thus far bowed down before stocks, stones, insects, crocodiles, golden
calves,--graven images, often of cunning workmanship, wrought with
Phidian skill, of ivory, of ebony, of marble, but all false gods. Let
them worship in future the true God, our Father, as He is in heaven and
in the beneficent labors of His children on earth. Then farewell to the
siren song of a worldly ambition! Farewell to the vain desire of mere
literary success or oratorical display! Farewell to the distempered
longings for office! Farewell to the dismal, blood-red phantom of
martial renown! Fame and glory may then continue, as in times past, the
reflection of public opinion; but of an opinion sure and steadfast,
without change or fickleness, enlightened by those two sons of Christian
truth,--love to God and love to man. From the serene illumination of
these duties all the forms of selfishness shall retreat like evil spirits
at the dawn of day. Then shall the happiness of the poor and lowly and
the education of the ignorant have uncounted friends. The cause of those
who are in prison shall find fresh voices; the majesty of peace other
vindicators; the sufferings of the slave new and gushing floods of
sympathy. Then, at last, shall the brotherhood of man stand confessed;
ever filling the souls of all with a more generous life; ever prompting
to deeds of beneficence; conquering the heathen prejudices of country,
color, and race; guiding the judgment of the historian; animating the
verse of the poet and the eloquence of the orator; ennobling human
thought and conduct; and inspiring those good works by which alone we may
attain to the heights of true glory. Good works! Such even now is the
heavenly ladder on which angels are ascending and descending, while weary
humanity, on pillows of storfe, slumbers heavily at its feet."

We know how easy it is to sneer at such anticipations of a better future
as baseless and visionary. The shrewd but narrow-eyed man of the world
laughs at the suggestion that there car: be any stronger motive than