Such, however, is the present power of the adversary in cities, that no ordinary effort will dispossess him.  Still it must be done.  The triumph of the cross, the salvation of the world can never be perfected without it.  I know there are difficulties;—­that cities do congregate vast assemblies of active depravity;—­that they present multiplied enchantments to ruin;—­that in every city wickedness displays a stern and lofty front.  But I also know, that before the coming Spirit of God these obstacles shall melt away like wax, and vanish like smoke; “for strong is his hand and high is his right hand.”

It was when revivals prevailed in cities, that the gospel spread with such amazing rapidity:  and so, when the Spirit shall again descend upon them, will the work of reformation move forward with such power and grandeur, as shall make manifest that God is in Zion; “that the chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels;” and that “the Lord is among them, as in Sinai, in the holy place.”  Let all, then, who love Zion, seek for the reviving influences of the Spirit upon cities.  While every hand is faithful in the discharge of duty, let every heart be impressed with the sentiment, Not by might, nor by power, but by my SPIRIT, saith the Lord of hosts; and let every eye be directed to Him who hath promised, that when iniquity cometh in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard.

In urging the importance of special effort and prayer for the renovation of cities, we do not overlook the interests of the country; but would thus guard every town and village from an influence heavily impregnated with moral poison and death.  The merchants of the interior, in the prosecution of their business, regularly visit the metropolis.  Many of them, on the enticement of friends and acquaintance, attend the theatres, and other places of vain amusement and sin; they become familiar with their glare and dissipation.  They return, and tell what their eyes have seen, and what their ears have heard, and thus create in the bosom of the young, the ardent, the rich, and the worldly, a thirst for similar pastimes, and a disrelish for sober realities.  Many faithful pastors in the land weep over the growing immoralities occasioned by the influence of cities.  Many churches lament the defection of their members, having become worldly in their spirit, and vain in their imaginations, by reason of their frequent intercourse with cities.  If such, then, is their influence upon the country, well may the churches, planted throughout the land, feel deeply interested in the moral character of cities, and pray for their conversion to God.

Let our cities become places of holiness:  let holiness to the Lord be written upon the heart of every merchant, of every mechanic, of every statesman, of every counsellor, of every officer, upon every hall of legislation, and every splendid edifice; and an influence sweet, holy, and happy, shall go forth to revive the hearts of God’s people, to awe and confound opposers, and to dress up the wilderness “like the garden of God.”