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land, with the bond of national unity almost dissolved, and in the total failure of that
living realization of the constant Presence of the Divine "Judge," which, if it had
existed, would have made His "reign" seem the most to be desired, but, when
wanting, made the present state of things appear the most incongruous and
undesirable, their choice seems to us only natural. In so doing, however, they
became openly unfaithful to their calling, and renounced the principle which
underlay their national history. Yet even so, it was but another phase in the
development of this history, another stage in the progress towards that end which
had been viewed and willed from the first.^79
(^)