Page:The Relation of the Sunday-school System to our Christian Patriotism.pdf/11

Rh the impulse gained by such excitement, and precipitate the best cause into ruin. As there are men who “choose the livery of heaven to serve the devil in,” so there are those among us who will call themselves by any name, however pure, and profess any principles, however noble, that they may abuse the trust accorded to their seeming virtue for selfish and, therefore, hurtful schemes. None but the conscientious (and none are conscientious but the God-fearing) can be relied upon in the momentous struggle, for the mastership over our beloved country, between the powders of light and the powers of darkness. If the disciples of Christ are the salt of the earth and the light of the world, to them mainly we must look for the true prosperity of a republic, whose only strength is the virtue and intelligence of its constituents. There is no virtue so strong as that to which the love of Christ constrains us, no intelligence so sound as the wisdom sent down from on high. Let Christians of our land be faithful in the exercise of their citizenship, and the perpetuity of its welfare will be secured, “for if God be for us, who can be against us?” Let them neglect their high duties, and ruin must soon follow, “for if the light that is in us be darkness, how great is that darkness!” Delay is not merely dangerous, but fatal. Every day is pregnant with the destiny of years; every year stamps an indelible character on far succeeding generations.

Our population is rapidly spreading itself over a vast territory. The history of the world besides has nothing analogous to this. In the primitive dispersings of the race, each company of emigrants threw off their allegiance to their native country, and went forth armed to