Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1860-10-18
tBy ByRequest.J
A PATR1oTIc sERmoN.

tBy Requcst.l
a PATRIoTIC SERMON.
The following interesting document was
recently found among tho papers of MAJOR
John Shaefmycr, al deceased patriot of the
| Revolution. 1t is discourse delivered on
the eve of the battle of Braudywinc, by
Rev. Jacob Tronte, to q lurgeaportiou Of
! the American soldiers, in presence OF. Gen.
Washington. Gen. Wayne, and other Off
GERS Of the army:
'Thcy that plse the sword shall perish by the sword
SOLDIERS AND GouxrRYMExl-Weh have
met this evening perhaps for the last time
We have shared the toll of the march,
! peril of the fight, and the dismay of the
retreat, alike. we have endured the cold
and hunger, the contumely of the eternal
foe, und courage ofthe foreign oppression.
We have sat night after night by the camp
| fire, we have together heard the roll of the
reveille which calls us to duty, or tile beat
! of the tatto which gave the Signal for the
hardy sleep of the soldier, with the earth
for his bed and the knapsack for his pill
low.
And now, soldiers and brethren, we
have met in this peaceful valley on5the eve
1'of battle, i'll tue sunlight that tomorrow
morn will glimmcr on scenes of blood
| We have met amid the whitening tents of
our encampmeut; in the time of terror and
gloom have gathered together. God grant
that it may not he for the last timel
II is a solemn moment. Brethren, does
not the solemn voice of nature seem to
! echo the sympathies of the hour2 The
| flag OF our country drops heavily from
! yonder staff; the breeze has died away
along tue green plains of Chadd's Ford !;
the plain that spreads before us gEittcrs in
the sunlight; the heights of Brandywinc
arise, gloomy and. grand. beyond tue wa
ters of yonder stream; all nature holds q
! pause OF solemn silence on the eve Of the
uprour and blOodshed strife of tomorrow.
"Tley that take the sword soll rcrsl, by the sword
| And have they not taken the sword?
| Let the des0inte plain, the 6Iood-sudden
valley, the burned tArm-houses blackpn-
ling in the sun, the sacked village and tue
rHVagcd town, answer; let the withered
bones of the butchercd inrmer, strewn
along the fields of his homestead, answer
let the starving mother, with her babe
clinging to the witbercd breast that can
afford no sustcnancc, let her r.answer-with
the death-rattie mingling with murmurin-
/ tones that marked the last moment of her
life; let the mother and the babe answer.
1t was but day past, and Our land slept
in the quiet of peace. War was not here.
| Fraud and woe and want dwelt not among
US. From the eternal solitude OF. the green
woods arose the blue smoke Of the settlers
cabin, aud golden fields of corn looked
from e0mid the waste of tho wilderness,
and the glad music of human voices awoke
! the silence ofthc forest.
| Now, God Of mercy, behold the change!
Under the shadow of preteXt, under the
sanctity of the name of God, invoking the
Redemcr to their aid, do these foreign
hirelings sIay our people. They throng
our towns; they darken orr plains, aud
now they encompass our ports on the lone
ly plain of Chadd's Ford
They that take the sword shall perish by tEos sword'
Brethren, thiuk me not unworthy of be-
lief when l tell you that the doom of the
British is sealed. Think me not vain
when L tell you that, beyond the cloud
that now cnshrouds us, l see gathering
thick and fast the darker cloud aud thick
er storm of Divine retriOutiOn.
They may conquer Tomorrow, Might
and wrong may pre"ail, and we may be
driven from The field, but the hour OF
Gods own Vengeance will come
Aye, if in the vast solitudcS of eternal
space there throbs the being of an awful
.E5God, quick tooyeugc and sure to punish
't,guilt, then the man George Brunswick,
called the king, will feel in his brain aud
hear the Vengeance of the eternal Jeho-
yah! A blight will light upon his life
q withercd brain and an accurscd intellect;
a blight will be upon his children, and
upon his people. Great God, how dread
the punishment! A crowded populsce
peopling the dense towns where men ol
money thrive, while. the laborer starves
want striding among the people in all
forms of terror; an ignorant, God-defying
priesthood chuckling over the miserles ol
millions; a proud aud merciless nobility
adding wrong to wrong, and heaping in
suit upon robbery and fraud; royalty cor
rupt to the very heart, and aristocracy
rotton to the very core; crime aud want
linked hantlin hand, and tempting men ia
deeds of woe and death; these are h part
Eof the doom and retribntion that shall