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SHILOH 
 
 A. SBRMON^, 
 
 '^ T/'.r. Tjord (r2'>j>raroJ. a^ain ; in ShilohJ' — I. .Sam. hi. 21, 
 
 SiiiLoii, ' is henceforth to be one of precious names 
 ill the liistory of the Confederate States. With' it will be 
 associated as with those other names, derived Irom the Holy 
 scriptures, Bethel and Manassas, the idea of victory — God 
 j^^en victory. The etymological import of all these names 
 is impressively significant. Bethel signities " the place or 
 house of God. ^•' "the place where Gvd reveals himself.'' And 
 this sweet name we are permitted by the Providence of God, 
 to associate with our first victot-y ; by which we may fondly 
 hope, the Lord intimated His ultimate purpose of delivering 
 us from the wrath and oppression of our foes. If God favors 
 the right cause, and the name is at all indicative of llis effi- 
 cient revealing of his own power and grace, then our enemies 
 had reason to dread assailing us near any place with such 
 a name as Bethel. 
 
 Manassas signifies, " causing to forget. When Joseph' 
 gave this name to his first born son in Egypt the reason is 
 thus given, "God hath made me forget all my toil and 
 all my father's house.'' 
 
 And after the wonderful battle which bears that name, we 
 flattered ourselves that we might forget tbo toils and strug- 
 gles thatled to it, andanticipate henceforward rest and peace. 
 We said, " it is'Manassas" and now we will forgetour toils and 
 the wrongs we have suffered in what we were accustomed to 
 call the house of our fathers. And alas for us! Manassas 
 did cause us to forget, too guiltily, that our strength" and 
 dependence were in God. In our exultation we forgot our 
 trust, in our pride we forgot the humility which God loveth. 
 
"A SHILOH. 
 
 Too much like the fourteenth kingofJudah, who was nameol 
 Manasseh we set up idols in the temple of the Lord and 
 worshipped images of our own making. Like him too we 
 have been scourged of the Lord by the hands of our ene- 
 mies and driven for a season out of at least a portion of our 
 rightful territories. And like him to, I trust many of us in 
 our calamities, have renounced our false dependencies, re- 
 pented of our wanderings, renewed our allegiance and cove- 
 nant with Him, and regained His protecting favor. May no 
 future Manasaas again cause us to forget and practically 
 repudiate our God. 
 
 And now we have, Shiloh. There are two prominent phil- 
 ological meanings which the learned have given to this name. 
 We will dwell for a little upon both, hoping that we may 
 find in either a good omen for our cause. One meaning 
 insisted upon by many critical authorities is, "The Desire4,'' 
 "The 'Asked or,^^ "The Longed for. ^^ ' 
 
 How beautifully appropriate is this meaning of the word 
 " Shiloh '' to us. It is the Desired, the Longed for. This 
 victory we have been praying] for earnestly, devoutly 
 tearfully, in tlie closet, at the family altar, in the church, 
 and in ou.r daily prayer meetings. He who heareth the cry 
 of His children, hath listened in pity to our importunities 
 and hath given us Shiloh — what we have desired and prayed 
 for. Brethren, is there not a connection between the prayers 
 of Grod's people and the victory we have gained. Why 
 . do we pray if we *lo not believe it? We may not be able 
 to trace the cord, which prayer casts up, to encircle the arm 
 of Jehovah, and then draw down its might upon the head 
 of our oppressors. Its end may fly beyond our scope of 
 vision, be lost in the distances which sight cannot pierce. 
 ' We are concious of the eflbrt, and we see the results, and 
 we will be contented to remain in ignorance of the intervening 
 processes an agencies. There are arachnidan insects which 
 are said to be capable of spinning a long, slender thread, 
 out upon a current of air, which wafts it upward until it fas- 
 tens itself to the ceiling of a room or the limb of a tree, thus 
 forming a ladder up which the tiny creatures climbs to its 
 desired position. We have like power by prayer. The bur- 
 dened heart throws out ita cords, which, wafted upward by 
 the spirit's breath, fasten themselves upon the hand of God, 
 
SHILOn. 'a-'^*' 3 
 
 #56 3 
 
 and draw us up to Him or draw tliat hand down to us. All 
 over this land, christians have prayed in penitent*carne8tne8S, 
 have gotton hol(i of the arm of Jeliovali, and brought it down 
 upon onr enemies heads. What we longed for has been gran- * 
 ted. We prayed for it and God has given us Shiloli — the 
 desired, tlie asked for. What an encouragement to beg for 
 still greater favors. We need more interpositions of Ofod's 
 hand. Ke is tt'ying our faith and perseverance. Will our 
 humility and profound sense of dependence stand the test of 
 victory ? Oh ! shall we not, encouraged, faith-stengthened 
 by attaining the longed for, implore larger mercies— for 
 the defeats of our foes are mercies to us. Let us not rail to 
 acknowledge his interference and give Him the glory — but 
 the more faithfully walking in His commandments and 
 clinging to His strength, press on to the great end, desired 
 and longed for. 
 
 But the study of learned Expositors has discovered another 
 meaning of the name. They' call Shiloh, "The Tranquil- 
 izer," " The Pacification/' " The great author of Peace." 
 May we not hoi>e that in this sense, Shiloh maybe the begin- 
 ning of a series of successes which shall bring peace to us. 
 It is a sad illustration of the ruin wrought by sin that man 
 never attains peace but through strife. Even the innocent 
 child must have its struggle with death, before entering upon 
 the rest of heaven. The convicted sinner must pass through 
 a desperate] warfare with himself before he can attain to the 
 peace of G-od, The saint knows in his own inner experience 
 that strife precedes peace. And the nations have gained 
 peace only through battles. Though this may not be the 
 strngg-le»that shall result in peace to the convulsed nation, 
 yet there must come a battle which will decide the great 
 contest. With or without the name that battle will be. the 
 Shiloh — the procurer of peace. It cannot require many such 
 contests to convince our enemies that their ambitious and 
 tyrannical purposes are impracticable; that they must settle 
 these controversies as prudence and wisdom would have 
 settled them at first, without violence and murder. We are 
 fighting for peace. We want peace for ourselves and we are 
 anxious to live in peace with our neighbors and thejworld. 
 Oh ! what joy it would bring to our suffering and distracted 
 land, if this etymological signification of the name Shiloh, 
 
4 SHILOn. 
 
 could be answered, and that .bloody battle field prove the 
 Pacificator from which should issue the negociations which 
 sooner or later must come, that shall result in the recogni- 
 tion of our indisputable right to self government, in the 
 cessation of hostilities and the restoration of peace. We 
 hail with joy the omens which this name suggests atid will 
 pray that they may be fulfilled. 
 
 With these remarks suggested by such auspicious names, 
 let us pass to a more particular discussion of the text. 'Phe 
 Lord appeared again ; in Shiloh. 
 
 I. It is first implied that the Lord had appeared before. 
 " AgaM'^ involves the idea of a previous revealing of Himself. 
 
 This was true as it related to the history of Israel. Again 
 and again had Jehovah restored to them His favor, so often 
 forfeited by their rebellion and. guilt. So has it been with 
 this nation. Infinitely beyond our deservings has the Lord 
 revealed to us His favoring mercies. Our remorseless ene- 
 mies, confident and boastful of greater numbers and superior 
 resources, have been reluctantly compelled to admit over 
 again the divine apothegm, " The battle is not always to the 
 strong.'' God has appeared for us, and our marshalled 
 forces, contemned and ridiculed, as too few and weak for 
 effective resistance to such numbers and might — as dissolute 
 and ragged and ignorant and miserably armed — have held the 
 braggart foe at bay lor more than a year. Through God's 
 favor we have driven his efiiciently equipped armies from 
 many a battle field and at this hour hold them in check at 
 all their selected points of assault. We caniiot attribute 
 these mercies, to greater numbers, to ampler resources, to 
 more eff'ective implements of war, to superior drill and disci- 
 pline, for in all we have been^irtferior. To what then shall 
 we attribute it? The text is the.answer— " The Lord hath 
 appeared " for us. 
 
 . IIow applicable to us also as individuals is this text. 
 To you, sinner, the Lord hath often appeared, in his provi- 
 dence checking your rebellious depravity, taking from 
 you the objects behind which you hid yourself from His 
 claims — by afflictions teaching you His sovereignty and the 
 need for His favor — and by mercies appealing to your grati- 
 tude, obedience and love. In his gospel, through a pious 
 father's instructions and a mother's prayers, through the 
 
SIIILOII. 5 
 
 teachings of your youth, by the voice of conscience and by 
 the call of His Spirit, God hath often appeared and r^ealed 
 Ilis will to you. In the long catalogue of -means of grace 
 by which he would draw you to himself has ITe manifested 
 Himselt; And to you too, child of God, has He often appeared 
 diawing you from sin, forgiving your wanderings, comfort- 
 ing you in sorrows, aiTswering your pravers, delivering you 
 from temptations and perils. We l|a\ e each of us many rea- 
 sons gratefully to o\yn, '* the Lord f ath appeared unto me." 
 II. The text implies further, than there are intermissions of 
 these rcvealings of GocVs favor. There are spaces between 
 then, and again. When "l say " again " the Lord has come, I 
 intimate that He has been absent from mt soul— I mean 
 that His favor has been withdrawn. Like Job, I cry, "Oh 
 that I knew where I might find him.'' "Behold, I go for- 
 ward, but He is not there, backward, but I cannot preceive 
 Him, on the left hand where he doth work, but I cannot behold 
 Him, He hideth himself on the right hand*tbat I cannot see 
 Him.-'' Even the gracious soul often mourns the hidings of 
 His face. These are the most distressing phases in the cris- 
 tian's experience. 
 
 And if the careless transgressor will only examine into his 
 own experiences, he to-may convince himself that God draws 
 nearer to him at some times than at others. There are sea- 
 sons when he hears no call of God's voice," scarce any com- 
 plaints of that divine monitor within his own conscience, 
 seasons during which he can sin almost without any alarm 
 or compunction. How sad your condition when God with- 
 draws from you, when He leaves you to your own follies and 
 unchecked wanderings. Do I speak to any now, who seem 
 to themselves to be thus forsaken of God, who can transgress 
 His laws with impunity, who can press down the broad road, 
 without terroi' or remorse. You can look back to the lime 
 when God appeared and spoke to you, and. clearly proffered 
 to your soul forgiveness and favor. Oh, wretched state when 
 He withdraws these tokens of His presence and grace. 
 
 Through such a period too we seem to have passed in our 
 recent national experience, for God deals with nations as 
 with individuals. One reverse after another has humbled us, 
 and called us back to the true source ofstj-ength and success! 
 We hear with sad depreasion of soul the names of Roanoke 
 
SHILOH. 
 
 and Newbern, of Henry and Donaldson, What has driven 
 Him fi-om us ? The cause was as essentially righteous at 
 Roanoke as at Bethel, at Donaldson as at Manassas. Why 
 then have -we been humbled before our enemies ? Perhaps in 
 His sovereignty God sees that unmixed prosperity will not 
 be best Tor our future good. He who disciplines His ser- 
 vents by atliiction, tlius preparing tliem for usefulness on 
 earth and for the blessedness of Heaven, *He who has sancti- 
 fied his church by trialf^ and tracked her pathway by tlie 
 blood of her martyrs, He who made "even the Captain of our 
 salvation perfect through sufferings/' leads infant nations too. 
 through disasters, to a more solid and permanent prosperity 
 than they could otherwise obtain. Without some such 
 reverses, we should be proud, self-exultant, boastful, self- 
 reliant. We should say m our independence, " Is not this 
 great Babylon that we have built?" " Our own hands have 
 gotten all this." God is jealous of His own glory. He will 
 not givehis praise to another. He will, I believe, lead ua 
 -to independence of the northern government, but he will not 
 leave us in independence of Himself. IV we abandon our trust 
 in Him, He will abandon us to our own resources, and make 
 our enemies His rod for our chastisement. 4 
 
 III. Still further the text suggests the renewed appearing of 
 the Lord, "He appeared again." Oh, with what rapture does' 
 the abandoned saint hail once more the light of His smile. 
 When after a season of withdrawal, in some hour of despon- 
 dent yet earnest prayer, the Lord lifts up upon the spirit, 
 the light of His countenance, it is like the darting of bright 
 "sunbeams through a storm-fraught cloud. 
 
 Among the happiest hours of^the christian's life are those 
 in which he thus regains the conscious favor of the Lord, 
 a sweet assurance of forgiving love, an admission to that 
 intimacy of comrnunion with his Heavenly Father, in which 
 he can in filial love confess his wanderings and implore 
 restoration, in which he hears the forgiving, re-adopting 
 voice that owns him as a child, and whispers peace and com- 
 fort to his soul. This is a blessedness unknown to the world. 
 
 And sometimes too the Lord renews his calls to the impen- 
 itent sinner. After seeming to have left him for a season 
 He again visits him by some providence, by some call of 
 warning, or threatening, or promise^, awakens him to a sense 
 
SHILOH. « 
 
 of his danger andgaill, and presfies upon his gouI the claims 
 of Jesus Crucified. Then again is the time ol his visitation. 
 Neglect it and to you, as to Jerusalem, Jesus may say, 
 "Oh that thou hadst known, even thou at least in this thy 
 day the things that make for thy peace.'' When God does 
 thus draw near to, you sinner, then "give all diligence to 
 make your calling and election sure." It may be the last 
 call, of Jesus to your soul. Do you not feel that you ought 
 now to settle the great controversy between God and your- 
 self, and become a devout and true hearted disciple of Jesus? 
 Oh, yield and meet with a submissive heart to the visits of God. 
 
 And may we not too, hope and believe that to our strug- 
 gling nation, " the Lord hath appeared again ; in Shiloh?" AV^c 
 have prayed for victory. One victory has been granted. Jn 
 this one instance the longed for has been granted. It may 
 not yet be as decisive in its immediate results as we had 
 hoped, it may not prove directly the Peace bringer, and yet 
 we may expect it to have an important bearing upon the 
 issues of the great struggle. We may hope and' pray that 
 it may be the first, in this campaign, of a series of triumphs 
 .that will prove to our enemies the hopeless^iess of their ambi 
 tious and nefarious schemes, that will compel the surrender- 
 of our invaded territories, that will inaugurate the negocia- 
 tions that shall re.%ult in peace. Oh ! it is right for us to 
 Tejoice in such a victory and to strike the timbrel in grati- 
 tude and praise, as did Miriam upon the shores of the Bed 
 \Sea over the overthrown and destroyed Egyptians. 
 
 And yet, not without grief and sympathy with the sufler- 
 ing and the bereaved., can we rejoice over a victory. Many 
 of our br^ve sons have poured out all the blood of their 
 hearts in struggling for the triumph. Many are yet groan- 
 ing in pain from the wounds that torture them. There is 
 trembling in many a home not yet reached by the intelli- 
 gence of the fate of the loved that w^ere in the battle- There 
 are widows made desolate; weeping to-day over groups of 
 children left fatherless, for whose support and welfare they 
 are now to struggle and toil alone. Many a father groans, 
 "Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjtl- 
 min away also." Amofig tlie lost- we mourn most deeply 
 the fall of the gallant leader of the army, not because his 
 life iu itself was more precious than that of others, but be- 
 
^ SHILOIL 
 
 caube our cause has lost t.lie wisdom ami skill that long 
 years of study and experience had accumulated in a single 
 mind. Nor will we withhold the sigh of compassion from 
 the slaughtered of our enemies. We may weep even for the 
 guilty malefal3tor who dies by sentence of the law, while we 
 would not arrest that sentence. .We regret the anguish and 
 sorrow which our foes have brought upon themselves, by 
 their wicked inroads into the territories of a people who have 
 doubCless as good right to govern themselves, and to choose 
 tlieix own rulers, as-any other people on the earth which God 
 has made for all. Sad, amid such carnage and grief, we may 
 and ought to be, even while exultation and praise lor the 
 victory thrills our souls. 
 
 But the most cheering association of all that connects it- 
 self with this victory is, that God has revaled Himself as 
 our shield and defence. " The Lord appeared again ; in Shi- 
 loh." Can we take the praise to ourselves? I. would with- 
 hold none of the honor due to our brave sons for their fideli- 
 ty and courage. They deserve otfi' gratitude and praise; all 
 the rewards and honors which a grateful country cat> be- 
 stow. But they were the willing agents through whom God 
 wrought. Let us not offend Him by denying or doubting 
 His interposition and aid. An army comparatively poorly 
 clad and })Oorly armed, has met and mastered an army of at 
 least equal numbers, said to have been one of the best 
 equipped and prepared lor battle that the world has ever 
 seen. What with such differences, has 'turned the victory 
 to our side ?, After admittmg the operation of all secondary 
 causes, what other conclusion can we reach than this — 
 (he God of battles favored our v cause? Now, let us keep 
 God on our side by recognizing and praising Him — by self- 
 
 l.^trust; and conlidence in' Him — by obedience and love. 
 
 i.ct ua remember — *' When thy brethren go up to battle then 
 keep thee from every wicked thing." 
 
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