the mist falls, and obscures the glass, and
the ship is surrounded with white darkness, and the surf is thundering
on some Nantucket, as a graveyard of the sea, the captain longs for a
cold, sharp wind out of the North, to cut the fog and bring out the
stars and sun. And not otherwise was it with the great debate between
Lincoln and Douglas--it lifted the veil from men's eyes, it swept the
fog out of the air, it made the issue clear. Then it was that for the
first time the North saw that the conflict was inevitable, because the
Union could not endure permanently, half slave and half free; saw that
liberty and slavery were as irreconcilable as day and night.

Before considering the influence of Lincoln's clear thinking and
speaking upon the eternal principles of right, we must note the general
reawakening of the popular intelligence which preceded it, and which was
due to two causes, the panic of 1857 and the religious revival which
swept over the land during the same year. As the Northern merchant
began to see that the South had determined to secede and try her fate
alone, he became afraid to sell his goods to Southern customers. The
Northern manufacturer, in turn, was overstocked, and if the banker
called his loans there was no response, for the chain was broken; the
result was the panic of 1857. Hunger and Want stalked through the
land--Winter and Poverty became bosom friends. Black despair fell upon
the people and in the hour of need they cried unto God, and God heard
them.

When a nation prospers and grows rich, religion languishes. When nations
enter upon disaster and peril, the people turn unto God. Abundance
enervates. Morals always sink to a low level when men's eyes stand out
with fatness.

What agitation, what the liberator and the lecture platform, what
statesmen and compromisers could not achieve, was accomplished by the
spirit of God working upon the hearts of men, clarifying the intellect,
deepening the sympathy and lending vigour to the will.

The first thing the leader of an orchestra does is to see to it that the
instruments are all unified and brought up to concert pitch, and the
revival of religion made the people one in self-sacrifice and their
willingness to live and die for their convictions.

Multitudes returned to the churches. Thoughtless youth discovered that
there are only two great things in the universe--God and the soul.
Personal religion became the supreme interest of the hour. Men w