that the shock of battle, the thunder of artillery, and the bloodstained ground, may signal the pathway over which those Stars and Stripes shall move; but they shall move from the Potomac to the Gulf. I do not despair of the Republic! In the darkest days of ancient Rome, when Hannibal, with his Carthaginian legions, had slain her Consuls and routed her last army on the bloody field of Canna, and was thundering at her gates-at that time the Roman Questor sold in the Forum, at public auction, and at high price, the very spot of ground outside the walls on which the conqueror was encamped. So, my countrymen, let us look with hope beyond the present tumult and distress. Let us have faith in our glorious Union to stand the shocks of revolution, and let us move with firm and cheerful confidence towards the future of our history.

I have spoken of that courage which our times demands, and which will enable us to play the men for our people, as something more than a mere spirit of bravery and contempt of danger. It is a noble moral sentiment. In its highest form it is fidelity to God and humble dependence upon his arm. Would we then put on our armor in this hour of danger, with such a courage, we need most of all to behold God's uplifted hand in these dangers, to confess with penitence our sins, to entreat his pardoning mercy, and to supplicate his blessing. God, the most High, is dealing in judgment with us for our iniquities as a people. We have provoked Jehovah to jealousy, and he has turned his face away from us in anger.

I need not refer at this time to the vices and crimes practiced in all our communities-vices for which the individual is alone responsible for it is more appropriate for me to speak of those public sins which are justly chargeable to us as a people. It is fearfully true that in our national and political life, we have persistently disregarded the Lord our God. How has corruption long grown rank in our high places! How have truth and righteousness become so far banished from the arena of politics, that the conscientious Christian man, who fears his God, and will not descend to the falsehood and artifice and low demagogueism of party; nor buy men's votes with money, as one would cattle in the market-place-such a man is well nigh ostracized from public office. Public virtue has been debauched. Who does not know that bribery, wholesale peculation, perjury and punic faith, are familiar words every day charged upon multitudes in public life? Who seeks to conceal the fact that men reeking in vice have been promoted to our halls of legislation, or have been chosen to places upon the benches of justice? Oh! does not truth compel me to declare, that drunkenness, debauchery, gambling, Sabbathbreaking, spoliation and kindred crimes, have blackened the characters of too many men who have received the suffrages of the

people? And tell me, are the people guiltless, while such things are patent and known to all? While there is a God in heaven, shall a people expect to go on thus and escape his severest judg ments? Shall not I visit for these things?" saith the Lord Almighty. While quietness and security reigned, the public conscience slumbered. But it can not slumber now, for the visitations of divine displeasure are now upon us; our long security is disturbed, the tide of national prosperity has been checked, and we are tossed to-day amidst the heavings of revolution. Oh! is not the voice of God lifted up above the tumult to-day, calling us to repentance? What duty is more imperative at this hour, than for us to come before our God with true humility, to confess our grievous sins with unfeigned contrition, and entreat him to return to us with his favor and forgiveness? Say not, that it will dampen our courage to bow before our God. It is guilt that will make cowards of us all; and that burden must be taken away, if we would play the men for our people and the cities of our God. In all the troubles of the times, I hear the voice of God calling for a reformation among us. Repent, ye people, if ye would escape his severer strokes. Ye who know how to pray should wait earnestly at the throne of grace, that Jehovah would forgive and save us. In ancient times, when the war-note rang through the tribes of Israel, the people flocked to Shiloh to ask counsel of Jehovah, before they set the battle in array against the foe.

Let us to-day imitate their example! Let us be assured that no better preparation for the present crisis can be secured than for our people to come with humble prayer before him-to confess our sins and commit our country's cause to his almighty care. This done, we can take the field against rebellion, and in the name of the Lord set up our banner.

Again. If we would be of good courage, it is of the highest importance that we clearly understand and deeply feel the righteousness of the cause for which we struggle. In this land we take up arms as freemen. We do not muster as the blind myrmidons of a despot, or as the unthinking, irresponsible machines of which armies have been so often composed.

Our people in this land see and feel the momentousness of the issue, and can appeal to the God of holiness for the justice of their cause. It is nothing less than the very existence of our nation, as a nation. It is the question whether we are or are not a mere assemblage of peoples without a national life or unity. It is the question, whether, for nearly a century, we have been playing a stupendous farce before the world, and living and acting under the miserable delusion that we were a nation, bound together by one supreme organic law, while we were merely a copartnership of communities, each independent of the other. It comes to this according to the fatal heresy behind which treason skulks to-day.

To ad

The doctrine of Southern secession is national suicide. mit it to allow States to leave the Federal Union on that basisis to proclaim the jubilee of anarchy, the millennium of barbarism. This every man sees and feels. The premises and the conclusion are near together-so near that no keen dialectics or profound investigations are needed to discover them. The masses see them; they understand them.

I do not wonder that before such a question as this, all other issues sink out of sight, like lead in the ocean's depths. I do not see how the madness and infatuation of those who have rebelled against the Government could be exhibited in a more glaring manner, than in this extreme form in which they have chosen to stake the controversy. On all the old issues they could ask us to come and reason together. On all those questions arising out of and connected with the institution of slavery-its rights under the Constitution-how and where it might seek for extension in the territories, and what should be the policy of the Federal Government towards it-on all such questions the South might claim a hearing, and rely upon friends in the North to speak for them.

But now the scene is changed. Without waiting for a single hostile act, on the part of the Government, against their rights, they have bid defiance to the Constitution. They have declared, by their acts, that we are not a nation and never have been. They have fired upon our flag. If ever war was justifiable-if ever a nation could stand uncovered before the God of battles and appeal to his almighty arm to give victory to the right, then I solemnly believe that we may, in this hour, challenge heaven upon our side. Our Revolutionary sires fought for a holy cause, but ours is holier. Had they failed in their long struggle for independence, they still might have returned to their loyalty, and as colonies of the Mother Country, advanced in wealth and

power.

But if we fail in sustaining our Federal Union now, while rebels are in arms to overthrow it, where can we go? What will be these States, but lost Pleiades-plunging into chaos and night? For us to fail in this tremendous crisis is national death and social anarchy. Never! no, never can this nation make terms with this rebellion. All see this fact. All party-lines are obliterated here, and the millions of the North stand in solid phalanx and appeal to the Almighty for the righteousness of their cause. The cause is one which every patriot can feel it worth while to die for. It is one which every Christian can plead for, before his Redeemer and his God. It is one which every minister of Jesus Christ can carry with him to the pulpit, and advocate it with the same voice with which he proclaims the wonders of redemption. Viewing this to be the position of our people in this crisis, may we not say with a noble enthusiasm: "Be of good courage, and let us play the men for our people and for the cities of our God?"

Again. To the deep conviction of the equity of our cause, I may add that the duty of our people in unsheathing the sword, is strengthened by the kind forbearance of the Federal Government, under the most persistent provocations. For months the note of rebellion has rung through the South. Federal forts, arsenals, custom-houses, and treasures, have been seized by violence. Government officials have been driven from their posts. The su preme law of the land has been defied, and a rival Confederacy has arrogated its legitimate authority.

But during all these events, the Federal Government refrained from striking a blow. The nation watched with patience the progress of events, and hoped for a peaceful settlement of the controversy; but the only effect of this peaceful policy has been to embolden our adversaries and to provoke assault. Our inaction was called weakness; our deep reluctance to war was construed into cowardice-our forbearance into fear. At length all disguise was thrown off, and the work of civil war inaugurated at Charleston, where thousands of chivalrous foes opened their rebel batteries upon the walls of Sumter, defended by seventy brave men; till after two days incessant fire, the flag of our Union was lowered before its enemies.

Until that time the mighty North refused to move. Not a spear or shield was seen among her tribes; but the tidings of that assault dissipated all hopes of peace. The deep bomb of those guns in Charleston harbor has reverberated among the granite hills of New-Hampshire, along the shores of the great Lakes, beyond the Mississippi, across the broad prairies of the West, and their echoes linger still among our Northern mountains, calling freemen to the field. Henceforth forbearance became impossible. The Chief Magistrate of the Nation issued his proclamation for men, and the people are now in arms.

No calm observer of the progress of events can say that we have been hasty and eager for the fray. The freemen of the North are not thirsting for blood. I know of no one who prefers war to peace. All would have rejoiced to have escaped the conflict, but it has come; and with stern, inexorable purpose, the people have risen in their might, and have sworn to defend this Government with their treasures and their lives! Our armies are mustering to the field. We stand to-day face to face with the grim and solemn reality-WAR!

What are the particular duties which this crisis urges upon us? First, The people are bound to answer promptly to the call for men. Mere loquacious patriotism is not what is wanted in this hour. Let those who are of suitable age and able to bear arms, enter their names upon the muster-roll. Let none refuse, without a reason which they will not be ashamed to give. Let the response be so universal that the question to be settled will be not

who shall go, but who will stay at home? I believe it will be so throughout our States. Let not our city be behind others in furnishing her quota of true men.

Secondly, We must be prepared to sustain the most vigorous policy of the Government, and second the most thorough and extended plans of operation. If we would save the effusion of blood, if we would shorten the fearful struggle, if we would conquer an enduring peace, we must smite this rebellion with a giant arm! No half-way measures will suffice. No feeble treatment will cure the malignant cancer. Surgery! terrible surgery is demanded to cut deep around its roots, and probe it to the bottom. This is not cruelty but kindness. Philanthropy demands it--patriotism and liberty demand it. Now is the time to settle the great questions of national rights and constitutional freedom, within this Union, in such a way that the grim specters of Secession and Treason shall not rise upon our graves, and shake their marrowless bones and gory locks in the faces of our posterity.

Thirdly, It is our immediate duty to provide liberally for the wants of the families of those who have gone to fight our battles. Such families have a noble claim upon us which we must cheerfully acknowledge. The soldier in his distant encampment, when he thinks of home, must be told to feel, that while he is bivouacing around his camp-fires, his wife and little ones far away, are not forgotten, but kind eyes and friendly hands are watching over them. Our contributions should be free and liberal for this purpose. Our Volunteer Relief Committees should be furnished with the means to supply the wants of every soldier's household. No Peter's pence collection should be the measure of our patriotism; but according to our individual means, let us be ready for every appeal for help.

Fourthly, As Christian men, having done all to stand and play the men for our people, let us be constant and earnest in our supplications, that the God of justice and of might will give victory to our cause. While we send forth our sons and brethren to the field, let our prayers and benedictions daily follow them. Let us not boast too much of our physical prowess, or our material resources; for the race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong. In God alone is our help, in this hour of trial; and while we salute our flag and cheer on our noble volunteers, let us, after all, turn to the Lord our God, who is our Sun and our Shield. The deeper our convictions are, of the righteousness of our cause, thr more earnestly and boldly should we carry it in our hearts to God.

Pray then for our brethren already in arms. They have gone from our cities, towns, and villages. Some from our own community, some from this very sanctuary, at the first call of duty and of danger. They have gone to defend the Union and the