God lifted the British nation
up to become the chiefest nation of the world; the United
States of North America became more Lutheran than Great
Britain, and the eyes of the world are fixed on us in
admiration and astonishment. God blessed the house of
Obededom, and all that he had, because the ark of God was
in it.

But there are spots on the sun, and there are exceeding
blemishes in our Protestantism, notwithstanding the fact
that the glory of the American people has grown out of it.
The image that Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream had feet
and toes, part of iron and part of potter's clay, partly
strong and partly broken. So it is with our Protestant
sectarianism, and because of it we are partly strong and
partly broken. Compare the Protestant United States with
Catholic Mexico, or compare Protestant Great Britain with
Catholic Spain, and compared with these nations we have
the strength of iron, but judged by our sectarianism we
have the weakness of miry clay.

My friends and fellow citizens, I have the honor to
represent to you a people that have said we will go back
to that order of things originally established by Jesus
and the apostles--we will make no vow of loyalty to any
but Jesus, and we will have no bond of union save the
testimonies and commandments of the Lord as given to us by
the Lord himself and the holy apostles. Out of this we
hope may grow such a union of God's people as Jesus prayed
for when he prayed that all Christians might be one. We
are striving for such an order of things that Protestants
may present a united front against the world, the flesh
and the devil, and against all disloyalty to Jesus.

To this appeal men often make reply: "We can not break
loose from our religious surroundings, dear to us through
life-long and most tender associations." But, my friends,
this objection can have no weight with this audience,
assembled here on this glorious Lord's day, and on this
our first religious meeting. Here we have already broken
loose from these associations. These ties, how dear so
ever to us, we have already sundered. The people with whom
we once met, and with whom we once took sweet counsel, the
churches in which we once worshiped, shall know us no more
forever. Here we are free to act, and to correct the
mistakes that have been unwittingly made by the churches
with which we have formerly been connected, just as our
American fathers were free to frame a better government
than the gove