in to be seen, even if they
consisted in nothing more than the division and consequent weakening of
Christian effort. The church of God, torn by internal dissensions,
becomes almost powerless for the spread of the gospel, the greater
portion of its strength and energy being exhausted in bolstering up its
different branches as against each other, and in proselytizing within
itself. Where, if united, a small portion of its wealth and energy would
suffice to support in a nourishing condition the worship of a great
people, leaving an immense surplus to be directed to the evangelization
of the heathen world, now, in its divided state, its power and immense
material resources are squandered in the support of innumerable
fragments, each one of which costs as much in labor and in means as
would suffice to sustain the religion of the whole country if united.

Worse than even this, the incessant bickerings of the Christian world
tend to invalidate, in the minds of the unbelievers, not only among the
heathen, but among ourselves, the teachings of that Word which is its
professed guide. The 'See how these Christians hate each other!' is to
reflecting minds outside the church's pale, an almost unconquerable
argument against that religion which professes to be founded upon love.
Hence arises a great portion of that practical infidelity of which we
have spoken, and which is the bane of our civilization. No nation can be
truly great or noble or progressive without religion, and by as much as
we are departing, in our every-day life, from the pure teachings of the
gospel, by so much are we tending to our inevitable downfall. The people
must have some high standard of moral excellence, something to elevate
and purify the tone of society, to lead their aspirations upward away
from the petty toils and cares and vexations, from the sordid desires
and the animal propensities of life, in order to prevent them from
falling into that decay which is inevitably the result of corruption,
following hard upon a devotion to mere self-interest. We are, in a great
measure, a nation of materialists, too much devoted to the pursuit of
selfish and so-called practical aims, too little to the spiritual and
the ethereal. Reform must come, else the soul will become gross and
grovelling, and the nobler part of our natures, the more delicate and
refined sympathies of the heart, the finer faculties of the intellect,
will rust away with disuse, and the whole race b