Delaware gazette and state journal., 1899-11-16
REVOLUTIONARY SERMON.

OF DranuyWlnes Weunebuhsi oorsstnp'A
10th, l777, by chaplain of the Con
| tinental Army, tho Rev. Joab Trout.
"They that take the sword shall
perish with the sword. Matt. 26, 81.
Soldiers and Countrymen: We have
met this evening, perhaps for the last
| time; We have shared the toll OF the
| march, the peril of the fight, and the
dismay of the retreat, alike; we have
endured cold and hunger; the con-
tumely of the internal foe, and courage
OF the foreign oppressor. We have sat-
night after night, beside the camp,
fire. we have heard together the roll OF
the reveille, which called US to duty or
the beat of the tattoo, which gave tine
signal for the hardy sleep Of the soldier
with the earth for his bed and KNAPP
sack for his pillow. And now, soldiers
and brethren, we have met in the peace |
full valley on the eve Of battle, while
tho sunlight is dying away behind
yonder heights-the sunlight that to-
morrow morn will glimmer on the
scenes of blood
We have met amid the whitening
, tents of our encampment; in time OF
terror and of gloom have We gathered
together. God grant that it may not te
for the last time! 1t is solemn mo-
| ment, brethren. Does not the solemn
! voice of nature seem to echo the sym
: pathies of the hour? The flag of our
| country droops heavily from yonder
staff The breeze has died away along
. the green plain of Chadd's Ford-the
3 plain that spreads before us glittering
. in the sunlight. The heights of the
] Brandywine Use gloomy and grand
S beyond the waters of yonder, stream.
: All nature holds solemn silence on
y the eve OF the uproar, of the bloodshed
q and strife Of tomorrow
!. "They that take the sword shall
: perish with the sword. =
v And have they not taken the swordl
Q Let the desolated plains, the blood
r sodden valleys. the burned farm houses,
4, blackening in the sun, the sacked vii
d lagos and the ravished towns, answer!
d Let the bleaching Zones of the
e butchered farmer, strewed along the
d fields of his own homestead, answer
+ Let the starved mother, with the babe
J. clinging to the withered breast that
o can afford nc sustenance, let her answer
y with the death rattle mingling with
Ie the murmuring tones that mark the
N last struggle of life Let that dying
mother and her babe answer
1t was but little while past and our
land slopt In the quiet of peace. War
!, was not here. Wrong was not here.
'. Fraud, and woe, and misery, and want,
dwelt not among us. From the soli-
a tude of the green woods rose the blue
i. smoke of the settlers cabin. and golden
ol fields of corn looked forth from amid
y the waste of the wilderness. and the
u " glad music of human voices awoke the
in silence of tho forest. Now-God oi
o. mercy behold the change Under the
AZ AZ shadow of pretext,. under the sanctlty
10 OF the name of God, invoking the Re
We deemer to their aid, do these foreign
n hirelings say our people. They thronl
IL our towns, they darken our plains, ant
en- now they encompass our posts on tht
% plain of Chadd's Ford.
ne "They that take the sword shal
lc- perish with the sword. -
Brethren think me not unworthy o
q celief, when | tell you the doom OF th
We British is near. Think me not vail
Id, when | tell you that beyond the clou'
las that now enshrouds us, see gathering
OF thick and fast, the darker cloud ant
try the blacker storm of divine retribution
et- They may conquer tomorrow-mIgh
ION ard wrong may. prevail, and We ma
IN he driven from this field. but the hou
eat of Gods vengeance will come! All,
as in the vast solitudes of eternal space
ex- il in the heart Of the boundless uni
up verse there throbs the being of a
my awful God, quick to avenge, and sur
full to punish guilt, then will the mar
cts, George of Brunswick, called king, fe'
to in his brain and his heart the ver
as eeance of the eternal Jehovah!
my blight will be upon his life, a withere
ex- brain and accursed intellect; q bligf
on will be uuon his children, and on h
ase people! Great God, how dread thi
punishment A crowded populac
.ors peopling the dense towns, where Il
Mr.. man of money thrlves while the labor
hat staryes want striding among the peor
ex- in all its forms of terror; proud ar
meroiiess mobility adding wrong
wrong, and heaping insult upon ro
.. berry and fraud; a God-defying prizes
,nce hood; royalty corrupt to the very hea
and aristocracy rotten to the cor
ian crime and want linked hand and temp
roe ing men to deeds of woe and deatl
dey these are part of the doom and retl
,are button that will come upon the Engli
at. throne and the people of England
,nce Soldiers, | look around into 20
rere familiar faces with strong interes
yes, Tomorrow morning we will all go for
aoic to the battle: fol need l tell you th
vork your unworthy minister will mar
was with you, invoking Gods aid in t
,rm- fightI We will march forth to bait
Need exhort you to fight the go
yory fight; TO fight for your homesteads,
aims YOUR wives and ci idren! My flien
N. urge you to fight by the gall
memories of British wrong.
Walton, | might tell you of yo
reen father, slaughtered in the silence
land night on the pains OF Irengon hnis
week i might ring his death shrek in yc
,tain ears!
The Shelmire, ! might tell YOU of
olay- butchered mother; the lonely far
hone house, the night assault, the roof
iace flames, the shouts of the troopers
any they dispatched their victims; tho CT
, last for mercy, the pieadings of innocel
etire for pity. I might paint this all ag
other in the vivid colors of the terr
n in. reality, if l thought that your cour'
Gov needed such wild excitement, but
ayers know you are strong in the NIGH
,eded the Lord. You will march forth
rs on battle on the morrow with light hes
hi I'M ard determined spirits, though
in a lssolemn duty, the duty of evenging
to 90 dead. rests heavily on your souls.
this in the hour of battle, whom all aro'
the darkness is lit by the luIid can
glare, and the piercing muskets fla
when the wounded strew the gro
dead and the dead litter your path, t
week, remember, soldiers, that God is v
| the you; the eternal God fights for you ;
alot, tides on the battle cloud, He swt
, the onward with the march or the hu
His cane charge! God the awful and the