The text that Morse employed for the occasion directly echoed a sentiment in the President’s proclamation, and besides was well suited to the purpose in view. From the Hebrew Psalms he selected the following passage: “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?”—Psalm xi:3. With this text he proposed to make an effective appeal. The Psalm from which it was taken was composed by David while he was in great peril and distress from the persecuting hand of Saul; while, too, he was hard pressed to find a way of escape out of the destructive snares set by his enemies, whose _secret_ machinations involved both his character and his life, and not only this, but the _foundations_ of his country.[767] What word would better fit the circumstances of the present hour? Have not the enemies of David, of Christ his Antitype, and of the Church ... ever possessed similar _dispositions_, ... had in view similar _designs_, and in like circumstances, ... adopted and pursued the same means of gratifying the _former_, and of accomplishing the _latter_?”[768] Might it not be said that “the present situation is uncommonly critical and perilous?” Do not all persons of reflection agree upon that judgment, even though their opinions regarding the sources and degrees of the dangers may vary greatly?[769]
The “foundations” alluded to in the text were, of course, the foundations of religion and government.[770] This exegesis paved the way for the following statement:
With all the frankness and plainness becoming an honest and faithful watchman, I intend, my brethren, to lay before you what I humbly conceive to be our real and most alarming dangers; those which have a malign aspect, both on our religious and our political welfare. Believing, as I firmly do, that the foundations of all our _most precious interests_ are formidably assailed, and that the subtil and secret assailants are increasing in number, and are multiplying, varying, and arranging their means of attack, it would be criminal in me to be silent. I am compelled to sound the alarm, and I will do it, so far as God shall enable me, with fidelity.[771]
Having thus prepared the minds of his auditors for the portentous revelation, Morse quickly descended to particulars.