As God can send a nation or people no greater blessing than to give them faithful, sincere and upright ministers, so the greatest curse that God can possibly send upon a people in this world is to give them over to blind, unregenerate, carnal, lukewarm and unskilled guides.
Roman matrons used to say to their sons: 'Come back with your shield or on it. ' Later on, this custom declined. So did Rome. . . (but not before it created an Empire that changed the world -EM).