zor that is hired." With one
sharp sweep He went across Judea and down went its pride and its
power. In 1861 God shaved our nation. We had allowed to grow Sabbath
desecration, and oppression, and blasphemy, and fraud, and impurity,
and all sorts of turpitude. The South had its sins, and the North its
sins, and the East its sins, and the West its sins. We had been warned
again and again, and we did not heed. At length the sword of war cut
from the St. Lawrence to the Gulf, and from Atlantic seaboard to
Pacific seaboard. The pride of the land, not the cowards, but the
heroes, on both sides went down. And that which we took for the sword
of war was the Lord's razor.

In 1862, again, it went across the land. In 1863 again. In 1864 again.
Then the sharp instrument was incased and put away. Never in the
history of the ages was any land more thoroughly shaved than during
those four years of civil combat; and, my brethren, if we do not quit
some of our individual sins, national sins, the Lord will again take
us in hand. He has other razors within reach besides war: epidemics,
droughts, deluges, plagues--grasshopper and locust; or our
overtowering success may so far excite the jealousy of other lands
that, under some pretext, the great nations of Europe and Asia may
combine to put us down. This nation, so easily approached on north
and south and from both oceans, might have on hand at once more
hostilities than were ever arrayed against any power.

We have recently been told by skillful engineers that all our
fortresses around New York harbor could not keep the shells from being
hurled from the sea into the heart of these great cities. Insulated
China, the wealthiest of all nations, as will be realized when her
resources are developed, will have adopted all the modes of modern
warfare, and at the Golden Gate may be discussing whether Americans
must go. If the combined jealousies of Europe and Asia should come
upon us, we should have more work on hand than would be pleasant. I
hope no such combination against us will ever be formed, but I want to
show that, as Assyria was the hired razor against Judea, and Cyrus the
hired razor against Babylon, and the Huns the hired razor against the
Goths, there are now many razors that the Lord could hire if, because
of our national sins, He should undertake to shave us. In 1870,
Germany was the razor with which the Lord shaved France. England is
the razor with which very shortly the Lord wi