/ we read of God a Providence. Well mav we leave it to the disbeliever in God's Providence to reconcile the fact that God has created that which he cares not to rule, to guide and provide for. And so history in its process of construction is not like a temple. Its events as they occur are not a mere aggregation of blocks laid one upon another. History is rather an organized, growing individual. It is Gods creation, not man’s. It is therefore living, not dead. It is as it were a flourishing old oak, with marvels in its structure. And each event that buds, when its spring comes to call it forth, hath delicate hidden roots, which run down from twig into bough, and from bough into branch, and from branch into limb, and from limb far down into, hiding themselves in, the trunk. And so, too, the events which are around us, and upon which on this my first occasion of addressing you since they have burst upon us. you will expect, and doubtless properly so, that I should speak—events which absorb all our minds, however we may strive to push them aside for a time: which absorb us as men, with the good of mankind at heart: which absorb us as citizens, with the good of social relations at heart: which absorb us as patriots, with the good of our dear country at heart: which absorb us as churchmen, with the good of God’s kingdom at heart ;—and, so too, these events have their roots, not in the issue of an election —not in the mistakes of one section or another—not in what hap- pened on the twentieth of December—not in unwarrantable delays or precipitate action—not even in the security of the social institution of slavery, but far behind these, in problems of the past, unsolved in 76, unsolved in ’89, in all human probability to be solved in the present, for the glory, the peace, the happiness, the success of man in the future. The event of the twentieth of December, the event of the twelfth of April, the consequent fall of Sumter, the perpetuity or downfall of slavery—these were but occasions ojxming the way for, not causes giving origin to, the present issue at arms. The cause lies deeper. You will not exjiect me to say anything to-day to raise your enthusiasm or inflame your passions ; for I am in this sacred desk,
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