14 god’s view of rebellion. punishment which God will inflict by some other agent whom He will raise up for the purpose. For rebellion must and will be punished. God declares it, and in all history Fie has kept His word. He cannot lie—and when he says, “ they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation” (or punishment), there is no loophole of escape for the most cunning or most plausible rebel. God’s rules are perfect—they have no exceptions. If we compromise with this rebellion we shall bring down woes most fearful on our country’s future. We cannot tell what those woes shall be; but we do know that, as God is sovereign and His word is true, they shall surely come and shall bear the sharp sting of His most holy justice. We may compound with sin, but God can’t. It is a source of gratitude to believe that this nation is alive to its duty—that however we may honestly differ about men and special measures (in which may we agree to differ in all Christian charity), yet we are determined, by God’s guidance and help, to tread out the last spark of rebellion, not abating one jot of the demand (which is God’s, not ours) of implicit obedience to the Government of our country. Let us, then, on this day of thanksgiving, render our hearty thanks to Heaven, that through three and a half years of this sad war, the great heart of the nation has not faltered—that while made to suffer for its own many sins, yet it has clearly discerned that in the great sin of the war, rebellion, it
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