True Eminence Founded on Holiness.
A Discourse Occasioned by the Death of Lieut. Gen. T.J. Jackson.
Preached in the First Presbyterian Church of Lynchburg, May 24th, 1863:
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Ramsey, James B. (James Beverlin), 1814-1871.
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(title page) True Eminence Founded on Holiness. A Discourse Occasioned by the Death of Lieut. Gen. T.J. Jackson. Preached in the First Presbyterian Church of Lynchburg, May 24th, 1863.
Rev. James B. Ramsey
21 p.
Lynchburg
Virginian "Water-Power Presses" Print
1863
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Library of Congress Subject Headings, 21st edition, 1998
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English
LC Subject Headings:
Jackson, Stonewall, 1824-1863 -- Religion.
Eulogies -- Virginia -- Lynchburg.
Sermons, American -- Virginia.
Presbyterian Church -- Sermons.
Confederate States of America. Army -- Religious life.
Virginia -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Sermons.
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Sermons.
Confederate States of America -- Religion.
United States $x History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Religious
aspects.
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True Eminence Founded on Holiness.
A DISCOURSE
OCCASIONED BY THE DEATH OF
LIEUT. GEN. T.J. JACKSON.
PREACHED IN THE
First Presbyterian Church of Lynchburg,
MAY 24th, 1863.
REV. AND DEAR SIR,--In behalf of many of our follow-citizens, who,
like most of the undersigned, were deprived of the pleasure of hearing
the funeral discourse, which you lately delivered on the occasion of the
death of the illustrious and lamented Gen'l JACKSON, we would respectfully
request that you consent to its publication. The portraiture of the
character of a great and good man, by one who enjoyed his intimacy and
who is so competent to the task, should not be confined to the recollections
of a single congregation, but preserved in an enduring form.
We hope, therefore, you will feel yourself at liberty to accede to our
request, and remain Your friends and fellow citizens,
JNO. M. SPEED,
JOHN G. MEEM,
CHAS. W. BUTTON,
WM. M. BLACKFORD,
GEO. M. RUCKER,
T. C. S. FERGUSON,
M. LANGHORNE, JR.
JAS. R. HOLT,
JNO. O. L. GOGGIN.
To Rev. J. B. RAMSEY, D. D., Present.
LYNCHBURG, June 24th, 1863 .
GENTLEMEN:--The discourse to which you refer was prepared without
the remotest idea of its publication, and when the desire for this was first
expressed, I doubted its propriety. It was not until, having consulted the
General's own immediate connections, and having submitted the manuscript
to his bereaved widow and his pastor, their approval and I may add
earnest wish was added to your own, that I felt at liberty to accede to the
request. With the hope that the same Divine blessing that always
attended that beloved and honored man, may attend this imperfect effort to
hold up before his countrymen his bright example, it is herewith at your
disposal.
"I will set him on high, because he hath known my name." PSALMS,
91: VERSE 14.
"How are the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle!
O, Jonathan ! thou wast slain in thy high places." Such
was the lament of David and Israel over the brave and
generous Jonathan, slain in the high places of the field, in
defence of his country and people, against their hereditary
foes: and such is now a nation's lament over a greater than
Jonathan the son of Saul. With a stricken heart, and
bitter tears, this whole people bow in grief, and as one man,
are ready to utter the touching words of David over his
friend: " We are distressed for thee: very pleasant hast
thou been unto us: thy love to us was wonderful, passing
the love of women. How are the mighty fallen, and the
weapons of war perished! "
Our beloved JACKSON was slain emphatically in his high
places; in the high places of his God's and his country's
service, in the very zenith of his fame and usefulness. Few
men in our world have ever attained to greater eminence:
none to purer. The nation accorded to him its entire confidence;
it rung with his praise, and its whole heart thrilled
with true affection for him. Our enemies at once feared
and honored him. His praise is heard in distant lands.
Envy had to gnash her teeth in silence, for in the universal
enthusiasm, she dared not speak. The Church of Christ
praised God continually for such a burning and a shining
light, and multitudes of souls, especially in our army, high
officers and privates, will rejoice eternally in that light.
This eminence was not the result of brilliant and towering
genius, or of a chance combination of favorable
circumcumstances. His whole history shows a combination of
circumstances against it, such as is not often overcome.
Success was in his case extorted, compelled from unwilling
and adverse events, and in spite of difficulties that at first
sight might have been regarded as insuperable. A brief
sketch of his life will show this, and will best prepare the
way for the important truth wrapped up in all that life, and
blazing forth in all his character, that it was God who made
him great, by making him holy.
Lieut. Gen. THOMAS J. JACKSON was born in Clarksburg,
Harrison county, Virginia, in January, 1824.*
* For most of the interesting facts in this sketch I am indebted to a connection of his, a
valued friend, who for years was in daily and familiar intercourse with him.
His ancestors
were from England. Some military taste and talent
appears to have been inherent in the family. His own
father was a successful lawyer, and at one time, a man of
considerable property, but by suretyship for others lost it
all, and died leaving three children only, one of whom, a
daughter, is now living. THOMAS, at his father's death, was
only three years old. About six years after, his mother
died in the triumphs of christian faith and hope. Her
memory was always very precious. Do we not see here the
first of that chain of influences that made him what he was?
Who can ever tell the power of that mother's example and
prayers?
Thus, bereft of his father and his mother, the Lord took
him up. He found homes among his relatives; especially
his uncles. His early education was irregular, and
necessarily imperfect, until he entered the West Point Military
Academy. There he manifested the same traits of quiet
indomitable perseverance and singleness of purpose that
afterwards so distinguished him, and that then went very
far to make up for his very imperfect preparation. From
the Academy he at once entered the service of his country
in the Mexican war. By his promptitude, bravery and
coolness, he there highly distinguished himself. It was
during this campaign, or while quartered in the halls of the
Montezumas--as we are assured he literally was--that he
first seems to have become impressed with a sense of the
importance of personal religion, partly, at least, through
intercourse with the pious Colonel of his battalion. With
the same prompt energy, and thoroughness, and zeal, that he
always manifested in whatever he regarded as present duty,
he resolved to examine the whole subject of religion in its
personal claims, and its system of truth. Being satisfied
that the Bible was from God, the great question was, where
and by whom, was its truth most fully and purely held?
Determined to take nothing for granted, or at second hand,
he at once availed himself of what seemed to him the rare
opportunity there afforded of examining the Roman Catholic
religion, by waiting on the Archbishop of Mexico, with whom
he had frequent interviews, extending through some months,
I think, during which he was taken in order over the main
parts of their whole system, and propounded his own difflculties.
These last could not be resolved to his satisfaction,
and the result was a firm conviction that this, at least, was
not the Bible system. With the same impartial zeal and
love of truth, and disregard to mere human authority, did
he pursue this search for some years before his mind became
satisfied. Gen. JACKSON was therefore the farthest possible
remove from being a bigot. His views of each denomination
were obtained from itself, not from its opponents. Hence he
could see excellencies in each. Even of Popery he had a
much more favorable impression than most Protestants,
and it would be well for the Church of Christ, and would
greatly tend to promote fraternal feeling and kill bigotry, if
we would all, in our search for truth, gather our views of
others, not from their opponents alone, but from the best and
wisest of themselves, as JACKSON did.
After his return from Mexico, and being quartered for a
time in South Carolina, Florida, and New York, his health
became so shattered as to nearly unfit him for any active
duty. It was at this time, and while endeavoring to regain
his health, that he was elected to the Professorship of
Applied Mathematics in the Virginia Military Institute. In
his very entrance on that work with very feeble health, and
eyes that totally forbade his using them at all by night, he
exhibited that same quiet energy of will and mental discipline
that afterward contributed so greatly to his success in
the field. Running rapidly over many pages of mathematical
reasonings before night, he would, as we learn from
members of the family who knew his habits well, after dark,
without book or help, holding the complicated materials
before his mind, examine, analyze and thoroughly master
the demonstrations.
There he first entered into full connection with the church.
From that time, the harmony and force of his character
became still more apparent. With him, to know his duty
and to do it, were the same thing. Humble and retiring
almost to a fault, he would never shrink from any duty,
whatever sacrifice of feeling it might cost him. A striking
instance of this I had from his own lips, when speaking of
the trial it cost him to speak before an audience. Being
on a visit to his sister, where were residing a number of
professed infidels, and where there was but little religious
influence, the thought occurred to him that, being a military
man, they might be willing to listen to something from him,
more favorably than from others, though it might be much
inferior. And he at once resolved to prepare and deliver a
few lectures on the evidences of Christianity, which. he did;
though the delivery, he said, was one of the greatest trials
he ever had. Where, among a thousand, is there another of
like temperament who would not, at once, have excused
himself from such an obligation? He formed a class of
young men for instruction in the evidences of christainity;
and for years he superintended with great zeal and efficiency
a Sabbath school for the instruction of the colored people of
Lexington, the beneficial example of which has been widely
felt. Liberal to the full extent of his means, God prospered
him according to his promise, that "the liberal soul shall be
made fat."
When he entered the army at the beginning of the war,
he did it in obedience to the call of his God, as well as of
his country. Hence, no love of ease, of friends, of home,
or domestic joys, could induce one moments relaxation of
energy in the single line of his duty. He never, during the
two years of his service, left the camp--never saw his
home and for thirteen months at a time was separated from his
beloved wife. Of his military life and exploits, this is not
the place or the time to speak; the country and the world
knows them and they will yet appear, doubtless, in fitting
narrative. But his deep interest in the spiritual welfare of
his army, deserves here special notice. Who does not know
that this was an object for which he labored most assiduously
and during the last year, especially with great success?
Busy as he was with personal attention to every thing connected
with the efficiency of his army, both at rest and in
motion, he always found time to attend to this. He devised
and suggested a great comprehensive plan for the organization
of the chaplaincy system, which is now being carried
into effect with prospects of great success. To his pastor,
Dr. White, he wrote a long letter on this subject, which
would itself be a most noble portrait of his religious character
All his letters showed how full his heart was of this
matter, and all seemed to be written from the very precincts
of the throne.
In a letter received from him, only about a month before
his death, he thus speaks: "Whilst as Christians we must
all have trials, yet we have the precious assurance that they
work out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of
glory.***If you had the physical strength, I would
be greatly gratified to see you in the army. It appears to
me that I have never seen such a field for Christian effort.
I am greatly gratified at having Mr. B. T. Lacy with the
army. His labors, I trust, will be greatly blessed. So far,
great encouragement has attended them. I am much
obliged to you for your prayers, and beg that I may still
have an interest in them. It is to God that we must look for
peace, and for its enjoyment when it is bestowed." But the
following extract from a letter to his pastor, the substance
of which the latter read at his funeral, has special interest
as showing his moral greatness. "The death of your noble
son*
*Capt. Hugh A. White, who fell in the second battle of Manassas.
and my much esteemed friend, Hugh, must have been a
severe blow to you, yet we have the sweet assurance that,
whilst we mourn his loss to the country, to the church, and
to ourselves, all has been gain to him. 'Eye hath not seen,
nor heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the
things which God hath prepared for those that love him.'
That inconceivable glory to which we are looking forward is
already his. I greatly desire in the army such officers as he
was.*****When in the Valley there was much
religious interest among my troops, and I trust that it has
not died out. It appears to me that we should look for a
great work of grace among our troops, officers and privates,
for our army has been made the subject of prayer by all
denominations of Christians in the Confederacy.***
* I am very grateful for your prayers and the prayers of
other Christian friends. Continue to pray for me. I
wish I could be with you in the church and lecture
room, whenever our people meet to worship God.**
** Let us work and pray that our people may be
that nation whose God is the Lord. It is delightful to see
the Congressional Committee report so strongly against
Sabbath mails. I trust that you will write to every member
of Congress with whom you have any influence, and do all
you can to procure the adoption of the report. And please
request those with whom you correspond (when expedient)
to do the same. I believe that God will bless us with success
if Christians but do their duty. For near fifteen years
Sabbath mails have been through God's blessing avoided by
me, and I am thankful to say that in no instance has there
been occasion for regret, but on the contrary God has made
it a source of pure enjoyment to me."
On this subject of Sabbath mails he felt very deeply, as
he did on everything affecting the favor or the frown of God
upon our country. Just before his last battle, he wrote a
long letter on this subject, perhaps the very last he ever
penned, to his connection, Col. Preston, who was a commissioner
to the General Assembly, requesting him to secure
some appropriate action from that body in favor of their
abolishment. His heart seemed thus to be so full of deep
interest for the spiritual good of the army, and the advancement
of the church's interest, and her enterprises, as if it
were the one and the only thing to which his energies were
devoted; and yet the country and the world and especially
the army know that the minutest military duty or interest
was never by him neglected or postponed.
The sad circumstances of his wounding, his sickness and
death, are well known and need not here be repeated. A
perfect knowledge of all the facts will, we are very sure, remove
all suspicion of imprudence or rashness from the movement
which led to his wounding, and will show it to have
been an event which no human skill or foresight could probably
have prevented in the case of one whose fixed principle
it was, we believe, to see with his own eyes whatever was
necessary to the disposition of his troops in battle, and whose
success was doubtless greatly owing to this fact. You have
heard how looking at his stump and wounded hand, he said,
"I would not be without these wounds now, even if I could.
God has sent them upon me for some good purpose. I regard
them as one of the greatest blessings of my life."
With what true christian submission and heroism he received
the announcement that he had but a few more hours to live,
answering, "Very good, very good, I will be an infinite
gainer, to be translated." When his little child, which had
been baptised in the camp only a few weeks before, was
brought in--he exclaimed, with all the fullness of a father's
heart--"my darling child!" and having attempted to amuse
it with his crippled hand for a few moments, he commended
it to God. His wife asked him, are you perfectly willing
that God should do with you just as he pleases? With
characteristic simplicity and decision both of language and
tone, he replied, "I prefer it, I prefer it."
Such a death was a fitting close to such a life. It was
emphatically a translation from the high places of his earthly
fame, to the infinitely higher places of heavenly glory. To
the church, and the country in this hour of our peril, his
loss seems irreparable. But the God that raised him up,
can raise up others in his place,--his resources are not
exhausted,--and what is more, can make that life now ended
a greater blessing, a mightier power for good than ever
before. This will be so if he only makes it a means of
impressing on the heart of this whole people the truth, of
which it was such a brilliant illustration,--that holiness is
power, and it alone secures true eminence.
Our text which is but a statement of this truth, is a
concentration of Gen. JACKSON'S whole history. It is his life
and his character, his fame and its secret source, all in a
single sentence. It declares the secret of his great eminence.
God set him on high, because he honored God.
This whole Psalm beautifully and strikingly applies to him.
It describes the Divine protection and honor of the man
that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High, that
says of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress : my
God, in him will I trust. It is of him that God here says,
"I will set him on high, because he hath known my name."
To know the name of God is to recognize his true character,
and to love, serve and trust him accordingly. It is but
another expression for true godliness or holiness. The text
is, therefore, but the declaration of God's purpose to honor
those who honor him : "I will set him on high--I will
make him safe and great because he hath regarded not his
own name and glory, but mine. Or in the language of the
immediate context,--"Because he hath set his love upon me
therefore will I deliver him. **** He shall call
upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in
trouble, I will deliver him and honor him." The same purpose
he elsewhere thus expresses. "Them that honor me I will
honor, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed."
"If any man serve me," says Christ, "him will my Father
honor."
To this as a general truth some will be disposed to demur,
and to say that religion does not always secure eminence;
that cases like this are exceptions to the general rule,--that
so far from the fear of God elevating men in view of the
world it has the opposite, object, inasmuch as men do not
love but hate holiness, and religion prevents men from using
the means necessary to secure earthly honors; indeed, that
it is inconsistent with entering upon the eager strife and
contention made necessary by the rivalry they awaken.
Much of this is doubtless true. In the arena where worldly
honors are the prize, the man of God may not and will not
descend. For him they have no charms. He knows their
emptiness. To him they are the veriest baubles. And no
man ever held them in more utter contempt than JACKSON
did. These are not the high places to which the man of
God aspires, and in which God has here promised to put
him. To be elevated to them alone is no real eminence.
When properly understood there is no exception to the principle
of the text that the fear of God alone can raise any
man to the highest eminence of which he is capable.
1. To make this clear consider first what true greatness real
eminence, is. It is not mere worldly honor, or high place,
or great power. To attain these, indeed, needs no religion,
they are, when taken apart from moral excellence, the
rewards with which the devil has always lured his willing
victims to the giddy heights of their own ruin. As he tempted
our Saviour, so he tempts men still ; pointing to the kingdoms
of the world and the glory of them, he says, "All
these will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me."
The devil has his high places, which however similar they
may sometimes be in appearance, are as different from the
real eminence to which holiness exalts, as darkness is from
light, as the height of the gallows is from that of the throne.
The great ones of this world have by their fame and their
glory only been pilloried on high to the pitying or
contemptuous gaze of all succeeding generations of the wise and
good. So it has been with almost all who have filled the
thrones of earth, with all indeed except where moral worth
has been eminent. So with a Byron in the loftiest flights
of poetic genius; with a Laplace in the sublime researches of
the astronomer; with an Alexander and a Napoleon in the
highest and widest sweep of military achievements. Men
may and they will wonder at their genius, their vast acquirements,
their power and deeds of daring, but where is the
wise and good man, the enlightened lover of his race, who
does not lament over the shameful prostitution of all this
talent, learning and power to the purposes of a low and selfish
ambition; and regard them as brilliant wrecks strewed
all along the shores of time as beacons to future generations?
If mere intellectual superiority or artistic skill, or indomitable
energy and vast power could raise its possessor on high,
then has the devil attained an eminence that none of the
sons of men may hope to reach.
True eminence is inseparable from holiness. In this
consists especially the glory of God: without it all his other
attributes would be objects of horror and dread just in proportion
to their infinite greatness. Although it is true that
men hate holiness naturally, when its claims are urged upon
their hearts filled with fleshly and worldly lusts, or when it
shines so near and so brightly upon them as to disclose their
own moral deformity, yet it is also true that God has so created
us that we are irresistibly impressed with the feeling of
its infinite excellence, and compelled to conscious veneration
for it. Did not the proud and envious Pharisees even when
they sought to slay Jesus, feel and shrink in shame from
the dazzling brightness of his unspotted holiness? You
may gather round your name all the glory that genius, learning,
skill, or military prowess can impart, yet if this one grand
element of moral excellence be not there pervading and
controlling and modifying all the rest, that name will only go
down to posterity to carry your shame and disgrace on
account of God's perverted gifts.
2. But more than this. True religion has a necessary
tendency to produce those qualities that alone can fit men
for the highest stations and the noblest deeds. We do not
mean to assert here merely that the possession of those
dispositions of heart and principles of action that constitute
true religion fit a man better to fill any position in life whatever.
This none will dare deny. Truly to fear God must
produce an elevation of character, a purity of motive, a
superiority to temptation, a sense of accountability, a submission
to lawful authority, that cannot but make men better,
whether as servants or masters, citizens, soldiers, generals
or rulers. But in addition to this it tends to develop to the
highest degree those other mental qualities necessary to fill
most completely the highest offices and to meet the most
responsible trusts. What greater obstacle is there to the full
development of intellectual power, vigorous thought, close
reasoning, and clear and bold and lofty conception than the
workings of pride and passion and appetite, or the distractions
or care, or fear, or the influence of conflicting motives,
or the want of one great noble end of life? And what
influence ever entered a human heart that could so effectually
remove all these, and relieve the intellect from every clog,
and banish every disturbing element as the fear and love of
God? Again, nothing so warps the judgment as passion,
impatience, fear and selfishness--.and whatever else weakens
the intellectual or moral force, and as nothing so completely
corrects these as true holiness, nothing contributes so largely
and effectually to soundness of judgment. There are natural
incapacities that of course no religion can remove, but
there are no capacities so feeble that true religion will not
thus enlarge and invigorate and make them to accomplish
far beyond what any culture could do without it. And there
are no capacities so great, no genius so brilliant that true
holiness--the excellence of God himself, would not have
made far greater, and covered with a brighter brilliance and
power. Many a man of far inferior talent has thus been set
on high above the child of genius, both in intellectual power,
in sound judgment and in the influence exerted. But in
nothing is the elevating power of religion greater and more
manifest than in the singleness of aim it secures and the
concentration of all it energies on one grand end. This is
the deepest secret of all high success in any pursuit. Sin
disorganizes and divides; holiness unites. This is especially
true of the human soul. When the soul truly knows God
as its God and trusts him, when it has no will but his, and
no end but to obey him, it acquires a force and vigor, a
concentration of energy otherwise impossible. There is then
no waste of power; every little rill of thought and feeling,
and desire and hope flows into the great current of the leading
purpose, and from that purpose every selfish end is
excluded. There are no by-ends to divide and divert the
attention and energies. Not a particle of power is lost. Fear
and anxieties about the future cannot disturb it, for all that
it trusts in God's hands; the possible results to itself cannot
come into the account, for that too belongs to God to
arrange; there are no conflicting motives and purposes as
self-indulgence or ambition, for these are all set aside by the one
absorbing and comprehensive end of life and rule of duty.
Nothing but holiness can perfectly unite the soul, and
develop its full energy. In every other case where it seems
united by the overmastering force of some ruling passion,
as in the case of Napoleon, by an ambition that sacrificed
at its shrine every dictate of conscience and feeling of
affection, there is this great element of both of weakness and
shame--the moral nature is crushed, and that which ought
to rule, and which ruling by the fear of God, would
contribute an energy and force beyond any other single element,
is not only lost, but much of the soul's true power has
been used up in resisting and crushing it, and even then the
disturbing voice of an overborne and abused conscience will
still at times be heard causing more or less wavering and
indecision. Thus, true religion, by the pure stimulus it
applies to intellectual power by its removal of all those mists
of self-love, passion and prejudice which becloud the judgment,
and by that power which it alone possesses of producing
entire singleness of aim and concentration of energy,
must tend to secure to its possessor the highest eminence of
which his nature capable. In the very constitution of our
being God has thus secured the fulfillment of the assurance
--" I will set him on high, because he hath known my
name."
3. Still, again. To deny that holiness secures the highest
eminence is to deny that a holy God governs the world.
"The Lord reigneth," and therefore all who do sincerely
and wholly serve him, who make his will their only law
and his glory their great end, must fall in with the line
of his designs and providences, and secure his favor and
blessing." For promotion cometh neither from the east nor
from the west, nor from the south. But God is the judge;
he putteth down one and setteth up another." The reason
why so many of his people are visited with disappointment
and grievous failure in their plans; why instead of attaining
eminence in character, reputation, and influence, they are
kept in obscurity and visited with shame and confusion, is
that their knowledge of God, and concentration to his service
is so imperfect, so marred by selfishness and worldliness that
instead of their lives being radient with the beauty and
power of holiness, their inconsistencies secure the contempt
even of the world, and they prevent themselves from attaining
the very elements of character necessary to high success;
and success, even if possible, would only be their ruin, their
final elevation to glory requiring the present severe and
continued discipline of worldly dishonor.
Since, then, holiness is an essential element in all true
greatness, all other eminence being only in the end an
eminence to shame; since it is necessary to give to the intellect
its full vigor, to the judgment its clearest light, and to the
whole character the full force of undivided energy; since it is
necessary to secure the Divine favor and the special blessing
of Providence, it is evident that the true and the highest
eminence cannot be attained without it, and must ever be
secured by it.
The history of our world affords many illustrious examples
of eminence secured by holiness. Joseph in Egypt,
Hezekiah on the throne of Judah, Daniel in Babylon, Paul
in the early Church ; and--in latter times an Edward VI.
on the throne of England, an Andrew Mellville inScotland,
a Gustavus Adolphus in Sweden; a Sir Matthew Hale
among lawyers, a Thomas Budgett among merchants, a Gardener
and Havelock among soldiers--are a few of the most
familiar names, together with a whole multitude of others
whose names are perpetuated in their writings. But,
although others have stood higher in position, and in attainments,
none stand forth as more truly illustrious, or will go
down to posterity with greater honer and a more powerful
and blessed influence than the name of our own beloved
JACKSON, as one whom God hath set on high, because he
honored God with all his heart and life. His character, as
far as known must secure this. There was something in it
so unique and yet so simple,--it was at once so severe and
yet so gentle, so daring and yet so shrinking, that I will not
even attempt a full delineation of it. A few traits only will
be here presented, such as show him to have been an embodiment
of the truths we have been discussing. And in speaking
of his character we speak with confidence; for we speak
what we do know. An acquaintance of years, that had
ripened into a warm friendship,--and habits of special
intimacy with those who were in daily intercourse with him, and
to whom his character was always an object of admiration
and study, enable me to speak with assurance.
That in him holiness was power, seems to be almost
universally granted. Is there a man in this Confederacy that
has any doubt as to the secret of JACKSON'S greatness? It
was not that in grasp of native intellect, in briliancy and
breadth of conception, in vigor of reasoning he excelled
others so much;--many others surpassed him in each of
these, both in the lecture room and the camp, who must ever
hold a far inferior place in the world's history. God indeed
had gifted him with a mind of no ordinary force and clearness,
and great native energy of will; but it was not this
alone or mainly that made him great; it was that in him
above all other men I ever knew, the only object of life was
just to do the will of God, and the constant posture of his soul
one of unhesitating confidence in God. To obey God in all
things, and at all costs, and to trust him implicitly seemed
for many years to have been the fixed habit of his soul; not
so much to have required an effort, as to be the steady and
spontaneous working of his whole being. It almost seemed
as one who watched him as if he could not help it; his
whole happiness consisted in it. He seems to have been
deeply impressed in early life with the power of habit; and
from the very beginning of his Christian course he sought
to form fixed holy habits, extending to the minutest matters
of life, from which nothing could ever make him swerve,
and which were the secret of his close walk with God. "I
never," said he to a very dear friend, to whom he was
accustomed to unbosom himself most fully, though even to
such he never spoke of himself except when constrained by
a sense of duty,--"I never take a glass of water, but the
moment it touches my lips, my heart rises in thanksgiving
to God and prayer for his blessing." "But, Major, do you
not sometimes forget?" "No," said he "I think not. It
is so much of a habit now, that I would almost as easily forget
to drink." He added, "I never drop a letter in the office,
but it is the signal for prayer to God to bless the
errand on which it goes. I never break the seal of a letter
but I make it the signal for asking God's blessing on the yet
unknown author and its unknown tidings. Whenever I sit
down in my lecture room, and the class are assembling, until
all is quiet,--that is my time for prayer: and when one
class is retiring and another entering, then too is my time
for prayer. In such things I have formed the habit and I
cannot forget it. It gives me inexpressible enjoyment."
Thus he lived. Such was his communion with God, his life
of faith and prayer. And here was the secret spring of his
strength, the source of his real greatness. He was always
with God, and he became like God as very few do.
Reference to another of his habits will show how, in the
very least things he made the will of God his sole law, and
how sedulously he avoided all doubtful grounds. Of the
wickedness of Sabbath mails, he was long firmly convinced.
Carrying out his principles to their full length, he would
never permit a letter of his to travel in the mails on the
Sabbath if it could be prevented. He would carefully count
the number of days required for it to reach its destination,
and if that time run into the Sabbath, unless it required a
whole week or more--no urgency of business could prevent
him from laying it over till the next week. When he
entered on his professorship, he refrained, as a matter of
conscience, from reading even a single line by night, owing to
the weakness of his eyes,--and letters received on Saturday
night, though from his dearest friends, remained unopened
until early on Monday morning. And so supreme and
controlling was his sense of duty, that this never, according
to his own explicit testimony, caused him any distraction of
mind, but rather a secret pleasure and gratitude to God that
he was thus enabled to obey him in all things. Yet his was
by no means a scrupulous conscience which is always dreading
evil when there is none, and distressing itself wtth
imaginary fears; no man was ever more free from this; but
one rendered peculiarly delicate and sensitive by the unusual
vigor of spiritual life, making it shrink instinctively
from the slightest touch of sin. And that testimony of his
already quoted in regard to this matter, deserves to be held
in everlasting remembrance,--that for nearly fifteen years,
during which he had avoided all use of Sabbath mails, in no
instance had there been occasion for regret, but on the
contrary, that God had made it a source of pure enjoyment.
Let the church and the world both gaze upon the rare and
noble example, till they feel its power.
Thus walking with God in prayer and holy obedience, he
reposed upon God's promises and Providence with a calm
and unflinching reliance beyond any man I ever knew. I
shall never forget the manner and tone of surprise and
child-like confidence with which he once spoke to me on this
subject. It was just after the election in November, 1860,
when the country was beginning to heave with the agony and
throes of dissolution We had just risen from morning
prayers in his own house, where at the time I was a guest.
Filled with gloom, I was lamenting in strong language the
condition and prospects of our beloved country. "Why,"
said he, "should Christians be at all disturbed about the
dissolution of the Union? It can only come by God's
permission, and will only be permitted, if for his people's good,
for does he not say that all things shall work together for good
to them that love God?" I cannot see why we should be
distressed about such things whatever be their consequences."
Nothing seemed ever to shake that faith in God. It was in
him a truly sublime and all controlling principle. In the
beautiful language of this Psalm, he dwelt in the secret
place of the Most High, he made the Most High his habituation,
and was thus placed on high from the fear of evil.
Together with that extreme fear of offending God in even
the least thing, which was the only fear he ever knew,--
this lofty faith was the source of that quiet daring, that
lofty heroism, that imperturbable coolness and self possession,
even in those sudden and dangerous emergencies which
wound up all his energies to their utmost tension, that made
him the model soldier, the true Christian hero.
In this connection it may be observed, that he seemed
never to hold an opinion that did not at once have its full,
practical weight upon his conduct. Nothing formerly struck
me more than this in his character. There seemed to be no
discrepancy between his head and his heart, his belief and
his practice. To believe a truth and act upon it were with
him one thing.
And all these together went to constitute that quality
which has long been regarded by his most intimate friends,
as the main secret of his power and success,--his perfect
singleness of purpose. He had no by-ends to divide his
mind or his heart. This self-abnegation was, I believe, as
nearly complete as that of any mortal that ever lived. It
was mentioned by Dr. White, his pastor, at his funeral, that
when that unfortunate difficulty occurred in the Valley which
led him to send on his resignation to Richmond,--and all
his staff and other officers gathering round him, urged him
to go to Richmond himself and set himself right with the
government--he positively refused, saying, "I have but two
things to do, to serve my God and my country. If my
country has not confidence in me here, let them put some
one in my place in whom they have confidence." These
two things in his case really resolved themselves into one, to
obey God, so that really, he had but one thing to do; hence
his judgment was clear, his plans comprehensive, his action
prompt, his energy indomitable, and his success unvarying-
God set him on high, because he knew God's name, he
recognized his sovereign claims--God's will was his all.
But I must stop this imperfect sketch. Others will no
doubt, ere long, do full justice to his noble character and
fully portray his bright example. I cannot, however, forbear
to add that Gen. JACKSON was eminently a happy man,
cheerful and free from anxious eare: that he was just as
kind, as gentle and as tender, as he was stern and inexorable
in his requirements when duty and the interests of his
country demanded, and as he was lion-like in battle. This
picture there and in the camp, where God especially elevated
him to the living gaze of a whole people, others who saw
him and bore with him the fatigues and perils of two bloody
years, can alone portray.
Such was in some respects the man whom God set on high
amongst us, as very few have ever been among any people
before, and whose loss a bleeding country weeps so bitterly.
Will you bear with me a little longer while I add a
few reflections. Such an occasion occurs but once in any
generation.
1. God gave him to us, let us praise him for the gift.
Few nations have ever been blessed in their infancy or even
in their maturity, with such a man, perhaps none with such
a perfect Christian Hero. We challenge all history to produce
his superior, nay, his equal even, in this respect. God
wonderfully prepared him for his work, put him in the place
for which he had been fitting him, and for two years of
bloody conflict crowned him with unvarying success. He
never once knew defeat. Kernstown is covered with his
glory, as much as Manassas or Richmond or Chancellorsville.
By him God wrought for us repeated and glorious
deliverances. For our yet peaceful homes and unravaged
fields in this dear old Commonwealth we are under God
greatly indebted to his toils and skill and rapid energy and
valor, and for these to his religion. God heard his prayers,
guided his decisions, and crowned him with glorious success,
and to God he gave always all the glory. Let us not cease
to praise God for him, and to be encouraged in our great
struggle. Can we believe that God would have given us
such a man, and answered in every step his prayers for two
eventful years, and blessed him as our defender, if he had not
designs of mercy for us, and was not preparing for us a glorious
deliverance, and us for it?
2. But again. God has taken him, and why? He finished
his work just when we thought he was about to enter
upon a still more glorious series of triumphs. We are all
bereaved. The nation indulges a personal grief. Never
perhaps did such a throe of agony pierce a nation's heart,
at the fall of a single man since the Dutch Republic stood
horror-stricken at the assassination of William, Prince of
Orange. The inquiry is natural, why this terrible blow ?
Why raise up just the instrument we needed, and then
remove him when we seemed to need him as much if not more
than ever?
Who has not already heard in it the voice of God saying
to us, "Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils ;
for wherein is he to be accounted of?" "Put not your trust
in Princes, nor in the Son of man, in whom there is no
help. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to the earth, in
that very day his thoughts perish. Happy is he that hath
the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord
his God. "If this nation had an idol it was JACKSON. If
there was any mere instrument to whom they were in danger
of giving glory beyond what is man's due, it was he. Wherever
JACKSON was known to be, there all was regarded as
safe; men hardly ever felt the need of prayer for that as
for other portions threatened by our foe--it was already
secure. His past safety toowas taken as almost a pledge of his
future. God has thus taught us that we must depend
directly upon him. Nothing filled JACKSON with greater solicitude
than the thought that men were praising him. It made
him tremble in anticipation of heavier judgments through
God's displeasure. God will not give his glory to another.
Dependence upon God secured JACKSON'S success, and it will
as certainly secure our success. If we will not honor God,
he will not honor us. Nothing we can conceive of could
teach us this great lesson, as JACKSON'S death is calculated
to do it. If it does this, it will be a blessing full equal to
his life; if it fails to do it, it would seem that nothing else
can, we can look only to be a cast off people. Let it then
be a voice to the church calling her to rally round the throne
of grace as never before, and to the whole nation to
humble itself under the mighty hand of a holy God.
3. Observe again that while God has taken him away, he
has set on high his example, and enshrined it in the hearts
of this people, and is holding it up in its beauty and power,
as if to draw us on in those bright footsteps The very time
and circumstances of his death were all such as to awaken
peculiar and melancholy interest, and so force attention to
his example, as if God intended not a single element
should be wanting to perfect the influence of that example.
It is a great thing to be made clearly to see the right way,
and to love and admire it. Here it is so exhibited as to stir
our deepest emotions. His death has perfected that example,
and spread it out in all its fullness as it could not have
been had he lived. Just at a time when sorrow and peril had
rendered the nation's heart peculiarly plastic, and when its
character is being permanently moulded, God has thus thrown
out upon it this glorious example of the power of holiness
with a force that every heart is bound to feel. God so
ordered his life as to show in the very heavens that his success
and eminence was due to his religion--that without this element
we never could have had a JACKSON, without it he
would have been just like Samson without his locks; he then
made him the object of our enthusiastic love, and now by
his death he sets him on high enshrined in a glory as
unchanging as it is attractive, the very impersonation of holiness
in its bearing upon onr present success and our future
prosperity. A tenderer and more stirring call was never
made upon any people to turn to, to trust in, and to serve
the Lord.
4. Finally, the spirit of JACKSON, in our rulers, our military
leaders, and our people can alone save us and perpetuate us
as a nation. In him God has shown us the only way to
triumph and perpetuity. Blessed be his name that he has not
left us without some at least who partake of his spirit, and
that the noble chief of our armies, our beloved and honored
and magnanimous Lee is strong in the fear of God. May
he raise up many such! Who does not fully believe that if
our rulers and generals and legislators and a majority of the
people had been actuated by the godly spirit of our JACKSON
this war would have ended before this? In the light of his
example and triumphs, how clearly appears the curse of
ungodliness to a nation! How dark the reproach and how
damning the influence of sin! Who now will turn away
from JACKSON'S God and the religion of the cross? What
patriotic heart will refuse to bow in humble prayer and
obedience to the God of nations? If any such there be let
him remember that so far as be can, he is intercepting the
blessing of heaven, drawing down its wrath upon our suffering
land, and blasting his own highest hopes.
To our young men what a noble example! Where is the
youthful soul so insensible to all that is lovely and glorious,
that he will not aspire to copy it? Where is now that worst
of cowards, who is ashamed to pray, and be an earnest and
singular Christian? To our military men his example comes
with peculiar force: it shows that the greatest military
success, as well as all those high and manly qualities that enter
into the very idea of a true soldier, are not only consistent
with, but in their highest degree, dependent upon the fear of
God; and it also rebukes that ambition and mere love of
glory which is the great curse of military life. To every
man, woman and child in our land it appeals, and especially
to every Christian, pouring shame on the cold half-hearted
follower of Jesus, and calling all to a life of earnest and entire
consecration to God, and close communion with him.
Let the watchword then of our whole country in her present
bloody struggle, and of the Church of Christ in the great
work now devolved on her, to form the moral character of
the nation, and of every individual in his warfare with
temptation and sin, be that with which on the morning after his
fall another gallant officer led his triumphant corps to the
charge--"Forward, and remember JACKSON ;" only adding,
"In the name of JACKSON'S God." Fear not, falter not,
flinch not, trust in God and victory is ours; victory over our
country's foes, over all of the foes of the Church of Christ,
over sin and hell and death. God will set us on high, if we
revere his name.
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