27. XXVII.
PREACHES — SUBJECT, “GIVIN.”
Church uv St. Vallandigum, }
September the 21st, 1863.
I preeched yisterday frum this text: “Verily I say unto
yoo, It is more blesseder to give than to reseeve.” — Joab
xvii: 313 to '21, incloosiv.
The inspird riter hed, no dout, the Dimerkratik party in his
mind's eye, wen he rit them words uv wisdom. Experence
hez shode the trooth uv them sentence, and ef it hadent, you'd
be bound to bleeve it, coz I, your paster, sez so, wich is
Dimokrasy. To illustrait, we shell inquire:
1. Wat is givin?
Givin is givin, wich is suffishently clear explanashen fer all
practikle perpuses.
2. Wen shood we giv?
We must giv alluz, for it is more blessider to giv than to
reseeve. The Dimokrasy hez alluz bin scriptooral in this
partikeler. Wen the Sowth wantid Misoory, we giv it. Wen
she wantid a fugitiv-slave law, we giv it. Wen she wantid
Texas, and Kansas, and Nebrasky, we giv it — halleloogy!
Wen she wantid Bookannon, we giv it; and wen she demandid
Duglasses hed, we giv it, fer it is more blessider to give than it
is to reseeve.
3. Why shood we give?
Becoz it pays. So long es the Dimokrasy hed the power uv
givin, all wuz well. The Sowth, hevin all it wanted, wuz
contentid, and evrything went on smooth and pleasant like.
Nacher intended em to rool, and us uns to serve, and we wuz
satisfide, and so wuz they. Such offisis ez wuz beneath em
they tost to us, and all wuz peece. It wuz normel.
4. Wat hez bin the consekencis uv not givin?
My frens, seest thou yon post-orifise? A Abolishnist sets
there. And woe is us! the places we onct did fill, all ore the
land, we fill no more. And wuss. Ther is war; the North hez
rebeld aginst the Dimokrasy, and to-day yoor sons is being
dragged to the tented feeld, to be offered up a sakrifis to the fell
sperit uv “not givin.” O, my frens, we stumbled ourselves.
We faild to giv wunst, and that failure wuz fatal. Wen we in our
pride defide the Sowth at Charleston, we sinned, and are now
payin for it. O, hed we all yoonited in givin, then — hed we
follered presedent, and got down into the dust — then all wood
hev bin well.
We dedooce from the foregoin the follerin grate trooth,
to-wit, viz.: Sufferin alluz follers sin. Nether duz the sinner
git the price uv his sin. The demon uv Abolishnism, or Not
Givin, wich is sinonymus, held afore the eyes of Duglis the
dazzlin prospek uv Northrin votes. But lo! wen Duglis hed
took the fatal step, the votes wuz Linkin's, and the post-orfises
wuz Linkin's, and the Dimokrasy supped on sorrer and breakfasted
on woe.
Ther is, my brethren, a heavy cuss on Not Givin. “Wo unto
yoo for a stiff-necked and rebelyus people.” (Abiram 31, 5,
xlp.) In the original Rooshen it is “stiff-backt” instid uv
“stiff-neckt,” wich makes it mene Massachoosetts. They wood
never bend a inch; they hed no limbernis, and with head up,
instid uv down — with backs strate, instid uv curved — they
insisted on bein men ez well ez Virginny, thus forcin the Sowth
to take up arms to bend em into their nateral posishen.
My frens, this war is a effort on the part uv the Sowth to
put down these rebels aginst the grate principle uv Givin.
That's all they want, and wen they git it they'll stop, I
make no doubt. Then, brethrin, let us pray for their success
— let us imitate our martyred saint, Vallandigum, who is a
exil far away, and, to the extent uv our ability, further the
grate coz. Let Noo Ingland be got under; Sumner, and Wade,
and Giddins, and Oin Luvgoy hung; the grate Davis President,
with Fernandywood and Vallandigum in his Cabynit; then
will ther be for us peece, and harmony, and good-will, and
post-orfises. Let wat I hev sed sink deep in yoor harts.
Wen the contribooshen box cums around, remember that “it
is more blesseder to give than to reseeve.” So mote it be.
Petroleum V. Nasby,
Paster uv sed Church, in charge.
