Let us now approach the Almighty with no vain attempt to conceal our hearts from Him, or to delude ourselves and our fellow men. Let us earnestly look at our public dangers, that we may learn their source; and pray for light upon our path of duty. God helps only those who try to help themselves. He governs humanity by immutable laws which the prayers of a world cannot change. Let this call from the chief citizen of the Republic to national consecration persuade us all to study the divine law of American civilization; the extent of our departure from it; the obligation to obey it more faithfully in the days to come. The present state of our country is not the result of any accidental or temporary cause. No radical statesmen or victorious party or company of professional agitators, has power to involve the Republic in such disturbance. These causes, so passionately and plausibly assigned, are themselves unimportant effects of the one chief cause. The Republic is now in a tumult because the progressive civilization of the nineteenth century has finally vanquished the combined forces resisting its advent; deprived its chief opponent, the slave power, of the command in national affairs; and prepared to administer the government of the United States forever in the interest of Christian society. The past always dies hard, its struggles for a lease of life are the present agitation in American affairs. Let us briefly overlook the progress of this mighty conflict; the present state of the battle; the obligation of freemen in the crisis now upon us.