THANKSGIVING SERMON. 13 prowess, and she saw the “little one become a thousand, and the smallone a strong nation.” Napoleon once said that “he had found that Providence always favored the strongest battalions.” Yet he did not find it so in the Russian campaign. He could contend with serried hosts, but he could not contend with the elements. He could contend with men; but, be the numbers and discipline of his army what they might, he could not contend with storms, and pestilence, and God Almighty. This is the lesson which the brave and the mighty are slow to learn. At his bidding who works and none shall let it, and out of whose hand none can deliver—even without the aid of second causes, the foreseeing may become blind, the reflecting and considerate may become precipitate and rash, the brave and the mighty may become panic-struck, may mistake friend for foe, and flee from the field when there are none to pursue them. This generous flame may not always burn in the hour of alarm. This contempt of danger may veil its intrepid front amid blood and carnage. I have no such confidence in the prowess of the mighty as to be persuaded that, by many an unthought-of incident, the God of heaven
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