nd, the vision of a consecrated land ruled by a
covenanted king.[22] In England it existed once, in the Puritan days,
when, as Richard Baxter says, England was like to become a land of
saints, a pattern of holiness to the world, and the unmatchable
paradise of the earth. You had it in America once: when your fathers
landed in the _Mayflower_, they were seeking not merely meat and
drink, or even wealth and plenty, but a home in which their
descendants might grow up in freedom, virtue and religion. We must get
that ideal back again, if, in spite of railroads and industrial armies
and wealth beyond the dreams of avarice, we are not to become corrupt
and ready to be swept away with the besom of destruction. We might
train every man on whom our message lays hold to live with the
conviction that it is his duty, before he dies, to do something to
make his own town more beautiful, his country happier, and the world
better.

As I am addressing some who may before long be wielding a great
influence, let me add one suggestion. In matters such as I have been
speaking of to-day success comes to the man who has a programme. Now
is the time, when you are looking out on the world with the keen eyes
of youth, to note the abuses which need correction and to picture with
the eye of the imagination the improvements which are required to wipe
out the reproach or to elevate the reputation of your country. Fix the
vision in the centre of your mind; keep it ever before you; and your
dream may change to a reality which will modify the conditions of life
for whole generations of your fellow-men. What could be worthier of
your manhood at its present stage than to be revolving some plan for
the benefit and honour of your country? Even if it should never come
to anything, it will be good that it has been in your heart. But there
is nothing else which is more likely to come to something. "What,"
says Alfred de Vigny, "is a great life? It is a thought conceived in
the fervent mind of youth and executed with the solid force of
manhood."

FOOTNOTES:

[16] Rev. G.A. Smith.

[17] These are Isaiah's images.

[18] For our purpose in these lectures it is of no consequence whether
there were two Isaiahs or only one. We are seeking to ascertain the
leading features of the prophets; and, if we attribute to one person
qualities which were distributed among two, this will matter little, as
long as they are typical qualities of the prophet.

[19] "The ta