Page images
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors][merged small]

“Render therefore unto CÆSAR THE THINGS THAT ARE CÆSAR'S, AND UNTO GOD THE THINGS THAT ARE GOD's." - Matt. xxii. 21.

T is well frequently to lay bare the springs of our being, to examine their nature, and see if their present movement is in accordance with their original design.

This is especially necessary when conflicting sentiments obtain respecting a course of action which we are required to pursue. When we cannot remain idle spectators of a contest which is raging around us, but from the orders of leaders in the battle are compelled to take definite positions, then it is our solemn duty to examine the nature of these commands, that we may see whether we must obey or resist them.

Such is the condition in which every person is placed throughout the Free States. The government of the country has arrayed its mighty strength upon the side of Slavery, and issues its mandate to all the people, to lend

* A sermon preached at Ameia, New York, November, 1850, on the occasion of the passage of the Fugitive Slave Bill. See Note I.

[ocr errors]

their aid in its defense. The conflict between the eternal foes of freedom and slavery has by this act changed us from unconcerned spectators, if we had chosen to assume that position, into actors, and requires every one to take his place under one of the hostile banners. If, therefore, there were no previous claims upon our feelings of brotherhood, we cannot avoid considering our duties under this assertion of the will of the State.

In such circumstances it is our highest duty to examine the Nature and Extent of the Authority of Human Government, and to see if the late decrees of our nation are in agreement or hostility with its delegated rights.

Man is created subject to law. Enactments originating in the wisdom of God control every faculty of body and ⚫ soul. In whatever direction he seeks activity, he finds laws inducing the desire and limiting its gratification. Around him as well as within him ever operates the same infinite energy under the guidance of the same infinite wisdom, coöperating through all the lower orders of being with his highest faculties, or by the same obedient officers modifying or suppressing their unhealthy activity. The world without us is our servant or our scourge, according as we are the servants or enemies of God within us.

But while there is no portion of our nature free from the authority of law, there is an evident distinction in the degree of this authority. As a being intended for different states of existence, and for different duties in each state, the Divine Lawgiver must assign to each faculty authority proportionate to its original design. Each is allowed full powers within its own borders, with restrictions against any intrusion upon the rights of adjacent faculties, and unhesitating submission to the Conscience, the governor of the whole realm, and through that to the Creator and Proprietor of All.

The laws that regulate our body are felt to be inferior to

those which control the soul. Though constructed with measureless skill, and acting under impulses of divine origin, the body is only a servant of the soul. Its mechanism, its vitality, its appetites, its instincts are all acknowledged to be subordinate to other powers which inherit it for a season, and which can mar its structure or even suppress the instincts necessary to its self-preservation with the approval of the Divine Author of both natures.

Among the faculties of the soul there exists no less distinction of rank and authority. There are powers which seem especially designed for the present life, whose action is essential to its earthly preservation, happiness, and progress. There are others that are evidently of a higher grade and sublimer destiny, which, for the most part, are kept in abeyance here, and allowed only in rare instances to assume the supremacy and to reveal the latent powers of their being. There are yet others that oversweep all these inferior energies, and claim their obedience on penalty of leaving them to the fatal anarchy of the lowest passions.

These faculties are called generically the propensities or sensibilities, the intellect and the moral nature. Most of the propensities, though capable of coöperating with the higher powers of the soul, in by far the greater portion of their activity and the greater part of mankind, act independently of all moral guidance. They are confined too, largely, to this state of existence. Self-love is generally considered as the basis solely of earthly pleasure; esteem regards earthly favor; desire for existence includes mainly a passion for earthly life; curiosity is limited to earthly inquisition; and sociality to the divers forms of affections arising from, and centering in, earthly relations.

In our devotion to this portion of our nature, the demands of the intellect are often neglected. Passion rules the hour, rules every hour, and Thought toils as its bond slave. The mind is chiefly studious to obtain means for

gratifying the propensities. It seeks gain, frames plans, pursues studies chiefly that vanity, pride, or lower lusts may have the larger indulgence. Only in occasional moments does it tower before mankind, when the over-sated passion reveals its own inferiority, or when some Leibnitz or Newton has mounted above the narrow skies that bound their vision, and transmitted some of their discoveries to these slaves of mere desire.

Above the intellect rises the moral nature, and claims the service of both these classes of faculties. It asserts its authority over them by allowing them, if rebellious, to run into ruinous excess of riot and of skepticism, and by enabling them, if obedient to its dictates, to grow harmoniously and happily, after their original design.

It was not intended that this diversity of constitution should lead to discord and mutual injury. The law of the body had no original hostility to that of the soul. Our selfish and our social nature were made to act in unison. The duties pertaining to earthly life had no essential opposition, but rather an essential oneness with those that lead out to another existence. The mind, and heart, and conscience were designed to be as harmonious as the nature of God himself, in whose image they are created. These complex duties and interests, so marvelously interwoven, have no constitutional defects or variances. There was no entangling of threads, no jarring of chord with chord, as they came from the hand divine. It was a microcosm combining in outward form and inward action the same multiplicity in unity, and complexity in simplicity, that is exhibited by that infinite macrocosm, the universe itself. Under their united action every institution of man, domestic, social, or civil, every outgrowth of his nature, could have been established and matured without possibility of imperfection or collision. The family would have been an harmonious unit, full of life and love. The State

would have respected every right, and aided while it embraced all minor movements in its rounded fullness. The Church would have been identical with the State, though superior to it, informing it with the more subtile life of the soul, hanging its humbler dome in the heaven of heavens. Art, commerce, handicraft, every form and force of activity, would have each moved righteously and efficiently in its own sphere, while they aided, rather than impeded, the congenital vocations. Earth and Man would have been one with Heaven and God.

But a hostile element invades the soul, and anarchy prevails. Satan mars the machinery of God. Excess of indulgence or of abstinence becomes the mode of human action, and ignorance of the true law, or inability to pursue it steadily, prevents their perfect harmony and growth. This disorder possesses every man, and is revealed in all the organizations into which his wants and nature are expanded.

"The trail of the serpent is over them all."

Under such conditions, it becomes us to study carefully our duty in every relation we sustain, whether to ourselves, our fellow, or our God, remembering that all these relations meet and melt into Him who is their only Source and everlasting Life.

Among these qualities are those feelings and ties that
compose the organism called the State, or civil government.
The last has the narrower significance. Civil government
means, primarily, the authority of a city. It shows that a
condensed population gathered around competent leaders,
subdued and then ruled the scattered peoples beyond their
walls. But the State that which stands has the calm
look of permanence, the solid shape of eternity. It ex-
presses the confidence and the restfulness of man.
"Here

I have peace.
Here I have room for the quiet growth of
all my being. These arms of power are around me to shield

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
« PreviousContinue »