The debt, the duty and the hope of the citizen soldiers of America : a sermon addressed to the military of Frederick City, November 30th 1843, a day of public thanksgiving / by John Miller.

  • Miller, John, 1915-1966.
Date:
1843
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The debt, the duty and the hope of the citizen soldiers of America : a sermon addressed to the military of Frederick City, November 30th 1843, a day of public thanksgiving / by John Miller. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    G behold the works of the Lord, what desolation he hath made in the earth. He maketh wars to cease—breaketh the bow—cutteth the spear in sun- der—burneth the chariot in the fire. With millions peace is but another name for ''desolation'—a curse from the rod of God—a heavy wrong under the hand of rean. Ah ; a soldier's eye, I know, will look well to the question, what kind of peace he thanks God for. The plains of India are in peace, but the mouth of the debased Hindoo is full of deep-toned curses against a foreign tyranny—at peace as the forced alternative, because too besotted for war—at peace, when his gold swells the main current of his master's revenues—his lands their garden to feed themselves, and to raise poisons for their neighbors—his child- ren their slaves, to be worn out on their estates, or to die in their armies. Surely their Brahmin priest must choose for them some other ground of thanksgiving to their idols. The Empire of China is again at peace, but alas for her! under a double tyranny, still stooping, as she has for ages, under civil bondage to a Tartar despot, and now still more abjectly, her monarch and his slaves together, under a jwom/yoke; forced to consent to an iniquity—to har- bor a ruinous and corrupting commerce—to seal a peace with her own seducers—to graft upon her own body a moral leprosj-—because, to the shame of Britain, too weak to shake them oiF. Will she thank God for peace ? I will take a worse example—civil, moral, spiritual oppression—and yet peace. This triple night has fallen upon the millions under the Ottoman despotism. The sullen Mussulman must net only bow with cringing servility at the feet of his young master—not only sell his conscience,(if indeed, light enough be left within it, to own the sacrifice) not only sink his character to feed that master's luxury, and to fill that master's harem; but must consent to be chained to an absurd religion. The lies of the False Prophet are bound upon his soul by the most sanguinary laws, so that no Moslem dare learn enough to be a Christian; his faith and his life can only be renounced together. Can he thank Allah for peace ? Not rather, unless dead to his own wrong, hail the tokens of crumbling and decay in that power under which he suffers ? No, no; better that the iron heel of war should be ever tramplij:g upon those Eastern lands—making their gardens a wilderness, treading down their prosperity, and wasting the lives of their crowded millions, than that they should sink down, mind aud soul and strength together, rust- ing in their chains.