Year: 1865

bv ell who knew the nature of 5ouf work


a most remarkable thing thatOuly sixteen


Of your number fell 81 .rsl L-.z


Now, my brothers, why was it that


every little bush, stump, or stone about
you was struck, and YOU not touched


How didit come that SO few Of your broth
-ers fell Was It BY any natural law, OF
Jaw Of chance or accident that yOu were
-preserEed2 OF course every ball or shell
Is governed in its motion and course, and
in its explosion By what we call natural
laws, which are nothing more than the US


ual and ordinary ways BY which God
brings to pass hispurposes. But did you
ever bear of a law without a LAW MAKER,
who has power to control the law at his
pleasure? The cars run according to reg
ular laws of motion and steam, but con-
slant explosions and collisions are prevent
ed by engineers and conductors who gov
ern those laws and control the movement
of-the engine at their pleasure. Thus all
the movements of the complicated ma
ehinery of this world and the whole uni
verse, are governed by a conductor and
engineer, whose hand is never seen, but
whose presence and power are ever felt, by
all whose intellectual vision is strong
enough, beneath the irregular appearance
and confused surface Of things. Your
own movements and particular positions in
battle, when you took a step this way or
that, letting ball pass harmlessly by you,
when you lay down and. the ball passed
Just where your head was a moment be-
fore, when you moved your arm or head,
or some part of the body a few inches,
without KNOWING. or THINKING WHY you
made such move, and instantly q missile
passed or struck right there and would
have killed or crippled you ifyou had not
made that seemingly trifing move which
had NO DESIGN oE-YoUR PART all these
relative movements Of bodies and balls are
governed by regular laws Of melton and
force. But the great Conductor is be-
hind ringing the bell, and some agent
obeying his will is engineering the whole
matter. The gunner aims his piece.
He is the Immediate agent directing the
ball. He may think bis is not controlled
by the invisible Agent behind him, and,
acting according to his own Judgment and
pleasure, he is not mere machine, but
really as much a free agent as if there
we're no controlling power behind him.
His freedom consists in doing just as be
decides and chooses to do, even though
his choice be determined by an agent and
influence Of whose presence and power he
is unconscious. When be elevatesOr low
ers his piece a very little, or turns it
slightly to the right or the left, he acts
according to his ownjudgment; yet many
things may be employed to determine and
produce that judgment. need not take
time to argue this point; but if any one
thinks that in the aiming Of his gun, or
the avoiding ball, or in any of his move
nentg, he is intirely uncontrolled by any
invisible Agent, he is greatly mistaken.
There are more things in heaven and
earth than be ever dreams Of in his weak
philosophy. If there be God at all he
must necessarily GOVERN. -.-sa 71


Universal and absolute dominion is a pri-
mary element in theavery idea Of God. If
he governs in matters great he must in small.
The greater includes the less. And so it is
that-vast Being whose mighty
presence Overshadows all, who sends innu-
merable worlds whirling through space in
regular ORbits, and continues them from age
to age vithOut the least confusiOn-t,By Him
even the very hairs of your heads are all
numbered, and without Him not even q spar
row falls to the ground" Is it He that up
holds the little spaFrow's wing, and not He
that upholds and preserves you When Ahab,
that wicked ruler and proud defer of God,
was to be destroyed, a lying spirit was en-
plOyed as a spy to induce his false prophets to
persuade him to go to Ramoth Gilead to bat
tie. The true prophets assured him that if
he went he would be slain. But he clothed
himself in what he considered gbemh-proff ar
NOR and went. As there was but one spot,
the knee joint of his coat of mail that could
be pierced, he sat and watched the progress
Of the battle in defiant security, as he suppo-
sed. Directly a soldier drew a bow at a ven
ture and let fly his arrow. 1t was what we
call random shot. He had taken no aim,
The arrow few according to the regular laws
Of motion. But while it was sent without
aim on the part Of the soldier it was aimed by





one vulnerable spot, the knee joint of Ahab.
The Bible tells US there are angels. spirits in
visible, innumerable and powerful. all used
as servants, 0TdeTIieS aid-de-cGmps, or as Paul
calls them ministering spirits performing the
will and purposes Of the -Commander-in-chief
of the hosts Of heaven and earth. Such being
their nature and office, they are. capable of in
huencing and controlling our movements for
either saving or destroying our life according
to the pleasure Of their and our wise and good
Commander. Did it ever occur to you when
you turned your head6nd ball whizzed past,
perhaps cutting your hat and infioting only
a slight wound that would have been fatal
one il you had not moved, that it was one Of
these invisible ordeTlies that turned your head
for the very purpose of saving your life2 If
you thought that your preservation during all
this campaign and others through which you
have passed was attributable only to your
own discretion or eoolness, or the good man
agement of your officers, and that the special
providence Of God had nothing to do with it,
you were greatly in error, and you have abun.
dant reason to say with one of old, $40, God
aVas there, but knew it not" .ts


From the stronghold Of Buz5ard Roost
you were sent round twenty miles through
Snake Gap to Mill Creek, where you helped
TO fight the battle of Resaca. There, you
were in the front line nearly all the time
and on that memorable Sabbath night when
the enemy made their last desperate charge
on our lines at midnight you were in the
advance, and many of you were on picket.
When the alarm was given you were the first
regiment ut your guns on our part of the
line. For one hour the earth trembled un-
der the fearful explosion of cannon and the
constant crashing of musketry. The air
was full Of Whizzing minies, and shells
bursting and flying hissing-hOt as if from
the boiling lake Of perdition. Yet in all
this you had only one man killed Passing
over the diminishing from Resaca to Ala
toona mountains, you were again in the
front line. In that terrible charge in which
the Division Immediately on your right lost
sixteen hundred men, yeu were still in the