I do not cite the rapid decline of modern civilized society, in a political or social view, in the most favored sections of Christendom; I do not sing dirges over republican institutions; I would not croak Jeremiads over the changes and developments of mankind.  I simply speak of the marvellous similarity which the spread and triumph of Mohammedanism seem to bear to the spread and triumph of what is corrupt and wicked in all institutions and religions since the fall of man.  Everywhere it is the frivolous, the corrupt, the false, which seem to be most prevalent and most popular.  Do men love truth, or readily accept it, when it conflicts with passions and interests?  Is any truth popular which is arrayed against the pride of reason?  When has pure moral truth ever been fashionable?  When have its advocates not been reviled, slandered, misrepresented, and persecuted, if it has interfered with the domination of prevailing interests?  The lower the scale of pleasures the more eagerly are they sought by the great mass of the people, even in Christian communities.  You can best make colleges thrive by turning them into schools of technology, with a view of advancing utilitarian and material interests.  You cannot make a newspaper flourish unless you fill it with pictures and scandals, or make it a vehicle of advertisements,—­which are not frivolous or corrupt, it is true, but which have to do with merely material interests.  Your libraries would never be visited, if you took away their trash.  Your Sabbath-school books would not be read, unless you made them an insult to the human understanding.  Your salons would be deserted, if you entertained your guests with instructive conversation.  There would be no fashionable gatherings, if it were not to display dresses and diamonds.  Your pulpits would be unoccupied, if you sought the profoundest men to fill them.

Everything, even in Christian communities, shows that vanities and follies and falsehoods are the most sought, and that nothing is more discouraging than appeals to high intelligence or virtue, even in art.  This is the uniform history of the race, everywhere and in all ages.  Is it darkness or light which the world loves?  I never read, and I never heard, of a great man with a great message to deliver, who would not have sunk under disappointment or chagrin but for his faith.  Everywhere do you see the fascination of error, so that it almost seems to be as vital as truth itself.  When and where have not lies and sophistries and hypocrisies reigned?  I appeal to history.  I appeal to the observation and experience of every thoughtful and candid mind.  You cannot get around this truth.  It blazes and it burns like the fires of Sinai.  Men left to themselves will more and more retrograde in virtue.