Excerpt from The Grateful Sacrifice: A Thanksgiving Sermon, Preached in Emmanuel Church, Baltimore, Nov; 24, 1864 We are new learning in sorrow the lessons so poorly studied in our joy. By weal or by woe they must be studied and must be learned. And herein, moreover, is the balance of justice to the aggregate sin of the race; the temporal judgments decreed and visited upon the nations, foreshadowing faintly but fairly the eternal judgment upon those human units of which the nations are made up. To the spectator, whether Patriot or Christian, gazing upon the enacted drama of our national life, the scene has shifted. The jocund landscape and the sweet-piped roundelay, the freighted argosies and harvest - laden wains, give place to the sulphurous canopy and the steed-trampled plain, long lines Of embattled men and the frowning front of bristling bastions. Peace and thrift make way for war and prodigality. Yes, the scene is changed. The régime is changed. The men have changed. The ideas have changed. The temper of the nation is changed. All is changed save the superintending Providence of the un changing Ruler and Director of all. The pulse of the people beats quicker. The common breast is heaving high with novel emo tions. The common brain is busied with daring speculation, and braced with a Crusader-like determination. Now, that such potent ingredients are thrown into the caldron of popular im pulse and action, - now, that the leash is loosed from the dogs of war, and no longer held in hand, - now, that we are whirling onward in such a swollen and angry tide, - now, that we are involved in events as morally important as they are politically grand and significant, what is left us but to lift up our feeble hands, our hopeful hearts, and appeal to God with the cry of Paul, Who is sufficient for these things? What is left us but to Offer the sacrifices of righteousness and put our trust in the Lord? About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.