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CONCLUSION
And 1. There is no such sacredness about civil
governments as to exempt them from the closest scrutiny in their constitution
and workings. The time was when it would have been necessary to dwell largely
upon this statement. The occupants of power are always disposed to claim an
uninquiring recognition, as well as an unresisting obedience
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Kings and emperors have been addressed by the title of
“sacred majesty.” They have claimed a “divine right” to reign. They are kings “by
the grace of God.” They are to rule and the people to submit, pay taxes, and
bear all the burdens. This was once the theory. Some changes have, indeed,
passed over society in many Christian countries. Men do not now yield so
readily a blind and superstitious obedience. But, after all, the principle is
not yet fully recognized that, like everything else in human hands, the affairs
of government are, in every aspect, opened to be questioned and tried. Even in
this land, with all its licentiousness of opinion and even contempt of
authority, there is yet not a little of the old leaven. Not a few still appear
to regard the constitution, and even some enactments, and these
the worst of them, as possessing a sort of extraordinary sacredness.
For all
this there is no reason. The Church is, surely, as sacred as the state, and yet
what friend of religious liberty denies the right of the Lord’s freeman to
bring her claims to the proof —to try her proceedings? It is one of the
peculiarities of the great Apostasy, to demand an uninquiring subjugation of
the understanding and conscience to its arrogant demand of implicit recognition
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and obedience. The faithful repudiate the claim. They
have ever insisted that to admit it would be treason against Christ.
Nor in
divesting government of this kind of sacredness do we furnish any
opening for either licentiousness or sedition. The standard —the chief standard—
of judgment here, as in all other matters where morals are concerned, is the
Word of God. We do not reject reason altogether. But reason itself must be
proved by the same word. And it has been previously observed that when the Holy
Scriptures are conscientiously regarded and justly applied, the result will be,
on the one hand, the rejection of what God does not approve, and on the other
hand, the intelligent and hearty subjection of the whole man to what accords
with the divine will. And can it be considered as anything short of an infidel contempt of the Bible to assert that to use it
for this purpose is either wrong or dangerous to the peace and order of society?
II. Tried
by this supreme rule, the government of this land cannot claim conscientious
obedience. It has, indeed, been set up by the action, and, of course,
exists by the voice of the majority of the people. But this is not the only
test. The people may be wrong now, as well as of old, when the ten tribes “set
up kings, but not by” God, “and princes,
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and he Knew (approved) it not,” (Hosea 7: 3, 4) That
this has been done in these states is evident because the paramount authority
of the Most High, speaking in his word, is not recognized in the constitution —the
fundamental law of the general government; because Christ is not, in any sense,
acknowledged in his character as “Prince of the kings of the earth,”
(Revelation 1: 3;) because the Bible is not received as law, obligatory and
supreme; because no barrier has been enacted against the induction of God’s
enemies into places of power —of trust; because the same securities are thrown
around the idolatries of Popery, as around the practice and observances of the
true religion; because oppression is sanctioned, and the oppressor protected in
the enjoyment of his despotic and unfounded claim. —In this last we refer, of
course, to slavery, which is numbered among the “institutions” of nearly
one-half of the states, and the constitution gives the same protection to this
institution as to any others. It does more. It provides specific and peculiar
means for the arrest of the fugitive; or, perhaps, more accurately, it contains
provisions, which may be made, and have been, the basis of distinct legislation
on this subject.*
————————————————
*Appendix E
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Now, let
it be remembered, that to constitute an oppressive and tyrannical government,
it is not requisite that the subjects of the violence and wrong be white men:
it is enough if they be men —nor that they be the majority, kept under by a
well situated and armed minority, as in Italy or Austria. Any institutions are
chargeable with the sin and crime of despotism, that
willfully deprive any class of their citizens of their natural rights, or
sanction it when done. This is the case here. The constitution treats as outcasts
from its pale a large proportion of the inhabitants of the country, more than
three millions out of twenty-four. Hence, it is not only wrong and sinful to
swear to maintain the constitution: we go farther, and affirm that such a
government is not to be “honored” as God’s moral ordinance; it is not, —as it
respects a host within its limits, and these belonging to that very class, the
poor and needy, for whose protection civil government was eminently designed —a
“minister of God for good,” but a minister of evil. To such a government the
apostle has here no reference in his injunctions of obedience. It does not
possess the features here required. It possesses some that are here, by
implication, strongly condemned.
We are
aware that it is no easy task to persuade
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men —even intelligent men— that this is a matter in which
they have a deep, personal, and responsible interest. The evil of corrupt
government is one so nearly universal and of so long standing —the notion is so
prevalent that if there is anything wrong, it is not their concern; and the
obstacles are often so many and so great in the way of a complete withdrawing
from an active share in affairs of state; and, finally, it is so easy to lull
the conscience by the delusive idea that the best way to reform a government is
first to swear to support it, and to take a part in its operations. In view of
all these considerations, it is a matter of labor and of effort, and cannot be
accomplished unless the Spirit of God imparts clear and spiritual vision, and
gives a decided and resolute will.*
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*See Appendix C
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even the institution of government, become
regardless of the welfare of the land, or in any way disorderly in their
deportment. It is especially required of them that “they follow every good
work,” and thus by a pure and peaceable behavior as individual, and by the
exemplariness of their deportment in social life, commend to all men the
excellence of a full and faithful profession of the
name of Christ, or at least, that “by well doing, they may put to silence the
ignorance of foolish men.”
IV. The
doctrines of this passage and the collateral principles to which we have referred, will certainly yet prevail on earth. —The very
fact that Paul was inspired of God to give such a view of civil authority is a guarantee
that it shall yet receive a just exemplification. However this may be, other scriptures are more explicit. “The kingdom and
dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be
given to the saints of the Most High.” (Daniel 7: 27) “The kings of Tarshish and
of the isles shall bring presents: the kings of
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needy, and shall save the souls of the needy. He shall
redeem their souls from deceit and violence: and precious shall their blood be
in his sight.” (Psalm 72: 10 – 14) “And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers.” (Isaiah 49:
23) “Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such
the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ,
and shall reign with him a thousand years.” (Revelation 20: 6) The apostle John
thus describes the ultimate issue of the vast changes in reference to things
religious, political, and social, in the following most expressive and emphatic
language: “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and
of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.” (Revelation 11: 15) Even
so come, Lord Jesus.
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