The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1861-08-30
BALTIMORE.
FRIDAY, AUGUST 30, 1861.

There is one day in every year, which all men
bless and keep, in Christian lands. For many
centuries all Christian men have blessed and kept
it. Churches wreathed and garIanded IN
honor of its coming. 1t dawns amid the merry
welcome OF sweet bells and infant voices. The
kindiest incense of the whole years worship
rises from its affairs, and the hnmblest hearths it
visits burn brighter and warmer as they greet it,
Upon that day good friends renew their friend
ships, and enemies clasp hands again. The rich
give of their substance TO the needy, and the poor
divide wi III those who are yet poorer. Fesvity
and joy and brotherhood revcl The wide earth
over, and there is no vessel on the sen, Or lonely
tent upon the land, which does not hear at least
some echo of their blessed music. Need we TO tell
what holy day this is? Alas! it is more need
full We should al! remember the Heaven
seut message which hath made it holy.
"On earth peace; good will toward menu
Well did the chanting angels who came down TO
bear it, proclaim it 'good tidings of great joy!'
All the philosophy that ever rached the human
mind all the wisdom that has searched the hui
man heart; all that sage7, and priests, and proph
cts, and lawgivers, and mOralists had taught till
then; what was it-what is it, by the side OF that
sublime and simple lesson? It's the whole human
aspect OF the religion whose Author was born that
day. 1t is the sum and the essence of that duty
which we render to Him. in the shape of duty to
each other Its a law to societies as to ndvduais-
to those who rule as to those who are ruled. "On
"earth peace; good will toward menr' Who
shall gansav it, who calls himself civilized or
Christian? What people shall rise up against it
and yet dare to call themselves the people of a
Christian land?
But little while ago no man among us would
have hesiaed as to the answer 10 be given to these
questions. If we anything, we were godIy in
our own eyes If there was anything conspicuous
IN our character as people, we boasted that it WAS
the righteousness which eXalteth nation. To
have doubted that the influences of Christianity
were more abundant and fruitful in our midst
than among any other Of the nations OF the earth,
wou)d have been TO put in periIous question the
intelligence and patriotism of the dOubter We
were as surely the most religious, as we were un-
doubleday the most enlightened people under the
sun, and We would have resented scepticsm, on
the one point rs strenuously as a denial Of the
other. More than all else in the teachings of the
Saviour of men, we professed to have embodied
IN our republican government and tolerant and
equal laws, the sacred spirit Of good will and
peace. Without armies, and far away from the
ambitions and the strife of lands less free and
happy, we proclaimed, on all sides, aud called
the benighted world to witness, that our mission
as people, was that of liberty an love--of love
not less than liberty. Who that beholds us, as
we now are, would know lis as the Christian
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brotherhood and mutual charities? Whittier has
good will departed? Where are the white-winged
messengers of peace? Hundreds of thousands
who have heretofore knelt as brethren at the same
affairs, protesting the same faith and registering
the same vows are now in arms against each
other, upon battle fields, where desperate hostility
Is goaded on by yet more desperate hate All
the memories of the past-even the kindly tie;
and gentle offices Of yesierday-are as things thai
never were. We have begun the saturnalia o
France, when she
"Got drunk with blood, to vomit crime"
Even the pulpits through one-half The land now
md their texts among the wachwords Of human
bitterness, instead OF preaching the good tidings
which Heaven sent to us at Bethlehem And the
Government-Which some believe to have been sci
over us by God-what part does it bear in this
crisis Of our destiny? What efforts is it making
to bring us back to the Paradise We have forsakepf
1t answers us at the mouth of the cannon and
with the charge ofsquadrons. II is itself the mes
senger of war, and it proclaims the message of the
Gospel to be crime. There shall be no good will
There shall be no peacel No man shall cry peace
Every voice that is lifted for it shall be stiled-
every hand that is raised in application for it shall
be stricken down and manaced 1t shall be trea.
son to pray that the tide OF blood be STAYED Il
shall be sympathy with treason to hope that
brethren may be spared from Staying brethren.
There shall be no religion except hloodshedl There
shall be no reeOnciliation--but only strife and We
from this time forth!
Men and countrymen! where are We? Are VIZ
under the Christian dispensaton-o has the Sc.
cond seal been opened and the red horse been sen
FORTH with his rider, 'to take peace from the earth
land that they should kill one another?n Let II,
believe, while we may, that the honr of wrath
is not yet come. Let US proclaim the GOOD ii.
dings, at every hazard, and trust the issue tc
Him who seat theml