Page:The Relation of the Sunday-school System to our Christian Patriotism.pdf/10

10 seed, some thirty, some sixty, some an hundred fold, may give to what we do for our country in His name.

The entire freedom which our laws guaranty to every man in the avowal and advocacy of his opinions, political, moral, or religious, throws open a wide field for zeal, that we may bring the best agencies to bear upon the understandings and hearts of our fellow-rulers; but, at the same time, it gives like opportunities for working mischief to the evil or unwise. Mischief, ever busy, can be checked or prevented only by good out-working it.

Our system has been, and still is, eminently one of experiment. We are daily evolving methods of policy, rejecting or confirming what has been tried, and, disregardful of precedent, boldly venturous in novelty. Hence, the public mind, though impulsive and agitated, is lively and far more pliant than when the weight of inveterate prejudice renders it torpid or obstinate. The fire is always under the crucible, and fresh elements may constantly be added to those already in fusion. It is for us to see, that, by our earnest industry, principles of truth and righteousness are supplied so liberally as to more than neutralize the malignant force of error and sin. The course of a nation is rarely backward from decay to prosperity; and it must be among us, that, when wrong in opinion or practice acquires a popular majority, right will not soon nor easily regain the sway, because the native bent of the human character is downward; but prosperity also becomes most dangerous, when not severely regulated, while amidst the greatest popular triumphs of virtue there is reason to fear, lest evil, assuming the angelic garb, may divert