Chaplains’ Corps Chronicles
of the
Sons of Confederate Veterans
Anno Domini 2010
February Issue
“That in all things Christ might have the preeminence.”
Chaplain-in-Chief Cecil A. Fayard, Jr.
PO Box 595
Elliott, MS 38926
E-mail: cecilafayard@msn.com
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Editor: Past Chaplain-in-Chief H. Rondel Rumburg
PO Box 472
Spout Spring, Virginia 24593
E-mail: littlealec@mindspring.com
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Assistant Editor: Chaplain Mark Evans
20 Sharon Drive,
Greenville, SC 29607
E-mail: markwevans@bellsouth.net
Editorial
Fellow Compatriots in the Chaplains’ Corps and Friends,
The month of February was an important month in the history of the South for on February 9, 1861 Jefferson Davis and Alexander Stephens were elected President and Vice President of the Confederate States of America. This was the last great experiment for freedom on this continent. Compatriots, we must not forget these men and we would do well to study them emulate their uncompromising lives and steadfastness to Biblical principles. Also, lest we forget another February event, it was on February 11th 1812 that the Vice President of the Confederacy the Honorable Alexander H. Stephens was born. Yes, this is the birth month of Little Aleck Stephens a man small in size who was a giant as a man.
Also it does us good to not forget the average Southern citizen of the South during those uncertain days of war. From Lee County, Mississippi we have some excerpts from the Diary of Samuel A. Agnew (1833-1902), which gives a brief insight into life during the month of February in 1864. Samuel Agnew’s Uncle Young was his pastor and sometimes when his uncle could not preach due to illness or some other providential impairment he would preach in his place. Samuel was a student of the Bible and of Calvin’s Institutes. The following begins on February 21 and ends on February 29, 1864. Agnew titled his entry on February 21 “An alarm at church—Yankees at Chesterville.”
Sabbath. Our lodgers of last night started on their way after breakfast. They considered it “a work of necessity” to travel on the Sabbath.
The day has been very pretty: tonight however is a little clouded. Rode out to Church—a respectably sized congregation were present, but before the people went to the Church, Uncle Young’s Jo came up bringing the report that the Yankees were in Yarnaby bottom coming up this way. The congregation took the alarm and immediately dispersed. Came over home and read Calvin’s Institutes. Finished the 2d Book of the work today (Samuel Agnew had been systematically reading through Calvin’s work).
Have heard several items today but what we hear is very contradictory. John McGee is home on furlough from Tunnel Hill. Thad Bryson also reached his father’s this morning. The report of the Yankees being at Aberdeen is contradicted. The general report at Church today was that they were in Yarnaby bottom, and tonight I have certainly learned that there was a batch certainly at Chesterville. Six of them were captured by some of our men in that neighborhood this morning. It seems hard to get the truth about the Yankees. It is now said that none are camped about Poplar Springs. Neil Galloway went down into Buncombe yesterday evening. He will bring an account of things in that country. Tonight about 8 o’clock or a little after Uncle Jo passed going to the Cross Roads. Some 15 of Ham’s men are camped tonight in Brice’s wood lot. A man passed Uncle Jo’s after dark running from Gambrell’s. He told the negroes that the Yankees were coming across country and had drove him from Gambrell’s since dark. I do not know whether there is any truth in the account or not. A Negro Thomas belonging to Jno. Hanna of the 54th Tenn. Reg’t passed this evening making his way from Gibson Co. Tenn. to his master in Johnston’s army. He is a faithful servant. His master gave him a pass home from Dalton in Dec. and now he is making his way back. He certainly deserves credit for his fidelity.
February 22, 1864 “Current reports”
Up early and immediately after breakfast rode west to ascertain facts in reference the report of Yankees at Gambrell’s. At Uncle Jo’s learned that it was not so. A young Jones, son of widow Jones, started the report. His conduct is worthy of the severest censure.
The day throughout has been clear and pretty. Wrote a letter to Jno. D. Agnew in the forenoon, Uncle Jo over this evening. He has heard that the Yankees are building a bridge across the Tombigby at Aberdeen. E. S. Hammond passed this evening. He has recently married a daughter of Orlando Davy. He says that through a negro he understands that more Yankees were passing through Alabama Saturday and Sabbath. Forrest on Tuesday was at Sarepta, Chalmers at Houston, and Gholson at West Point. A Memphis Bulletin of the 17th reports the Federals at Meridian. Polk is represented as being between Meridian and Jackson. Banks is moving along the coast against Mobile, the bombardment of Fort Morgan is reported to have commence. There is also a movement from Larkin’s Ferry on the Tennessee down the Coosa Valley. Gen. W. L. Smith commands the Feds who have passed through New Albany.
Rode over to Aunt Rilla’s late this evening. Was surprised to find Aunt Sarah Agnew there. She came up from Verona Saturday. There had been no Yankees there up to Saturday morning: neither at Tupelo. There were some at Okolona on Friday and they had burnt some stores. They had also been at Egypt—and the idea below is that they have gone from Okolona down the Rail Road. Aunt Sarah did not know whether any had been at Aberdeen or not. About Verona the country has been full of the wildest kind of reports, but they have nearly all proven false. It is thought these false alarms mostly are started by deserters. Noticed this evening two Tennesseans going back to the army, they are from Shelby Co. One was named Herring, the other was an Irishman who Herring called Dennis. They were footing it.
February 23, 1864 “Tennesseans going to the army”
After breakfast rode home. Met in Phillips’ lane several footmen and one horseman: they were Tennesseans from Fayette and Tipton Counties going to Bragg’s army as Johnston’s troops are still called. They were here last night and I hear give very entertaining accounts of the times in West Tennessee during the Yankee occupation. Maj. Beaty told me this morning that he saw Alex Lowry yesterday evening. Lowry told him that the Yankees were scattered from Aberdeen to Meridian. Our troops were concentrating at Starkville opposite them. The day has been clear and pretty. Mr. Bryant was here for dinner, he was hunting corn. This evening Uncle Jo was over. During the day the news was that the Yankees were all gone down the Railroad below Okolona.
Late this evening rode down to Uncle Young’s & spent the night, Miss Mollie McGee was there. As I went down Frank Branyan told me that there was an alarm of Yankees this evening. They were reported 4 miles this side of Chesterville coming this way. The neighbors there had their stock out. Went on to Mr. Young’s. The alarm had subsided. Gambrell’s scout got back this evening and they report Forrest driving the Yankees back. Forrest could not get in their front until they got down near Tibbie. There he got them turned. At Okolona they made a stand on Monday, but Forrest drove them away with considerable loss. Col. Jeff Forrest was killed at Okolona. Forrest with one regiment charged 4 Federal reg’ts and routed them. There we captured 15 pieces of artillery, which some say is all they had. The pursuit still continues. There was fighting near Redland Monday evening. The Yankees passed through Pontotoc Monday night going towards New Albany. As the Yankees retreated they destroyed vast quantities of corn and burned every gin house they came to. Gambrell’s men heard firing this evening towards Poplar Springs and they conjectured the Yankees were in that quarter.
February 24, 1864 “The Yankee retreat”
Uncle Young’s negroes report having heard firing last night about 10 o’clock in a western direction. Came up home soon after breakfast, and have lolled about doing nothing of much moment. From several passers by have heard several items confirmatory of yesterday’s news. The Yankees have gone back towards Memphis, having crossed Tallahatchie at New Albany 3 o’clock Monday evening and fed that night at Norvell’s and Graham’s. One of them told a citizen that they had been south and got whipped like hell. They filled the ford of the river with logs &c so that Forrest could not cross after them. He however sent 60 men over to follow and see where they went. Forrest pressed them hard between Pontotoc and New Albany, especially at Cherry Creek, and Oconita. The road from Aberdeen to Pontotoc is strewed with dead Yankees. The Yankee loss is heavy in killed, wounded and prisoners: ours comparatively light. Col. Jeff Forrest at Okolona killed a Yankee Colonel, when two of his men shot him, Gen. Forrest killed 2 who were trying to kill him. We have not the particulars in reference to the localities and details of the different fights. The Feds traveled the whole of Monday night going towards Holly Springs. The enemy on the route lost all their artillery and wagon train. I think it cost them more than it came to. Mrs. Abrams was here this evening wanting to get a bale of cotton to take to Memphis. She did not get any. The day has been very pretty, perfectly clear but a little smoky.
February 25, 1864 “Gambrell’s Independent Scouts”
This day has been fair and pleasant, but very smoky, owing to the prevalence of fires. Uncle Jo had fire out in his farm this evening and was fighting it. Assist the girls in their flower yard during the morning, also finished the 5th Chapter of Romans in my critical studies. This evening study with a view to a sermon for Sabbath.
Saw R. C. Richey this morning. He tells me that Ham has been ordered back to West Point. Ham in the pursuit was the last to leave off. His Battalion drove the Yankees from Pontotoc and Cherry Creek. At Pontotoc Jas. Sutherland was severely wounded. Tonight a Mr. Beanland, a lad, is here. He belongs to Gambrell’s Independent scouts. Gambrell is just back from a scout after the Yankees. He killed 1 and captured 2 about 3 miles this side of Tippah on yesterday. The idea among the Yankees was that they would stop on the other side of Tippah and rest a few days. The most important fight was between West Point and Tibbie. This was on Sabbath. The 7th Indiana, 14th New Jersey and 4th Regulars were along. Gambrell has captured 10 Yankees during this Yankee expedition. He is a brave man and an effective scout. He proposes making a scout towards Meridian soon. They start on the 8th inst.
February 26, 1864 “Sermonizing”
This day has been fair but very smoky, especially early in the morning and late this evening. I have been busily engaged writing a sermon, Micah 2:10. This has kept me engaged the whole day. I finished it tonight.
Mr. John Anderson, wife and child called in before dinner and sat till about 4 o’clock. They had been to Guntown. Pa had gone over to the Hughes’ farm and did not return till the middle of the afternoon, and it devolved on me to do the entertaining: not a very pleasant task especially as I had a sermon on hand and wished to devote my entire time to that. My guests were not of the most refined character and it was rather an unpleasant service. Harvey Hawthorne called at the gate this evening. He has been down in the neighborhood a few days and was returning, He had no news. It is rumored that Col. Inge was killed at Okolona. Hear from two passers by tonight that it is rumored that the Yankees have been driven from Meridian, and it is thought that in 5 or 6 weeks trains will be running up the M & C R R again. But it is a rumor and may or may not be so. Have tonight a singular pain in the large intestine opening at the anus, a short distance above the anus.
February 27, 1864 “Smoke—depredations”
This morning and entire forenoon has been very smoky, as much so as I have seen lately. The sun shines out however in a dim way.
Have been all forenoon writing a letter to N E M to send by Uncle Jo to West Point. I have not seen anyone outside of the family and have not heard any news. About 1/2 after 1 I started to Hopewell, and rode to Hugh Caldwell’s where I spent the night.
This evening the smoke very dense. It looked as if the whole country was being burned off. Saw no fire out but notice considerable tracts of woods which have been burnt within a short time. This will perhaps account for the superabundance of smoke.
Got from Mr. Caldwell reliable accounts of the Yankee depredations in that neighborhood. The accounts we have had were much exaggerated. They camped several days at Cornelius, above Tardyville, and the people along the main Pontotoc road were badly torn up. Sloan’s crib was burned, B. Harper’s gin was also burnt. In the Hopewell neighborhood they did much damage, searching houses, and taking corn, fodder and meat, and pilfering little articles from their houses. At Houston’s they only took 3 negroes who are believed to have gone away of their own accord. They took none of his corn and very little if any of his meat. John Stephenson had all his fodder and a good part of his corn taken. Barton Jones, Isaac Smith, Jerry Neal, Mrs. Stephenson &c were principle sufferers. They were at Wiley’s Mill but not at his house. They did him no harm. They captured Moses Roberts, some think that Mosey threw himself purposely in their way, but I cannot think so. They did not interfere with citizens who are not in the army. Tonight I hear that Forrest was fighting the Yankees about Holly Springs on Friday and got the worst of it. But the report is discredited. I was also told this evening by Jno. Wages, Sr. that the Yankees were at Holly Springs reinforcing from Memphis and swearing by all that is good that they will go back and give Forrest a thrashing. They acknowledge that Forrest gave them the worst kind of a whipping.
February 28, 1864 entry was titled “A sad occurrence in Buncombe”
Sabbath. This morning was still smoky but by noon the smoke lifted up and it was cloudy and tonight a cold mist of rain is falling.
Rode out to Hopewell and preached from Micah 2:10. Had one of my sick brushes during the sermon and had to conclude with a very short prayer. Dine with Maj. Wiley and rode home after dinner. Had a respectable congregation. The chief topic of remark was a sad occurrence which transpired last night. It seems that some men (supposed to be Steel and Coleman) went last night to Milton Dunlap’s and fired his fodder stack. Dunlap went out to see about it, and the scamp fired at him inflicting dangerous wounds in his right breast and the calf of his leg. Mrs. Sim Pannel and Miss Sallie McKeown being near neighbors, hearing the cries of Dunlap children, went to see what it meant, accompanied by Allen Miller, who was spending the night at Mr. Pannel’s. When they got near Dunlap’s the scoundrels fired on them, hitting Mrs. Pannel in the right shoulder, left side, and ankle. Miss McKeown’s clothing was pierced by the bullets. The scamps then went to Pannels corn crib and burned it to the ground. This was a high handed proceeding. Messrs. Steel and Coleman have been arrested. What could have impelled any one to commit such a deed cannot be imagined by me. The wounds inflicted on Mrs. Pannel and Mr. Dunlap are very severe but it is hoped they will not be mortal.
Hear today that on the 17th Polk was at Demopolis fortifying and Sherman at Meridian engaged in the same way. Later accounts report the Yankees to have fallen back to Jackson, some say after a fight, and others without one. Charlie Liddell and Silvanus Johnson furloughed from the 45 Reg’t were at Church today. H. Mitchell got home yesterday. On the way he heard that their reg’t would be sent to Meridian very shortly.
Rec’d tonight a letter from J. F. Y. dated the 13th. Nothing special in it. Rev. Wilson Frierson died about the 25th ulto Jan’y at Meridian. He was on his way home. Aunt Sarah came home with our people from Church and she and Mary are at Uncle Jo’s tonight.
February 29, 1864. “A rainy, inclement day.”
First noticed peach blooms for this season on Saturday evening the 27th. Mother saw one on Friday, but the first I saw was on Saturday. It rained I think all of last night. And the day throughout has been rainy, cool and inclement. It has rained slowly but almost continuously and has been so unpleasant that I have mostly sat by the fire within doors, amusing myself by teasing and quizzing Erskine. Miss Davis was down this forenoon. Her father is no better, but perhaps worse. Frank Young came up this evening and sat awhile with us. Have heard from several sources today that the Yankees have left Meridian. Some say they have gone away and others they were driven. An ox wagon from Memphis passed this evening with the body of Lt. Col. Hamilton who died recently at Johnson’s Island (a Yankee Prison Camp in Sandusky Bay, Lake Erie where Confederate officers were held prisoner). It is being carried home for burial. The gentleman along told me they left Memphis Wednesday and he says they met the worst whipped set of Yankees he ever saw. He also reports having heard that the Yankees were driven back from Meridian and also that there has been a big battle in Virginia in which the Yankees were as badly whipped as they ever have been. These are the reports he brings. Time will prove whether it is true.
Tonight the rain is still falling—more heavily I think than in daylight and without intermission. The water gurgling through the gutters and falling on the housetop makes a monotonous music which courts sleep.
We leave Samuel Agnew in repose on the night of February 29, 1864. These entries in his Diary help us grasp the events of life in the families left behind by many a soldier and chaplain of the Confederate States of America.
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In this issue you will find our Chaplain-in-Chief’s The Chaplain as a Good Soldier of Christ, in this he gives us encouragement as well as an urging to do what we do for our King and Saviour Jesus Christ. The series on Esther continues as chapter 2 ends and three begins: Hamen the Enemy of God’s People. Your editor has an article on Confederate Chaplains and Their Pay which deals with one of the difficulties faced by Confederate Chaplains. Our Assistant Editor, Chaplain Mark Evans’ article An Eternal Victory provides a sense of the great work of God in the camps of our ancestors. Thank the Lord for the record we have of the great revival in the Confederacy and may we cry to Him who gave it for the same today. This issue includes A Confederate Sermon submitted by Chaplain Kenneth Studdard; the sermon is Rev. Henry Holcombe Tucker. This is one of the most profound sermons you will ever read, it is pungent and fearless, Scriptural and pertinent, and on we could go with recommendations. This sermon was preached to the Georgia Legislature in 1861. Our Book Review is by the editor on Christ in the Camp a very formative volume on Confederate Chaplain’s and God’s Work during the war for Southern liberty.
Soli Deo Gloria,
Editor H. Rondel Rumburg
[Compatriots, if you know of any members of the Chaplains’ Corps or others who would like to receive this e-journal, please let us have their names and e-mail addresses. Also, feel free to send copies of this journal to anyone you think would like to receive it. If you want to “unsubscribe” please e-mail the editor or assistant editor. Confederately, HRR]
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Contents
*Chaplain-in-Chief’s What to Leave in 2009, Dr. Cecil A. Fayard, Jr.
*Esther: The Queen who Refused—The Humble Exalted, Dr. Cecil A. Fayard, Jr.
*Confederate Chaplains and Their Pay, Dr. H. Rondel Rumburg
*An Eternal Victory, Chaplain Mark Evans
*A Confederate Sermon, Rev. Henry Holcombe Tucker
*Book Review: Christ in the Camp, by J. Wm. Jones and reviewed by Dr. H. Rondel Rumburg
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Chaplain-in-Chief’s Editorial
THE CHAPLAIN AS A GOOD SOLDIER OF CHRIST
2 Timothy 2:3 “Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.”
As men of God and as Chaplains in the Chaplains Corp, we are to endure hardness as a good soldier. Having served in both Korea and Vietnam, I know that it is not always easy being a soldier. That is what kept me going in those countries far away from home and hearth? DUTY, that is it. Not any hope of glory or reward, but DUTY.
Luke 17:10 puts things in perspective for us as Christian servants: “So like wise ye, when ye have shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants; we have done that which was our DUTY to do.” As children of God and as Chaplains, we are to serve without the expectation of earthly reward. Remember dear one, your reward is in heaven. I have been a full time Minister for a good many years now, and I have seen a lot of folks come and go. Those who are always looking for recognition fall by the wayside; they fizzle out; they quit. Why? Because they are serving for the wrong reason.
In Ecclesiastes 12:13, the preacher says: “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter; Fear God and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.” You may feel that you are not making a difference in your local Camp: keep doing right and stay faithful. The Word says: “And let us not grow weary in will doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not” (Galatians 6:9).
We may or may not reap here on earth; but be assured, “we shall reap if we faint not.”
What I have written thus far would cause some to thank that there is no happiness or joy in the life of service, the life of a warrior. This is not true; there is great joy in serving Jesus. In Christ, we have life, “and that more abundantly.” Mrs. M. L. Williamson wrote of the great Christian General JEB Stuart: “In spite of his joyous and fun loving disposition, General Stuart was always ready when duty called him.” Friends, whether that duty was on the battlefield fighting the Yankees or in the spiritual warfare. In Chaplain J. William Jones book Christ in the Camp, Elder Jones writes: “Stuart was a humble and earnest Christian who took Christ as his personal Saviour, lived a stainless life and died a triumphant death.” Stuart went to Dr. Jones asking him to recommend a Chaplain for the cavalry outposts saying: “I do not want a man who is not able to endure hardness as a good soldier. The man who can not endure the hardships and privations of our rough riding and hard service and be in place when needed would be of no earthly use and is not wanted in my headquarters.”
Men, don’t quit; keep going; be a Good Soldier of your Captain Jesus Christ. Endure hardness, not for your glory, but for Him.
Yours in Christ,
Dr. Cecil Fayard
Chaplain-in-Chief
The Queen Who Refused
Dr. Cecil Fayard
Chaplain-in-Chief
Haman The Enemy of God’s People
Esther 2:21-3:15
INTRO: Before we get into chapter three of Esther, we need to take a brief look at the last three verses of chapter two. What happens in these verses is very important to the rest of the story of the book of Esther.
1. In Esther 2:21: In those days, while Mordecai sat in the king’s gate, two of the king’s chamberlains, Bigthan and Teresh, of those which kept the door, were wroth, and sought to lay hand on the king Ahasuerus. We have a secret conspiracy by two of the king’s men. These men were planning to murder the king.
2. Esther 2:22-23: And the thing was known to Mordecai, who told it unto Esther the queen; and Esther certified the king thereof in Mordecai’s name. And when inquisition was made of the matter, it was found out; therefore they were both hanged on a tree: and it was written in the book of the chronicles before the king. Mordecai got wind of the plot, and he told Esther about it, and Esther told the king. “The insurgents were sentenced to death, and before the ink was dry on the decree, they were history” (Swindoll 31).
We come now to chapter three of Esther which concerns Haman the enemy of Mordecai and the Jews.
There are three ways to view Esther chapter three: historically, prophetically, and practically.
1. Historically, this man Haman had a hatred for one man, Mordecai. This hatred led to his intention of destroying all Jews in Persia.
2. Prophetically, Haman is a picture of the anti-Christ who will persecute the Jews and seek to destroy them during the last half of the tribulation. The phrase, “this wicked Haman” in 7:6 adds up to 666 in the original Hebrew; and this is the number of the beast (Rev 13:18). Haman plotted his murders secretly while appearing to be friendly to the Jews openly. The anti-Christ will make a covenant with Israel for seven years, but break it after 3 ½ yrs. Haman possessed tremendous power given to him by the king; the beast will possess great power given to him by Satan. Haman’s pride was obvious. He wanted all men to bow down to him; and the beast will cause all men to worship him and his image (Rev 13). Haman hated the Jews; and the anti-Christ will hate the Jews. Haman was doomed; even though for a time, he seemed to have power. Satan’s masterpiece, the beast, will appear to be indestructible; but Christ will destroy him and his followers when He returns (Rev 19:20).
3. Practically, we see how some men cannot handle promotion. There are those who are promoted when others ought to be. Mordecai had saved the king’s life; you would think he would be first in line for promotion. But Haman gets the promotion, not Mordecai. How many bosses have promoted the wrong man? Deserving folks often get passed over while the unrighteous get the reward.
I. VS.1-2, 5 HAMAN A TYPE OF ANTI-CHRIST
A. Verse 1: After these things did king Ahasuerus promote Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him, and set his seat above all the princes that were with him. Haman is promoted by the king who is here a type of the world. The king gives Haman political prestige, “above all princes.”
1. Haman’s political power is second only to that of the one who gave it (Rev 13:1-4). This is the way it is with the anti-Christ.
2. The anti-Christ will come to power during the tribulation (Dan 9:25-27).
3. Today, we have world powers that are controlled by Satanic forces. The “Princes” of Esther 3:1 remind us of the princes (Rulers) over municipalities– principalities of Eph 6:12.
4. This world and its system delights in promoting ungodly superstars, just as Ahasuerus delight in promoting Haman.
B. Verse 2: And all the king’s servants, that were in the king’s gate, bowed, and reverenced Haman: for the king had so commanded concerning him. But Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence. 5 And when Haman saw that Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence, then was Haman full of wrath.: Haman is not able to fool Mordecai. Godly Mordecai is sensitive to spiritual matters and knows that Haman is seeking to be worshiped.
1. This is what Daniel tells us the anti-Christ will do during the tribulation (Dan 11:36-37).
2. Humanism and its emphasis on the worship of man is the theme of our age.
3. Mordecai saw Haman for what he was– the two witnesses of Rev 11:3-5 will see the anti-Christ for who he is and witness against him.
II VSS 3-9, THE PLOT IS HATCHED
A. Verse 3: Then the king’s servants, which were in the king’s gate, said unto Mordecai, Why transgressest thou the king’s commandment? Just as Daniel and the three Hebrew children could not bow before and worship false gods, Mordecai refused to worship a man– Haman.
B. Verses 4-6: Now it came to pass, when they spake daily unto him, and he hearkened not unto them, that they told Haman, to see whether Mordecai’s matters would stand: for he had told them that he was a Jew. And when Haman saw that Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence, then was Haman full of wrath. And he thought scorn to lay hands on Mordecai alone; for they had shewed him the people of Mordecai: wherefore Haman sought to destroy all the Jews that were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, even the people of Mordecai. When Haman learned that Mordecai was a Jew, his anti-Semitism boiled over (vs 5).
1. Haman’s hatred for the Jew came from his family tree. Haman was a descendent of Agag the Amalekite king whom the prophet Samuel killed. The Amalekites had never gotten over this and were bitter enemies of the Jews.
2. Why did Mordecai refuse to bow down to Haman? To bow to such a man would be an act of idolatry to a Jew. Mordecai would not bow to Haman because Haman was an Amalekite, an avowed enemy of his people who deserved no respect.
III. VSS 7-11, HAMAN’S WICKED PLAN FOR THE EXTERMINATION OF THE JEWS
A. Verse 7: In the first month, that is, the month Nisan, in the twelfth year of king Ahasuerus, they cast Pur, that is, the lot, before Haman from day to day, and from month to month, to the twelfth month, that is, the month Adar. This verse tells us that Haman had to wait for his turn to see the king. This gave him time to hatch his wicked plan. It has been from wicked hearts like Haman’s that evil has threatened the Jews for centuries (Jer 17:9).
B. Verses 8-9: Here we have the conspiracy at work.
1. Verse 8: And Haman said unto king Ahasuerus, There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of thy kingdom; and their laws are diverse from all people; neither keep they the king’s laws: therefore it is not for the king’s profit to suffer them. Those same laws that upset Haman are the laws that upset the ungodly today. The world hates authority, hates the Ten Commandments, and hates the inerrancy of scripture.
2. Verse 9: If it please the king, let it be written that they may be destroyed: and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver to the hands of those that have the charge of the business, to bring it into the king’s treasuries. Haman promises to bring in 375 tons of silver to put in the king’s treasury for permission to destroy the Jews. The king is influenced by this money that will, he thinks, help him build his empire.
3. Verses 10-11: And the king took his ring from his hand, and gave it unto Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the Jews’ enemy. And the king said unto Haman, The silver is given to thee, the people also, to do with them as it seemeth good to thee. The king gives his approval for the plan as well as the finances to carry it out.
4. Anti-Semitism is nothing new; it has been around a long time. From the time of Solomon’s death until today, the Jews have suffered great periods of persecution at the hands of their enemies.
[SEE MATTHEW 22:1-14, 27:25, 1 THESSALONIANS 2:14-15!!!]
Matthew 22:1-14 KJV
1And Jesus answered and spake unto them again by parables, and said,
2The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son,
3And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come.
4Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage.
5But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise:
6And the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them.
7But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city.
8Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy.
9Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage.
10So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests.
11And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment:
12And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless.
13Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
14For many are called, but few are chosen.
Matthew 27:25 KJV
25Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children.
1 Thessalonians 2:14-15 KJV
For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judaea are in Christ Jesus: for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews:
Who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men:
5. Today, we not only have animosity against the Jews, but also animosity against the Christians (I Pet 1:11; Eph 6:11).
IV. VSS 12-15, THE ANNOUNCEMENT IS MADE
A. Verse 12: Then were the king’s scribes called on the thirteenth day of the first month, and there was written according to all that Haman had commanded unto the king’s lieutenants, and to the governors that were over every province, and to the rulers of every people of every province according to the writing thereof, and to every people after their language; in the name of king Ahasuerus was it written, and sealed with the king’s ring. The king’s ring has given Haman the power of attorney to set its seal on any document that he drafts to carry out his wicked plans.
B. Verses 13-15: And the letters were sent by posts into all the king’s provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, even upon the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and to take the spoil of them for a prey. The copy of the writing for a commandment to be given in every province was published unto all people, that they should be ready against that day. The posts went out, being hastened by the king’s commandment, and the decree was given in Shushan the palace. And the king and Haman sat down to drink; but the city Shushan was perplexed. The day was set and the letters had been sent out. While the Jews await extermination, Haman and the king sit and drink (vs 15).
CONCLUSION: There is a Jew who is both hated and loved: He is Jesus (Jn 1:11, 12).
***
Confederate Chaplains and Their Pay
by Dr. H. Rondel Rumburg
“Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine. For the Scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. And, The labourer is worthy of his reward” 1 Timothy 5:17-18.
One of the certainties of the service of the Confederate Chaplains was that they did not serve for mammon. They could not be classed as overpaid. The reason for saying that is that they were poorly compensated for their manifold labors which included preaching, praying, teaching, leading singing, caring for the dying, helping the wounded, visiting the sick, burying the dead, writing condolence letters, baptizing converts, passing out literature, and a multitude of other tasks. Actually they were treated by some political figures as men of little value. The same problem exists today. Many do not see the value of the things of God. Paul reminded the Corinthian believers, “If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things…. Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel” (1 Cor. 9:11, 14).
On May 3rd, 1861, Bill 102 was approved. This Bill explained, “There shall be appointed by the President such number of chaplains, to serve with the armies of the Confederate States during the existing war, as he may deem expedient; and the President shall assign them to such regiments, brigades or posts as he may deem necessary; and the appointments made as aforesaid shall expire whenever the existing war shall terminate.” President Davis was thus empowered to appoint chaplains as needed and to assign them to regiments, brigades or posts as long as the war continued. Then there was the following further stipulation, “The monthly pay of said chaplains shall be eighty-five dollars; and said pay shall be in full of all allowances whatever.” On May 16th this was amended to read, “So much of the second section fixes the pay of chaplains in the army at fifty dollars a month” [The Statutes at Large of the Provisional Government of the Confederate States, 99; Laws for the Army and Navy of the Confederate States, 36, 51; Charles F. Pitts, Chaplains in Gray, 39-40].
This reduction in pay was the cause of a bit of a furor that erupted. The opposing Congressman who pushed for the reduction did not seem to have a grasp of the extensive nature of the work of the ministry and thus the chaplain’s work. This was evident when he remarked that all the chaplain had to do was “to preach once a week.” There was another attempt to cut the chaplain’s pay even more, but this move failed [Pitts, 40 ff]. The Confederate Congress did not get off the hook very easily with the reduction of the proposed pay of chaplains. Some of these men seemed a bit short-sighted, and they were reprimanded by others who pointed out that many men who were chaplains had left good positions to enter that ministry. Their families needed the same things as did others. Chaplains and their families needed food and clothing the same as others. Some men had been promised by their states or other entities pay equal to a Captain ($140). Now many of these men in order to care for their families would have to resign and seek other employment [Frank L. Hieronymus, For Now and Forever: The Chaplains of the Confederate States Army, 106]. One chaplain sent a stinging epistle chiding the congress for such behavior; he said it amounted to a request for a lack of morality, a stand against spirituality, a wish to forget the Almighty, and the putting of trust in the strength of arms [Hieronymus, 107].
Rev. T. V. Moore in a fast day sermon on Friday, Nov. 15, 1861 in Richmond, Virginia gave the Confederate Congress a good spanking for its financial behavior toward the Confederate Chaplains Corps. In his sermon he declared,
And in this aspect the act of our Congress in virtually degrading the office of Chaplain, by making it the only one in the army whose rank and pay were cut down, and after two reductions, fixing it at a rate that excludes from it any man with a family, who has not private means of his own, a thing not very common with clergymen—this marked and seemingly invidious distinction of this office, I feel bound to say kindly, but plainly, was at least an unfortunate act, if not more blamable. In an army of volunteers, like ours, a good Chaplain is just as important as a good Captain or a good Surgeon, for he is adapted to meet those moral evils arising from inaction, discontent, weariness and home-sickness that are often far more injurious than the dangers of the battle-field. And we know of no reason arising from incompetency or dereliction of duty in those who have filled the one office for any such stigma, which does not exist in a twofold, if not a tenfold degree with the occupants of the others. It is a false economy that starves the soul to feed the body, even in an army…. Hence we feel bound to say plainly, that this was a wrong, a short-sighted and suicidal wrong, although we also believe an undesigned and inadvertent wrong, which we hope will be remedied as soon as it can be reached by competent authority. If the finances of the government will not warrant the employment of men of experience and mature age in this office, it were better to abolish it, and leave the spiritual wants of the soldier entirely to the voluntary action of the people. But if the office is to be retained at all, it ought to be put on an equality with other offices of the same importance.
Dr. Moore made the case with precise Biblical judgment. We do not know how many ministers and other God-fearing people saw the need of good chaplains and their proper care. There were evidently enough for the government to take note.
On April 19, 1862 a recommendation to increase the pay to $80 was considered and passed by Congress. This bill was signed by President Davis the same day. Then on August 31st of the same year there was another provision for chaplains. They were to be issued or “allowed the same rations as privates” [Pitts, 40-41, Hieronymus, 108].
There were officers who saw to it that their chaplain was cared for and that his horse was fed often with his own. “Stonewall” Jackson applied for Corps commission for Beverly Tucker Lacy his chaplain, which the Department promptly granted to Jackson’s agreeable surprise and Jackson added $200 to his salary, with the use of a horse. Jackson’s interest all along concerning chaplains was deep and constant. Lacy said it could not be exaggerated. When Chaplain Lacy became chaplain Jackson placed $300 in his hands, to be used in buying testaments and other religious reading [Lacy Narrative].
Chaplain Lacy and Rev. Wm. Hoge set off for a visit to the Fredericksburg battlefield. Once word got around camp as to where they were headed General Jackson provided their transportation by sending them two of his horses [J. Wm. Jones, Christ in the Camp, 304]. Off the preachers went on the general’s mounts. To Jackson nothing was too good for the Lord’s servants.
One chaplain observed, “Lieut. Ellis goes to work to raise money to buy a horse for his chaplain.” Yes, there was support among the officers for the chaplaincy. “At the beginning of the Confederate War, a chaplain was not allowed forage for a horse. I believe the U. S. Army Regulations never considered a Chaplain a mounted officer. My colonel [wrote a chaplain] always drew forage for my horse as one of his. I am told that ‘Stonewall’ Jackson asked our congress to allow forage for each Chaplain, because he thought they could be so much more active and efficient by being mounted” [A. D. Betts, Experience of a Confederate Chaplain, April 21, 1863]. Some officers, as already noted, aided chaplains in manifold ways, but usually in very practical ways. “In camp Lieut. Orr presents me with ten dollars. Sundry other officers contribute to buy me a horse,” wrote Chaplain Betts in his diary.
Chaplain B. T. Lacy wrote a ten page pamphlet to his denomination requesting more chaplains with the request “assist in the support of his family while he is engaged in the work” [Jones, 237]. The work of Christ was too important to be left without proper support. Jesus said to his disciples, “The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest” (Matt. 9:37-38). The denominations helped with chaplain support and the publishing of literature for the chaplain’s use. An example in 1864 the Old School Presbyterians employed in the past year 130 missionaries and chaplains in the different armies and contributed around $80,000 dollars for that work [Jones, 241]. Likewise the Southern Baptist Convention, the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Confederate States, the Methodist Episcopal Church South, and on one could go with those who began to awaken to the need.
What the Confederate government failed to do, the denominations did to insure a gospel-preaching chaplaincy. Although there were never enough chaplains or Bibles or tracts and many other things because of shortages the attempt to supply them grew in spite of the difficulties.
***
An Eternal Victory
Mark W. Evans, Chaplain
Lt. Gen. Thomas Jonathan (“Stonewall”) Jackson was a dedicated Christian warrior. During the Mexican War, Colonel Frank Taylor awakened Jackson to his need of salvation. After much prayer and diligent study of the Word of God, the future “Stonewall” looked to Jesus Christ with saving faith. His love for the Savior, the Bible, and the souls of men, never left him. The War of Northern Aggression provided his greatest opportunity to wield the Sword of the Spirit.
While defeating superior Yankee forces, he also, under the banner of the King of kings, assaulted the fortresses of Satan. Jackson’s burden for the salvation of souls moved him to call for an army of ministers, missionaries, and colporteurs. His plan was simple:
Each branch of the Christian Church should send into the army some of its most prominent ministers who are distinguished for their piety, talents and zeal; and such ministers should labor to produce concert of action among chaplains and Christians in the army [J. William Jones, Christ in the Camp, p. 94].
His spiritual strategy was as victorious as his military strategy. Sadly, our modern professing Church is only a caricature of the South’s flourishing churches of the 1800’s. The Christianity of our Southern ancestors has suffered from compromise with Northern infidelity. Many religious teachers now reject the Bible as the infallible, inerrant Word of God. A new message of social Darwinism and man-centered salvation has replaced the Gospel of salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Most of our Southern ancestors believed that the Bible was the only rule of faith and practice. They may have differed on some teachings, but they tested everything by the Bible and were united in the essentials of the Christian faith. Jackson called for Christian laborers from different denominations because they proclaimed the same Gospel. He said:
I would like to see no question asked in the army of what denomination a chaplain belongs to; but let the question be , Does he preach the Gospel [Jones, p. 94].
Confederate chaplain, J. William Jones, showed the results of Jackson’s plan:
Let us go some bright Sabbath morning to that cluster of tents in the grove across the Massaponax, not far from Hamilton’s Crossing. Seated on the rude logs, or on the ground, may be seen fifteen hundred or two thousand men, with upturned faces, eagerly drinking in the truths of the Gospel. That reverent worshipper that kneels in the dust during prayer, or listens with sharpened attention and moist eyes as the preacher delivers his message, is our loved Commander-in-Chief, General R. E. Lee; that devout worshipper who sits at his side, gives his personal attention to the seating of the multitude, looks so supremely happy as he sees the soldiers thronging to hear the Gospel and listens so attentively to the preaching, is “Stonewall” Jackson; those “wreaths and stars” which cluster around are worn by some of the most illustrious generals of that army; and all through the congregation the “stars” and “bars” mingle with the rough garb of the “unknown heroes” of the rank and file who never quail amid the leaden and iron hail of battle, but are not ashamed to “tremble” under the power of God’s truth. I need not say that this is Jackson’s headquarters, and the scene I have pictured one of frequent occurrence [Jones, pp. 95, 96].
The Lord did not limit His blessing of revival upon one section of the Confederate Army. Confederate Chaplain W. H. Browning said that Chaplain Winchester, at a meeting of the Association of Chaplains, told of the conversion of one soldier and “stated that he believed we were on the eve of one of the most glorious revivals ever witnessed on the American continent!” The revival soon appeared.
Confederate Chaplain W. W. Bennett, in his book, The Great Revival in the Southern Armies, quoted Rev. L. R. Redding’s description of a meeting in the Army of Tennessee:
In the evening, at the close of dress-parade, the drums would beat the ‘Church call’ on Chapel Hill. It was a glorious sight, just as the setting sun bathed the mountain tops in his ruddy light, to see those toil-worn veterans gathering in companies and marching to the house of the Lord. From all directions, down from the hills, out of the woods, across the valleys, they came, while the gallant Colonel McCullough, of the 16th South Carolina, himself a godly man, leads his men to the place of worship. Then the 24th South Carolina falls into line, led by their chaplain, Mr. Auld, and their brave Colonel Capers, son of the deceased Bishop Capers, of the Southern Methodist Church. The benches and the pulpit have to be removed from the house, and a dense multitude of hearers crown the Chapel Hill. A clear, strong voice starts a familiar old hymn, soon thousands of voices chime in, and the evening air is burdened with a great song of praise. The preacher now enters the stand, a thousand voices are hushed, a thousand hearts are stilled, to hear the Word of the Lord [Bennett, pp. 246, 247].
Missionary Redding also described the ministry of one of many Gospel preachers:
Perhaps the speaker is Rev. William Burr, of Tennessee. As he rises with his theme, his silvery, trumpet-like voice, clear as a bugle note rings far out over the mass of men, and hundreds sob with emotion as he reasons with them of righteousness, of temperance, and a judgment to come. At the close of the sermon, hundreds bow in penitence and prayer, many are converted, tattoo beats — the men disperse to their cabins, not to sleep, but to pray and sing with their sorrowing comrades; and far into the night the camps are vocal with the songs of Zion and the rejoicings of new-born souls [Bennett, 247].
The Confederate Armies saw vast revivals, bringing tens of thousands of Southern warriors into the joy of salvation. Isaiah the prophet foretold of the triumph of Jesus Christ: “He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till He have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait for His law” (Isaiah 42:4). In these times of spiritual darkness, our Confederate ancestors point us to eternal victory in Jesus Christ. Dixie still reaps the benefits of “The Great Revival in the Southern Armies.” There is reason to pray for another gracious work of the Holy Spirit. “When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him” (Isaiah 59:19).
***
A CONFEDERATE SERMON
GOD IN THE WAR
Henry Holcombe Tucker (1819-1898) was one of the most noted Baptist theologians the state of Georgia ever produced. After two years of the practice of law, in 1848 he abandoned it for the Christian ministry. He traveled to Mercer University, where he received private instruction from its President, Dr. John L. Dagg. Tucker would only pastor briefly, being forced due to health reasons to leave the pastorate. He would continue to preach and was widely hailed as a gifted preacher of the Gospel.
Tucker served as President of Mercer University from 1866 to1871, guiding the institution through the difficult days of Reconstruction. He would also serve as Chancellor of the University of Georgia from 1874 until his resignation in 1878. He would pass away on Athens, Georgia on September 9, 1898.
Although an opponent of secession, once Georgia seceded, Tucker was an ardent supporter of the Confederate cause. The following sermon was preached in 1861 following President Davis’ call for a National Day of Fasting, Humiliation and Prayer. Tucker’s message stresses the Providence of God in the War while reminding his hearers of their responsibility.
GOD IN THE WAR.
A SERMON
DELIVERED BEFORE THE
LEGISLATURE OF GEORGIA,
IN THE CAPITOL AT MILLEDGEVILLE,
ON
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1861,
BEING A DAY SET APART FOR,
Fasting, Humiliation and Prayer,
BY
HIS EXCELLENCY THE PRESIDENT OF THE CONFEDERATE STATES.
BY REV. HENRY H. TUCKER, D.D.,
PROFESSOR OF BELLES LETTRES IN MERCER UNIVERSITY.
MILLEDGEVILLE:
BOUGHTON, NISBET & BARNES, STATE PRINTERS.
1861.
CORRESPONDENCE.
MILLEDGEVILLE, Nov. 16, 1861.
To REV. PROFESSOR H. H. TUCKER:
Dear Sir: The undersigned Committee appointed by the House of Representatives of the State of Georgia, to solicit of you for publication a copy of your able and interesting discourse delivered in the Representatives’ Hall on yesterday, have the pleasure to communicate to you the wishes of the House, with the hope that you will comply with the same.
We have the honor to be,
Yours with considerations of respect,
ROBERT H. TATUM,
ROBERT HESTER,
F. M. HAWKINS,
Committee.
EXECUTIVE MANSION,
Nov. 16th, 1861.
Gentlemen: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication, conveying to me the request of the House of Representatives for a copy of my discourse delivered yesterday, for publication.
Hoping and believing that the spread of the sentiments expressed in my discourse will not only do good to the hearts of my countrymen, but contribute to our success in the struggle in which we are engaged, I place a copy of the manuscript at your disposal.
I am gentlemen,
Very respectfully,
Your obedient servant,
H. H. TUCKER.
To
Messrs. ROBERT H. TATUM,
ROBERT HESTER,
F. M. HAWKINS,
Committee &c.
SERMON.
”Come behold the works of the Lord, what desolations He hath made in the earth.
He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; He breaketh to bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; He burneth the chariot in the fire.” PSALMS XLVI, 8:9.
Desolation! Desolation! Thousands of our young men have been murdered. Thousands of fathers and mothers among us have been bereaved of their sons. Thousands of widows are left disconsolate and heart-broken, to struggle through life alone. The wail of thousands of orphans is heard through the land, the Ægis of a father’s protection being removed from over their defenceless heads. Thousands of brave men are at this moment lying on beds of languishing, some prostrated by the diseases incident to the army and camp, and some by cruel wounds. Every house within reach of the seat of war is a hospital, and every hospital is crowded. Huge warehouses emptied of their merchandize, and churches, and great barns, are filled with long rows of pallets beside each other, containing each a sufferer, pale, emaciated and ghastly. Some writhe with pain; some rage with delirium; some waste with fever; some speak of home, and drop bitter tears at the recollection of wives soon to be widows, and babes soon to be fatherless. The nurse hurries with noiseless step, ministering from bedside to bedside. The pious chaplain whispers of Jesus to the dying. The surgeon is in frightful practice, bloody though beneficent; and as his knife glides through the quivering flesh and his saw grates through the bone and tears through the marrow, the suppressed groan bears witness to the anguish. A father stands by perhaps, to see his son mutilated. Mother and wife and sisters at home witness the scene by a dreadful clairvoyance, and with them the operation lasts not for moments but for weeks. Every groan in the hospital or tent, or on the bloody field, wakes echoes at home. There is not a city, nor village, nor hamlet, nor neighborhood that has not its representatives in the army, and scarcely a heart in our whole Confederacy that is not either bruised by strokes already fallen, or pained by a solicitude scarcely less dreadful than the reality. Desolation! Desolation! Hearts desolate, homes desolate, the whole land desolate! Our young men, our brave young men, our future statesmen, and scholars and divines, to whom we should bequeath this great though youthful empire with all its destinies; the flower of our society,—contributions from that genuine and proper aristocracy which consists of intelligence and virtue,—thousands, thousands of them laid upon the altar! And alas! the end is not yet. Another six months may more than double the desolation. Relentless winter may aid the enemy in his work of death. The youth accustomed at home to shelter, and bed, and fire, and all the comforts of high civilization, standing guard on wintry night, exposed to freezing rain and pealing blasts, and having completed his doleful task, retiring to his tent, to lie upon the bare ground, in clothes encrusted with ice, may not falter in spirit in view of his hardships; the fires of patriotism may still keep up the warmth at his heart; when be remembers that he is fighting for the honor of his father, and for the purity of his mother and sisters, and for all that is worth having in the world, he may cheerfully brave the terrors of a winter campaign; but though his soul be undaunted, his body will fail. Next spring when the daisies begin to blow, thousands of little hillocks dotted all over the country on mountain side and in valley, marked at each end with a rough memorial stone, and a brief and rude inscription made perhaps with the point of a bayonet, will silently but ah! how impressively, confirm the sad prophecy of this hour. Thus the work of desolation may go on winter after winter, until the malice of our foes is satiated, and until our young men are all gone. But let us not anticipate. The present alone presents subjects of contemplation, enough to fill the imagination and to break the heart.
These are the desolations of war. Do you ask why I present this sad, this melancholy picture? Why I make this heart-rending recital of woes enough to make heaven weep? In so doing I am but following the example of the Psalmist when he says, “Come behold the works of the Lord, what desolations He hath made in the earth!” If in the midst of victory when the God of Israel had given success to the arms of his people, their leader and king called upon them to forget their successes and meditate on the desolations of war, it must be right for the man of God now, to call upon his countrymen in the midst of a series of victories such as perhaps were never won in a war before, to forget their triumphs, and contemplate for a little the expense of life and of sorrow which those triumphs have cost.
Come then my countrymen, and behold the desolation. What emotion does it excite? What passion does it stimulate? To what action does it prompt? Indignation at the fanaticism, folly and sin of those who brought it all about. Rage at the authors of our ruin. Retaliation! To arms! To arms! Let us kill! Let us destroy! Let us exterminate the miscreants from the earth! Up with the black flag! They deserve no quarter! They alone are to blame for this horror of horrors. We had no hand in bringing it on. We asked for nothing but our rights. Our desire was for peace. They tormented us without cause while we were with them. What we cherish as a heaven-ordained institution they denounce as the “sum of all villainies.” They regarded us as worse than heathen and pirates; they degraded us from all equality; they spurned us from all fellowship; they taught their children to hate us; their ministers of religion chased us like bloodhounds, actually putting weapons of death in the hands of their agents with instructions to murder us. They made a hero and a martyr of him, who at Harper’s Ferry openly avowed his design, to enact over in all our land the horrid scenes of St. Domingo,—thus by the popular voice dooming us to death and our wives and daughters to worse than death; and when after these outrages, we sought no retaliation but besought them to let us go in peace, they still clutched us with frantic grasp, in order to filch away our substance, and reduce us to a bondage more degrading than that which they affect to pity in the negro.
I will not continue to give expression to thoughts which alas! have already taken too deep hold on us all. But in the midst of all the rage, resentment, and fury, which a contemplation of these facts of history is calculated to engender, let me repeat to you the words of the text, with an emphasis which perhaps will lift your minds above the consideration of second causes. “Come behold the works of the Lord, what desolations He hath made in the earth!” If it be important to regard the desolations of war, it is still more so, to be mindful of the source whence they come. This perhaps was the chief object of the Psalmist. If he pointed to the rod, it was that all hearts should be turned towards Him who held it. And this my countrymen it is all important for us to remember,—that GOD is in the war. He brought it upon us. The wickedness and folly of our enemies may have been the occasion of it, but these could not in any proper sense be the cause. That is but a shallow philosophy which sees a cause in anything outside of God. The idea of cause involves by necessity the idea of power, and what power is there independent of God? Aside from the will of God, what nexus can there be, between an effect and the antecedent which by a sad misnomer we denominate the cause? Satisfied with a slovenly nomenclature, we apply the term cause to that in which there resides no power. That profounder wisdom which we learn from the inspired oracles demands a better vocabulary; it calls for a word to designate the cause of so-called causes. In want of this, it disallows to earthly antecedents even if invariable, a name which describes that which is to be found only in the Almighty. The guilt of our enemies is what we term a second cause, that is to say, it is no cause at all, but only the occasion of a chastisement inflicted by an Almighty arm. God is in the war. God is in everything; in the doings of earth, for “He knoweth our downsitting and our uprising;” in the raptures of paradise, in the flames of perdition. Yea saith the Psalmist, “If I ascend up into heaven Thou art there. If I make ray bed in hell, behold Thou art there! Psalms cxxxix, 8.
In the economy of God the wicked are often used as instruments for the accomplishment of divine ends. Satan, when he introduced sin into the world, was the instrument of preparing the way for a brighter display of God’s goodness than ever yet had amazed the universe, and was as really the herald of Jesus of Nazareth as was John the Baptist. Those who cried out “Crucify him! crucify him! his blood be upon us and upon our children!” all guilty as they were;—in piercing the veins of a Savior opened the fountain of eternal life to the millions of them who shall be redeemed unto God by his blood, out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation.*
* Many parallel cases might be referred to; for an interesting one see Gen. 45. 6.
Thus does God cause the wrath of man to praise him. If there be any possible wrath, such as could not by divine almightiness, be so perverted from its wicked end as to promote the glory and exhibit the goodness of God, that remainder of wrath is restrained. In other words, sin is allowed only in so far as God brings good out of it. Thus every evil is the precursor of blessing. The greatest calamities that ever befell the Universe were but the harbingers of glory.
A Christian poet has said
We should suspect some danger nigh
When we possess delight.
Thank God it is also true, that whenever evil comes, we may know there is good at hand. In national or in individual experience, when the godless soul sees only a dark cloud, fraught with terror and with wrath, to the Christian the cloud resolves itself into a blazing star that guides to the best of blessings. When God says to his children “All things work together for good to them that love God,” the heart of the believer makes no exceptions, and thus “rejoices in tribulations, also.”
It is also a part of the divine economy to use the wicked as instruments for the chastisement of each other.—Two individuals indulge in mutual animosity. Each is wrong; and each by a series of unkindnesses, or acts that deserve a harsher name, inflicts upon the other a well deserved penalty. Neighborhoods give way to ill-will.—Nothing short of a miracle could prevent them from distressing each other; and Providence works no such miracle. Nations burn with hate against nations, and as an appropriate punishment for their crimes God turns them loose upon each other, and their perpetual wars result in mutual ruin. History, profane as well as sacred, is full of examples where “Nation was destroyed of nation, and city of city; for God did vex them with all adversity.” 2 Chron. xv. 5.
Even in the control of his own children God makes use of the wicked as his instruments of discipline. When Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, the inspired record declares that “The Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian; and the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel; and Israel was impoverished because of the Midianites.” Judges vi. 6. Individual experience too, may often make appropriate the prayer of David when he says “Deliver my soul from the wicked, which is thy sword; from men which are thy hand.” Ps. xvii. 13.
The sin of the wicked is not diminished by the fact that it is over-ruled for good by a superior power. There can be no interference with the personal responsibility of moral creatures. Thus the guilt of those who wage this diabolical war on the unoffending people of these Confederate States, finds no apology in the providence of God. “It must needs be that offences come but woe unto him by whom they come.” Luke xvii. 1. Our aggressors must answer for their awful account before the bar of God.—There let us leave them. Our text which was written when the death-smell was fresh on the field of battle, makes no reference to the outrages of the enemy, but points only to God, as the author of the desolation. The Psalmist does not confound the cause of trouble with the occasion of it. He is engrossed, not with the doings of earth, but with those of heaven. He has no eyes to see the wickedness of his foes. He forgets he ever had a foe, and sees only God in the war. Let his example be for our imitation. Surely it is as contrary to religion as it is to a sound philosophy to banish God from the most striking act of his Providence that has occurred within the memory of living man. If it be true then that the hand of God is in this thing (and who can doubt it?) and if we lose sight of that fact, surely a worse evil will come upon us. Among other evils, we may expect to receive in our own souls the consequences of our sin. Resentment, rage, and hate, will be so developed as to take entire possession of us. We shall become blood-thirsty as tigers, cruel as death, and malicious as fiends. All that we expect to accomplish by the war, if bought at such expense to our own character, would cost more than it is worth. If we cannot be free without transforming ourselves into devils, it were better not to be free; for any thraldom is to be preferred before slavery to sin. But if we exclude God from our thoughts, and regard the desolations around us as coming only from the enemy, how is it possible to keep from violating the injunction “avenge not yourselves!” Whose blood would not be set on fire, whose soul would not be carried away with fiercest passions, by contemplation of the frightful evils we sustain, if they be traced to no cause outside the wicked hearts of our enemies! Alas, all of us are too prone to confine our attention to second causes. Methinks I see the apparition of the spirit of David rising from the sleep of centuries, as that of Samuel did under the incantations of the witch of Endor. His form is venerable, his beard is flowing, and on his brow rests the crown of Israel. He touches the harp of solemn sound, and peals forth the notes of the sublime ode whence our text is taken. He waves his hand to the scenes of sorrow wrought by the war now upon us, and making no allusion to our foes, says “Come behold the works of the Lord, what desolations He hath made in the earth!”
When we regard the evils we suffer as the chastisement of the Almighty, there arises within us no spirit of resentment. The fiercer elements of our nature all subside.—We humbly submit to the judgments of the Almighty. Our eyes instead of flashing fire, are melted to tears; our tongues instead of curses and defiance, utter words of penitence and contrition. Whatever comes from God we can bear. We acknowledge his authority. We know that at his hands we deserve nothing but indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish. We know that he is a gracious Father as well as a righteous judge; and we recognise his benevolence even in his chastisements; for “whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth.” We only say “It is the Lord, let him do as seemeth him good.” Surely this is a better spirit than results from a view of second causes. Surely this is more likely to secure the divine approbation and the divine aid; and if God be for us who can be against us? This is the very spirit which his chastisements are intended to excite; and when the end is accomplished the means will be laid aside. Thus shall war afflict us no more, and God will not allow “the wicked which is his sword” to harm us further. But that other spirit which instead of forgetting the enemy and looking to God, reverses the order and forgetting God looks to the enemy, and which stimulates to frenzy the worst passions known to human nature, tends only to make us more wicked than we were before, and therefore to perpetuate the very causes which made these chastisements necessary. If instead of profiting by the afflictions which God sends upon us, we make them the occasions of additional guilt, what can we expect but that billow after billow of his wrath will overtake us until we shall be utterly destroyed.
The sweet singer of Israel having depicted the desolations which God sends by war, devotes the next strain of his inspired verse to the announcement of the truth that “He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth.” It is He who brings these evils upon us and it is He who takes them away. Nor is it needless for the Psalmist to remind us of what we might have known, that the blessings of peace are from the hand of the Almighty. Here too as in the former case, we are prone to be satisfied with second causes. We are anxious for wise legislation and for skillful generalship. We congratulate ourselves on having such able statesmen as Davis and Stephens, such able generals as Johnston and Beauregard. We glory in the belief that our troops are as brave as the bravest in the world, and that our enemies though outnumbering us four to one as they did at Leesburg, cannot stand before Southern valor in the open field for one moment. We exult (alas! our exultation is not unmixed with sin) when we see the terror-stricken fugitives leaping by hundreds over the steep embankment, and like devil-possessed swine plunging headlong into the Potomac. We are making abundant arrangements to supply ourselves with all the munitions of war. We are casting cannon, manufacturing arms, and fortifying our coasts. Hundreds of thousand of us are already under arms, and hundreds of thousands more are ready and anxious to step into the ranks. We feel safe when we remember that we are so many and so strong, and so brave, and so well prepared to re-enact the scenes of Sumter, and Bethel, and Manassas, and Springfield, and Lexington, and Leesburg, and Columbus. We feel sure that if the enemy will only give us battle once more on the Potomac, our brave boys will again send them shrieking and screaming back to their Northern homes. We doubt not that we shall whip them whenever we come in conflict with them. We shall whip them, and whip them, and whip them again. We shall whip them again and again. We shall whip them until they are satisfied to their hearts’ content, that the only safety for themselves is in letting us alone.
My countrymen! it is right for us to resort to all the means of defence which Providence has placed within our reach. It is proper to call into action our best civil and military talent, to strain every energy to the utmost in supplying the material of war. As for that sublime faith which we have in the unconquerable valor of our troops, I admire it, I partake in it. But we are here on dangerous ground. We must not step over the line where God says “Thus far shalt thou go, and no farther.” Let us not lean on an arm of flesh. Saith the prophet, “Cease ye from man whose breath is in his nostrils, for wherein is he to be accounted of.” Isa. ii. 22. Is our confidence in our success based on the wisdom of our statesmen and generals? That Providence which sustains the flight of the sparrow and numbers the hairs of our head might direct the death-bringing bullet to the vitals of our greatest chieftain. Instead of the horse, the rider might have been slain. “It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in Princes.” Ps. cxviii. 8-9. Is our trust in the valor of our troops? The same God who struck terror into the hearts of the Midianites when they heard the cry “The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!” the same God who sent confusion and dismay into the ranks of our enemies when the sword of the Lord and of the South prevailed at Manassas, might send a panic among us which would scatter us like chaff before the wind. He might send his angels in armies to descend upon us, and filling the air with their unseen presence, every heart might quiver with undefinable dread from unknown cause, and they might smite us with invisible weapons, the very touch of which would curdle our blood. Oh! there is no bravery that can stand before the hosts of the living God. The outward appliances of war, the chieftains and captains, the arms and munitions, the shot and shell, the rifles, infantry, artillery, cavalry, all these are useful in their proper places. But let us not put our confidence in them. They are not to be trusted.—They all may fail. They never yet have made a war to cease. This is the very sentiment of the scripture which says “There is no King saved by the multitude of an host; a mighty man is not delivered by much strength. An horse is a vain thing for safety, neither shall he deliver any by his great strength. Behold the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him!” Ps. xxxiii. 16. “Battle is the Lord’s.” 2 Chron. xx. 15. “He shall cut off the spirit of princes; he is terrible to the kings of the earth. At thy rebuke O God of Jacob both the chariot and the horse are cast into a dead sleep.” Ps. lxxvi. 6-12. “He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth!” So earnest is the Psalmists in declaring that the ending of the war as well as the beginning of it is from God, that he reiterates the sentiment four times in the text. First in literal terms, “he maketh wars to cease;” then in figure of speech “he breaketh the bow;” again in similar figure, “he cutteth the spear in sunder;” and for the fourth time he enunciates the same idea in another figure when he says, “he burneth the chariot in the fire.” The destruction of the bow, the spear, and the chariot, ancient instruments of war, was a symbolical way of describing peace. The figurative expressions then, mean the same as that which is literal; and if this portion of the ode were stripped of its poetic dress and expressed in plainest terms, it would be simply a fourfold declaration of a single truth. “He maketh wars to cease! He maketh wars to cease! HE MAKETH WARS TO CEASE! HE MAKETH WARS TO CEASE unto the end of the earth!” Let this tremendous energy of quadruple emphasis, be for the rebuke, and discomfiture and silencing of those who look to earthly sources for the power to stop this awful war. Ye worshippers of human Deities, who by supposing that the efforts of mortals can terminate the bloody strife, exalt the creature to a level with omnipotence, listen to the voice of the Almighty! “Be still and know that I am God! I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth!”
While it is true that we need constant admonition to wean us from trust in human resources and lift our thoughts to a higher Power, yet it is also a fact, and one most gratifying to the Christian, that thus far in the war, there has been a wonderful turning of the hearts of the people to God.—When Col. Hill wrote to the Governor of North Carolina that the Lord of Hosts had given us the victory at Bethel, he spoke the sentiment of the whole army. Our soldiers, from the highest officer to the humblest private in the ranks, habitually ascribe our victories to God. Even the irreligious seem to pause for a moment when they speak of Bethel or Manassas, and reverently acknowledge God in the battle. So universally does this feeling pervade our troops that it excites the wonder of all who have had an opportunity of observing it. When Mr. Memminger introduced into the Confederate Congress the ever-memorable and sublime resolutions ascribing the victory of the 21st of July to the King of kings and Lord of lords, a thrill of acquiescence and hearty appreciation flashed over the whole Confederacy, and the hearts of all the people were melted together. When the news reached this Legislative Hall only day before yesterday, that the Providence of God had brought across the ocean to our shores a ship laden with weapons of defence, and shoes for our feet, and other articles of necessity and comfort, the Representatives of the people here assembled, almost unanimously and simultaneously fell to their knees, and while tears of gratitude streamed from many a cheek, and amid a wide spread murmur of scarcely suppressed sobs, their presiding officer as the spokesman of the Assembly, offered up to God a tribute of prayer and thanksgiving!—Oh! that was a thrilling spectacle, and on which doubtless angels looked with beaming eyes and a new delight. Surely such a scene never occurred before. The record has been entered on the Journal and is now a chronicle of the times. Posterity will read it centuries hence with moistening eyes. Heartstrings will quiver and bosoms will heave with emotion all over the world on perusing this sublimest page in history. It is cheering to believe that the record is copied in heaven, and that this outburst of gratitude which thrilled the breasts of men and angels with such sweet and strange emotion, was not unacceptable to Him, to whom the tribute was paid and whose goodness was the cause of it. And now that His Excellency the President of the Confederate States has set apart this 15th day of November as a day of fasting, humiliation and prayer, calling on all the people to flock to a throne of grace, as a father calls on his children to surround the family altar, the whole people respond; all business has ceased, and the nation is prostrate before God.
The scoffer and the infidel may question the sincerity of the Christian, or if not, they will perhaps be surprised to learn that to his mind the most cheering evidence of our success in this war is this acknowledgment of God so wide spread in the hearts of the people. This pious and reverent feeling is not the natural offspring of the human heart. If it comes to us from external sources it comes from none that are bad. Satan never turns the heart to God. None but God himself could have inspired this confidence in himself: and he never inspires confidence merely to betray it.—This then is the chief reliance of the Christian patriot in this emergency. It is gratifying to see that this devout and proper spirit so generally prevails, and it should be the great aim of all who love God to cultivate and cherish it. The very best of us though we acknowledge God with one breath, are prone to forget him at the next; and while we ascribe the victories of the past to him, we are apt to trust for future victories to our own strong arms and stout hearts, and abundant preparations. No greater calamity could possibly overtake us than to yield to this disposition to forget God. If I were to say that it would be the certain precursor of overwhelming defeat, I should be only repeating what the prophet Isaiah said three thousand years ago, but which like all other truth is not impaired by time:— “Woe to them that stay on horses and trust in chariots because they are many, and in horsemen because they are very strong, but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the Lord.”—Is. xxi, i. Woe to you then ye people of Georgia! Woe to you all ye people of these Confederate States! if you are engrossed with outward preparations for battle, and seek not the Lord nor put your trust in the Holy One of Israel, and in the King of glory! Who is this King of glory? “The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle!“–Ps. xxiv.8.
Many of the ways of God are past finding out, for “his thoughts are very deep,” but in regard to the matter before us, it is not surprising that high and unfaltering faith in God should be the precursor of success. On the contrary it can be shown to be in keeping with all the dealings of his providence with us.
Of course when faith is spoken of, reference is had to real faith, not to counterfeits. Real faith either in God or in anything else is never an inert and unproductive principle. There is in its nature an element which prompts to action. Faith in God prompts to obedience, and if to obedience then to repentance, to reformation and to every virtue. The apostle not without reason places faith first, and hope and charity afterwards. For though charity be the greatest of the three, yet faith is the seed-virtue from which the others spring, certainly without which the others could not exist.
Now let us remember the point already made, that God is in the war. Let us further remember that he has not brought these calamities upon us without a purpose. Without presuming to know any of the secrets of Infinite wisdom, the Almighty has revealed himself to us sufficiently to warrant us in saying, that these afflictions must have been brought upon us either as a punishment for sins that are past, or as a means of making us better in future, or for both these ends. Suppose the object be the first of these. Then such faith in him as prompts to repentance and reformation while it might not logically remove the chastisement, would at least prevent further occasion for it from accruing; and there is reason to hope, that the divine benevolence would not be bound by so strict a logic as not to remove the penalty when the sin that occasioned it is repented of and abandoned. Suppose the object be to make us a better people. When the object is accomplished, there will be no further use for the instrumentality which brought it about. Suppose the object be both retrospective and prospective. The same reasoning that applied to the cases separately will apply to both together; except that the former case being coupled with the latter would receive strength by the connection, and we should have still better reason to hope that if we cease to sin our Heavenly Parent would cease to chastise.
It is not irreverent to suppose that the divine procedure would be governed by the same principles which control us in the discipline of our children. What father ever continues to use the rod when he is convinced that his child is so heartily sorry for his fault that he will never commit it again? What master would chastise his servant if he knew the servant’s grief for his fault to be sincere and profound enough to prevent him from repeating the offence? We are God’s children. He is chastising us. Let us acknowledge him; and say “though he slay me yet will I trust in him.” Let us confess the sins that brought these evils upon us. Let us repent of them, and so repent as to abandon. Let us do all this, and this war will come to an end. “He maketh wars to cease.” He will make this war to cease. When we become what we ought to be there can be no motive in the divine mind to continue the chastisement, and the war will cease. The skeptic may ridicule this conclusion. Let him ridicule. “A brutish man knoweth not neither doth a fool understand this.”–Ps. xcii.6. He who is enlightened from above, without stopping to ask the opinions of politicians, soldiers or philosophers, and preferring higher authority, goes straight to the oracles of God for a solution of the problem, and is satisfied when he reads: “He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he; breaketh the bow and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the fire.” The caviler may object, and talk about military and political necessities, and physical and moral impossibilities, and philosophic difficulties. But while he is prating, the providences of God will go right on, and will say to him in due time, “Be still and know that I am God.”
How strange that we should ask men to predict what the end will be, without asking God who knows all things from the beginning. How strange that we should rely on our puny efforts to bring this dreadful strife to a close, when we know that God only can stop it. For is it not He who makes wars to cease? We have been trusting in horses and in chariots. Let us rather remember the name of the Lord our God. Let us pay our vows unto him, and we shall have no further use for these dread instruments of war.—Here then is great good news for the people of these Confederate States! These desolations may be stopped! The red tide of life that flows from the veins of your sons may be staunched! Prosperity may again be established!—”What,” exclaims one, “can we entice the enemy from their entrenchments into open field? Then indeed we shall soon destroy them and the remainder will sue for peace!” No my friend, there is no certainty that that would close the war. “What then? shall we cross the Potomac, deliver Maryland, push on to Philadelphia and still farther North until we conquer a peace?” No, no. There can be no assurance of success in such an enterprise. “Shall we then court the friendship of foreign powers, and thus reinforce our army, and re-supply our wasting resources?” Yes! Let us court the friendship, not indeed of a foreign power, for the God of our fathers is not foreign to us, but let us court the favor of heaven, and verily an alliance with the Almighty will make us omnipotent!
My countrymen, before God! in my heart and from my soul, I do believe that if the people of this Confederacy were to turn with one heart and one mind to the Lord and walk in his ways, he would drive the invader from our territories and restore to us the blessings of peace. I wish I could express myself with more plainness and with more force. Let me say again, I believe that the quickest and easiest way to terminate this war, and that favorably to ourselves, is for us all to be good. We imagine that the only way to get out of our difficulties is to fight out. There is a more excellent way. Let us by faith, obedience and love, so engage the Lord of Hosts on our side that he will fight for us; and when he undertakes our case we are safe, for “he maketh wars to cease,” and he will break the bow of the enemy, and cut his spear in sunder, and burn his chariot in the fire, and say unto him, “Be still and know that I am God!” Call it superstition if you please ye men of the world. Say that we are deluded by a religious enthusiasm. But know ye that faith in Israel’s God is not superstition, and that confidence in an over ruling providence is no delusion. Enthusiasm there may be, there is, there ought to be, we avow it, we glory in it. The heathen may rage and the people imagine a vain thing, but we rejoice when we can say,—God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof, Selah! The Lord of Hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge, Selah!”
Lay what plans you will, and set what schemes you please in operation, and at the summing up of all things at the end of the world, it will be found that God ruled and overruled all things according to the working of his power; and that the great statesmen and great captains who figure so largely in history, were but the unwitting instruments of accomplishing his purposes. We look back over the past and see God in history. We look forward and see him bringing generation after generation upon the earth to work out his designs and not theirs, for before they existed they could have had no designs. Why should the present be an exception? Let us then do justly, and love mercy and walk humbly before God, and by thus falling in with his plans, we shall be on his side and he will be on ours, and those who make war upon us will either see their folly and cease, or if they continue will do nothing more than work out their own ruin. They have no power to harm us. We have no power to make ourselves safe. “Once hath God spoken, yea twice have I heard this, that power belongeth unto God.”—Ps. lxii.ii. Let us fly to that Power and engage it in our behalf, and he who smote great nations and slew mighty kings, Sihon king of Amorites, and Og king of Bashan for his people’s sake, will smite the hypocritical nation that wars against us, and will give to us and to our children the heritage of our fathers forever.
I have said that the way to enlist this almightiness on our side is to make the law of God the law of every man’s life. Perhaps these terms are too general to convey the idea with power. What then more particularly is to be done? What specific duties must we discharge? What special evils must we forsake? All, all! The whole head is sick, the whole heart is faint, the whole body is corrupt. How small a proportion of our population are disciples of Jesus!—Counting out avowed unbelievers and false professors, how few are left! Here is the place to begin. A pure Gospel is our only hope—I repeat it, a pure Gospel is our only hope. If the Kingdom of Christ be not set up in the hearts of the people no government can exist except by force. All you then who have no personal experience of the grace of the Gospel are so far, in the way of your country’s prosperity. The first step for you to take is to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, confessing your sins and giving him your heart. But aside from this, let us look at our public morals. Passing by profanity, for we are a nation of swearers; passing by drunkenness, for we are a nation of drunkards; passing by Sabbath-breaking, for our cars thunder along the track on the Sabbath as on any other day, and our convivial gatherings are too often on the day of the Lord; passing by covetousness and lying, for two many of our citizens alas! will for the sake of defrauding the public out of a few dollars make false oath in giving in their tax returns; passing by neglect of our children, for too few of them receive that religious instruction and training which is their due; passing by injustice to servants, for while their physical wants are in some cases unsupplied their moral wants are too generally neglected; passing by all these things, and each of the sins of private life which ought to be exchanged for its opposite virtue; let me call especial attention to three things of more public nature, and which are fairer samples of the average of public morals.
In the first place, how is it that in the State of Georgia it is almost impossible to convict a culprit of crime? The most atrocious murders and other outrages are committed with impunity, in the very face of our so-called Courts of Justice. Is the Bench prostituted? Is the Bar prostituted? Or is it the Jury box? In either case it is clear that public virtue is at fault; otherwise these evils would not be tolerated. So notoriously defective is the administration of justice, that in many cases fresh within the memory of us all, citizens have felt it necessary in self-defence to execute criminals without the forms of law. Is not this a step towards barbarism? The example of disregarding the law being set by reputable citizens, will be followed by others not so reputable. When this system is inaugurated where will it stop? Whose life will be safe? This reign of the mob, this lawless execution of men which is little short of murder, will become the rule and not the exception, unless a more healthy public opinion shall correct the evils in our Courts of Justice.
The second evil is kindred to the first. How is it that in all the history of this Legislative body pardon has been granted to every criminal, almost without exception who has ever applied for it? Can it be that all who have been pardoned were innocent? If so there must have been horrid injustice in the Courts which convicted them. The bloodthirsty Jeffreys would scarcely have sent so many innocent men to the gallows. No; under the loose administration of justice already referred to, none but the most glaring cases (with possibly a rare exception) could ever be convicted.—How comes it then that our Legislators turn loose these culprits upon society? It is because they are more anxious to secure a re-election than to promote the good of the State. How comes it that a vote adverse to pardon would endanger their re-election? It is because public opinion is rotten. The fault lies in the low standard of public morals.
But for the third item. Without meaning to indulge in wholesale denunciation of any class of my fellow citizens, it may yet be pertinent to inquire, how is it that so few of our public men are good men? Is it to be supposed that all the talent, and all the learning, and all the wisdom, have been vouchsafed to the bad rather than to the good? Does Satan claim a monopoly of all the intellectual power and administrative ability in the world? Perhaps it is not surprising that he should; for he once offered to give to their rightful owner “all the Kingdoms of this world and the glory of them” on condition of receiving his homage in return. But it is preposterous to suppose that there are no good men to be found capable of discharging the highest public trusts.—Why then are they not oftener found in eminent position? It is because the public in estimating a man’s fitness for office, throw his morals out of the account; and because popularity can be obtained by means which bad men freely resort to, but which good men eschew. How sad a comment on public virtue! Every voter who allows personal interests, or preferences, or prejudices, or party zeal or anything to influence his suffrage in favor of a bad man in preference to a good one, if the latter be capable, is doing what he can to banish virtue from our councils and God from our support. It might be a fair subject of inquiry, whether he or the out breaking felon whose place is in the Penitentiary inflicts the greatest injury upon society.
It is time that the preachers of the Gospel, who ought to be if they are not, the great conservators of public morals, had made way upon these monster evils; and I rejoice that I have the opportunity on this public day, before this Legislative body, and before the people of the whole State, to bear my testimony against them.
The three evils just specified are only outward manifestations of an internal distemper, the mere efflorescence of evil deep seated in the public heart. The disappearance of these would indicate a radical change. Suppose public justice to be rightly administered, suppose the influence of virtue in our councils to be predominant; and this is to suppose that thousands upon thousands of individual men have grown wiser and better, that myriads of private faults have been exchanged for corresponding virtues, that the whole complexion of society is changed, and its whole nature improved. Suppose that the Gospel of Christ which alone can work these changes, should continue thus to elevate, refine, ennoble and sanctify, until every heart were brought under its sacred influence. How much like heaven our earth would be! Can any one suppose that in such a state of society as this, the heavenly tranquility would ever be disturbed by the clangor of war! Let our whole people at once renounce their evil works and ways with grief, and follow hard after God, and I confidently declare that he would with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm deliver us from our enemies and restore peace and prosperity.—Think you that I ought to modify this positive declaration into a mere expression of opinion? I reiterate the same sentiment in words which no man will dare to question:—”When a man’s ways please the Lord he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.”—Prov. xvi.7. And again, “Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him turn unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and unto our God for he will abundantly pardon.”—Is. Iv.7. Is it said that these words refer to individuals and are not applicable to States? The same conditions of mercy that would suffice for one man would suffice for two, and if for two then for any number, for nations and for all.
From these teachings of Holy Writ, it appears my countrymen, that in carrying on this war which the providence of God has brought upon us, we ought to use a new set of instrumentalities; instrumentalities the object of which shall be not to injure our enemies but to benefit ourselves; to benefit us not in things visible and tangible but in the inner man. Thus shall those faults in our character which made these chastisements necessary be removed, and as matter of moral certainty the sad consequences which we suffer would cease.
Here then is joyful news to thousands of Christian patriots who burn with desire to aid their country’s cause, but who know not what to do. All you have to do is to be good, and in being good you are doing good; and in doing good you are securing the favor of God and contributing your share towards enlisting Him on the side of our armies. Joy to our venerable fathers, who bowing beneath the weight of years, are unable to gratify their intense desire to fly to arms! Fathers, learn from the word of God; the sins peculiar to old age. Struggle against them. Fixed as your habits may be, try to improve your hearts and lives; and be sure that every success you meet with in the improvement of your graces will tell upon our enemies with more power than the missile from the musket. Joy to our mothers and wives and sisters and daughters! While with busy fingers you ply the needle and the loom for the benefit of our brave defenders, remember that you can render aid far more efficient. Cultivate the graces and practice the virtues enjoined in the Gospel; and though no famous report will be made to the world, God will observe it; though no influence be seen going out from it, yet its influence will be felt in heaven and will descend to earth again. God yearns towards them who seek Him; and when His affections are drawn out towards us, He will be more ready to defend and deliver us. Joy to the invalid, to the blind, and deaf and dumb, and maimed, and poor, and all who by afflictive dispensations are seemingly helpless and apparently a burden to their country in these times of peril. You too can help us in the war. Bear your sorrows with patience, receive the attentions of your friends with gratitude, copy the spirit of Jesus, and as little as the world may think of it, you too will help to drive the invaders from our soil. Scoff skeptic if you please, but we rejoice in the assurance that whatever brings God nigh to us will drive our enemies far away; and what brings God so nigh as the exercise of the spirit and the practice of the duties which His word enjoins? Joy, Joy to you ye preachers of the Gospel! Know ye that whatever makes the people better makes them stronger; that in spreading truth and virtue you are supplying the true sinews of war. Your mission is one of love and peace, and yet in more senses than one you are warriors. Your profession may be thought valueless in these times of bloody strife, but in truth yours is the most efficient branch of the service. The influence of the Gospel is a wall of defence against enemies carnal no less than spiritual. Every pulpit is a battlement whence great moral Columbiads hurl huge thunders against all who would harm us. Joy, joy! ye ministers of the Gospel of peace, for you can fight for your country and yet keep your hands unstained with blood.
See what an accession there is here to our forces in the field. We thought we had an army of some two hundred thousand. Here we have added the whole army of the saints, male and female, of every age, and color, and condition;—a motley band whose uneven ranks excite the sneers of men and devils. But on their banner is inscribed, “Not by might nor by power but by my Spirit saith the Lord.” Zech. iv. 6. By that sign they will conquer. Each in his sphere moves quietly along, and men of the world think they are doing nothing, but they are the best soldiers in the war. Their spiritual weapons make no loud report; no blood is seen to follow their stroke; the stroke itself is not seen. The still closet is remote from the scene of battle. But when our enemies rush on a praying people, they rush on their own destruction. Every closet is a masked battery, from whose mysterious depths there goes forth an influence unseen and unheard, but carrying swift disaster to the ranks of our foes. Terror seizes upon them; they feel the dread influence but know not whence it comes, and bewildered and confounded by these assaults on their spiritual nature while yet their bodies are unhurt, they fly, they fly, supposing that they fly not from men but from devils. They know not that they are flying from before the saints of God, from before the armies of the Most High.
My countrymen, we are certain of success in this war if we but use the right means. But those means which are the last that men think of, and the last that they adopt, are the first in order and the first in importance in the Divine estimation. The first and last and only thing that men are apt to do, is to gather together the implements of war and prepare for battle. God forbids not the use of these things; nay, to lay them aside would be but to tempt His Providence. But paramount to this is the purifying of the heart. Let us “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,” and trust that all other things will be added. Mat. vi. 33. Let our people forsake their sins and practice goodness, so that it call be said of our land, “thy people shall all be righteous,” and the sweet prophecy will be fulfilled in us, which declares, “Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders; but thou shall call thy walls Salvation and thy gates Praise. A little one shall become a thousand and a small one a strong nation. I the Lord will hasten it in his time.” Is. xvi. 18. Yes! when this happy day comes it will be of God, for “He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; He breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; He burneth the chariot in the fire.” Suppose every nation were thus to turn to the Lord. Then every nation would secure his blessing. Nation would rise up against nation no more, nor would men longer learn the arts of war. The spears would be beaten into pruning hooks and the swords into ploughshares; the days of Millenial glory would come, and the whole world would be subject to the gentle reign of the Prince of Peace!
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Book Review
Christ in the Camp or Religion in the Confederate Army:
by J. William Jones,
Reviewed by Chaplain H. Rondel Rumburg.
Sprinkle Publications, c. 1986, 624 pages in hardback.
There was a great work of God which occurred during the years when the plague of locusts from the North overran the South seeking her destruction. The work of the Lord was monumental in the Confederate Armies during the conflict from 1861 to 1865. However, some of the middle and late years of that time frame had a greater concentration of divine blessing than the previous.
After those devastating days of war and during deconstruction there was concern over the documenting of the religious history, that is, how Christ had visited His people. As early as April 1866, J. Wm. Jones wrote the following to The Religious Herald,
To Former Chaplains, Missionaries and Colportours of the “Army of Northern Virginia.”
Dear Brethren, –The undersigned, at the instance of many brethren, and in accordance with his own desires, proposes to write, in a connected narrative, the religious history of the Army of Northern Virginia. And in order to succeed in the effort, he must have the assistance of the brethren who labored in that great harvest field. His design is to trace the gradual development of religious interest in the army, give a narrative of the great revivals with which the different brigades were blessed, and show the influence of the gospel upon the morale and efficiency of that great army. He desires to illustrate and enliven the narrative by such incidents and anecdotes as he may be able to cull from his diary or obtain from other sources. Will not brethren whose privilege it was to labor in that army, send me brief sketches of the religious history of their brigades, embracing such statistics as the number of conversions, number of prayer meetings, accounts of tract distributions, the general deportment of the young converts, and any other facts of interest? I should also be glad to get facts going to show the effect of the army revivals upon the churches—whether our returned soldiers have maintained their Christian character—what proportion of the army converts are devoting themselves to the gospel ministry, etc.
The undersigned is impressed with the magnitude of the work he has undertaken, and would gladly turn it over to some more competent hand; but he is so anxious to see some such memorial of those precious seasons of revival in which it was his high privilege to have been an humble laborer, that he has determined to undertake the work, and begs that he may have the sympathies, the prayers and the active assistance of the brethren with whom he was so pleasantly associated during the scenes of the war.
Any suggestions from brethren as to the details of the work, as well as the material above asked for, sent to my address, Goshen Bridge, Central Railroad, Va., will be most thankfully received.
J. Wm. Jones,
Formerly Chaplain 13th Va. Infantry,
and Evangelist to Hill’s Corps.
The Editors for the Religious Herald endorsed Jones by adding, “We most heartily commend the above object. Of all the brethren we know, Rev. J. Wm. Jones, in view of his active participation in the events which he proposes to describe, and his literary qualifications, is best fitted for the task. We are persuaded that, with the assistance that he solicits, and which will surely not be withheld, he will make a volume of most unrivalled interest.”
The work of John William Jones on this memorial was finished and published on May 30, 1887 in the account called Christ in the Camp. Years of collecting material and pains-taking work over a long period of time, around 20 years, came to fruition in this profound account of the Lord’s work of grace during a time of invasion and the defense of hearth and country. Jones was a pastor, editor of various publications, representative of noble causes, guest speaker and writer of other projects during this time as well. A new edition was produced in 1904 containing 624 pages. A reprint of the new edition was brought to the public by Sprinkle Publications of Harrisonburg, Virginia in 1986 and thankfully is still in print.
The Editors of the Religious Herald were correct. Jones was “best fitted for the task.” Time proved their observation to be astute. No one could ask for a more accurate or readable history of what the Lord did during those years of Southern suffering and dying. There was reviving and a great ingathering of souls during that era. Perhaps a quote which characterizes this chronicle of the work of Christ in Lee’s Army was, “Jesus was in our camps with wonderful power, and that no army in all history—not even Cromwell’s ‘Roundheads’—had in it as much of real, evangelical religion and devout piety as the Army of Northern Virginia.”
This volume contains information on the religious elements in the army, the influence of Christian officers, Bible and colportage work, hospital work, the work of chaplains, missionaries and evangelists, the reception the gospel, the movement of the Holy Spirit, and the results and genuine nature of the work of God among the soldiers.
Anyone interested in knowing what God was doing in the Army of Northern Virginia from those who were His instruments needs only to read Christ in the Camp. Soli Deo Gloria!
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We must remember who we are and what we must be about:
The SCV Challenge by Lt. Gen. S. D. Lee
To you, Sons of Confederate Veterans, we will commit the vindication of the cause for which we fought. To your strength will be given the defense of the Confederate soldier’s good name, the guardianship of his history, the emulation of his virtues, the perpetuation of those principles which he loved and which you love also, and those ideals which made him glorious and which you also cherish. Remember, it is your duty to see that the true history of the South is presented to future generations.
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Chaplain’s Handbook
Sons of Confederate Veterans
What a pleasure it is to continue to remind you of the Chaplain’s Handbook. Our Past Commander-in-Chief Sweeney, your Past Chaplain-in-Chief and others have highly recommended this tool. This volume will be of help and benefit. Any person who loves Southern History will appreciate this volume. Not only will this book be of great value to the Chaplains of the SCV or the UDC, but it will be of help to any who speak at memorial services, Lee/Jackson banquets, etc. Much of the material is from the period of 1861-1865. There are period weddings, funerals, prayers, hymns, etc.
There is an excellent chapter on Camp Chaplains in the volume. This chapter should be of personal help to local camp chaplains.
The Chaplain’s Handbook is a hardback book bound in gray cloth. The volume is printed on acid free paper, printed in signatures that are sewn, 131 pages long, and measures 5 ¼ by 7 ¼ inches. Thus, the book is produced in a form much like books of the Confederate era. The book can be purchased from headquarters (http://.scv.org) or from biblicalandsouthernstudies.com.
