A Sermon on Occasion of the National Fast,
January 4, 1861, by Benjamin
Dorr, D.D.,
Rector of Christ Church, Washington, D.C.
"Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt: thou hast cast out the heathen,
and planted it. {9} Thou preparedst room before it, and didst cause it
to take deep root, and it filled the land. {10} The hills were covered
with the shadow of it, and the boughs thereof were like the goodly
cedars. {11} She sent out her boughs unto the sea, and her branches unto
the river. {12} Why hast thou then broken down her hedges, so that all
they which pass by the way do pluck her? {13} The boar out of the wood
doth waste it, and the wild beast of the field doth devour it. {14}
Return, we beseech thee, O God of hosts: look down from heaven, and
behold, and visit this vine; {15} And the vineyard which thy right hand
hath planted, and the branch that thou madest strong for thyself."
(Psa.80:8-15-KJV)
Before I proceed to the main subject of my discourse, I desire, as a fitting
introduction to it, to call your attention to an historical event, which
will doubtless be interesting to all of you, and which is singularly
appropriate to the present time and place and occasion.
Eighty-five years ago there assembled in this church a body of distinguished
men,1 pure, patriotic, highminded; men of mighty intellects and inflexible
integrity; the honor and boast of their country; and whom any nation might
be proud to call their own. There were patriots and statesmen from the
North and from the South. Washington would have been here, but that he had
been elected, one month before, General and Commander in Chief of the
American forces and had gone to join the army at Cambridge. The Adamses of
Massachusetts and the Rutledges of South Carolina were here; John Hancock,
whose name stands first on the Declaration of Independence, was here;
Jefferson and Franklin were here; Patrick Henry and John Jay and Richard
Henry Lee, with many others of like mind and spirit, were also here.
These illustrious worthies composed the
Continental Congress, which was
convened in this city to consider and determine what was needful to be done
for the preservation of their homes, their lives, their liberties, and for
the safety and welfare of their common country in that hour of greatest
peril. It was the year preceding the Declaration of Independence.
And what brought them to this house of prayer? The same high and holy
purpose, my friends, as that which brings us together this morning. They
were Christians and knew that nothing which they might counsel or attempt
could prosper without God's blessing. They therefore
recommended a
general fast throughout the united English colonies of America
and
requested all the inhabitants to assemble in their respective places of
worship, to confess their individual and national sins, to deprecate2 God's judgments, and earnestly implore
His forgiveness of the past and His grace and help for the future.
The Solemn Fast Day came July twentieth, seventeen hundred and seventy-five,
and these Christian patriots, by a resolution in Congress,3 came in a body from their place of
meeting to this venerable house - venerable, even then, for its age.
What a sublime scene was here! The greatest and best men of the land -
those t whom, under God, we are indebted for all the blessings, civil, social,
and religious, which we so abundantly enjoy - bowing down before the King
of kings and Lord of lords and beseeching Him, for Christ's sake, to have
mercy upon them and to make speed to deliver them!
The Rev. Mr. Duche, the senior assistant minister of Christ Church who, two
months after, became its rector, officiated on the occasion by special
request of the Congress. His text was a portion of the Psalm just read to
you:
Return, we beseech thee, O God of hosts; look down from heaven,
and behold, and visit this vine.
[Psa.80:14]
And that, brethren, is my text to-day.
The Psalm was composed in a time of great national distress; probably in the
reign of Hezekiah, when the Assyrian armies had taken and destroyed most of
the strong-holds of Judea, carried many of its inhabitants into captivity,
made the land desolate, and threatened the destruction of the Holy City
itself. Whatever the calamity was, it must have been very grievous to draw
forth from the Psalmist such sorrowful lamentations, such earnest entreaty
for deliverance.
"Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel... stir up thy strength, and come and
save us...
Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt: thou hast cast out the heathen,
and planted it. {9} Thou preparedst room before it, and didst cause it
to take deep root, and it filled the land. {10} The hills were covered
with the shadow of it, and the boughs thereof were like the goodly
cedars. {11} She sent out her boughs unto the sea, and her branches unto
the river. {12} Why hast thou then broken down her hedges, so that all
they which pass by the way do pluck her? {13} The boar out of the wood
doth waste it, and the wild beast of the field doth devour it. {14}
Return, we beseech thee, O God of hosts: look down from heaven, and
behold, and visit this vine; {15} And the vineyard which thy right hand
hath planted, and the branch that thou madest strong for thyself."
(Psa.80:1-2,8-15-KJV)
The Psalmist, you perceive, first recounts God's mercies to his own people;
tells of his marvelous lovingkindness in times past to Israel his chosen.
He represents their unexampled prosperity by that most beautiful, appropriate,
and very common figure in Scripture - a healthy, vigorous, and fruitful
vine, warmed by the sun and nourished by the dews and rains of heaven.
Never indeed was there a nation so blessed of heaven as they. Never was
there a land so desirable as theirs. Hear how graphically their great
lawgiver, Moses, describes it saying:
"For the LORD thy God bringeth thee into a good land, a land of brooks
of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills;
{8} A land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees, and
pomegranates; a land of oil olive, and honey; {9} A land wherein thou
shalt eat bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack any thing in it..."
(Deu 8:7-9 KJV)
There God planted His own vine, which He brought out of Egypt, and made
Judea emphatically the glory of all lands.
But now, alas! the scene is changed, the land languishes and mourns;
the place of His vineyard is burnt with fire, and cut down.
Why? Because God, even their own God, had hid His face from Israel on
account of their transgressions.
Yet He condescends to plead with them before He gives them over to the
spoiler. He tells them what He has done in the way of blessings and what
He will do in the way of judgments, if they do not speedily repent.
"Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his
vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill: {2}
And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it
with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also
made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes,
and it brought forth wild grapes. {3} And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem,
and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard. {4} What
could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it?
wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it
forth wild grapes? {5} And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my
vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up;
and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down: {6} And I
will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall
come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain
no rain upon it.
{7} For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house
of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for
judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry."
(Isa.5:1-7 KJV)
Sacred history informs us how all these predictions, promises, and
threatenings were verified as regards the Jews. God graciously planted His
people, as a choice vine, in the promised land, and He largely multiplied
and prospered them there. For a time they were grateful for His mercies
and obedient to His laws.
"But within a while they forgot His works, and would not abide His
counsel. They thought scorn of that pleasant land, and gave no credence to
His word. Therefore was the wrath of the Lord kindled against His people,
insomuch that He abhorred His own inheritance. And He gave them over into
the hand of the heathen; and they that hated them were lords over them.
Their enemies oppressed them, and had them in subjection."
(Psalm 106:13ff paraphrased)
Thus it happened, again and again, with this rebellious and stiff-necked
people. The more God prospered and blessed them, the more ungrateful and
disobedient were they; but
"...He slew them, then they sought him: and they returned and inquired
early after God. {35} And they remembered that God was their rock, and
the high God their redeemer."
(Psa 78:34-35 KJV)
"Many times did he deliver them; but they provoked him with their counsel,
and were brought low for their iniquity. {44} Nevertheless he regarded
their affliction, when he heard their cry: {45} And he remembered for
them his covenant, and repented according to the multitude of his
mercies."
(Psa 106:42-45 KJV)
Thus they went on, from age to age, sinning and repenting, yet becoming in
each period of their apostasy more hardened in wickedness until, at last,
they filled up the measure of their iniquities by crucifying the Lord of
glory; and then they were given over to irremediable ruin. The vine was
rooted up, which God's own hand had planted; the wall was broken down by
the hand that builded it; the land was made utterly desolate; Judea was
trodden down of the Gentiles; the Holy City and Temple were destroyed; and
Jerusalem became a heap of stones. And this, because she would not know, in
the day of her visitation, the things which belonged unto her peace. They
were, therefore, hidden from her eyes. Thus, in the prosperity and
downfall of Israel, we have an illustration of that momentous truth,
And now let us ask - is there anything in those portions of Scripture which
we have been considering that does not meet our own case? Are they not
fully as profitable for us for instruction and warning as for the Jews?
Take the description in my text of their prosperity, represented by the
figure of a vine planted in a kindly soil, growing and spreading, till it
covered the whole land of Palestine with its shadow; extending its branches
to the Mediterranean Sea on the one side and to the great river Euphrates
on the other. How applicable this is to the growth and prosperity of our
own country. Or take the more minute description in Isaiah of the care and
kindness which God bestowed on His favorite vineyard for its culture,
protection, and fruitfulness; do we not see the same striking parallel here
also?
Look back over all the past in our history - our rapid increase, our
multiplied blessings, our numerous deliverances, and our ungrateful returns
for all God's mercies - and tell me if the Psalmist does not describe these
as truly and clearly as if he intended the description for us alone?
Consider how great things God hath done for us, year by year, continually,
and then say if He might not ask us, as He asked of His ancient people,
What could have been done more to my vineyard that I have not done in
it? (Isaiah 5:4)
Surely, surely, He did no more for them than He has done for us.
In His wise providence, He brought our forefathers to this western world,
when they were yet few of them, and they strangers in the land. He cast
out the heathen also before them, and caused their land to be divided
among them for a heritage.
He protected and prospered them and caused the wilderness around them to
rejoice and blossom as the rose.
He planted His vineyard
here with the choicest vine; He hedged it in and built a wall around it for
protection; and when enemies threatened to destroy, He was nigh to save.
It grew and spread, like the vine of Judea, until it filled the land.
The hills were covered with the shadow of it; it stretched out its branches
from the sea to the river and from the river to the great sea westward; from
the Atlantic to the mighty Mississippi and thence onward to the shores of
the Pacific.
This, brethren, is the type of our beloved land; this is the brief record of
its past history. Never, in the annals of the world, was there an instance
of a nation rising so rapidly to perfect maturity and strength. And for all
this, we were indebted, under God, to the piety and wisdom of our forefathers;
to such men as assembled here in this house of prayer, in July, seventeen
hundred and seventy-five; to such men as signed the Declaration of
Independence in this city, in July, seventeen hundred and seventy-six; to
such men as signed the
Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union,4
as they were called, in July, seventeen hundred and seventy-eight; to such
men as framed and signed the Constitution of these United States, in
seventeen hundred and eighty-seven. I say, we are indebted to them, under
God, for to HIM they looked for guidance and assistance, and He was their
guide and helper.
The immortal Washington, in his first address to Congress after his election
to the Presidency, made this characteristic declaration:
"No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand which
conducts the affairs of men, more than the people of these United States.
Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent
nation, seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential
agency."
For years we have been rejoicing in peace and plenty, feeling perfectly at
ease and secure in our possessions, when, suddenly, a dark cloud overshadows
the land and fills every bosom with dismay. The glorious structure which
our forefathers reared and which they and their children thought as
enduring as the everlasting hills, is threatened with immediate destruction
by the whirlwind and the storm.
But I need not dwell on the calamities which have come upon us or the
greater calamities which we have cause to fear. You know them all; little
else is thought of or talked of nowadays, when friend meets friend. My
duty is, at this time and from this sacred place, to say to you in the
words of the prophet:
Hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it
(Micah 6:9)
Your duty is to earnestly enquire,
"Why hath all this evil overtaken us?"
and
"How shall we be
delivered?
Who will come forth to help us?"
I suppose that all of you, my brethren, will admit that our present
calamity is the consequence of sin, for if there were no sin there could be
no suffering. You acknowledge to that it is a manifestation of the divine
displeasure on account of our individual and national transgressions.
Your presence here today is a proof that you so regard it. No intelligent
Christian could look upon it in any other light. We have come up to this
house of prayer by the advice of our chief magistrate and with a conviction
that it is our solemn duty to humble ourselves in the presence of our great
Creator, to bewail our manifold transgressions, to seek His renewing grace,
to beseech Him that He will not deal with us after our sins nor reward us
according to our iniquities; but that, after the multitude of His mercies,
He would look upon us and visit us with His salvation.
It is when God's judgments are in the earth, that the inhabitants of the
world will, if ever, learn righteousness
(Isaiah 26:9). May His fatherly chastisements now teach
us this salutary lesson
by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the wisdom of the just
(Luke 1:17).
And then, brethren, we shall present to the eyes of men and angels the
most sublime spectacle upon earth, that of a whole people bowing themselves
before the mercy seat of the Most High in humble acknowledgment of their
sinfulness, in earnest supplications for pardon, and with sincere and
solemn resolutions of making Him their only trust and their portion forever.
Such instances have occurred before, and they are recorded for our
instruction.
What moral grandeur was there in the voluntary humiliation of proud
Nineveh,
that exceeding great city of three days' journey, when aroused by the warning voice: Yet forty days and Nineveh shall
be overthrown! The people of Nineveh, it is said, believed God.
(Jonah 3:3-5)
They knew His power, that what He said He was able to perform; they knew
His justice, that He would by no means acquit the guilty; but they believed
also that He was gracious, merciful, and long suffering; and they threw
themselves upon His mercy.
They
proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even
unto the least of them.
Their king, the mightiest monarch of the world, set the example for his
subjects. He
arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered
himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
And he commanded his people not only to
cry mightily unto God, but to
turn everyone from his evil way, and from the violence that was in their
hands. For, said he, who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce
anger, that we perish not?
Their repentance was accepted; their iniquity was pardoned.
God saw their works that they turned from their evil way; and God repented
of the evil that He had said He would do unto them; and He did it not
(Jonah 3:3ff).
Our blessed Lord Himself points to the men of Nineveh as a notable example
of faith in God's Word and obedience to His will.
They repented at the preaching of Jonah
(Mat.12:41-42).
God grant that their example be not lost upon us. May they never
rise up in judgment with this generation, and condemn it.
We have sinned more grievously than they, because we have a clearer
knowledge of God and are better instructed in our duty to Him than they
could have been. Was ever a people so blessed of heaven as we, with
opportunities and privileges designed to make us a wise and virtuous nation?
And how have we abused our blessings! What frightful records of crime, in
every part of our land, are daily spread out before us! Each newspaper
that we take into our hands has its long black catalogue of riots and
brawls, thefts, robberies, murders, burglaries, assassinations, by night
and by day. Then comes the record of unblushing bribery and corruption,
detected but not punished; of monstrous frauds, bringing distress on
thousands and taking the very bread from the mouths of the widow and the
fatherless, yet perpetrated with impunity. The time was, and that within
the memory of most of us, when to hear of any one of these crimes would
have made our ears tingle, but now they are so common as not to excite even
our surprise. And can we think that God, who sees them all, will not visit
us for these things?
Shall not His soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
(Jer.5:9)
Then again, look where you will; the evidence is before you of the rapid
spread of infidelity, in the neglect of God's Word and sabbath and sanctuary;
His name profaned; His holy day openly and shamelessly violated. And what
shall we say of those sins which, though not so gross, are nevertheless
displeasing to God and cannot go unpunished: the pride and selfishness,
the greediness of gain, the passion for vain show, which are everywhere
apparent and are evidences of hearts entirely devoted to the world? What
luxury of living, what extravagance in houses and furniture and dress
daily meet our eyes!
But they who indulge in these vanities will perhaps ask: Have we not a
right to do what we will with our own? Certainly you have. But what is
your own? Your money? No, for God giveth you power to get wealth. Your
talents? No, for He alone maketh you to differ from others. Your persons?
No, for
it is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves
(Psalm 100:3).
You have nothing of your own; none of us can have. Whatever we possess is
lent us of God, to be used not for mere selfish purposes but to promote His
honor and glory. And when He sees a people unfaithful to their trust, He
is sure to punish. If they repent, He may spare them; if not, He will destroy
them. This has been His manner of dealing with nations heretofore.
A fruitful land maketh He desolate, for the wickedness of them that dwell
therein
(Psalm 107:34).
So He punished Nineveh, when she apostatized the second time; so He punished
Babylon and Egypt and Tyre; so He punished His own favored people, the Jews.
As He forewarned them by His prophet,
their land was utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled
(Isaiah 24:3);
and has remained so to this day. And so, brethren, He now threatens us.
But, thanks to His mercy, judgment is yet delayed, and there is an
opportunity for escape. Let us seek Him by humble confession, by earnest
prayer, by newness of life, and He will be found of us. By confession: for
if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins,
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness
(First John 1:9).
By prayer: for He is a God who
heareth prayer and never turns away from those who supplicate his aid.
And, if He is on our side, it matters not who is against us.
Prayer is the safety of nations, as of individuals.
The prayer of the righteous man - that is, the penitent and humble -
availeth much
(James 5:16).
Prayer has stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, turned
to flight the armies of aliens. A praying people is invincible. If a nation
bends the knee in prayer for divine guidance and protection,
no weapon formed against her can prosper.
[Isaiah 54:17]
The prayer of Abraham would have saved Sodom if only ten righteous men had
been found in her. They were not found, and therefore Sodom was destroyed;
but even then, righteous Lot escaped. The prayer of a single individual
has saved cities, overthrown armies, and brought the counsel of princes to
naught. Prayer - I speak it reverently - is all but omnipotent, because it
prevails with God to lift up His Almighty arm.
Daniel, a captive in Babylon, in his chamber, with his window open toward
Jerusalem, kneeling upon his knees three times a day, was wiser than all the
Chaldean sages and more powerful than Nebuchadnezzar on his throne; for the
all-wise, all-powerful Jehovah was his wisdom and strength.
The father of our country, retiring from the camp at Valley Forge to a
secluded grove, that he might commune with the heavenly Father in private
prayer and obtain from Him strength and guidance in that trying hour, was
mightier than the armies of his enemies.
One who sided with the British, knowing the reason why the Commander-in-chief
so frequently visited that grove, exclaimed, "Our cause is lost; George
Washington is asking the help of the Almighty!"
Hezekiah, alone in the Temple on his knees with the boastful, blasphemous
letter of Sennacherib spread out before the mercy-seat, was stronger than
the Assyrians, for the Lord God of hosts was on his side.
That which has prayed to Me against Sennacherib, king of Assyria,
is God's answer to him,
I have heard it. He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow
there, nor come before it with shields, nor cast a bank against it. By the
way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this
city, saith the Lord. For I will defend this city, to save it, for Mine
own sake, and for My servant David's sake.
The promise is immediately fulfilled, and Jerusalem is saved by a mighty
deliverance.
That same night the angel of the Lord went forth, and smote in the camp
of the Assyrians an hundred and fourscore and five thousand; and when they
arose early in the morning, behold they were all dead corpses
(2 Kings 19:20ff).
Prayer is as effectual now as it was then.
The hand of the Lord is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither is
His ear heavy, that it cannot hear
(Isaiah 59:1).
The day is dark, indeed, but not darker than many days of the Revolution;
not so dark as that day when our forefathers of the Continental Congress -
good men, and wise and true - met here for prayer. I believe there are
many such in our day, at the North and at the South; men as much attached
to the Union and to the Constitution as they who framed them; and divine
Providence, in His own good time, will make them known. Let us fix our
eyes and our hearts on Him who is an ever present help in time of trouble.
The clouds above us are thick and lowering; but one breath of His mouth can
disperse them all. The sun of our nation's glory is obscured, but one ray
of light from His throne can dispel the darkness and make our night as clear
as the noonday.
The waves of the sea are mighty, and rage horribly; but yet the Lord, who
dwelleth on high, is mightier
(Psalm 93:4). He stilleth the ravaging of the
sea, and the madness of the people.
And when He says,
Peace, be still,
there is instantly
a great calm.
[Mark 4:39]
Now is the time, brethren, to prove our faith in Him, to humble ourselves
and cry mightily unto Him and say:
Spare thy people, O God, and give not thine heritage to reproach
(Joel 2:17).
Turn thee again, Thou God of hosts; look down from heaven; behold and visit
this vine and the place of the vineyard that thy right hand hath planted.
And so will we not go back from Thee; O let us live, and we shall call upon
Thy name. Turn us again, O Lord God of hosts. Show the light of Thy
countenance and we shall be whole. If we thus seek Him, in all sincerity
of heart, He will be found of us. His promise, which is yea and amen,
sure and steadfast, is pledged for our deliverance.
Hear what He has declared and put upon record in His own Book, for our
encouragement:
At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a
kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it; {8} If that
nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will
repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.
(Jer.18:7-8 KJV)
This is the grand chapter of our rights and privileges by which we, as
Christians, sons of God and heirs with Christ, must abide.
Let us, by God's grace, do our part, and His promise shall be certainly
fulfilled. He will pour upon us blessings more abundant than we can ask or
think.
The precious vine, which His own right hand hath planted, which now droops
and withers and seems ready to die, will then revive and flourish and
become more vigorous than ever, spreading over the valleys, covering the
hill-tops, climbing up the mountain sides, and stretching out its branches
northward and southward and from the Atlantic to the Peaceful Sea.
And, as untold millions, living in separate communities, from the sunny
south to the frozen north, yet knit together by ties of kindred and love,
repose under the shadow of one vine without any to molest or make them
afraid; this will be the feeling of all hearts, this the confession of every
tongue -
Behold, how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in
unity!
(Psalm 122:1).
Brethren, beloved -
Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord
Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the
everlasting covenant, {21} Make you perfect in every good work to do his
will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through
Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
(Heb 13:20-21 KJV)