Charles City intelligencer. [volume] (Charles City, Floyd County, Iowa) 1864-1866, 1865-04-20
Gbe dotar.
CAPTURE OF RICHMOND.
SERMON.

SERMON,
Preached IN Charles City, on Sunday, April ah,
1865, Iy Rer. ID. NJ BordreH Pastor Of ho
Congregational Church.
| .... H ,....r PSALM xvIu-39 & 40.
For Thou hast girded me with strength
unto the battle; Thou hast subdued under me
those that rose up against me-
Therefore will give thanks unto Thee,
oh Lord. among the heathen, and sing praises
unto Thy name .G
| When the battle of Worcester had
been fought and won, something more
than two hundred years ago, Oliver
Cromwell, then Lord General of the
Parliamentary army, wrote to the
speaker of the English Parliament, Civ.
ing him an account of his great victo-
ry, and in his usual devout manner,
ascribed his success to the God of
battles. He could not at that time
forcsee precisely how great would be
the result of his victory, but he says,
"The dimensions of this mercy are
above my thoughts. 1t is, for aught |
know, crowning mercy" Such was
probably the thought Of many of us,
when three or four days ago the news
reached us, that at last Lees army
was broken and routed, and the great
Gibraltar of the rebellion was in the
possession of our forces that this
strong hold in which the Satanic ener-
gics that have been striking the ma
tion's life have been centered, where
the councils Of the mighty rebellion
have been gathered, and where trea-
son has made its most defiant utter
ances, in whose loathsome prisons so
many brave and true men have pined
away and died, and before whose
strong defences SO many thousands
have fallen-that Richmond, around
which the rebels have always concen-
trated their bravest and best equipped
forces and the defence of which has
been entrusted to their most skillful
general, the place which they have
held with such desperate tenacity and
which they had sworn never to rcln-
quish but with their latest breath
that Richmond with its endless and
complicated defences, should be i'm our
hands, the army that had defended it
defeated, and its shattered remnants
fleeing hopelessly before our victori-
Gus arms, surely this is a mercy the
dimensions of which are above our
thoughts, and which we may well hope
will prove crowning mercy.
1t has seemed to me peculiarly ap-
propriate that this morning, while our
hearts are jubilant with the glad news,
that is daily reaching us, we should
recognize the good hand of our God
upon us, as manifest in these great
successes, and record our grateful ac-
acknowledgements to Him.
In the text, king David, the most
valiant and warlike of the kings of Is
rael, attributes all his successes to the
favor and experimenting Providence
Of God. Is it not fit that we should
in like manner, acknowledge the hand
of Him who has girded our nation
with strength, who has led us success
fully thus far through the dangers that
threatened us, and who is now giving
us such cheering prospects of a peace
ful terminaton,-a complete restora-
ton of all that ought to be restored,
and the total destruction of all that
ought to be destroyed And that we
may have before our minds just view
of the greatness of the deliverancc,
which He has been working out for us,
let us briefly recall, in the first place,
the magnitude of the danger, that
threatened us at the outset.
The war into which our nation was
plunged, four years ago, was in reality
from the first a war between freedom
and slavery and as such should have
enlisted in behalf of our government
the sympathies and the enthusiastic
support of good men everywhere
But the South, while really fighting
for slavery and openly processing to
make it the cornerstone of the empire
they were founding, had, at the same
time, much of the eclat and enthusi
asm of people fighting for freedom
and independence. The North Oh the
other hand, while really striking blows
for the rights Of man, had the disad
vantage of seeming only to force a
hated yoke on the neck of a struggling
people. The South was united and
had been long preparing for the strug
gle, which they had foreseen, and up
to the very day of Mr.. Lincoln's inau
guration, they had been able to wield
the entire power of the general gov
ernment, in their own behalf The
l North was much divided The new
administration found itself crippled
and powerless in the midst of traitors
uncertain how large party, even in
the free States, would sympathize with
the rebellion, and would oppose all Co
ercive measures. Foreign sympathy
was, from the first, largely with the
South. The aristocrats of the ole
world, were only too ready to welcome
and hasten the downfall of our free
government and even men whose lib
eral principles ought to have made
them our friends failed to understand
the true issues of the contest, anC
while liberty and slavery were enter
ing upon a life and death struggle