when the corn and wine and oil, the silver and the gold, have become the main object of worship—that which men or nations do above all things desire—sham work of all kinds, and short cuts, by what we call financing and the like will be the means by which they will attempt to gain them.

when that state comes, men who love their country will welcome danish invasions, civil wars, potato diseases, cotton famines, fenian agitations, whatever calamity may be needed to awake the higher life again, and bid the nation arise and live.

that such visitations do come at such times as a matter of fact is as clear as that in certain states of the atmosphere we have thunder-storms. the thunder-storm comes with perfect certainty, and as a part of a natural and fixed order. we are all agreed upon that now. we all believe, i suppose, that there is an order—that there are laws which govern the physical world, asserting[85] themselves as much in storm and earthquake as in the succession of night and day, of seed-time and harvest. we who are christians believe that order and those laws to proceed from god, to be expressions of his will. do we not also believe that men are under a divine order as much as natural things? that there is a law of righteousness founded on the will of god, as sure and abiding as the law of gravitation? that this law of righteousness, this divine order, under which human beings are living on this earth, must and does assert and vindicate itself through and by the acts and lives of men, as surely as the divine order in nature asserts itself through the agency of the invisible power in earth and sea and air?

surely christianity, whatever else it teaches, at any rate assures us of this. and when we have made this faith our own, when we believe it, and not merely believe that we believe it, we have in our hand the clue to all human history. mysteries in abundance will always remain. we may not be able to trace the workings of the law of righteousness in the confusions and bewilderments of our own day, or through the darkness and mist which shrouds so much of the life of other times and other races. but we know that it is there, and that it has its ground in a righteous will, which was the same a thousand years ago as it is to-day, which every man and nation can get to know; and just in so far as they know[86] and obey which, will they be founding families, institutions, states, which will abide.

if we want to test this truth in the most practical manner, we have only to take any question which has troubled, or is troubling, statesmen and rulers, and nations, in our own day. the slavery question is among the greatest of these. in the divine order, that institution was not recognized, there was no place at all set apart for it; on the contrary, he on whose will that order rests had said that he came to break every yoke. and so slavery would give our kindred in america no rest, just as it would give england no rest in the first thirty years of the century. the nation, desiring to go on living its life, making money, subduing a continent,

“pitching new states as old-world men pitch tents,”

tried every plan for getting rid of the “irrepressible negro” question, except the only one recognized in the divine order—that of making him free. the ablest and most moderate men, the websters and clays, thought and spoke and worked to keep it on its legs. missouri compromises were agreed to, “mason and dixon’s lines” laid down, joint committees of both houses—at last even a “crisis committee,” as it was called—invented plan after plan to get it finally out of the way by any means except the only one which the eternal law, the law of righteousness, prescribed. but[87] he whose will must be done on earth was no party to missouri compromises, and mason and dixon’s line was not laid down on his map of north america. and there never were wanting men who could recognize his will, and denounce every compromise, every endeavor to set it aside, or escape from it, as a “covenant with death and hell.” despised and persecuted men—garrisons and john browns—were raised up to fight this battle, with tongue and pen and life’s blood, the weak things of this world to confound the mighty; men who could look bravely in the face the whole power and strength of their nation in the faith of the old prophet: “associate yourselves and ye shall be broken in pieces; gather yourselves together and ye shall come to nought, for god is with us.” and at last the thunder-storm broke, and when it cleared away the law of righteousness had asserted itself once again, and the nation was delivered.

and so it has been, and is, and will be to the end of time with all nations. we have all our “irrepressible” questions of one kind or another, more or less urgent, rising up again and again to torment and baffle us, refusing to give us any peace until they have been settled in accordance with the law of righteousness, which is the will of god. no clever handling of them will put them to rest. such work will not last. if we have wisdom and faith enough amongst us to ascertain and do that will, we may settle them for ourselves in clear skies.[88] if not, the clouds will gather, the atmosphere grow heavy, and the storm break in due course, and they will be settled for us in ways which we least expect or desire, for it is “the lord’s controversy.”

in due course, perhaps! but what if this due course means lifetimes, centuries? alas! this is indeed the cry which has been going up from the poor earth these thousands of years:

“the priests and the rulers are swift to wrong,

and the mills of god are slow to grind.”

how long, o lord, how long? the precise times and seasons man shall never know on this earth. these the lord has kept in his own power. but courage, my brother! can we not see, the blindest of us, that the mills are working swiftly, at least in our day? this is no age in which shams or untruths, whether old or new, are likely to have a quiet time or a long life of it. in all departments of human affairs—religious, political, social—we are travelling fast, in england and elsewhere, and under the hand and guidance, be sure, of him who made the world, and is able and willing to take care of it. only let us quit ourselves like men, trusting to him to put down whatsoever loveth or maketh a lie, and in his own time to establish the new earth in which shall dwell righteousness.