The cures for political evils are not political but moral. Political remedies will but modify the symptoms. Political evils are really due to moral causes, and can only be removed by moral reformations. Hence, while good men will never neglect their political duties (no good man will neglect any duty), they will be especially in earnest to uplift the nation morally, and therefore will do their utmost to strengthen those agencies which have this for their aim--the church, the school, and those societies which exist for the diffusion of the Scriptures and of religious liberty. Wherever the Bible becomes the book of the people, oppression by "children" becomes impossible, and the government of "women" is set aside. BLIND LEADERS. iii. 12. _O my people, they which lead thee[1] cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths._ This is at once a lament and a condemnation--a lament over the misfortunes of those who are misguided, a condemnation of their folly and wickedness in permitting themselves to be led astray. +I. Men need to be led.+ 1. _This is our need as individuals._ Every day we need an answer to the questions, What ought I to do? Which way should I go? In the journey of life, we continually come to crossings at which we are conscious of our need of guidance. 2. _Guidance is still more necessary for men collectively._ What shall be the belief of a community? What its action? Like the apostolic band (John xxi. 2, 3) communities remain idle, undecided, until the born leader says, "I go a-fishing," and instantly they say to him, "We also go with thee." Men are naturally gregarious; like a flock of sheep they crowd and inconvenience each other, not knowing which way to turn, until one bolder than the rest breaks away from the flock, and then instantly the flock begins to follow him. +II. As a rule men are misled.+ Boldness and wisdom do not always go together. Not seldom the courage which prompts men to become the leaders of others, and which goes so far to command the assent of others, is a compound of self-conceit and ignorance. Men are always prone to trust in the self-confident: they will believe the boastful quack rather than the diffident philosopher. Hence in all ages men have been caused to err--the blind have been led by the blind. How true this is to-day in political matters, in social, in commercial, in religious! [Give instances.] On every hand, in all these realms of thought and action, there are those who can only rightly be described as leaders who cause the people to err. Yes, all men carry within them two leaders, in whom they are disposed implicitly to trust, but by whom in the majority of instances they are misled--reason and conscience. How absolute is the confidence placed in these guides, and how seldom it is justified! +III. To be misled is one of the most terrible of evils.+ 1. It involves the loss of all the good to which right leadership would have conducted men. 2.