No nation, more especially if il be repub-
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No nation, more especially if il be repub-
lie can long enjoy prosperity and happiness
unless they who have the conferring Of offices
resolutely and religiously make virtuous
life prerequisite to the attainment ofGevery
honorable and elevated station. If men Of
vicious habits-men who have lived long in
the practice Of things forbidden and condem-
ned by the holy religion Of Jesus--can be
exalted to the highest and most desirable
places in the government, and that, too, by the
sufragcs Of protesting Christians, what in
centives have ambitious and aspiring young
men to cultivate and cherish the principles Of
virtue? If the religious community, when
they have an opportunity, pay no more
respect to virtue than to vice, what hope can
they entertain for future generations But
how infinitely more deplorable is it when
vice is preferred and erdlted by them
What can they expect TO the nation from
righteous and holy God II were the con-
summation Of fimpiety and presumption, hav-
ing thus merited the chastisement Of Heaven,
to expect blessing.
The path Of virtue is too rugged and thorny
to be steadfastly pursued by any whose souls
are not imbned with the spirit of pure and
undefled religion, unless reward commen-
surate with the exertion await them at the
end. He who, from love to God and man,
looks beyond this life for his reward, needs
not such incentive; but the young man, to
whom this present being seems everything,
requires an earthly prize to cheer him on
his rugged way-a light to save him from
devious paths. Let it once be understood
that the most honourable and dignifed sta
tons may be-ebtained without self-denial,
without morality, without single sacrifice
at the shrine Of virtue; and, from that mo-
ment, the moral power, the glory Of the ma
ton, is no more; Willie, on the other hand
| if it be irrevocably determined that these
things are prizes for them only who run the
race of virtue with success, that nation will
stand the galaxy Of a benighted world
So long as the Israelites were satisfied
with that republican government which
Jehovah organized. for them, they were
prosperous and happy; but ne -oc-- 10
they cease to respect that pie ge ue
which always adorned their r,l i5sf ag
must have king, selected W. es9.
to those qualifications which f.oa.e., Irau
approved; and then began those troubles and
disasters which only ceased with their de-
struction as nation, and their slavery and
dispersion.


When the republics of Greece and Rome
made it practice to exalt men Of immoral
habits to those places in the government
which had formerly been the reward Of pie
ty and virtue, such as Aristides and Cato pos
sessed, how soon their glory departed, their
independence vanished, and their nationality
disappeared


Let the people of the United States think
of those nations, and tremble and profit by
their example