The Banner and Baptist. (Atlanta, Ga.) 186?-186?, August 23, 1862, Image 1

The Banner and Baptist., August 23, 1862, Image 1

About The Banner and Baptist. (Atlanta, Ga.) 186?-186? | View Entire Issue (Aug. 23, 1862)

Page of 4

Prev Issue Next Issue

Text PDF JP2 (6.9 MB) Clip/Print Image

Page of 4

Prev Issue Next Issue

Return to Top

Newspaper Page TextH G. HORNADY, \ EDITOR and PROPRIETOR. f VOLUME If!. The Banner and Baptist IS PUBUSHKp EVERY SATURDAY MOENINO, ' 'AT ATLANTA, GA.- Attbsurlptloo. price—Three Dollars per year, in advance..' H. C. Horxadv, Proprietor. our National sin. A' SERVION, BY ELDER A. C. DAYTON, Peeactivd in the First Baptist Church. Atlanta. Georgia, _ May 4, 1868. [PUttHED BY REQUEST OF THE CHURCH.] * The Lord is with yon while ye be with Him.' [2d Chronicles xv: 3. PART 11. But 1 have already dwelt too long on this. My object was to show that slavery is not our national sin. This has been done —and now the question returns, What is it, then ? Let u's keep in mind that Sin h some “ transgression of God’s law,’ and a national sin is such transgression commit ted, required, or at least connived at and encouraged by the government in its official capacity. * We have heard in last day sermons, and have'read in newspaper paragraphs, that drunkenness, profanity and avarice were our national sins. -Most grievous sins they surely are, and sadly prevalent among our people. But. they are personal or individ ual sins. God will punish them in him who hair’ been guilty. They are none of them required bylaw or sustained by the national authority. But now what would you think of a government that would re quire such violations of God’s law— com mand men to get drunk, profane God’s holy nam6, or cheat and steal, and punish them for disobedience to its wicked law ? You would feel that the curse of the Almighty must rest upon a people who would volun tarily sustain such a government, or even quietly submit to it. Here are God’s ten great commandments ; they are binding on all. The government has no more right to disregard them than I have. God is Law giver to governments as much as to indi viduals. God says,. in His first commandment, ’ Thou shaft have no other God before me.’ VVijat would you think, how would you feel, if our government at Richmond—the government we love and pray for, the gov ernment for which so mapy have laid down their Uveo-T-shogld, by some official act, Jemahd of all its officers to offer religious worship to the sun or moon, or to the spirit of George Washington, in violation of this ■first commandment ! . In the aeoond commandment, God for bids the ‘ worship of any graven image.’ What would you think, how would, you feel, if our government had made a law requiring every officer in the army to wor ship that magnificent statue of Patrick Heui;y stands in the public square in the city of Richmond 1 It is as well worthy of worship as ever any statue of Jupiter was; but could you pr y for the blessing of God upon our government when it had done this thing ? God’s third commandment is, ‘Thou shalt | nut taka the name of the Lord thy God in vain/ What wqqld you think, how would yoq teel, if our government should pass a law requiring of our citizens to curse, and j swear, "or should sustain the officers in our ] army in requiring our soldiers to profane God’s name ? Would not every Christian heart bu n with a koly indignation against spch a government ? Would not a gr*at outcry of remonstrance at once go up from every corner ol our land ? \\ oujd not the nation wait with shuddering tear for the tokens of God’s devouring anger l Would not we all feel justified in openly rebelling against* such a governmentl—would uot we all feel obliged to do it, so fur as these laws % ere concerned ? No -such govern ment could retain the confidence of our people for a single day, nor continue to ex ist any longer than the little time that might be needed for a groat and virtuous nation to rise in its majesty and hurl it from the seat of power. Why ? Because it would have set itself in open opposition 10 the government of Ghl. Why? Be cause we dare not do, at the command of any humau rulers, what the God of Heaven •aid Barth has plainly said ye shall Jo. Why I Because we would be sure that the coxae of God would rest oh such a govern meat, and on the nation that sustains or cvaa submits to It. We would look for ATLANTA, GA., AUGUST 28, 1862. war; we would look for famine ; we would look for pestilence; we Would expect our fields to be waste and our cities desolate; we would have no reason to hope that it could be otherwise. And even though Go i, in His abundant mercy and long suffering patience, might bear with it for years, yet we would be always-living in a ‘ certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery ! indignation.’ But now tell me, if you can, what better right the government has to* require our people to violate the fourth commandment than the three preceding it ? It is a part of the same great law ; it was uttered by the same Voice of thunder from the clouds and flames of Binai; it was written with the same finger of God on the tables of stone. And so far is it from being regarded by the Law-giver as less important than His other laws, that He repeated it over and over again, and gave it most peculiar emphasis in other portions of the Holy Word. To this law He gave the sanction of most especial national blessings promised to those people who observed it, and most fearful national calamities . threatened to those who refused to observe it. Some thing of this you can find in Ezekiel, in Jeremiah, in Nehemiah, and Isaiah, but but nothing more striking and conclusive than in the twenty-sixth chapter of Leviti cus, in which you will find such words as these : ‘ Ye shall keep my Sabbaths, and rever jence my sanctuary.’ ‘ If ye %valk in my statutes and keep my [commandments and do them, than I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase. And I will give you peace in the land, neither shall the sword go through your land. And ye shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall be fore you by the sword. 5 . ‘ But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments, 1 will set my fa?e against you, and ye shall be. slain before your enemies. They that hate you shall reign over you, and ye shall flee when none pursueth,’ ‘ I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries into desolation.’ ‘ I will bring your land into desolation, and your enemies that dwell therein shall be astonished at it.' ‘ And your land shall be desolate and yoyr cities waste. Then shall the land en joy her Sabbaths. As long as it lieth des olate, and ye be in yourpnemies’ land, even then shall the land rest and enjoy her Sab baths ; so long as it lieth desolate it shall rest, because it did not rest in your Sabbaths when ye dwelt upon it. 1 Oli, is it not a fearful thing tor any gov eminent to call this curse of God upon its people ? Is it not most fearful for onr gov ernment to do this thing, since we have claimed to be the special friends and advo cates of the Bible ? We go to the Bible for authority to bold .oui slaves. We re joice. to find in this fourth commandment a recognition of our peculiar institution.- We read with glad hearts the twenty-fifth chapter <*f Leviticus, which contains the slave code which was i naeted by God him self. With what face, then, can we, of all .the people on the earth, reject the law of the Sabbath as contained in that command ment, and repeated in the twenty-sixth of Leviticus—a part of which 1 have quoted above? But some may Msk in wonder whether it can be true that our Government does re* quire any violation of this law of God. — Let us look at the facts; jet us try to see them as they must appear to God. Andi if I seem to speak too reproachfully of our j rulers and their official acts, if my earnest- j ness may sound like indignation, believe me, brethren, when I say that 1 speak in : sorrow, not in anger. I love that Govern* j ment; 1 am to day an outlaw from my home because 1 love it; every day my heartfelt prayer ascends to God that He may establish and build it up, and give us through it our liberty and independence.*— It was ignorance or thoughtlessness brought this tearful am on our land It is from the strange power of habit that it perpetuates [it. It will repent when its attention shall have been directed to it. * * Since writing the above, I have been told that this subject was beioie our first Congress when it met in Montgomery, and a proposition was uide to .bring our laws into conformity with the law of God In regard to the Sabbath, and, after some’discussioo, ft was deliberately voted down. If it be so, we have the fearful fact to meet, that our government has will ally and deliberately defied God to His face, and in yoked His curse upon our people, by ope try j declaring Us determination that, as a govern imeat, it would not regard God’* aw. -mi BAma over" ns is " love." But what are the facie? God says, ‘Six days shall ye labor and do all your work, but the seventh is the Sabbath of the Lord your God; in it ye shall not do any work.’ Our government says to all the officers and employees in the post-office department, ‘ Six days shall ye labor and do all your work, and the seventh day ye shall labor right on, and do your work as on other days; yo shall on'that lay'perform all the labor that may be required to make up, forward, and’deliver the mails, just as on any other day.’ The Sabbath is utterly repudiated. God says ye shall remember it and keep'it holy ; our government says ye shall not observe jt at all. God says ye shall not work ; our government says yo sAa//jwork. The question is not whether the govern ment may 'permit men under its control to violate God’s law, but whether it m y re quire them to do so. There is only one plea which can be made, and that is that the Sabbath mail service is a necessity, and hence is not forbidden. Works of neces sity may, that day, be done; but remember it must be a necessity which the God of the Sabbath will recognize—not a mere matter of convenience or of gain. If we had all been accustomed to labor on the Sabbath as on other days, we should proba bly all feel our work was necessary. The poor man Would declare that, as he could do more than provide for the wants of his family by working eVery day, it was ne cessary for him ; and the rich man would declare that, as the resting on that day of all his servants would take-thousands every year from his profits, it was necessary to him. But however profitable or convenient the labor may seem to be, God says that it shall cease. People can wait one day longer for their letters and papers, for be fore railroads were made used to wait many days longer, kl 5 ~ttiat the whole mail service may be suspended on the Sabbath, for it is thus suspended every Sabbath day in the kingdom of Great Britain, and that, too, without destroying or impairing the commercial prosperity of her people. It is possible that it may be suspended, for at one time it was suspended all along thelineof the Georgia State Road, the managers of that road having very properly refused to run their cars upon the Sabbath to carry the mails. It can be suspended, for there are thousands of Chris tian people who are too conscientious to avail themselves of it, and who do habitu ally w ait till Monday for the Sabbath mails, and they are not the least prosperous of all who have business with the post office.— There is no more necessity for this than /or any other importiuit labor; and not being absolutely necessary, it can not but be regarded as a violation of the law of God But now let us turn to the Wai depart ment. Here the case is still more deplora ble. A pious young man, writing from the camps to his father, said, some weeks since: ‘ There is no Sabbath in the ana y. All Sunday morning we are engaged in prepa ring for the inspection of arms and equip menu, and all the afternoon in drill and parades or reviews. We have no time to rest—no time for the public worship of God.’ This corresponds with the testimony of thousands of our soldiers. The Sabbath, so far from being a day of iest, is with many regiments a day of extra iabo\ f I do not speak now of the labor which a military necessity may demand in the presence of the enemy, but of that which is required in the camps, when no enemy is near and when no necessity exists. The government has no more right to demand needless labor of the soldier on God’s holy day, than I have to demand it of any slave. At a meeting ol the Cherokee Baptist Con vention held in May,4863, at Manassas, Ga, it was suggested by a minister present, that there was little if anv disregard of the Sabbath by order of the officers in our army ; that nothing was required of our soldiers but the needful dress parade. Dr. Crawford, of Mercer Uni versity, said that there was a colonel who came with his regimeut to Penfield, and who profess ed his desire and intention to observe the Sab bath and permit his men to do so, but on making this declaration public it was commanded by his supsrior officer to take bis men and drill them eight hours on the coming Sabbath, as if to show that no such thing as the observance of God’s law would be permitted. Eider G. W. Selvidge testified in the same assembly, that at Corinth, where he had been I during most of the period while it was occupied Iby our army, not only regimental drills and >' parades were customary on the Sabbath, but | reviews of whole brigades if not of divisions. The soldier needs his rest as much as th e slave. If he does not have it, you will shorten his life. No doubt thousands have already perished from sickness and ex haustion who might have survived had their strength been preserved by an ob servance of God’s rest day while in camp. The experience of ages has shown that man | and beast must have this rest to be enabled !to accomplish all that man and beast are capable of doing. # God’s law of the Sab bath, like all His laws, is given for our good. It but recognizes a necessity in the physical and mental constitution of the in habitants of the earth. But whether God commanded it with or without a reason, His command is the highest of all reasons to us for its observance, and His command is as much binding on the government aq it is on any individual citizen. God is Ruler of the nations, and they as well as men must heed His laws. It may indeed be said that our government has not re quired any violation of the Sabbath in the army by any recorded law; it demands in its articles of war only the dress-parade.— But is not this so much the worse, since it shows that the government recognizes the duty to observe the Sabbath day, and yet lends its whole power and influence to en force its desecration ? Is it not true that while the government thus recognizes the obligation to rest upon the Sabbath, it yet, by its officers, acting by its authority, re quires of tens of thousands of our citizen soldiers, every week, to desecrate the day, and that under penalty of death itself ? Its officers command the labor to be done; the soldier must obey or he is mutinous, and the penalty of mutiny is death. The soldier is as much c impelled to desecrate the Sabbath as if the articles of war or some law of Congress peremptorily com manded it, and threatened death to him -who should venture to obey God rather than man. Can this be right;? Does not the gov ernment owe it to the soldier, owe it to the country, and owe it to the God of armies, to protect the soldier in his Sabbath rest, instead of lending all its military power to enforce the wicked orders of wicked officers ? God will hold the nation responsible for this sin. It cries to Him for punishment, and the punishment threatened in His word is a desolated land. ‘ Your land shall be desolate and your cities waste, and your enemies that dwell therein shall be aston ished at it.’ * And then shall the land en joy her Sabbaths. As long as it lieth desolate it shall rest,’ What can we do f Do you ask what we should do under these circumstances ? Shall we rebel against our government ? Shall we coun sel the soldier to i evolt ? By no means.— No such thing is needful. The government is our servant, not our master. It waits but the instructions of the people. If it is wrong, the people can set it right. Our duty is simple and plain : We must call the attention of the ruling powers to this sin ; we must show them how they have transgressed God’s law; we must protest against their official wickedness; we must remonstrate and petition; we must bring to bear upon the men who administer the government the full weight of a right and earnest public sentiment. They will heed it, and change the law. But if they do not, we must put in their places men who will. This work has been already begun.— The Georgia Baptist Contention, at its re cent sitting at LaGrange, appointed a com mittee to memorialize the Government in regard to this subject. No doubt other religious assemblies will do the same thing, as they meet from time to time this sum mer. Copies of a form of Petition to Con gress in regard to this business have already been printed, and will be circulated among the people, to give an opportunity to those who wish to signify their will to * the pow ers that be.’ In circulating these petitions every Chris tian man can do essential service to his country, and so can every Christian woman. In this work we can all unite. And we can all unite in earnest prayer to God that He will open the hearts of our rulers to hear our request, and hasten to conform the laws of our land to the law of our God, so that we may be that * happy people whose God is the Lord.’ Objections. —lt may seem strange tba* | TERMS: Three Dollars per ANNUM* j STRICTLY IN ADVANCE. such a course as this should have met with opposition, and tjiat the objections should have first been offered not? by the kicked people of the world, but by the ministers of the Gospel of Christ; Yet so if is. I. It has been objected, that all our ef forts will be but labor lost, since there is not the slightest probability that the gov ernment will give any serious attention to our petitions. But if this be so, there is only the more necessity for our prompt and earnest action ; since, in that case, if God spares our nation at all, it will be only on account of His own dear people. ‘ But we need not fear. The government will hear and heed. 1 haye been told that the mem' bers of Congress are specially anxious to know what the wishes of the people are in regard to this subject. 1 trust a majority of them are good men. They have been driven by this war to realize the truth that without God we can do nothing. If so, they need but to be shown the way to win God’s favor. I know that in this world the Devil has a large majority, and that it is a com mon opinion that politicians are ever ready to take side with the majority wherever it may stand, but I know also that in our loved confederacy we have some stalesme?i and patriots , and not mere politicians for our rulers, and they will heed the voice of Go! more than the clamors of a wicked majority, even if the majority of the people were against the law of God. But, gentle men, it is not so. The masses of our people are on the side of virtue. Let any politi cian come before the people on this or any question, and openly take sides against the Bible, and he will raise a storm of indigna tion in all classes of society, from which he will be glad to hide in silent obscurity.— The time has not yet come in our republic when drunken brawlers in the grogshops and brothels can control the ballot-box. — The overwhelming majority of our even it they are not virtuous, wilf be shocked and indignant when any public man shall venture to appear as the open advocate of vice, or of any violation of God’s law.— Let us only be sure that we stand on the Bible, and we may rely upon it that the people will be with us in regard to any question affecting the public morals. But what if we fail ? What if Congress will not heed ? And what if a majority of. our people sustain the government in its wicked refusal to obey the plain commandment ol the God of nations? God would have spared Sodom if there had been ton right eous men there to have protested against the wiekeduess of the majority ; and we can plead before the court of Heaven, in our prayers, that there are some, that there are thousands, among us who protest against the action of our wicked rulers, and have done what we could to rescue the observ ance of God’a law As it now is, God sees us all as partakers of the national sin.— The government sends the mails, and even members of our churches wait ori the Sab bath day before the flost offices to receive their paper* and discuss the news. We purpose to call on Congress to right this fearful wrong, and even some ministers of the Gospel object to any discussion of the subject, or any effort even, by religious as semblies, to show the goverment its sin and call on it for reformation. This must not continue. Let God’s own people act rightly —let them but separate themselves from this iniquity, disown it, and cry out against it —and God will, for His people’s sake, preserve our country. I look even now for a change in His providences, He has put upon us defeat and disaster. He has cut off our wheat crop and destroyed the oats. The drought in many places threat ens to destroy the corn. But He is listen ing for His people’s cry. And now that they have but begun the reformation, He will take tke>r repentance as an earnest of what the nation will soon do, and He will begin once more to give us prosperity.— He will deliver our army at Richmond.— He will send rain from heaven in its season. We shall yet realize an abundant reward for the labor of the husbandman, and have the means to feed and clothe our armies. J When He sees the best lime has crime, He j will open our ports and restore our eon<- 1 meree. He will even mitke our lute defeats [tend to our final triumph. Let His people | but turn and pray, and wait and 'iu 1 if tbU | shall not be so. j % Already thi* has been, -in part, fulfilled. NUMBER 40.