These mis- 
 chances are at once visited upon th^ Government,^ and then 
 ensues, as the easiest mode of venting disappointment, an abuse 
 of the administration, and a criticism of all that has been done, 
 and unscrupulous charges of inefficiency and corruption, and 
 safe assertions that things would have been far better, if a dif- 
 ferent policy had been pursued. There is nothing easier than to 
 condemn the conduct of the past. But men forget, that in a 
 Government like ours, wh^e everything is governed by 
 opinion, and the administration is checked by legislation, that 
 nothing can be done until public opinion is prepared for it; 
 that the people will not bear the action which may be best for 
 them, until they sh^ll have been brought to it by adversity or 
 necessity. A system of taxation, for example, which -may be 
 welcomed at a moment of superabundant currency, would have 
 given great dissatisfaction at an earlier period, nay might have 
 done more injuty to the cause than the evil which has followed 
 from its neglect. A conscription, which will be subinitted to 
 cheerfully, when an enemy is advancing with emancipation 
 in one hand and sixbjugation in the other, would have occa- 
 sioned deep murmuring, if not resistance, at an earlier period 
 of the struggle. A people like ours cannot be led on faster 
 than their minds and feelings are prepared for the acts of the 
 Government. The next step in the onward movement of the 
 struggle arises out of the inevitable result of expenditures 
 beyond the resources of the ccfuntry, a superfluous currency, 
 a rapidly deprbciating value of paper money, with all the evil' 
 effects which flow from it, of hi^h prices, of unsettled values, 
 of hoarded provisions, of threatened want. And last of all 
 follows that which closes the sequence, and which it is 
 the hardest of all to meet and -overcome, the disaffection 
 which accumulates, from these causes combined, and which 
 
18 A SEEMO^. 
 
 \ 
 
 will, unless promptly and wisely handled, end in treason and 
 civil war. JWben the mass of timid men, of men who never 
 wanted the movement, of disappointed men, of men who 
 desire to secure what they have acquired by the war; of men 
 who long for peace to regain ease and comfort, increases to 
 Such an extent as to give them an apparent ability to face and 
 defy the Government, then will come upon us the time to 
 try our souls, when we shall find an enemy within worse than 
 the enemy without.' This is the phase of our struggle which 
 we are now fast approaching. We have passed successfully 
 through the previous trials of our moveinent. We have grap- 
 pled with depression, and abuse of the administration^ and 
 criticism of our Grenerals, and financial derangement, and have 
 come out of the conflict unharmed. We are now about to 
 learn who are worthy to cany «n this war; who are eager 
 and earnest for the work of the Lord ; the men who are ready 
 to lap water with their mouths as a dog lappeth ; the men who 
 are to be set apart by themselves for battle and for history'; 
 the men who are to follow the ckosen leaders of the people to 
 final victory over Midian. God grant that enough may be found 
 faithful to close the drama in triumph, and that I and mine 
 may be among^ them,! Should we meet this threatening 
 danger in the pro;f)er spirit of patriots and disperse it through 
 the good sense and devotion of the people, all will be well.* 
 We shall then have conquered all thej difficulties ' of the 
 struggle for liberty ; for freedom's battle will never go down 
 in blood and disaster, unless thfe blows which destroy her come 
 from within and are basely struck by the hand of treachery. 
 We shall then have proven ourselves worthy , to be free and 
 may safely leave the rest to God and the nations. 
 
 There is no Surer manifestation of the weakness of prin- 
 ciple which cleaves to man, than the easy and rapid road 
 by which he travels to treason- and infamy. It almost 
 always begins in wounded vanity, or disappointed ambition, 
 or thwarted intei*est. Personal feeling is at the bottom of 
 it, and it has very little to do with genuine patriotism, or 
 with a love of the cause which it uses to cover its own hate 
 or envy. It assumes these for a cloak,#)ut everybody of 
 
A SSSHOM. ig 
 
 any sagacity sees through the thin disguise. The real wish 
 is to depreciate and make contemptible with the people the 
 government, and specially the man who !has the chief man- 
 agement of affairs. As the dislike of the Executive inten- 
 sifies, it extends to the cause with which his name is asso- 
 ciated. In wishing evil to him, evil is secretly wished to 
 the cause, that so he may be mortified and humbled. But 
 in the progress of events, the hate becomes ungovernable, 
 and when inflamed by the ha,nd of some skilful player, 
 takes bolder steps, and begins to sneer at the cause itself, 
 and to be ready to betray it, that in the downfall of the 
 country, he may involve the individual against w^iom his 
 heart is on fire. Most of the traitors of any mark to the 
 cause of independence in our first Eevolution, began their 
 career with envy and hatred of Washington. Their first 
 movement was to depreciate him ; to lower him in the eyes 
 of the people ; to throw at him the darts of contempt and 
 secret calumny. Conway, "Wilkinson, Charles Lee, all began 
 in the same way, and all traveled the like downward road 
 of personal ,distike, official envy, secret detraction, foul con- 
 spiracy, and although all did npt go the length of Arnold, 
 they all rendered themselves useless to the country, and 
 were swept from action and from fame by the public opinion 
 of the people. Depredatory letters were written respecting 
 him from General to General. Anonymous missives were 
 sent to his private friends abusing him, and to Congress, 
 insinuating that all the misfortunes of the country were 
 owing to his weakness and incapacity. The noble patriot 
 heeded these things only so far as they affected the interests 
 of the cause over which he presided. He moved on,, amid 
 all these embarrassments, doing hia duty calnily and quietly, 
 noticing them only in a private letter to Mr. Laurens, then 
 President of Congress, in these just and memorable words: 
 " I was not unapprised that a malignant faction had been for 
 some time forming to my prejudice ; which, conscious as I am 
 of having.ever done all in my power to answer the impor- 
 tant purposes of the trust reposed in me, could not but give 
 ntd acme pain on a personal account But mj chief concerQ 
 
20 "A SEKMOK. 
 
 arises from an apprehension of the (Jangerous consequences 
 which intestine dissensions may produce to the common 
 cause." 
 
 ^<'My enemies take an ungenerous advantage of me. 
 They know the delicacy of my situation, and that motives of 
 policy deprive me of the defence I might otherwise make 
 against their insidious attacks. They know; I cannot^combat 
 their insinuations, however injurious, without disclosing 
 secrets which it is of the utmost moment to conceal. But 
 why should I expect to be exempt from censure, the unfailing 
 lot of an elevated station ? * * * My heart tells me, 
 that it has ever been my unremitted aim to do the best that 
 circumstances would permit; yet I may have been very 
 often mistaken in my judgment of the means, and may in 
 many instances deserve the imputation of error." JIow 
 history is ever repeating itself. 
 
 The only purpose which makes a struggle for independence 
 worth the cost of blood and feeling whichi it always demands, 
 is that it should bring out of its fermenting and convulsed 
 elements an earnest people ; a people worthy to live, because 
 sensible of the great trusts and responsibilities which will 
 rest upon it. To shed such blood, as we have spilled, in 
 this contest, for the mere name of indepepdence, for the 
 vanity or the pride of having a sepaivatenational existence, 
 would be unjustifiable before God and man. "We must have 
 higher aims than these, and sublimer views, ere we can 
 stand before the judgment seat of God with clean hands and 
 clear consciences. And I think that we can confidently say, 
 that we have in view objects entirely worthy of any struggle 
 we may be summoned to pass through. We have been 
 entrusted with the moral and religious education of an 
 inferior race, made more sacred to us by the events of this 
 war, because we have been made to see what will be their 
 miserable fate should they pass out of our nurturing hands. 
 We have been appointed to preserve upon this' continent all 
 that is valuable in morals and legislation and religion. We 
 have been selected to be a bulwark againstthe worst develop- 
 ments of human nature, fanaticism, democracy, license, 
 
A SKEMON. 21 
 
 atheism. For such purposes God is disciplining and refilling 
 us in the fires of affliction, and when he shall perceive that 
 we have been ennobled by our struggle, purified by our 
 sacrifices, exalted by ou^ self-denial-^that we have learned 
 to put At their ti-ue value wealth, and luxury, and show— to 
 distinguish between false pretension and genuine merit — to 
 understand the infinite, absolute, tmmutable character of 
 virtue — to worship the honest and the true, and ihe good, 
 and the beautiful — to keep in our eye the religion of Jesus, 
 as we find it revealed in the Scriptures and exemplified in 
 his pure and holy and self-sacrificing life — He will give us 
 our deliverance and establish us in this land flowing with 
 milk and honey, as a nation consecrated for His own myste- 
 rious yet all- wise purposes. 
 
 To produce such a result, earnest, single-minded, self-sacri- 
 ficing men are demanded ; men who, when they are called 
 to the battle, will not turn back from timidity, or fearfulness, 
 or envy, or weariness ; who, when the trumpet sounds to 
 conflict, will not bow down upon their knees to drink, but 
 will lap water as a dog lappeth, in their haste to press 
 forward to their duty ; who will follow in faith of God and 
 of their leader, even though their numbers be reduced to a 
 mere handful. Such men will God ever bless with his 
 preseAce; by such men will God conquer, because they 
 will never say, "Mine own hand hath saved me." "And 
 the Lord said unto Gideon, Ey the three hundred men that 
 lapped will I save you and deliver the Midianites into their 
 , hand." God giveth not alway the battle to the strong, but 
 can save by many or by few. His blessing and his curse 
 follow those who perform or neglect their duty when his 
 honor and glory are concerned. " My heart is toward the 
 Governors of Israel," said he by his Prophet " that offered 
 hemselves willingly among the people for the avenging of 
 Israel." But to Meroz he said by his angel, "Curse ye 
 Meroz, 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." Let us, my hearers, offer our- 
 selves willingly to the Lord, for indeed his honor and glory 
 
22 A SEBKON. 
 
 are most deeply concerned. Our maddened adversaries are 
 warring not only against ns, but against God — ^warring 
 against his arrangements, against his purposes, against his 
 moral law, against his holy religiori, " that thousand voiced 
 Psalni," as one has beautifully called it, " from the ]»eart of 
 Man to his invisible Father, the fountain of all goodness, 
 beauty and truth, and revealed in every revelation of theto," 
 but especially through Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour, 
 
 To whom be all honor and glory, fftr ever and ever. 
 Amen ! 
 
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