with principalities and powers, and spiritual wickedness in high places,
for the safety of our souls, surely we may contend with flesh and blood,
with rebels and traitors, to save this glorious inheritance from the gulf
of anarchy and the bonds of a lasting servitude. _War is terrible_, but
slavery and plunder and the silent gangrene of national dishonor, bribery
and perverted conscience are worse. The burst of a thunder cloud may break
down a forest of lofty pines, but the slow delving of the mole may
undermine a thousand habitations. The secret corrosions of the ship-worm
will sink a fleet.

This deep-working, inward ruin is appearing on the face of society. The
stupendous fact is, that from Baltimore, onward throughout the disaffected
States, the population is under the guidance of mad leaders, and exposed
to mob power. Thousands of good citizens are flying to us for protection;
thousands more forced into the war against the country, and other
thousands sighing and praying in secret that God will give success to our
arms and rescue themselves and their families from ruin. For these, as
well as for our liberties and honors are we summoned to war; it were a
crime to be inactive. The Bible is militant. Christianity is a warfare
with sin. Life is militant,--a perpetual fight with death. If our
blessings are worth praying for and praising for, they are worth
_fighting_ for, and if not to be otherwise secured, _must be fought for_.

I want this country to live! I want my children to grow up under its
shield! I want to see constitutional liberty mount above the obstacles of
ages, and rise higher and higher here, I want Italy to look toward us now
with hope! I cannot bear to hear the cry of shame that will come over the
Atlantic from the vineyards of France, from the glaciers of Switzerland,
and from the steppes of Russia, if we permit the walls of our blood-bought
inheritance to be broken down. For the sake of God, liberty, religion, all