Brigade Chaplain John D. McCarty delivers a thanksgiving sermon in the National Palace after the fall of Mexico City. McCarty reminds his audience that the "hand of providence" made it possible for the U.S. Army to overcome all obstacles. McCarty praises the army for its conduct, maintaining that U.S. troops did not commit any atrocities on the civilian population, dealing with it honestly and fairly. They must continue to do so, he maintains, as representatives of a Protestant nation.
A
THANKSGIVING SERMON,
PREACHED IN THE NATIONAL PALACE, CITY OF MEXICO, ON
SUNDAY, OCTOBER THIRD, A. D. 1847,
ON THE OCCASION OF A PUBLIC THANKSGIVING FOR THE VICTORIES ACHIEVED BY THE ARMY OF THE UNITED STATES, IN THE BASIN OF MEXICO, UNDER COMMAND OF
MAJOR-GENERAL WINFIELD SCOTT:
CONSUMMATED BY THE CAPTURE OF THE CAPITAL.
BY THE REV. JOHN McCARTY, CHAPLAIN U. S.
Only fear the Lord, and serve Him with all your heart; for consider how great things He hath done for you:"--1st Samuel, 12th Chap., 24th verse.
(PUBLISHED BY REQUEST OF MANY OFFICERS OF THE ARMY.)
MEXICO, OCTOBER, 1847.
Printed at the office of the "American Star," Mexico.
A THANKSGIVING SERMON:
"
"That honor comes, a pilgrim gray.
To deck the sod that holds their clay,"
When we thank God for our victories, let us consider what is due to the private soldiers, by whose courage, and in so many cases, by whose lives and wounds, our success has been achieved. And recollecting, how little they individually share in the distinction and advantages of victory, let their officers not only sympathise with them in their privations and sufferings, but be led to pay a scrupulous regard to their rights and feelings--to treat them in word and deed with justice and kindness, giving them every privilege and indulgence consistent with subordination and the maintenance of discipline; taking a lively interest in their welfare, exercising their power over them and treating them, as under a change of circumstances they would have their superiors do to themselves.
When our saddened thoughts turn to the sorrowing relatives of the lamented dead, who when the nation at large rejoice and triumph in time victories gained, must mourn their sad bereavement; let us realise it as our duty not only to sympathise in their affliction and to aid them to the utmost of our ability, from our own mean, but employ whatever influence we may possess to direct our country's gratitude to make a far more adequate provision for the families of those who by the sacrifice of their lives have conferred such benefits on our country; and thus to rescue our republic from the charge of ingratitude and injustice, in neglecting to provide for those, by whose husbands' and fathers' deaths in their country's cause they have been made sorrowing widows and orphans.
Furthermore, in offering our thanksgiving each of us should consider the goodness of his Heavenly Father, in his own preservation, not only from the violence of the enemy, but from the hand of disease. When we reflect that so many during this campaign have languished on beds of sickness--to how many their last--those who have been preserved, especially those who have been blessed with health, should thank God with an unfeigned heart, for this the greatest of temporal blessings, so indispensable to enjoyment and usefulness; gratefully owning the preserving care of the Lord, "in whose hands are the issues of life and death." And such as have escaped the imminent perils of our battle fields, should seriously consider their own wonderful preservation, while the instruments of destruction flew thick about them and their companions and fellow soldiers were falling on every side.--They should deeply consider and gratefully acknowledge, not their good luck and fortunate escape, which is but the religion of the atheist, but the sparing goodness of their Great Preserver, owning in the words of Holy Writ, God is the Lord, by whom we escape death." Yes, my brethren, it seems, that escape from the great dangers to which our officers and soldiers have been generally exposed, would constrain the most irreligious gratefully to unite with the warrior Psalmist in the acknowledgement "the Lord hast covered our heads, and made us stand in the day of battle," and with him to call upon their souls "to praise His Holy Name, who saveth our life from destruction and crowneth us with mercy and loving kindness."
In the next place, let us regard the end for which we should now "consider the great things the Lord hath done for us," in these deliverances and victories. It is not to foster national pride and vain glory, for these need rather to be restrained, but that we may be led, according to our text, "to fear the Lord and serve him with all our heart." We recount the victories which by the help of the God of Battles we have achieved, not that we may sacrifice to our own valor and might, but be led "to fear the Lord and depart from evil"--"to fear Him and keep his commandments;" that a sense of his goodness manifested in preserving our lives and crowning our arms with success, may constrain us, to serve our Great Benefactor "with all our hearts." As in the thanksgiving for victory we pray Him "to give us grace to improve the great mercy to His glory, the advancement of his gospel, the honor of our country, and as much as lieth in us, the good of all mankind;"
Whilst we ascribe to Him all the glory, as our preserver and the giver of victory, let us see that we "glorify Him in our bodies and spirits, which are His"--let us realize that he has not preserved and brought us here to "revel in the Halls of Montezumas," but to serve Him and do our duty; especially by turning our success and our consequent influence over this people into the means of enlightening their religious ignorance and raising them from the degradation to which they are reduced. And this by extending the light and the blessings of our purer faith; so that by our christian influence and example and by the intercourse between us, they may imbibe something of our free spirit and throw off the shackles of military and spiritual despotism. Believing that the Mexicans most need for their improvement, a purer exhibition of the Gospel of Christ (which toleration and the light of the scriptures would eventually give them,) may it be ours to secure by all proper means the toleration of Protestants, so clearly their right and which we know from experience in other countries would exert an enlightening and purifying influence on the church of this country, May we as Protestants keep in mind that we have to recommend our profession of christianity to them by our example, and that we are accountable as far as we have any influence, for the impression they receive of our religion. Let neither the neglect of our religious worship nor our vices strengthen the belief, sought to be impressed on them, that we are not only heretics, but are not christians, and have no religion at all. Let them have no reason to infer that what we regard as superstitious and idolatrous in them is at least as good, if not better, than our Protestant irreligion. But let us show by our piety, humanity and benevolence, and by our exemption from vice, the blessed fruits of our more scriptural faith; our purer and more edifying religious services. That witnessing our superiority not only as soldiers, but as christian men, they may honor our land, not only as free, enlightened and prosperous, but as blessed by superior means of christian knowledge and piety, which are the foundations of all.
Devotion to God and good will to this people, who are equally with ourselves, his children, are enforced by a grateful sense of our personal deliverances from sickness and the perils of battle, and it becomes us, in acknowledging his preserving goodness "to show forth his praise, not only with our lips, but in our lives by giving up ourselves to His service and by walking before him in holiness and righteousness, all our days." Let us dedicate the lives he has spared us, to his service, improving our lengthened day of grace, by being better prepared for death, to which we are always exposed. When we render thanksgiving to God, let us recollect that this is a vain oblation in those who continue to abuse his blessings, disregard his authority and neglect his reasonable service. Offering our thanks as members of the army may we be reminded of the duty of abstaining from the vices to which military men are most tempted and addicted, imitating the Centurions, whose piety is recorded in the New Testament one of whom, Cornelius, was the first fruits of the gospel among the Gentiles; and thus keeping in mind what their good examples were designed to teach us, that the soldier's life, so far from excusing allowed wickedness or irreligion, is perfectly compatible with christian piety. Let us remember and act under the conviction, that religion is alike binding on us in every station and in every place, and that no where, and under no circumstances, can we be absolved from its obligation to lead a goodly, righteous and sober life. To none is christian piety more indispensable than to those who serve in the army, and no where are its restraints, motives and ordinances, more needed, than in this country, where we are exposed to many temptations to vice and irreligion.--Standing before God, this day, as those who have been mercifully spared and greatly blessed, let each and every one resolve hereafter to guard against yielding to passion or pride, to violence or hatred; and to cultivate the mild, humble and benevolent virtues, which becomes us as gentlemen as well as christians. Putting away the vices of profanity, licentiousness and intemperance, let us be men of chastity, sobriety and reverence for sacred things. Remembering it is as true of an army as of a country that "righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people;" may gratitude to God, for all his benefits, restrain us from profane swearing and execrations in our conversations, which not only tend to destroy all reverence for the Deity and holy things, but are expressly forbidden in his commandments, and are in express violation of the laws of the army. These vices, therefore, are as contrary to our duty as soldiers as they are inconsistant with our religion.
Then let us conclude by praying God, that as soon as we shall have finished our tour of duty in this land, and a just, and as we may hope, a lasting peace shall have been made between our United States and those of Mexico, we may leave it and its influences so unfavorable to our piety and virtue, but leave it in good will towards its people, wishing them toleration, a purer form of religion, better and more stable government. And returning to our own country, let us be more thankful to God from what we have here seen, for having cast our lot in a land of civil and religious freedom, and for having given us so goodly a heritage. Here let us determine that when again restored to our dear homes and to those we love, we will show forth our gratitude to the "Giver of every good and perfect gift," by being as entirely devoted to his service, and zealous for good works, as becometh those "to whom much hath been given and of whom much will be required;" and employ our lives and influence to make our people as eminent for christian holiness and virtue, as they have been "highly favored of the Lord."
