What is our duty? What is mine as a citizen, a Christian, a
minister of God--as a man? What is yours? Plainly to ask, What have
I--either by demanding too much, not in abstract right, but in the light
of present possibility--contributed towards this fearful condition? What
by my love of money, my sanction of oppression, my apologies for wrong, my
complaint against government, my support of wrong principles, my neglect
to vote and pray for the right, my boast of national greatness, my worship
of power and neglect of goodness, my forgetfulness of God? What by all
these, and more that I do not think of, have I done palpably, possibly,
toward bringing on this terrible crime against justice, humanity and law?
Then it is my duty to repent of all this and deplore it. It is also my
duty to strive against personal hatred and revenge, and to pray for my
country's enemies just as I would for my own, and _because_ they are my
own--not that they prosper in their rebellion, but that they repent and
find mercy, and acknowledge the authority against which they are at war.
It is our duty specially to pity and pray for the multitudes of good
citizens and their families, who cannot escape from among the rebels, and
who are in great jeopardy; men who love law and the Constitution, and the
whole country; who are either resisting, under the greatest pressure, the
evil that is upon them, or yielding through fear and force.
Pages:
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36