l as in individuals, and it is our duty to do what we can to abate
or cure them. But there is a right and a wrong way of going about the
business, and if we would avoid doing mischief while we are trying to do
good, we must proceed with care.

Reformers must learn to wait as well as to work. You cannot make
churches, or states, or even individuals, all that you would like them
to be, in a moment. You cannot make yourselves what you would like to be
as quickly as you would wish. If you are like a man that I know, you
will find the improvement of your own habits, and tempers, and manners,
a task for life. And if the change for the better is so slow in
yourselves, whom you have in your hands continually, and with whom you
can take what liberties you please, what can you expect it to be in
others? It is the law of God that things shall pass from bad to good,
and from better to best, by slow and almost imperceptible gradations.

All the great and beneficent operations of Nature are silent and slow.
Nothing starts suddenly into being; nothing arrives instantly at
perfection; nothing falls instantly into decay. The germination of the
seed, the growth of the plant, the swelling of the bud, the opening of
the flower, the ripening of the fruit, are all the results of slow and
silent operations. Still slower is the growth of the majestic forest.
And the trees of greatest worth, which supply us with our choicest and
most durable timber, have the slowest growth of all. And so it is with
things that live and move. Their growth is silent as the grave. And man,
the highest of created beings, advances to maturity most tardily of all.
Our development is so gradual, that the changes we undergo from day to
day are imperceptible. And the development of our minds is as gradual as
the growth of our bodies. We gather our knowledge a thought, a fact, a
lesson at a time. We form our character, a line, a trace, a touch a day.

Society is subject to the same law. Churches and nations are collections
of individuals, each changing slowly, and must therefore themselves
change more slowly still. You cannot force the growth of a single plant
or animal at pleasure; still less can you force at will the advancement
or improvement of society. You may change a nation's laws and
institutions suddenly, but the change will be of no service, so long as
the minds of the people remain unchanged.

All the great beneficent changes of Nature are gradual. How slowl