bring before you the relation of Christianity to our country:—or, God in a nation; with the moral and spiritual lessons connected therewith.
There are three principles pertaining to this subject, to which I desire to call your attention:
First, that national greatness is always correlative with the ideas of God and religion.
Second, that the true ideas of God and religion, if maintained in purity by a nation, will make that nation immortal.
Thirdly, that the greatness and renown generated by these ideas, depend upon the individual character, spirit, and enterprise of the people.
First. I am to show that national greatness is always correlative with the ideas of God and religion. By this I mean that a nation is great just in proportion to the clearness of its idea of God. If a people think that God is a Spirit, that idea raises, or will raise them among the first of nations. If, on the other hand, they think that God is a stone, or a carved image, or a reptile, they will assuredly be low and rude. A nation that worships stocks, or ugly idols, can never, while maintaining such a style of worship, become a great nation. In ancient times, it is true, there were great nations that were idolatrous, but their infancy was religiously simple; and it was only as they increased in power, dominion, and military renown, that they receded from the simple, natural forms and rites of their fathers; and fashioned, by their gross imaginations, or brought home from their conquests, the hideous idolatries which ruined them.
