ist, I cannot but revere it as the true temple of the Divinity.
When I see it as revealed in the great and good of all times, I bless
God for those multiplied and growing proofs of its high destiny. When
I see it bruised, beaten down, stifled by ignorance and vice, by
oppression, injustice, and grinding toil, I weep for it, and feel that
every man should be ready to suffer for its redemption. I do and I
must hope for its progress. But in saying this, I am not blind to its
immediate dangers. I am not sure that dark clouds and desolating
storms are not even now gathering over the world. When we look back on
the mysterious history of the human race, we see that Providence has
made use of fearful revolutions as the means of sweeping away the
abuses of ages, and of bringing forward mankind to their present
improvement. Whether such revolutions may not be in store for our own
times, I know not. The present civilization of the Christian world
presents much to awaken doubt and apprehension. It stands in direct
hostility to the great ideas of Christianity. It is selfish,
mercenary, sensual. Such a civilization cannot, must not, endure for
ever. How it is to be supplanted, I know not. I hope, however, that
it is not doomed, like the old Roman civilization, to be quenched in
blood. I trust that the works of ages are not to be laid low by
violence, rapine, and the all-devouring sword. I trust that the
existing social state contains in its bosom something better than it
has yet unfolded. I trust that a brighter future is to come, not from
the desolation, but from gradual, meliorating changes of the present.
Among the changes to which I look for the salvation of the modern
world, one of the chief is the intellectual and moral elevation of the
laboring class. The impulses which are to reform and quicken society
are probably to come, not from its more conspicuous, but from its
obscurer divisions; and among these I see with joy new wants,
principles, and aspirations beginning to unfold themselves. Let what
is already won give us courage. Let faith in a parental Providence
give us courage; and if we are to be disappointed in the present, let
us never doubt that the great interests of human nature are still
secure under the eye and care of an Almighty Friend.

_Note for the third head_.--Under the third head of the lectures, in
which some of the encouraging circumstances of the times are stated, I
might have spoken of th