Delaware State journal and statesman., 1862-04-22

! breathless suspense of the whole camp, to hgh
| the blasphemer OF his God. And when The
naughty giant sees him and hurries forward, in
tending at one blow to crush his puny assaani
and stretch his mangled limbs upon the earth
then it is, in the opening of literal and terri
BILE battle, that the brave David speaks those
words so full of calm and holy confidence
Thou comest TO me with sword aud with a
spear, and with q shield but ] come TO thee in
the name Of the Lord of hosts, the uod Of tue
armies Of Israel, whom thou hast deled. This
day will tue Lord deliver thee into mine hand,
and all the earth shall know that there is God
in Israel, for The 6dfls as The LORDS and he will
give you into our hands" And you remember
for ii is among your memories Of childhood, when
yon stood hy your mothers knee, and heard her
read out of the blessed book she loved better than
all other books,-you remember how the Lord
made good his word to that young shepherd boy,
who had put his trust in HIM, and he had slung
but single stone, aud the proud blasphemer lay
dead upon the ground, with the mighty sword
he wore turned against himself aud David
marching back a cOnIuerOr, to the shouting
hosts, that now. inspired at the brave sight,
began to pour 10 cue fierce tide through their
enttenehment gates and upon the broken,
flying ranks Of the frightened Phiistnes.
So our text applies also, and indeed most
strictly to literal battle, md its meaning is
just this. =" The issue of the battle is with the
Lord" Not only in that mighty contest which
on one side or the other engages all the forces
in Nature, and involves all human life and So
ciety and RACES in every private Christian soul,
and goes on between good and evil in their high
est manifestations, between God and Satan, not
only in that great conflict Of universal existence
is tue issue determined by the waking of Gods
Providence; bat also when armed men muster
for the fight, and swords are forged and
cannon cast and horsemen trained, and all the
pomp and circumstance and terrible strength OF
war is marshaed on some fatal field and after
waiting for sight Of each others forces, and n
little interval to get back the breath that at the
first sight of the danger had stopped, and the
blood that had shrunk from the pale cheeks into
the burdened heart, each furious host rushes with
shouts to the battle, and the ground shakes be-
meath the tread Of charging squadron, and the
air ia torn by shrieks and angry cries, and the
very Heaven trembles as the cannon crash shiv-
ers through the smoke and strikes the sky
However it may be with the blind eyes that have
not seen God in Nature, nor in human history,
nor behhed his stately steppings in the ssnctu-
ary of the private soul nor recognized him in
deed anywhere in all his own universe, ! tell you
that to him instructed out of Gods word, Gods
Providence is not absent from even the fierce
battle strife; and whatever confusion Of charge
and retreat, or whatever mystery, smoke hidJen,
may seem to be in all the fight however, it
may seem to be of strength, or yalor, or general
ship, or some lucky chance, or some unacoount-
able panic, that one side or the other gains the
day, the truth stands like rock, that after all,
in spite of unbelief and dslrust, Con is the
commander in the war, and the giver of all VIC
tory and the matter is not the work Of chance,
nor artillery, nor men, nor valor, nor any such
thing simply, 1.-THE battle is the Lords" He
takes it in his own hands, md forms the legiOns
and inspires the battle soul, and though men
may not see through the thick dark smoke, he
thunders as truly in the battle roar as in the
summer storm, and lightens in the sharp cannon
flash as really as in those blazing bolts with
which at midnight he transfxes the black tenn
pests. The issue is Of tho Lord; OF how did
Joshua win Jericho or how did David slay Go
Hath How did brave Switzerland resist the
chivAly of France ? How did Holland survive
the shock of that massive Spanish infantry that
DO army had ever stood before How did our
fathers Of blessed memory come off victorious in
the Revolutionary time? Have we not heard
with our ears what noble works our God did for
them, and in the old time before them
But again The battle is the Lords" not
only in the thnt the issue of it Is his, which
indeed is always the case, but sometimes, speci-
ally, in the sense that the fight itself is The Lords
batHs. Some wars are in the cause of God, and
not merely directed by him as to their issues,
but commanded, and carried on, and fought out
by him, He owns them, by special revelations,
as under the old dispensAtions, or by special
providences, as in our own modern days, aud
do understand, we pray you, that we do in all
this by no means needlessly or wantonly defend
war. We know what interruption Of industries,
and what tearing asunder of tender ties, and
what privati0ns 1t brings. We know only too we'll
what midnight marches in the storm, what
sleepings in the frozen snow, what tracking
of the ground with blood, what hunger and thirst,
what famine and pestence, what slow disease
and sudden death, war dIngs after it in lie fear
full train. We know, as we never thought to
know in this fair land, what debt, and bank
ruptcy, and misery, and slaughter, keep equal
step with the red march Of civil strife. And we
have not thought of so running counter to the
teachings of the Scripture, and the spirit of
christianity, as to declare that war is a desr-
able thing; or a thing not to be kept away by
love, and prayer, and honest effort, and every
thing short of the sacrifice Of moral principle
aud Gods truth If one poor life could have
saved the miseries Of the past year, we know
surely of more than one that would have been
laid rejoicingly upon the altar. But, then, at
the same time, we do most unhesitatingly declare
that there are evils worse than war. The over
throw of all that heaven. authorized institution
Of civil government is an evil worse than war.
The giving up Of great public moral truths is an
vii worse than war. The suffering of rank
and foul treason to lift its hydra head among US
and poison those streams Of public prosperity
from which, not only ourselves, but our children,
to Incounted generations, are to drink, s an
evil worse than war. And so then, we Judge
that war is not always wrong that its moral
character is to be determined by its occasion
and its spirit. Rapine ambition, lust, cruel
rage at some slight insult, a desire to provide
employment for vast and oyergroWn military
army, greed Of territory or power, these things
make wars wrong. But self defence as when
Switzerland withstood the invasion of ller haugh
ty foe; or the help Of injured aud helpless suf-i
ferers; as when Cromwell threatened the
persecution of the Piedmontese or the
resistance of intolerable oppression as
when our ancestors rose against the
King; or the maintenance Of government, and
the putting down Of causeless and reasonable
rebellion; as we are doing to day,--NEYERl
Especially Of such war as this last has God
written 4" The powers that be are ordained of
Coz, d,-whosoeVer therefore resisteth the power
resisteth the ordinance Of God, and they that
resist shall receive to themselves damnation.-
For rulers are not terror to good works, but
to the evil. He is minister Of God to thee for
good. But if thou do that which is evil, be
afraid, for he beareth not the sword in vain
for he is the minister of God, revenger to exc
cute wrath upon him that doeth evil" Let it not
be for moment forgotten that the war in our
land to-day is just bearing Of that sword which
God has declared shall not be borne in vain,
borne, as il is, by government which strives to
be his ministers for good, and TO put down evil
And il takes rank among those wars which are
a choice of two eVils,-evils Of which the peace
ful are is intolerable in comparison of the con.
fct Some such wars were commanded of God,
expressly, TO his people. And who doubts of
the lRwfulness of them Who doubts Of that
/ discontinue of Amalek, when Aaron and Har