the lesson it read remains forever; nor even today is the
Pharisee gone with his invidious temptations. _You_ are to-day obeying a
greater than Caesar. _You_ are meeting the material obligations of a day
of discouragement--and for some a day of doubt.

"The nobler applications which lie within the meaning of the latter part
of the text He answers more fully than was asked: 'Render unto God the
things which are God's.' What are these things which are at need to be
rendered to Him? What larger tax? Ease--comfort--home--the strong bodies
which make work safe and pleasant. He asks of you the exercise of unusual
qualities--the courage which looks death in the face and will not take
the bribe of safety, of life, at the cost of dishonour. Ah! not in battle
is my fear for you. In the long idleness of camps will come your hours of
temptation. Think then of those at home who believe in you. It is a great
thing to have an outside conscience--wife, mother, sister. Those are
hours when it is hard to render unto God what he gave.

"We are now, as I said, at a time of discouragement. There are cowards
who would yield--who would compromise--men who want peace at any cost.
You answer them nobly. Here, in this sacred cause, if He asks it, we
render life or the easy competencies of youth in its day of vigour."

The man paused. The strange power of the eyes spoke to them in this
moment of silence. "Oh! I said the cause was sacred--an unbroken land.
_He_ gave you that, just for wide-world uses. Keep it! Guard it!--with
all that Union of the States meant and still means to-day. _You_ are not
to blame for this necessity--war. The man who bends unpaid over the
master's cotton-field is the innocent cause of all this bloodshed. If
there were no slavery, there would have been no war. But let there be
no hatred in the brave hearts you carry. God did not slay Saul, the
earnest--I might say--the honest persecutor. He made him blind for a
time. The awful charity of God is nowhere else so wonderful. These
gallant people you are going to meet will some day see that God was
opening their eyes to better days and nobler ways. They too are honest
in the belief that God is on their side. Therefore, let there be no
bitterness.

"Some of you are what we call religious. Do not be ashamed of it.
The hardest fighters the world has known were men who went to battle
with arms invisible to man. A word more and I have done. I have the
hope--indeed the certainty--