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. We feel for them; we call them our brothers. But it is also my duty and yours to support our government--our administration; to pray for and sympathize with our President and his Cabinet in their most trying posture, in the midst of such perils, and with so meagre means for the moment, of establishing order, and setting the nationality in permanent security. It is our duty to report traitors to the police, that they may be lawfully cared for; to help our militia and volunteers with every comfort and defence; to hold up the arm of government so long as rebels remain. This is _our_ country, bought with blood. It is second only to the redemption which Christ purchased for us! And if we are called to contend with principalities and powers, and spiritual wickedness in high places, for the safety of our souls, surely we may contend with flesh and blood, with rebels and traitors, to save this glorious inheritance from the gulf of anarchy and the bonds of a lasting servitude. _War is terrible_, but slavery and plunder and the silent gangrene of national dishonor, bribery and perverted conscience are worse. The burst of a thunder cloud may break down a forest of lofty pines, but the slow delving of the mole may undermine a thousand habitations. The secret corrosions of the ship-worm will sink a fleet. This deep-working, inward ruin is appearing on the face of society. The stupendous fact is, that from Baltimore, onward throughout the disaffected States, the population is under the guidance of mad leaders, and exposed to mob power. Thousands of good citizens are flying to us for protection; thousands more forced into the war against the country, and other thousands sighing and praying in secret that God will give success to our arms and rescue themselves and their families from ruin. For these, as well as for our liberties and honors are we summoned to war; it were a crime to be inactive. The Bible is militant. Christianity is a warfare with sin. Life is militant,--a perpetual fight with death. If our blessings are worth praying for and praising for, they are worth _fighting_ for, and if not to be otherwise secured, _must be fought for_. I want this country to live! I want my children to grow up under its shield! I want to see constitutional liberty mount above the obstacles of ages, and rise higher and higher here, I want Italy to look toward us now with hope! I cannot bear to hear the cry of shame that will come over the Atlantic from the vineyards of France, from the glaciers of Switzerland, and from the steppes of Russia, if we permit the walls of our blood-bought inheritance to be broken down. For the sake of God, liberty, religion, all over the earth, I want our flag to be honored abroad. In the French revolution of '48, a deputation came to me to demand the American church at Havre, for the purpose of holding a political meeting,