Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes County, Ohio) 1856-1865, 1861-05-09
UNION DISCOURSE
REV. u. ]. KNISELY,


Deauered at the Evangelical Lutheran Church,
MiIersburg, April 26th, 1861.
"And who knoweth whether thou art come into
the kingdom for such time as this?"-EsTHER
Alb. 81
The history of Esther was divinely intended
to show that no contingencies ever alter the
regard of heaven for truth. A number of cap
tive Jews are in the province of a foreign
king. Jealousy arouses the heart of a wicked
subject of royal favor, and he asks to have
his own honor and fame written in the blood
of those whose purer religion and better train
ing forbid homage to mere man. He
succeeds before the royal court, and the
authoritive edict goes forth that every He
brew mnst die. The way to the kings heart
is shut up against the eloquence of disinter-
ested sympathy, and no one, without q sum-
mons, dares venture the presence of royalty
and yet be sure that-the golden scepter will
indicate fave: Yet amid that people who
shene by their obedience to royalty, there
was one for s'such time as that" whose
gentle power could venture to subdue the
infamy ssthough not according to the law"
Need we say that it was a iconlan whose fer
vent affection and gratitude could triumph
over this artificial barrier to generous heart,
saying, ssI will go, and if 1 perish, perish. -
The result showed the appositeness of poor
Mordecai's question: ssWho knoweth whether
thou hast como into the kingdom for such a
time as thisl"
We live in perilous times. While it is
seldom wise to make an intelligent people
apprehensive of more than really threatens
them, it is always mistake to lull their fears
that they may be surprised by the danger
they are i'll prepared to meet. At this late
hour it would be a slur upon the common
sense of man. to say we are not in extraordi-
nary and fearful emergencies, and worse than
idle to deny the solemn news of each day, or
to check the enthusiasm begotten by the
righteous fears of loyal people, when no
one within the circumference of the land feels
himself competent SO to define our regretted
liabilities, as to tell where probability on the
side of apprehensiveness ceases, and improb-
ability on the side of hope begins. True, it
will be said, these circumstances belong to
this time. There is, of course, no period but
has its peculiar difficulties differing from all
others. But while this is Sc, it is strikingly
illustrated in worlds experience, that some
seasons by reason of the events that mark
them, are worthy to be remembered, if others
are ignored, as affording us lessons of much
moment and deciding questions the world
must have answered at some time. The Ref
ormation was encountered, perhaps, with
nothing that belonged not to it, yet this les
sened in no degree the solemn duties of that
.empestuous time, and adds no qualification
to the interest we feel in Its details, except
to make us rejoice that the burden Of its
momentous issues rests not upon tie effem-
macy of times like this. Heartily do we
receive the saying that everything has its
day, and this very consideration ought to
teach us our duty. Time is but the vast
stage which God has builded where indiyid-
uals, principalities and powers, are compelled,
under the gaze of higher intelligences, to ex-
| hibit the serious dramas and real comedies
illustrating the responsibilities and follies OF
fallen creatures; the brief space in which
man, who errs, must solve those grave enig-
mas whose answers make up the sum of all
destiny; why then should we shrink from
considering the problems submitted to us, if
every time has but its own questions, and
even national difficulties are mere matters OF
course? But it is not exactly, though nearly
the truth. If the whole universe were like
| the inanimate world, then indeed, however
sudden the convulsion, however fearful the
calamity; be the revolutions of orbs and Sc
cession of volatile bodies never SO swift, be
| the storms of the elements lever so mighty;
there is, vet, a grand harmony among the
forces that can not sin; the wind-god. has
really no fratricidal hatred to the mild sun.
shine which opens the leaves and smiles on
| the branches that bow to his march; no hostile
| jealousy when the comet with its adieu oi
flame, flies from its more constant comrades
but the very facts at which We wonder are the
index of the sure unerring laws that govern.
Here in this field of observation, no tact il
postponed; no fact is premature, no fact il
really anomalous. Here, where there is nc
responsibility, acts and occurrences determine
the design and the law. Not so in the mora
world, where free agents act; there there !.
error, there is hostility, there are anomalies
Mans acts do not always determine the NOR
al law by which he is governed, and do no
always show Gods holy design, otherwise
sin would be justified as righteousness; count
less infamies of the past would enact, agains
the voice of conscience and the threats of jus
tice, that the strong should oppress the weak
and the weak envy the strong; then the blacf
list of perfdy in store for the revelations o
Judgment, would affirm, against the hear
and hopes of man, that lie, that men are no
created equal; while rebellion, usurping thu
place of gratitude and loyalty, against al
the pleas OF consecrated dead, would lif
hands unwashed of blood to heaven, do sac
riice of equity on the altar of avarice, AM
legaiize treason in the name OF God. Il
the moral world, where sin is possible, ther
Is postponement and remissness, prematurit
and wrong. Though then it be true tina
. everything has its day, and every generatio
has its own questions to decide, that it ma
, add to the wisdom of earth, generation
! ! have not always done it. Failing to answe
the stern queries of their times, they bav
sometimes dropped them to increase the Tres
burden Of the flying future, and, speeding I
the things that were, have decided nothin
' but their own Indifference or lack Of ability
But whether or not the times are our Owl
whether or not these burdens have falle
inappositely upon US, why should We shrin
from considering them; why should we hid