[Alfred. H. Guernsey], ‘Providence in American History’, Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, 17 (1858), pp. 694–700.

Providence in american history. – Human society is a wonderful testimony to the omnipotence and the omnipresence of God. Happily for the American mind the sentiment of an overruling Providence is reverently cherished. If it depended exclusively on them, or if it leaned upon them in such a way as to banish the thought of God except as a refuge in the hour of darkness and danger, then it would idolize itself and its machinery, forget its homage to Providence, and war against the order of the universe. Hitherto the idea of Providence over the Church had ruled their thoughts and feelings; but now a broader field, illuminated by a Divine light, is unfolded. A national Church is one thing, a national Religion is quite another thing; and in nothing are they more unlike than in their capacity to awaken the sense of Providence in the breast of a people.