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Religion the only Solid I>, ;:s of State
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NATIONAL PROSPERITY. /**'■'
<4& ft,/.Vkr -1
-A SERMON, ' / !>,.
Delivered in the Representative Hall of the State of Geor¬
gia, on Thursday, Nov. 24th, 1859, by
• Rev. Dr. HIGGINS, of Columbus, .
. (Published by ogrf&r the General jpseinbh/.) . '
>3 i
FEDERAL UNION POWER PRESS,
M1LLEDGE V'lLLE, OA.
A
" Happy- i& that people whose God is the Lord!"—Psalms
144—1-5.
This is an eventful clay to the American people.' With a
most rare .and gratifying unanimity, twenty-six, and possibly
more, of the sovereign Statfes of this Union, are now engag¬
ed in commemorating the goodness of God to the. eminently
favored communities of this great and happy country^- The
blaze of a grand combined sacrifice is going up from, millions
of grateful freeman; and by all these millions* the being
and the providence of God are this day asserted, and pro¬
claimed in a manner, that can hardly fail to deepen the sense
of both, in the national mind and heart. Rarely has the sun
looked upon such a spectacle. From hill-side to valley, at
the North and at the South, in the East and in the West,
young men and maidens, old men and children, are crowding
the sanctuaries of the Most High; and christian ministers,
with reverence and faith, are preparing to lead their flocks
into the green pastures of sanctified meditation, and by the
side of the waters that go softly.
Our assembling here, therefore, to-day for the public wor¬
ship Qf Almighty God, is in delightful unison with all that is
transpiring elsewhere; and animated by the most grateful
feelings for the great things God has done for us. in all the
relations of civilized and christian life, let us seek to make
the occasion one of public edification.
The text teaches the just and inevitable connection be¬
tween the aggregate piety of a people, and the public good;
or that religion is the only solid and indestructible basis of
either State or national prosperity.
And this has been the doctrine from the beginning. Ever
since society took an organized form, God has had respect
to the proportion of faith in a community; and all history
shows that States and peoples have flourished or" declined,
V
according1 as tl^'e great elements of vice or virtue grew $nd
prevailed As a dectrjnd, inched, nothing in the word of
Grod is pkiner than this; and yet, though not "anew com¬
mandment " .in any feenfee whatever, I am constrained to
think that the well-being of society requires its fresh utter¬
ance, and that in the plainest manner possible.
It is not more true, then, that the righteousness which ex¬
alts a nation also preserves it, than that the sin which re¬
proaches a people, likewise blasts and devours. A walk in-
• to the cemetery of the dead kingdoms will show this—show
it to a demonstration. Perhaps I may even be allowed here
to give an example, for you will find what is true of one, is
true of all. Eighteen hundred years ago a man and an apos¬
tle, even the beloved Paul himself, escaped from the hands
of brutal violence, simply by proclaiming himself a Roman
—such was Rome then, in the heydAy of its power, but, as
we all know,'and never more than now, Rome is living
Rome, no more. But then—for I am speaking of Rome as
she was then—hardly had the magical words passed his lips,
before the furious outcry ceased, the eager and impatient
crowd fell back, and Caesar in his palace was not more se¬
cure than the plain, solitary, unarmed man, who had just
claimed the protection of the Roman eagle. If the appeal
was simple, the effect was electric and sublime. " Tell me,
art thou a Roman ?" He said " yea." And then—as the hen
gathereth her brood under her wings, so did this ancien t and
imperial mistress of the world take to her bosom her newly
discovered child, and bear him off to a place of safety, where
the fury of the violent man could not reach him, nor the
anger of the cruel molest him.
And this protection of the weak against the strong, let
me add—pausing for a moment by the way—this snatching
of the prey from the grasp of the mighty, is one of the
highest functions of the human govermnent; and never is
that office performed for humanity, without eliciting the
highest prajse and admiration. Viewed from such a stand¬
point, the mission of government upon earth is noble, eleva¬
ted, god-like; for then, if ever, " the powers that be are
ordained of Grod." In performing such a work of justice
and humanity, it ennobles itself, for then it acts as the vice¬
gerent of heaven; and though it is not the less an ordinance
-5
of" God, wheji it is seen moving itf inajesty tip oil its tpes, bear¬
ing the sword aloft for the fimisfyment bf the wrprigH^oer,
yet it never assumes a "bidder or more atqiablo air, than
when thus affording rescufe to the oppressed,. or stretching
fourth, its hands to such as flee to it for Tsuccor. Happy is the,
people \vl|o hslve a government to fly to; but according to
my text, .happier still the government whose God is the
L.Ord.v The- Roman—returning to my p«in|—had the for¬
mer,. and perished—and^ perished because his God was not the
,Lord j the American citizen has now the former, but besides
this, we claim the latter also, , *
And in our judgment it is this, last element7 that gives
strength and security to the first; the fact that the feet of
the statue of Anglo-Saxon, and Anglo-American liberty are
not of clay, but of brass—that with us, Christianity came
first, and civilization after—in short, that tliQ wings that
cover us to-day are not those of the eagle, but of the a,rk
and the cherubim. ' -
No truth, indeed, stands out more prominently upon the
page of history than this—that communities and peoples
once enlightened have . gradually deteriorated, and at last
miserably perished; and for this great historic problem, I
know of but one solution, but that is infallible, forit is given
by the prophet of the Great Moral Governor himself: " The,
nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish ; yea,
those nations shall be utterly wasted." And herein lies the
secret of the wasting of those great nations of antiquity
that were once famous in their day, but which have long since
been blotted out from under heaven. Not choosing to re¬
tain God in their knowledge, but holding the truth in un¬
righteousness—substituting for doctrines human traditions,
and for divine ordinances the profligate propensities of wick¬
ed and abandoned men, their sun went down at noon ; the
wicked nation, like the wicked man, did not live out half its
days.
And this is the truth that I am this day concerned to state
and publish before you, that I know of no other conserva¬
tism than the conservatism of Christianity. I know of
nothing in human institutions, aJs such, to secure society in
tliis. or in anv other country, from disasters similar to those
6
in my honest judgment, the only salt that has savor, is thd
salt of Bible truth and doctrine. Nothing on this earth sur¬
vives, that has not in it this -element of incorruptibility ; and
therefore I again say, " Happy is that people whose God is
the Lord." And, t$ apply all this to ourselves "with know¬
ledge, with science, with arts, with civilization, .with every
thing in our favor, yet without the righteousness which ex-1
alteth a nation Oitr house is built on gliding sand, or yielding
air. "flfflk not to me in this connection of our wide-spread
territor^ though never did the sun in heaven look down
upon such a heritage—sucl^-.a broad national domain
that stretches from the Canadas on the North, to
the ^rj-ilf of Mexico upon the South, and from the
Atlantic on the East, to the far-off Pacific on the "West,
nevertheless^ 'our God must be the Lord.' Talk not to me
either, of our glorious, our incomparable constitution though
I have been educated to believe that never did the intellect
of man work upon a nobler instrument, and the convictions
of the man have certainly in this particular not outgrown the
instructions of the child—yet I repeat our God must be the
Lord, or even this wonderful instrument, with all its match¬
less conceptions, its well-adjusted checks and balances, hold¬
ing at a just and even poise the rights of one and the rights
of all, will soon be among the things that were. Talk not
to me finally, of that which I also greatly value, the rare
qualities of our native population—for if I could glory in
anything human, I could glory in our Anglo-Saxon blood and
lineage—though I do not forget that God has made of one
blood all the nations, and as a minister of the sanctuary I
certainly have arms and heart for them all, but with all this
to excite grateful emotions, I must nevertheless repeat
" cursed is he that makethjflesh his arm." Our God must he
the Lord.
"With a free government—a government truly honorable
to our nature, and every way compatible with our rights—
a government that throws its shield over the highest and the
lowest—a government that abjuring all hereditary claims,
with a rare grace offers its prizes to him who wins, a gov¬
ernment where every great material interest is watched ov¬
er and cared for—a government that affords unbounded fa¬
cilities for personal and social enjoymentagovernmentthatby
"7^
its very distance fromcontemporaneoWnatio&k aiid kingdoms,
need never be drawn into the whirlpool of foreign politics; yet
with ail this to give spring ai*d vigor tp the ilaticJnaJ. step,
we siialff yet stumble at the threshold, unless the light of
Christianity be in our eye, and the hope of heaven in our
heart. *" Our God must be the Lord-" If anchored to the
Rock of Ages we are safe—but if not, the ship must drive.'
And as this scripture is not of any private interpretation,
I would speak it to those who are far off, as* well as to those
who are nigh. I say then, Hear it, ye who are gi?oawiiTg and
writhing under the wrongs of ages—ye who are supplicating
for your rights, with just enough of political smew to over¬
take—ye, who are hemmed in by an inevitable proximity with
surrounding nations, weighed down by public, bilrclens,
doomed to spend your labor on establishments, civil or ec¬
clesiastical, as that may be, for which you have .no love and
no reverence j I say, hear it, all who aspire to found states,
kingdoms, dynasties—No man, no nation is on th? right track
whose God is not the Lord ; who do not make this Bible the
one supreme, infallible appeal of right and wrong; who do
not enquire with the docility and the reverence of the east¬
ern ages, for the star of Bethelehem—who do not bring their
offerings of Art, of Science, and of Literature, and meekly
lay them at, the feet of our Emmanuel, the Wonderful, the
Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the
Prince of Peace!
And this is the bulwark of our political Zion, the fact,
that this God is our Lord; this, the Gibraltar of the whole
American people, this, the defence upon all our glory. And
more than all else, I count on this, that with much that is
amiss staring us in the face, and which may God forgive I
yet in heart, and soul, I proclaim it here to-day, we are tru¬
ly and essentially a Christian people. And here I rally my
hopes for the future! And when that title, than which I
acknowledge none higher, the title of an American citizen,
when even that title, shall have failed us—when we shall
have ceased to be a nation of sovereigns, when the great guar¬
antees of the Constitution shall have come tumbling down
upon us, like a house forsaken of inhabitant, when all its
wise and equitable provisions shall have been voted a dead
letter, when the living spirit of the conscript fathers shall
A
have departed from 911I: midst/Iind the strong ties of a com-
iiion political brotherhood shall he snapped asunder, like
flax or tow—when ea6h and all in which we have gloried
and ^rusted, shall haye yanished, like a dream Wjhen one
awaketh; even then, without one-misgiving for the result,
I would still trust my nations strength, and my nation's
steadfastness, to this One lock of power—the presence and op¬
eration of the Christian Religion. Her " God is the Lord
and with this single plank, I would agree to make the na¬
tion's voyage, the whole voyage over trackless waters and
unknov^ii seas, without one fear of wreck or founder; aye,
agree on some peaceful morning of the Millennium, to de¬
liver up the gallant ship, without one timber strained, and
with>' every streaifter full high advanced," to Him whose
" kingdom ruleth over all."
No fear, then, for the nation whose Grod is the Lord; her
epitaph is not written, and will not be written until his
altars are thrown down—until his house is left unto him
desolate, until scoffing and impiety, widely and universally
prevail—until we come to rival the ancient cities of the
plain. Then indeed, we shall be doomed if not damned;
and like the proud head of ancient Babylon, hell from be¬
neath will be moved to meet us at our coming.
With this candid avowal of my convictions, that religion
is the only solid and indestructible basis of State and nation¬
al prosperity, I now go on to state some of our supposed
advantages in running the race of national greatness and
renown, I say, some of our distinctions, not all. The whole
subject of those advantages is much too vast, too extensive
for any considerable detail; but on a day of general joy like
this, one may be pardoned if by wTay of heightening the
common gratification, he ventures to look over into other
vineyards besides his own. I say this is no spirit of invid-
iousness to the nations with whom, in the way of compar¬
ison, we may stand opposed, for I trust our strife, if strife
there be, is that of warm and generous men; nevertheless
it may not. hurt ourselves or others, to remind you that the
lines have fallen to us in pleasant places.
Whatever, then, older countries with their hoarded
treasures of the past may be to the few, I am constrained
^io say that for the many, there is no country like our own ;
9
and in common with '^millions*' cJ|* my * countrymen, I
therefore this day heartily than& Crodthat there is an Amer¬
ica, and that we are Americans? ,Qver /and above the fact, *
though it is by no means an iriconsiderable one, that we came
into the rank of independent Statefe at a late period, when*
the experience of all past ages, was unrolled before, us j and
over and, above, ^ too, the other fact that in the history of
mankind, ours is the one only example of a truly social com¬
pact, kdopted by the act of the whole people; X sayWside§
all this, there are certain physical as well as political ad¬
vantages, which make our position among the nations one r
of a most extraordinary character.
I seize, f(?r example, upon the youth of the country, and I
say, here is youthful vigor, here the lusty strength of four¬
score years and three; here the national Sampson, with his
hair not yet full grown; but looking away across the seas,
I see the national ivy twining around the national oak, and
with the venerableness of years, it may be supposed that
there is, too, something of its weakness and decay. But
whether this be so or not, this we know4 that age is not
flexible, age cannot be twisted into all imaginable shapes,
or run into any number of new moulds o,r forms j while
youth readily adopts itself to one and all. No, it so hap¬
pens that during the last five hundred years society has not
stood still; ill that time the world has been marching.—
jSince the old governments of Europe first came into being,
there have been some changes, great and material changes,
manners have changed, literature has changed, politics have
changed, commerce has changed, the human mind itself has
been put under new culture, and yet notwithstanding all
tliis, and the modification in law and government which
such changes naturally suggest, many of the weights and
shackles—the heavy incumbrances, the absurd restrictions,
the ignorant regulations, which might have been well
enough when society was in its infancy, are still retained
in all their primitive grotesqueness, even though the world
has outgrown its nonage.
And of the expediency of all this, these governments
themselves must be allowed to be the good and sufficient
judges ; all I say is, that a new nation just starting into life
at a most eventful and unexampled era of the world's histo-
1$
h
ry* has incomparably «the advantage of the old. As we all
know, It is a thousand-fold pasier to prevent excrescences
than to loj> theni' off, to defuse hereditary claims ^nd titles,
than to withdraw them,' when once given, easier perhaps to
build up a magnificent palace from the beginning, than to,
remove & solitary brick from a time-honored pile. And of
all this the christian patriots, who laid the foundations of
our Republic, were not unmindful, and the fruit of their wise
^labors,. their profound political forecast, we are reaping here
to-day*
Then again, in what is still a newly settled country, and
one that is annually adding to the area of its surface very
farbeyond the natural increase of its population, all overcrowd-
big is impossible, an evil, which until within a few years,
was one'of the hardest problems that the European states¬
man was called upon to solve. Of such a pressure as com¬
pels the annual flight of hundred of thousands from our
midst, to seek. homes in new and distant lands, we know
nothing; norindeed are we able to comprehend the full ex¬
tent of the calamity itself. England, for example, has a vast
empire in the East, where a common laborer may be hired for
six or eight dollars a year; where for food he luxuriates upon a
handful of rice and where in the warmer season of the year, he
falls and sleeps just where night and silence overtake him.
Nor do I visit this at all upon the government, for I am not
sure but the evil is equally beyond reach of school-craft and
king-craft, in short, I know of no political leech craft, no
mediciner, who is at all equal to the curing of such a hurt, I
know of none, except he be a Moses to lead them out, or a
Columbus, to throw open the gates of a new world. In short,
I doubt the ability of either government upon the one
hand, or the universal diffusion of education upon
the other, to remedy an evil of which one half the world
complains, I am not sure but China itself might be quoted
as an illustration of one part of this remark, while Europe
in general might stand as an illustration of the other. In
the Flowery Kingdom, as we hear, there is the education,
but not the government, and in Europe, with a much better
type of the latter, there is perhaps less of the former. Of
Chinese literature there is, as travellers tell us, an abun¬
dance ; but, with a swarming ^population, ever in one
11
another's way, treading on one^ another's heels, and which
cannot be counted for multitujle,' wages are* so nominal as to
make their condition physically hopeless.. And, 'though
Europe may not feel this pressure to an equal -degree, yet
physical expansion is most evidently the' waril of^both.
Nor is the physical embarrassment t>y any means the worst
result of such a vast and uniwieldy element. Every politi¬
cal economist knows, that morale like physical corruption,
spreads most quickly where the points of contact are most
numerous ; and hence such a population is sure to be -unruly,
if not unmanageable. Crowd men together within a limited
space and unless the salt of sound doctrin^ and good morals be
daily and continually thrown into all the wells of social life.,
the waters will poison, willputrify, and like the dead waters
of Egypt in the time of plagues, they will soon bqth taste
and smell of blood. Bring together the 40,000 of Paris, who
have no visible means of support, and there will be lurking
holes of depravity, just as there are burrows -for the vermin
that infest your dwellings; or concentrate the 30,000 Of a
similar population in London, and there will be whole com¬
monwealths of corruption, organized bands of thieves, rob¬
bers and murderers, outlaws from man, and outcasts from
God. But what know we of these ? In comparison, noth¬
ing. What those lands want, is just that in which we
abound, and which we are always happy to give to those
who come; namely, the widest room—the fairest scope—
the most unbounded opportunity for action, for enterprise,
for skill, arid wanting which, society must and will retro¬
grade in some quarters, eveii if it shows grateful signs of
advance in others.
And whoever remembers the pregnant fact that four-fifths
of mankind live upon the fruits of labor, will at once see the
bearing of all this upon the public weal; and whoever will
be at the pains to examine the statistics of pauperism in dif¬
ferent countries, will see that for the laboring man there is
really no land like that in which we live, and for which we
this day render thanks to God. Thus Sweden, with a pop¬
ulation of 3,500,000, has a fraction more than one mendicant
in every hundred persons, but Denmark has four, Norway
f,nd Wirtemberg, five, Switzerland ten, Italy thirteen,
France fifteen, England, ten, while the British Isles, collec-
12
tively haVe seventeen; but here such persons, as a class, are
almost utterly unknown.
There is another element, however, in our extraordinary
position as a people that I must not overlook. Whether it
be a result of the peculiar /orm of our government,, or wheth¬
er it be put clown, as we should like to believe, to the supe¬
rior intelligence and morality of our fellbw-citizens, or
whatever else, one thing is certain; that of a certain kind of
* government we have less than other nations ; and in this
way, the saving to our country in the shape of taxes, is al¬
most incalculable. It is the sober estimate of the political
economist of England, that one third of the wages of the la¬
boring classes is consumed by taxation, leavingjust enough
to procure the bare necessaries of life. In the most heavily
taxed portions of our own land, I am not aware that it
amounts to a twentieth, while in this particular State a tax-
gather has almost come to be regarded as a mythical indi¬
vidual. What a contrast to the nations abroad! At this
moment, while every country in Europe is required to pro¬
vide an expensive and extravagant civil list, there are also
vast and incredible outlays for standing armies and State
defences, to say nothing of the heavy reckoning for the
wasteful' wars of the last two hundred years ; of all which
we know nothing, except as we know the age of our ances¬
tors, or the traditions of a past generation.
It is a singular fact, and one which I beg to mention in
this connection, that just ninety-seven years ago (17G2) one
of the shrewdest minds of England—I allude to Mr. Hume ;
predicted a national bankruptcy, if the public debt of that
country should ever amount to a hundred millions sterling ;
and without pretending to say whether all his points were
well or ill taken, no man will deny that there were grounds
of the gravest alarm, or that among the causes which, more
than any other, have been influential in preventing such a
result, are two, neither of which was it possible for that man
of sagacity to foresee. First, the size and growth of the
cotton culture, a branch af productive industry which now
furnishes employment in that country alone, directly or in¬
directly, to four or five millions, an element of calculation,
which of course could not go down in his reckoning ; and,
^sAfrmd, the vast improvements in cotton-spinning which the
13
\vorld was destined to witness in the next hundred years. It
was not possible, for example, for him to know that the mo-
meat of his prophecy there lay coiled up' in the brain of a
Harg^eaves and an Ark Wright, embryo conceptions that in
five and sey^i'years from that 'date, would develop inven¬
tions tha f m lesi tfcan a century would yield to that singu¬
larly fortunate Country, as sum ten times greater than the
debt lie supposed would exceed her maximum ability to bear.
If ever a land had reasoi^to thank God for the birth of a
single mind, England is that Emd; for the wise invention^
of an Arkwright and a Watt, not only saved a city, but a,
kingdom, and looking to the wide ^commercial bearings of
that country, the whole monetary world. I judge them
this day, worthy of a higher monument than the hero of
Waterloo, or of Trafalgar! Under Grod they, and such as
they, have been the world's best benefactors. And if Frank¬
lin counted him a philanthropist who made two blades of
grass grow where one grew before, how ought we to estimate
men who by the force of their genius have indefinitely post¬
poned national bankruptcy to such a kingdom as Great Bri¬
tain ; and who in benefitting her, have benefitted all—have
advanced the material interests of millions yet unborn!
But I must stop—though from the continually expanding
nature of the subject, it were easier to go on. I recur then
to the remark made awhile ago, though in another form, that
never was a nation born to such an inheritance as that*
which this day meets our eyes. With a free .govenmi. nt—
an almost fabulous extent of territory running .through all
latitudes, from the cold of one section to the orange groves and
spiceries of another—with the English language, law s and
literature steadily following in the wake of an ever advanc¬
ing population—with the wrecks of other nations floundering
past, warning us of that Scylla and that Charybdis with
a perfect toleration of one another's religious opin'ons—
with a people eminently devoted to peaceful and industrial
pursuits—with the already wide diffusion of the me;ins of
education, and the good work receiving a new impul ev¬
ery day—with a free speech, a free pulpit, and a fret ^ ress,
what better auspices could we desire for working oul> the
great problem of humanity amongst us, to a success nl and
triumphant conclusion ? And I answer, none, foi iu the
14
wildest dreams of romance I caimqt conceive 01 a peopl^ s'i
favored, as wq who this day meet' to $?ink God for his irirTft-
merable benefits. What more," says G<4cl, " could I have
done for my vineyard? " And, for one, I am compelled* t<?
answer, nothing. And looking to the past a»d» preseiii of
our history—to the highly prosperous condition,1 not only of
the State, but of $ie whole country—td ,t;lie activities of
trade and commerce—to the health .of our cities, and the
continually augmenting revenues 'of' our State—looking
above all-, to the steady increase off morality and religion in
our0 midst, where is the full heart to give adequate expres¬
sion of our grat.eful sense qf ale this, to the Giver of all
good. For, men and brethren, what have we that we have
niot received; and received as'the 'unmerited expression of
God's infinite good-will "toward us? Nothing, nothing!
Most emphatically do J say, to Him who holds the destinies
of nations in his h an els—who lifteth up and casteth down—
who enlargeth and' straiteneth again at his pleasure, I say
, to Him do we owe this* great debt of gratitude for our
•homes and • our taltars, and whatever goes to make these
%omes a paradise,' and these altars the gate of heaven! To
Him, the Almighty, the ever-blessed God, the King eternal,
immortal and invisible, the only wise God and our Saviour,
Jesus Christ; we owe it all.
0 then, in word and in deed, give thanks unto the Lord
for his goodness. Sing unto the Lord with thanksgiving.
Sing praises tipon the harp unto our God, for he hath
strengthened the bars of thy gates; He hath blessed thy
children within thee; He maketh peace in thy borders, and
filleth thee with the'finest of the wheat. He hath not so
dealt with any nation; Praise ye the Lord,
. A word to you, gentlemen of the Senate and House of
Representatives, and I am done.
When your courteous invitation reached me on last Sat¬
urday, to address you in this Hall to-day, the labors of the
Sabbath were before me, and it was not till those labors
were over that preparation for this service was begun.—
What has been possible for me under the circumstances, I
believe has been accomplished. Would it were worthier.
But before parting, suffer me to remind you that both as
legislators, and as prominent citizens in the neighborhoods
w
wbifl* you c£me, ^iir/posttion is one of pre-eminent
ijaa£ortanc£, not .only, to the future of this State, but for
ou£ht T kifow, to'ihe States of th<^w}}ole Union. Knowing
11 ^u,tlire but wlm{ the humblest man in the
country9^ujppo^pL to krow, and unwilling to judge
paj^hing^efoTe^he %ne, I am yet free' to say that as there
isfWt oiy£-'thmg»tl^alT cSm build us up, so there is but one
that, <fcan c&st us Sown ; and our^choice as a people haust fall
at last between jreli'gicjpApon the one han,d, or irrel-igion
upjon tjie^other. * As .^wi^cking, I fear no other 'catnk of
wrecking Jthan this: tire only^power I dread is the pow^
of darkne&f; and if Goct will sa^e us fr6m the fury of an in»
<1q1 Anticljrist, $Uch as prevailed in France when king'anl
noble came to the block? I should see nothing in all thejB
ture but career^of- unbounded*prosperity, and of untarrj^B
ed natioijal honor. «For what shall .harm us, if we be
lowers ofi-fhat which is; good ?/ Qiilytmil^ upon this fou<?
dation—r-rear our State supei*strijctur^upon this solid,' this
^destructible basis, of jfeible' Christianity; and the gates of
bfcll will no moi;e prevail against our political, .than our igcr
(ffesiastieal Zior^j To fill our i$>es, come ffrom what source
they God Hvilf sly, "Hitherto thou shalt come, and .
rib fartlv*'; and'Sere shall thy proud waves be '^yed."'
PHappy&s that $eople|who is in such a case; yea happy is
'^iat people whose God is the Lord." Amen.,