tlrchitg of a Christian riti>m in tlie pwsentmsis of our nnmfnj.

A DISCOURSE

DELIVERED IN THE COLLEGE STREET CHURCH,

NEW HAVEN,

SABBATH MORNING, DECEMBEJL9, I860,

AND HEPEATED IN THE SAME PLACE
SABBATH EVENING-, DEC. 33, 18SO.
BY EDWARD STRONG,
PASTOR OF THE CHURCH.

NEW HAVEN:
PUBLISHED BY S. H. ELLIOT.
J. H. BEN HAM, PRINTER.
1860.

%l4

% toft of a Christian ritijm in % jpunt rasis of am tamtx%.

DISCOURSE
DELIVERED IN THE COLLEGE STREET CHURCH,
NEW HAVEN,

SABBATH MORNING, DECEMBERu9, I860,
AND REPEATED IN THE SAME PLACE
SABBATH EVENING, DEC. 33, 1S60.
BY EDWARD STRONG,
PASTOR OF THE CHURCH.

NEW HAVEN:
PUBLISHED BY S. H. ELLIOT.
f. S. BENHAM, PRINTER.
1860.

New Haven, December 24, 1860.
Rev. Edward Strong :
Dear Sir : — The undersigned, who had the
pleasure of listening to your Sermon— repeated by request last evening—
on the duty of courage and devotion to country at the present crisis in
our National affairs, believing it well adapted to meet the exigencies of
the times, and worthy of a wide circulation and influence beyond what
your pulpit and the crowded house even, of last evening, can realize,
earnestly desire a copy of it for the press.

Respectfully, yours^
Amos Townsknd,
Everard Benjamin,
O. W. Treadwell,
S. H. Elliot,
John W. Fitch,
Chas. A. Sheldon,
A. W. DeForest,
N. W. Merwin,
J. L. Stout,
Edward Bryan,

N. T. Bushnell,
G. W. Goodsell,
James J. Merwin,
R. P. Oowles,
Jeremiah Wolcott,
S. W. Upson,
Alonzo Converse,
E. R. Darrow,
Andrew Brtan,
W. W. Rodman.

Amos Townsend, Esq., and others : Gentlemen : —
I thank you for your
very kind estimate of my recent Discourse on our National Affairs. And,
although prepared with no unusual elaboration, if in your view it is fit
ted by its publication to be useful in giving a right direction to public
opinion, I cheerfully submit it to your disposal.
Very truly, yours,
EDWARD STRONG.
New Haven, Ct., December 24, 1860.

DISCOURSE

Be or good courage, and let us behave ourselves valiantly for our people,
AND FOR THE CITIES OF OUR GoD : AND LET THE LoRD DO THAT WHICH IS GOOD Df
his sight. — 1 Chron. xix, 13.
The cusjpm of a harangue to an army on the eve of a
battle is, we here see, of very ancient origin. If Washing
ton illustrated it, and Wolfe, Wellington and Napoleon,
(whose eloquent appeal to his soldiers just before the battle
of the Pyramids is one of the finest specimens of spirit-
stirring eloquence in the world,) so did Csesar and Hannibal,
Alexander and Cyrus, Rabshakeh and Joab. The text is
part of Joab's address to his army just before a battle with
the allied armies of Syria and Ammon, before the city of
Medeba, a city seven miles below Heshbon, in the territory
of Reuben, east of the Jordan. He found himself in a po
sition of embarrassment and danger, for, while marching
against the invading army of Ammon, which had sat down
before Medeba, investing that city, the mercenary troops of
Syria, with thirty-two thousand chariots, came down upon
his rear. He was between two fires. There was no alterna
tive but to divide his army, present a front to each foe, and
under this unfortunate disadvantage, fight them both at the
same time. This was accordingly done. Part of the army,
under Abishai, Joab's brother, joined battle with the army of
the Ammonites ; the residue, under Joab himself, as com
mander-in-chief, fought with the Syrians. It was fitting

that for these battles he should wisely dispose his men, and
fire them with the utmost enthusiasm. The right was on
his side. David's embassage, whose maltreatment was
the cause of this war, was an embassage of condolence and
friendly sympathy to Hanun, the new king of Ammon. It
was entitled, therefore, to be received with all the attention
and grateful respect extended by our own people so recently
to the heir apparent of the British throne. But there was a
" Young Ammon" at the court of the son of Nahash, as there
was a " Young Israel" in the time of Absalom, and of Reho-
boam, at whose, ascension to the throne of his father Sol
omon, rash counsels gained an unfortunate ascendancy,
and occasioned the revolt of the ten tribes under Jeroboam,
the son of Nebat. Through the recklessness of this Young
Ammon, (for the young are too often reckless,) the king
was moved to insult, and treat with the utmost personal in
dignity, the friendly ambassadors of David. Foreseeing that
this would exasperate Israel's sovereign, and lead to war,
the Ammonites resolved to strike the first blow, and so, for
tifying themselves by an alliance with the Syrians, those old
enemies of God's people, they at once invaded David's
dominions, precipitating the war. The first battle was about
to commence. The armies were face to face, and Joab ap
pealing to the patriotism and piety of his men. The pros
pect, to human view, was not encouraging. Nay, it was
enough gloomy. On the one side, the Ammonites ; on the
other, the Syrians. What then ? Should Joab retreat or
surrender ? On the contrary, " be of good courage," he ex
claimed, " and let us behave ourselves valiantly for our peo
ple, and for the cities of our God, and let the Lord do that
which is good in his sight." This is bidding them relieve
themselves from their embarrassment, not by flight, not by
negotiation and inglorious concession, but by doing, daring,
enduring, and trusting in God.

5
There is not a little in the present crisis of affairs in our
country which gives appropriateness to the line of thought
into which the text will lead us. The Northern States of this
confederacy, in the advocacy and maintenance of the prin
ciples of Liberty and Righteousness, principles which they
believe to be inherently just, and alone conducive to the
true prosperity of the country — principles which they believe
not only the Bible and humanity, but also the civilization of
the old world demands — find themselves unhappily some
what in the position of Joab and his army.
On the one hand are the communities of the Gulf States,
under the lead of South Carolina, in open hostility to every
interest with which our industry and commerce are specially
identified. They are before us, turbulent and threatening —
in arms, I may say, denying all advance, and denouncing the
North for what it has already uttered and done for the prin
ciples of liberty. These are the Ammonites of our present
position. On the other hand is the industry of our people,
which has become identified largely with those manufactures
whose market is at the South — an industry whose rewards,
nay whose very existence, at first view, may seem to depend
upon the maintenance of friendly relations with the com
munities of the Southern States. Thus the merchants and
manufacturers of the North seem to be under bonds of hun
dreds of thousands, nay millions of dollars, yearly, to think
well, and speak well of Southern institutions, slavery not
excepted ; at least, to say nothing against them, and do
nothing to arrest attempts to extend their peculiar institution
of chattel slavery into the Territories of the Republic, and
the admission of new slave States into the Union. This
money motive is a powerful one. It is mightier than an
army, as their auxiliary, fighting in northern counting-rooms,
northern factories, stores, streets, ay, in northern homes

6
and hearts, on the side of those who defend slavery and seek
to extend it. This money motive, appealing to our manu
facturers and business men generally, is the army of merce
nary Syrians coming down upon our rear, while we advance
to resist those who invade our Southern commonwealths, or
rise up to propagate disunion and revolution there.
As with Joab, so with us. Our faces must be turned
against both these sources of danger. We are patriots ; we
love the whole country, the North and the South ; we love
the Union, and would preserve it, provided this can be done '
without surrendering the great principles of humanity,
liberty and religion. Better secession and disunion than the
surrender of these principles. Therefore, when we consider
the pressure and power of the money motive, of appeals to
the pecuniary interests of our merchants and manufacturers,
and how men who claim to be respectable have yielded to
this pressure, and sold their principles, together with their
goods, — when we consider what sophisms are brought to
bear upon them to stultify their reason and consciences, and
think of the pressure of party alliances, we can appreciate
the danger arising from this auxiliary force at work in the
interest of the insurgents in the Southern States. And we
can appreciate the pertinence to us of the words of the text,
" Be of good courage, and let us behave ourselves valiantly
for our people."
But especially can we appreciate the pertinence of this
appeal in another view. We are a Christian people, many
of us cordially devoted in purpose and covenant to the great
principles of love and godliness. We are the servants and
subjects of the Most High God. In this aspect, then, we must
stand to our colors ; stand for our principles, stand firmly in
love, as Christians, no less than as patriots, ay, if possible
more, we must behave ourselves valiantly in this crisis for
our people and for the cities of our God3 able to say when

we are consciously doing our duty, " let the Lord do that
which is good in his sight."
And now let us consider more specifically the appeal of
the text, in its application to us at the present crisis of affairs.
Be of good courage. This is the first point. Courage is
half the battle. The army which has begun to despair of the
conflict is already beaten. The army which is sure of vic
tory already sees the triumph from afar. Whatever shall
become of the present issue between the free and slave states
of our great confederacy, nothing is of higher moment
than that the friends of liberty be of good courage. Why
not ? Is not God for liberty, righteousness, humanity ? Is He
not against oppression ? Has He not promised that the op
pressor's rod shall be broken and the oppressed go free ? We
do indeed believe that God is for liberty, — that the Bible,
candidly interpreted, is its great charter, as Garibaldi
wrote to his son in England, — that the Providence of God
is on the side of what is intrinsically right, just, humane, —
on the side of Christianity with its free and open Bible, its
rights of conscience, free opinion, a free press and free
speech. Therefore we believe God is against slavery, which
denies, openly or practically, these rights. And it must
deny them. It cannot live where they exist. Our brethren
of the slave states are compelled, as a necessary police regu
lation, (we ought to think of this and be charitable in
our judgments,) to be intolerant of these things. They
must either give up slavery or deny the right of a free press,
free education, and free speech. I have never been moved
to judge them harshly for this, since they would have no
security against a servile insurrection, with all its horrors, on
any other condition. Nevertheless this shows the evil and
the sin of their system of oppression. It shows too that
God is not on their side. He is not in sympathy with it, nor
by his providence will he favor it. On the contrary, he will

be the infinite ally of those who would give, legitimately
and constitutionally if possible, the blessings of the gospel
and of liberty to all.
Be of good courage. If God is on the side of the op
pressed, and sooner or later will proclaim liberty throughout
the land to all the inhabitants thereof, — perhaps not in our
day, or in our children's day, yet ere long, — if in the devel
opment and history of our country, the laws of trade, of
commerce, industry, population, hare relatively augmented
the resources of the free states and not of the slave, — if the
genius of our Republican institutions and the currents of
the world's civilization, like the Gulf stream, will ever press
and flow in the same direction, — if all the antecedents of
our country thus far in its history, the fact that God's prov
idence brought his oppressed and persecuted worshippers
here, watched over them in their weakness, looking down
we may suppose with joy,
" When the sounding aisles of the dim woods
Rang to the anthems of the free," —
if God cast out the heathen and planted the colonists here,
and, when the power of the oppressor followed them hither,
broke that power and established them as a free people, —
if he carried them safely through the crisis of the confedera
tion of these states, and has blessed us so signally as a nation,
what shall we infer from all this ? Will institutions planted
thus in prayer, and cemented thus under his favoring hand
with suffering and blood, as if to make them a hundred-fold
more prized, fostered thus through many dangers by his prov
idence ;— on the face of it, is it likely they will be suffered
to perish amid the disjointed fragments of our noble Union, a
Union not yet beyond its infancy among the nations ? It
is not of God, when he hath begun a good work, not to carry
it on unto perfection. It is not of an intelligent, self-reliant

prosperous people, having tasted the sweets of liberty, to go
back again to oppression, or to surrender their chartered and
cherished rights. All these general considerations, taken
with the fact that the great ocean currents of the world at
this time drift towards free institutions, bid us be of good
courage and not despair of the Republic, nor permit her to
receive damage from any quarter.
There is another view in which we may be of good
courage. I refer not to the present wealth of the country
and its recent abundant harvests. These must indeed do
not a little to lighten the evils of a political panic and strug
gle, but I refer to what we discover when we look at those
sections of our confederacy which are now in an insurrec
tionary state. The people of the southern states are not
really oppressed. They know this well enough. But for
digressing too far into the secular aspects of my theme,
would prove this to you. They are, however, in a
strange moral position, in which multitudes of them, nay,
whole communities undertake to vindicate from the Bible a
system which to our minds is absolutely atrocious, for its
actual and possible immoralities and cruelty. This great
moral wrong of slavery it is a new thing to hear defended
by those who hold with us, nominally, a common civil
ization, and a common Christianity. It is the result of
powerful temptations and pressure upon the southern mind
and conscience. It is a painful illustration of how danger
ous it is for men to allow themselves to argue against their
consciences, in the direction of their pride or pecuniary in
terest. It is a course full of moral danger.
Nor does it seem possible in the eye of christian charity,
that the southern communities and churches should not
speedily abandon a position so monstrous, not in our eyes
merely, but in the eyes of the whole civilized world. With
a moral nature like our own, with a conscience like our

10
own, with a common humanity and the same Bible, it seems
impossible not to suppose that there must, ere long, be a re
action in the southern mind, and that views of slavery be ta
ken by it not unlike our own. While their views and ours
are so diametrically opposite as now, there seems indeed al
most an incompatibility in our Union under one confederacy
of states. But to me it is a cherished hope and expectation,
that the present habit, so prevalent at the South, of justify
ing from the Bible so great a wickedness as chattel slavery,
will not continue long. I have too much faith in the power
of truth, of prayer, of christian love, to believe it. Our
fellow citizens at the South must get light enough, I am
sure, from the civilization of the world, from the Bible and
those christian institutions which they retain side by side
with slavery, to extricate themselves from their dismal moral
hallucination. When the pressure of a misconceived self-interest, of the
eloquence of their leading but unprincipled politicians, and
of passion is removed, I can both pray and hope, nay I can
expect that their consciences, their humanity and religion,
will bring them to a better mind. But for this hope I should
well nigh, despair of the Union, (however the present crisis
might be safely passed.) With this hope, however, and all
the encouragement we have, as a people, to look to God in
faith and prayer, I bid you, in the language of the text, be
of good courage.
The second point in the appeal of the text, is " let us be
have ourselves valiantly for our people and for the cities of
our God."
Applying this directly to our present condition as a christ
ian nation, in a crisis of danger, bound all of us to do the
utmost for our cherished institutions and Christianity, it may
be said to include at least the following points : 
First. — We must stand firmly for those principles of

11
righteousnss, liberty and equal rights which we honestly
hold. We must defend at any cost the moral positions we
have taken, if in our hearts we believe them to accord with
the Bible. We must not retreat from any right ground
though the heavens fall, — must relinquish no point which has
been fairly won in argument, or gained by fair political
triumphs, — must compromise no moral truth. There is •
nothing, forsooth, in the great principles of civil and relig
ious liberty to surrender. If so, what is it ? Nothing in
the doctrine that God has made of one blood all nations, and
made them all in his own image, — endowed them all with
rights which are inalienable, save only as they may be for
feited by crime — rights such as personal security, personal
liberty, and private property, and that therefore no man has
any moral prerogative to hold his fellow man as property — there
is nothing verily in these principles to give up or compromise.
Nor is there anything in the determination to resist by all
constitutional means, I say constitutional means, (for nobody
pretends to advocate any other,) the extension of that sys
tem of oppression which curses alike the master and his
slave, nothing to give up — nothing to compromise. We
must not attempt to avoid evils which at any time are immi
nent, by rushing into those which are greater a little beyond.
But the evil of surrendering our manliness, or a good con
science, to avoid present tumult, is a greater evil than the
tumult itself, or the financial embarrassment it occasions.
This trouble must come sometime or other in a great con
flict like that between liberty and slavery. Better come
now no doubt than be longer postponed. It is doubtful if
we should ever be better prepared for it, or so well. I
say then, stand firm for the right — for principles which you
honestly believe, which you intelligently think are Bible
principles, and belong to the civilization and Christianity of
this nineteenth century. These principles are not to be

12
surrendered nor compromised though the Union burst. Here,
I fear, just here, is our greatest danger — a danger enhanced
by all this paralysis of business and financial embarrassment.
It is, of course trying to men who have all summer esteemed
themselves wealthy, who have prided themselves on their
credit and business success, to go to protest, or go to pieces.
It puts a man on his mettle. But better lose everything
than honor and a good conscience, than self-respect aud the
respect of our fellows. Here, I say, is the greatest danger
of the present crisis. It is a moral danger, a danger to our
good consciences, to our religion, a danger not from the
South, nor from around us, but from within. And there
fore it is fitting that we suffer the word of exhortation in
the text, "be of good courage, and let us behave ourselves
valiantly for our people and for the cities of our God."
Secondly. — We must exhibit a large-hearted patriotism.
What is such a patriotism ? Not love for our own little
State merely, noble as it is, not love for New England
merely, or the Northern States merely, but for the whole
country. The United States of America are our country,
known and respected over all the world. The Republic is
our nation, and our patriotism and prayers should embrace
it all. I say, our prayers, for if we love our country, we
shall pray alike for its peace and prosperity. Prayer is a
power with God, a power that should pre-eminently be
wielded now.
Next to the surrender of the great principles of liberty, of
justice and humanity, the breaking up of the union of these
American commonwealths is an inestimable evil. It is diffi
cult to forecast the proportions it may assume. I tremble to
think of its possible consequences. The secession, if it be
allowed, of one, three, or five States at the South, is in itself
of small moment. But who shall say that there would be
the end, — that, by and by, the Pacific States would not fancy

13
their interests sacrificed in the Union, then the Northwest
ern, then the Southwestern, then the Middle States, and so on,
till the fragments of our now glorious confederacy, reddened
all over with fraternal blood, become a by-word and a hissing
through the world. God avert the day! Who can think
of the history of our country — what it has already done to
promote the civilization and Christianity of the nations, and
is now doing, — who can think of its possibilities of good in
spreading the gospel around the world, and diffusing every
where its type of civilization, the broad aegis of our national
protection, commanding respect, alike for our commerce and
our missionaries, without feeling that every thing, short of
compromising great moral principles, should be done to avert
disunion. Our patriotism and Christianity should move us to prayer,
that God would ride upon the whirlwind of blind passion
and fanaticism, both North and South — for there is fanati
cism at the North as well as at the South — would over
rule the wrath of man, and the remainder thereof restrain,
speedily stilling the noise and tumult of the people. He
can bring order out of confusion, and light out of dark
ness. He has many a time heard the cry of our fathers and
delivered them. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne
of his grace, and, in the spirit of lofty patriotism, ask his
deliverance from the crisis of peril now upon us.
Our patriotism and Christianity should alike impel us to
conciliation. There is, (though multitudes overlook the
distinction,) a great difference between conciliation and the
compromise of principle. This latter is not for a moment
to be thought of, come what may. Better a thousand times
seek other channels for our industry and trade outside of
the Union, though even this would not, I apprehend, be ne
cessary. But conciliation is eminently proper. Christian
communities at the South wholly mistake, the real sentiment

14
of the North in respect to any idea of interference with their
State affairs. Of course their passions and apprehensions
are needlessly, though very naturally, excited. On our part
we can afford to be magnanimous ; we always should be
kind. Irritating speeches, irritating editorials, irritating
letters, ridicule and sarcasm, are amazingly out of place.
The object of a real patriot should not be to embitter the
two sections, but to pour the balm of kind and patriotic ap
peals into every disturbed community and heart. We ought
to show a proper appreciation of the social embarrassments
that hem the communities of the slave States about, grow
ing out of their slavery ; and without denunciation, or threat
ening, or invasion of their constitutional rights, move them,
not only to reason and patriotism, instead of insurrection,
but also to measures for the not distant emancipation of the
enslaved. The motives suggested by our text, are first, patriotism,
and secondly, religion. We are to be hopeful and valiant
for our people, and the cities of our God. This is patriot
ism. Then we are to commit all to God, the mighty in
terests of our country, as well as the minuter interests of our
homes and hearts, accepting whatever He who sees the end
from the beginning may appoint. This is religion. " Let
the Lord," said Israel's general, " do that which seemeth
good in his sight." The army must do valiantly for their
people, and for the cities of their God, and leave the issue
with God. So with us. What firmness for the right and
the true can do to save our country's honor and free institu
tions, — what prayer can do, to Him who has the hearts of all
in his hands and can turn them as the rivers of water are
turned, — what a large-hearted patriotism, prompting to for
bearance, magnanimity and conciliation, can do to save our
nation from disunion and possible civil war, should be done.
And when done, all the dear interests of our fellow-country-

15
men and native land, of our civilization and Christianity, of
our educational and missionary institutions, so intimately
affected by the present crisis, should be committed to God
in humble faith. Never despair. We need not put our hand
to God's ark, because for the moment it seems to totter.
The sea and the desert, storms and commotions, possibly a
Red-Sea of blood, may lie between us and the promised land
of universal liberty, love, and religion. If otherwise, choose
it rather. But let us never " bolt off" into the desert, rather
than follow trustfully the pillar of cloud and of fire. Let us
stand, like Aaron with his incense, between the living and
the dead, if so be the plague may be stayed.
My brethren, did not our fathers call upon God in all times
of national embarrassment and danger ? Have we not honored
them for this christian type of their patriotism ? Yet they
never wavered in their principles ; they always behaved them
selves valiantly for their people, and for " freedom to wor
ship God." Shall the churches and christians of the present
day do less ? Are we unworthy sons of Puritan sires ? Of
Q.ueen Esther, it was demanded in reference to the appal-
ing peril of the Jewish people, " who knowest but thou art
come to the kingdom for such a time as this ?" So to the
thousands who meet daily in Union Prayer Meetings, both
North and South, and to the hundreds of thousands who
daily bow the knee before God in their closets, I would say,
Who knows but you have been thus called to prayer for
such a time as this ? Pray then to Him who is alike all-
wise and almighty to deliver. Pray God to interpose for
the land, that the plague of Insurrection and Disunion, and
the still greater plague of justifying, extending, and perpet
uating Slavery, may alike be stayed. Pray for the prosper
ity of Zion, and the peace of Jerusalem, and " let us be of
good courage, and behave ourselves valiantly for our people,
and for the cities of our God."

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