say, 'See the fruits of having the great God of heaven and earth for
your protector and your guide,--see the fruits of having men round
you, not hirelings, keeping in your company just to see what they
can get by it, but born in your own house, who love and trust you,
whom you can love and trust,--see how the favour of God, and
reverence for those family ties and duties which He has appointed,
make you and your little band of faithful men superior to these
great mobs of selfish, godless, unjust robbers,--see how hundreds of
these slaves ran away before one man, who feels that he is a member
of a family, and has a just cause for fighting, and that God and his
brethren are with him.'

Here, you see, was another hint to Abraham of what it was and who it
was that made a great nation.

And now some of you may say, 'This is a strange sermon. You have as
yet said nothing of Christ, nothing of the Holy Spirit, nothing of
grace, redemption, sanctification. What kind of sermon is this?'

My friends, do not be too sure that I have not been preaching Christ
to you, and Christ's Spirit to you, and Christ's redemption too,
most truly in this sermon, although I have mentioned none of them by
name. There are times for ornamenting the house, there are times
for repairing the wall, there are times, too, for thoroughly
examining the foundation, because, if that be not sound, it is
little matter what fine work is built up upon it; and there are
times when, as David says, the foundations of the earth are out of
course, when men have forgotten sadly the very first principles of
society and religion.