vows; and you no more cati silence the influence of Christianity in tiie acts or 

 doings of an intelligent manhood than you can wash a robe without wetting it. 



America, then having been discovered by Christian thought, and since the 

 J/«2/./?o?re/'' 6- voyagers were Christians, and in quest of that lib:rty which they 

 had derived from the Scriptures; and the founders of the Republic, in the person 

 of Franklin, amid the earliest sessions of the fi'st Congress moved that divine 

 guidance be sought in its deliberations; I claim that America is nominally a 

 Christian nation; and to-day she is indebted to Christianity and only to Chris- 

 tianity for the moral force that pervades her institutions, and which has given 

 to her. her power, progress and all her present glory. What would have been 

 the history of thi- loved land had it been given up to minds unfriendly to the 

 teachings of revelation, or had those royal principles which run as a scarlet 

 thread through the New Testament, been set aside, ignored — who will 

 answer ? Follow unbelief to its logical conclusions, and not only would you 

 challenge the authority of revelation, but you would have no heaveidy charter 

 for our noble liberties, and no God; and, therefore, no superintending mind 

 from which the nations of the world could receive their proper development. 

 The Bible has done more to give good government to mankind than all the 

 genius, statesmanship and diplomacy thp world has ever known. 



In remarking upon the theme which has just been announced, it siiould be 

 said as preliminary to the same: That government as government is ordained of 

 Go(; ; the power and the authority are derived from Him, but the form which 

 that power may assume is human. Under the hand of a skillful artificer, gold 

 may readily be converted into coin, or a thimble for some lily finger: but the 

 metal itself is from the creating hand of God. In like manner with civil power; 

 the form is man's, but the authority itself, the material, is of heaven. What- 

 ever, also, may be the form of government under which one lives, if it be in 

 harmony with the revealed truth of heavei:, obedience to it is a necessity; and 

 to war against it is to war aginst the divine truth; and with all this, every indi- 

 vidual has certain i-elations to the State which are no less ordained than is the 

 State itself. 



As much light will naturally be throwni on the subject before us from a proper 

 conception of the State, let us then at once ask ourselves, what is the State ? 

 We cover this plain enquiry when we say that some look upon the State as pro- 

 ceeding directly from the family; others regard it as based upon a compact, 

 while others again view it as having its beginning in force. Such are the more 

 general notions which have been held by persons of every nationality when they 

 would endeavor to account for this well-known organization. Which, however, 

 is the correct conception, or, are they all wrong ? Whatever be our answer, this 

 manifestlv is certain; if we allow ourselves to be influenced by the Bible the 

 State is not always to exist; as there was a time when it was not. so a time shall 

 come when it shall not be. Revelation is most eloquent in its announcement 

 that the future shall witness among men what it calls the " Kingdom of God," 

 and when that period arrives the State is no longei-. The State spans, so to say, 

 simply an interim in history, and that interim which lies between its birth and 

 the coming of the " Kingdom of Heaven." In fact, the birth of this promised 

 kingdom means the death of the State, and toward this finality the State is 

 tending. 



Now when we hear men speaking of the State as primarily proceeding from 

 the family, rememberi'.g the mode in which a family is constituted, how the 

 younger or weaker powder is often transfei-red to the stronger and older, there 

 does seetn to be some ground for such a conviction. Still mere parallelism is 

 not argument any more than sound is substance. We can predict like results 

 from similar conditions, but not like results in different spheres, though thire 

 be a similarity of forces in those spfieres, and the State and family ai'e different 

 spheres — totally so. In brief, the one — the family — is the sphere of affec- 

 tion; the State, that of justice. In the family, also, confidence, loving submis- 

 sion and willing ol)edience prevail: whereas, in the State, obedience is compul- 

 sory, ami compulsory both by law and force. 'I'ake justice in its broadest sense, 

 and what does the family know of it: and, on the contrary, what does the State 

 know of the warm breath of kindness which forms the soul of family life? 

 There must alwavs be affectioji. heart, kindliness; and there must alwavs be 



