The Shasta courier., 1864-08-13
8 WHY Standest Thou SO far OF, O Lord. and
Hidest Thyseif in Time of Trouble 9"


The infidel and the atheist, in the arrogance
of strong manhood, and in the bright light of
prosperity, may despise the institutions of
religion and sneer at the simple ceremonies
of the Christian faith. But when the black
plumes of the skeleton cavalier begin to low
| er, and the shrouds of the invisible part for
the mysterious pilgrimage of the soul, and
the hollow echoes of the opening grave TO an
| swer the stroke of the sexton, the proud an
courageous ones enter the dark and dreadfL.
valley with faltering steps and upturned eyes.
And so with nations. In the splendor of their
glories and the sweep of victory, they never
look above the glistening domes of their cap
i.als, or beyond the fields strown with the
wrecks of armies and overshadowed by vic
torious flags. But, when the sables of be.
reavement hang in hundred thousand homes:
when the sad lamentations of widow hood and
orphanage come from mansion and cottage,
from the noisy city and the lonely habitations
of the frontier when the fertile banks of
| beautiful rivers are lined with the graves of
heroes. and still the whirlwind of extermina-
ting war sweeps on, the people begin to look
up among the stars, as though the Lord Of
Hosts had his camp on the infinite heights.
| Amid the spendors of Israels Capital,
heart-stricken by the treason and death of
Absalom, cast down by the reproof of the
stern moralist Nathan, distressed by the dis
sensions of his people, the King rejected the
royal banquet and cried out in the 6espon-
dency of his soul, "Why standest thou SO
Z, far off, o Lord, and hidest thy face in the
needful time of trouble?" Not in his mighty
men of valor, like Eleazar. or in the swarm
ing warriors of Israel, was the desponding
monarch's trust, but in the Overwhelming
| tb,f baI tIox f,,l a,,l
directed the stone that Glove the frontlet of
the giant. Such is the exclamation Of the
American people, to-day; and the appeal is
consistent with the structure of our institu-
tions. The Declaration of Independence re-
cites firm reliance on tho Supreme Ruler of
the Universe, and the battles that won our
| liberties and created our nationality were
| fought in the Christian faith, and after the
| great Captain had returned from secret pray
er. All our institutions, political. moral and
social, are founded on the recognition of
| Supreme and Omnipotent Deity; and it is
becoming that, under a great, devastating
calamity, the whole nation should rise before
the God of Battles and reverently worship.
The appeal is becoming while the sacrfcal
alter of our country is smoking with blood.
There is a grand sahlimity in the act, which
inspires the people with renewed devotion to
the cause OF Freedom Think of millions stand
ing at the same hour in reverent worship ofthe
Unseen God, and consider whether such event
will not send an elecirism through every pa
triot's heart. Think of the vast throng uni
ting in the stately anthem
." Before jehovah awful throne,
Ye nations bow with sacred joy:
Know that the LORD is GoD alone
Hz can create, and he Destroy,
and when the glorious song is mounting
up the palpitating air, they exclaim p!antive-
iy. "Why standest thou so far of, o Lord,
and hidest thy face in the needful time OF
trouble?'' Each syllable rolls over a contin-
ent, and shakes the inhuman despotism of
the man-stealers to its deepest foundations.
When Gustavus Adolphus was about to en-
gaze Wallenstein, who, like a blind and deaf
spectre of devastation, had been stalking in
blood through the fairest portions Of Germany
his whole army united in singing Luther
Hymn, and then rushed to battle, as they
believed. re-invigorate from the presence OF
God The brave and good Adolphus fell
but the tide Of battle rolled on in bloody sur
ges until the field Of Lutzen was won.
Philosophers, statesmen, warriors, orators,
al. have well understood the might of the
spiritual When Patrick Henry had exhaas-
ted the vast magazine of his eloquence aud |
the colonists still hesitated to encounter the |
fierce wrath Of the British King, as a last |
tremendous stroke which was to shiver the |
obdurate rock, he invoked the God of battles |
Whether in answer 10 lis reyerent PRAYER, or !
because he had thus reached an otherwise in |
accessible citadel of the human heart. it mat. |
ters not the result was the same; the spell |
was broken the work was done. The torch |
was kndled and spreading its red light |
soon revealed the constellation of the Ameri-
can Uniun. Under the invocation, believing |
that their cause was just, the sturdy colonists
went forth and built an altar which they bap- |
tized with their blood, and which, God help |
ing us, shall stand until other consultations
lose their way and part company in the des-
ert heavens Unto that God the nation cries
again from the depths of almost annihilation
from a vast cemetery of slaughter, from
beating seas with bloody crested waves-to
Him whom all nature worships perpetually
with her polyglot tongues, and who leads the
grand procession of the stars in their eternal
rounds.
1t is true that our enemies invoke the same
Deity: but. just Heaven, what worship The
prayers of man-stealers, of homicides, of
adulterers sellers of their own flesh and blood,
whippers of women, traitors to the holy cause
blaspheming mockery of Heaven, ascend the
earnest appeals of the wretched people whom
they dehumanize and enslave. as well as the
anathemas of Civilization, Religion and Hu-
manity. As we'll might Pharoah have tasted
and prayed when he held the captives of Is
rael in bandage. As well might Nero have
clothed himself in sackcloth and ashes when
throwing the Christians to the dogs and lions.
As we'll might Dionysius. the tyrant of Syra-
cuse, have tasted when plundering the tenn
pie of Proserpine or sacrilegously dismant-
ling the statue of Jupiter. Let Us not i'm
pair our faith in the justice of the Maker Of
all men BY believing that the prayers of trai
tors and tyrants ever rise to vex the ear of
Dietv or the messengers of mercy who listen
earthward from the ramparts of heaven. Let
us rather believe, in accordance with the spir-
it of Christianity, that the appeal of the old,
time-worn slave, who mutters his earnest