Page:The future of Africa.djvu/164

from decay and ruin. The whole process is detailed by St. Paul, in his epistle to the Romans—"Because that when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fouls, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things." And when they took birds, and beasts, and creeping things as their deities, God brought them down to the level of beasts and creeping things! and laid Nineveh, and Babylon, and Egypt, low in the dust! And where, I ask, on the face of the earth, can you find a nation that worships birds, and beasts, and creeping things, that is great, powerful, and free? Where? Not one! A people are always as high as their idea of God. If their idea of God is a reptile or a worm, they must grovel, they cannot rise; they cannot be great; no commerce, laws, nationality, art, or manhood can proceed from such a people. The ideas of God and religion rule the human being; and if, in a nation, those ideas are low, then the heads and souls of that people are bowed down, and know no elevation. But, on the other hand, the true idea of God magnifies a nation's mind, and leads to development in every mode and direction: for it lifts up man to every thing great and noble; and so enlarges his soul that the depths of the earth are not deep enough for his penetrating gaze; and the boundless seas not grand and majestic enough for his swelling thought; nor the illimitable spheres above vast and