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{Begin handwritten}{Omitted text, 1w} Bartlett
No. 3358{End handwritten}

A SERMON ON THE WAR,
BY THE
Rev. ELIAS NASON,
PREACHED TO THE SOLDIERS AT EXETER, N. H.,
May 19. 1861.

Psalm 20 : 5.--"In the name of our God we will set up our banners."

IN the progress of our national events, a commanding question has arisen, which involves the very existence of our government and which is to be settled by the broad sword and the bayonet. Argument, compromise, and concession have been tried in vain for the last half century; the more we have yielded the more has been demanded; the more we have sought for peace, the more have our rights been invaded, until at length extending our clemency even into what is termed abroad, effeminacy, a rebellion has broken out; has ripened into open war; the public property has been seized, the Constitution of our country broken; the old flag insulted by the "hissing rattle snake;" the loud mouthed cannon opened on our fortresses; and legions of armed traitors are now concentrating on our Capital.

"The clarion now sounds to the war;"
and the arguments we now use must be grape and canister; our logic, the solid iron from the lips of the Columbiad; our eloquence the national flag wreathed in the blue funereal smoke of the battle field. The pacificator now is the wild music of the rifled cannon.

This, I know, is terrible; war at any time is terrible; but civil war; fratricidal war is doubly terrible; and yet rebellion, anarchy, slavery, is still more terrible.

Have you thought, men and brethren, what a heart moving drama is now opening before us? What a tremendous agitation that first shot against Fort Sumpter has awakened? Do you hear the tocsin of war resounding through the forests of Maine; echoing along the Granite Hills of New Hampshire; sweeping over the busy State of Massachusetts; waking the dwellers on the lakes, rolling over the broad prairies of the West, and calling the sons of liberty to the field of conflict? What means this mustering of the serried legions?--this rapid forging of arms; this commissioning of the ships of war? What are we to understand by these lurid gleamings athwart the rising tempest and the muttering of the deep-toned thunder, pealing nearer every moment? What is to be the grand result of this tremendous contest? How are we coming out of this argumentation by the cannon shot, and this arbitrament at the point of the bayonet? What is to be the issue of this dread collision?

This question will still force itself upon us. Is the integrity of the Government to be maintained? Is the torch of rebellion to be extinguished? Is the "Constitution" to be settled on a firmer basis? Is the flag of our fathers to float again over every inch of the soil of our country? and the heel of liberty to crush the head of the rattle snake? Are the songs of Freedom yet to ring with clearer and sweeter tones along the hills and vallies of our native land? I look with hopeful eye beyond the dreadful storm now gathering, and I think I can discover a rainbow; and a calm and peaceful sky still bending in beauty over a great and loving Christian people, breathing the sweet air of liberty; and teaching other nations that a popular government can stand hard battle-shocks and then rise triumphant over every enemy.

Now I will ask you for a few moments, to consider my reasons for believing that the issue of this war will prove auspicious for the Government and for the decoration of that temple of freedom, whose foundations our forefathers laid.

Working ever over us and around us, there is a great invisible Spirit who is the guardian and the keeper of the true and brave. Unseen and silent, but with irresistible might, he executes his grand designs. He asks not leave of man to act; but marches calmly, steadily on, though men oppose him, or assist him, to complete his comprehensive plans and purposes. With equal ease this great invisible Spirit unfolds a rose of spring time into bloom before you; or stirs up the ocean into fury, by his tempest; He guides an insect through the balmy air, or wheels a comet through the lofty sky.

This living, thinking Spirit is invisible, I know; but our own spirits are invisible, also; all efficient power is invisible;--steam is invisible; heat is invisible; gravity is invisible;--this living God is invisible; but ever present in every part of his dominions. He stoops to the lowliest; he rises to the loftiest, and while the quick cross lightning streams along the cloud at his command, not a sparrow falleth unobserved by his unslumbering eye. Out of the dust of the earth he manufactured man;--majestic in his strength and beauty; he gave him after his own bright image, an immortal spirit, lighted up by reason and intelligence, and for the comfort and discipline of man, he brings along the sparkling beauties of the Spring; he decorates the fields with summer glory; he loads them with autumnal treasures and with the snowy robes of winter. This ever-thinking, this invisible Spirit controls the operations of the earth by the word of his power. He wakes up the tempest on the ocean; and yet he is mightier than the voice of many waters; he guides the glowing thunderbolt, he cleaves the earth by his invincible energy; he sends the meteor reeling through the heavens. This invisible God, steady and faithful to the fulfillment of his purposes; rules also over and directs the nations;--the hearts of kings and princes are in his hand, for he made them; and as he guides the star along its silent course in heaven, so does he guide the marching of an Empire. He is the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords. Over the sulphurous smoke and rolling musketry

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of every battle field, he sits in his calm majesty and directs the issue;--he tells every shot where to strike and where to take effect;--he appoints the flag to be inscribed with "Victory."

This majestic, this unseen, but all potent God, holds the destinies of nations in his hand; he brings prosperity, or destruction, as he pleases. He is a "Man of War," with the resources of the universe in his grasp to sweep, if he so wills, the mustering squadrons of our enemies to ruin in an instant. It is the same sleepless Spirit that once over Gibeon commanded the sun itself to stand and wait; and the fair moon to hang her horns in stillness over the vale of Ajalon that his people might obtain the victory. To be successful in the battle of life; to be successful in the battles of our country, we must obtain the help of the invisible power of this eternal God--we fight like mad men, if we fight without him; and in conquering even, we but make through victory, our destruction more complete.

I agree with Cromwell, that to gain the victory, we must "keep our powder dry;"--our means and instruments in perfect working order; but I also know and say with a still greater warrior, that to secure a blessed triumph, we must "set up our banners in the name of our God." For this God still plans above our plans; still thinks above our thoughts; still marches above our marching; still dictates above our dictation; still legislates above our legislation; still fights above our fighting; still governs above our governing; still holds dominion above our dominion; and hence whosoever is confederate with Him, will come off the true conqueror in the end, upon the battle field. Man proposes; God disposes; and for the good of those that trust him. Now, men and brethren, I am hopeful in this exigence because, I believe, we have set up our banners in the name of God.

My hope of ultimate success does not so much repose in our superiority to our enemies in point of military skill, or power, as in our going forth to the field of contest in confederation with Almighty God. In times like these, it is perfectly natural that we should overestimate our own resources, and for the same reason look contemptuously on those of our opponents. We reckon in war too often without our host. In this impending contest we have never, I think given the Southrons full credit for the political and military power at their command. We have not yet beheld our foes directly in the eye. It is very true that in numbers, money and naval power we considerably out-rival them; but so did England us, in the old revolution, and yet we conquered her. In territorial extent, the South exceeds the North, materially; Virginia alone, is almost eight times as large as the State of Massachusetts; and Texas more than thirty-five times as large, and rapidly filling up with a brave and hardy people. These are large farms for our government to guard and keep. The South is more decidedly agricultural than the North; her soil is more liberal in its yield and demands less culture than our northern soil;--and such countries are in themselves, as the Duke of Wellington has well observed, most able to furnish and maintain men in a long and continuous war.--The southern people are of a warlike temper, naturally; they have leisure for the practice of the bowie knife, and rifle; and they are the sharpest marksmen in the world.

Col. Morgan's riflemen in the revolution did the most effective work, you know, in bringing Gen. Burgoyne's fine troops to a "dead halt;" and in turning the tide of battle in our favor. George Washington, himself was a Virginian! The southrons are reckless of life and they are brave,--by nature and by education. The barbarous principle of duelling is acknowledged as their "code of honor;" and many a man has killed his man, before he enters as a soldier into the army. The southern regiments have been drilling several years, while we have all been slumbering; they have more than their proportion of well trained officers from West Point, and other military schools; they bear an intense hatred toward the North and will fight, I am convinced, to desperation. These rebels have able men as leaders; crafty politicians who have out-generalized our statesmen at the Capitol and carried their points in congress and in cabinet for the last half century.

Stephens, Davis, Beauregard, Pickens, Jones, Hill, Mason, Letcher, Maury, Toombs, Floyd, etc., are keen and quick-eyed men, fertile in expedients; and will make the most of every "vantage ground" at home, and will diplomatize with masterly skill abroad. We have, I say, no common foe to meet. We have an enemy to measure weapons with entirely different from that of Mexico; or England even; and, if I mistake not, a greater number of them are in the field today than we have yet brought forward. Georgia alone has 263 companies well drilled for action and 30,000 men behind at her command. The climate of the South is in itself a mighty army on that side; and we labor under the disadvantage of fighting on the soil of our opponents. Why then am I hopeful in this dreadful conflict? I answer fairly: not so much because of our numbers, gold, or fleets, or generalship at the north; not so much because of our union at the north; not so much because of our "materiel;" our "sinews of war" at the North--No, no, no! not these alone.--but I am confident of final victory because of the plans and the action of that wise Spirit whom we come into this temple to worship today; because we have set up our banners, not in our own, but in his Almighty name; and because I believe we go forth under his benediction to the battlefield--and one with God upon his side is an invincible legion. The South has set up its banner in the name of secession, in the name of rebellion; in the name of oppression! The poisonous rattlesnake is its fitting emblem. Such a banner ought to fall; it is opposed to human progress; learning, liberty; it is opposed to the great leading ideas of the nineteenth century; such a banner ought to fall; and I feel assured that God through your right arm intends to make it fall; and the illustrious "Star spangled banner" rise, heaven-lighted with the swelling songs of Freedom, over it.

Our foe is strong; we must not hide that fact;--but God is mightier still; and our flag is unfolded in his name,--and therefore, I believe, that we shall be successful. It has been ever thus; and the sons of Freedom must remember it. In the early settlement of this very state, our forefathers knelt with their wives and little ones to pray beside their muskets and rose up from intercourse with God to go forth to stay the depredations of the savages. They set up their banner in the name of God and he went with them end delivered them. When in the war

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with France, our Governor Wentworth asked his friend George Whitefield for a motto for this State,--and he wrote out for him these glorious words,--

"Nil desperandum Christo duce."

"Christ our leader, we fear not."
which we must still bear with us to the field of glory, our banner was set upon the name of God, and he obtained for us the victory. When in the great revolution, times were dark and the sweet star of hope declining, the calm voice of Washington went up to God above the battle roar for help; the noble warrior raised his banner in the name of Heaven; and Heaven came to the rescue; and so because our fathers all along set up their banners in the name of God, the foe fell back before them, just as the Midianites before the trumpetings of Gideon. The unseen arm was wielding mighty blows in their behalf. Our enemy is valiant; is mightier than we admit; but our cause is holy, and I believe God will therefore go with us to the encounter. We rally not for selfish ends, but for the support of the best government of the world; we rally to save the land from anarchy; and what comes after anarchy, chains and slavery; we buckle on the armor to protect the land from traitors and to sustain and save the great temple of liberty from destruction. We march and we fight to maintain our glorious constitution and our laws; and in the performance of this sublime duty, we move onward under banners set up in the name of God; because God himself laid down the foundations of this government and makes it imperative on us to uphold it. Our cause is holy--God is in it, and this, not mortal power, inspires the hope of a triumphant issue! We defend too in this government the holy citadel of Freedom! The high towering citadel which sends out from its heaven-crowned battlements the streaming flames of liberty to cheer the down-trodden and the desolate of the world! We defend the citadel from whose majestic turrets there ring out over the misty deep the great-bell-tones of peace, and deliverance for the weather-beaten and the desolate! and God's never-slumbering eye is watching over that great citadel, and I therefore feel the swelling tide of hope rise in my soul that he will save it. The foe is dreadful; but our cause is just and right. Our conscience cries "Amen" above it. We have done our enemies no wrong whatever. We have fairly and constitutionally chosen a chief magistrate; we have heard their supplications on the floor of Congress, and have promptly granted them. We have ever given them the lion's share in the offices and benefactions of this Government; we have sustained most liberally their postal and other fiscal burdens; we have not infringed a single right which they possess; we have redressed imaginary grievances, even. We have asked for nothing but free speech, a free pulpit and a free press, the inalienable right of every freeman;--and thus without a cause; without a charge against us, they proceed to strike the axe of rebellion into the pillars of our Government, and would bring them crashing down upon our heads!

It was said of old, that whom the Gods destroy, they first make mad. The southern rebels have no cause for this rebellion; the government has dealt with them with more than fatherly tenderness;--and not until the dreadful storm of balls at Sumter, could we believe that madness even, would carry men so far. Historians will be lost in wonder, that men should have attempted to break down a government like ours, without some grievance to allege for it.--Our cause is therefore just, and "justice and judgment are the habitation" of the throne of God; and hence again I say, our banners are set up in his all-conquering name. In the design of this war--to uphold a free Government; in the justice of this war; defending only what is our own; in the clemency of this war; our country coming into it only when the batteries of our enemies have driven us into it. I can see the name of God set on our banner; and I think in carrying it on thus far, the name of the "God of Sabbaoth" stands there, and hence His presence has been most signally on our side.

When our chief magistrate left his quiet home to take upon himself the burdens and the cares of State, he set up his banner in the name of God;--he besought the nation to lift up fervent prayer to heaven for his protection;--and who, think you, but God rescued him from that band of desperadoes leagued to cut him down before he reached the capital?

When the brave Anderson beheld the iron teeth of war encircling his command of seventy, and the engines of destruction ready to dash him in pieces, he knelt in prayer and set up the "old stars and stripes" once more in the name of God; and all through that storm of rattling balls and bursting bombs and screaming missiles of fiery death; all through the crash of those terrific nights when Charleston bay was lighted by the glowing shot, poured out in torrents from all quarters, full upon him; all through that dreadful cannonade, some unseen hand defended every "brave" beneath that flag! This is a great religious war. The cause is holy; the tone of feeling in the army is inspired and lofty! We have set up our banners in the name of our God; and God is already on the field with us. The songs we sing in this war are sacred songs; such as:

"Our father's God, to thee--
Author of Liberty,
To thee we sing--
Long may our land be bright,
With freedom's holy light;
Protect us by thy might,
Great God our king."

Thousands and thousands of religious young men have enlisted for this war; the pulpit with one voice is urging it--the Bible Society is furnishing every soldier with some portion of the "Holy Book" for it; the Tract Society is doing its duty toward the army; prayer meetings are held in the camp as in the days of Cromwell; holy psalms are sung; "God bless you," is sown upon the coat of many a soldier; and thousands and thousands of prayers are going up in closets from the lips of wives and mothers and sisters, for God's protection of the husband, son, or brother.

This incident alone will show the spirit of our noble warriors--

"While encamped in Maryland, says one of the Seventh Regiment, I wandered off one day and came to a farm house, where I saw a party of those Massachusetts fellows--well, no, they were Rhode Island boys, but its all the same--talking with a woman who was greatly frightened. They tried in vain to quiet her apprehensions. They asked for

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food, and she cried, 'O, take all I have, take everything, but spare my sick husband.' 'O,' said one of the men, "We are not going to hurt you; we want something to eat." But the woman persisted in being frightened in spite of all efforts to reassure her, and hurried whatever food she had on the table.--But, said the lieutenant, when she saw this company stand about the table with bared heads, and a tall, gaunt man raise his hand and invoke God's blessing on the bounties spread before them, the poor woman broke down with a fit of sobbing and crying. She had no longer any fears, but bid them wait, and in a few moments had made them hot coffee in abundance. She then emptied their canteens of the muddy water they contained and filled them with coffee. Her astonishment increased when they insisted upon paying her. The lieutenant tells this with great expression. Said he, when I saw this I felt that our country was safe with such men to fight for it.'"

Our troops feel as if they were on a holy mission, with God as their leader; and therefore I believe they will stand by the dear old flag in the day of peril, and that "victory" will wake her pæns on their side of the battle field. How expectant we all stood the other day to await the arrival of that noble regiment from the State of Maine. How sublime those great words on the flag at the head of the long train, came rolling into view:--

"IN GOD IS OUR TRUST!"

They point to the spirit of this mighty demonstration in defence of freedom; they point to the triumphant issue of the contest; they reveal the secret of it. Our trust is in the invisible and adorable God!

Thus I have endeavored to reveal to you something of the relation of the parties to each other; and the reasons I have for believing in the ultimate triumph of our northern armies. The contest will, I doubt not, be most sharp and sanguinary. The world has never yet seen such intelligent men meet on the field of action. Guns will be aimed with deadly precision, and every nerve will do its utmost. And you, soldiers, have enlisted for the strife. It is to be no boy's play, I can certainly assure you. It has come to cartridge box and bayonet; and I believe and hope it is the policy of the men in power to settle this question of rebellion so deeply, that it shall never have a resurrection. You are soon to hear the alarm of the war drum and to know what means a battle with stern unflinching combatants.

Will you hear a word of counsel from one who loves and honors a brave soldier and who would gladly share the peril with you? Well then, ever keep in mind this great unseen Being who rules in power above you; who presides above the battlefield, and in whose august name we raise our banner--for whom and by whom we fight, and who alone secures the victory. Endeavor to catch and keep alive the lofty spirit of religious patriotism which inspires our army. Read something daily from the "Holy Word;" take not the name of God in vain; keep the illustrious example of Washington before you; aspire to be as virtuous, patriotic, and as true to liberty. Keep the still more illustrious example of Jesus Christ before you, and consecrate your heart's warm service unto him--put your trust--your whole trust in him and look to him for temporal, for eternal succor. The cross of Jesus is erected for the soldier on the battle ground, as truly as for the preacher in the pulpit; his blood is just as efficacious; his arm is just as secure when war-drums rattle on the martial field, as when organs softly breathe within the sacred sanctuary.

Your cause is holy; yet this cannot sanctify your hearts; bring then your hearts to Christ, that they through him, may sanctify your cause. You respect and will obey your military commander promptly; O, then respect and promptly obey that invisible Commander over him, who leads him to the field and gives him victory. You are moving toward a sickly climate; keep your bodies pure from alcoholic drinks, that you may stand against that climate.--More men, I fear, will fall by Southern rum, than Southern lead; therefore be on your guard against this foe. Keep your hand and eye in perfect trim for a quick shot and heavy blow; keep your soul in perfect trim for the blessing of your God upon it.

Give close attention to the drill. I repeat to you again, that the men you are to measure weapons with, are experienced marksmen. I have shot with them for many years. They are trained from infancy to the use of fire arms;--they have been practising especially for the last few years, and some of them have laid aside all intoxicating drink in order to secure a steady nerve. I have heard of their spending large parts of the night in practice. You are soon to go out to meet them. Our warmest and heartiest sympathies, our ardent prayers will follow you. We know you are brave men; we pray that you may be strong men also. I say once more to you,--set up your standard of life--as your standard of battle, the name of God You are soon, I know, to hear the cry, "stand to your arms!" You are soon to see the long line of gleaming bayonets displayed in front of you--the black batteries double-shorted, looking over you; and the swift winged cavalry on the right flank and the left; you are soon to experience that dreadful stillness which precedes the storm; you are soon to see the sheeted lightning gleam along the field; to hear the tread of the advancing war-steed. You are soon to hear:--

"Cannon to right of you,
Cannon to left of you,
Cannon in front of you,
Volley and thunder;"--
and to feel as you hardly begin to think or dream--

"The havoc of war and the battle's confusion."

Can you stand before the scathing tempest? In God I know you can. Set up your banner then in the name of God; march forward in the strength of God; make your appeal to God; let your battle cry be "God and freedom!" and you shall move triumphant over the fiery tide of death; and plant your victorious flag, stripped into ribbons it may be, yet still fluttering, over the ignominious flag of the rebellion. Set up the colors in the name of God and;--

"Conquer we must, for our cause it is just,
And this be our motto; 'in God is our trust,'
And the star spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!"

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