St. Charles City Republican intelligencer. [volume] (St. Charles City [Charles City], Iowa) 1857-1861, 1861-05-09
Snistellann.
PLYMOUTH CHURCH, BROOKLYN.

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PLYMOUTH CHURCH, BROOKLYN.
The Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, in
the morning prayer on Sunday, offered
thanks that 80 many had been raised
up in his church to do battle for jus.
tice and liberty, and he asked that
more and more might be found to
stand up with them united for the
cause of God and man that, through
whatever scenes we might be called
to pass, there might be no grief or woe
so desolating as that which would
come from cowardice, or the turning
back from an unaccomplished purpose.
Mr.. Beecher announced that, from
8 till l o'clock every day, meetings
were held in the church parlors, for
the purpose Of making up articles
necessary for soldiers, preparing lint,
and otherwise helping the good cause
The design was to make it protract-
cd meeting. Various articles would
be acceptable, and also help to make
them up.
In reading the names of new mem.
bers proposed for the church, those of
the ladies were sometimes given with
out the initials, which occasioned
characteristic remark from Mr.. Beech
er =" l would thank the clerk to write
out the whole name hereafter. A wo-
man is woman in this church, and
not a mere appendage to man."
The choir and the vast congrega-
ton almost drowned the thunders of
the organ as they sang,
"We are dwelling in a grand and awful time. -
In the prayer that followed allusion
was made to the mysteries of Provi.
dence in making the wicked man him
self chiefly instrumental in his own
destruction. He eprayed that we might
find the worth of the down-trodden in
their Immortality, and in their desti-
nies find dignities denied them in this
life. A fcrvent blessing was asked
upon those going forward for liberty
and justice. The hymn was then sung !:
My country, tis Of thee,
Sweet land Of liberty, t Boz.
of thee sing:
Land where our fathers died,
Land of the Pilgrims pride,
From every mountain side
Let freedom ring
Mr.. Beecher took his text from the
Goth psalm, 4th verse "Thou hast
given banner to them that fear thee,
that it may be displayed because of
the truth" He said - #'. .r.
During the colonial period there had
been no American flag but each
State that chose had separate sig
nificant banner. But in III, within a
few days from one year after the Dec
laration of Independence, and two
years or more after the war began,
upon the l4th of June, the States as
sembled, and ordained and established
the glorious flag we now sustain. The
men who devised it were men who
had taken their lives in their hands,
and consecrated all their worldly pos
sessions for the doctrines of personal
liberty. That flag means Lexington
it means Bunker IIill-it means the
whole glorious Revolutionary War
1t means all that the Declaration of
Independence means-all that the
Constitution means. Not a symbol Of
authority of the ruler was allowed to
go in it. 1t was ordained for the peo-
pie by the people that it meant and
that it means, and by the blessing of
God that it shall mean to the end of
time. For God Almighty be thanked,
that when base, degenerate men de-
sire to set up oppression at war with
all the instincts of American liberty,
they could not do it under our flag.
They must have another flag for such
work. | thank them that they took
another flag to do the DEVILS work,
and left our flag to do God Almighty's
work. [Applause-suppressed.1 From
the North where SHOWS and ice stand
solitary, clear to the Gulf and tropics,
that banner has waved and shall wave
forever. lrrepressible applause. Mr.
Beecher said he knew it was hard to
restrain some expression when men
were full of feeling, but he would pre-
fer that they should wait till his SER
mon was done without inserting any
punctuation marks of even enthusiasm.
Not because he thought Sunday too
good day, but it was not their way.
They came Of a silent stock, with feel.
ings running in deep but quiet chan
mel. Under this banner moved Wash
ington, he and his armies before it
Burgoyne laid down his arms it
waved over West Point, over Fort
Montgomery-and over another Mont
gomery it shall yet wave. 1t cheered
our army, driven out from round New
York, in their solitary pilgrimage,
through New Jersey, and at Valley
Forge. 1t crossed the waters roaring
with ice at Trenton, and when its stars
CLEANED in the cold morning with VIC
tory, new day dawned ON this coun-
try. When South Carolina, in the
Revolutionary struggle forgot courage
and personal liberty, and yielded up
the State, the only one Of all that gave
adhesion to the British government,
then it was that this banner led on the
Virginian forces that conquered both
the British and the Carolina armies,
and brought back the State. Alas |.
that the head should become the tail.
Alas that Virginia should be drag
ged about the rebel camp at the tail
of South Caralina.
We do not believe in hernia phrodite