ereafter. On this the Lord has clearly spoken: "At what instant I
shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up,
and to pull down, and to destroy it: If that nation against whom I have
pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I
thought to do unto them. And at what instant I shall speak concerning a
nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it: If it do
evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the
good, wherewith I said I would benefit them." Thus it is that nations
are in the hands of God as clay in the hands of the potter. Only,
therefore, when they purge themselves from ungodly legislation, will
they become "vessels unto honor, sanctified and meet for the Master's
use."

The voice of God, then, must be heard and heeded in our nation, and if
the people rule, and the nation prosper, the voice of God must become
the voice of the people. _In this sense, and this only, are any people
capable of self-government._ To this end we need more extended culture,
and that of a higher order. Our politics must be purified by our
religion, and our religion must be a religion of the spirit, not of the
flesh. We need more religion in our politics, and less politics in our
religion. The history of other nations fully confirms the language of
Goethe: "All epochs," says he, "in which faith prevailed have been the
most heart-stirring and fruitful, both as regards contemporaries and
posterity; whereas, on the other hand, all epochs in which unbelief
obtains its miserable triumphs, even when they boast of some apparent
brilliancy, are not less surely doomed to speedy oblivion." Liberty is
the twin sister of Faith. In the language of Seneca: "To obey God is
freedom. A nation that desires to be free must believe, and a nation
that will not believe must be in servitude; only despotism can dispense
with faith, but not liberty."

History clearly proves that national prosperity depends on an
appreciation of the intimate relation existing between culture and
Christianity. Of this relation Christlieb truly speaks: "No one,
indeed," says he, "will wish to deny that in our modern culture there
is much that is false, egotistic, and selfish; much that is misleading
and exaggerated, and consequently opposed to true culture. Against
these untrue elements of culture, Christianity will and must always
take the field; it must not oppose progress, although it is at all
t