Page:The future of Africa.djvu/160

154 While yet fresh and young, with the mighty power of natural religion in their souls, they were strong, mighty, and prosperous. When luxury and affluence were secured, idolatry arose; and they gradually failed, and at last perished! No nation that we know of ever became great whose origin was coeval with a worship of stocks and stones. And however mighty a nation, that is idolatrous, is, if it clings to idolatry, it must fall! Should England, or Holland, or Prussia, or the United States, renounce reverence of the true God of heaven, and determine, that henceforth they would worship some noble animal or some carved image; they would at once bid "a long farewell to all their greatness." And not only because God would frown upon them for such base apostasy; but, as I think I may state it—on the abstract principle that the idea of God contains, inherently, such transforming power in a nation, that it makes or un-makes, according as it is clear, and right, and grand; or, on the other hand, is low, and rude, and sensual. This is what I mean by the statement, that national greatness is correlative with the ideas of God and religion. And now, for a few moments, let us think upon this subject, and endeavor to see what measure of truth it contains, and how we may appropriate that truth to our own profit, to the good of our neighbors and country, and to the glory of God. Now, if you take up the speeches or treatises which explain such national or economical questions as I have referred to, you will find much said concerning the source and origin of the greatness of