PROVIDENCE OF GOD. 187 Many of these purposes very soon were unveiled. We all have seen the necessity of the defeat of the Union army at Bull Run, and other reverses in the early part of the conflict, and know that without them no lasting peace could have been attained. This subject opens a wide and fruitful field for most interesting investigation, which will doubtless hereafter be traversed by some one capable of the task. Let us notice a few evidences of God's providence: 1. All Christian men of thought and intelligence knew that God would destroy slavery. For seventy years this prophecy was reiterated in every part of the Christian world. How he would do it none could tell. When that institution had attained the very summit of its insolent pride and its triumphant influence, and seemed intrenched in impregnable power, it suddenly fell. 2. When God had prepared his instrument, and was moving him forward to do his work, how poor and inadequate that instrument ap. peared! Rebeldom laughed aloud in derision. "Ape," "idiot," "buffoon," "imbecile," were epithets that came from every rebel chief, as the sad, self-distrustful embassador of God's justice advanced to the seat of Government. The wise heads of Europe were shaken in utter distrust of the "ignorant backwoods attorney." Patriotic hearts failed as their anxious eyes detected supposed evidences of vascillation and fear. As time progressed and events crowded fast, conviction and surprise took the place of distrust, and the London Times exclaimed, "That ignorant pilot may yet blunder into port." There was no blundering about it; God makes no mistakes. 3. The work of deliverance was long in preparation. While the slave-mother was bewailing her stolen offspring, while the whip whistled in its swift descent upon the quivering back, while the coffe plodded its sorrowful way, the energies for reprieve and retribution were gathering strength. A tough, elastic physical constitution was required for the emancipator; a weakling would have failed. It was prepared in the Western clearing, and tested by wrestling with the trees of the forest. Prudence and caution were requisite; inconsiderate or passionate rashness would have ruined the cause. High moral qualities were indispensable-incorruptible integrity, per PROVIDENCE OF GOD. 189 severance, hopefulness, intense hatred of injustice, and delicate regard for human rights, humility, moral courage, and endurance-inflexible firmness for principle-and, as a sheet-anchor, childlike confidence in God. These were furnished forth from a backwoods cabin, molded by an unknown and illiterate Christian mother, disciplined by the hardships and vicissitudes of toilsome pioneer life, led by gradual steps of promotion into power, and brought into requisition at the exact time when needed. Mr. Lincoln's first nomination for the Presidency was seemingly the result of accident, and against the probabilities as understood by his supporters. This and all the other events of his rise and progress in life, when viewed in the light of God's purpose to destroy slavery, exhibit design, and the most exact adaptation of the means to the end in view. The preparation of the work is equally obvious to us now. The aggressions of the slave power, the defeat of the antislavery candidate four years before, when his success would have precipitated the conflict before either the people or the leader were prepared for the work-even the bountiful harvests poured upon us during the great struggle, when our barns and store-houses were crowded to overflowing with the lavish gifts of God's providence. The combination of the "blunders" and "accidents" of the war, in the establishment of union, liberty, and justice, is referred to by the New York Herald as something strange and inexplicable in history. In an issue in March, 1867, that irreligious paper says: "It is curious to note how the accidents of the war and the blunders of opposing politicians have assisted in the work of this great political revolution. A decisive defeat of the rebels at the first Bull Run fight might have saved Southern slavery in the collapse of the Jeff. Davis confederacy. Had McClellan succeeded at Richmond, there would most likely have been no Emancipation Proclamation from President Lincoln. Had Andrew Johnson, when called to take his place, convened Congress for the legislative work of Southern reconstruction instead of undertaking it himself, the States concerned would doubtless have been restored upon a half-way compromise on negro suffrage. Had those States followed the example of Tennessee, they would now be in Congress on the same terms. Had the Democrats in the House voted for this last bill as it came from the Senate, they would have secured to the leading rebels the privilege, now denied them, of assisting in THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD. 191 rebuilding their respective States. As our failures in the war in defense of slavery brought about the extirpation of slavery, so all our failures in half-way plans of restoration have worked out a full and decisive settlement on the basis of civil and political equality." "Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee." The demonstration of God's providence afforded by the facts of our history are a source of great joy and encouragement to every Christian patriot. We may labor on in the cause of liberty and human brotherhood-in the whole cause of Christ, with the perfect assurance that the very machinations and inventions of the devil and of oppressors will be made by the great Ruler to work with and for us. With such evidences of God's aid, despondency is sin, discouragement is doubt of God's faithfulness. |