and Superior!  Come from the free air of Western Virginia and Ohio, from the loyal districts of Maryland, Kentucky, and Tennessee!  Come forth from the great West! and with them, go, ye strong and true of my adopted State and City, who listened even in your cradles, to the bell which gives out its tones over the birth-place of our liberties!  Go forth, and live the epic that future ages shall sing:  be yours the glory of rooting this treason out!  And as they go, bless them, aged fathers with tremulous voice! and mothers, bid them God speed! wives and sisters and Christian hearts, load them with your gifts and your prayers!  And when they are gone, remember them at the home altar, and bless God that your country does not want defenders; and when your tears are dried up, and your cause is proclaimed triumphant, weep again tears of joy as you clasp the returning heroes to your arms!  Or, if they shall be borne home to you wounded and worn in their country’s service, be grateful that your eye can watch over them, and your hand minister to their necessities and griefs.  Or finally, should they fall in battle, you will have the consolation of knowing that they saved your country; that they did something to consolidate its strength, and illustrate its glory before the world.  For we are destined to conquer,—­and after this trial the nation will come forth as gold.  We need to suffer that we may value our liberties.  From the valley of tears arise notes of victory and hallelujahs.  Nations as well as saints, come up out of great tribulation.

                          “None die in vain
    Upon their country’s war-fields!  Every drop
    Of blood, thus poured for faith and freedom, hath
    A tone, which from the night of ages, from the gulf
    Of death, shall burst, and make its high appeal
    Sound unto earth and heaven.”

The motto now is—­“No compromise! Submission!  Give up the leaders of rebellion!  Bow to law!  Nay, more—­no longer ask us to protect your dark system!”

But it is possible that, while we stir ourselves up to a fierce belligerency against rebellion, and rush into hot condemnation of those whom we once called “brethren,” we are rebels against God!  Some of you who are equipping for the war, and ready to take the field in defence of your country and her laws, are in heart at war with holiness and God!  You may see in the fever of our whole population what men think of treason against a good earthly government!  See also in the commands of God, in the life and death of Jesus, in the declared interest and anxious watchfulness of angels, in the whole glorified army that shall attend the Great King when he comes to set up his final assize,—­what the Principalities and Powers in Heaven think of your treason against the holy government of Jehovah!  Behold in the uplifted arm of Justice—­hear in the voice of the Judge, what shall be done to him who will not repent!  Now the offers of pardon are made through the death and sacrifice of Jesus.  Repent; forsake your sin; lay down your arms; retire from your rebellious attitude; and from the throne of Mercy shall the fact be proclaimed, that you are pardoned and restored!