The Crisis.
--Dr. Elliot, the patriotic Bishop of Georgia, in a late sermon preached in Savannah, exhibits the alternative before us; in a few sentences pregnant with all the fire of a prophet and patriot. These are, indeed, words that burn:Forward, my hearers, with our shields locked and our trust in God, is our only movement now. It is too late even to go backward. We might have gone backward a year ago, when our army were victoriously, thundering at the gates of Washington, and were keeping at successful bay the Hessians of the West, had we been content to hear humiliation for ourselves and degradation for our children.
But that is no longer left us. It is now victory or unconditional submission; submission not to the conservative and Christian people of the North, but to a party of infidel fanatics, with an army of needy and greasy soldiers at their backs. Who shall be able to restrain them in their hour of victory? When that hour approaches, when the danger shall seem to be over, and the spoils ready to be divided, every outlaw will rush to rill their ranks, every adventurer will rush to swell their legions, and they will sweep down upon the South as the hosts of the Atilla upon the fertile fields of Italy. And shall you find in defeat that mercy which you did not in victory?
You may slumber now, but you will awake to a fearful reality. You may lie upon your beds of ease, and dream that when it is all over you will be welcomed back to all the privileges and immunities of good citizens, but how terribly will be your disappointment! You will have an ignable home overrun by hordes of insolent slaves and rapacious solders. You will wear the badge of a conquered race. Pariabs among your fellow creatures, yourselves degraded, your delicate wives and gentle children thrust down to mental service, insulted, perhaps dishonored.
Think you that the victorious bordes, made up in the large part of the sweepings of Europe, will leave you anything? As well might the lamb expect mercy from the wolf. Power which is checked and fettered by a doubtful, contest is very different from power victorious, triumphant and irresponsible. The friends whom you have known and loved at the South, who have sympathized with you in your trials, and to whom you might have looked for comfort and protection, will have enough to do then to take care of themselves.--The surges which will sweep over us will carry them away in its refluent tide.
Oh! for the tongue of a phrophet, to paint for you what is before you, unless you repeat and turn to the Lord, and realize that "His hand is upon all them for good that seek him. " The language of Scripture is alone adequate to describe it: "The earth mourneth and languisheth; Lebanon is ashamed and hewn down; Sharon is like a wilderness. They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets; they that were brought up in scariet embrace dunghills. They ravished the women of Zion and the maids in the cities of Judah. They took the young men to grind. The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning. The crown is fallen from our head; woe unto as that have sinned!"
