Excerpt from National Godliness: Sermon, Preached in Park Street Church, on Occasion of the Annual State Fast, April 7, 1864I might ask you who hear me now, to say frankly whether the statement of this want does not sound vague and mystical, whether it suggests to you any definite idea of deficiencies to be lamented and benefits to be sought, whether it does not seem remote, impractical, possibly absurd.We began our national life with God - but since that devout beginning we have drifted away from him. With him our fathers embarked in their frail little ¿eet on the shore of the Old World, with him they sailed over the wintry sea, with him they framed their first charter of government, in the cabin of the May¿ower. (how full of God was that compact then and there subscribed! It begins: In the name of God, Amen. And then after giving their earthly king his titles, it goes on to say: having undertaken, for the glory of God and advancement of the Christian faith, -this voyage, &c., , -we do, by these presents, solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together unto a civil body With him they landed and builded in the wilderness the rising walls of a Christian State. Their legislation, their public instruments, their civil conventions, their State machinery, were all full of him. They were themselves godly men and women, they walked with God not alone in secret or before the altar of the home, but in their courts and statute books and town regulations, every where beneath human eyes and the all-beholding sun, they talked with God - they talked of him - not flippantly, and rhetorically, but reverently and practically as though there were nothing so real, so practical, so near, or with which they had so much to do as this unseen God. There were two invisible powers more solidly substantial to them than any thing which their eyes looked upon or their hands handled - God and the Devil. They believed in both. The supernatural was awfully vivid to them. Or rather their system of nature included the Infinite Creator and Governor, and the great malign one. There were two sides only in human character and conduct - God's side and the side of that spirit of all evil, rival of God and enemy of man. They were on God's side, and ready to fight the Devil at all points and in every shape, whether as Pope or Prelate, Infidel or Indian, W'itch or Quaker.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.