The National Preacher, Vol. 2. No. 6., Nov. 1827 | Page 6

and profane! How many haunts of poverty and
wretchedness would be searched out! How many souls, once in
communion with the saints, would be brought back from their
wanderings! How many children, rescued from vice, would be brought

to the Sabbath school; and there, perhaps, be taught of God to become
themselves angels of mercy! How many meetings for prayer and
exhortation would every week be sustained among the poor and the
wretched! How many of these degraded immortals might be rescued
from temporal and eternal darkness, to become lights in the world, and
stars in the kingdom of our Father's glory! What field then offers so
rich and large an harvest to faithful labour? The same exertion, that
would instruct hundreds in the country, may reach thousands in the city.
Public sentiment has too long checked the movements of sympathy for
these congregated thousands. A voice, almost unbroken, has sounded
out; 'Peculiar and insuperable difficulties prevent a general revival in
cities: such are the occupations, such the habits, such the temptations,
and such the superabounding iniquity, that it were visionary to hope for
any general and powerful work of mercy.' Well, then, had we not better
give all up; and let human nature here sink into its natural channels;
and let multitudes before our eyes continue to crowd the gates of the
second death! O God, forbid such cowardice, cruelty, and treachery in
thy servants! No; we will not thus surrender immortals. While there is
grace or even nature in our hearts, we will not. We have, indeed, heard
of difficulties, till the heart is pained, and the soul is wearied. But
where are these insuperable difficulties to be found? Not in the
Scriptures of God, surely; not in the result of apostolic labours; but in
the unbelief and inaction of modern Christians. "God is no more hostile
to cities than to villages: his Spirit is as free, and his offers of salvation
as full, to the people of the crowded city, as of the open country." Let
the advantages then be embraced. Let the power be concentrated. Let
the sacramental host arise; and the work is done. And instead of being
overwhelmed with shame and deserved reproach, we may joyfully say
to such as pass by; "Walk about Zion, and go round about her: tell the
towers thereof; mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces; that ye
may tell it to the generation following. For this God is our God for ever
and ever." "Then the sons also of them that afflicted Zion shall come
bending unto her; and all they that despised her shall bow themselves
down at the soles of her feet; and they shall call her the City of the
Lord--the Zion of the Holy One of Israel."
VI. _A sixth reason for special efforts in behalf of Cities is, the

influence which they exert on the country and on the world._
Look to any nation, whether ancient or modern; throw the map before
you; fix your eye upon the spots that bear rule; that command the
attention of the enterprising, and busy the thoughts of statesmen. You
have fixed it upon the cities of the world. Where was the strength of
Italy, if not in Rome, once mistress of the world? Where the strength of
Greece, if not in Athens, the mother of arts and refinement? And where
is the strength of our Republic, if not in our cities and large towns?
There talent in every art and profession is fostered, and exerts peculiar
influence. There wealth concentrates its millions upon millions, to exert
extensively a blasting or brightening influence on society. There the
press daily sends out its thousands and its tens of thousands of winged
messengers, to excite the passions, to influence the opinions, to control
the energies of a nation. Powerful as is this engine, for corrupting or
sanctifying the people, who does not know that its munitions and
magazines of strength are placed principally in cities; and that the
character which the press there sustains is diffused throughout the land?
In cities, commerce is concentrated. The products of the soil flow from
every county, town, and village, to the cities; and thence they are
distributed to the world. The riches, the luxuries, the products of other
climes and nations are brought to cities, and thence distributed through
the land. How manifest then, that cities must exert a mighty influence
on the country and on the world. Who, that reflects on their extended
intercourse, does not know, that they regulate the prices of
commodities; that their fashions are imitated; that their maxims of trade
are common law; and that their moral habits and opinions, good or bad,
have an influence on the whole community? Their influence is great,
whether we consider them