The Portland daily press., 1871-12-02
Thanksgiving Discourse,

| the preachers followed the custom of the da,
and dscoursed upon national and governmental
topics. AT the
SECOND PARISH CHURCH
Rev. DR.. Carruthers delivered sermon of grea
power, in which the hand of God was especial
ly recognized in the leading events of the las
decade. We present some of the thoughts HI
gave utterance to:
The commencement of the last decade found
our country enveloped in the dark clouds
broken only by the lurid flames of civil war
The apparently unpropitious circumstance
| attendant on its earlier developments and pro
gress put the faith of Christians and the cour
| age of all patriots to the severest test. Blu
they also awakened and urged some questions
of mightiest import which had been neglected
by all but small fraction even of our Christian
population. AS a people we had acted az
though negro slavery was really-if not il
Georgian phrase the chief corner stone of thu
great national edifce-yet a prop and pillar
without which its stability would be endan-
gered. Let it ever be engraven on the hearts
of this American people that SO long as We
cherished and upheld the monstrosity o.
human bondage the God of mercy frowned
upon us, did not go forth with our armies
blew upon our most sagacious projects and
turned our most sanguine anticipations into
bitter and grievous disappointments.
We ought never to forget the lesson which
was at length enforced on the attention and
acceptance of the people. That lesson was
| interpreted by Abraham Lincoln, and the in
depreciation came as if from heaven in the
| ever memorable act of Emancipation. That
was the crisis of our national destiny. Vic
| tory from that hour perched on the banners OF
our widely separated armies. Study that
most memorable of civil wars remember those
years of he Most High, and learn how God
however mysteriously, ultimately rights all
wrongs neutraizes all evils and justifies his
WAYS to men.
Atevery recurrence of thought to our civil
war we cannot fail to remember the virtual aid
given TO our Southern opponents by the govern
ment of the fatherland. That the physical
and moral strength of the British nation was
really on the side of freedom is absolutely
certain, and the suferings Of its mechanical
and manufacturing population, consequent On
the want of the staple SO abundantly supplied
in former years by the Southern States, were
borne with patience and magnanimity which
never gave way even to momentary desire
for the continuance of slavery. But the Brit
lsh government as such was greatly criminal
i'll the matter of international courtesy, gen.
crosby and justice. All this has been in effect
SOHlCooSo ny luIOuRu nGE uODlc repre-
sentatives of the High Commission, and now
at the close of decade during a great part of
which distressing and dangerous anmosities
were secretly and slowly but surely springing
up betwixt these kindred nations, we have
with devout thankfulness to acknowledge the
hand of God In bringing about that Washing
ton Treaty, the effect of which will be to
strengthen and perpetuate the amity and
union OF these two great maternal and flial
nations Of the earth.
The Atlantic ocean wide as it is, does not
sever us as to mutual influence from another
nation whose history especially during the
closing years of the period now under review
here. has been beyond all precedent, eventful.
At the beginning of this period villainy en-
bodied in the person of the third
Napoleon sat upon the throne of
France. To all human appearance
and all general supposition his exchequer was
full, his people loyal, his huge army and navy
faithful to his dynasty. Liberty allowed her
self to be bound and chained by his inexora-
BILE despotism. In an evil hour for himself
and ominous of disaster to his people he pro-
claimed war unprovoked by actual hostilities,
against a powerful neighbor, precipitately
hurled his legions on the ramparts of the
Rhine, witnessed his sons "baptism of fire, >
and then ingloriously retreated, his ill disci-
PAihSo tiOOPo OSiiiS oOol 'HoHCdltSHcus COl-
quered and dispersed, and himself in few
weeks after his departure from his own capital
a prisoner in casteHated mansion in the
heart of Germany.
Under his military protection his ally, the
Pope, conceived the idea of grand Ecumeni-
cal council consisting of the representative
ecclesiastical dignitaries of the entire church,
whose deliberations and decisions would cor
rect the alleged license of the age and restore
the church to her medieval sway over all the |
potentates and peoples. The council was
convened.
The doctrines and directions of the cele- |
brated Encyclical letter were fully endorsed |
and the insane dogma of papal infallibility was |
solemnly endorsed and publicly proclaimed |
with all the pains and penalties enacted for its
vigorously enforced adoption through the en-
tire habitable globe. A mortal man sitting in |
the temple of God, had arrogated an incom-
municable attribute of Deity, had virtually |
shown himself that he was God and accepted |
in the capacity of an infallible being, the hon.
age and worship of his fellow worms. The |
cup of Rome's iniquity was full. The spir its |
of martyred thousands and ten thousands from |
beneath Coos altar who for ages had asked |
show long ;" were now to be appeased, and |
the spiritual Babylon with all her told and
untold denominations was to fall unpitied and
unlamented by any but the human and satanic
foes of God, of truth, of holiness, OF saliva
ton. Not one of the European monarchs
endorses the Pope's infallibility, but all Of
them disown civil allegiance to him as ruler.
The celebrated concordat with Austria is
broken. The imperial refugee of Chiselhurst |
can do nothing TO help the holy father in his |
extremity of grief. He of the vatican sits, as
Bunyan has it, biting his nails, crashing his |
teeth and vainly bewailing his conscious and |
unpitied impotence. |
The divided loyalty of large portion of our |
citizens, their acknowledged allegiance in all |
matters of conscience to foreign power, their |
subserviency to the direction in civil matters |
to their priesthood, and the possession by |
these through the means of the confessional |
of the key to their most secret thoughts are |
altogether incompatible with an honest and an |
earnest and uncompromising adherence tothe !
spirit and letter of our constitution. Truth is |
the only effective antagonist of error, and the
truth as it is in Jesus faithfully proclaimed,
diligently propagated, will do infinitely more
than all Legislative enactments towards pre-
serving and transmitting to future generations
the blessings of free government, an open
Bible and unfettered liberty of conscience.
If our Young Mems Christian associations
will not practically associate themselves from
the church of the living God, but as its men,
bers, faithfully do the work of the church In
fundamentally diffusing the SAVIOUR of the
knowledge of christianity they will incon-
ceivably accelerate the progress of the gospel
and the establishment of Christ's spiritual
kingdom in the world
know not how far the general statistics of
Temperance reformation would justify the be-
lief that much progress had been made in this
direction during the period we are now re-
viewing. We have lao enough to close every
haunt of intoxication in the State, but law
will never execute itself and in the hands of
Indifferent or hostile executors it may prove
injurious rather than beneficial to the moral
interests of the people.
1t is now apparent to many-may it soon
be visible to all the best and ablest advocates
of temperance-that the only sure guaranty of
success in this great enterprise is to unite tenn
perance into fellowship with all other virtues
and base them all on repentance towards God
and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ. Let
MS be done and the min sters and churches of
onr '-ud will come to the front of the great
or,nr of ~ tactical reformers. They will them
selves const;tn re the sinew and strength of that
armv' Pervaded w love to Christ and rever-
ence for his law, and ma. rehing on under the
banner of his cross they will tisht ana eohqu s
that arch enemy and his human ltHelons W.
have Frustrated so many millions in the DUST
and sent their undying spirits to the place ~
torment.
The resources of all our evangelistic institu-
lions have during the last ten years prodlglous-
ly increased. If In some directions there be the
too apparent indications of indifference to the
peculiar distinctive and characteristic truths
of Christianity, there seen in others the
contravening symptoms of renewed interest