COL. GEORGE WASHINGTON FLOWERS MEMORIAL COLLECTION DUKE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY DURHAM, N. C. PRESENTED BY W. W. FLOWERS S E R 31 N S !. n DELIVERED DE HE ' GENERAL ASSEMBLY AT I 4 ' milled;geville, ga. ON- FAST DAY, MARCH 27, 1863, BOUGHTON", NISBET A . IS''. <<*& * tf^Srirv* vV +&Jk*Ls-^ sJfl® •. ' ■4 \*> r& &^^4d 3 I 15 j?H 7* ?.. ■ yOferfe- SERMON (iF BISHOIP PIERCE, BEFORE THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF GEORGIA. March 27th, 1863. ■ . 6.— Keep tliercWPb andllo them : for this is your wisdom understand iugin the sight of thte nations, which Bhall hear fill these Btatutea and say, 8urel] this great nation is .1 wise and understanding people. r.— For what nation is there 90 great, who hath Hod so nigh unto thom, as tin Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for7 6.— And what nation is there so grout, thai hath statutes and Judgments si righteous a* all this law which [sol before you this day?— Deuteronomy 1} ter, 1 '.'A, 1 tli, BlA verges. As a citizen of the Confederacy interested in commoi with others in its deliverance from our enemies — in theearlj and permanent establishment of peace — as a christian fully persuaded that there is an over-ruling Providence in the affairs of nations as well as of men, I rejoice that our Chief Magistrate, in all the great crises of the country, summons the people, one and all, to fasting, humiliation and prayer. I I am especially glad that he does this, not as a courteous concession to what he regards a popular superstition, but Iron honest, convictions of religious duty and official respon- sibility. The tone, language, sentiments of all his procla- mations on these occasions demonstrate that be unfeignedly recognizes his, our and the dependence ot the people on God, and believes that cordial, earnest, unite;! supplication will secure the divine blessing upon our arms and upon the administration of the Government. This idea I trust is common among all the people. Once dormant, it, has been roused, vivified, made practical, and though doubted and even denied by some, its truth has been enthroned by re- peated, signal, almost marvelous, interpositions in our be- half. The coincidence of these interventions with th.- prayer of the people have left no or doubt, and haw wrung from profane, even sceptical lips, tl l Fessiou, God reigneth, and God is for us and with us. Founding i.,\ opinion upon the historic records ol the < >1<1 Testament, 1 canuol doubt but that the,,.' official acts piously performed by the powers that be, and reverenth acknowledged by the people, bring our country with all il interests into peculiar covenant relations with God. and enlist in our de- 262 ^ (■ n :"> 4 fense, the resources which God alone can command. This conclusion is justified not only by many examples in the liis to ry of the Kings of Israel and Judah, and by the gen- eral promises of the Bible to penitence and prayer, but by .all the facts and circumstances which characterize this rev- olution, i This war is not of our seeking. We labored to avoid it. Our propositions fur amicable adjustment were rejected with subtlety and guile. We claimed only our ■own. We asked nothing of our enemies. We do not seek £heir land, or houses, or property. We are not fighting to ■extend our territory, to subdue a neighboring people, to ■sisurp dominion, to gratify ambition, or malice, or revenge. Faithful to the letter and the spirit of the old Constitution — asserting only the fundamental right of self government, we are but defending ourselves against a proud, rapacious, malignant foe, who, without light or reason, against law and flight and humanity, comes clown full of hate and rage to --enslave or exterminate us. We are fighting for liberty and lipme and family ; for firesides and fields and altars ; tor all that is dear to the brave, or precious to the good ; for our herds and our flocks, our men servants and maid servants ; for the heritage of our fathers and the rights of our child- ren ; for the honor of humanity and the institutions of Pro- vidence. We are fighting against robbery and lust and ra- pine ; against ruthless invasion, a treacherous despotism. the blight of its own land, and the scorn of the world': £8ongrel armies whose bond of union is plunder, and whose watch words are are but delusion and falsehood ; a fraud •upon the African, a lie to the North, and an' insult to the .South. There is therefore no object proposed by our Gov- ernment, no end aimed at on which we may not consistent- ly;, piously, sc ri.pt urally invoke the Divine blessing. We .may pray " according to the will of God." The triumph *>f our arms is the triumph of right and truth and justice. 'The defeat of our enemies is the defeat of wrong and malice and outrage. Our Confederacy has committed herself to no iniquitous policy, no unholy alliances, no unwarrantable !>lans either for defense or retaliation, and wok?, with numer- ous, hostile hosts quartered on her soil, and a powerful navy feeleaguerins: her coast, amid provocations innumerable, tinder threatenings the most diabolical, without fear of the .future, ready for the conflict if our deluded, infatuated ene- K»£es urge it on her, she is ready to make peace on just and ihei.var.able, terms. In praying for such a government, I feel ttat the way to the mercy seat is open. jVly faith is unem- barrassed. My hope is buoyant. I feel that I have access .to Him who rules in righteousness. The attitude of our country, is sublime. With her foot planted on right and her trust in God, undismayed by numbers and armaments .and navies, without the sympathy of the world, shut in, cut off, alone, she lias battled through two long, weary years, gallantly, heroically, triumphantly, and to-day is stronger in men, resources, faith and hope than when Fort Sumter's proud Hag was lowered to Her maiden arms. It is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. Stand- in ir, then, upon the justice of our cause and the righteous- ness of our aim, and encouraged by the experience of the past, let us lift up humble, thankful hearts to the God of all our mercies, and with emboldened faith commit our des- tiny into His hand, whom winds and seas obey, who ruleth in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of earth. It is impossible to tell how the same truth may affect different minds, but allow me to say, that among the many reasons which inspire my hope of the future and give vigor to my confidence in the ultimate establishment ol our inde- pendence, I rely with cheerful assurance upon a single fact,. Lhat is. that the Southern people with all their faults — vices if you please — have never corrupted the gospel of Christ. Amid indifference, neglect and affected unbelief, unfortu- nately but too common in many places, I do not believe- there is a community in our broad lands who would have countenanced or even tolerated a political yrcacliCT. The preacher who would have prostituted the pulpit to parts purposes, inculcated theories of duty or government un- known to the Constitution or the Bible, would have been ouclawed, expatriated as a hypocrite, a vile pretender, a. wolf in sheep's clothing. Our Sabbaths have not been des- ecrated by political harangues, seditious denunciations ol government and rulers by men claiming the sanctity of the priesthood, only to supercede and substitute the gospel of God by a pscudo philanthropy. Our churches and confer- ences and associations have not been profaned and defiled "by perverse disputings of men of corrupt, minds and destitute- of the truth" — "questions and strife of words whereol cometh envy, strife, railings and evil surmisings." Our so- ciety has never shown an appetency for the isms and hum- bugs of a prurient, godless philosophy ; our education • been made the tool of fanaticism, the vehicle of ganiziiig ideas, the lever of a libertine revoluti Our religiou has never resolved itself into convent! -into a geographical conscience, and erected 3 of any people into "a higher law" thai revelation. With us, thank God, the Bible has 1 a mount that burned with fire, which no man dared to to The voice issuing from its smoke and tempest has I ed as the the Great Jehovah, and the hand writing of the Almighty o • Ktion of the lard of morals and the basis of right, and thority from which there is no appeal, 'i o o »•* r on 6 baneful signiiicancy, when we remember that God's gov- ernment of the world all looks to the fortunes of Christian- ity. The dominion of Christ is to be universal — from sea to sea. In the divine plan political changes, commercial interests, forms of government, are secondary considerations, mere instruments to an end — that end the glory of God in the triumph of truth. If men set themselves in array against the truth of God, cither by subtle logic or open violence, they will be broken in pieces, as a potter's vessel with a rod of iron. If a nation, in its conceit of wisdom and its impudence of pretension, determines what God. •ought to will and say and do, and overrides His institutes thy their own speculations, and with unanointed hands - touches the holy ark, the doom of Uzzah will be their his- toric epitaph.- If a people give themselves up to infidelity, .erect their reason into a counsellor of the Almighty, and make a majority vote higher authority in morals as well as politics than the Constitution of the land and the Book of heaven, be sure that signal punishment treads fast upon the . heels of their blasphemous lolly. All this our .Northern ,. enemies have done. Wise above what is written, they have .mistaken sedition for liberty, cant for piety ; loud-mouthed ,'. champions for the freedom of the black man, they have trampled in the dust the most sacred rights of their own '"people ; with peace upon their tongues, they have brought ,.on and keep up a gigantic war. Swollen with vanity, they despise the lessons of the past ; confident in the pride and power ol numbers, they are tearing down their own govern- ^uent with the hope of destroying us, and r every step of me\y t progress is marked with aggression, perfidy and blood. Resistance to such a people is obedience to God. Whether, therefore, we pray for our country or against our enemies, ,\ye are praying in harmony with the plans of Providence ,;and the moral interests of mankind. Again, by a peculiar casuistry which has never had a •parallel since the days of the Pharisees, the Yankee mind lias, inverted the order of heaven and taught that the social status of the negro was more vital to him and to them tlnm ;is religious privileges or moral destiny, and to establish his theoretic political equality, they have dissolved the Union and drenched the land in blood. .Self-conceited, ex- acting, intolerant intermeddlers, what have they achieved ? Destroyed (as they call it) the best government in the world — tiie asylum of the oppressed and the home of the exile ; lost to themselves a trade on which they had fattened for generations; crippled, stagnated the commerce of the world ; rilled Europe with paupers; buried a million of their soldiers ; desolated a thousand homes and a hundred 1 housfind hearts; seduced or stolen as yet uncounted slaves, !.'h1 left them to starve and freeze and die.' 4 These heartless fanatics who howled so lugubriously over the imaginary horrors of Southern slavery, look now with cold averted eye upon the real Bufferings of their deluded victims. Hunger, nakedness, ail unsheltered head, disease, death by the slow tortures of cold and famine; what are these by the side of emancipate ( m the other hand, the, negro among US is an object of respect, affection and kindness, in every stage and condition of his being. His religious culture is generally (would u God I could say universally) provided for, and find the negro where you will, in the wilds of Africa, in the cities where he is nominally free, in all that constitutes a rational, re- spectabh >d, the Southern slave is the highest type of his race. Whatever abuses may have crept in and what- Deglect may be chargeable upon us, if we compare results, slavery has shown itseli* to be a great missioning iostitutio . i< Southern churches count more converts among tl endants of Ham than the united efforts of Christendom have gathered upon all the mission fields of the heathen world. Even in Africa itself, the most intelligent, civilized and prosperous community is composed of those who were trained to knowledge, faith and virtue under the humanizing, elevating influence of slavery in these South- ern States. The depositories o) a high and holy trust in the plans oi' Providence, it is a debt we owe to heaven, to re- sisl unto death the mad schemes of our enemies — schemes which imply a blasphemous impeachment of the divine ad- ministration, and are fraught with unutterable woes to the beneficiaries of our guardianship. The ob I these remarks is not to promote pride, but to en - • faith — not to hide our sins by magnifying the sins of our enemies, but to inspire hope in our strug- gle, its progress and its issues. Assembled as we are to make si • God, it seemed tome appropriate to show by the previous running outline of facts, that we ma; approach the mercy seal with christian liberty, and scrip- ly look for the divine blee to our arms ad ountry. Wi e a particular analysis of the text, 1 propOSi - irener.il ideas, and with then. only g us nationally. The terms statutes and toks of Moses, and al- atiou. The first !reraoni< • and the lat- and all matl and Ctilious i of the. one and to be Ll I and glory ol the rish people. They were distinctly taught thai their power and perp< tuity as a uatiou depended, n»»t on popula- tion, wealth or military i . but on ■ s If they lived in harmony with their covenant relations to liim, He was to provide and defend and make them numer- ous, powerful and enduring. The reputation which their great law-giver predicted lor them as resulting from their obedience, was amply verified in the verdict of the nations.. They were distinguished for the productions of their lands,, for God multiplied their corn and wine and oil ; distinguish- ed for their prowess in arms, for they were victorious over their enemies, and subdued the nations round about them ;■; distinguished for their civil institutions, for while these were peculmr, they were wonderfully adapted to the age in wfaieh they lived, and to the different orders of society among theimj distinguished above all for their religious worship. Before the exodus from Egypt and the pattern given from the mount, the worship of the rest of mankind was wicked y obscene, puerile, and even ridiculous, while the worship of the Jews, understood in its symbols and references, was ra- tional, conservative and elevating. It is true that the his- tory of this people was greatly marred by perverseness and rebellion ; yet there were intervals (and these were longer than a careless reader of the Bible would suppose) in which they walked before the God of their fathers in righteous- ness and fidelity. Then they prospered ; the earth yielded her increase by Uandfulls ; the tribes dwelt in peace ; the glory of God inhabited the temple, and all the land was blessed. But when king, or priest, or people corrupted the worship of God, departed from the statutes and judgments of the divine law, then a prophet was raised up and sent ' to rebuke and admonish. If they repented and reformed, God let " the lifted thunder drop," and made peace with his people. If they refused and rebelled,*then came drought, or famine, or pestilence, or war with defeat and captivity. The glory of the nation culminated in the reign of Solo- mon, a prince for whom history has no peer. In the chron- . icles of the Kings there are two things which at this, time and on this day demand our special attention. I refer to- them not for discussion now, but as stand points from which to advance what I desire to say. The first is the great stress which God always laid upon the official, national recogni- tion of his rights and laws, and the favor he always showed to those rulers who honored him before the people in the administration of government. So vital was this providen- tial rule to the public welfare, and so honorable to the Deity the observance of it, that he exempted one of the doomed family of " Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin," from the common destiny, because there " was some good thing in him concerning the Lord his God." The second thing is, that the great reforms which were in- stituted from time to time, even by the best kings, with one or two exceptions, were neutralized and made nugatory by their incompleteness. When the king and the people went after their idols, ami licentiousness swept over the lnnd like a flood and '• God thundered out of heaven upon them," then, stricken, terrified and bumbled, they turned unto the Lord. The temple was purified, idols destroyed, the groves cut doWli, ami, by royal edict, the people were summoned to a great national lustration ; but these interesting records nl ways wind up with the significant declaration, "yet the high places were not taken aivay." Without stopping to ex- plain, historically or otherwise, the idea conveyed is of vast importance to us in the present stage of our national exis- tence. Between these " high places" and the corruption of government and religion there was an intimate ami insepar- able association. It not related as cause and effect, they were ever present temptations, furnishing both instruments and opportunity for a general relapse into idolatry. The power of habit, temporarily suspended by calamitous judgment, never failed to reassert its dominion, and these reprobated remnants of past degeneracy were convenient enticements. To sin was easy — cost nothing, neither mo- i.cv nor labor. The instruments were ready made ; time, place and circumstance concurred, and the easily besetting sin led captive a willing people. The curse of the nation was, that with all their reforms and purifications, the seeds of evil were left, and in due course of events germinated, grew and brought forth another harvest of sin and woe and death. On this fast day, I give you notice, my country- men, that if there be any upas tree growing in the circum- ference of our land, planted by authority, nurtured by pub- lic admiration, we need not think to destiny its pestiferous virus by gathering*its foliage, or topping its branches, albeit we leave nothing but its naked trunk, for through "the scent of water, it will bud and bring forth boughs like a plant." If we would breath wholesome air and live un- >ned, we must cut down flic tree and dig up the roots ami bind them all in bundles to he burned. To bring our country into the covert of God's protecting power, it is not absolutely necessary, however desirable, that every individual should adjust his moral relations on the spelt Hence, while I mourn the sins which abound on every side, i shall feel safe if cur n God and honor his Sabbaths — if our representative bod- 'gislal e in harmony with the di\ iiie lav, : if our judiciary i, a terror to < \ il doers and a praise i(. them do well. Li i v. »rd, plant the governn ■. talk less of the rights of the people an ! more about the rights of God, extirpate the 3 which izi d soci< . v, abolish pan ■ . and let all ends we aim aft be God and country and truth; I •id will be nigh unto US in all wc call upon him tor.'' 10 By our secession from the Union and the inauguration of a new government, we have put ourselves in position, if we are wise and have a heart for the work, to amend what was faulty and to incorporate not only new safeguards against the abuse of power, but principles conservative of law, or- der and morals. Conceiving this to be a good time, while the public mind is loosened from old ideas and broken up by the ploughshare of war, for casting abroad the seeds of truth, I avail myself of the occasion to make, as I believe, an important suggestion : On the ground that our fathers separated Church and State, secured freedom of conscience, granted toleration to all religions, the popular inference has been all along that we were a christian nation. But rightly viewed, the facts do not justify the conclusion. Indeed, the principles af- firmed, considered as abstractions, or in their practical effect upon legislation or public opinion, ignore all reference to God and his law, and made the government so essentially secular, political and. hitman, as virtually to assume that God had no rights in it — no control of it, and that to work it was our business, while the Deity was more appropriate- ly employed in another, perhaps a higher sphere. Accord- ingly, in the Constitution there was no acknowledgment of his being or his providence, and much legislation under it was directly in the face of His authority, and every man had a right to be as wicked and mischievous as he pleased. * 1 * Now, I am neither a heretic in politics nor a bjgot in reli- gion. I do nut desire to see the Church, my own or any other, established by the State ; I do not desire that the State should adopt and publish a creed and command everybody to believe it : I ask for no inquisitions into any man's private opinions or practices ; I want no tests or oaths. But I do believe that, in the organic law, God should be acknowledged in his being, perfections, provi- dence and empire ; not as the fust great cause simply, that is philosophy ; not as the universal father of a world of de- pendent creatures; that is poetry, sentimentalism, and may be nothing more, but as the God of the Bible, Maker, Pre- server, Governor, Redeemer, Judge, Father, Son and Holy Ghost. The theocracy of the Jews, though not prescribed as a model lor the nations of the earth, was intended to be the type, in substance if not in form, of all righteous gov- ernment. In the progress of civilization and religion, as the world approaches the grand prophetic period, when "truth shall spring out of the earth and righteousness shall look down from heaven," the governments of earth will ail be assimilated to this pattern. In confirmation of this idea, it is already true, that the best portions of the civil codes of all the nations of Asia and Europe, both ancient and modern, were borrowed from the Mosaic laws. It is equal- 11 ly true of ourselves. The Constitution of the Confederate States of America has taken one step in the right direction, but does not go far enough. In its appeal to Almighty God, it uses the language of deism, or natural religion, rather than of Christianity. It does not honoi Cod as he reveals himself in those relations which concern us most, and by which the Divine glory is most illustriously declared. Cod magnifies his word above all His name, but there is no .illusion to it. "God is in Christ reconciling the world un- to himself." " All things were made by Him and for Him," and yet he is :>o r confessed. Now, as a christian people, accrediting the Bible as a revelation from Cod, I think there ought to be in our Constitution a distinct recognition of the christian religion. The moral character of a nation in the Divine estimate, depends largely upon public national acts. Hence, 1 attach great importance to these national fasts. Though many may neglect, some treat, them with contempt, yet, proceeding from elected rulers, the representatives of the people, they characterize the country. They are sol- emn official exponents oi« religious faith and sentiment, which \Ve learn from the condescending expressions of the Divine word are acceptable to God. If our rulers nev- er called us to these acts of self-denial, confession and intercession, the thousands of praying people over the land could not save the government from the odium of atheism oi- infidelity. And it the instrument under which we or- ganize the Confederacy is ominously silent on a question so vital as Christianity, what can we, what can the world infer hut hostility or indifference? Either would provoke the Divine displeasure and limit, if not forfeit, the Divine bles- sing. While Noah, Job and Daniel, if they were living, Might not and could nor prevail to save from overthrow an infidel, godless government — .. government which honors Jiod and Christianity — sets itself to execute His will in ii* legitimate sphere, becomes the " minister of ( ind for good," and uevi policy or expediency a plea for unright- eous, impious legislation, may inherit the protection ot hea- ven, despite the individual transgressions of the people. This is the lesson of history both sacred and profane. Bo lieving, as I do, that God has committed to us the christ- ianizution of the African race, it is specially harmonious with this high and holy trust, that we invoke and set the divine favor by a solemn acknowledgment of His vv< as well as 'lis providence. God has identified his name credit among men with Christianity , [| is Bill i and his power. Before a human breath had broken the solil of eternal nothingness, solved in the iul mind. In this glorious conception of the Godhead, universe was cradled. Creation with it* astronomic, \ deis. the earth with it.-< mountains piled in i: ajestj . - 12 spread outin beauty, its seas rolling in grandeur, was intended as the theatre for its display. The genealogic line of ante- diluvian patriarchs was recorded in sacred story, and perpet- uated in the family of Noah for this. For this, Abraham was called from Ur of the Chaldees, made the depository of truth and the father of a great nation. Around this off- spring of the Divine mind, inspiration has clustered the marvelous annals of the Israelitish people, and maintained the royal seed of David's line in the house of Judah till Shiloh came. The advent of the Son of God was the ful- fillment of prophecy and promise, and when the chosen race " despised and rejected him," wrath came upon them to the uttermost. Through provocations innumerable, the nation was preserved in fulfillment of the Scriptures, for the introduction of Christianity. Their malicious unbe- lief, their insulting scorn of Christ was the signal for their overthrow and dispersion. Even now these tribes " of the wandering foot and weary breast," though scattered and peel- ed, are kept distinct, unmingled, a miraculous demonstra- tion of the truth of God and 'the fearful guilt of making light of Jesus of Nazareth/ Wherever you find a Jew, on the banks of the Ganges or the Tiber, the Thames or the Rhine, the Jordan or the Mississippi, you behold a living witness of God's primitive justice in the defense of the christian religion. His isolation, loneliness and perpetuity is at once a miracle and a seal which find their explanation in the threatenings of the past and the prophecies of the future. He has survived the faggot and the sword, Papal persecution and Moslem barbarism, the reproach of nations and the waste of ages, on purpose to be at last the crown- ing trophy of the all-conquering cross. The vast extent and unity of the Roman empire is an his- toric fact which has its solution in the plans of God for the easy and rapid circulation of Christianity. But when the truth had triumphed over the throne of the Caesars and the church of God had been corrupted by power and pride and numbers, by another touch of the linger of Providence, this colossal dominion fell to rise no more. Its disruption by the Northern hordes was another step in the solemn march of history towards the grand issue which regulates the dealings of God with men and nations, even the honor of the cross and the diffusion of Christianity. If we scan the shadows which ilicker over the tablets of the past, or search amid the cemeteries of fallen dynasties and buried empires, or if we trace the path of revolution and commerce and guage :lie comparative strength of pagan and christian govern- ments, everywhere, — always alike, in the epitaph of the dead and in the annals of the living, we read the same great historic lesson — lC thau that honor mc T will honor and they that x will be lightly esteemed." Oh! if we would be "a. 13 wise and understanding people" — ; 'a great nation — having God nigh unto us in all that we call upon him for," let us avow our faith in his revelation, identify our government with his honor and commit our interests to the power that is pledged to perpetuate the church and to insure her do- minion. Then amid tee rise and fall of kingdoms and all the mutations of time, our republic shall embody one ele- ment — pine — true— eternal, an element which shall ally us in friendship with Heaven and stamp upon all our prosperi- ty, the seal of the divine blessing. To avoid controversy — to forestall objection, I would be content if the framers of our constitution in their appeal to God, would designate the Almighty as Father, Sox and Holy GHOST, because these names imply all that is distinc- tive and peculiar in the christian scheme. This demand is neither extravagant nor sectarian, and even though it might be regarded by some as a concession to the church yet it is as little as a. christian people could consistently ask or a professedly christian government expect to grant. The promises of God to the church are sublime. She is advan- cing to her glorious destiny. To her friends Heaven pledges all that is valuable in time or desirable in eternity. As a patriot and a christian, I desire for myself, mv children and my countrymen, the sheltering a^gis of Almighty God — the benediction of His only begotten Son — the sanctify- ing ministry of the Eternal Spirit. In the same general line of thought, I must remind vou, that it will prove us to be ''a wise and understanding peo- ple" to make the Bible the basis and the rule of all of our legislation. The "statutes and judgments" of the law are righteous, founded in the nature of God and man and were intended to preserve the rights of the one and to promote the interest* of the other. The truth is that no law, paren- tal — scholastic — municipal or civil can bind the conscience and command the sanctions of Providence except as it is de- rived from and enforced by the supreme will of God. His law is the foundation ot all government — the measure of all authority. To contravene it, on any pretext of policy or convenience or caprice is wicked, presumptuous, disastrous to the best interests of society, and to that extent puts us beyond the pale of promised support and protection. The divine "commandment is exceeding broad" spreading over the whole field of human action — following man into all the relations of life, private and public, constituting the only real charter of his rights and privileges and all enactments granting him larger liberties, invade the jurisdiction of God and drop poison into the hidden wells of society. Every departure from the great fundamental principles of right and justice, as embodied in the divine statutes and judg- ments, demoralizes community — multiplies offences — embar- 14 rasses government, offends, and, if I may so say, alienates the Lord Almighty. A faithful comparison of our legislation with the word of the Lord would reveal many discrepancies and some down- right conflicts. No man can read the Bible without being impressed with the fact, that in the divine estimation — "to profane the Sabbath" is a high misdemeanor, indeed a mor- tal sin. I shall not now attempt to show the preeminent importance of the christian Sabbath, its indispensable re- lations in the government of God, its value as a day of rest to man and beast, nor its conneeriou with parental duty and the worship of the sanctuary. I rest the doctrine, on the naked command — "remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy" when I say that every legislative enactment which requires or sanctions its violation ought to be repealed. No man has the. right to appropriate it to a secular use ; no cor- poration can do it, without guilt, and all the people togeth- er, cannot delegate to their representatives the right to set it aside or in any wise lower its claims. Say what you please — bring up your strong reasons—exhaust the argu- ment — when the debate is ended there stands — the fourth commandment unrepealed — with the thunder of Sinai in its hand and the penal sanctions of eternity at its back. There it stands, vindicated, in the providence of God, in the curse of the nations who have profaned it and re-enacted in the blessings which swarm around its sanctification. To collate and comment upon the many passages of Holy writ which set forth the claims of this hallowed day and illustrate the divine administration in reference to it would be inadmissi- ble now. The continued persistent testimony of the Bible and Providence in favor of the Sabbath shut us up to the duty of hallowing the day and sweeping the statute book of all opposing enactments or plunging with open eyes and unbared bosom upon "the thick bosses of Jehovah's buck- ler." There is another statute of Georgia adverse as I believe to the will of God and the true interests of humanity. 1 mean the law which forbids us to teach our negroes to read. This enactment invades the rights of the master and the privileges of the slave. It is the master's duty to teach his servants, as well as his children, the doctrines and morals of. our holy religion, and the slave is entitled to the advantages in the use of which he may learn to offer to his Maker a ra- tional and acceptable worship. Our Heavenly Father cer- tainly never intended any human mind to be kept in dark- ness and ignorance. The negro is an immortal being and it is his right by the law of creation and the purchase of redemption to read for himself the epistles of his Redeemer's love. If the institution of slavery cannot be maintained except at the expense of the black man's immortal interests, 15 in the name of Heaven I say — let it perish. I know the cir- cumstances out of which our unfortunate legislation sprung. It was partly retaliatory, in rebuke of the incendiary publications of the North and partly precautionary on pru- dential grounds. But the logic of the law is as bad as the law itself. To make the negro sutler for the sins of the Yankee, is the grossest injustice and yet this is the practical effect of our law. As a prudential policy it is foun- ded upon a false idea. Knowledge so far from gendering insubordination will promote the loyalty of our colored pop- ulation. Let them learn from the scripture that their rela- tion is ordained of God — that He prescribes their duties and makes fidelity to their earthly masters a part of the service due to Him, our hands will be strengthened — our mouths tilled with argument and we shall put to s'lence the igno- rance of foolish men. A Bible in every cabin will be the best police oi the country, and despite the ravings of a- brain- less fanaticism, subjection and order will reign throughout our land. Thinking as I do that one of the moral ends of this \v;u is to reform the abuses of slavery, I ought to add that all laws and parts of laws which authorize or allow arbitrary interference with the connubial relations of slaves, ought to be rescinded. It is due to humanity — to the great law of reciprocal affection, to the will of God. ""What (iod hath joined together let no man put asunder." The truth is, that on this whole subject, public opinion, legis- lative enactment and judicial administration are all too lib- eral and too loose. The New Testament allows divorce on- lv for onfi cause ; our Code grants it, on application for al- most any showing. A law providing for separation in cer- tain extreme cases, without the privilege of marrying again would promote the peace of many families and prevent the ruptures in many more But in relation to slaves we have no law at all. The whole question isopen. Husbands and wives are subject to all the contingencies of time and cir- cumstances — of gain and avarice — of passion and caprice, of the law of inheritance whether regulated by testament or appraisement. Verily "these things ought not so to be." 1; is all wrong. A stigma upon our civilization and an oifHse to our Christianity. Here then upon our knees be- fore High Heaven let us vow to reform. Yes my country- men, let us do right — fear (rod ami keep his commandments. Let us puJ Lslayery upon its scriptural basis — eliminate i; i long tolerated abuses, deteifd it nor, only by force of arms but by proving to the world that it is the great conservator of republican government, ami that it is really ci>nsi- with the highest development ami the greatest happiness of tie' negro race. I will not g<> further ini,i. «!.•( ails. i. e snllice. "Keep therefore ami do ilnm. for thy s your wis- dom and Understanding >,n the sight of the bo/w/m." 16 Having said this much about setting the government right before God and His law, it will be appropriate in con- clusion to remind you, that while we fast and pray, it will be acceptable to God and of service to our beloved country to confess and forsake our own sins. God's blessing may rest upon a christian government while yet He chastises the guilty people for their transgressions. We are passing through a terrble ordeal. Some sad and sickening devel- opments have been made. Heaven has blessed us generally with fruitful seasons and bounteous harvests but we are sac- rificing them to our lusts. Restlessness and discontent pre- vail. Because of swearing the land mourneth. The love of money which is the root of all evil, abounds, runs wild — grows reckless, almost ferocious. Extortion, pitiless ex- tortion is making havoc in the laud. We are devouring each other. Avarice, with full barns puts the bounties of Providence under bolts and bars, waiting with eager long ings for higher prices. The widow's wail and childhood's cry fall upon his ear, unheeded. The soldier's wife shivers in her cabin and moistens her crust with her tears, but the griping, grasping monster waits ior a darker hour to make sure he loses not a dime of her little all. The greed of gain, the lowest, meanest, infirmity of the human mind stalks among us, unabashed by the heroic sacrifices of our women or the gallant deeds of our soldiers. Speculation in salt and bread and meat runs riot in defiance ot the thunders of the pulpit, — executive interference, and the horrors of threat- ened famine. Factories, (though there are some noble ex- ceptions) as if Providence were a partner likeminded with them and had brought on the calamities of the country for their benefit, are making fortunes from the blood of the brave and the sighs of the innocent and lovely. Scorning the currency of the country they demand provision for their manufactures, and conscious of power over the necessities of the people, they fix the price of one, lower than justice can approve, and of the other, higher than patriotism would take. In these respects we are going from bad to worse. These are the clouds upon our sky big with the rain of grief and wee. God helping us we can manage the enemies that come to us with arms in their hands, but how we are to escape these frogs of Egypt— these all devouring locusts that come up into our houses, our beds — our kneading troughs, is more than I can tell. In answer to prayer this day, oh Lord God abate the plague and save us from vio- lence without and selfishness within. Men and brethren, if we would help our imperilled coun- try, let us cultivate personal piety — live nearer to God our- selves and promote religion in our neighborhoods by our labors, our example and our piayers. Let us set our faces against all injustice, oppression aniL wrong. Remember 17 the poor and needy. Let us stand by our govermn*«& — our army — our independence, by confidence, encowagt-- rnent and every necessary sicrifice. With a christian €««►- stitution — a faithful administration — amoral ano! reKgaras- people we may look for peace ere long — an honorable a»~ tionality — a long bright career in which our prosf* shall be durable as the stars of heaven and abundant as waves of the sea. THE RAINBOW ROUND THE THRONE; OR JUDGMENT TEMPERED WITH MERCY, A DISCOURSE BEFORE THE LEGISLATURE OF GEORGIA, DELIVERED OX THE DAY OF FASTING, HUMILIATION AND PRAYER, APPOirfT.KI> by tisi: PRESIDENT or Tin-: CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA, MARCH 27tii, 18G3. By B. M, PALMER, D. D„ OP NEW ORLEANS, La. SJOUGIITON. NISBET & BARSBS, Srut rms-iK**. ■ ILLKDGIVILLl, <**■ PROCLAMATION BY THE PRESIDENT. It is meet that, as a people who acknowledge the supre- macy of the living God, we should be ever mindful of our dependence on Him ; should remember that to Him alone can we trust for our deliverance ; that to Him is due de- vout thankfulness for the signal mercies bestowed on us, and that by prayer alone can we hope to secure the continued manifestation of that protecting care which has hitherto shielded us in the midst of trials and dangers. In obedience to His precepts, we have from time to time been gathered together with prayers and thanksgiving, and He has been graciously pleased to hear our supplications, and to grant abundant exhibitions of His favor to our ar- mies and our people. Through many conflicts we have now attained a place among the nations which commands their respect; and to the enemies who encompass us around and seek our destruction, the Lord of Hosts has again taught the lesson of His inspired word, that the battle is not to the strong, but to whomsoever He willeth to exalt. • Again our enemy, with loud boasting of the power of their armed men and mailed ships, threaten us with subju- gation, and with evil machinations seek, even in our own homes and at our own firesides, to pervert our men servants and our maid servants into accomplices of their wicked de- signs. Under these circumstances, it is my privilege to invite 3'ou once more to meet together and to prostrate yourselves in humble supplication to Him who has been 'our constant and never failing support in the past, and to whose protec- tion and guidance we trust for the future. To this end I, Jefferson Davis, President of the Confed- erate States of America, do issue this, my proclamation, setting apart Friday, the twenty-seventh day of March, as a day of lasting, humiliation and prayer, and I do invite the people of the said States to repair on that day to their usual places of public worship, and to join in prayer to Almighty God that He will continue His merciful protection over our cause, that He will scatter our enemies and set at naught their evil designs, that He will graciously restore to our beloved country the blessings of peace and security. In faith whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, at the city of Richmond, on the twenty-seventh day of February, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three. JEFFERSON DAVIS. By the President : J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of State. SERMON. And beholl tr. throne wis Bet in Heaven, and one Bat on the throne. And ho I liat Bat wis to look upon like si jasper and n sardine stone : and there was a rainbow round about Hie throne, in Bight like onto an Emerald"— Revelation, \tk chap. '2, -i verses. It should not surprise us that the New Testament canon, like that of the Old, closes with prophecy, which spans in- deed the whole arch of human history. Springing from the bosom of the first promise which broke upon .the despair of man after the fall, it spread the bow of hope over forty cen- turies until the appearance of the woman's seed. From the Redeemers cross, as a new salient point, it again over- leaps intervening ages till in the glories of the second advent, history shall reach its consummation, and time itself shall be no more. John, the last of the Hebrew seers, is accordingly shutout from men to see visions of God, in the isle of Patmos. Through a series of prophetic symbols, he depicts the fortunes of the church, her final triumph, and the destruction with which her adversaries shall be consum- ed. The book of Revelation therefore affords a rude out- line of the history of mankind ; so far, at least, as this is implicated La the progress of the church. Antecedent how- ever to these disclosures, a view is first afforded of God up- on his throne, invested with awful majesty and power. A door was opened in heaven ; mid behold, a throne and one seated upon it, whom the entranced Prophet is not permit- ted to describe save under the allegorical symbols of the jasper and the sardine stone. These represent those Di- vine perfections, which are conspicuously illustrated in the government of the Universe : the blood-red color of the sardine symbolizing that retributive justice, which vindi- cates the majesty of .the Divine law through the punish- ment of the transgressor — and the jasper, clear as crystal, as appropriately typifying the matchless purity and holiness of God. which is his glory. But the most remarkable feature in this scene is "the rain- bow round about the throne," with its predominant green so refreshing to the»eye, "in sight like unto an Emerald." This symbol, purely historical "in its character, admits a more certain interpretation than the two which preceded. You remember that after the deluge God set his how in the clouds, a sign of the covenant into which he had entered with Noah, the second father of our race, and a seal of the promise that he would not again destroy the Earth, with a ll«>od. From that day, the rainbow has been recognized as problem of mercy, and of mercy returning after judg- ment. The import of this remarkable vision is therefore easily deduced. Before opening the seals and sounding the trumpets in which the whole hit are administration of Pro- vidence is implicitly contained, the Prophet is called to be- a 90 hold Jehovah a? a God of law, yet ruling in mercy ; — seat- ed indeed upon the throne and displaying the symbols of his righteous supremacy, yet ruling beneath the sign of the covenant which pledges to sinful man his compassion and his grace. It is therefore not a government of naked and absolute law which John is commissioned to unfold ; but of law as it is tempered by grace ; and we utterly fail to understand the dealings, of God with the human race, if we overlook either of the two elements of justice and of grace, which enter as factors in the whole economy of Providence. No topic seems to me, my Hearers, more appropriate to the solemnities of this national fast than this commingling of mercy with judgment in the administration of God's government over men : a topic lull of consolation in the darkness of the present hour, whose timely exhibition may perhaps serve to check those extreme and despondent fears which a too exclusive view of our sinfulness as a people cannot fail to arouse. But as the comfort it may impart depends upon our conviction of its truth, I must be allowed to establish it as a doctrine, before attempting to infer the support which it brings to our young and struggling nation. 1. In the jirsi place ihen.it is involved in the 'primary fact that God's special purpose in the creation of' man is to illustrate through him the riches of his grace. It were idle to conjecture how many orders of intelligi- gent beings God may have created, to inhabit the innumer- able worlds which science reveals to us distributed through the immensity of space. Nor, were this even known, were we furnished with information of the conditions under which they live, nor of the modifications of the one eternal law by which it is adapted to their peculiar characters and circumstances. Such speculations are as unnecessary as they are rash. The scriptures plainly reveal the existence of two distinct classes of created beings, and sufficiently un- fold the purposes they subserve in the comprehensive ecouom}' of the Divine government. The destiny of angels stands closely associated with the honor which God secures to himself through the administration of sim- ple law, while the history of man equally developes the rich- es of the Divine love and stance. In regard to the former. there is no room for mistake. I need not remind you that law consists essentially of two parts — the precept which guides, and the penalty which binds. The precept comes, first in the order of thought, and with its unerring finger points out the course which it becomes the creature to pur- sue. It states with infallible precision the relation of the subject to the law-giver and the claims of the latter upon the service, worship and love of the former. Then follows the penalty, as the exponent of the Divine authority, and binds these duties upon the conscience. The two cannot be sep- arated without destroying our very conception of law. For if the penalty be removed, the precept degenerates at one*' into mere counsel or advice : or if the precept be withdrawn, the penalty sinks down into a blind and arbitrary threat. It is the union of the two which constitutes the formal na- ture of law. Now precisely corresponding with this dis- tinction in the law itself, we have two classes of angels, whose whole destiny is respectively linked to one or the other of these two elements. The Holy angels, who passed success- fully through their period of probation and are now con- firmed indelectibly in blessedness forever, illustrate the glo- ries of the law as these are reflected through a sinless and perfect obedience of the precept; while the fallen angels, who first raised the standard of revolt in Heaven and-were hurled from their several thrones into the abyss of hell. shall forever illustrate the terrors of that curse which is de- nounced against transgression. The whole history, both of the one class and of the other, is an eternal exposition of the law, practically exemplyfying the results both of obe- dience and of sin. No purpose was ever formed in the counsels of God for the restoration <>i such as are fallen ; no sacrifice ever smoked upon the divine altar for the expia- tion o( their guilt : no offer of pardon even solicited them to the exercise of repentance : no Divine spirit ever breath- ed upon them in their trespasses aud-sins, quickening them into life : but "having left their own habitation, they are re- served in everlasting chains, under darkness, to the judg- ment of the great day." A sufficient exemplification being once made of the majes- ty and glory of naked and absolute law, the infinite God was under no necessity of repeating Himself; and a very different purpose is accordingly disclosed in the creation and history of mankind. The superscription over this dispensa- tion is Love : "for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believoth in him should not perish but have everlasting life ;" and the song of the redeemed forever in Heaven is chanted "unto Him that loved as and washed ns from our sins in Ilis own blood." The whole record, as begun in time and continued through- out the ages of the future, is a record of infinite and sover- eign love. As through a dispensation of mere law over the angels, God discovered to the universe his holiness, jus- tice, and truth, so by his method of grace towards man he opens the treasures of-his infinite heart, disclosing the depths of his tenderness, his boundless compassion, his in- conceivable mercy and grace. It is then fore a more inte- rior display of the Divine perfections than had before bi made — the climax to that revelation of his power and God- head which was written on the frame of nature, and the complement of that which was engcaved on the tables of the law. "Tin; mystery, which from the beginning of the world had been hid in God," is now revealed ; "to the in- 24 jftenif; that now unto the principalities, and powers in heav- **efy places might be known, by the church, the manifold vma&om at' God." All the arrangements therefore in the tssnea&gQH of man look to the evolution of this stupendous ^aye&food of grace. For example, the human race was not fash- ioned in the mass, as were the angels; nor thrown, like them, &!*•?« an individual probation, to stand or fall each tor him- jseffi" -alone : but was slowly developed in the lapse of years :'mm. a single parent stock — the first Adam being the pre- w and type of the second Adam, the Lord from Heav- »rbo should restore the ruin effected by his dismal fall, ertous too as was the introduction of sin, a problem SK^eriy insoluble by human wisdom, yet as a cardinal and tted fact it is, in a broad and comprehensive view, the < essary antecedent of that grace which shall look upon the ring and lost, and devise the method of their recovery. raj's no part of my purpose to particularize the details his wonderful scheme ; but only to signalize the gener- ;>J &.-(, that this world was built as the theatre' of grace, and m&a was created that in his destiny it might be unfolded. it be borne in mind that grace, like law, must have an irical outworking. In the fortunes of angels law work- ■w&*m.t its results* the supremacy and righteousness of God itne substantive facts and actual portions of the history he Universe : so God will not content himself with the exposition of his grace as a silent and dormant perfec- ri<$a<*f iiis nature. Like his holiness and his truth, grace must nought out as a potential and substantive fact ; only can it be k needed and pressed into the Divine admin- ' iurs, and become equally with justice an element of his effiraent The mighty architect by whom this principle elaborated in the forge of his own dreadful passion and ®dy tleath, was the Lord Jesus Christ. By an obedience : $er in its proportions than the aggregate obedience of he creatures, he vindicated the law's injured majesty ; lust through ins vicarious endurance of the penalty, he gs out the* tenderest affection, of the father as a God of a the final application of this grace once historically ed, both angels and men are brought together ae glorious body, over which Christ presides as the I — the high-priest of their worship, gathering their to his golden censer and waving it before the eter- ne. Henceforth it is an integral principle of the iwe government, seated by the side of law in its admin- .itoa both in Heaven and on Earth — and God shall rule \ whorasover I.'e will" : and little as State may reek of it, He will break the nations with a rod pf iron ' until His supremacy be acknowledged, and the kin this world consent to "become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Chria This claim of the Savior to universal dominion is fully 26 asserted in the sacred volume: and as it is a truth which I de- sire the christian people of this land to lay upon their con- science, permit me now to adduce only a few of its most pointed testimonies. In the solemn hour of Christ's depar- ture into Heaven, while yet His sacred feet pressed the Mount of Olives, and before the clouds received him out of the sight of his disciples, he bases the commission of his church, the great charter under which all her immunities are held, upon the Father's grant to him of absolute do- minion : "all power is given unto me in Heaven and in Earth — go ye therefore and teach all nations." Mutt. 2S : IS, 19. Prior to this, in one of his discussions with the cavilling Jews who sought to kill because as they said "he made himself equal with God,'' he reasserts his supremacy; as the necessary consequent upon his Divinity: "for the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son ; tiiat all men should honor the Son even as they honor the father, as the father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself; and hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man." John 5 : 22, 27. So too in his pray- er of intercession uttered just before his crucifixion, He challenges this right immediately at His Father's hands : "as thou hast given hiin power over all flesh." John 17 : 2. The inspired Paul doctrinally affirms this claim in the most explicit language, in several of his epistles : as in Ephesians 1 : 20, 23, "and set him at Ids own right hand in the heav- enly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come ; and hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all tilings to the church." And in Phillippians 2: 9, 11, "where- fore also God hath highly exalted hiin and given him a name which is above everv name ; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth ; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus is the Lord to the <>lory of God the father." Nor is the prophetic record of the Old Testament silent upon this point : for Daniel testifies, "I saw in the night visions, and behold one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and. they brought him near before him— and there was given him dominion and glory, and a kingdom that all people, na- tions and languages should serve him ; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shali not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed" : "and the king- dom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom un- der 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. 7 : 13, 14, 27. The evangelical Isaiah, too, lifts up the voice of the ancient church : "unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulders; ah£ his name shall be called Wonderful, Coun- sellor, the Mighty God. the Everlasting Father, the Prince of peace- Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom to order it, and to .establish it with judgment and with justice, from henceforth even forever." Isa. 9 : 6, 7. It is moreover not a little significant of Christ's supre- macy over the earth, that in the great assize, when the throne shall be set upon the clouds and the books' shall be opened, it is Tie who shall sit and judge both the quick and the dead : "for God hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world, in righteousness, by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance to all men in that he hath raised from the dead." Acts 17 : 31. Fi- nally the lonely Seer of Patmos turns his telescopic ga/.e into the heavens and reveals the grand Assemblyin their solemn worship around the throne : "and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands, and every creature which is in heaven and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are 'in the sea, heard I singing, blessing and honor and glory and power be unto Hihl that siftoth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever." Rev. 5: 11, 13. Such is the testimony rolling up in one grand volume from the Scriptures of God to this Headship of Christ over the nations. The ancient bards of the church with inspired ecstacy woke the proph- etic harp to tin's song. Its music floats upon the air through the whole night of thepr paration, till Apostles catch and swell the strain with kindred and responsive notes. The church, "with songs and choral symphonies^' bears the an- them on until it breaks at the foot of the judgment throne : and its dying echoes are caught ^\p into heaven, the aisles of whose vast cathedral ring with the paean of triumph. "the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever." 1; is ;i truth full of refreshment to tl i that the government of this world is not in the hands of "the unknown God." under the administration of cold and in- flexible law : but in the hands of (tod in I ho rules not only as the creator but as the restorer. The same hands which uphold the frame of the Universe are also stretched in peaceful benedictions over the guilty and the lost. The whole scheme of Pro\ ideuce is committed to Him who once bowed his head in anguish under the load of human woe. The clouds which seem black with wrath as they hang around the seal of stern and unrelenting justice, are tinged with a suiter hue as they * hfone of our Imuran- 28 «uel, God with us : who moves the vast machinery of his Providence in subordination to that plan of grace which he *once died to execute, but now lives forever to administer. So then "we are not without law to God, but under the iaw to Christ." The Lamb is in the midst of the throne : therefore it is encircled by the bow of the covenant, "in sight like unto an Emerald." 3. This truth receives its final confirmation from the institution ■>f the church, and the relation she sustains as the guardian of the Sta.te. The mediatorial kingdom of Christ, if I may so ex- press myself, extends in a double direction and may be viewed under a twofold aspect. Its more immediate juris- diction is over the visible church, a society drawn together out of the world and in which the heirs of glory are trained for heaven and happiness hereafter. Over and within this church, Christ presides with a supreme and exclusive au- . thority. In his legislative power, he enacts every law by which she is to be governed ; in his Executive authority, lie appoints the officers for the administration of the same, and calls and qualifies them for the discharge of their high andsolemn functions; in his priestly jurisdiction, he institutes her ordinances of worship ; and in the supremacy of his Headship, grants the charter by which all her privileges and and rights are held. In this pure theocracy, the mediator alone is king : and they are guilty of flagrant usurpation who exercise any other power but that which is simply ministerial and declarative. No earthly guide has any func* fciop but to expound a written constitution, and by spiritual ■discipline to enforce obedience to a spiritual and unseen ruler. But in order to extend the domain of this church until she shall embrace all nations within her pale, the Mediator wields that wider authority presented in the fore- going section — "angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him." Hence Christ himself as we have -seen predicates the commission of the church upon the fact that "all power was ut for the fragmentary notices of them embalmed in the- 30 records of the church herself they would now be lost to the knowledge ol mankind, as though they had never been. These are portentous facts which a cultivated statesman- ship will be compelled one day to recognize and gather hints for its own guidance. For doubtless if in modern days the Prophet stood, as of old, by the side of the historian, with an inspired interpretation of passing events, we should see now as then that the State lives in the purpose of God for the sake of the church, and under the protecting shield of her covenant achieves its destiny. With the key furnished in the books of the Old Testament, we cannot fail to see that all history is but an exposition of Providence, as Providence is the interpretation of history. They are the two poles of the same truth : Providence aside from history is a blind enigma — history apart from Providence is a sense- less fable. Both find their solution in God's purposes of grace as unfolded through the church : and lie who guides the fortunes of that church sways over the world a sceptre of love — "justice and judgment are the habitation of his throne," but "mercy and truth go also before his face.*' I arrest here all doctrinal discussion, reserving space for the application of this established truth to the circumstancs in which, as a people, we now stand before God. Can we determine whether the sufferings of our beloved land fall upon it in the way of penal judgment or of paternal dis- cipline '( Upon the dark back-ground of the cloud which now hangs so low and drenches it with sorrow and with blood, can we discover the sign of the rainbow, the^mblem of mercy and of hope? To these questions, I will return the long-pondered and deeply cherished convictions of my own heart : and may God help me this day "to speak com- fortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her •iqiquity is pardoned, and that she shall receive of the Lord's hand double for all her sins" ! 1. In the forefront then of all I have to say, I recognize in the schism which has rent asunder the American people only a new application of the law by which God has evermore governed the world ; that of breaking in two a nation which has grown too strong for its virtue, in order to its preservation and continuance* The charge ol rebellion, so clamorously hurled against us by our former political associates, is sufficient!) 1- grotesque ; considering that, among the first principles laid down by their fathers and by ours, it was clearly announced that "governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed" — and that "whenever any form of govern- ment becomes destructive ot the ends for which it was in- stituted, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to affect their safety and happiness." The Philosophic historian, when he shall come 31 to write the; history of our times, will not be able to sup- press a derisive smile, as he suggests that such a charge, coming from such a source against those who only sought to "dissolve the political bands which connected them with another people," vacates the very principle upon which the first American revolution was justified before the world, and convicts these parties of the very guilt they attempt to fasten upon us — and perhaps constructs a safe plea for Eng- land, if she should so please, to resume her rightful sway over a people who now confess the fatal sin of revolution- ary sires, i Upon this however it does not become me here to dwell.-/ I base the vindication of tiie South upon a far older record than the Declaration of 1776, and assert her rights under a more authoritative charter than the Feder- al compact. I affirm then that in the organic law under which human governments were constituted by God, nor consolidation but separation is recognized as the regulative and ' determining principle. If we ascend the stream of history to its source, we shall discover God dividing the earth be- tween the sous of Noah, "every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations" ; and with such remarkable precision that to this day we can trace "the'bouuds of their habitations," even as they were originally appointed. In- deed, the outspreading landscape of all history is embraced within the camera, of Noah's brief prophecy ; showing how from the beginning God not only distributed them upon the face of the earth, but impressed upon each branch the type of character fitting it for its mission ; Shem, as the conser- vator of religious tmth; .^ as the organ of human civilization; and Ham as the drudge, upon whom rested the doom of perpetual servitude.' Let it be observed, moreover, that tiie first public and recorded crime of Post- diluvian history was the attempt to thwart God's revealed purpose of separation, and to construct upon the plains of Shinar a consolidated Empire whose colossal magnitude Should overshadow the Earth. "(Jo to," said they, "let us build us a city, and a tower whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole Earth." The insane enterprise was only checked by the immediate intervention of Jehovah, breaking the unity of human speech, and thus separating the conspirators by the most impassable of all harriers. The explanation of all this lies upon the face of the story. Having covenanted with Noah that he would not a second time destroy mankind with a deluge, God must restrain hu- man depravity that it may not rise again to the gigantic proportions f the Antediluvians. This is done by the in- stitution of civil government ; the germ of which was plan- ted in the D^ath penalty, "whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall shall his blood be shed," and that human magis- tracy might prove a more effective restraint up m wicked- 32 ness, the race is distributed into sections, each living under its own constitution, government and laws. These commu- nities in their turn, check and restrain each other : and it has been by balancing nation against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, that God has held under a measure of restraint the super-abounding wickedness of the world. When therefore we are aspersed before the tribunal of nations as "rebels" against the Federal Government, I leave the Statesman to lay his hand upon the great instruments drawn up by our forefathers and from them to justify the South ; but I ascend to that fundamental law, by which in the first organization of society God constituted civil government, and say that this law of separation is that "law of nature and of nature's God which entitles us to assume a separate and equal station amoog the powers of the Earth." There are but two restrictions, so far as I am aware, upon the practical assertion of this abstract right. The first is. that old political ties shall not be sundered without cause ; for the perils, of revolution are not to be encountered, nor are the foundations of civil order to be broken up, at the bidding of mere caprice. The second is, that no people shall adventure the hazards of a separate nationality, which does not possess within itself the elements of national great- ness and strength : for the law of distribution established by God was never intended to break the race into frag- ments that should be incapable of government and self de- fense. As to the former of these, the South is prepared to carry her cause, with an unshrinking conscience, before any tribunal human or divine. As to the latter, she is now pa- tiently upon her probation and will bide her time, I trust, without the quivering of a nerve, until her vacant seat is filled in the Congress of nations. With a broad land diver- sified by almost every variety of climate and soil, and rich in all the products which man needs for sustenance as well as in those great staples, which must yet control the com- merce of the world, and with a race as heroic and enduring as ever took upon its spear the guage of battle, the South will not cower beneath the hardships by which a truly his J toric people proves itself worthy of a truly historic mis- sion. • It is thus seen to have been the established policy of the Divine administration, from the first constitution of civil society, to govern the world by a balancing of power among the nations, through which a reciprocal restraint is exer- cised by them all." The same principle is further illustrated in his ordinary discipline over single States, thwarting the tendency to centralism which builds up massive and colossal empires. Through all time, nations have been formed first by agglutination, and then by separation. In their origi- nal weakness, the most heterogeneous elements are com- billed, mill held together by the pressure of necessity ; but in the lapse of time, concealed differences spring up which no political chemistry can make permanently to coalesce. No man, for example, can read the debates under which the the American Constitution was framed, without the convic- tion, that from the beginning two nations were in the womb —differing widely from each other in their social institu- tions, in their views of government) and in the very type of their civilization. The period of gestation might be long, but the time must arrive when they should come to the birth. Thus, by natural cleavage, a nation is often divided into two, whenever the mechanical pressure of" an outside necessity becomes too full to resist the separating force be- tween the discordant pails within. Not only so: history mournfully attests how rapidly a nation may outgrow its virtue ; until, corrupted by its own aggrandizement, it ceases to be a minister of God for gi . I, and becomes a terror and a scourge! to all mankind. In this event; but one alterna- tive presents itself: either to let the bloated mass alone, until like the Roman empire, it falls to pieces through its own decay; or, by a timely rupture, to weaken its power and set the dismembered parts upon a new career of virtue and of life. In this view, the rupture of this once great American nation is anything else than a public calamity. It had grown too great to be good. The prize, of political ambition was too large for the virtue ol our statesmen ; and God in his mercy has sundered it in twain, as the only me- thod short, of a miracle by which to save it from utter ruin, and allow another golden opportunity to fulfill the high mission undertaken by our fathers. Casting my eye. upon the map "I this continent, I con- fess to you my amazement a1 the egotism and folly which but a little while since I shared with all of my countrymen, in supposing thai one nation could be virtuous enough to control such a territory. Already we had stretched our hands from sea to ■• a, and the whole boundless continent was in the grasp of our thought. Surely only the most overweening sell love could have deluded us into the hope that such a domain could ever be the heritage of a single people. We have sinned against God in the idolatry of our history. We, have looked out from our palaces and towers and said, lk Is flot this great Babylon that we have built for the house of the kingdom, by the might of our power and for the honor of our majesty." God has severely yet mer- cifully chastened this ambition ; and for one, I accept this greal schism as the opening of a new career; and prtn I that the foundations of our public virtue may be laid deep in a sense of dependence upon his overruling providence and grace. 2. li e inn/,- cur appeal to Him who i the ground, th ">.trcversy between us and our foe, 3 34 we are blameless. Our sins and the sins of our people before the God of heaven we sincerely confess and bewail ; acknow- ledging that " unto us, to our kings and to our princes be- longeth confusion of face, as at this day." But, touching those who have drawn out the sword and are pursuing us with slaughter and with fire, our protest is in the language' of the Apostle, " We have wronged no man, we have de- frauded no man." / Through the live and eighty years of our united history, we have never broken the covenant sworn for us by our fathers ; though a partial and unjust legislation has discriminated against us, turning the pro- ducts of our fields into their coffers, and draining our wealth to build up the palaces of their merchant princes — not for causes like these have we dissolved the bonds of political alliance with them ; though a furious fanaticism has, through forty years, assailed our social organization, and threatened to light the fires of insurrection in our very horned ; though the ban of excommunication has been pronounced against us sitting side by side with them in the church of God, and they have industriously kindled against us the resentment of the civilized world for that which was originally fasten- ed upon us through their cupidity alone : yet have we met this storm of rebuke and blasphemy only with cool argu- ment and with written protests. Not until the last mo- ment, when a sectional party elected upon a sectional plat- form avowed the purpose, by the power of legal majorities, to overthrow the entire framework of our society, did the South arise to acquit herself of the outrage meditated against her own posterity. And what at last is the crime for which we are now hunted as the partridge upon the mountains, and are libelled as rebels and traitors before the world? Only the crime of a peaceful withdrawal from those who would not agree to walk with us in the faith and according to the covenants of our fathers. This absolutely is " the head and front of our offending ;" that as Abra- ham said to Lot, so we have said to them, " Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herdmen-— -separate thyself from me: if thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right ; or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go. to the left." We have never envied their prosperity, nor coveted their possessions ; we have never wasted their soil, nor pillaged their homes ; but, standing upon our own hearth and by the side of our own altars, we have poured forth the best blood of our land in defense simply of liberty and life. Never did a people enter upon war with greater reluctance than our own ; and, firmly as they prosecute it, when forc- ed upon their acceptance, never would a people more gladly sheathe the sword and return once more to the pursuits of peace. Though our towns smoulderiug in ashes, our ci- ties trodden by the heel of the oppressor; though our dismantled homes and pillaged fields ; though the graves of our martyred suns, and the silent grief which sits upon every shaded hearthstone, all make their mute appeals to us for retaliatory vengeance : still, with the festering memory of a thousand wrongs which cannot be breathed even in whispers to the ear, this people would, before God, hail the kindly dove which should bear to them the olive branch of a side and honorable peace. This is our pleading before. Him who reads the secrets of all hearts, and who cannot be deceived by the mere protestations of the lips. Separated from the North by the recollection of wrongs, which can- not be forgotten so long as memory and tradition shall last — separated by a sea of blood, which now rolls its deep, broad Hood between the two — separated by the tombs of our dead, rising up like a breastwork of defense around this consecrated land—-separated, most of all, henceforth and forever by the decree of God worked out in solid and im- perishable fact, the dream of reconstruction cherished by our foes is dissipated before the high resolve of our people a« the mountain mist is dissolved before the morning sun. But a just, peace, drawing after ir the blessings of life, lib- erty and happiness, is the boon for which we daily pray be- iore Him whose merciful prerogative it is to succor the op- pressed and to bring the tyrant low. '■'>. I i/< i m. the marked interpositions q) God in oui favor* during tht present struggle; coupled with fas frequent disappointment o) some of ovr reasonable expecta- tions. The stress of the argument lies in the intersection of these, two correlated facts. t/t)ne of the most, remarka- ble features of this war has been the niter failure in the prognostication of some of out most sagacious statesmen. Papulations bti ted upon the most settled principles of po- litical economy, or founded upon the largest diplomatic ex- perience, have fallen to the ground; hopes antecedently the mosi ren unable, time has hioreor less completely shown to be fitUaeious. 1 1 w ,i. i hough! bv many, in the outset, that the re vol in ion would be accomplished without unsheathing the sword or spilling one drop of human blood. The ex- pectation wa one to which the civilization, not to say the. religion, of the age should hflfce responded. Then it was urged that cotton would u rl ii vaunted supremacy) and the embargo upon our ports would bring the world as sui- tors to our door. Then, that European jealousy of Ame- rican expansion would seize the occasion for the humiliation of a hated rival, by the immediate recognition of the dis- ent of thai, proud empire. Then it was whis] s - apoleouic policy ■ ion, and commerce once drd har- v>a upon 36 the North will tumble of itself, and the West take reprisals upon the greedy East by the assertion of its own indepen- dence. Then, that in the stoppage of all trade, the hungry mob would turn upon the guilty administration by which it was deceived, which should experience the fate of Acteon and be eaten by its own hounds. Then, that in the scram- ble for political ascendancy, the overslaughed Democracy of the North would raise the banner of peace, and beneath its graceful folds ride again into power. All, all of them gen- uine vaticinations of what seemed a trustworthy oracle ; but all remaining to be fulfilled in the dim, uncertain fu- ture ; or else silenced under the frown of the grim, relent- less fanaticism which, like the Hindoo Siva, rules that land as the destroyer. Here, then, is one class of facts which, taken by them- selves, would seem to infer that we are deserted of God — given over to feed upon the wind, lured on by false hopes to be snared in a more fatal ruin, But over against these lie the Irequent and wonderful interpositions of Providence in our behalf, which have wrung the testimony even from scepticism itself, " the Lord is our helper— -we will not fear what man shall do unto us." Consider, if you will, the strange and sudden unanimity of our people, the instant merging of all party feuds when this great issue was de- clared. Consider the spirit of madness and folly which fell upon our foes in proclaiming war, when a wise forbearance would have drawn a cordon around the seven seceding States, but which precipitated six others into our embrace and. bared Virginia's noble breast to meet the sears and shock of battle. Consider the character of the rulers, military and civil, whom God has appointed to shape' the destinies of this new Republic; and the execution upon our enemies of his heaviest judgment against a people, in giving "child- ren to be their princes and babes to rule over them." Con- sider, too, the confusion in the camps of our enemies, the rapid suspension of their Generals, the collision between rival chiefs upon the threshold of important movements, and most of all, the delays which have '.embarrassed their ad- vance, when a sudden dash would have placed in their pos- session the very keys of our Southern coast. Consider the uniform success of our arms in all (lie pitched battles of a, two years' campaign, and in which thedestiny of this young nation trembled in the balance — and how these brilliant victories have come out of the thickest, gloom, and rolled back the despair which was beginning to settle upon the hearts even of the brave. Over and beyond all, consider the outpouring of God's spirit and the revival of true religion in the camps of our soldiery, and the conversion of such multitudes to the faith of Jesus, But to recount these Providential interpositions would be to recite the details of our long and gallant struggle, from the siege of Sumter to 37 the second great triumph upon the banks! of the Rappahan- nock. Placing yourselves, then, upon the crest of these contrary, yet overlapping facts, what inference can a pious faith dediice other than this,nhat God is now disciplining us for a career of renown ? In all the disappointment of OUf most reasonable 1 and cherished expectations, he seems but the more to charge himself with our defense. I cher- ish the conviction, with all the tenacity of a religious be- lief, that God is about to vindicate the supremacy of his own power in the establishment of our independence. And it seems to me most fitting, that at the precise juncture when he introduces a balance of power upon this Western Continent, he should renew the salutary lesson taught by all history, that " the Most high ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will.'' ■I. The North cannot succeed in its entei'prise against the South, except through the 'perpetration of f order and of law. "When it shall triumph, its victory will be celebrated amid orgies over which the devils might afford to blush. When the guillotine and sword grow too weary for their work, confiscation and exile will come with their merciful relief. The banished sons of ihe South will wander in poverty over the earth, whilst their vacant lands invite a horde of agra- rian settlers from the lean and rocky globe of the North- man. The Vandal and ik< llin; will swarm again upon the fair plains of Italy: and, in oui generation, the proud and gallant race which now lil beneath our Southern skies will hove melted like a drifl of snow, and r.ot a stone will mark the place of its bun i -. turn it over as vou will, defeat means"exterminatlon, and tbataldne: whe it comes in the murder of the battle-field, where the bravi 8« love to fall ; or in the slow consumption which wastes an exiled people, when proscription and banishment have spil- led them both to perish on a foreign soil. For my own part, I prefer not to live if my country be not free. Let us hold it firmly before our eyes — let us flaunt it in the face of our foes, that their success can only be achieved through a deed of blood such as never yet has stained the page of hu- man history. J A nation lias prepared itself for martyrdom. But what shall be said of the other branch of this alter- nate crime? If the experience of the past teaches any- thing with certainty, it is the fact that, except in the con- dition of servitude, an inferior race cannot be intermingled with a superior, without annihilation. Under our patri- archal system, the descendants of Ham have thriven in the midst of us, expanding in a couple of centuries from a few thousands to four millions. Their destiny is involved in ours. The morbid philanthropy of the North, which un- derlies this whole contest as its provoking cause, can work out no other result to them than absolute destruction. The foretaste of this is found in the heartless cruelty which al- ready gives to such as are captured only the liberty to fight. Marshalled into ranks, they are made the breastwork of defense around their white allies ; and the bayonet and the sword are expected to solve the problem of what shall be done with a race who must not be slaves and whb cannot be freemen. Alas, for them ! when their protectors shall lie beneath t lie sod, and a hard, grinding, utilitarian race shall become the masters of the soil ! If the fate of the red man be not theirs, borne upon the flood of white im- migration till they are buried in the waters of the Gulf, the slow decay of Mexican peonage will steal upon them by the inch, until the triple scourge of indolence, disease and vice shall sweep them from the earth. My Hearers, whatever may be the complexion of our political guilt, drawing up- on our heads the consuming vengeance of heaven, what have these poor sheep done, that these butchers should drive them to the slaughter, and make the earth reel beneath the weight of this stupendous crime '. I confess to you that if . this be the fate of the African, I am at a loss to understand the meaning of th.it Providence which brought him to our shores, and made him thus a member of the household of faith ; and I feel that He who rules the earth beneath the emerald rainbow will forefend this doom of the slave, _ by the preservation of the master, who, under divine appoint- ment, stands his guardian and his friend. It was said with great power by my brother who preceded me this morning, that in this Southern land the church of God had never Mh committed to her care. ■',"'''• % I 3n( , (! tQ liijs dft ^ Qear the promised millenium, to burden the record of human history with a two-fold crime, whirl, maketh flu- ears'of him that heareth it to tingle. 5. Fundi,,, our cause is pre-eminently tin- cause of God him- sefrand every blow struck by „* is i n defense of His supremacy. A thought so solemn should be uttered with due moderation 1. TfPV 'V' , ,u lan S?age tamely beneath the ma- jesty of the fact. Tins causeless and wicked war, on the part ot our toes, is born simply of opposition to God and us kingly supremacy over fee earth. A bold and infidel fanaticism has assumed to sit in judgment upon the Divine admmistra ion. Ignorant ol those checks and balances by which God governs the universe, it proposes its puny re- forms to rectify tearing defects it has discovered id Tthe whole economy of Providence. Bounding the patience of the Deity by the measures of their own forbearance, they allow nothing lor the scope of that infinite wisdom which sets evil over -against evil in this fallen world; and works out the results ol a grand probation. In a sin«*e instant and by a predetermined, human theory, the whole machin- ery oi justice and law must be readjusted, or the universe will be laid in ruins at Bis feet. It is the old story of the vain mortal who undertook to guide the chariot of the sun. inis it is, my Hearers, whin, lends such awful sanctity to our war, that the prerogatives and of the Divine Hnlero the world are disiineih implicated, fn other ao-es nations have often fought for independence and liberty, for . the altars and (he grave, of f!„i, fathers, and for the more sacred rights ol conscience and freedom to worship God but we are summoned to stand :. around Jeho- valis -throne, and to , who have } impeached his morality and d * emmentol the unive! I „d as tl t is whejo our faresides and altars are the I ike, H rises into tin- sublime and awful wl, of God and vindicate the 1 i ;, ll(! , v t ,._ plain why the mini ters of the Gospel throughoul this laud Have borne a distinguished p tbia momentous strug- gle. It is not simply under the imp ;, u natriot- J8ui, grand as that sentimeni may be: bui oul of loyalty to God agamst whose rightful supremacy a w, >ked infidelity has lifted its rebehous arm. The moral aspect of this con- troversy they, at least, understand: and muchasthei their country to be free, with an infinitely deeper fervortfo they desire that God should reign. Whal people, since the 40 days of the ancient theocracy, ever had such cause to feel that the battle is not theirs, but Clod's '( Let us take shel- ter beneath the shadow of His throne. God will assert our liberties in the assertion <>( his rights. He that will not give bis :rh)i'v to another., will uol abdicate hispoweratthe bidding of a lawless fanaticism, nor yield his robust justice- a prey to a, mawkish and sentimental philanthropy. We lay our nation al his feet, and bide his arbitration through the ordeal of battle. Such are some of the grounds on which 1 base the con- viction that God is dealing with us, not in judgment, but in discipline. It is a day of sore and bitter trial, in which sorrow comes to every home. But it is also a heroic day in which to live. The sacrifices we lay upon the altar of our country are sacrifices laid upon the altar of our God. Patriotism is sanctified by religion and is supported by its faith. We are learning in the same school of suffering with our heroic forefathers, that liberty is better -than gold, and honor more precious than fortune. Let our people under- stand that this war is henceforth simply a .question of en- durance and of will. The old Saxon word, toughness, ex- presses exactly the quality upon which, under God, all de- pends, it' we have not the nerve to bear immensely more than we have yet borne, we are not worthy to be free. Nations, like men, are made compact and enduring through discipline. Lei us nave Faith in God and in the future; and from our heroism shall spring sons and daughters capable of immortal destinies. Nothing great is ever wrought with- out faith. The men in all ages who have made history have been men of faith — men who could hide a great prin- ciple deep in their heart-, and work it out as a potential and substantive fact, and await the verdict of posterity. Be- lieving in the grand and the true, they could put their heel up ii the present, and lifting up the curtain which hides the far-oil' future from other men, they drew up that future by a. magnetic attraction to themselves, and lived abreast of it. Let the pulse of a generous and sanctified patriotism beat in our breasts — doing our whole duty to ourselves, our coun- try and our God, and leaving the issue with Him who sits upon the sapphire throne and rules the world encircled with the bow of his mercv. 1 BBS fBr iSil Ms SH891