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 Fast-day sermon 
 Conf Pam l2mo #476 
 
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 FAST-MY .SERMON, , 
 
 PREACHED IN. THE GOOD HOPE cfltfRCH, 
 
 2^ 
 
 LOWNDES COUNTY, ALABAMA, 
 
 THURSDAY, J ITI, ls«H. 
 
 BY KEV. T. L. DE VEAUX, 
 
 STATED .SUPPLY. 
 
 WYTHEVILLE: 
 
 D. A. ST. CLAIR, PRINTER, 
 
 1861. 
 
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 Good Hope, June 23, 1861. 
 
 Rev. T. J.. De Veaux: 
 
 Dear Sir — At a meeting of the congregation of Good Hope 
 held this tlay, on motion, it was unamiously Resolved, "That Rev. T. L. De Veaux 
 be retfueisted to furnish for publication a copy of his able and highly interesting 
 sermon 'preached before them on Fast-day, Thursday the 13th inst." 
 
 The pleasing duty of making known to you this resolution devolves upon the 
 undersigned as a committee ; and allow us to express the gratification we exper- 
 ienced during its delivery, and to add our personal solicitations to those of the 
 congregation we represent. 
 
 Respectfully yours, 
 
 To Rev. T. L. De Veaux, C. E. REESE, 
 
 Lowndesboro', WM. LYMAN, \- Committee. 
 
 Lowndes Co., S. K. PHARR, 
 Ala. 
 
 Lowndesboro', Ala., July 2, 1861. 
 Messrs. C. E. Reese, Wm. Lyman and S. K. Pharr, Committee, &c: 
 
 Gentlemen: — Your kind communication of the 23rd ult. informing me of the 
 resolution of the Good Hope congregation with reference to the publication of 
 my sermon preached before them on Fast-day, has been received. The sermon 
 referred to was hurriedly prepared, with but little opportunity for revision. The 
 unanmious request of the congregation, and the fact, that said sermon is a, plain 
 and practical exposition of the necessity for confession and supplication before 
 Almighty God, and may avail somewhat in awakening christians to a sense of 
 their obligations, are considerations which demand attention. While it is with 
 much hesitation I am induced to comply, it is yet with the trembling hope and 
 fervent prayer, that God will bless it to the spiritual good of some, and the pro- 
 motion of the cause of Truth. The manuscript is at your disposal. 
 With christian regard, yours most truly, 
 
 T. L. DE VEAUX. 
 
• 
 
 
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 *f - n 
 
 Daniel ix: 19. 
 " Lord, hear ; Lord, forgive ; Lord, hearken and do ; defer not for thine 
 own sake, my God." 
 
 Prostration of the heart before God is at all times a solemn 
 and impressive spectacle. It is an act signifying a renuncia- 
 tion of self-dependence and self-reliance — an act directly and 
 distinctly recognizing and acknowledging the Supreme Exis- 
 tence, and our dependence upon, and obligations to Him. — 
 But while the prostration of the individual heart before God 
 is an act of deep and solemn significance, the attitude which 
 the national heart assumes, when it bows in confession and 
 supplication, is a spectacle involving a thousand-fold more so- 
 lemnity. In the one case a person bows and is accepted ; in the 
 other a nation's great, throbbing, passion-stricken heart is laid 
 upon the altar, and opened publicly to the scrutiny of Almighty 
 God. It, too, is an act recognizing the Supreme Existence — 
 acknowledging His sovereignty as the Overruling Power in 
 the affairs of nations, and the entire dependence of the nation- 
 al body upon Him for guidance and direction. 
 
 How solemn the spectacle which this great nation presents 
 to the world to-day. A nation with its conflicts, its contentions, 
 its mighty emotions, its fears, its tears, its passions and its sor- 
 rows ; its resoluteness, its confidence, its might and its right, 
 suddenly pauses from the contemplation of its social and po- 
 litical relations, turns its eyes from the battle-field, closes its 
 ears against the dread battle-cry, and comes with an humble 
 heart and tear-moistened eyes to the throne, and there raises its 
 hands in penitent confession and supplication to Almighty 
 ( I ( >< 1 . A nation bold in defence of the right, throws away its pride, 
 and, as a little child, prostrates itself upon its face in the dust, 
 to "deplore its sins, to acknowledge its dependence, to swear 
 allegience and to confess its responsibility." — Seek the mount- 
 
4 
 
 ain's brow, and with tearful emotion let your souls feast upon 
 the glories with which the early morning sun bathes nature 
 first awakening from her night's repose. See the glittering 
 ornaments with which she comes forth bedecked. Hear her 
 thousand voices all attuned to melody. See the glad smile 
 which renders her face radiant with beauty. You call it grand 
 — sublime ! — but turn your eyes to yon lowly, kneeling figure, 
 with face bending earthward, and form all robed in penitence, 
 and watch the troubled pulsations of that proud, mighty heart, 
 and hear the cry which proceeds from those trembling lips : 
 "0 Lord, hear; Lord, forgive ; Lord, hearken and do;" — and 
 the sight quickens the intense emotions of your hearts, and 
 hushes to silence the rapt exclamations of praise which tremble 
 upon you lips ; while you stand silent with awe and wonder and 
 admiration. In that form kneeling in penitent attitude — our 
 own beloved penitent Land — our cherished South — is embodied a 
 majesty — a sublimity — that far exceeds utterance and surpasses 
 conception-^ nation lies there, in whose great heart the hitherto 
 frozen fount of penitential tears has been broken up — whose 
 voice is as the voice of them that weep bitterly. A nation has 
 descended from the throne of its haughtiness "high and lifted 
 up," to bow the knee in the court of the congregation of mourn- 
 ers. Let the voice of levity and merriment be hushed while a 
 nation pleads with God. Let the feast, and the dance, and the 
 sounds of gayety be banished, and let a universal silence prevail : 
 for a kneeling nation confesseth unto Jehovah of hosts. 
 
 My Brethren, what is the object of our convention here to- 
 day? It is not a Sabbath service that calls us to the sanctuary ; 
 not a Sabbath service which invites us to throw aside the im- 
 plements of our toil, and to rest our minds and bodies from the 
 active social duties which devolve upon us ; it is not to cele- 
 brate with joyful anthems of praise and thanksgiving some 
 great achievement, or some brilliant victory, or some anniver- 
 sary of past triumph won from a powerful and malignant foe 
 in "times that tried men's souls ;" but the season is one of ex- 
 traordinary solemnity, and every one here to-day should with 
 earnest heart enter upon the duties which it well becomes us 
 to perform. You, my hearers, are members of our kneeling 
 South; and it becomes you to consider wellwpon the attitude of 
 hniiiiiity you confess to assume by your presence here to-day. 
 day has been set apart by the authorities of the Common- 
 
wealth as a day of Fasting, Humiliation and Prayer. The 
 country in view of the serious difficulties which heset her on 
 every side, and in view of her own impotency apart from divine 
 aid, comes to the Throne, and puts her cause into the hands of 
 God. Her object is the favor and protection of the God of nations. 
 Now, how is this ohject to he attained? 
 
 The point which I would have you consider is that confess- 
 ion and supplication must precede the attainment of desired blessings 
 from God. 
 
 First, then, we must humble ourselves in Confession unto 
 God, in the capacity of Individuals and as a Nation. As Indi- 
 viduals have we naught to confess? Are there not sins to he 
 acknowledged and deplored? Are we guilty of no omissions in 
 duty? Have we no positive transgressions to account for he- 
 fore God? Answer not hastily. Put conscience on the stand, 
 and make a record of her testimony. A\ r c have been favored 
 with high privileges of a temporal character. Look abroad 
 over the world, nay, over our own land, and in our own midst, 
 and see the many wretched, starving, ragged, naked forms, 
 bowing down in want, whose miserable hovels have been erect- 
 ed in the very lowest haunts of crime, and in the dark noisome 
 depths of degradation, surrounded by all that makes humanity 
 shudder and turn pale. Come up still higher in the scale, and 
 see how many there are of the deserving, the godly and the 
 excellent, who are yet the victims of abject poverty, whose souls 
 are sometimes almost crazed with the heart-rending cries of 
 their famishing children begging for bread to satisfy the crav- 
 ings of hunger ; while their own pale faces and emaciated forms, 
 tell of the endurance of sufferings, which those who feed upon 
 the fat of the land have no conception of, or care for : compare 
 with these, my hearers, your well-filled granaries, your fine 
 well-watered lands, and your persons and homes surrounded 
 by unnumbered comforts, and teeming with the blessings of 
 life — all gifts from the hand of a kind Providence. " Who 
 maketh thee to differ' 1 from them "and what hast thou that thou didst 
 not receive." Have you acknowledged them as gifts from the 
 "Giver of every good and perfect gift " in the morning and in the 
 evening sacrifice ? Have you not the charge of unthankfulness 
 to answer for? Then this is a great omission hich you have 
 to confess here to day. 
 
 You have been favored not only with tempcval comforts, but 
 
God has blessed you with high religious privileges. The Bible not 
 "chained to the wall" nor sealed with the seal of prohibition, has 
 been yours to study. It contains a record of the Divine will and 
 the Divine plan suited to the necessities of your souls, and is 
 he "power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth." 
 There you have a record of the life of sufferings and sorrows 
 jad griefs and agonies, and the shameful death, of God's own 
 Son whom He sent to die that you might have life. Is there, my dear 
 hearers, no charge against you with respect to this Book of 
 Divine instruction? Have we attended strictly to Christ's di- 
 rection to "search the Scriptures" and to Paul's exhortation "give 
 attendance to reading ;" or has the Bible lain as a heavy weight 
 upon our hands ; or does it decorate, as an ornament, the parlor 
 table, or is it laid carefully aside with only the companionship 
 of the moth t These are grave questions which address them- 
 selves to every one of us ; and it may be, God intends to pun- 
 ish this gross omission, with which many of the people of our 
 land are shamefully chargeable. Be assured that God does not 
 dwell in any heart which is not animated with Bible principles, 
 and which does not hold communion with him through that 
 medium. "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.'" 
 My Brethren, do not our consciences testify against us, that we 
 have been strangers to the Bible, when it should have been our 
 daily companion ? 
 
 Then there is the duty of Prayer. In every christian house- 
 hold, every heart should bow before the Father for morning 
 blessings and direction ; and in the solemn stillness of the even- 
 ing hour, in confession of daily sins and thanksgiving for daily 
 mercies. Daily conflicts require daily accessions of spiritual 
 strength. Daily life with its vicissitudes and its mighty duties 
 and responsibilities, requires for its right employment, daily 
 counsel and direction. Any omission of this duty is a tacit denial 
 of our dependence upon God and of our allegiance to Him. — 
 How many of us have to confess to this omission ? Have we 
 not all to confess, that "the closet" has been too long sealed, 
 or at best but seldom opened for prayer? How comparatively 
 seldom does God look upon us in lowly attitude, with upraised 
 hands and eyes and tear-furrowed cheeks, and penitent, sor- 
 rowing hearts ! 
 
 Nor is this all. There is the Sabbath. Do we always "remem- 
 ber the Sabbath day to keep it holy ?—ov do we consider that this 
 
obligation ceases when the church has been entered, the discourse 
 listened to, the grayer said, and we have returned to our homes? 
 Hoio is the Sabbath afternoon employed? Do we make the ivhole 
 Sabbath a day of special communion with God? 
 
 How is the Sanctuary regarded? Is it a sacred, a hallowed, 
 a precious place to our souls ? Do we remember when we enter 
 within its portals: "the Lord is in his holy Temple, let all the 
 earth keep silence before him"? Do we consider that we are 
 there for the purpose of holding communion with our Maker? 
 Or do we resort thither because it is customary, or fashionable, 
 or to while away a leisure hour, or to indulge an idle curiosity? 
 u Ye shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my Sanctuary: I am 
 the Lord." 
 
 There arc many other solemn obligations which have been 
 too coldly and indifferently regarded by professed followers of 
 Christ. How have our daily observances comported with our 
 profession? There has not been that zeal and devotion to the 
 cause which should have characterized us ; — too much of the 
 world — temporal interests and emoluments have been too much 
 the idol of our hearts, to which we have paid too much homage. 
 
 Where has been the Home altar, andiohere its precious influences t 
 The education of children in the knowledge of Christ seems to 
 have been regarded by many as a matter of secondary import- 
 ance ; while they — the children — instead of being trained up in 
 the "nurture and admonition of the Lord" have been allowed, 
 as the unbridled steed, to follow the prompting of hearts "de- 
 ceitful above all things and desperately wicked," with but lit- 
 tle if any control or instruction ; so that in many places the 
 mournful spectacle is seen of churches sinking with the with- 
 ering dying bodies of departing aged members whose places 
 are left long vacant. X or is this all. The children of the 
 Church, ignoring the teachings of the Sabbath School, uncheck- 
 ed by the voice of affectionate home counsel and admonition, 
 when age, and even before age, places them beyond immediate 
 parental authority, "walk in the counsel of the ungodly, stand 
 in the way of sinners, sit in the seat of the scornful" and plunge 
 headlong into follies and dissipations and excesses, unfitted for 
 the duties and realities of life — unprepared for 1 ' emu r 
 
 ities of eternity. The Church — Religion — Society, cry loudly 
 against the evil, and God regards the omission with hot dis- 
 pleasure. Christian parents, instead of estimating religion as 
 
an essential of a properly regulated home, in many instances seem 
 rather to look upon it as only an out-door exercise to be enjoyed 
 only at the church. Religion pines and languishes in many 
 homes as a sickly plant, never so thoroughly developed as to 
 twine its tendrils around the family heart — never exhaling the 
 precious fragrance of holiness — never the Tree of Life to child 
 as well as parent, never the Home Life. And so, many other 
 points might he brought forward to exhibit the great necessity 
 for individual confession and humiliation before God. Though 
 we have sinned, and our sins be as scarlet, yet "if we confess our 
 sins, Re is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us 
 from all unrighteousness. " 
 
 But further: This confession of sin must be attended with deep 
 heartfelt repentance. "Without this the most essential element of 
 true confession is wanting, and it is but an idle mockery dis- 
 pleasing to God and unsatisfying to man. True effectual con- 
 fession is not the mere utterance of the lips, or the eye dimmed 
 with tears which may not flow from the full fountain of the 
 heart: it is something more. It is an expression of our guilt, to- 
 gether with sincere sorroio for sin, and an utter abandonment of it as 
 displeasing to God, and an endeavor after new and constant obedience 
 in the life. It is not to be limited to an hour, or a day or a year, 
 but it should be mingled with each breath we draw, and si- 
 lenced only in death. — Confession is idle and unmeaning unless 
 the thing we deplore and confess as unpleasing to God is not 
 utterly and immediately and forever abandoned. The outward 
 life is regulated by the principles within ; and although confess- 
 ion is made with strong cries. and tears and groans, yet if the 
 sins are not abandoned in the outer life, these demonstrations 
 of grief are utterly valueless and unacceptable, since they are 
 not expressions of inward change : — the confession lacks gen- 
 uineness, and the voice of confession is the voice of falsehood. 
 The outward change is the only proof we can have of inward change, 
 and of the sincerity of confession. "By their fruits ye shall know 
 them." If we would have God "hear and forgive," if we are 
 guilty of any of the charges I have specified, if any sins rise up 
 to condemn, let us remember for our consolation, there is no 
 ''Anathema Maran-atha" against the soul that confesses unto 
 God. If we are troubled because of transgressions, let us go 
 to God and confess them with deep sorrow in our hearts and 
 an utter abandonment of them in our lives. He will forgive. — 
 
9 
 
 With John we have. the promise: "If we confess our sins, He is 
 faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from 
 all unrighteousness." 1 Jno. I. 9. With David we have the 
 fulfillment of His promises to the penitent: "I acknowledged 
 my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said I 
 will confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and thou forgavest 
 the iniquity of my sins." Ps. xxxn. 5. 
 
 But Supplication as well as Confession must precede the attain- 
 ment of the ohject we have in view: God's pardoning favor and 
 protection. While we ask God to listen to the voice of our 
 confession, we must also supplicate Him to forgive the sins we 
 confess and deplore. If we confess only, and" supplicate not 
 for pardon and favor, our purpose is not answered, nor our end 
 gained. A disohedient child may confess his disobedience to 
 his father, because he knows his father witnessed the act; hut 
 while his pride permits him to humble himself thus far, it may 
 yet deter him from the further humility implied in supplicat- 
 ion for pardon. Not to supplicate is an evidence of unsub- 
 dued pride, or of distrust of the faithfulness of God. Of course 
 confession of sins, and pride which is the very opposite of that 
 lowliness of spirit implied in confession, cannot agree; and 
 hence until this pride of heart and distrust of God is removed, 
 until humble supplication follows confession, the object cannot 
 be attained, nor the blessing enjoyed. If our confession to-day 
 would be acceptable unto God, and our object attained, we 
 must dethrone from our hearts this demon, pride, and with the 
 voice of confession, mingle our earnest, sincere supplications 
 for the pardoning favor and protection of Almighty God. We 
 must descend from our lofty elevations, and clothing our hearts 
 in sack-cloth and ashes, sit down in the vale of contrition and 
 supplication. "The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a 
 broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit," a 
 broken and a contrite heart God thou wilt not despise.— 
 "Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, 
 whose name is Holy, I dwell with him that is of a contrite and 
 humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive 
 the heart of the contrite ones." Manasseh whose kingdom 
 was taken from him because of his wickedne^ 
 besought the Lord his God, and humbled him 
 fore the God of his fathers, and prayed unto 
 heard his supplication and brought him agaii 
 
10 
 
 unto his kingdom." If we, my hearers have aught to he for- 
 given and blessing to entreat, let Manasseh's course of confess- 
 ion and supplication he ours, and God will "hearken and do." 
 "He that covereth his sins shall not prosper; hut lohoso confess- 
 eth and forsaketh them shall have mercy." 
 
 But passing on, let us enquire what the condition of the nation is 
 before God. Is not the South guilty, and has she not much to 
 confess? Are there no stains to he wiped away? Her pros- 
 trate attitude assumes that she has much to confess — much 
 from which to he purified. There is yet a hideous amount of 
 corruption, political and moral, to be found exerting a»4*ijfeft4- 
 ing influence upon her. She is by no means spotless. The 
 South equally with the North has been made, by Divine ap- 
 pointment, the Custodian of sacred principles, well adapted to 
 subserve sacred ends — principles competent to the establish- 
 ment of sound pure Government, which,if rightly guarded and 
 administered, might have erected upon a permanent basis a 
 monument of Republican energy and excellence, that would 
 forever have silenced the cavils of rival nations, and elicited 
 the admiration and praise of long succeeding generations. — 
 But how has she fulfilled her commission? True, she has had 
 hanging upon her skirts, and to a certain extent paralyzing her 
 energies, a Northern "body of death;' and now perhaps, divest- 
 ed of this encumbrance, she may successfully work out the 
 problem; but past sins in this respect she has to answer for. 
 Go to the ballot-box, and witness the bribery and corruption 
 which might well cause her cheeks to blush — where senseless 
 heads and depraved hearts, shielded by the panoply of wealth, 
 haughtily set up a claim upon the suffrages of the people, and 
 substantiate it by the "almighty dollar;" — where -personal quali- 
 fications are set aside for personal preferences! And what has been 
 the result? Instead of sober, dignified counsel and sound 
 judgment, our legislative halls have groaned under the weight 
 of corrupt doctrine, while selfish personal aggrandizement has 
 completely swallowed up all considerations for the national 
 welfare ; — and now because of such folly, and neglect of mat- 
 ters of such high importance in both sections, the nation weeps 
 and groans and bleeds. It becomes the South because of this 
 to take to herself "shame and confusion of face," and the atti- 
 tude of an humble, weeping, confessing supplicant becomes 
 her well. She will arise from her position, cleansed from these sins, 
 
11 
 
 and, clothed in the strength of God, manfully vindicate the right, and 
 rescue it from the hand of destroyers. 
 
 But this is not all. While deriving incalculable benefit from 
 Christianity, she has not upheld with vigorous arm the cause 
 of Truth. Her commerce has occupied a great share of her 
 affections; and properly so. Her agricultural interests have 
 lain near her heart. Her public works, many of them of stu- 
 pendous magnitude, have busied her hands. The Religion of 
 Christ from which so much national nourishment has been gra- 
 tuitously drawn, has been to a certain extent subordinated to these 
 and assigned a secondary place in her affections. • Until recently 
 she has been content to bind herself by an obligation in a nat- 
 ional covenant, in which God was not recognized; or if recog- 
 nized at all, with an indifference which seemed to regard the 
 introduction of that Holy name as a mere form, void of all sig- 
 nificance or solemnity. This indifference to the cause of Christ 
 to which she is largely indebted, increases the necessity for re- 
 pentance a thousand fold. While the kingdom of this world, 
 and the kingdom of Christ are, and should be, separate and 
 distinct, yet the principles of the latter should be the very foun- 
 dation upon which this Commonwealth should plant itself. — 
 Her breath should be inhaled from the pure atmosphere of the 
 Bible. — Her sustenance should be derived thence. — Her very 
 life blood should flow from this overflowing fountain of purity. 
 The Government of the Land "ordained of God" should be 
 thoroughly pervaded and regulated by the principles of God's 
 word. It should be the echo of Bible truth — a mighty focus 
 catching and concentrating, and thence distributing through 
 its varied media, the purifying influence of moral truth. 
 
 There are other evils which degrade the Land and cry to 
 Heaven. Throughout the length and breadth of the land there 
 are certain licensed venders, who sacrifice moral principle to a 
 greedy lust of gain — who feed the insatiate appetites of misguid- 
 ed infatuated men, regardless of the appeals of frantic wives, 
 the piteous cries of famishing children, or home desolations or 
 the moral effect upon society — who place instruments in the 
 hand of their victims, to dethrone reason and ify gil'ted 
 
 moral feelings — who build upon the ruins of mei and who help 
 to heap wrecks of men upon society, and peopl rnity with 
 lost souls. I allude to venders of intoxicating bei\ i Some of 
 
 these arc to be found even holding positions ii : • ■ church of 
 
12 
 
 Christ ! This, the authorities wink at, and testify their appro- 
 bation with a license ! 
 
 But further still are our people guilty. Walk clown the streets 
 of our large cities and even of our villages, and upon the lips 
 of a very large proportion of those you meet, the sacred name of 
 God trembles irreverently ; and even little children, following the 
 example of those who should teach them reverence, use it only 
 to add emphasis to their assertions ! 
 
 Sabbath after sabbath is prostituted to game making and 
 sport and merriment at the will of a crowd, instead of being 
 employed by them as a day of sacred rest and worship. The 
 Sabbatic rest of the fields is broken by the shrill whistle of 
 the locomotive, while the rivers are agitated by the paddles 
 of the steamboat. There are other sins which might be brought 
 to view as cause for repentance, and which clamor loudly for 
 reform. people of the South wound no more your mother, 
 upon whose bosom you have securely nestled ; but bear her, 
 now weeping and bleeding, upon your arms to the throne, and 
 while you weep with her and for her, confess her sins and your 
 sins there, with a spirit of humble penitence, and God will ac- 
 knowledge and accept the sacrifice, and answer with speedy and 
 abundant blessing. "If my people upon whom my name is called, 
 shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face, and turn from 
 their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their 
 sin and will heal the land" 2 Chron. vn. 14. "Behold I will bring 
 it health and cure — and will reveal unto them the abundance of peace 
 and truth" Jer. xxxiii. 6. 
 
 But there are peculiar blessings of temporal character hav- 
 ing special and immediate reference to the present condition of 
 the land which we should make the subject of importunate 
 prayer. The distracted country calls loudly for peace. She 
 wants not war, and at the sight of blood, shudders and turns pale 
 not from fear, but sorrow. She deprecates the scene of war and 
 carnage and blood. She weeps even while she strikes. She weeps 
 for departed peace ; — not because she is a coward, but a hero ! Not 
 because she dare not maintain the right, but because she does 
 not want the right to bleed. She has made overture upon over- 
 ture, and yet her plea is not regarded. Her "valiant ones cry 
 without — the ambassadors of peace weep Utterly." Her foe, "hath 
 broken the covenant — he hath despised the cities — he regardethnoman" 
 But if we cannot have peace, we want God's favor and protect- 
 
13 
 
 ion in the day of strife. For what do our foes contend ? Not for 
 principle or right : but they aim the death-blow at our sacred 
 institutions : our happy smiling homes they would consign to 
 the flames : our dearest interests they would plunder and de- 
 stroy : — and, as the loathsome serpent coils itself around the 
 trembling bird, they would clasp the great, warm, throbbing 
 heart of our cherished land in their serpentine folds, and black- 
 en and wither it under the venom of their malice. That I speak 
 the truth without exaggeration, recent startling developments 
 prove. They would "burn each blade of grass" — they would 
 consume each waving field ; — they would desecrate our altars — 
 they would blot out our homes — they would heap indignities 
 and insults upon our helpless families, and leave behind them a 
 scene of blackened desolation ! — God save the Land ! "No 
 human arm is equal to the crisis. No human eye can pene- 
 trate the future." No human counsel can defeat the designs 
 of these malignant destroyers. "Our only help is in God — 
 from Him cometh our salvation." Let us, my brethren, awake 
 to the stern realities that are before us. Noiv, if ever, christian 
 obligations should be recognized and christian duties scrupu- 
 lously performed. Now, if ever, is the time to "watch and pray." 
 Let us as christian patriots, awake to a consciousness of the 
 perils that surround our land and our homes. The dangers 
 which assail these reflect upon the precious church of Christ. 
 ShaM Zum suffer? Shall "spiritual wickedness" triumph over 
 her and trample her prostrate form in the dust ? Forbid it, Al- 
 mighty Father ! Let us awake to a sense of our duty with respect to 
 the Church. Let our prayers constantly assail the Throne. — 
 Let us pray for strength in every emergency. Let us seek GOD 
 as our all-powerful ally in political and spiritual difficulties. "Let 
 us scrupulously resist every influence that is unfriendly to the 
 influences of His Spirit. Let us mortify every thought and 
 subdue every passion upon which we cannot sincerely invoke 
 His blessing. "Let us wait long at the Mercy-seat, and re- 
 member that "the fervent effectual prayer of the righteous man avail- 
 eth much." 
 
 D. A. ST. CLAIR, PRINTER, WYTHEVILLE, VA. 
 
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