THANKSGIVING SERMON. J 7 This pomp of riches, this boast of national wealth, what is it ? How vain is it to array the mines of California and the vaults of Wall Street against an all-pervading Providence! Babylon the great was decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls; she glorified herself and lived deliciously; yet her merchant princes wept over her, for in one hour her great riches came to naught. No, we are not entitled to victory because we have the longest purse. There must be another will, another power, and the utterance of another voice. No: “let not the rich man glory in his riches.” If you ask why we may not glory in these things, the answer is easily given. Nations may not be governed by other principles of morality than those which ought to control the individuals who compose them. We have little respect/br the man whose measures and conduct are controlled by the spirit of self-aggrandizement. Deeply rooted as this spirit is in the human heart, and all-pervading as is its influence, it is “ out and out” the spirit of evil. It makes men, and not patriots; it may make cpnquerors, but not heroes; it forms the victims of an ambition which grasps at empire, but hot just men ruling in the fear of God. 3
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTM4ODY=