IMAGE EVALUATION
TEST TARGET (MT-3)

''#1''^

1.0

I.I

2.2

Ifi

ISO

11°

-Wig

1.8

Photographic

Sciences
Corporation

L25 iu iLb

23 WEST MAIN STREET

WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580

(716)872-4503

CIHM/ICMH

Microfiche

Series.

CIHM/ICMH
Collection de
microfiches.

Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions / Institut Canadian de microreproductions historiques

Technical and Bibliographic Notes/Notes techniques et bibllographlques

The Institute has attempted to obtain the best
original copy available for filming. Features of this
copy which may be bibliographlcally unique,
which may alter any of the Images in the
reproduction, or which may significantly change
the usual method of filming, are checked below.

I — I Covers restored and/or laminated/

Coloured covers/
Couverture de couleur

Covers damaged/
Couverture endommag6e

Couverture restaur^e et/ou pelllcul6e

Cover title missing/

Le titre de couverture manque

D
D
D
D
D

Coloured maps/

Cartes gdographiques en couleur

Coloured ink (i.e. other than blue or black)/
Encre de couleur (i.e. autre que bleue ou noire)

Coloured plates and/or Illustrations/
Planches et/ou illustrations en couleur

Bound with other material/
Reli6 avec d'autres documents

Tight binding may cause shadows or distortion
along interior margin/

La reliure serr6e peut causer de I'ombre ou de la
distortion le long de la marge intdneure

Blank leaves added during restoration may
appear within the text. Whenever possible, these
have been omitted from filming/
11 se peut que certaines pages blanches ajout6es
lors d'une restauration apparaissent dans le texte,
mais, lorsque cela 6tait possible, ces pages n'ont
pas 6X6 f ilmdes.

L'Instltut a microfilm* le meilleur exemplaire
qu'il lui a 6t6 possible de se procurer. Les details
de cet exemplaire qui sont peut-dtre uniques du
point de vue bibliographique, qui peuvent modifier
une image reprodulte, ou qui peuvent exiger une
modification dans la m6thode normale de filmage
sont indiqu6s ci-dessous.

D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D

Coloured pages/
Pages de couleur

Pages damaged/
Pages endommag^es

Pages restored and/or laminated/
Pagbs restaurdes et/ou pellicul6es

Pages discoloured, stained or foxed/
Pages d6color6es, tachetdes ou piqu6es

Pages detached/
Pages d6tach6es

Showthrough/
Transparence

Quality of print varies/
Quality indgale de I'impression

Includes supplementary material/
Comprend du matdriel suppldmentaire

Only edition available/
Seule Edition disponible

Pages wholly or partially obscured by errata
slips, tissues, etc., have been ref limed to
ensure the best possible image/
Les pages totalement ou partiellement
obscurcies par un feuillet d'errata, une pelure,
etc., ont §t§ film6es & nouveau de fa9on d
obtenir la meilleure image possible.

Additional comments:/
Commentaires suppl6mentaires;

This item is filmed at the reduction ratio checked below/

Ce document est film* au taux de reduction Indiqu6 ci-dessous.

10X 14X 18X 22X

12X

16X

20X

26X

aox

24X

28X

32X

lils

difier

jne

lage

The copy filmed here has been reproduced thanks
to the generosity of:

Library of Congress
Photoduplication Service

The images appearing here are the best quality
possible considering the condition and legibility
of the original copy and in keeping with the
filming contract specifications.

Original copies in printed paper covers are filmed
beginning with the front cover and ending on
the last page with a printed or illustrated impres-
sion, or the back cover when appropriate. All
other original copies are filmed beginning on the
first page with a printed or illustrated impres-
sion, and ending on the last page with a printed
or illustrated impression.

The last recorded frame on each microfiche
shall contain the symbol -^(meaning "CON-
TINUED"), or the symbol V (meaning "END"),
whichever applies.

Maps, plates, charts, etc., may be filmed at
different reduction ratios. Those too large to be
entirely included in one exposure are filmed
beginning in the upper left hand corner, left to
right and top to bottom, as many frames as
required. The following diagrams illustrate the
method:

L'exemplaire film* f ut reproduit grAce d la
gAnArositA de:

Library of Congress
Photoduplication Service

Las images sulvantas ont 6t6 reproduites avec le
plus grand soin, compte tenu de la condition et
de la nettotA de rexemplaire filmd, et en
conformity avec les conditions du contrat de
filmage.

Les exemplaires originaux dont la couverture en
papier est imprimAe sont film^s en commen^ant
par le premier plat et en terminant soit par la
dernlAre page qui comporte une empreinte
d'impression ou d'illustration, soit par le second
plat, salon le cas. Tous les autres exemplaires
originaux sont filmte en commen^ant par la
premiere page qui comporte une empreinte
d'impression ou d'illustration et en terminant par
la dernlAre page qui comporte une telle
empreinte.

Un des symboles suivants apparaftra sur la
derniAre image de cheque microfiche, selon le
cas: le symbole — ► signif ie "A SUIVRE ", le
symboSe V signifie "FIN".

Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent dtre
filmte A des taux de reduction diffdrents.
Lorsque le document est trop grand pour dtre
reproduit en un seul cliche, 11 est film6 d partir
de Tangle supArieur gauche, de gauche d droite,
et de haut en bas, en prenant le nombre
d'images nAcessaire. Les diagrammes suivants
illustrent la m^thode.

rrata
to

peiure,
nd

32X

*mn tt n» m mi»mfimimt tm

J*aS>Hyiw mvfi>it-^^iiiti<>ft*irW'/iir'imMaos

Belief in God the Essential

Condition of National Permanence

and Prosperity

»>>■

f A Sermon

Preached at the Seventy-fourth Annual Meeting of the
Congregational Home Missionary Society, at Detroit, Michigan

June 5th, 1900

r1^, 3 By Rev. Philip S. Moxom, D.D.

jO of Springfield, Mass.

The Congregational Home Missionary Society

1900

l .Mlj ! jM<liiliUM4<ii«ll! i M I

| || II MW » | i |li|i|l<i ''»" >' —- —

.<^

^^^

^■^

V-?

*7 r» ►»< rr «

BELIEF IN GOD THE ESSENTIAL CONDITION OF
NATIONAL PERMANENCE AND PROSPERITY.

" Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people
whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance."

Ps. xxxiii : 13.

The real greatness and glory of a nation lie not in its material
resources. These are elements of strength or weakness, according to
its moral condition. It is as true of a nation as it is of an individual
man that its "life consisteth not in the abundance of the things" it
possesses. Fe/tile acres and mines of gold and silver and copper and
coal and a luxuriant commerce and prosperous industries do not make
a people great. The real strength of a state is men, and only character
makes men.

While ancient Rome had virtue, she u^as both noble and invincible ;
when she lost that, her wealth, her provinces and her legions did not
avail to prevent her downfall. The rock on which Prince Rupert's
cavalry dashed itself to fragments at Marston Moor was the moral
character even more than it was the muskets and pikes of Cromwell's
Ironsides. It was the character of the patriots who fought under the
inspiration of great moral ideas that glorified Lexington and Bunker
Hill. Gettysburg was won not merely by bayonets that could think,
but by bayonets that had conscience.

Battles become crucial experiences in a nation's life when the moral
principles of the nation grow incarnate in armies.

But as the strength of a man is most thoroughly tested by the
steady strain of daily life, so the strength of a nation is tried by the
ordeal of prolonged experience. In the growth of laws and manners
and institutions, in the evolution of social and political forces, and in
the pursuit of dominant aims and ideals, the truth appears that a
nation's right and ability to maintain its existence are determined ulti-
mately by the presence or want in the hearts of the people of a high

moral purpose.

To the thoughtful student of history, there is revealed in the pass-
ing of the centuries the inevitable execution of God's law that the

morally fittest shall survive. That nation is the greatest, the most
tenacious of power and the most permanently influential on the civili-
zation of the world, which has the most virtue, the purest manhood and
womanhood — in a word, the highest character.

Blessed are the people in whom righteousness is regnant ; thus we
may render the Psalmist's judgment: "Blessed is thie nation whose
God is the Lord."

The recognition of this truth, that not material resources, but
moral character, is the basic element of national greatness, will impart
a higher quality to our instinctive patriotism. While we exult in the
richness and splendor of our material possessions, we shall not forget
to inquire, with a seriousness that greatly tempers our exultation,
whether, along with our increase in wealth and territory, we are pre-
serving that vigor of moral life without which the splendor of our
material civilization is but the phosphorescence tliat transparently veils
putrefaction.

There is no graver question of the day than this. There is none
beside this, for it includes all others. It has been said that "peace hath
her victories no less renowned than war." Peace, too, no less than
war, has its perils. There have been nations that came out of the ordeal
of war purified and strengthened which yet could not endure the subtler
but more searching ordeal of prosperous peace.

We are accustomed to speak of our government as having success-
fully passed the period of experiment. But there is always the element
of experiment in human government. Our heaviest trials are still to
come. This modem air is full of sharp solvents, and political, social
and religious faiths and institutions must be gold to resist corrosion.
And always, over all the play of the disintegrating forces of human
conceit and passion and selfishness, is the irresistible movement of "a
power not ourselves which makes for righteousness" — a power that is
set with steadfast, awful, yet beneficent, rigor aginst iniquity. "Right-
eousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people." An
inescapable Nemesis follows hard on the track of a nation in which
morality decays. "History," said Froude, in one of his ablest and most
serious papers, "is a voice forever sounding across the centuries the
laws of right and wrong. Opinions alter, manners change, creeds rise
and fall, but the moral law is written on the tablets of eternity. For
every false word or unrighteous deed, for cruelty and oppression, for
lust or vanity, the price has to be paid at last. * * * Justice and
truth alone endure and live. Injustice and falsehood may be long-
lived, but doomsday comes at last to them, in French revolutions and
other terrible ways."

the most
the civili-
ihood and

; thus we
on whose

irces, but
ill impart
ult in the
lot forget
xultation,
J are pre-
>r of our
;ntly veils

•e is none
•eace hath
less than
the ordeal
he subtler

3f success-
e element
re still to
:al, social
:orrosion.
)f human
ent of "a
er that is
. "Right-
?le." An
in which
and most
turies the
reeds rise
lity. For
ssion, for
istice and
be long-
tions and

The course which an inquiry as to the real stability of our nation
must take, and the importance of such inquiry, are alike determined by
two vitally related propositions.

First. The supremacy of the moral sentiment is the essential
condition of national permanence and prosperity. Second. Belief
in God is necessary to the continued supremacy of the moral sentiment.
These propositions I propose briefly to discuss.

I. The supremacy ok the moral sentiment is the essential

CONDITION OF NATIONAL PERMANENCE AND PROSPERITY.

In all human knowledge and experience there is nothing so august
as righteousness, and there is nothing so persistent as the pressure of
moral obligation.

If history proves anything, it proves this: that the nation which
sets itself against the demands of moral law has undertaken a task as
futile and as fatal as if it should set itself against the momentum of a
falling planet.

In law, in politics, in commerce, in social customs and in educa-
tion, as well as in religion, the moral sentiment — the inward response
of man to moral law — is the sound heart of healthy life and the unfail-
ing spring of vigor .and strength.

I. The supremacy of the moral sentiment is necessary to the ex-
istence and execution of just laws.

The laws of a land reflect the moral sense of the lawmakers. Civil
law is, in large measure, utilitarian. It must be so, for civil law
takes cognizance not of sins but of crimes. But at bottom
all just civil law rests on the demands of moral law. The
specific laws of any age, interpreted by history, are seen
to reflect the generic moral preceptions of that age. The execution
of law, too, is determined by the average moral character of the people
more than it is by their mere intelligence. The working law of a com-
munity is a transcript of the public conscience. Hence it is that some-
times good laws are a "dead letter." What is it that guarantees the
execution of i 'il law? Is it courts and police ? Is it army and navy?
No. Mere seii- merest may facilitate the execution of law, but it is the
moral sense which the law expresses, and to which in turn the law
appeals, that is the chief guaranty of the law's execution. Let the
moral sense of a community be broken down or temporarily weakened
by passion, and civil anarchy follows as inevitably as the fall of a
building follows the undermining of its foundation. Partial and sug-
gestive illustrations of this truth are furnished by such events as the
well-known riots in New York and Pennsylvania and Ohio and
Montana and Illinois. In every center of population there are elements

'•t

i/^

of lawlessness and forces of evil that are ready to s|)ring into action
the moment the moral sense of the community relaxes its vigilance.

2. Political instilntions arc n'isc and beneficent only ivhcn con-
science holds the seat of authority in the hearts of the (>eo(>le.

We are familiar with complaints of corruption in our politics.
Making all possible abatements on account of exaggeration and parti-
sanship, we must admit that the complaints are not groundless. Fraud
and venality in caucus, in convention, and at the polls have brought
the honorable title of "politician" into only too well deserved reproach.
Jobbery in Congress and State Legislatures and municipal councils and
partisanship in courts have made some ugly chapters in our nistory.
From what source do these evils come? From ignorance? In large
part, without doubt. From defects in political method? To a con-
siderable degree. But we must confess that the chief source is in
the mass of the people. The presence of demagogues and spoilsmen in
the councils of the Nation is symptomatic. They would not be there
if the popular conscience were not dull.

There is no justification of the pessimism in which many indulge
with reference to our political lendencies. A reasonable familiarity
with our political history will convince one that the present compares
favorably with the past. But many features of local politics in our
country to-day emphasize the need of more conscience in the discharge
of political duties. The moral sentiment must become more and more
the controlling force in the selection of candidates for office, in voting,
and in the exercise of all political functions. The main evil is im-
morality. We need a revival of political righteousness. Our whole
political system must be freshly ensouled with a vigorous moral senti-
ment, or evils will breed evils until retribution comes with fiery storm
of revolution and carnage to purge away the sins of the people.

3. Commerce is dependent for its security and permanent exten-
sion on the supremacy of the moral sentiment.

The priestly writer of the exile, describing the creation of a co-
herent and disciplined people out of a horde of Hebrew freedmen 'by
Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, undoubtedly commits an anachronism
in ascribing to Moses a law that could have significance only in a set-
tled and commercial nation; but he formulates an ethical principle
which had been taught in the divine school of experience : "Ye shall
do no unrighteousness in judgment, with mete-yard, with weight, or^
with measure. Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just
hin shall ye have."* The prophet Micah and the DcUeronomist de-
nounce deceitful measures, and in Proverbs false weights are spoken
of as "an abomination to the Lord."

ito action
filance.
vhcn coH'

r politics,
and parti-
is. Fraud
e brought
reproach,
uncils and
ir nistory.
In large
lo a con-
Lirce is in
oilsmen in
it be there

ly indulge

familiarity

compares

ics in our

discharge

and more

in voting,

;vil is im-

3ur whole

loral senti-

lery storm

pie.

lent exten-

n of a co-
eedmen 'by
lachronism
y in a set-
1 principle
"Ye shall
weight, or^
and a just
nomist de-
are spoken

It is not more certain that God sets his face against all sin than
it is that immorality in trade invites an<l ultimately insures commercial
disaster. The history of every civilized country abundantly illustrates
the truth that of all evils to trade in the form of natural disaster, such
as drought, eartluiuake, fire, frost, and tempest, not one is so harmful
economically as immorality. Dishonesty and fraud smite business with
paralysis. A financial panic, marked as it always is by a general loosen-
ing of confidence in men and commercial institutions, is the result far
more of immorality than it is of unwisdom or any other cause. The
enormous traffic in fictitious values which is carried on to-day, and
which at bottom is immoral, is as serious a menace to material well-
being as has ever existed in this country. The most harmful disturb-
ances in monetary circles are often directly traceable to this intrusion
of thinly disguised gambling into almost every department of trade.
Legitimate business is grievously harmed by it, and the innocent suflfer
while often the guilty escape.

The vast commerce of our land is built on faith — that is, on
morality. Debts are guaranteed far more by the moral sentiment of
men than by the provisions of law. Dishonest men do evade the pay-
ment of debts, notwithstanding the law ; but business is wounded by
their dishonesty. Let the sense of moral obligation become faint and
relax its grip on human wills over a large area, and the flood tide of
our present commerce will shrink to a feeble rivulet. The banks will
close, save the faro banks. The factories will cease their music of
throbbing engine and whirring spindle. The fleets of the merchant
prince will idly rust at their wharves. Meanwhile the gambler and
the pirate will have the monopoly of trade.

It is the sovereignty of righteousness that keeps industry vigorous,
that protects and distributes wealth, that insures to employer and em-
ployed alike their respective dues, and lifts itself as a secure barrier
against the encroachments of anarchy, rapine, and ruin.

4. The supremacy of the moral sentiment preserves the beneficent
institutions and relatiotis of social life. The sanctity of home, with its
elevating influences and wholesome restraints; the purity and in-
violability of the marriage relation ; the mutual ministries of filial and
fraternal love ; the graces and benefactions of sweet-hearted charity —
all these essential elements of a true social life are maintained by the
conserving power of the moral sentiment.

The home is the fountain-head of the nation's life. Poison that,
and you corrupt all its streams of action. Virtuous homes are the
sources and conservators of public morals. The laws of our country
are made in the nursery, and the influences which most deeply impress

H j i iui'm i "'

tlic mind and heart of the chil<l at last turn the course of empire. The
(loom of that natiou is already writ from whose homes the authority
of moral law is dyitiK out.

All the beneficent institutions of civilized society are likewise the
creation of moral forces. No nation is prosperous that does not care
for its weak and unfortunate members. As savage peoples have no
homes, so they have no charities. Iwen Greece and Rome in their
periods of highest civilization knew little of pity ; while among those
peoples where virtue is at the lowest ebb abundant and wisely directed
benevolence is entirely wanting. Moral weakness breeds universal de-
crepitude. The eleemosynary institutions — the hospitals, asylums, ref-
uges, and homes for the orphans and the aged — which are the orna-
ment and pride of our land, arc the expressions of moral law working
itself out in the thought and feeling of the people. Immorality is
always selfish ; and it is always cruel. Righteousness and mercy like
twin brother and sister, go through the earth hand in hand. Banish
the one, and the other takes her flight. So vice and selfishness are
inseparable.

5. The supremacy of the moral sentiment is essential to a sound
and generous culture.

That education on the broadest scale is necessary to the prosperity
and permanence of a nation will scarcely be questioned in our day.
Human life, if it is to rise and remain above the level of a cunning
bestiality, demands knowledge, discipline, and the symmetrical develop-
ment of all the mental powers. In America, where suffrage is well-
nigh universal and must remain so, where every citizen is a factor in
the government, the necessity of universal education is demonstrated
by the stern logic of facts. Government is no longer the shepherding
of human herds by men whose chief fitness to rule is a superior en-
dowment of craft and strength. The permanence of our political insti-
tutions is conditioned on the culture of the people, whose best thought
those institutions embody and express. But education has its roots in
morality. It is a familiar fact that Christianity is the mother of
schools. The great universities of Europe — Oxford and Cambridge,
in England ; the universities of Paris, Prague, Vienna, Bologna, Leip-
sic, Berlin, and many others on the Continent — were founded by Chris-
tian influences. In America there are few, if any, colleges of impor-
tance that do not owe their existence to the wisdom and energy and
benevolence of Christian men. Need I name Harvard and Yale and
Brown and Princeton and Vassar and Mount Holyoke and Welles-
ley ? The names are legion. These noble schools, and scores of others,
are the peculiar product of Christian faith and purpose.

|)ire. The
autliority

<ewise the
8 not care
s have no
e in their
long those
y directed
iversal de-
lums, ref-
the orna-
V worlting
lorality is
mercy Uke
1. Banish
thness are

a sound

prosperity

1 our day.
a cunning
i[ develop-
je is well-
i factor in
nonstrated
lepherding
perior en-
Itical insti-
st thought
ts roots in
mother of
Cambridge,
gna, Leip-
1 by Chris-

of impor-
nergy and

Yale and
id Welles-
1 of others,

But the connnon schools of our land are the outgrowth, not of a
mere utilitarian, hut of a moral purpose. It is the virtue of a people,
and not its si'ifishness, that buihis the scli(X)lhouse at every crossroad,
and conuuands science and art to contribute their treasures for the
adornment and e(iuipiiient of high school and academy.

Go to those sections of our country where morality Is least, and
you will find that the schooihouse, or the want of it, indicates the
character of the people. Education is a cau.se of strengthening virtue ;
but it is also a result. Destroy the supremacy of conscience, and you
cut up culture by the nxjts.

In a word, all that is greatest and best in the life of nations as
well as men is the organic product of moral ideas and purposes. The
existence and execution of law, the permanence and efficiency of polit-
ical institutions, the health and stability of commerce, the soundness of
social and domestic life, and the breadth and vigor of education are
founded on virtue. All these are essential conditions and elements of
national prosperity and strength, and the supremacy of the moral senti-
ment is the fundamental condition of their existence.

II. Belief in God is neci£ssaky to the continued supremacy
OF the moral sentiment.

This proposition is vigorously disputed by a small but respectable
school of writers on ethics which illumines the present day. Few prac-
tical men, however, without special theories to maintain, who look at
life with serious and unprejudiced eyes, have any doubts at this point.
Theism, broadly conceived, and practical morals stand or fall together.
It is no contradiction of this truth to admit that individual men may
be avowed atheists and yet not be immoral. Many excellent men owe
more to their moral antecedents and environment than they are aware
of, or perhaps are willing to acknowledge. The atheist who points with
consc'ous prid^to his virtuous life in proof of his contention that belief
in God is not essential to virtue forgets that he was born and nurtured
in an atmosphere impregnated with religious faith ; that he is but-
tressed on every side by customs and laws and institutions which are
the efflorescence of faith in God in the hearts of many generations;
and that the very virtue which he boasts is the fruit of truths which
he denies.

But this question is not to be settled by appeal to individual cases.
It demands a broader basis of induction. Religion is but the develop-
ment of man's sense of God. Religion and morality, when religion be-
comes rationalized, are not separable. Lord Selbume jiistly remarked :
"Experience, on the large scale, shows that men who disregard the
religious cannot generally be trusted to pay regard to the moral sense.

i kwUueitiJip. '

A moral sense not believed in can never supply a practical founda-
tion for morality. On the other hand, a moral sense believed in is (in
reality) itself religion — possibly inarticulate, but religion still."

It is not my purpose now to lead you into any philosophical dis-
cussion of the relation which morality sustains to Theism, but to sug-
gest in few words three important lines of argument in proof of the
proposition that belief in God is necessary to the continued supremacy
of the moral sentiment. These are the historical, the metaphysical, and
the practical.

I. The historical argument. History, ancient and inodern, estab-
lishes with infinite detail of illustration the truth that the highest moral-
ity in the mass of men always co-exists with the most vital and intelli-
gent faith in God. The experience of the Hebrew people is an out-
standing example the force of which is not weakened, but rather is
strengthened, by the rewriting of Hebrew history necessitated by the
findings of Biblical criticism. The decline of religion in republican
Rome was the beginning of the frightful immorality and the deprava-
tion of social life in the Rome of the emperors. The coming of Chris-
tianity into the world brought a new influx of righteousness bec:.i!se it
was a new awakening of belief in a moral Governor of the world.

I quote again from Lord Selburne : "Morality has not flourished,
amongst either civilized or uncivilized men, when religious belief has
been generally lost or utterly debased. Not to dwell upon the case
of savage races, the modern Hindoos and Chinese have long been civil-
ized, but are certainly not moral; nor can anything worse be con-
ceived than the morality of the Greeks and Romans at the height of
their civilization. * * * After their intellectual cultivation had
taken its tone from the irreligious or agnostic materialism of Epi-
curus, the Romans became what is described in the first chapter of the
Epistle of the Romans."

If we consider particular nations of modern times, or particular
periods in the life of any single nation, we find that the morality of
the people steadily corresponds to the strength and intelligence of their
belief in God.

Archbishop Tillotson said : "If God were not a necessary Being
of Himself, He might almost seem to be made for the use and benefit
of men." Voltaire, who was born in the year in which Tillotson died,
said: "Si Dieti n'existait pas, it faudrait I'inventer." ("If God did
not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him.") A profound truth is
suggested in these words. It has always been true of man that, as
Emerson put it, "himself from God he could not free."

itiMdtmsmiriimummismimit^-

tttiJm

I •

I founda-
in is (in
11."

ihical dis-
xt to sug-
lof of the
upremacy
isical, and

;rn, estab-
est moral-
nd intelli-
is an out-

rather is
:ed by the
republican
; deprava-

of Chris-
bec:^i:se it
vorld.

flourished,
belief has
1 the case
been civil-
ie be con-
height of
nation had
m of Epi-
pter of the

particular
norality of
ice of their

sary Being
and benefit
otson died,
[f God did
ind truth is
an that, as

. V,

The great characters who securely command the homage of the
world were formed under the influence and inspired by the energy of
a religious faith. The men who signed the Declaration of Independ-
ence and framed the Constitution of the infant Republic were what
they were in strength and loftiness of moral purpose because of their
belief in a personal, sovereign Deity. The communities in which God
was recognized and worshipped by the mass of the people were, and
always have been, the communities in which property was safest, vice
least practised, and the virtues of honor, chastity, and benevolence most
widely exemplified.

2. The victaphysical argument. The moral sense in man is the
witness of a personal God. The moral imperative of conscience, how-
ever authoritative it may be, is not ultimate, for man Is finite. He is
dependent on a will outside and above his individual volition. He finds
in the physical imiverse about him a vast system of laws. To these
laws he is subject long before he recognizes and comprehends them.
He looks within himself and finds an instinctive sense of moral obliga-
tion. Whence does it come? What does it mean? Psychology is
giving us the details of the process by which it is developed, but does
not go back to its primal spring. The development of the moral sense
is profoundly affected by heredity, by environment, and by training;
but it is not wholly accounted for by these. Man's sense of right is
fundamentally a perception of moral laiv. He discovers that the reign
of law prevails not only in his physical organization and environment
but also in the sphere of his intellectual and voluntary life. His per-
ception of moral obligation is persistent. He may disregard it; he
may deaden and diminish it ; but, apparently, he cannot destroy it and
remain man. Nor can he destroy those moral laws which are the ob-
jects of his perception and change the distinctions of right and wrong.
These distinctions are not factitious or accidental. They are eternal.
They are the very "constitution of things." Civil law he may turn upside
down, but right and wrong are irreversible. Moral law revealed in con-
science is as much a fact as the law of gravitation. But law is meaning-
less among personalities apart from a law-giver. In its last analysis
law is the expression of will. Man is a personality. "Will is the spinal
column of personality." Conscience witnesses of moral law; that is,
of moral will ; that is, of a personality not man, higher than man ;
that is, God. A resolute reason, starting from the moral sense in man,
may climb the giddy height that leads up to a personal Deity.

The moral sense is the very summit and crown of man's nature.
If there is no God, then man is an unfulfilled prophecy, and his very
nature is a lie. Atheism is self-stultification. It paralyzes at last the

whole moral nature. It discrowns and dethrones conscience and leaves
the soul a chaotic empire in which is no king and no law.

3. The practical argument. The experience of life demonstrates
the inability of mankind at large successfully to resist the constant
pressure and frequent sharp onsets of selfishness and passion except as
conscience is reinforced by a recognition of those sanctions of moral
law which are involved in the existence and continuous supervision of
a moral law-giver. The bad man is restrained from the utmost license
and madness of vice, and the good man is sustained under the heaviest
disappointment of moral hopes and the most crushing defeat of moral
purposes, by the conviction which roots itself in belief in God and the
confidence that at last right is might. "Careless seems the great
Avenger," but * * * "behind the dim unknown standeth God
within the shadow, keeping watch above His own."

Carlyle testily said : "Experience is a hard school, but fools will
learn in no other." Experience unequivocally teaches, and because of
almost incorrigible human folly teaches with monotonous reiteration,
the truth that when a people loses its faith in God, vice and wickedness
come in like a flood to overwhelm the executors of law and choke the
springs of pure life. With loss of faith in God comes that numbness
of conscience and blindness of moral perception which is the sure
premonition of disaster — comes that fatal hour where there is

"Not an ear in court or market for the low, foreboding cry

Of those crises, God's stern winnowers, from whose feet earth's chaff

must fly;
Never seems the choice momentous till the judgment has passed by."

Materialistic philosophy has elaborated a theory of ethics which
it offers to the world as an infallible science and guide of conduct.
But materialism is unable to produce a robust and tenacious virtue.
Conscience has lasting power only as it is a spiritual fact, and not a
mere resultant of nerve impressions, and only as the moral law to
which it testifies is believed to have sanctions guaranteed by an om-
nicient and holy God ; and where conscience has no power there is no
real morality.

There is no doubt that much of the vice and crime and
mania for suicide in the present time is the harvest from the sowing
of materialistic teachers a generation ago. The people are uncon-
sciously logical, and push conclusions into practice. The student who,
by his antecedents and condition in life, is established in virtuous habit
thinks out his godless scheme of the world and keeps himself mainly
within the realm of theory. But the multitude that thinks little, and

nd leaves

lonstrates
constant
except as
of moral
•vision of
ist license
; heaviest
of moral
d and the
the great
leth God

fools will
ecause of
siteration,
ickedness
choke the
numbness
the sure

•th's chaff

issed by."

lies which
t conduct,
us virtue,
and not a
al law to
)y an om-
here is no

:rime and
he sowing
re uncon-
ident who,
uous habit
elf mainly
little, and

•

ieels and acts much, when it thoroughly learns the theories of the
atheist is prone to put them in practice. The Encyclopaedists abolished
God and denied immortality, and the mob in Paris washed its hands
in blood and danced the "Carmagnole" in the streets.

Weaken faith in God, and inevitably you weaken the safegfuards
of virtue. Tell the criminal, meditating a deed of violence, that there
is no God, and you help on his murderous purpose. Tell the defaulter
and the thief that there is no all-seeing eye, and you stimulate the
impulse to evil. The demands of practical life are a crucial test of
theories of ethics. One evening D'Alembert and Condorcet were dining
with Voltaire. They proposed to converse on Atheism. Voltaire
stopped them, saying: "Wait till my servants have withdrawn. I do
not wish to have my throat cut to-night." Bluflf Dr. Johnson once
said : "If the infidel does not believe what he teaches, then he is a liar.
If he does believe what he asserts, why, then let us count our spoons!"

Experience demonstrates that belief in God restrains the evil im-
pulses of mankind and promotes virtue and social order. The per-
manence and purity of that belief are necessary to the continued
supremacy of the moral sentiment in the world.

It may be trite, but only because it is true, that if our nation is
to endure and prosper ; if it is to fulfill its high mission and accomplish
the glorious but difficult task which its rapid growth and its peculiar
position among the nations of the earth are pressing upon it ; if it is to
achieve a career commensurate with the promise of its brief but mag-
nificent past, it must be by steady conformity to those moral laws
which condition sound and successful life, by the preservation of a
private and public virtue which no increase of wealth can debauch
and no lust of power can undermine; and this will be only by the
maintenance in the hearts of the people of that faith in Divine Provi-
dence which sustained our fathers in the darkness and pain of the
nation's birth-struggle, which cheered the hearts and nerved the reso-
lution of the men who revived the heroism of the past in the four
years* war for the preservation of the Union, and which through
every perplexing and perilous period in our national life has been the
inspiration to duty and the stimulus to hope of all patriots. While faith
in God survives there will be robust character and invincible strengrth.
While faith survives there will be virtuous statesmen and just laws.
While faith survives we shall securely live in the confidence that "our
helm is given up to a better guidance than our own — the course of
events is quite too strong for any helmsman — and our little wherry is
taken in tow by the ship of the Great Admiral, which knows the way
and has the force to draw men and states and planets to their good."

/ t

1 T

The function of the Home Missionary Society is not to propagate
a sect or build up any narrow ecclesiastical institution, but to carry
the moral forces of Christianity into all the dark places of our land, to
witness for God in every portion of our enlarging territory, and to
moralize and spiritualize the life of the nation, that it may stand
strong among the nations of the earth with the strength that time does
not waste, and that it may fulfill its sublime ideal of "America enlight-
ening the world."

We draw near the close of the century. Let us pray with our
American poet-prophet —

"Our Father's God, from out whose hand
The centuries fall like grains of sand,
We meet to-day, united, free,
And loyal to our land and Thee,
To thank Thee for the era done,
And trust Thee for the opening one!

"O make Thou us, through centuries long,
In peace secure, in justice strong;
Around our gift of freedom draw
The safeguards of Thy righteous law;
And, cast in some diviner mold,
Let the new cvcle shame the old!"

■ > V

' "\