Excerpt from Three Sermons Preached in the North Congregational Church: New Bedford, Mass Fast Day, April 13, and Sunday, April 16, 1865

I had intended, notwithstsnding the character of this day as a day of penitence, to congratulate you upon the recent glorious victories of our past. I had proposed to compare the present and the past. But yesterday's intimation of the President, that he will soon issue his call for a day of national thanksgiving, causes me to defer such an expression. Wait for that thanksgiving a little longer: you have patiently waited four weary years already, and now, every week is a week of new triumphs. Our warfare is well nigh accomplished, our iniquity is well nigh expiated. The double punishment for our sins, is almost closed. Then will I speak comfortably to Jerusalem. But before that day comes, let us look once more at our eventful illustrations of the truth that national sin must have its expiation in national suffering.

Well nigh accomplished. The sin is nearly "expiated and forgiven, " - for that is the real meaning of the words. Soon, now. The roar of cannon, and the rattle of musketry are soon to cease. The sabre and the bayonet shall flash no more. The charge of the rider shall end. The bivouac, the camp, the march, are soon to be a dream. The battalions shall hear no more the hoarse "forward." The shattered and glorious banners which we loved, shall droop in legislative halls. The mementoes of many a Manassas and Gettysburgh, shall be idle but eloquent toys. The grass shall grow green over the soldier's grave, and the bitter weeping shall mellow into loving sadness. Old comrades shall talk, by their firesides, of campaigns gone by, and sons shall love to hear their fathers tell, of a winter evening, when the snow is falling, and the wind is howling, of shelterless exposure to like storms and of exposure to the rattling storm of death.

That is, if the nation remembers. If justice shall prevail, and right be the rule, and God be acknowleged. For what formed the battalions, and beggared tire arsenals, and blazoned the banners, and dug the graves? A nation's sin. Right had been forgotten. Integrity had poisoned the state. It was a righteous retribution. The iniquity had to be expiated.

I know that this is often ignored. Few governments practice upon it. England acts upon the reverse theory.

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