Fight the Good Fight

My brethren, against the whole dreadful power of evil, it is onr vocation to be engaged in the war. It were in vain to wish to escape from the condition of our place in the universe of God. Amidst the darkness that veils from us the state of that vast empire, we would willingly be persuaded that this our world may be the only region, excepting that of penal justice, where the cause of evil is permitted to maintain a contest. Here, perhaps, may be almost its last encampment, where its prolonged power of hostility may be suffered, in order to give a protracted display of the manner of its destruction. Here our lot is cast, on a ground so awfully pre-occupied; a calamitous distinction, but yet a sublime one, if thus we may render to the Eternal King a service in which better tribes of his creatures may not share; and if thus we may be trained, through devotion and conformity to the Celestial Chief, in this warfare, to the final attainment of what he has promised, in so many illustrious forms, to him that overcometh. We shall soon leave the region where so much is in rebellion against our God. We shall go where all that pass from our world must present themselves as from battle, or be denied to mingle in the eternal joys and triumphs of the conquerors.—John Foster