Glass. Book -<^&£ OUR NATIONAL TRIALS A CAUSE FOR THANKFULNESS. A SERMON Jy> PREACIIED IN TIIK SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, CLEVELAND, NOVEMBER 28TH, 18 61, A DAY OF THANKSGIVING AND PRAISE. BY REV. T. H. HAWKS, PASTOR OF THE CHI CLEVELAND: FAIRBANKS, BENEDICT & CO., PRINTERS, HERALD OFFICE. 1 8 6 1 . J iN^- -&<%&) OUR NATIONAL TRIALS A CAUSE FOR THANKFULNESS. A SEEMON PREACHED IN THE SECOND- PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, CLEVELAND, .'•'NOVEMBER 2 8TH, 1861, A DAY OF THANKSGIVING AND PRAISE. BY KEV. T. H. HAWKS, PASTOR OF THE CHURCH. CLEVELAND: FAIRBANKS, BENEDICT & CO., PRINTERS, HERALD OFFICE. 1861. B43d J CORRESPONDENCE. Cleveland, Nov. 29, 1861. REV. T. H. HAWKS : Dear Sir: Having listened to your sermon yesterday with great pleasure, and believing its general circulation will do good, we respectfully request a copy of the same for publication. In making this request, we believe we do but express the wish of all who heard you. Respectfully yours, L. BENEDICT, S. C. AIKEN, S. H. MATHER, W. A. OTIS, S. H. FOX, DUDLEY BALDWIN. J. LEONARD, E. F. GAYLORD, DAN. P. EELLS, H. GRISWOLD, D. F. ATWATER, S. J. ANDREWS, L. ALCOTT, B. STEDMAN, D. A. SHEPARD, F. S. SLOSSON. Cleveland, Nov. 30, 1861. Messrs. S. C. AIKEN, W. A. OTIS, DUDLEY BALDWIN and others^ Gentlemen : The sermon which you ask for, is cheerfully placed at your disposal. Trusting that your judgment of it will be sustained, and that its publica- tion may " do good," I am, very respectfully, Yours, T. H, HAWKS. SERMON Job, v : 17, 20. — Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth : there- fore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty. In famine He shall redeem thee from death; and in war from the power of the sword. The word of God, in many places, teaches that the discipline of rebuke and chastisement is evidence of the divine favor. — The man whom the Almighty chasteneth is happy, because suffering is not designed to work his ruin, but his " profit." And when the end sought has been gained, the same hand that maketh sore, bindeth up. He who has sent six troubles, yea, seven, delivers from them ; who has sent famine and war, redeems from death and from the power of the sword,, The man who suffers is to be accounted happy, when his sufferings are corrections, and not merely judgments — divinely appointed means of restoring him to the righ£ way, and not purely the penalty of his sins. The test by which we may determine whether they are corrections, or only penalty, is their effect upon him. If they issue in his reformation, then they are signs of God's love, and he has cause for gratitude that they have come upon him. Happy is he, because he is made better by means of them. If these things are true of an individual, they are. also true of nations. The evils which befall a people, may be oply pen- alty ; or they may be both penalty and correction. For the* sins of Judah, Jehovah sent the nation into distant captivity ; yet this severe punishment was reformatory. It was designed to be so, and it was so. But the time came for God to plead their cause, and to inflict judgment on their foes. And this was judgment only. There was no redemption for their proud 6 Chaldean oppressors. If the calamities that come upon a nation, do only work its purification — if its rulers and people are thereby made to see their sins and to forsake them, then ought they to be called happy, even while they suffer. For God still loves them, and is seeking their salvation from greater evils, which would be the just recompense of contin- uance in sin. Then, too, he will bring deliverance from their troubles, and redeem from the power of the sword. It is plain, therefore, that the sufferings of a nation may be cause for thanksgiving to God. We are called, to-day, by the "request of the General Assembly of this State," and by the proclamation of its Gov- ernor, in our houses of worship and in our homes, to render thanks to God, and to praise him for his great goodness. To some the condition of our country may seem to demand humiliation and mourning before God. And the observance of a day of Thanksgiving and Praise may appear a grave incongruity. One year ago we were the "United States." Thirty-three Republics were bound together under one government — their free choice — and constituted one nation, envied for its pros- perity, feared for its power. To-day one-third of these are arrayed against the rest in deadly strife. Then the highways of travel, and trade, and commerce, were uninterrupted. — Now bristling bayonets and blockading squadrons close the whole southern part of the country against northmen and foreigners. Then fifteen or eighteen thousand soldiers kept the-peace over the remote frontiers, against a sudden foray of savages ; or held the fortifications of the sea-board and saved them from dilapidation. Now three-quarters of a million of armed men shake the ground with their tread ; fleets thunder along the coast, and the roar of cannon echoes among the Alk'ghanics, and dies away in distant peals on the prairies towards the sun-setting. Grim war — civil war — belts the continent' from the mouth of the Potomac to the head-waters of the Neosho. Its camp-fires light up the midnight darkness — its battle-fields have drunk the blood of the slain — its des- olations have turned fruitful regions into barren wastes — its hand has checked the wheels of enterprise — its remorseless spirit has wrecked great fortunes, and breathed sadness and woe into thousands of desolate homes ; and like an insatiate fury, it now threatens with mightier conflicts and avalanches of sorrow. For what, then, should we, to-day, render thanks and praise unto Almighty God ? There are many things which are most obvious, and suggest themselves to every thoughtful mind. — That the fields have yielded an abundant harvest, and our granaries are full, while in foreign parts only a scanty crop has rewarded the diligent hand of toil ; that wasting sickness has not visited our towns, and cities, and camps ; that, while many departments of business have suffered, the energies of the people have very generally been employed in industrial pursuits ; that the poor have not been forgotten by the benev- olent ; that religious and educational institutions have been cheerfully sustained, and their benefits enjoyed as heretofore ; that, when treason and a causeless rebellion struck at the integrity and life of the nation, the people of the Korth, animated by patriotic fervor, and emulous of the. spirit and example of the fathers, sprang to their feet and vowed i<> defend the inheritance bequeathed to them ; that, as reverses came, and the struggle assumed proportions which at first were hardly deemed possible, the patriotism and courage of the loyal States rose to a higher pitch, till every discordant voice has been hushed, and every hesitation and fear has' given place to a holy and unalterable purpose to maintain, at whatever sacrifice, the power of the Republic over all' the territory where its starry banner has ever floated, and over all waters where its ships have found a port, and paid no tribute; that our relations with foreign powers are peaceful ; and that the ravages of war have fallen almost entirely upon those who made them a stern necessity ; these are weighty reasons for the observance of this time-honored festival throughout the loyal States. And to some, or all of these, the proclamations appointing it have directed the thoughts of the people. The Governor of this State calls upon us to observe the day as one of Thanksgiving and Praise to God, "for the inestima- ble privileges of our Civil and Eeligious Institutions, for protecting our homes from the ravages of war, and for the manifold blessings, individual and social, which surround and support us." That the blessings which have been mentioned, and others of a kindred nature, do call for gratitude to God — that they place us under solemn obligation to bless his name — no one of us, I am sure, will for a moment deny. The goodness of God in thus loading us with benefits, is most signal. "What if he had dealt with us in an opposite manner, sending drought instead of showers — divisions and apathy into the councils of the nation and the hearts of the people — the invasion of our States and the desolation of our cities — palsy in every arm of business i*nd enterprise, and war from foreign parts ? In the experience of such judgments, we should know the magnitude of our present mercies. Let us not, then, fail to render thanks to him for these manifold alleviations of evils incident to the conflict into which we have been forced. In former years, we have felt it to be most reasonable that we should praise God ft. r the great blessings of plenty, of free institutions, and of peace with foreign nations. How much more reasonable is it now, when every one of them has a hundred-fold greater value by reason of the sacrifices and sufferings to which we are subjected through the perfidy and violence of men, whom a year ago we called our own brethren ! Therefore, Sing aloud unto God our strength : Make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob. Take a psalm, and bring hither the timbrel, The pleasant harp, with the psaltery. Blow up the trumpet in the new moon, In the time appointed, on our solemn feast day. ' For this was a statute for Israel, And a law of the-'God of Jacob. Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget not all his benefits ; Who forgiycth all thine iniquities, Who healcth all thy diseases : Who redeemcth thy life from destruction, Who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender meroies ; Who satisfleth thy mouth with good things, So that thy youth is renewed like the eagle'*. 9 But, brethren, I am persuaded that we have other and greater cause for praise to-day. That God has sent affliction upon us, and is trying us as silver is tried ; that the discipline of adversity has overtaken this young and yet vigorous natiou, are grounds for deepest gratitude. We accept our trials as a national blessing, just as affliction is oftentimes a blessing to an individual. " Prosperity," saith Lord Bacon, " is the blessing of the Old Testament, adversity is the blessing of the New, which carrieth the greater benediction, and the clearer revelation- of God's favor. Prosperity is not without many fears and dis- tastes ; and adversity is not without comforts and hopes." My object in the remainder of this discourse, will be to show that our national trials are cause for thankfulness to God. By our trials, I mean such things as the loss of property, the derangement of business, the treachery, tre&son, and rebellion of the South, the inability of our wisest statesmen to forecast and prevent the civil disorders, the desolating scourge of war, and the defeats and losses we have thus far sustained in the progress of it. I mean the great evils and sufferings which now rest upon the nation, and distinguish its present condition from the former of peace and prosperity. But the 3 can be regarded as cause of thankfulness to God only as it can be made to appear that they are not sent for our destruction, but our reformation. If God has arisen to blot us out of the book of nations, then, though our calamities would be the just reward of our sins, we should hardly say that they called for thanksgiving : Then, too, even the mercies we have spoken of, would summon us to such a service, only as the skill of a physician does, which prolongs life for a few hours, or makes more easy the .passage to the grave. But if by calamities God intends to convince us of specific sins, and work a national reformation in regard of them, and then give us a new lease of life, with nobler virtues character- izing the nation, with fewer causes tending to its corruption and decay, then we ought to thank and praise him for sending judgments upon the land. And it is because we think he is 10 so working, that we have ventured to speak of our troubles as grounds for thankfulness. Let us, in the first place, adduce evidence that the nation's sufferings are a punishment of its sins. It is impor- tant to show this, else will it be impossible to convince any that they are designed to work a reformation. Notice, therefore, that there is, under the government of God, such a relation between actions and their sequences, as permits us to speak of the latter as reward or penalty. Industry is followed by increased possessions and means of enjoyment. Tiiese are its reward. An indolent man who will not sow, finds that his idleness is followed by want. The absence of good from which he sutlers, is the penalty of his sin. The result is of such a nature as proclaims it to be penalty. Truthfulness and honorable dealing gain the esteem and confidence of men. The recompense is suited to the nature of the virtues. Falsehood and trickery breed distrust and contempt. The penalty is suited to the character of the offence. So, in the evils that have overtaken this nation, there is such a relation to causes going before, as shows them to be judg- ments that have at last overtaken transgression. Look, for example, at the inordinate desire of riches, which had become a striking national characteristic. Multitudes lived to get rich. They had no higher aim. They did not seek wealth that they might use it for the better education and culture of themselves or their families, or for the advancement of knowledge, or the improvement of society. They saw, perhaps, that riches attracted admiration, gave their possessor a social position his worth could never command, surrounded him' with luxuries, and minis^M'ed to his appetites. And sometimes they were sought as means of gaining these ends. But oftcner the passion had no distinct aim but that of pro- digious accumulation. Men would be rich for riches' sake. The sordid and debasing passion expressed itself in many forms. Some added to their possessions by a miserly hoard- ing of their income. Some increased their wealth by usury. 11 Others, despising such slow methods of gain, struck out boldly, and plunged into all the excitements of speculation. They speculated in land and grains, and gambled in stocks. It can easily be seen that this concentration of the mind upon merely material acquisitions — this mania for wealth, which was one day elated by the rise of stocks, and the next became gloom and fear by their slight decline — were hostile to the nobler aspirations of the mind, destroyed its peace, and closed it against the approaches of that religion which teaches us to lay up our treasures, not on earth, but in heaven. Seen in this aspect only, the indulgence of the passion for wealth was most pernicious. But it was often associated with other evils. Wealth brought extravagance and luxury into social life. The sim- plicity of manners which marks the period of a nation's growth, was fast giving way to that effeminacy and corruption which characterize its decline. Festive enjoyments were more prized than manly pursuits. The wine-cup and the viol were in the feasts. Moral principle yielded to the fascination of riches. — A heavy purse would outweigh the most positive merits of character. The libertine, if rich, found too easy access to virtuous families. Marriage was prostituted to the ambition of setting out in life with a splendid establishment. The desire to live as only the rich can, barred persons of limited means from the virtuous joys of an ftumble home, and tempted them with the forms of forbidden pleasures. Moreover, the evil had crept into the Church. Men once distinguished for the simplicity of their living and for their piety and benevolence, were yielding to the downward ten- dency. The absorption of their resources t in supporting an expensive style of life, crippled, their ability to meet the demands of charity and the calls of God's providence in the field of missions. The whole Church was in danger of be- coming fatally secularized. Notice, further, that this greed of wealth had corrupted the fountains of law and of justice. Men who had some great scheme of pecuniary advantage to promote, were not satisfied 12 to present their cause to Legislatures and to Congress, and let the issue be deterrainod by the merits of it. They resorted to lobbying ; and measures passed which were demanded by no interests of the public, and never could have been enacted, had they been connected with no promise of profit to the men who gave them their votes. It would consume too much of our time to follow, further, the workings of the cause which was thus destroying the vir- tue, strength, and life of the nation. Riches were an idol. Foreigners reproached us with our mercenary spirit. We, ourselves, laughed over the achievements of the "Almighty dollar," much as Nero fiddled while Rome was burning. But nothing is plainer than that this, our sin, has now its penalty. God first sent a whirlwind over the land, and for- tunes were prostrated everywhere. The desolations of '57 will not' soon be forgotten. But the lesson was not heeded. Men said, These convulsions have a law of periodic return : we shall go on smoothly, now, for twenty years. So they gathered up the wrecks and spread their sails again. Yet, now what do we see ? They who but yesterday counted their wealth by hundreds of thousands, are reduced to poverty. Riches take wings and fly away. This war would never have come upon us, had not the interests of trade protested against a lawful resistance to slavery. No one of us can forget what scorn was heaped upon those who resisted the passage of the Compromise Measures of 1854. The Northern marts of trade cried peace! and we had peace. But what has been gained by the temporizing policy? The men who then most favored it, and for Southern trade, are bankrupts to-day. And the fortunes of the nation are drawn into the gulf of a war initi- ated by the friends of the institution, which it was, for a time, almost commercial suicide to speak against ; and the reward of the men of peace from those whose cause they then pleaded, is the repudiation of every debt, and the confiscation of their property. Do not these things show our guilt, and the judg- ment of God against it? 13 Turning from this topic, let us glance at the pride and i arrogance of the nation. In the achievements of the War of Independence — in the j naval victories of 1812 — in the conquest of feeble Mexico, we found occasions for boasting of our prowess. We thought that j an army of volunteers could at any time nope with the best disciplined troops of any great European power. Too power- ! ful to be successfully assailed on the land, supplying the i manufactories of England with cotton, and exporting immense quantities of grain and flour for the crowded populations of that country and of France, we began to think ourselves quite above the reach of the calamities which have overtaken other nations. How boastful of our vast territories and inexhaustible resources ! of the spirit of the people and their power to carry the flag in triumph wherever they willed ! But now we have ceased to boast. Our pride has been brought low. We have the national spirit which offers men, in vast numbers, and means adequate to the public exigencies. But where are the splendid victories and the swift successes, that reflect honor upon the profession of arms ? Where is the generalship in which we gloried at the outset of the war ? We have suffered so many reverses, that our pride is humbled; while just enough has been gained to keep alive the nation's confidence, that in God's good time we shall vanquish the enemy, and re-establish the nation's integrity. Is there not, in such discipline, evidence that God has rewarded us according to our deeds. Look, further, al the penalty which has followed the abuse of a " free press." The license of the press, and the judgments that have followed upon the track of its transgressions — in the forced silence of the worst sinners, and the crippled condition of others, were vigorously presented to us on occasion of the late National Fast. What I wish to call attention to, is the calamity which has overtaken the nation itself, through the prostitution of the press to base personal and party ends. Party papers vied with party demagogues in vilifying the conscieil- | tious anti-slavery convictions of the North, and in encouraging 14 the desperate leaders of public opinion at the South, confidently to expect that any concessions would be granted, if the threaten- ed alternative were secession and war. W'e tolerated such press- es — gave the conductors of them large subscription lists, and augmented their powers to work the ruin of the nation. And the result is, that we are suffering the miseries of civil war, which never would have been, had the men who controlled them been true to the principles of freedom, and labored for the triumph of justice rather than the increase of their gains, the success of a party, and a treacherous peace for the sake of trade. How manifestly has God brought judgments upon the people for sustaining such presses in their selfish, unpatriotic and wicked work ! Who does not see that in this line, also, penalty has overtaken the transgressors ? In these remarks upon the press, I have alluded to the complicity of demagogues in misrepresenting the sentiments of the North, and in fostering the treasonable designs of Southern leaders. And this may introduce a brief reference to the character of the men who have been elected to rule over us. I am not, of course, to be understood as uttering wholesale denunciations. There have been many true men elected to the places where laws are made and executed. But no one familiar with the elections and legislation of the last quarter of a century, will deny that often the basest men have been chosen to represent the people. The qualifications of a good party man out-weighed those of a good patriot. The questiou to be answered at the primary elections and in the conventions, was not, « Is he faithful, capable and honest"? but, "will he run well"? The best men of any party could not be elected. At length a fatal apathy took possession of the large and influential class of Christian men, and men of sound moral principles. They staid away from the primary elections; i1h*.y cither neglected to vote at all, or theychose between rival candidates in obedience to the maxim, "out of two evils choose the least." The result could be only what it has been — the election of law-makers and magistrates, who, as a body, sought not so much the public weal as their own ambitious ends, the 15 success of party measures, and a participation in "the spoils." Such men, elected to represent Northern constituents, were not fitted to withstand the arts, and far-reaching measures, and threatening bearing of the "lords of the plantation" Power passed into Southern hands, and was wielded for the triumph of Southern slavery. The legislation of the country proves incontestably that such has been the result of our neglect, or abuse of the elective franchises Had we been true to our traditional principles, and sent men to Congress and to the State Legislatures, who were honest, patriotic, unswerving in their devotion to justice, and inflexibly opposed to the principle and system of human bondage, we should never have come into out present straits. This war is the result of our time-serving spirit, and our compromising with the gigantic wrong. We see now in the light of this rebellion — in the long history of violated oaths, secret plottings, disper- sion of the army and navy, and robbery of the arsenals and navy yards, that preceded the attack on Sumpter — in the facility with which almost every slave State has been drawn into the strife against the government — and in the vast armies which have been gathered to destroy the Union, because it could no longer be made the tool of the slave power — we see, in these things, the inherent vice of that atrocious system before which we have all cringed, and to whose haughty demands our chosen rulers have yielded, till it had become almost a national institution, and had coiled its huge folds around the Kepublic and well nigh crushed out its life. This war, therefore, is God's commentary upon the criminal manner in which we have administered the affairs of the nation, through the men we have chosen to represent our principles and will, in the seats of power- But all the sins that have now been mentioned, yield in- magnitude and guilt, to that of holding in bondage four" mil- • lions of men, who have the same right to freedom, to the' sacred institution of the family, and to the word of God, as ourselves. Every one of them also strikes its roots into this, and draws fresh life from it. I shall not enter upon a discus- 16 sion of the sin of the nation, in upholding the slavery of the South. It can be Seen in the laws of Congress, in the decisions of the Supreme Court, in Cabinet cabals, in the resolutions of national party conventions, in the revival of the slave trade, in the judgments of Commissioners' Courts, in the wrongs of Kansas, in the establishment of the Missouri Com- promise, in the annulling of that Compromise, in the infamous provisions of the Fugitive Slave Bill, in the augmented area of slavery, in the war with Mexico, and in the nameless wrongs heaped upon the enslaved race at the hands of cruel masters, and under the operation of State laws for the regulation of the system. The sin has been portrayed by men better able to do the work than I am. The only point I need to dwell upon, is, the retribution which has at last overtaken us. This war is on account of slavery — would never have occurred but for the determination of the slave-holders to extend its limits, and give it a new lease of power, as the base and corner-stone of a new political structure. The nation is reaping as it has sown. God is smiting us in the very part we had done most to strengthen. The judgment is unmistakable. We need no Daniel to interpret mystic characters, and tell us that the Medes and Persians are thundering at our gates, because we have built the throne of empire upon the unrequited toils and unavenged wrongs, the tears and blood, of our brethren. Let us leav