Let the ungodliness of this land increase--and it will increase if we neglect the manifestation of godliness in opposition to it--and what then? There will be the culmination of national sin, and there will be the enactments of Parliament against the law of God, as on a former memorable occasion in France; let it come to that, and let a crisis arise; and though your statesmen should be the most sagacious, and have all the ability which has ever distinguished the foremost men of the Government of this land; let your Parliament be intelligent and patriotic; let your sons be as brave on flood or field as their fathers; let your commerce be ever so flourishing, your arts ever so perfect, your literature ever so exalted--none of these things would save the nation--none of these things would be an effectual shield against calamity; and upon the wreck of this grand old realm--wrecked by its ungodliness, made rotten at its base by sin--upon the wreck of this nation which, had it been godly, would have borne the shock of all the earth, and dashed it back like foam--on the wreck of Britain shall be written, "The nation, the kingdom, that will not serve thee shall perish." That inscription has been often written upon empires as magnificent, as powerful, and as illustrious as this. What, then, is our duty? What have we to do with this? We who are gathered together in this chapel may say, can we arrest the course of the nation? Can we turn back the floods of ungodliness? Can we go out and produce an influence that may avert these calamities? I do not say that you alone can do this; but I do say, that you are bound to contribute your utmost to the check of these evils, with as perfect a heart, and with as earnest a purpose, and as free a will, as though your hand could dash back the evil and rescue the nation from its danger.