The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1861-01-24

JANUARY 4TH 1861.
Jonah iii: g. 1O-Who can tell if God will turn and
repent and turn away from his fierce anger, that we
perish not? And God saw their works. that they
turned from their evil way and God repentcd OF tue
evil that he said that he would do unto them; and he
did not.
The observance of day of Fasting,
Humiliation and prayer is not an effort of
despair, but of hope it declares that con-
fdence IN man is lost, but that confidence
in God is revived. Having exhausted ev-
cry human device, and struggle in vain to
release itself from the tolls, Il whole peo-
pie learns the lesson so often taught the
individual-that it is better to trust
in the Lord that to put confidence in
man.
Fasting is the outward sign of the hui
initiation and penitence which we should
feel and express this day; hence it is idle
mockery unless we really repent and are
humble.
Have we not enough TO humble us!
The foundations Of our country are being
broken up, the noblest temple of liberty
in the world is being demolished; one
column has fallen, and while speak, the
crash of another may smitc upon our ears.
1t is spectacle that might make angels
weep, and should wiring from us tears of
blood We are on the verge of civil war (;
passions are infamed, violence is threat
ened, States arc arming, and we are in
hourly dangerof collision; at any moment,
brothers hands may rcell with brothers
blood 1t is time to proclaim fast and
solemn convocation. BE ehung in mourn
ing ye heavens, and be clad in sackcloth,
We earth The great lighthouse of the
world, whose beacon sent its rays across
the waters, guiding the wandering barks
into the haven of liberty, is growing dim,
and is rocking to its base. 1t is as though
the Polar Star were suddenly to plunge
from it's steady resting place and begin to
"wander darlllingin in the eternal space ray
less and pathless." It is a dag Gf trouble.
of rebuhe, and Of blaspAemy-a day to be
marked with black in the worlds calcn-
dar.
But we feel that this, the Had of our
woes, it is not an accident or bare mis-
fortune, but q punishment for our sins
The conscience as well as the heart is
burdened, and-a sense Of ill-desert aggra-
Yates our sorrows. We intuitivcly recog-
nize the connection between sin and pun
ishment; we know not precisely what that
connection is; we cannot say what sin or
whose sins have brought the infiction, but
punishment implies sin, and ''the sin must
be enormous where the punishment is so
fearful" This vast, imperial Republic, be-
queathed to us by noble ancestry, con-
secrated by noble history, the work of
illustrious statesmen andpatriots, is falling
prey to national degeneracy and corrup-
ton. In less than century, we have
spoiled the legacy of our fathers. a Chris
tian people, with Christian institutions,
the envy and admiration of the world have
not lived to the age Of pagan Greece.
Surely God has a controversy with us, and
it becomes us to inquire with all solemnity
into the cause of his fierce anger. Surely
it is time to come to ourselves; to look
our follies and wicledness in the face !;
timefor every patriot to rend his garments,
cover himself with sacllcloth, and come id
to the house of the Lord Let us deal
faithfully this day let us survey the sins
of the land, not to accuse one another, but
to humble ourselves under the mighty
hand of God Sins may be styled national
sins, when either they are committed by
the State in its organized capacity, or are
SO generally pelpetratcd as to become
characteristic of the people. We have in
Cured national guilt in both these ways
AS people we have been guilty Of vain
glory and boasting; as though by our own
might and wisdom we had done all this,
we have said 'Is not this great Babylon
that have built 2" We have not ac-
knowledged God, and He now leaves us
to ourselves Or if we have referred to
him at all, it has been to intimate that
He was bound to bless country which
was so manifestly indispensable to His
plans.
In the next place we have dcifcd the
people" regarding them as the fountain
of all power and proclaiming the blasphe-
nous adagc, "ror populi, cor Dci," as the