IrV:- ' : ' 
 
 It 
 
 h - 
 
mi. 
 
 CHRISTIAN DUTY 
 
 IHE FLOWERS COLLECTIOti 
 
 IN 
 
 THE PRESENT CRISIS: 
 
 SUBSTANCE OF A SERMON 
 
 DELIVERED IN 
 
 THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, IN WAYNESBORO', GEORGIA, 
 
 BY REV. R. K. PORTER, 
 
 PASTOR, 
 
 December 9, i860. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY REQUEST. 
 
 SAVANNAH: 
 STEAM PRESS OF JOHN M. COOPER k COMPANY. 
 
 1860. 
 
I 
 
Waynesboro', Ga., December 10, 1860. 
 
 Rev. R. K. Porter — 
 
 Dear Sir: — We listened with gratification and deep feeling to your 
 eloquent and appropriate sermon of yesterday. The pure Christian principles it 
 inculcated, and the genuine sentiments of piety it breathed, lead us to believe 
 that its publication wDuld effect great and permanent good. We therefore 
 earnestly request that you will, at your earliest convenience, furnish us a copy 
 of it for that purpose. 
 
 We are, dear and reverend Sir, your grateful and obliged friends, 
 Edmund Byne, A. G-. Whitehead, 
 
 E. H. Blount, R. H. Oakman, 
 
 T. H. Blount, John D. Ashton, 
 
 H. J. Blount, Heman H. Perry, 
 
 Gideon Douse, Chas. A. Thompson, 
 
 W. S. C. Morris, John C. Poythress, 
 
 John P. C. Whitehead, Jr., and others. 
 
 December 28, 1860. 
 
 Messrs. Edmund Byne, E. H. Blount, and others — 
 
 Gentlemen: — Your favor of the 10th iust. was promptly received. 
 Its sentiment and expression deserve my sincerest thanks. The sermon — a 
 copy of which you request for publication — was unwritten, and it has hitherto 
 been out of my power to write it out. Such as it is, I now cheerfully put it at 
 your disposal, hoping that your favorable judgment as to the good purpose it 
 may serve will be justified by the fact. You will discover some additions, and 
 many changes in the form of expression; but I am sure nothing inconsistent 
 with the principle and sentiment you heard. I am glad to furnish anything 
 which, in your judgment, will be of service in this, our great emergency. 
 
 Faithfully yours. 
 
 R. K. Porter. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2015 
 
 https://archive.org/details/christiandutyinpOOport 
 
SERMON. 
 
 PSALM CXXY. 
 
 It is under a very deep sense of my responsibility to God 
 and His people, that, as His minister and your pastor, I stand 
 before you to discliarge that duty which I solemnly believe 
 devolves on me to-day. As a citizen of the State it has been 
 my duty to make up and hold opinions on all questions of 
 governmental policy ; but as a minister of Christ, and by that 
 higher obligation, have, as .you and all will bear me wit- 
 ness, scrupulously abstained from publishing or pressing those 
 opinions either in public or private. Nor does the duty of 
 this hour demand, or permit, me to follow the sad and unhal- 
 lowed example of those who, bringing "politics" into the 
 pulpit, have dishonored the very temple of God, and contrib- 
 uted so largely to bring about the melancholy condition in 
 which, our country, with all its dearest interests, is now 
 placed. Deeper and broader than all the temporary ques- 
 tions of party, far more powerful and sweeping than any 
 measure of passing policy, are those principles which, before 
 God, I believe to be in issue. In the strange providence of 
 God, there has come upon us now, what must come to every 
 man and every people, sooner or later, the tremendous ques- 
 tion of giving up or maintaining the great principles of 
 eternal justice, righteousness and truth; which duty is im- 
 measureably more solemn and imperative on us who "have 
 come to the kingdom for such a time as this," by reason of 
 the fact that we stand out the inheritors and trustees of those 
 principles as they have been by God in nature, providence 
 and grace, brought out in all the past: and so given, not 
 for ourselves alone, but to be transmitted, in all their un- 
 
• 
 
 6 
 
 sullied integrity to those wlio shall come after iis. It is not 
 mere policy, but fundamental and vital principle, that is in the 
 great questions now up for adjudication. 
 
 The Word of God brings all the obligation of its sanctions 
 to bear on all the relations and duties of human life. Not 
 alone on those arising from birth and blood, but those yet 
 more comprehensive which are founded in the nature of man 
 as a social being, and living in communities. The subjection 
 of soul and conscience to the Lord Christ, is the comprehen- 
 sive circle going round and covering all the earthly relations 
 and duties of human life. And the principles of His rule gov- 
 erning all these must be declared and enforced by His servants 
 both in the pulpit and out of it, in season and out of season. 
 The term State is but a single expression for certain relations 
 and duties held and owed by the many individuals in it, the 
 one to the other, and each to all. While it has a certain or- 
 ganic life of its own, that life, in the last analysis, grows out 
 of the individuals so related. The rights and duties under 
 this relation are, therefore, mutual and reciprocal. The State 
 having its origin in the nature of man, created by God, with its 
 rights, privileges and duties eliminated and established by the 
 workings of His overruling providence and grace, is itself 
 clearly the creature of God. He must then put the mark of 
 His curse on that State whose principles and practices are in- 
 consistent with Himself ; just as He does on the individual life- 
 and in this case He does it by putting it on the individuals 
 comprising the state. And this is not constituting the State 
 a Theocracy ; but tracing back and settUng the principles of 
 truth and right, of law and liberty, the only endurable prin- 
 ciples of individual or political life, to their own high and eter- 
 nal seat and source, whence they get all their glory and pow- 
 er, and where we are to look for the guarantee of their ulti- 
 mate and most splendid triumph. He is the God, the Friend 
 and Guardian of these principles ; and by His own awful sov- 
 ereignty is pledged to their integrity and success. The origin, 
 then, of the relation of citizen and state, with all the rights, 
 privileges, and duties growing out of it, is high and holy as 
 
7 
 
 Keaven, even as God Himself: not the creature of accident, 
 convenience, temporary agreement, nor yet even of human 
 necessity alone ; but is from and of Him who only is spotless 
 Justice and Truth. Thus we take hold directly on the eternal 
 sceptre ; and thus the almighty arm of the King of Kings and 
 Lord of Lords, the shield of certain protection and deliverance, 
 is around and over that state making its appeal at once to His 
 justice and power. As the origin of this relation and these 
 duties is awful and holy, so unspeakably is the obligation to 
 the defence of the' relation and the discharge of its duties, upon 
 those into whose hands Grod, by His providence and grace, has 
 committed the sacred cause of truth and righteousness. From 
 the awful majesty of His own eternal throne are issued those 
 commands that put us under unalterable and most holy obli- 
 gation. . And so here, as in all else that concerns human life, 
 everything is resolved back into moral and religious duty — 
 duty to Grod. The sanctions of eternity are brought to bear 
 on the citizen ; before him is erected G-od's final tribunal, and 
 by all the solemnity and power of its eternal retributions must 
 he be held to the discharge of the duties of citizenship, just as 
 he is, by the same authority, under obligation to any of the 
 more limited relations of this life. 
 
 An intelligent, clear, and solemn conviction of his personal 
 duty, is the first obligation of every individual. He cannot, 
 in the eye of God, be lost in the mass, and ignore his personal 
 responsibility in the crowd of voters: nor shall he fold his 
 hands in the indifference of that negligence that presumes nei- 
 ther to form or affect public opinion. To the full extent of 
 God's endowment of ability is he bound to put forth his pow- 
 er. This duty is really unmistakeable when you consider the 
 nature of our own State or government. It is emphatically a 
 government of the people. The ^'people" is composed of in- 
 dividuals, and upon each rests, with all its weight, the solemn 
 responsibility of the whole. What will others do? must nev- 
 er be the question ; but, what ought I, in the fear of God and 
 view of coming judgment, to do ? With us the people is the 
 source of ultimate power; but this power is not exercised di- 
 
8 
 
 Meetly, but througli chosen representatives. And so it is in the 
 union of one, or the larger union of many states. Though 
 ' the people be the court of last appeal, ours is not a pure de- 
 mocracy, but a representative government : in which represen- 
 tation, whether of one or many states, each man is, in the per- 
 son of his representative, as virtually present as though there 
 himself By their represented sovereignty, the people of sev- 
 eral states agree upon an instrument, called the constitution, 
 by and under which are created, defined, and made obligatory, 
 not the primary relation and duties of citizen and state, for 
 these exist before ; but the relatiori^nd duties now created by 
 this new and voluntary agreement This written compact and 
 ^ covenant of agreement between the sovereign parties, and for 
 certain ends, as it makes the relation and consequent duties, so 
 as long as it exists, it is the final and absolute law. - Ours is 
 not the government of the masses, or of an unbridled majority, 
 but of a Constitution ; and, so long as it exists, though you 
 were the solitary man who stood upon it, you have the only 
 right to rule the whole. If the compact fail of its ends it is 
 potentially dead : if by any of the parties it be defeated, it is 
 by such act positively abrogated, null and void. And all the 
 rights and duties of the relation, though obligatory under the 
 compact, do, by its destruction, revert back to where they re- 
 sided before delegation under the agreement, to take, under 
 some different arrangement, what form soever may be neces- 
 sary to their preservation. 
 
 Upon these general principles of civil liberty and self-gov- 
 ernment we are all agreed. The necessity then is manifest, 
 imperative and pressing first and heaviest of all, of the indi- 
 viduals composing "the people," knowing and loving the true 
 and right — knowledge and love being equally essential. In 
 I ignorance we cannot love or do the truth ; and though know- 
 i ing we will not do it unless we love it. As for the individual, 
 ' so must there be for our safety as a state, not simply intellec- 
 tual, but heart conviction — knowledge, love, and desire for 
 righteousness and truth. It is in the heart that the throne 
 must be erected. There at last is the great seat and centre of 
 
%i4 
 
 control. You may forever inform and enligliten, but tbe sad. ^i^^i-^^ 
 
 ■/.el 
 
 end will be bitter and irretrievable disaster if you cannot pu- -i>^,. 
 rify and subdue. The soul and conscience must be brought ; 
 into loving allegiance unto eternal holiness and right. After 
 all spoken and written on it, there is no true liberty but in l ^ y ^ 
 freedom from sin and devotion to divine right, which is sim- ^- " 
 ply subjection to righteous law. No yoke is so hard and 
 heav}^, no fetters so tight and galling, as bondage to the vice 
 of an evil heart. As there is no bondage like that of subjec- 
 tion to evil and wrong, so there is no liberty like that of ab- 
 solute allegiance to the good and right. So then, to save the 
 man or state, you must go to the individual ; there is the pow- 
 er, and there the responsibility. You must reform and purify 
 this, the source of all vital energy. 
 
 But hov\^ ? Shall it be left to politicians ? Alas ! how 
 few of them are lifted above m.ere parties and personal 
 aggrandizement! Hovf few seem conscious of the real issues, 
 and are able to go to the heart and root of the great trouble. 
 Mere education of intellect will not satisfy, for by it you may 
 make of the individual, and so of the State; onlj^ a more 
 refined and terrible instrument of ruin for self and others. |^V-- 
 Moral suasion is exhorting over the stream while the fountain • ,. • ; 
 is corrupt. All human devices utterl}^ fail to reach the seat of 
 the disorder. What then ? In all the ages nothing sufficient / 
 for the man or the State has been found save the Gospel of 
 Christ. It is only as the principles of Grod in the Gospel of his p(- 
 
 Son have rule in the heart and outworking in life, that we 
 have hope for ourselves or our countrj^, now or hereafter. God 
 forbid ! that I ever? hint a union of Church and State. Never ! 
 But by all that is holy and dear, now and ever, a heart union 
 ofjiiaii_^aid religion. It is not of the Gospel as an abstrac- 
 tion, nor jQi of formal theological system, grand and stately 
 and cold ; but that Gospel with all its blessed doctrine and 
 precept, and by the Almight}^ Spirit, the power of God and 
 the wisdom of God, in heart and life, unto temporal and eter- 
 nal salvation. In every heart into which it thus enters it 
 must work with a divine energy. Producing in the first 
 
 ^1 
 
 } ! 
 
10 
 
 place, absolute heart-allegiance to Grod, through our Lord 
 Christ, the God of holiness, justice and right; obedience to 
 His law, simple, unquestioning and uncompromising. And 
 secondly, purity of life ; because the heart, the source of life, 
 is purified and controlled by the indwelling of Christ's law. 
 And so in the third place, there follows a subjection of will 
 to the truest justice and right; the truest, because of Him, 
 for in Him onl}^ have we infallible guarantee of truth. The 
 temper of the man then is devotion to all right as taught in 
 His Word. Not in one, or several of its parts, but in all is 
 the heart united to fear his name. Upon him are brought to 
 bear the most solemn sanctions, within him are working the 
 noblest motives known to humanity. And by an all control- 
 ling necessity of power and love, he is, and rejoices to be a 
 pure and faithful law-abiding man, who will stand to his cov- 
 enants, who sweareth to his own hurt and changeth not. 
 
 As we bring the light of these general truths to bear on 
 our own country, what it was, is now, and but for godless 
 men might have been, nothing but sadness and sorrow, and 
 the conviction of perhaps a terrible duty before us, can fill 
 the heart, in the days of our fathers this was mainly a God- 
 fearing, Bible, Christian people. To a controlling extent the 
 heart of the country was under the influence of the principles 
 I have indicated. A pure Gospel, in no narrow limits, was 
 preached and practiced. Law, obedience, order and regulated 
 liberty, security of person and property, was the blessing 
 here, larger than on all the earth besides. But alas ! how is 
 the gold become dim ! how is the most fine gold changed ! 
 Whatsoever else we may claim, surely «this least and last 
 of all, that as States, or a Confederacy, we are a God-fear- 
 ing people. I do not propose to-day a detail of the sad times 
 on which we have fallen. The blind see it, and the deaf hear 
 it. From one end of it to the other, this Confederated Ee- 
 public, in its largest and least members, is convulsed ; and as 
 never before the pillars of empire are reeling, and the whole 
 structure totters to its overthrow ; a convulsion not alone of 
 the surface, but which gives to the very depths of the social 
 
11 
 
 fabric, an agitation that sends its ominous thrill tlmaigh all 
 the body politic, down to the daily business and bosom, even 
 to the home and hearthstone of every man of us. As if 
 never before having had their trial, great principles are now 
 again ripped up and put upon their passage. We seem well 
 nigh verging back again to moral and political anarchy and 
 experiment. The deep and general alienation, the wide- 
 spread and sorrowful distrust, the want of faith, and miti- 
 gated sense of obligation, among the great masses of those 
 whom w^e were wont to call brethren, all give the saddest and 
 surest portents and arguments of a complete and perpetual 
 separation. Our Confederacy was organized upon, and has 
 been held together thus far, by the recognition, more or less 
 perfect, of the great law of God in all His works, diversit}' 
 and harmony of interest and destiny. Just as the rights and 
 interests of the different parties have been observed accord- 
 ing to the letter and spirit of the great and ever-memora- 
 ble agreement, so have we moved easily, harmoniously and 
 prosperously. And so has every departure from that law of 
 original right been attended, as it must and ought to be, if 
 death do not ensue, with disorder and danger. If the primal 
 law of our confederate Government were observed, there is 
 no reason why we should not have, not thirty -three, but one 
 hundred States, moving harmoniously in our constellation. 
 
 But a vast region of our countr}', a controlling majority of 
 States, a majority to be aimually increased, has just now set 
 at defiance the fundamental law of our agreement and har- 
 mony ; and what though it be within the letter, while opposed 
 to the heart and spirit of our agreement? B}^ birth and im- 
 migration the}^ have multiplied at almost a frightful ratio. 
 Prosperity has poured in upon them from a full horn the 
 ver}^ lavishment of her blessing. And from all this there is 
 begotten a lust of pride, and w^ealth, and power, that sets no 
 limit to its over-reaching ambition. Capital and labor dis- 
 severed, and so often antagonistic, are with them running the 
 race of a fearful competition. In numerical power the labor 
 must always have political control where universal suffrage is 
 
12 
 
 the law ; with them, then, there are the elements of a strife far 
 more irrepressible than is possible with lis, with whom, in our 
 social and political organization, capital and labor are identi- 
 cal. But for once, dissevered capital and labor are agreed; 
 and wo ! worth the day ! are arrayed with tremendous forces 
 for the subversion and overthrow of all that we believe essen- 
 tial to duty, safety and honor. When some historian far 
 down in the coming ages shall take his pen to write of the 
 times we are now living, it will seem to him the strangest and 
 the saddest sight of sinful folly that he must record, so large 
 a number of this Confederac}^, arrayed against the others; 
 and those others, by facts and figures, the foundation of at 
 least the material glory and external greatness of the land! 
 the ground- work of its wealth and power. That the Morth is 
 so arrayed is abundantly evident. He who puts the election 
 of a single man, hitherto almost unknown, as the cause of the 
 present troubles, is a pitiful sciolist, worthy only of contempt. 
 That man is indeed but the puppet, the straw exponent, on 
 the great wave upheaved by the greater forces at work under- 
 neath. Destroy him, and a thousand like him, and yet an- 
 other, and again another would rise to be the embodiment 
 of those same principles. The truth is, the heart and con- 
 science of the North is against us. 
 
 The most their wisest and best can sa}^ for us, is to let us 
 alone ; and to us, you must be content with the metes and 
 bounds you have, and seek for your peculiar social organiza- 
 tion no outlet or expansion. And yet, untrammelled liberty 
 is our heritage by the sacred and cemented legacy of birth 
 and blood ! But even these friends, worthy of love and 
 honor for the arm uplifted so far for the crime against us, 
 hold only a negative position. This is, beyond all doubt, a 
 controversy in which we can allow no uncertain words, or 
 mere negation. The questions are too solemn and absorbing, 
 and our avowed enemies too numerous, positive and uncom- 
 promising. The great wave, now touching our feet, has had 
 its spring in the very fundamentals of northern society. Give 
 me the Pulpit, the School and Press, and the home culture of 
 
13 
 
 a people, and I will make them what I please. And so has it 
 been in this most solemn matter, with some few illustrious 
 exceptions in each department, who, though utterly impotent 
 to stem the tide, are beacon lights to warn us of the danger, 
 and, while warning, to speak of the peril and darkness as 
 palpable, thickening, and dreadful. These noblemen, to 
 whom be honor evermore ! have been proved few and power- 
 less in the mass against us. The Pulpit, Press and School, 
 the home and cradle culture, is a serried phalanx of opposi- 
 tion. All noble principles and lofty motives have been torn 
 down, or suborned from their holy heights, and invested with 
 the black and unhallowed garniture of unrighteousness, forced 
 to do service in this relentless crusade. Thus, a society dis- 
 eased and inflamed at the heart, can never be appeased. And 
 3^et, in the fear of Grod, and view of Judgment, I say it, all 
 this against a forbearing and unoffending people. With con- 
 fession and repentance, we say, not a sinless, but, as to the 
 relation of master and servant, not a sinning people. It is not 
 included in my line of thought, to-day, to prove the right- 
 eousness of our relation of master and servant, nor is it neces- 
 sary. The argument is for us settled ; and satisfies the logic 
 of our intellect and the conviction of our heart. We will no 
 more degrade it by putting it on passage. God, speaking 
 through nature, reason, providence and scripture, acquits of 
 sin as to the relation itself. But alas ! as in all human rela- 
 tions, not guiltless as to its duties. It is against the relation 
 itself, that the war now wages. The gift of these people, who 
 stand to us so related, is a solemn and sacred trust given us of 
 God, and as the Lord liveth, let us be true to it ; to the 
 defence of the bodies and souls of our servants. To whom 
 else shall they look, and who else will God hold responsible, 
 but those who are by nature and providence their guardians ? 
 Let the stranger and unbeliever say or think what he maj^, 
 this is with us not a question of profit and loss, but of right 
 and duty to our servants, as to ourselves. And so the issues 
 are vital with us ; to every obligation of religion, duty, safety 
 and honor. The moral and religious duty we owe them as 
 
14 
 
 moral and responsible beings cannot be discharged as matters 
 now stand. And this consideration alone, the duty we owe 
 to our servants, lifts the whole question immeasurably above 
 the level of common things, and invests it with the awful 
 sanctions of the Judgment bar itself. 
 
 The fell spirit in the heart of this war against us is, while 
 hot and fiery, cool, relentless and unscrupulous in instrument 
 and purpose. Every weapon, holy or unholy, human or di- 
 vine, that can be seized and perverted, is grasped by sinewy 
 and determined hand, and directed in every way to reach the 
 settled end. Before that Spirit, all that interposes must go 
 down in a common rum. AVould to Grod ! we might see all 
 this to-day, as no fancy, or exaggerated dream, but as living 
 and apalling fact ; on which all history pouis the confirmatory 
 light of truth concerning fanatacism and sinful folly. I be- 
 seech you, brethren of a common destiny, and a. common 
 honor, who must rise or fall together, see now the personal res- 
 ponsibility, the weight of ineffable dut}^, the high and awful 
 charge in which as Christian men you are placed. Rise to the 
 height of the great argument ; not that of policy, but princi- 
 ple. With details of time, means and method of meeting the 
 exigency, we have, to-day, nothing to do. To other places, 
 and to heads and hearts as wise and good as ours, shall all 
 these things be given. But, by all that is holy and dear, see 
 it not as a subject of parties and politics. But as an issue in 
 which God has put us in charge of the temporarl and eternal 
 interests of the millions of two races, those that now live, and 
 are yet to come. 
 
 Let me speak, briefly, of the Causes which, in my maturest 
 judgment, have brought on us this trouble. It cannot be 
 that immense masses have been so moved and upheaved by 
 the personal ambition of a few. This were to malign their 
 honesty and intelligence. Nor is it that those States, that 
 export less than one third of the commercial values of the 
 country ; through whose ports the immense remainder has its 
 largest outflow, and the inflow of the returning trade ; pro- 
 tected in manufactures, navigation and fishing, to the detri- 
 
15 
 
 ment of the others, have but little benefit from our union. 
 Much less has the trouble arisen from the successful passage 
 of any or all single measures. Nor can we see in it only a 
 mistaken philanthropy. None, nor all, of these causes satisf}^ 
 the necessit}^ of the case. They are indeed but the superficies 
 of the infinitely more serious trouble. The cause at work is 
 deeper, broader, far more sad and dangerous ; not a passing 
 fever, a diseased limb, but moral malady at the heart. It is a 
 superficial and utterly insufficient view that sees in it all only 
 a crusade against slaver3^ This is but the present and special 
 manifestation, in which it is now finding necessary outlet. 
 The true cause is one that will live and riot on to its own lust- 
 ful and ruinous end, though no slave existed on the continent. 
 The trouble is in the corruption of the religious element and 
 teaching of those arrayed against us; and such corruption in- 
 volves ultimately all moral, social and political depravation. 
 Time will not allow me detail, but all, who have followed the 
 history of theological doctrine for the quarter of a century, 
 know that there has been amongst those most violent against 
 us, a constantly progressive departure from the truth of Grod. 
 That truth, not as expressed by church systems and standards, 
 but by the pure Word of God as an authoritative and ulti- 
 mate rule of faith and practice. The whole record of history 
 testifies that right and liberty never long survive among a 
 people whose theology has become radically corrupt. In cut- 
 ting loose from God He cuts loose from us, leaving us to the 
 righteous retribution of the evil embraced. How small and 
 insignificant soever, that people holding on to God is invinci- 
 ble. Departure from the truth may be in the first instance 
 very slight, but, like the deflection of a ball from the mouth 
 of the rifle, it makes an immeasurable difference in the final 
 result. So seemingly slight departures, long years ago, fol- 
 lowed out, by more unscrupulous and daring minds, to their 
 logical results, have issued, among vast masses of men, in sap- 
 ping the very foundation of God's authority. On this corrupt 
 religious element, skepticism and infidelity, both native and 
 imported, have been grafted; and so having their root in the 
 
.16 
 
 convictions of a corrupted conscience, all tlie ttiightiest powers 
 of our nature are waked into vigorous activity. 
 
 It is invariably true that in the Northern States those Chris- 
 tian men who hold simplest and closest to the Supreme author- 
 ity of God's word, are our fastest friends. But how few 
 they are ! The sad truth is, with those who most have the 
 public ear, there has been such a rendering of philosophy and 
 the Scriptures, that their divine authorit}^ is virtually over- 
 thrown. And on this pile of awful ruins miserable man has 
 erected the throne of his own pitiful sovereignty, and is hence- 
 forth a law unto himself Infidelity has been called the end 
 of abolitionism, but the reverse is the truth. It is not only 
 the cause of that, but is the horrible and prolific mother of a 
 thousand other monsters, its logical and legitimate offspring. 
 When man has succeeded in throwing from his soul and con- 
 science the recognition of subjection to God, what €an control 
 him ? The destruction of the greater includes the less, and 
 he is henceforth at the mercy of any error that untruth, inter- 
 est and passion may choose to put on his intellect, affections 
 and will, even on his moral and religious nature. When the 
 great governing principles of the soul are forsaken, moral 
 anai:chy, the confusion of all right, lawlessness, blindness and 
 spiritual madness must supervene. 
 
 The powers now abroad in our land do not affect alone one 
 institution of society, but involve the very relation of human 
 society itself It is infidelity against religion, man against God, 
 falsehood and wrong against eternal truth and right ; the un- 
 righteousness of the horrible and licentious despotism of 
 unbridled masses, against justice, law and regulated liberty. 
 This Spirit of Evil is radical, agrarian and revolutionary, 
 destructive of all law, moral, social and political. Under the 
 black banner of death it unfurls, there is gathered every type 
 of human ignorance and error, sin and folly and madness ; in 
 the name of God, yet godless, of religion, yet irreligious, of 
 right and liberty and law, yet bent on foul wrong, despotism 
 and license. Its genius is the demolition of " all honors, au- 
 thorities, pre-eminences and dignities, to obtain its own dreadful 
 
17 
 
 liberty, equalit}^ and fraternity. To this end everything per- 
 taining to law, justice, truth, honor and virtue, must give way 
 and go down, until nothing shall be left but the dead body of 
 a vile humanity." Vicious and disorganizing, in its march 
 over a land its feet are bathed in blood, and with bloody 
 hands it scatters firebrands, arrows and death. Before it goeth 
 the pestilence that walketh in darkness, and behind it are the 
 black and smouldering ruins of homes and families, of Bibles 
 and churches and States. The moral law of Grod, the political 
 law of constitutions, and the civil law of statutes must be per- 
 verted or abolished, and with them all security for individual 
 and social right ; until on the ruin and wreck of all that is 
 holy and great, the block, the axe and the stake are again 
 erected ; and righteous retribution, making madmen their own 
 executioners, they shall by desperate experience be some- 
 what brought back to their senses, to begin over again the 
 slow and toilsome work of reconstruction. 
 
 Such is the hydra now lifted up. Cut off one of its heads, 
 others remain, and the one cut off will soon spring into new 
 life. The forces at work are many and various, and the might- 
 iest of . them all have their seat in blinded and perverted 
 religious sentiment. The tide already touches our feet ; the 
 white caps of its black and billowy waves are nearer yet, and 
 coming on as fast and certain and sure, as the mighty causes 
 that gave it birth. Every interest, that Christian patriots 
 ought to love and defend with body, soul and spirit, threat- 
 ens to be eno-ulfed. 
 
 o 
 
 What shall we doF Is the thrilling question that breaks 
 from the anxious hearts of the multitudes of an inquiring 
 people. Shall we reason with this direful Spirit? Were it sim- 
 ply an intellectual error it would have been long since, and 
 could yet be killed by the invincible logic of truth ; but its 
 dangerous life is from a heart dissevered from its God. Will 
 you compromise and beseech ? This Spirit is pitiless as death, 
 remorseless as the grave. 
 
 I. Our first duty then, for ourselves, is confession and re- 
 pentance toward God. We have been, and are now, a sinful 
 
 o 
 
18 
 
 people, not only for the duties of master and servant, but 
 those of all our relations toward God and man. Let there 
 be then, by every individual, instant and hearty confession 
 and forsaking of sin. Such confession cannot be made by 
 the State in its organic capacity. At last it must be done 
 where the power rests, and by the power itself, in every 
 man's own heart. I have no hope of his success, who goes 
 into any great controversy with skirts not clear toward God 
 and man. Look each then to his own heart and home. 
 
 11. Let us, each for himself and all together, prove God's 
 warrant to sincere and persistent prayer. In this great emer- 
 gency I wish, above all, to see our people upon their knees ; 
 laying hold with an unfaltering faiih in the Lord God of 
 Eight, for wisdom, courage and fidelity. Forsaking all 
 earthly confidence, let us settle back on the unalterable 
 power, love and guidance of the God of Justice and Right. 
 In every heart, above every hearthstone, on the doorposts of 
 every home, in every hamlet, town and city, from our sea- 
 board to our mountains, let there be written in letters which 
 no man may mistake, GOD AND OUR RIGHTS. Let them 
 blaze like letters of fire on every banner you unfurl. And 
 be w^ith every man not only a sentiment, but the principle 
 and power of his life. My brethren, of a comm.on interest, 
 destiny and hope, as for us let this not be a godless adven- 
 ture, I beseech you. As sure as we now live we shall go 
 down if unable or unwilhng to lay hold on Him. We are to 
 show Christ in every act and scene of this solemn drama. 
 The Christian cannot be lost in the citizen, the man in the 
 mass. In every vote, and every act, though it be in lifting up 
 the sword, that final and dreadfullest earthly argument, let it 
 be done in faith, and believing appeal to the LORD GOD OF 
 HOSTS. 
 
 I beseech you away from the dead remains of parties and 
 party bitterness, to cool, calm, prayerful and harmonious 
 counsel for a single purpose, the integrity of the charge given 
 us by The Almighty. Every obligation of Religion, Duty 
 and Honor presses it. Duty and honor to ourselves, hus- 
 
19 
 
 band, wife and child, friend and fellow-citizens ; to the de* 
 fenceless servant for whose temporal and eternal interests God 
 holds us responsible ; duty to the memories of the Past, the 
 possessions of the Present, and the rio-hts of the Future ; 
 duty to ourselves in whose trusteeship is vested for all time 
 the priceless wealth of God's own principles of truth and 
 right. Then, in every way, and by every God-approved 
 means, the speediest, the wisest and best, as the servants 
 of God and keepers of His truth, maintain and defend the 
 charge. Again I remark, it is not for me, from this place, 
 to say when, how, and by what means, the emergency shall 
 be met. But done it must be, and speedity. We cannot 
 let the waves overwhelm us. If arrested, it must be now, 
 and, in God's name, let it in every way be a final settle- 
 ment. Let those waves be destroyed, or turned back to work 
 their ruin on those who have raised them. Lift on hio;h the 
 shield of love and power and faith, and, if dire necessity de- 
 mand, let there be built up between us and our foe a wall as 
 high as heaven, the barrier of a complete and perpetual sepa- 
 ration. Let us get ourselves under the shield of God, by 
 prayer and faith having His benediction, and so atheism shall 
 not be our curse in this great issue. Let your men and mea- 
 sures be selected and adopted in fear of God, and view of 
 Judgment. On your individual action be sure there rests 
 His approving smile. And whatever be the number or mag- 
 nitude of the disasters present or threatening, believe and 
 know that God will evermore defend the Eight. In this 
 struggle you and I may fall to rise here no more forever. 
 But the principles for which Ave shall fall are immortal ; 
 they shall live on and bear their leaf and bloom and fruitage 
 for those who are to come after us, for whom we have been 
 faithful ; and from whose successive generations we shall re- 
 ceive only blessing and honor in all the after ages. 
 
 Finally Brethren Beloved : As your friend, counsellor and 
 pastor, by official relation and personal affection bound to you 
 by the tenderest and holiest ties, let me urge you to personal 
 holiness and devotion before God. It is not without the sad- 
 
20 
 
 dest thoughts that I contemplate the possible results before us. 
 Let us be sure we are individually right before Grod ere we 
 make or meet them. It is not without profound emotion we 
 look to the breaking up of a government, venerable by age, 
 and the sacrifices of its origin and history ; loved and honored 
 by us for its benefits, partial though they ma}^ have been. A 
 day of mourning let it be, when, by the m.adness of our ene- 
 mies, such a febric must go down. But to a Christian free- 
 man there is something mightier and dearer than sentiment. 
 Upon the high altar of Justice and Right he can offer as a 
 willing sacrifice all that he has and is. Your united and 
 unyielding demand now will save the Right, either in the 
 Union or out of it. If not in, then, in God's name, once and 
 forever out of it, as wisely and speedily as possible. On this 
 I am sure we are agreed. 
 
 As strange as it may seem, I think union, right and peace, 
 are possible only by speedy dissolution, for thus only is right- 
 eous reconstruction possible. If the event prove it impossi- 
 ble, then the vvdsdom of the severance is demonstrated. For 
 myself, I may be permitted to say ; your fortunes are mine, in 
 jo};^ or sorrow, sunshine and storm, peace or war; your God 
 and 3^our people are mine. I came of a race who, on a distant 
 soil, and in the olden time, fought for Truth and Right ; whose 
 descendants vindicated their ancestry, on many a field of our 
 first Revolution; and whose children, wherever they now are, 
 will prove themselves their worthy offspring in this our 
 second Revolution. May the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac 
 and Jacob bless yoM with wisdom and strength, counsel and 
 courage. And, Bi'ethren, let come what will, see to it that 
 we look and pray to Him to DEFEND THE RIGHT. 
 
975. 3 Z99H 1360-79 v. 5 
 
 nos.1-14 342390 
 
 G^eorgia Phamp hle ts 
 
 97e .3 Z99H 1360-79 y. 5 
 
 nos.1-14 542890