It seems to be assumed in all quarters that the times are out of joint; that sin and folly prevail in high places and low; that the very foundations of social order are in danger of being destroyed. The opinion finds constant expression through the pulpit and the press, in our seats of justice and in our halls of legislation. With the increase of light and knowledge, which has marked the progress of the century, there has come an equal augmentation of all the forces and appliances of evil. It would seem that while the good are getting better, the bad are getting worse at each successive stage of the world's advancement, and if this be the law of its progress, it is difficult to see, on principles of human calculation, what the end will be. We are left, however, in no uncertainty as to the final results, for we know that God is on the throne, and he has assured us in his Word that the good shall at last triumph. It cannot be denied that there is, in all parts of our land, and in all ranks of society, an unusual prevalence of luxury and extravagance, violence and corruption, vice and crime, threatening the very existence of our free institutions. At such a spectacle many of our oldest and wisest men are filled with astonishment and misgiving as to the future. What these things mean and what they portend, are problems which call for the thoughtful and prayerful consideration of all true patriots and Christians. In a state of things like this there can be no higher duty of the citizen or of the churchman, in this Centennial year, than to bring all his powers and all his influence to the removal of prevailing evils and the restoration of our country to its pristine integrity. It is not much that one individual can do; but little or much, every one should feel bound to contribute what he can; and all good men together may be strong enough under God to save us from ruin. To us it seems perfectly plain, that the fearful domestic, social and public evils of the times have grown out of a departure from the essential truths of God's Word, and the obvious requirement of God's ordinances, on the part of the individual, the family, and the nation. There has been a growing disregard of all the old established principles of religion and morality, and with it a relaxation of the demands of conscience197 a connivance with sin and folly, a yielding toleration of error, a tacit conformity to the maxims of worldly wisdom, and an open or secret indulgence in a thousand practices condemned by the Word of God. All this has come in large measure from the prevailing skepticism, materialism, and atheism of the age. A whole generation has sprung up under this teaching, and we are beginning already to reap its harvests. Our people have drifted away from all the old land marks. Under the popular watchword of progress, a good thing abused, they have been trying the experiment of countless innovations. They have gone after other gods, unknown to the fathers of our church, and the founders of our republic. There has been a gradual, but now very wide departure, from the great principles of virtue and integrity, of individual character and of public honor, on which our republican institutions were founded, and by which they were maintained through all our earlier history. It is the fashion now, in certain quarters, to decry the great principles of the German and Swiss Reformers, the French Huguenots, the English Puritans, the Scotch Covenanters, and the New England Pilgrims. But it is one of the best established facts in history, and one of the grandest, that these are the very principles on which the American church and the American State were founded—the distinctive principles on which their young and vigorous life was nourished up to greatness, which have given character to us as a people, and made the nation respected and honored in the eyes of mankind. For the first fifty years of our history there was comparatively little departure from the maxims of our fathers. The affairs of the nation were administered on the same principles of economy, frugality, honesty, public spirit, and patriotism, which had distinguished the career of all our early statesmen and patriots. But the last half century, especially the last quarter, with its influx of population, its accumulation of wealth, its lust of power, and its unparalleled splendor, has brought a woeful declension of moral character. Many among us have become so paganized and demoralized that they seem to be ashamed of our nation's religious origin and Christian character. They stand ready to wage war against some of the most cherished institutions of our fathers. They clamor for the abrogation of our Sabbath laws, and the exclusion of the Bible from our noble and hitherto successful system of public education. The church itself, in many of its branches, has caught the prevailing spirit of worldliness, and, instead of rebuking the sins of the times, has been willing to join in the idolatry of wealth and fashion. We might almost take up the lamentation of the prophet over the desolation of Jerusalem, and say, “Judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off; for truth is fallen in the street and equity cannot enter.”—Interior.