, that _when iniquity cometh in like a flood, the
Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard_.

In urging the importance of special effort and prayer for the renovation
of cities, we do not overlook the interests of the country; but would
thus guard every town and village from an influence heavily impregnated
with moral poison and death. The merchants of the interior, in the
prosecution of their business, regularly visit the metropolis. Many of
them, on the enticement of friends and acquaintance, attend the
theatres, and other places of vain amusement and sin; they become
familiar with their glare and dissipation. They return, and tell what
their eyes have seen, and what their ears have heard, and thus create in
the bosom of the young, the ardent, the rich, and the worldly, a thirst
for similar pastimes, and a disrelish for sober realities. Many faithful
pastors in the land weep over the growing immoralities occasioned by the
influence of cities. Many churches lament the defection of their
members, having become worldly in their spirit, and vain in their
imaginations, by reason of their frequent intercourse with cities. If
such, then, is their influence upon the country, well may the churches,
planted throughout the land, feel deeply interested in the moral
character of cities, and pray for their conversion to God.

Let our cities become places of holiness: let holiness to the Lord be
written upon the heart of every merchant, of every mechanic, of every
statesman, of every counsellor, of every officer, upon every hall of
legislation, and every splendid edifice; and an influence sweet, holy,
and happy, shall go forth to revive the hearts of God's people, to awe
and confound opposers, and to dress up the wilderness "like the garden
of God."

O, what a scene of grandeur and glory, when the thousands of the saints
shall wrestle in the spirit of Jacob for the blessing: when they shall
rise up in the spirit of their Master, and display an untiring zeal for
the salvation of man! O, what a scene, when the immense crowds of
immortal beings, who throng our streets, shall be deeply impressed with
the conviction of their accountability!--When every man shall feel that
he is acting continually under the eye of God, and in full prospect of
the judgment. Let these scenes be realized, and already I see "the holy
city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as
a bride adorned for her husband." And I hear "a g