THE

Conducted by

B. B. EDWARDS.

BOSTON:

PRINTED BY PERKINS, MARVIN, & CO.

1835.

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This document was scanned from an original copy of the American Education Society’s Quarterly Register, which served as a digest of the diverse facets in American Education and its outflowing effects worldwide. The society was comprised of leading Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth and Princeton Alumni, and served to promote the work both in the U.S. and abroad for educating the people in the Reformation’s worldview of the Bible serving as the only infallible rule of life, which, of course, was the purpose for which these schools were founded.

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[1835] p58

ON THE IMPORTANCE OF A SENSE OF RELIGIOUS OBLIGATION

IN RULERS.

[Communicated by Rev. John W. Chickering, (1826, Middlebury College) Portland, Maine.]

IT is a great truth, and worthy of a place among the few grand principles which lie at the foundation of all wise and just government, that "the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men." This may be understood de jure, or de facto; and in either sense must be believed, not only by those who admit, on the authority of the prophet, that it was spoken by a divine voice, but by all who do not deny the whole theory of an overruling Providence.

If the Most high does in fact rule, that is, regulate, control any events or transactions on earth, it must be those of greatest extent, and most important consequences; and what are they, but the events and transactions which concern states and nations? Or, if the expression be understood simply of Jehovah’s right to rule and to be obeyed, it is equally plain, both to the Christian and to the deist, that since if his character be worthy of divinity, no standard of right is so perfect as his standard. His will ought to be law. That the almighty Ruler retains both a right and an agency in the management of terrestrial governments, is undisputed by all who recognize his right and his agency in any thing. It is the atheist alone who would insulate the kingdoms of the earth from the kingdom of heaven. None would banish Jehovah from the smaller empires his providence has organized and sustained, but those who banish him from the universe his power has created.

Thus atheism in philosophy is sole progenitor of atheism in politics; and it should not excite our surprise, that he who "sees" not "God in clouds nor hears him in the wind,"—who beholds in the great things of the earth, the air and the sea, no footsteps of divine power, and no finger-prints of divine wisdom, should be equally blind concerning the progress of civil affairs, and should so have perverted his mind, and so tortured the moral sense which God gave him, as to believe, and to rejoice, that without God, kingdoms rise and fall, and that it is not "by him" that "kings reign, and princes decree justice."

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But with the atheist, that moral monster, "— horrendum, informe, ingens, cui lumen ademptum," we are not now concerned. We leave him to the darkness he has brought upon himself through his "philosophy and vain deceit," and to the enjoyment, if enjoyment it be, of his dreary cavern, more dreary than that of Polyphemus,—a godless world.

We come to inquire, by way of preparation for the more direct prosecution of the object of this article, concerning the views entertained by the great mass of mankind who believe in the existence and providence of Jehovah, as to his particular connection with the subordinate governments on earth, and the station which it is his holy pleasure to occupy in their control and management. And here we find at once, wide and hurtful mistakes; occupying relatively, such is man’s tendency to extremes, the position of antipodes. Some, overlooking the twofold agency, partly civil, partly ecclesiastical, by which the Most High promotes his own ends and the well being of his creatures, have resolved each into the other, making religion an affair of the state, and civil government a matter for ecclesiastical influence; producing in practice the unseemly compound, commonly called "church and state," but which might be more accurately characterized as the ruin of both.

As the fruits of this mistake, the world has seen profane monarchs invested with titles of religion and piety. In catholic countries, aided by ambition and intrigue, it has brought kings to kiss the feet of the professed ambassadors of Jesus Christ; and gained for them honors and power, which their divine but humble Master declined for himself. This mistake has been confirmed, if it was not originated, by the organization of the great Jewish theocracy. This was, indeed, church and state. But it was under a divine administration.—And although the fact that the Deity not only attested and ratified the alliance, but condescended to be legislator, judge, and executive, might at once have prevented the inference ; yet men have inferred that the civil and ecclesiastical powers ought always to be thus commingled. The consequences might have been anticipated. The history both of Christianity and of the world, is darkened by their melancholy shade. Religion, unguarded by the miraculous intervention of Him who, under a former dispensation, smote the offerers of strange fire, has been corrupted by those who would do her honor, and crushed by the embraces of false friends;—and her splendid sojourn in the halls of power, has been met by reverses not less striking, and far more disastrous, than Moses met after being the protege of royalty; while the civil rights of men, invaded by ambition and avarice, under the name of religion, and with the sanction of God’s name, have been yielded up without a struggle, under the impression that resistance would be "fighting against God." What would not have been demanded in the name of man, has been freely given in the name of God ;—men who in defence of their rights, would have ventured cheerfully upon treason, have shrunk with horror from sacrilege.

Thus religion and liberty have well-nigh perished together, and their present resting-place on earth resembles rather the one found by Noah’s dove on her second flight, than the broad home, illimitable but by the world’s circumference, which as philanthropists we hope, and as Christians we pray, they may soon enjoy.

Others again, warned, perhaps, by the disasters consequent upon the policy last described, have gone to the extreme, not less hurtful, and far more presumptuous, of excluding religious motives and religious principles from all influence in the affairs of the commonwealth. They have thus become quoad hoc, practical atheists. Content indeed, that the Deity should keep our planet in motion, and regulate its seasons and its tides; and surround and cover it with the blessings of Providence, nor careful to forbid him a participation even in the internal concerns of Jupiter, or Herschell,—perhaps even willing to admit in theory, the truth of the statement from the inspired record with which this article commenced,—they yet deem it best for man, considered either as a governing or as a governed being, that the notion of a presiding Deity should be as much as possible excluded from his mind. The mere juxtaposition of the words "religion" and "politics," or any of their correlates, is sufficient to excite the fears of those scrupulous alarmists; and if they do not imitate the

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example of the French, who were seen near the close of the last century, rushing madly with the pendulum—like oscillation of human nature, from the bonds of religious despotism, into the very wilderness of atheism, and denounce Jehovah as a usurper, and his adherents as rebels against "the powers that be," they strive to separate all questions and acts of government from God and his laws, as if there were no God; thus making, if not an atheistic people, an atheistic government. Far otherwise, we cannot but pause here to remark in the fullness of grateful and patriotic hearts, acted the noble men, the sifted wheat of three kingdoms, who were thrown by God’s providence through ecclesiastical tyranny, upon these shores. If they for a time, with a strange tenacity of old habits, which showed that principle, not passion, led them, clung to the very usages respecting toleration, which had exiled them, they at least preserved the nation which they founded, from the character and the curse of a nation which despises God. Heaven grant, that the pendulum may not even now be swinging to the other extreme!

To say that the truth concerning the connection of the divine with human governments lies somewhere between the two wide and ruinous extremes now described, is, we are aware, to say but little by way of defining the truth; and yet, such is the intricacy of the subject, and such the difficulty of assigning exact limits to that which the Supreme Being has left to be measured by every man’s conscience, having first rendered it certain that the conscience unsophisticated, and suffered to act, would measure aright, that further remark upon this point, if it be not needless, may at least be useless.

Enough has already been said, in our simple statement of the two extremes, to shield us from the suspicion which in these times might grow out of the very title of this article, of being in league with that invisible, inaudible, intangible, but terrific and justly odious body of men—the church-and-state party. Such a suspicion might indeed fall innocuous on our heads, as it has on those of wiser and better men, nor would it cause us a moment’s regret, except as a possible means of causing what we write in the soberness of our minds and in the sincerity of our patriotism, to be either unread, or read with a neutralizing prejudice by any of our fellow-citizens, either in public or in private life, into whose hands these pages may fall. It is unnecessary for us to say, after what has already been said, that we are equally and heartily opposed to ecclesiastical domination, and to political atheism. We deprecate with the deist, and more heartily than he, because of our love for Christianity, an alliance of the state with the visible kingdom of Christ; but with equal earnestness do we protest against an alliance, however informal, of the state, with the invisible kingdom of Satan.

While we would have the affairs of the nation managed as if there were no church in the world, we would not have them managed as if there were no God in the world. Could our voices reach the millions of our countrymen, as Joshua’s voice reached the thousands of Israel, we would say as he said, "If the Lord be God, serve him". In a word, while we believe that the civil and ecclesiastical departments ought to be distinct, and that their union is a departure from the intention of Him who formed both, and that it is fraught with the most disastrous consequences to both, we do not believe that the almighty Ruler has excluded himself from the control of either, or given the least permission that either should be managed on any other principles than the eternal principles of right, which are embodied in his character, and laid down in his word.

We have not dwelt thus at length upon the opposite and mournful errors into which men have fallen respecting the place due to religion in the affairs of government, merely to shield ourselves from the suspicion already adverted to; —we trust it is too late for such a suspicion to be cherished against any man or set of men among the Protestant sects of this country, by any who are likely to look over the pages of a quarterly journal. It is the weekly press which still numbers among its readers men who are so weak as to cherish the suspicion; and among its conducters and caterers, men who are wicked enough to nourish it by fitting food, garnished and seasoned with such blasphemy and indecency, as suit it more effectually to the depraved appetite, and vitiated taste, it is designed

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to gratify. Our purpose has been, to find abroad and easily ascertained ground, upon which to base our subsequent remarks respecting the religious obligations of rulers, and the consequent importance of a proper sense of those obligations.

It would be idle to talk of the importance of a sense of obligation, without first having a general idea at least, of the nature and extent of that obligation; and as the obligations of a public officer in his official capacity, to the Supreme Being, are of course the result of, and parallel with, the station which that Being holds with regard to the government in question, it seemed necessary to settle the latter point before discussing the former.

When we speak of a sense of religious obligation, we mean more than a general undefined belief that such an obligation exists. Such a belief is withheld, we trust, by comparatively few who hold important places in our national and State governments. But can it be doubted by any man who has accustomed himself to contemplate the distinction between mere intellectual assent, and the warm, practical conviction which reaches the heart, and controls the conduct, that this belief may coexist with as total an insensibility to the claims of Jehovah, as if it were William IV., or Nicholas of Russia, who preferred them, instead of the Most High God?

Is it too much to desire, nay to infer, as a duty, from what has already been said, that our rulers in the executive, legislative, and judicial departments, both in the general and State governments, should have an abiding consciousness of accountability—should live under a felt pressure of obligation—to the Sovereign of the universe, which should assume, as it must where it exists at all, a practical, binding force? Is it too much to ask, that they should remember that they are the servants of God for good to this great people, and that to their own Master they stand or fall? That they rule by God’s permission, and for his ends; and that a higher tribunal than any on earth awaits the termination of their responsibility to man? That they should remember their obligation, in common with those who elevated them to office, "whatever they do, to do all to the glory of God;" and the solemn truth, that a sin against God or man, whether of omission or of commission, whether committed in private, in the family circle, or in the high places of authority, is no less a sin, when committed by a judge, or a legislator, or a chief magistrate of a State or nation, than by the humblest of his constituents? In a word, do we claim too prominent a place for religious principle in the administration of public affairs, when we avow our desire that the rulers of a people, who are the nominal, and in a free government the real, representatives of the people, should be daily and practically aware, that they are accountable to a higher Power, thus realizing, if not in the highest and most Christian sense, yet in the literal signification, the picture of a good ruler drawn by the prophet, who, in the name of the almighty Ruler, declares, "He that ruleth over men, must be just—ruling in the fear of God~?"

We cannot reflect without occasion for the deepest gratitude, that in contemplating the advantages of such a state of mind and of heart, as possessed by men in authority, we are not confined to a priori reasoning. England has had her Alfred, her Edward VI., and her Matthew Hale; Sweden her Gustavas Adolphus; our own most cherished and beloved country, a Washington, and a Wirt, with many others among the dead, and not a few among the living, to whom our readers may recur as we proceed, both for illustration of our meaning, and proof of our assertions.

Among the effects of this sense of obligation, which go to show its importance to every man in public life, we mention first, its influence in checking the love and pride of power. It will not be said by any man, who has acquired even a smattering of the science of human nature, that the simplicity of our republican institutions excludes all danger from this source. It is the great weakness of man, to desire power; and, having it, to be proud of it; and, in his pride, to abuse it. It matters not whether it be the power of a monarch on his throne, or of the humblest village functionary. If it be power, or even the semblance of power, it charms the eye of the expectant, and, too often, turns the head of the possessor.

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 True, in this land, power walks in humble guise. She rides in no gilded chariot—is clothed with no robes of state—is preceded by no heralds with announcement of noble titles—is decorated with no ribbons and stars. Nor is there an office worth seeking, as a matter of gain, except in some special cases, growing rather out of individual character and circumstances, than from design on the part of legislators. But who will deny, that rank here, as elsewhere throughout the wide world, has its attractions? And who, that has thought upon the subject carefully, doubts that they are as strong, as if it were hereditary? As far as pride of heart in the possessor is concerned, undoubtedly the temptation is even greater. That rank is not hereditary, and is therefore attainable by individual effort, opens a fountain of ambition in a thousand hearts, which, under another Constitution of society, would never have known ambition, but as a strange word, while the fact that it is ordinarily the prize of talent, attaches to it an additional power to tempt and seduce the mind. It need not be said, that so far as this love and pride of power exists, it tends to subvert all the true ends of government.

The moment a man, in whatever public station, loses sight of the people’s good, and sets up his own good as the idol of his wishes, and the end of his efforts, and the subject of his self-gratulation, that moment all is wrong,—and if no disastrous effects should immediately appear, it is either because his influence is too small to do harm, or because he is wise enough to know that he will promote his own good most effectually by promoting the people’s good. The last remark, applied to a total forgetfulness of the true end, and a reckless following of the wrong and selfish end, of all authority, will apply measurably, to every degree of that aberration from the path of justice and patriotism. How many and how sad have been those aberrations, through the false lights and deceptive waymarks of ambition and pride! That the influence of a sense of subordination and accountableness to the Supreme Being, will be direct and strong in checking these tendencies of human nature, is so plain as to command assent without argument. Who can be proud in the perceived presence of infinite splendor and worth? How can ambition thrive under the overshadowing greatness of almighty Power?

It is recorded of Gustavus Adolphus, [ King of Sweden, b. 1594, d. 1632] that being surprised one day by his officers in secret prayer in his tent, he said: "Persons of my rank are answerable to God alone for their actions; —this gives the enemy of mankind a peculiar advantage over us; an advantage which can be resisted only by prayer and reading the Scriptures." This remark, though it does not specify the moral dangers to which the royal worshipper was exposed, has reference, undoubtedly, in part, if not mainly, to that pride and loftiness of heart, which are the unrestrained denizens of those high regions in the social atmosphere, which lie above the common walks of life. Let a man in one of the high places of the earth, be accustomed only to look down, and he is ready like Herod of old, to fancy the flattery, truth, which tells him he is a god ;—let him look up ;—there Jehovah sitteth above the water floods, and remaineth king forever!

With such a constitution of society, and such forms of government as ours, it is true none can folly enter into the feelings of the king of Sweden, expressed above; and yet, by so much as any man is even by an ephemeral popularity, however well or ill founded, raised to an ephemeral elevation above the mass, by so ranch is he in danger of being dizzy, unless his eye is fixed, reverently and obediently, upon his great Master and Lord.

Another important effect of such views of religious obligation, will be seen in restraining the blind and ruinous excess of party feeling. He is a short-sighted politician indeed, who utters a sweeping denunciation of party distinctions. And if they may he harmless, and even in some cases form the very safety of the nation, then party feeling, without which parties could not exist, is, in some of its degrees and developments, right and desirable. But like the lightning of heaven, while it purifies the political atmosphere, how easily and how quickly may it desolate and destroy !—In its healthful action, it is like the gentle breeze, which refreshes man and fertilizes the earth; in its excess, like the tornado, which sweeps away every green thing, and even upturns the foundations of many generations.

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When it is a modification of true-hearted patriotism, seeking the public good by party organizations, it is right and safe ; but when it is the offspring of the wicked selfishness, already described, it is restrained by no bounds, and directed to no good end. In its absorbing current may be swallowed up all those feelings of patriotism, and of honest desire to do right in the sight of God and man, which, as cherished by the rulers, form, under God, the hope of the people. When a public officer, of whatever rank, becomes the servant of a party, instead of being a servant of God, for good to the people, it is not difficult to foresee the consequences. When such a state of things becomes general in a community, the great interests of liberty, religion, and whatever else is dear and precious, may all be sacrificed, a whole burnt offering, upon this horrid altar!

No argument is necessary to show that he who feels himself accountable to God, will be but slightly constrained by the bonds of party influence. So far as he regards the ends of a party as accordant with the true ends of government, which in some cases may be nothing more than the truth, and in others nothing less—his sense of religious obligation will of course not interfere with his diligent prosecution of those ends. But at that critical point, where ends zeal for party, for the sake of the common weal, and begins zeal for party, for the party’s sake, and for ambition’s sake, there a sense of paramount obligation, like the magnetic power, will still the whispers of selfishness, and counteract the tendencies of party commitment. The Christian politician knows no party but the party of patriots, or, if that party be divided, he seeks not the building up of either fragment for its own sake—but the building up on the best and most hopeful, or if need be, on the ruins of both, the great fabric of public welfare. Who does not desire to see a deep sense of allegiance to one who is our Master, pervading the leaders and the adherents of the great political parties, into which it is so common and perhaps necessary, for nations to be divided? —under such an influence, how might excesses be restrained, needless repellances be neutralized, and how soon, instead of fierce bands of brethren gathered in distinct and opposing array, like the dark clouds of summer, meeting over our heads, might we see the beauty and the strength of party organization, without its wide severance and its deadly hate, like the rainbow, which is not more beautiful in the variety of its colors, than in the grace with which the divine Painter has blended them.

Closely allied to the last mentioned influence of this sense of accountableness, is its power to soothe the asperities of political strife, and to promote kind and fraternal feelings and conduct among the representatives of the people, and through them, among the people themselves. It was once remarked in the hearing of the writer, by several gentlemen who held a high rank in our national army, and who had also enjoyed many facilities for observation at Washington, that "the ‘code of honor,’ however much its existence is to be regretted on the whole, had yet. one desirable effect, in checking the freedom of the tongue and of the pen, among our legislators, since even a member, whose principles would forbid him to accept a challenge, would prefer to avoid the alternative of declining one." A remark sufficiently reproachful to our national character, if it were true; since it implies that other principles besides those of propriety and courtesy, which are innate in every man of sense and moral worth, are necessary in the case of our public men, to restrain them from gross personalities, and ungentlemanly abuse. But while we may admit that the remark was the offspring in part of an "esprit du corps," on the part of those who uttered it—is there too much foundation for it in the history of Congress for the few years past? Have not the good days of gravity and courtesy, and dignified kindness, in our national councils, passed away? Where are our patriots of the old school in manners?

If the God of peace should reign in the hearts of all our rulers, how soon would the olive branch of peace be seen flourishing even in the hard beaten soil of the political arena, and how really would the banner of peace float, under the stars and stripes, from the dome of the Capitol.—And then the end of Peace societies as far as this country is concerned, would be well-nigh accomplished,— for it is the war of words at home, that prepares the mind and the heart for foreign strife, and active combat. Civil war has usually been the handmaid and

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 precursor of foreign aggression. We do not feel at liberty to omit another topic, which we advert to with sorrow, that there is occasion for it, and with diffidence lest we should treat it to no good purpose.

It will be denied by none, of whatever religious or political faith, that public morals are, under a government like ours, the life-blood of national strength and safety. The day that shall behold us a nation of gamblers, or duelists, or profane swearers, or drunkards, or Sabbath-breakers——will be the day of our political death. Armies, and navies, and enterprise, and numbers, with a sound hereditary government, may for a time give prosperity to a dissolute immoral people. .But in a government like ours, where the laws and the administration of law, are as quickly and as certainly affected by the popular sentiment, owing to frequent elections, as the sunbeams are reflected from the summer clouds, prosperity cannot survive morality a single day. And who can tell how important, in this view, it is, that our public men should be public models of private virtue!

Their history is claimed as the property of their constituents; and through the immense facilities for information, afforded by the periodical press, the claim is fully satisfied. Do our senators or representatives make up a party of pleasure for the Sabbath? In one fortnight it is known from Maine to Florida, and the heart of every Sabbath-breaker is confirmed in its proud hatred of the influence which would restrain him from a similar desecration. Nor is this all. Would that it were! The young man—religiously educated—restrained hitherto by conscience—begins to hesitate concerning the necessity of all this strictness. "If those men deem it not wrong, why should I? "—He breaks away from what he now begins to regard as a vulgar prejudice—and apes the impiety of those whom he is willing to acknowledge as his superiors. It is unnecessary to apply this train of remark to other offences against the universal code of Christian morals.

We remember the scriptural caution, "thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people." Let a vail be drawn if possible, over the private vices of those whom the people delight to honor. but it is too late for entire concealment The birds of the air shall carry the matter. The evil example borne on every wind, descends not like the rain of heaven, but like the desolating hail, or like the sirocco of tile desert, upon the length and breadth of the land, discouraging the hearts, and weakening tile hands of those who in their proper sphere are laboring to save and bless their beloved country.

Oh, when, our hearts exclaim, when shall the evil example be unknown in the high places of power; and purity, truth, high-toned Christian morality, beam like another sun, from the seats of influence? The true answer to this question would afford another argument for the importance of that sense of religious obligation which has now been considered. The command of God is the only mandate in the universe which can effectually restrain human passions and desires. The voice which comes attended by the sanction, "Thus saith the Lord," is the only voice which can successfully say, "peace! be still," to the winds and the waves of wrong inclination. When our rulers shall ‘ all be taught of God,"—and yield themselves to a constraining sense of his dominion, and their own accountableness—then, and not till then, will they, as a body, be such models of private correctness and virtue, as many of them both among the dead and among the living, have been, for the imitation of the young men, the hope and glory of our land.

Again, and it is the last consideration we shall present, how powerful a tendency would such views on the part of our rulers, possess, to awaken the utmost vigilance in the guardianship of their sacred trust, and to elevate the mind and heart to tile purest feelings, and the noblest efforts.

A sense of accountability, in some manner and to some tribunal, as essential to ensure fidelity under all temptations to indolence or perversion, in every case in which men are the recipients of any trust. It may be accountability to our fellow-men, or to a high power, or to ourselves, in foro conscientiae; but it must exist somewhere, and it must be felt, or every thing is afloat, the sport of the winds and tides of passion and interest, or the victim of the dead stagnation of indolence. Nor does it require any argument to convince a thinking

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 man, that as the tribunal of heaven is most august and imposing, and the others extremely liable to be forgotten or contemned, a deep sense of obligation to One above is the safest principle of fidelity on which we can depend.

So even the savages judged, who trusted the venerable Swartz, when they would trust no one else. So we all judge, in preferring the word of some men to the bond of others. Apply this principle to the case of him who holds some station of high importance and weighty trust. He feels himself responsible, not only to men, but to God, he knows and remembers that he is the servant of God for good, to the people. This remembrance and impression is the sheet anchor of his steadfastness. Other principles might hold him amidst the storms and commotions of the popular sea, and of his own heart; this must. With what care will he watch the precious trust, which comes to him under the seal of heaven! How sedulously will he guard the doors of the temple of liberty, when he perceives within it the altar of God, and finds his sentinel’s commission countersigned with the hand-writing of Jehovah! His heart, too, will be filled with the purest and most exulted sentiments.

The fountain from which such a man daily drinks, sparkles with the elements of all that is grateful and refreshing.

The purest patriotism, the sweetest charities of domestic life, the most expansive and wise benevolence, all spring up in the heart together, the consentaneous and harmonious fruits of the love and fear of God. It was in the same school that Wilberforce learned to love the slave—Howard to love the prisoner— Wirt to love his country—and all to love the world. They feared and obeyed God—and all noble and generous emotions grow spontaneously in the soil of the heart thus prepared and enriched.

Nor is the effort less marked or less salutary upon the mind. Its thoughts are loftier, and its purposes deeper and more steadfast, for being conversant with the great subject of divine obligation. No man can think much of the Deity, and realize strongly His constant presence and inspection, without an elevation of views, and a growing consciousness of that mental power, for the right use of which he is accountable to Him who bestowed it. We were not made to inhabit a godless world, and we cannot make it so, in speculation and in practice, without a deterioration analogous to the dwarfish tendency of emigration to a region colder than our native clime. "God is a sun," to the mental as well as to the moral powers; and in the frozen zone of practical atheism, both degenerate and die. The noble motto, "Bene orásae. est bene studisse," applies with hardly less force to secular, than to sacred studies.

With what energy must it arm the soul of the patriot statesman, struggling against wrong counsels, and discredited dangers, to know that the God of truth and of right sees and approves his course! With what new power does his mind grasp a difficult and embarrassed subject, when he feels that the Former of that mind, now demands from him an exertion of its highest powers ! What exciting power, to call forth the most thrilling eloquence, can be found in the crowded senate-chamber, compared with the consciousness that for every word he must give account to Him, whose applause, if he fulfils his high behest, will surpass in value the shouts of an enraptured universe besides!

Our remarks have, almost in spite of ourselves—so true it is that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh—assumed in many parts a bearing so specific towards our own beloved land, that unwillingness to make a larger demand upon the patience of our readers, need not be our only apology for dismissing the subject with but a few words of reference to the peculiar responsibilities of our rulers, both to God and man. If any man even needed all the good influences which the sense of obligation now described, or any other principle can impart, such are those who in any manner or measure have power and influence in our national and State councils. Our fathers justly regarded the plan of a Christian republic as new and promising. It was tried. And now for more than sixty years, we have been a spectacle to the world. Despots have gnashed their teeth at our prosperity.

The tools of despots have sought to charm away the evil spirit from their masters, by predicting our downfall; while the free and the enslaved have together looked upon our grand experiment with wonder and joy. The thought

[1835] p66 Religious obligations in rulers.

of liberty has sprung up in the heart of the Russian serf, as he has heard of the yeomanry of New England. The crushed and enslaved millions of Asia, have almost smiled with hope as they heard of our governing ourselves. The fragrance of this free atmosphere has infused the spirit of liberty like leaven into the mass of European subjects. Our religious character, too, is known abroad. Our system of diffused education has awakened the attention of wise and good men in almost every nation under heaven ; and it is yet an interesting inquiry among those who think, whether by the aid of the Bible, the village church, and the district school, this last of the republics shall be able to stand. It is not too much to say, that the hopes of the lovers of liberty throughout the world hang in a great measure upon our Success. Neither France, nor any part of South America has ever been so valuable in their eyes, as our example, or awakened such hopes.

The downfall of this nation, by whatever means, would be the signal for a jubilee in every despotic court in the world. We might imagine a shout of triumph in hell, at such a prostration of human hopes, and such a retardment of the peaceful kingdom of Christ. If these remarks are correct— and that they are not less true than trite, our readers will unitedly admit—then we have a partial measure for the actual responsibleness in the sight of Heaven, of those by whom this country is mainly known abroad, and on whose character and doings our political salvation, under God, depends. And is this high and solemn relation to the Supreme Being, this responsibleness to his ultimate and august tribunal, both for private and public acts, generally and adequately realized by those who occupy the high places in our civil community?

That there are but few among them who are avowed infidels of the Wright and Owen school; few who have disgraced the journals of Congress by causing the name of a female foreigner, which we are ashamed to repeat in such a connection, to be recorded on the list of candidates for the chaplaincy of the house; we are happy to believe ;—while as Americans, we are ashamed and humbled, that the recklessness of party strife, or a forgetfulness of our dependence on God, or the prevalence of loose principles, should have caused even one man, who contemns and defies Jehovah, to be thus elevated.

But is not the number far greater, of those who forget God’s supremacy, and their own obligations to Him? Are not many of them ready to acknowledge, that He "is not in all their thoughts? "—And who are scarcely more conscious of allegiance owed to Him than to Louis Philippe?

For such, let the aspirations of all devout worshippers in this land, daily ascend to heaven, that they may speedily possess that noble preparation of mind and of heart, for their great duties, both as public examples and as public officers, which has been described in these pages; viz, a constant, deep, practical sense of religious obligation!

Might we breathe another fervent wish of our hearts, without giving offence to those for whom it is most sincerely and constantly cherished, we would express the earnest desire we feel concerning many, whom we, with the people, delight to honor, and who already come up to the standard of moral and religious feel-lag which we have now described, that they should learn to appreciate and to reach that higher standard which the gospel discloses. We would that they might come to understand in their own consciousness, the happy influence of deep piety, upon the heart and mind, and the transforming and beatific power of that hope which is by faith on the redeeming Son of God. There are high places in the moral, as in the civil world. As they have, by their own merits, been elevated to the latter, may they aspire to the nobler distinction, conferred through the merits of Jesus Christ, of attaining to the former, which lie within the atmosphere of heaven, and afford an earnest of higher pleasures and more desirable honors, than any, even the noblest and purest, which this world can afford.