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ordained of God, and the magistracy is by His will to bear the sword not in vain.
, in His Messiahship, would not be made a judge or a divider as to the statutes and estates of this earth; but He did not, therefore, abrogate the tribunals of earthly judgment.
To Caesar He bade us render
's dues.
He cherished and exemplified patriotism when answering to the appeal made to Him in the behalf of that Gentile ruler as far as one who loved “our”
nation.
He showed it when weeping, as He predicted the coming woes of His own people, and of their chief city.
The Gospel of
accept the revolution thus to be precipitated upon them as warranted and necessary?
or shall they acquiesce in it as inevitably dismissing the question of its origin in the irrevocable past?
Shall they wait hopefully the verdict of the nations and the sentence of
upon the new basis of this extemporized Confederacy?
Meanwhile shall they submit passively to the predicted disintegration of their own North, pondering wistfully upon the possibilities of their own reorganization to qualify them for admission on the novel platform, and for their initiation into the new principles of this most summary revolution?
The memories of the past and the hopes of the future; history and scripture; the fear of God, and regard to the well-being of man; the best interest of their own estranged brethren at the
, and their own rights and duties, not to themselves and their children only, but as the stewards of constitutional liberty in behalf of all other nations, encouraged by our success, as such remotest nations are baffled and misled, as by our failure such nations would necessarily be — all considerations unite in shutting up the Christians of the
to one course.
The following resolutions present correspondingly what, in our judgment, is the due course of our churches and people:
Resolved, That the doctrine of secession is foreign to our constitution, revolutionary, suicidal — setting out in anarchy, and finding its ultimate issue in despotism.
Resolved, That the
National Government deserves our loyal adhesion and unstinted support, in its wise forbearing, and yet firm maintenance of the national unity and life; and that sore, long, and costly as the war may be, the
North has not sought it, and the
North does not shun it, if Southern aggressions press it; and that a surrender of the National Union, and our ancestral principles, would involve sorer evils, and longer continuance, and vaster costliness.
Resolved, That the wondrous uprising, in strongest harmony and largest self-sacrifice, of the whole
North, to assert and vindicate the national unity, is the cause of grateful amazement and devoutest acknowledgment to the God who sways all hearts and orders all events; and that this resurgent patriotism, wisely cherished and directed, may, in God's blessed discipline, correct evils that seemed growing chronic and irremediable in the national character.
Resolved, That fearful as is the scourge of war, even in the justest cause, we need as a nation to humble ourselves before God for the vain glory, self-confidence, greed, venality, and corruption of manners, too manifest in our land; that in its waste of property and life, its invasion of the Sabbath, its demoralization and its barbarism, we see the evils to which it strongly tends; but that waged in a good causes and in the fear of God, it may be to a people, as it often in past times has been, a stern but salutary lesson for enduring good.
In this struggle, the churches of the
North should, by prayer for them, the distribution of Scripture and tract, and the encouragement of devout chaplains, seek the religious culture of their brave soldiers and mariners.
Resolved, That the
North seek not, in any sense, the subjugation of the
South, or the horrors of a servile war, or the devastation of their homes by reckless and embruted mercenaries; but believe most firmly the rejection, were it feasible, of the Constitution and Union, would annihilate the best safeguard of Southern peace.
Resolved, That the churches of our denomination be urged to set apart the last
Friday in June as a day of solemn humiliation and prayer for the interposition of God's gracious care to hinder or to limit the conflict, to stay the wrath and to sanctify the trial; and that one hour also in the Friday evening of each week be observed as a season of intercession, privately, for our country during this period of her gloom and peril.
Resolved, That, brought nearer as eternity and judgment are in such times of sharp trial and sudden change, it is the duty of all to redeem the fleeting hour; the duty of all
Christ's people to see that the walls of
Zion be built in troublous times, and to hope only and ever in that wonder-working God, who made British missions to India and the
South Seas to grow amid the
Napoleon wars, who trained, in Serampore Missions,
Havelock, the
Christian warrior, as two centuries before He had prepared, in the wars of the
Commonwealth, the warrior
Baxter, who wrote, as army chaplain, the
Saint's Everlasting Rest, and the Bunyan who described for all after time, the
Pilgrim's Progress and the
Holy War.
Resolved, That what was bought at
Bunker Hill,
Valley Forge, and
Yorktown, was not, with our consent, sold at
Montgomery; that we dispute the legality of the bargain, and, in the strength of the Lord God of our fathers, shall hope to contest, through this generation if need be, the feasibility of the transfer.
