dation can no man lay, than that is laid,"
for the building up of all that is really excellent and heavenly.

But, while we acknowledge the omnipotence of true religion for the
ratification of all social wrongs, we are not to rest in the
inculcation of its abstract principles and outward forms alone. It is
not enough that we ourselves become, or persuade our fellow-men to
become professed disciples of Jesus; not enough that, in a general
way, we urge the precepts of the gospel. The obtuseness of the human
heart, when hardened by habit and early education, requires that we
make particular application of the precepts of Christ, and address our
efforts to the removal of specific sins: the sins of our own age and
country. It may be that our brother, sincerely intending to act in the
spirit of Jesus, is yet blinded by the force of habit, and fails to
see the sin in which he is living. If our position make us to see more
clearly than he the course he should pursue, let us endeavor gently to
remove the veil from his eyes, remembering how often our own vision is
dimmed by prejudice and outward circumstances. In the moral, as well
as in the natural world, we believe that God demands our active
cooeperation; and, as the farmer not only sows the seed, but roots out
the weeds from among the grain, so are we to endeavor to eradicate
from the broad field of the moral world those evil practices which
obstruct the growth of the harvest of pure and undefiled religion.

"The husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath
long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain." So
are we obliged often to have "long patience," until we see the
manifest blessing of God on our labors. But patient waiting becomes a
virtue, only when combined with the exercise of our best powers in
promoting the object of our desire. We must adapt our efforts to the
express object which we seek to attain. Taking those spiritual weapons
which are "mighty for the pulling down of the strongholds" of sin, let
us assault the great evils of slavery and oppression of every name and
kind, always marching under the banners of the Prince of Peace, whose
conquests are achieved not by violence, but by the subduing power of
Godlike love. Let us go forth, brethren, sisters, a feeble band though
we may seem to the eye of man, yet strong in the assurance that the
hosts of heaven are encamped round about us, and that "more are they
that are with us