SOVEREIGNTY. 43 



to tlio last, (lie snl)j(.'C't-mattcT of tlir lîildo is ilie history 

 of liis kingdom, and it is summed up by Saint Juliii in 

 ilic majestic vision of tlic Apocalypse, in which he he- 

 held the Son of Cod, the Logos of the Father, the ever- 

 lasting Iveason and Kighteousness, coming to set up his 

 empire on the earth, sitting on a Avar-horse, clothed 

 with a vesture dipped in blood, and having on his thigh 

 u name written, Kinrf of Jcuigs and Lord of Jovdt'J^ 



But some one will say, this is theocracy. 



I am not afraid of a name ; and I have already ex- 

 pressed myself on the subject of this one. But since it 

 stirs u}) about our ears such a storm of hate and male- 

 diction, I will return to it. I open the dictionary of the 

 French language, and alongside of it that of the primi- 

 tive language of Western civilization, the Greek. I look 

 in them for this execrated word, and I find the defini- 

 tion, Power of God. Theocracy, then, is Power derived 

 from God and exercised in God's name. This is that 

 very kingdom of God "which I have met from step to 

 step through all my course. In the sovereignty of the 

 idea of Being in tlie world of ideas, in the sovereignty 

 of the moral law in the world of conscience, in the 

 sovereignty of paternal authority in the home, — every- 

 where I have come upon theocracy, llow could I fail 

 to come upon it in political society? How could it be 

 otherwise, here as elsewhere, but that God should have 

 the sole glory of reigning over man, and man the glory 

 of obeying none but God ? 



Yes, theocracyi It is no fault of mine if men under- 

 stand this word in a perverted sense, repugnant at once 

 to etymology and history. It is no fault of ours if we 

 have imputed to us, every day, under this name of the- 

 ocracy, that notion wliich we have openly combated iind 



* Kevclation. xix. IG. 



