YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

3 9002 06097 0697

A DISCOURSE

DELIVERED IN THE

SECOND REFORMED DUTCH CHURCH,

KING STON, ]ST. Y.

ON THE DAY OF

NATIONAL THANKSGIVING,

November 26th, 1863.

JOHN LILLLE, D.D.,
PASTOR OF THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, KINGSTON, N. Y.

PUBLISHED BY REQUEST.

iefo-flcvu :
JOHN A. GRAY & GREEN, PRINTER?, STEREOTYPERS, AND BINDERS
FIRE-PROOF BUILDINGS,
CORNER 01? FRANKFORT AND JACOB STREETS.
1 8 G 3 .

_Q23f

I give, theft Books
fur the fiu,hdiiig if a College in- this. Colony"

• iLHiBiaaKy •

A DISCOURSE

delIvebed in the.

SECOND REFORMED DUTCH CHURCH,

KINGSTON, N. Y.,

ON THE DAY OF

NATIONAL THANKSGIVING,

November 26th, 1863.

JOHN LILLIE, D.D.,
PASTOR OP THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, KINGSTON, N. Y.

PUBLISHED BY REQUEST.
 *• 

l*fo-f0rk:
JOHN A. GRAY & GREEN, PRINTERS, STEREOTYPERS, AND BINDERS,
FIRE-PROOF BUILDINGS,
CORNER OF FRANKFORT AND JACOB STREETS.
1863.

Kingston, N.Y., Nov. 30th, 1863.
John Lillie, D.D. :
Reverend and Dear Sir : We, the undersigned, members of vari
ous churches and congregations, having listened with much satisfaction
to- the discourse delivered by you, at the Union Meeting held in the
Second Reformed Dutch Church, on our late National and State Thanks
giving-day, and hearing it generally commended, believe that the still
wider promulgation of it would help the cause of Christ, of humanity,
and of our beloved country. We do, therefore, respectfully solicit a
copy for publication. Very truly yours,

J. L. G. McKown,
L. W. Peck,
H. R. ROMETN,
W. B. FlNCH,
G. N. Van Deusen,
Jos. A. Collier,
E. Du Bois,
A. W. Marshall,
J. H. Romer,
T. R. Westbrook,
C P. Ridenour,
L. Shafer,
J. B. Van Deusen,
Wm. STMr

E. T. Van Nostrand,
M. M. Frisselle,
T. C Brodhead,
C. H. Van Gaasbeck,
E. W. BuDINGTON,
G. D. Crispell,
James 0. Merritt,
A. H. Decker,
J. F. Jennings,
J. D. L. Montante,
Andrew Near,
John D. Sleight,
Henry E. Legg,
P. J. Du Bois, and others.

Kingston, N. Y., Nov. 30th, 1863.
Gentlemen : The discourse of which you ask a copy for publication
was got up at short notice, and somewhat hurriedly ; but, such as it is,
I can not hesitate to yield it to the request, so kindly expressed, of so
many of my most respected fellow-townsmen. Very faithfully yours, John Lillie.
To Rev. Messrs. McKown, Peck, Collier, Romer, Stm ; C. P. Ridenour,
J. 0. Merritt, P. J. Du Bois, Esquires ; Hon. T. R. Westbrook ;
Drs., Finch, Van Deusen, Shafer, Frisselle, Crispell ; &c.

THE PRESIDENT'S PROCLAMATION.

The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of
fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly en
joyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have
been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature that they can not fail to pene
trate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful
providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magni
tude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to invite and provoke the aggres
sions of foreign States, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been
maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed
everywhere, except in the theatre of military conflict, while that theatre has been
greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union; The needful
diversion of wealth and strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the na
tional defence has not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship. The axe has en
larged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as
of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Pop
ulation has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the
camp, the siege and the battle-field ; and the country, rejoicing in the conscious
ness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect a continuance of
years with large increase of freedom.
No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out these
great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while deal
ing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.
It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, anil
gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and voice, by the whole American peo
ple. I do, therefore, invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States,
and also those who are at sea, and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to
set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as » day of thanks
giving and prayer to our beneficent Father, who dwelleth in the heavens. And I
recommend to them that, while offering up the ascriptions justly due to him for
such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for
our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those
who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil
strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition
of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation, and to restore it, as soon
as may be consistent with the Divine purpose, to the full enjoyment of peace, har
mony, tranquillity, and union.
In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the
United States to be affixed. Done at the City of Washington, this third day of
October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and
of the independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.
By the President : ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
William H. Seward, Secretary of State.

DISCOURSE.

Psalm 107 : 8.
" Oh that men would praise the Lord for His goodness, and for His
wonderful works to the children of men !"
The inspired song which has this morning been
read in your hearing, and of which the text may
be said to' form the chorus or burden, affords a
beautiful specimen of the disposition of a pious
mind to discover the presence and agency of Grod
throughout the entire range of human affairs, as
well as in the operation and results of natural
laws. It at the same time breathes the very spirit
of gratitude and love, which every manifestation of
the Creator's goodness ought to excite in His in
telligent and moral offspring. " His tender mercies
are over all His works ;" but it is " the kindness and
good-will of Grod our Saviour toward man" that is here
celebrated with such rapturous and reiterated praise.
Various scenes of suffering and danger are portrayed
to the imagination in a style of simple grandeur and
unadorned sublimity peculiar to the sacred writers.
The privations of the pilgrim, the sorrows of the
captive, the restless languor of the diseased, the dis
may of the tempest-tossed mariner, are brought suc
cessively before us. We look on, and witness with
unavailing pity the distresses of our brethren, until

r"

DISCOTJKSE.

at last the sharp crisis comes, and vain is the help
of man. At that moment the eye of faith pene
trates the gloom. The cry is heard for mercy.. The
merciful heavens are moved with sympathy, and that
Hand which sustains the universe is extended through
clouds and darkness for the relief of human woe. The
way-worn traveller now rests secure in a city of habi
tation ; the slave stands erect on his broken fetters ;
the depression of sickness is succeeded by the buoy
ancy of health ; and the cheerful seaman rejoices on
the waters of his native land. And now shall the
great Deliverer be forgotten? Or shall not they
rather, whom His compassions redeemed, sacrifice to
the praise and honor and glory of His name the
sacrifices of thanksgiving?
It is altogether probable that in some at least of
the examples adduced, as illustrations of the
Divine benignity and power to save, the Psalmist
had a particular reference to the eventful history of
the Jewish nation; and that, in answering the fre
quent and earnest appeal, the ancient Church ex
tolled, not merely the general philanthropy of Grod,
but also His peculiar favor to the people whom He
had chosen. Let us, my hearers, in like manner, in
fulfilling the sacred and joyful purpose for which
this day is, by public authority, set apart — " in prais
ing the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonder
ful works to the children of men " — in the first place
declare the mighty acts of His love to the universal
family of our race, and then record His special dis
pensations toward these United States of America
during the past year.
I. 1. "Oh come, then, let us worship and bow
down ; let us kneel before the Lord ow Maker. For

DISCOURSE.

He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture
and the sheep of His hand." Let us praise Him for
our creation — " Pie made us, and not we ourselves " —
and for the distinguished place Pie has assigned us
amongst His works. The light had dawned upon
the face of the deep; the firmament was spread out
on high ; the dry land arose, and was clad in green ;
young Ocean began to utter his voice, and sway his
billows to the breeze; the earth and the waters
brought forth abundantly every living creature after
his kind, and, above them both, the unnumbered
and yet nameless tribes of the air tried their wings
in the open firmament of heaven ; the sun, moon,
and stars were ordained, and shed a material glory
on the universe; — in a word, a magnificent dwell
ing had been reared; but where was the inhabi
tant? The holy angels, the eldest of the sons of
God, had been spectators of the work as it ad
vanced, and they now waited in mute suspense for
the development of the Almighty's plan, when Man
walked abroad in the image of his Maker, subjected
the inferior creatures to his authority, and bowed in
adoration before the eternal throne. " O Lord, our
Lord, Thou hast made him a little lower than the
angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor.
Thou madest him to have dominion over the works
of Thy hands; Thou hast put all things under his
feet; all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the
field, the fowls of the air, and the fish of the sea,
and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the
seas. O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Thy name
in all the earth!"
2. In the second place, let us praise Him for pre
serving the race when it had sinned.
This truly was another of the wonderful works

DISCOtTESE.

of God. The fallen spirits, who for their disobe
dience had been cast out from the communion of
happiness and hope into outer darkness and perpet
ual exile, wondered, you may be sure, when they
beheld the first symptoms of the Divine forbearance ;
when they felt that their malignity and revenge
might yet be disappointed of their aim; when they
saw the descending curse suspended, and inferred
from the accents of the Judge, that, as the trans
gressor for the present had been spared, he might
also, through the intervention of " one greater Man,"
be restored to the favor of his God. The sun was
not turned into darkness, nor the moon into blood,
neither did the stars withdraw their shining. The
energy of offended justice, it is true, did frequently
break forth, as from restraint, on those who, " de
spising the riches of the goodness, and forbearance,
and long-suffering of God," wearied heaven with
their crimes, and drew from His hand a premature
vengeance. But let it be observed that the most
appalling displays of wrath were still accompanied
by some token for good. When the waters of the
deluge were preparing, Noah entered into the ark,
and when the overwhelming flood had subsided,
and the sun again ^appeared, the bow was set in the
cloud as the sign of hope to man. And so it was
many ages after; — the cities of the plain perished
in the breath of the -Almighty, but Lot escaped to
the mountain. Seed-time and harvest, cold and
heat, summer and winter, day and night have not
ceased. The sun continues to rise on the evil and
on the good, and the rain to descend on the just
and on the unjust. " O Lord, Thou preservest man
and beast." "Oh that men would praise the Lord

DisGOtrjp^B, 9
for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to
the children of men ! "
3. In the third place, let- us praise Him for the
restraints and for the bounties of His providence.
What, if the evil passions of the human heart
were left to rage uncontrolled ! The race itseK
would be extinguished, and man's dwelling-place be
known only as his sepulchre. But our God, who
" set the sea His decree, that the waters should not
pass His commandment, and said, Hitherto shalt
thou come, and no farther, and here shall thy proud
waves be staid " — He also stilleth the tumult of
the people, making even the wrath of man to praise
Him, and restraining the remainder of wrath. When
the tyrants and heroes of the world — an Alexander
and a Nero, a Tamerlane and a Napoleon — have
unconsciously executed their several commissions, the
angel of death meets them on their way, quenches
their mighty malice, and in that very hour their
thoughts perish. The nations again have rest, and
the labors and rewards of peaceful industry obliter.
ate the footsteps of horrid war. " He maketh wars
to cease to the ends of the earth."
And then, my hearers, when we reflect on the
multitudinous forms of sin that pollute the earth —
on what is summed up in that one terrible phrase
of Scripture, " all ungodliness and unrighteousness
of men" — methinks, we ought to find it a strong
motive for thanksgiving that all our springs of com
fort are not poisoned ; that the complicated mechan
ism of the human body is not applied to the pro
duction of the most exquisite torture ; and that men
do not live and die terrors to themselves and to
one another. Oh what, then, should be our grati
tude that the pleasurable sensations of life do so far

10 DISCOTJKSE.
outnumber the painful, and that day after day, year
after year, generation after generation, we are per
mitted to draw such abundant supplies from the
storehouse of the Divine liberality? All nature still
ministers to the wants of God's rebellious child.
" He sendeth the springs into the valleys, which run
among the hills. He watereth the hills from His
chambers : the earth is satisfied with the fruit of
Thy works. He causeth the grass to grow for the
cattle, and herb for the service of man, that He may
brino- forth food out of the earth. Thou visitest
the earth and waterest it ; Thou greatly enrichest it
with the river of God, which is full of water ; Thou
preparest them corn, when Thou hast so provided for
it ; Thou waterest the ridges thereof abundantly ;
Thou .settlest the furrows thereof ; Thou makest it
soft with showers; thou blessest the springing there
of ; Thou crownest the year with Thy goodness, and
Thy paths drop fatness. They drop upon the pas
tures of the wilderness, and the little hills rejoice
on every side; the pastures are clothed with flocks;
the valleys also are covered over with corn; they
shout for joy; they also sing."
Or when was there ever a sermon on providence,
equal to that preached by Him who spake as never
man spake? "I say unto you, Take no thought
for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall
drink ; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on.
Is not the life more than meat, and the body than
raiment ? Behold the fowls of the air : for they sow
not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns;
yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye
not ' much better than they ? Which of you by
taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider

•DISCOURSE. 11
the lilies of the field, how they grow ; they toil not,
neither do they spin : and yet I say unto you, that
even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like
one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass
of the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast
into the oven, shall He not much more clothe you,
O ye little of faith? Therefore take no thought."
" Oh that men would praise the Lord for His
goodness, and for His wonderful works to the child
ren of men !" Yea, " blessed be the Lord who daily
loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our sal
vation." — Which reminds us that
4. We are to praise Him, lastly, for the blessings of
redemption. Behold the greatest of all the works of God — the
work of saving mercy to man ! This, dear hearers, is
by far the strongest appeal that we can now, or at any
time, make to your gratitude. " Plerein is love." " God
commendef h his love toward us in that, while we were
yet sinners, Ghrist died for us." The gifts of our
Creator and Preserver are not confined to the present
life. He has made provision for our happiness com
mensurate with our immortal existence. He " spared
not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all," and
" eternal life " is now preeminently "the gift of God " —
preeminently God's " free gift." What are all other
blessings but the appendages and accompaniments of
redeeming love? Or in the Apostle's words: "How
shall He not with Him also freely give us all things ?"
This, therefore, is that wonderful work of goodness
which chiefly demands our praises this day, as it will
be celebrated with loudest anthems in heaven forever.
Oh let not our enthusiasm be more easily excited and
sustained by the objects of earthly good than by the
prospect of a glory that fadeth not away. "What

12 DI9C0UESE.
shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world, and
lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in ex
change for his soul ?"
H. But now, with these general remarks on the ways
of God to man,, we may be allowed next to glance at
His special dealings with this country in particular
during the past year. And here, I suppose, we shall
not need to go beyond the text that- has been furnished
us by the President himself.
1. He speaks, you recollect, of "the blessings of
fruitful fields and healthful skies." And true it is, and
it is something that may well claim our devout and
thankful acknowledgments, that, all through this time
of national convulsion and unparalleled civil war, we
have enjoyed, along with exemption from the visit
ations of pestilence, a plenty, nay, a redundance of the
necessaries, and comforts, and even luxuries of life, such
as is nowhere else so generally possessed by any nation
under heaven. Indeed, the business of the country, in
all branches of its agricultural and manufacturing in
terests, and excepting only what pertains to its mercan
tile marine, seems rather to have been stimulated than
deadened by this amazing struggle for the national de
fence ; and the exuberant prosperity thence resulting,
as it has sadly disappointed the enemies of our Union,
both at home and abroad, has been scarcely less a sur
prise and a puzzle to ourselves. While we have been
bent on raising and equipping armies of almost unex
ampled magnitude, the white wagons and tents of the
peaceful, hardy pioneers of civilization and empire have
been just as busy in spreading themselves abroad over
our Western prairies and into the depths of our forest
wildernesses, and still the ceaseless, swiftly-running
waves of immigration from the eastern world break

DISCOURSE. 13
with an ever-augmenting volume on our shores. Every
where the great popular heart holds fast unwavering
its faith in the future of the United States of America.
2. And here also, as I believe, may be found the
best explanation of a fact, in which the President would
have us recognize another topic of congratulation and
thankfulness — the fact, namely, that " in the midst of a
civil war, which has sometimes seemed to invite and pro
voke the aggressions of foreign states, peace has been
preserved with all nations." Certainly there have not
been wanting numerous and powerful influences, that
might naturally enough have produced a rupture ; — such
as the selfish ambition and jealous apprehensions of
imperial and aristocratic governments ; the sudden de
rangement of foreign trade, and the consequent suf
ferings of the laboring class ; the malignant industry of
journalists as talented as they are unprincipled; the
plausible arts of Southern emissaries ; the unexpected
continuance of the conflict itself, and the too frequent
reverses sustained by the North. But all these things
combined have failed, signally failed, to satisfy the
masses of Europe of the fairness, justice, or wisdom of
any interference of theirs in this great quarrel. And
here too, doubtless, be our estimate of our own
strength and prowess what it may, the intelligent and
the devout will reverently discern His presence and
favor, in whose eontrol are the hearts alike of individ
uals and of nations.
3. Equally encouraging is it, as a gracious token that
" the most High God, while dealing with us in anger
for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy,"
that in all the loyal States, with one or two deplor
able exceptions — which, however, on account of their
limited and transient character, it was not deemed
necessary on such an occasion to specify — "order has

14 DISCOURSE.
been maintained, the laws have been respected and
obeyed, and harmony prevailed everywhere." In the
midst of war's alarms and the conflicts of party, and
the. anxieties of many hearts, that sweet promise has
been wonderfully fulfilled to us all : " I will cause them
to dwell safely."
4. The many glorious military successes that have
signalized the year now closing, I shall not undertake
to recount. They are already well known to you ; in
cluding that one, of which, with the singular timeliness
that has so often marked the events of this war, intelli
gence has only just now reached us on the wings of the
lightning — to wit, that Grant yesterday routed Bragg,
capturing some ten thousand prisoners and fifty cannon.
The result of all is, as the President expresses it,
"the great contraction of the theatre of military con
flict by the advancing armies and navies of the Union."
I have seen it stated that more than one million square
miles of territory have thus been " repossessed " by the
government. Indeed, there is not to-day, even within
those contracted limits, a single State on whose soil
the gleaming standard of the nation may not be seen„
bearing in its starry folds the promise of speedy deliv
erance to oppressed loyalty, and the warning of coming
doom to armed and impenitent treason. Let us hope
that neither the promise nor the warning shall fail.
So far as I can read and interpret the indications of the
public feeling and purpose, on no one point are all
sorts and conditions of men among us so united and
resolute as on this ; that, unless a just God shall have
determined otherwise — and let His blessed will be
done! — our " advancing armies and navies" shall con
tinue to advance till this most causeless, most wicked,,
cruel, hell-hatched rebellion shall not merely be driven.

DISCOURSE.

15

to its " last ditch," but perish and be buried there out
of sight of heaven and earth forever.
5. And what then shall follow ?. For you may have
observed that our President, with the true American
instinct of anticipation — looking rather before than
after — tells us finally, as an additional incitement to
gratitude and praise, what the country is now " per
mitted to expect." And what is that, think you?
" The Union as it was ?" Vain dream ! Idlest of idle
phrases ! I confess, I have not always been able to
feel as sanguine as perhaps the most of you do, with
regard to the course and issue of a struggle, of which
the best justification is that it was, as the President
truly says, "unavoidable." But of one thing, my
hearers, you will allow me to say — for, pressed as I
have been into this service, I must speak as I think
and feel — of one thing I am confident enough, that our
eyes shall never more look on " the Union as it was."
" The Union as it was " is a thing of the past — I be
lieve, as irrevocably so as the days of colonial depend
ence. You may call as many party conventions, as
many State conventions, as many national conventions,
as you please, and pass ever so many coaxing and ever
so many threatening resolutions — you will make no
further progress toward restoring "the Union as it
was," than if you should attempt by these highly re
spectable means to raise the dead. And for that too
I thank God.
I speak not of the first heroic age of the Republic,
or of the subsequent period during which the principles
of that age still maintained their sway. I speak of the
Union as I have had some occasion to know it for
nearly thirty years ; and I think I shall say nothing
more than I can find witness for in your own con
sciences, if I say, that in that Union the foulest system

16 DISCOURSE.
of oppression that the sun ever looked upon dom
ineered in Church and States and, society, and that at the
North scarcely less than at the South, poisoning all the
fountains of life and government — trammelling and de
basing every political party — corrupting our merchants
and manufacturers and young men, and all the while
muzzling both pulpit and press, till it had come to be
almost universally regarded as one of the very best
criterions of a man's prudence, and fitness for honorable
station in any sphere of life, that, if he could not fully
and openly sympathize with the transcendent wicked
ness, he should at least not have much difficulty — and
the less the better — in holding his tongue about it.
Or, if he broke silence at all, it must be in denouncing
the madness of* the Abolitionists and the heresy of the
higher law ; whereas at one time these were really the
only signs left to us, that on this subject the national
conscience was not dead. No ; there was one other
such sign given in the growing toleration of a bastard,
infidel philosophy, with its sham proofs that the negro
was rather a monkey than a man. The establishment
of that point, it did seem still to be felt, was necessary,
as Montesquieu long ago suggested,* to our own repu
tation. The President calls for "humble penitence for our
national perverseness and disobedience," and it is well
that, in approaching the throne of the eternal justice
and mercy with our songs of thankfulness, we should
not seem to hide our eyes from our past shame. Rather
let the distinct remembrance of it deepen our gratitude
for " our singular deliverances and blessings," and that
for the future we are "permitted to expect " something
better than the past. Says the President: "The
* De I'JEsprii des Loix, xv. B.

DISCOURSE. 17
country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented
strength and vigor, is permitted to expect a continu
ance of years, with large increase of freedom?
Not, however, that this is altogether a matter of ex
pectation even now. Already the nation's hearthstone,
so to speak, has been cleansed from the pollution of
slavery; and never more shall the slave-coffle, as it
winds round the base of Capitol Hill, lift its manacled
hands, and sing, " Hail, Columbia," in the faces of Con
gressmen. Already is the magnificent domain of our
territories guaranteed against the infection of this pesti
lence. Already we have got nearly over our squeam-
ishness — not quite, perhaps, but nearly so — about
allowing the black man the liberty of dying for his
country. Already hundreds of thousands of such have
made good their right to a " large increase of freedom."
Already — Oh the marvellous retributions of provi-
. dence! — already these dark sons of bondage are becom
ing the lords of South Carolina soil, and cotton planters
in their own right. And — mightiest fact of all ! how
ever some may try hard to laugh about it — already has
the President of the United States of America pro
claimed in the hearing of God and man — and it will
never be forgotten by either — liberty throughout all
the land to millions of our countrymen in chains.
I, for one, not only willingly believe — I do earnestly
hope and pray — that the arms and the authority, the
generosity and the sense of honor, yea, . and the very
necessities of the nation, may concur to render every
where effectual that great ordinance of freedom. Pre
cisely this, I suppose — this at least — is what the
President was thinking of, when he penned his signifi-

DISCOURSE.

cant intimation of what the country is permitted still
to expect as the result of this national earthquake.
But to conclude : — After enumerating the mercies
which we have thus reviewed, the Proclamation rever
ently adds : " No human counsel hath devised, nor hath
any mortal hand worked out these great things." And
in the words of the Psalmist also it is plainly enough
implied that man, the object of all this Divine compas
sion and favor, is but too much disposed to forget his
Almighty Benefactor, and rob Him of the honor due
unto His name. May this great people now have grace
to walk softly before the Lord. There is nothing more
offensive in His sight, in the character of an individual
or a nation, than the presumption of a profane and irre
ligious self-reliance. It was this which cast Adam out
of Paradise, and expelled Satan from before the throne.
Let us be warned by their example and their fate. Let
us consult the records of other lands and ancient times,
and we shall see that those nations which have been
the most highly favored of heaven have ever been the
mightiest in their sins, and the most fearful in their
fall ; yes, and that the very people who had been se
lected as God's peculiar inheritance, and whose history
in so many points resembled your own— that people,
rescued from bondage, conducted through the floods^
fed in the wilderness, protected in battle, and finally
established in the land of freedom and abundance, yet
provoked the Most High to anger with their inventions
and, having succeeded at length in exhausting the
period of His forbearance, and in filling up to over
flowing the measure of their iniquities, were scattered
and sifted by the storms of wrath over the whole
earth.

DISCOURSE. 19
My hearers, " these things happened unto them
for ensamples, and are written for our learning, upon
whom the ends of the world are come." May God in
His mercy avert the danger ! May the righteousness
which exalteth a nation be ours ! And then, in the
language of the immortal patriot of the English Com
monwealth, then " shall this great and warlike nation,
instructed and inured to the fervent and continual
practice of truth and righteousness, and casting far
from her the rags of her old vices, press on hard to that
high and happy emulation, to be found the soberest,
wisest, and mqst Christian people at that day, when
Thou, the eternal and shortly expected King, shalt open
the clouds to judge the several kingdoms of the world,
and, distributing national honors and rewards to re
ligious and just commonwealths, shalt put an end to
all earthly tyrannies ; proclaiming Thy universal and
mild monarchy through heaven and earth." * Which
may the Lord hasten in his time !
Then shall the spirit of the world be subject to the
spirit of Jesus Christ. Mammon will yield his usurped
throne. The demons of intemperance* and licentious
ness will disappear from all their impure haunts. And
then too, you maybe well assured, when that era — may
it be early, may it be lasting ! — of this nation's glory
arrives, the hand of a wise patriotism will have
thoroughly wiped from our country's banner that one
dark, dark spot, which so long has given your enemies
but too just occasion to speak reproachfully, and
made America's best friends in other lands to mourn.
Then, indeed, but not till then, will the Genius of
America accomplish the noble mission on which, as we
* Milton, Of Reformation in England.

20 DISCOURSE.
are fain to hope, high Heaven has sent her ; and she
will stand forth in the clear light of truth and love
and with the voices of all her stars around her, the
instructress of the world in the lessons of human
brotherhood and a saving Gospel.