Doctor Guthrie, on a different and subsequent occasion, eloquently
expressed what was at this juncture so generally felt:--"When men die,
corruption commonly begins after death, but when nations die, it always
begins before it. And as in that man's gangrened extremities, and
swollen feet, and slow circulation, I see the heralds of death
approaching,--in these godless masses, sunk in ignorance, lost to the
profession of religion, and even to the decent habits of civilised
society, I see the most alarming signs of a nation's danger, unless
remedies are promptly applied, the unmistakeable forerunners of a
nation's death. Unless early, active, adequate measures are employed
to arrest the progress of our social maladies, there remains for this
mighty empire no fate but the grave--that grave which has closed over
all that have gone before it. Where are the Assyrian and Egyptian
monarchies? Where is the Macedonian empire? Where the world-wide power
of Rome? Egypt lies entombed amid the dust of her catacombs. Assyria is
buried beneath the mounds of Nineveh. Rome lives only in the pages of
history, survives but in the memory of her greatness, and the majestic
ruins of the 'Eternal City.' Shall our fate resemble theirs? Shall it
go to prove that Providence has extended the same law of mortality to
nations that lies on men--that they also should struggle through the
dangers of a precarious infancy; grow up into the beauty, and burn with
the ardour, of youth; arrive at the vigour of perfect manhood; and then,
slowly sinking, pass through the blindness and decay of old age, until
they drop into the tomb? Under God, it depends upon ourselves whether
that shall or shall not be our fate. Matters are not so far gone but it
may yet be averted. A great French general, who reached the battle-field
at sundown, found that the troops of his country had been worsted in
the fight; unskilful arrangements had neutralised Gallic bravery, and
offered the enemy advantages they were not slow to seize. He accosted
the unfortunate commander; having rapidly learned how matters stood,
he pulled out his watch, turned his eye on the sinking sun, and said,
'There's time yet to gain the victory.' He rallied the broken ranks; he
placed himself at their head, and launching them with the arm of a giant
in war, upon the columns of the foe, he plucked the prize from their
hands--won the day. There is no time to lose. To her case, perhaps, may
be applied the words,