cities shall so absorb
the affections, and command the energies of their inhabitants, that,
throughout the land, they shall be known and celebrated, not for their
wealth, their splendour, their numbers, or their worldly enterprise, but
_as the places where God has fixed his tabernacle_. Yes, the day shall
yet come when the intercourse between cities shall be chiefly for
purposes of religious improvement--when combinations for political
intrigue, or mercantile speculation, which now waken such intensity of
interest in our cities, shall dwindle to their comparative nothingness;
and when the world's redemption shall assume its proper magnitude; and
all be stimulated to more holy devotedness, and more heavenly effort.
Oh, what a day, when all our increasing facilities of intercourse with
the land, and with foreign nations, shall be used mainly for advancing
that kingdom which consists in righteousness and peace!--when thousands
shall prayerfully wait the arrival of every post, and hail the coming in
of every vessel, for intelligence, not of this world's riches and
glories, but of the glories and victories of Zion.

Such, however, is the present power of the adversary in cities, that no
ordinary effort will dispossess him. Still it must be done. The triumph
of the cross, the salvation of the world can never be perfected without
it. I know there are difficulties;--that cities do congregate vast
assemblies of active depravity;--that they present multiplied
enchantments to ruin;--that in every city wickedness displays a stern
and lofty front. But I also know, that before the coming Spirit of God
these obstacles shall melt away like wax, and vanish like smoke; "for
strong is his hand and high is his right hand."

It was when revivals prevailed in cities, that the gospel spread with
such amazing rapidity: and so, when the Spirit shall again descend upon
them, will the work of reformation move forward with such power and
grandeur, as shall make manifest that God is in Zion; "that the chariots
of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels;" and that "the
Lord is among them, as in Sinai, in the holy place." Let all, then, who
love Zion, seek for the reviving influences of the Spirit upon cities.
While every hand is faithful in the discharge of duty, let every heart
be impressed with the sentiment, _Not by might, nor by power, but by my_
SPIRIT, _saith the Lord of hosts_; and let every eye be directed to Him
who hath promised