Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1847-01-29
FdIIhIuIIy OUTS,
MILO A. TOWNSEND.
Jan. 8, 1877.
SERMON TO THE VOLUNTEERS.

SERMON TO THE VOLUNTEERS.
1.-THE following is the substance of Rev. Mr..
McLaren's concluding address to Captain
Bennet's Company of Volunteers. The
Sermon, of which it is a part of the arpli-
cation, was from Isaiah 9, vI-"The Prince
of Psace,"l
Honor the prince of Peace" who has
done and suffered so much for us whose me-
diatorial work brings about reconciliation be-
tween an offended God and us, offending sin
ners. Honor him by believing on his name,
by reverencing his authority, by obeying his
commands.
Rise and cultivate the principles of peace.
| deem this to be no improper or unseasona-
BILE exhortation 10 you, my friends, who are
strangers among rs, although you bear the
name. and ! have no doubt, will bear the cha
racter of soldiers. You have left your homes,
''Sweet homes" and those who made them
sweet, TO expose yourselves, | trust not for "a
long period, to the tolls, privations and perils
of warfare. Yet | beg CT you to cultivate, in
your W bosoms, the sacred love of peace.
1t will not detract from your efficiency as SOL
diers; it will greatly enhance your comfort
as immortal men.
Wars are not always unavoidable. In the
collision of interests and under the reign OF
passions, wrongs are sometimes committed
and rights are trampled on, with the wanion
recklessness of a selfish depravity. We may
brace up our minds to patient endurance; we
may appeal 10 honor and justice, and both
may prove unavailing. In the heartless in
tercourse of nations, patience, misconstrued
often provOkes further aggression, and perse-
vering Efforts to ad judicale, induces the added
insult of contempt. The Scripture %iniunc-
lion is, "As much as lieth in you, live peace
ably with all men," Sometimes, as | have
said, this is very difficult, sometimes it is i'm
possible. Yet the obligation holds good,
LAS much as lieth in you, live peaceably with
all men," See that the sin and guilt of the
strife lie not on your conscience. Then, even
while resorling 10 the last, painful, horrid
remedy, your heart may be deeply imbued
with the benignant principles of peace.
We read in the scriptures Of "a Centurian
of exemplary piety. His Office, | suppose,
was of about the same rank as that of YOU
Captain, the commander of a hundred men,
Piety was then what it is now. Repentance,
faith and love to God were as they are now,
the ingredients of piety. We read also, of a
devout soldier; now, as then, devotion is the
spirit and exercise of prayer. To be devoul
| soldiers, you lDuSl O6 praying meI.
But a soldier needs courage. True: none
needs it more. The love of peace, the prin
ciples of Christ, afford the best support and
stimulus TO courage. Courage and %(erocity
are often COMPOUNDED with each other; bur
they are quite different things. If ] were &
soldier, | would thank no man to say that
..iought like a tiger" | should esteem i
but british praise. Better to fight like a man
like a christian man, who, conscious of being
in the right, ~sorrowfully resorts TO this dread
fol and desperate measure for maintaining it
Religious principle, the faith Of immortality
and the hope of blessedness, are the best aux
i~liaries to a real heroism. This principle
Mohammed laid hold of, and by a cunning
perversion of it, fired the courage of his sol
diers with the assurance of immortal pleasures
TO all who should fall in the battles of III,
crescent. Without this principle, even thu
sacrifices of patriotism are absurdly suici
dial.
"Die for thy country! thou romantic fool
Seize, seize the plank myself, and lie
her sink"
A good man, then, should be the best sol,
dier. And the converse, ! believe, is equally
true a soldier, considering his dangers and
temptations, ought to be a good man. Did my
time admit of it, | think ] could refer you tC
many examples, showing that amid tolls, pri'