The Law of the Kingdom
By A. A. Hodge
Posted: July 28, 2022
Posted: July 28, 2022
Archibald Alexander Hodge (July 18, 1823 – November 12, 1886) was an American Presbyterian leader and theologian, He was the principal of Princeton Seminary between 1878 and 1886.
WE have seen that the great end in which all the providential activities of God culminate in this world is the establishment of a universal kingdom of righteousness, which is to embrace all men and angels and to endure for ever in absolute perfection and blessedness. This kingdom, viewed as a reign, must be administered by law, and, viewed as a realm, must be brought into perfect subjection to law in all its elements. This law can be nothing lower than the law of absolute and immutable moral perfection, which, having its seat in the moral nature of God, embraces the whole moral universe in its sway.
This divine institution under its title of "Church" is too habitually regarded as simply the sphere of a divine redemption. The member of the Church is looked upon as a beneficiary unconditionally delivered from condemnation, whose happiness is rendered infallibly secure for ever. But the essential idea of the kingdom is a community of men in communion with God, whose whole nature and life are dominated by the law of righteousness, where every individual is holy as our Father in heaven is holy, and where all spontaneously perform to perfection all the duties which grow out of their several relations.
There are here two opposite and equally false conceptions of the nature of the kingdom of God which must be discriminated and rejected—that which makes its righteousness consist of natural morality divorced from religion, and that which makes it consist of religious sentiments and observances, morality being unemphasized.
I. It is a characteristic position of the modern rationalists, who maintain the perfectibility of human society through a process of natural evolution, that a morality which provides for all the duties which man owes to his fellows may be cultivated to perfection independent of any religious motives. It is maintained, even, that religious faith is injurious to pure morality: (1) Because it diverts the thoughts and efforts of men from their fellow-men and from the present life, which they insist is the only sphere of moral relations and obligations, and directs them toward an invisible, spiritual world, and to a future world of which we can know nothing certainly, and to which we can, at least in our present condition, owe no duties. And (2) they hold that the motives which religion presents in the future reward and punishment of the individual are purely selfish, and therefore can never prompt to a genuinely moral and noble character or course of conduct. They insist that the moral relations of men are necessarily confined to their fellow-men and to the present life, and that all genuine morality is prompted by the natural sense of justice which regards our fellows, and by the natural sympathies which bind us to them. And (3) they point triumphantly to the degrading superstitions and the cruel fanaticisms which in the course of human history have been associated with all forms of religion.
On the contrary, we are able to show that neither degrading superstition nor cruel fanaticism has any source or encouragement in the principles of genuine Christianity; that these evils spring, like all other vile things, from the corrupt hearts of sinful men; that they have existed during all periods of human history independent of all forms of religion; and that their association with any of the doctrines or institutions of Christianity has been only accidental and temporary. We maintain that the pleas for the separation of morality and religion are rational only on the supposition that Atheism is true. On the other hand, if the existence of God is admitted, then conscience instantly proclaims itself to be his voice in the soul, and speaks in his name. All morality, personal and social, must have a theistic basis to give it depth, authority and power. The morality of these boasting opponents of religion is superficial in the extreme. The noblest motives they present are those of sympathy and compassion for others. They have no eternal Moral Governor, no heavenly Father, no divine Elder Brother, no indwelling Holy Ghost; no infinite sanctions of eternal rewards or punishments. Their pale and languid lives prove that their vaunted altruistic morality is supported by no faith in its truth and no enthusiasm for its beauty. It has done nothing for the world beyond what is rationally referred to natural amiability, a passing cant of the hour, a self-admiring desire for human recognition. How miserably poor do the best showings of the ephemeral flower of non-religious morality appear when laid in the effacing radiance of the life and cross of Christ, and of that immense company of his humble disciples who through all ages and in all spheres of human life have followed his example of self-sacrifice in the interests of humanity and of heroic devotion to the will and service of his heavenly Father! All true morality has its root and ground in, and derives its only adequate motives from, the doctrines of Christianity and from the fellowship of God with man which Christ secures. A rebel against supreme and fundamental obligation cannot possibly be righteous in any relation, however subordinate. And the only motives which render any action completely righteous are supreme love to God and love to man for God's sake, "for whether we eat or drink or whatever we do," if we would claim the meed of the righteous, we must "do all for the glory of God."
II. The danger most easily besetting many apparently zealous Christians lies in the opposite direction of holding to the validity of a religious experience, the immediate effect of which is anything short of the love and practice of all righteousness. The gratuitous justification of a sinner on the ground of another's righteousness, imputed to him freely without respect to his personal past character or record, is legitimately the root and necessary precondition of the most perfect morality. Nevertheless, this doctrine in the hands of ignorant and impure men is capable of the most serious abuse. And even among orthodox Christians, who are theoretically all right in their acknowledgment of all moral obligations, the least lapse of watchfulness will bring us in danger of a comfortable resting in the security of our position in Christ, while we neglect the full performance of all the moral obligations which spring out of our relations as Christians alike to God and man. The very end for which the stupendous enginery of redemption was devised and executed, including the incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection of the Son of God and the mission of the Holy Ghost, is to establish a community of regenerated and sanctified men, absolutely perfect in righteousness. The very conception of an immoral Christian is monstrous. And, however, imperfect the Christian may be at any stage of his spiritual growth, he can make no compromise with any sin; he must put forth all his powers in ceaseless efforts after absolute moral perfection in all directions. He must include all the duties which spring out of our relations to God, and all those which spring out of all our relations to our fellow-men of every kind. There can be nothing overlooked, much less willingly neglected. He must include not only the theological graces and the cardinal moral virtues, but the bloom and symmetry of moral excellence which result from the perfect harmony of all the virtues. He must be pure in thought as well as in life, magnanimous and generous in feeling and impulse, as well as just in his transactions. A narrow-minded, conceited and selfish Christian is an incongruity as real, though not quite so shocking, as an immoral Christian. Whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are of good report, whatsoever things are edifying, whatsoever things are spiritually beautiful, whatsoever things are Christ-like,—all these things are involved in the righteousness of all saints. To be a gentleman or a lady in the essential, not the conventional sense, is the very least demanded in the moral character and conduct of any Christian. Anything beneath that is out of the question. But beyond that the Christian hero and heroine must ever aspire to the heights of moral and spiritual excellence and beauty, such as will be realized perfectly only in the spirits of just men made perfect in the holy city.
III. The sublime source of this law is the uncreated, absolute and immutable moral perfections of the divine nature. This nature is presupposed in the divine volition, the self-existent nature being immanent in the will. This perfection is absolute; it admits of no qualifications or degrees. Every, even the least, element of duty is imperative. Every, even the least, shortcoming in that which is right is of the essential nature of sin and guilt. This law, having its seat in the nature of the supreme Moral Governor, must be at the same time original, supreme, absolute, universal, and immutable. It must have been one in all ages and in all realms, over all orders of creatures of all degrees of knowledge and power, over the heights of heaven and over the pit of hell. The specific duties may vary indefinitely, but the principle of duty—the absolute obligation to all that is right and to the rejection of all that is not right—is universal and immutable.
The absolute obligation of all moral excellence is universal and immutable, but specific duties grow out of relations immediately when those relations are constituted. (1) The obligation of universal love? and of absolute truth binds all God's moral creatures equally everywhere, because these are absolutely demanded by the unchangeable nature of God, and because they are results under the universal law of moral perfection, from the essential relations which all moral agents sustain to God and to each other. (2) There is another very large class of duties which immediately spring out of the permanent relations which God has sovereignly established in the constitution of human society in this world. These are expressed by the commandments, "Thou shalt not steal," "Thou shalt not kill," "Thou shalt not commit adultery." These would have no meaning in a state of relations in which there was no property, no mortal life and no sexual constitution. But as soon as these relations exist, the moral obligations necessarily exist. (3) A third large class of duties spring for a time from certain temporary relations which God has constituted among a particular people and during a particular dispensation or constitutional period: as, for instance, the judicial laws of the Jews, many of which appear to us so peculiar, grew necessarily from the application of the eternal principles of right to the very peculiar social, governmental and ecclesiastical conditions which God, for wise purposes, had at that time established among them. The specific laws last as long as the special reasons for them continue, and pass into desuetude as soon as these reasons cease to exist. (4) A fourth class of duties spring from the simple sovereign volition of God. He is of course always rational and righteous in all his decrees. But the reasons which determine him may be utterly unknown to us, and whether we see or appreciate the reason or not, the sovereign volition of God binds us by a perfect moral obligation to obey, because he is our Owner and Lord. Thus, the command to observe as holy the first day of the week as the Christian Sabbath has two parts—the one invariable, because it rests upon the general nature of man, physical and spiritual, which needs a day of rest; and the other variable, because it is positive purely, resting only on the volition of God, who has set apart one day in seven, and a particular one of the seven, to be that day of rest; which otherwise would have been a matter of indifference.
Hence the moral law of the kingdom is absolute and perfect and universal, descending from above, never ascending from below. It is immutably one, yet always comprehending new conditions, and generating an indefinite variety of new special obligations out of the changing relations constantly developed under the sovereign guidance of the great King. We never elected God. The united power of all his creatures can never limit or condition his will. No rebellious barons will ever coerce from him a charter which will limit the absolute autocracy of his reign. There is in all the ages and in all the provinces of his kingdom no such thing as human rights to disturb his government or to distract righteousness. No creature, from the very nature of the case, can possess any rights over against Him who causes him to exist and to be what he is. Nor can any creature possess any rights over against any other creature, except such as are given by God. If I possess a right relative to my brother, my brother owes it to God to render it to me, and my possession of it creates a new obligation on me to God. Thus, all so-called human rights are divine appointments for our benefit, creating special duties on all sides, which all the parties concerned owe directly to God. The universe is an absolute monarchy in which absolute moral perfection, interpreted by infinite wisdom and executed by infinite power, sits upon the throne. In this realm there are no rights but universal honor and blessedness secured by the mutual discharge of all duties, all which spring ultimately from the will of God, and hence are all duties owed to him. The King of the kingdom is the incarnate God, who has redeemed us by his blood, as well as created as by his power. The only ultimate right is his right to us, and the only source of law is the moral perfection of the divine nature expressed in his will. All service is worship; all righteousness is service to him rendered out of love and gratitude for his redemption. The obligation which descends upon us from his absolute right and sovereign will is loyally accepted by us, and rendered back in our loving service as the spontaneous tribute of our hearts. "To the only wise God, our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, now and for ever."
IV. This divine law is made known to the subjects of the kingdom through many different channels. All these mutually supplement and corroborate the testimony of one another. The fundamental fact upon which all others of this order depend is that man in his moral nature as in his intellectual was created in "the likeness of God." Our nature is essentially finite and contingent, and our knowledge imperfect and variable; whereas God's knowledge is infinite, and his nature essentially perfect and absolute. Nevertheless, the immanent spontaneous moral law of our intrinsic nature corresponds, as an imperfect reflection, to the transcendent moral perfection of God's nature, and answers obediently to every indication of his will. Sin has perverted and deteriorated this law, but the voice of God can always arouse it to intense action; and the regenerating and sanctifying power of the Holy Ghost restores it to its original purity and vigor; and as our whole nature is developed into perfect manhood, into the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, "the moral law within us" will be more and more assimilated to the divine standard. The light of nature, as reflected even in the outward physical and lower animal world, and pre-eminently as witnessed in the providential course of human history, testifies to the same eternal principles of righteousness. "For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead." For even the Gentiles, who are without the supernaturally revealed law, and "do by nature the things contained in the law, these having not the law are a law unto themselves; which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another."
But such has been the deteriorating influence of sin that "the law written on the heart" and "the light of nature," although these remain, no longer suffice as the organ of signifying God's will to man. A supernatural revelation has been necessary to reveal the law of duty, as well as to reveal the method of salvation through redemption. For this purpose God has at sundry times and in divers manners spoken unto the fathers by the prophets, and afterward by his Son whom he hath appointed heir of all things, who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sin, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
The entire mass of this prophetical testimony, and, above all, this personal self-revelation of God in Christ, as represented by the pen of inspiration in the sacred Scriptures, constitute the volume of the supernaturally revealed will of God. This is the divinely authoritative and infallible rule of all duty as well as of all faith. All the principles of duty binding us are herein contained. Nothing not in principle commanded in the Bible can be held to be obligatory on any Christian, and all that is thus enjoined is obligatory upon every Christian. The will of God, as indicated in the current leadings of providence and in the dealings of his Holy Spirit with our hearts, never imposes new principles of duty, but only applies the general principles already revealed in the Bible to the changing conditions of our providentially guided lives. The Bible, the Holy Ghost dwelling in us, and providence, the two latter always read in the light of the former, constitute the Christian's complete organ of knowing the will of his Lord. A summary of this moral law, including, in general principle, all the duties which grow out of our relations to God and to our fellow-men, is presented in the ten commandments, engraved by the finger of God on two tablets of stone on Mount Sinai.
And all the members of the kingdom of God are under equal obligations to obey this law absolutely. There are no classes of subjects, no allowed degrees of saintship. We are all alike redeemed by one price, and under the same moral obligations and sanctions. The ordained minister is no more bound to consecrate his powers to the Lord than the most secular layman. The missionary and the martyr owe no higher measure of duty than the most self-indulgent professor. If a man does not open his conscience to every indication of the divine will, and if he is not prompt to obey, he is an alien and not a subject; and if he is found masquerading under false colors, he is in danger of being arrested as a spy.
This law, moreover, demands instant and absolute obedience, not only from all classes of Christians, but also in every sphere of human life equally. A Christian is just as much under obligation to obey God's will in the most secular of his daily businesses as he is in his closet or at the communion table. He has no right to separate his life into two realms, and acknowledge different moral codes in each respectively—to say the Bible is a good rule for Sunday, but this is a weekday question, or the Scriptures are the right rule in matters of religion, but this is a question of business or of politics. God reigns over all everywhere. His will is the supreme law in all relations and actions. His inspired Word, loyally read, will inform us of his will in every relation and act of life, secular as well as religious, and the man is a traitor who refuses to walk therein with scrupulous care. The kingdom of God includes all sides of human life, and it is a kingdom of absolute righteousness. You are either a loyal subject or a traitor. When the King comes how will he find you doing?
V. If we are asking for the conditions of salvation alone, the law and the gospel mutually exclude each other. For, what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God has accomplished in the flesh of his own Son, whom he sent for that purpose in the likeness of sinful flesh. And yet in this work both the law and the gospel co-operate in different ways to one end. What, then, are the uses of the moral law under the gospel dispensation?
If man had never fallen, his obedience would have been wholly spontaneous, and his knowledge of the will of God for the most part intuitive. But after man sinned it was necessary that God should reveal his will super-naturally by his inspired spokesmen, and vindicate it by terrible demonstrations of power and judgment. So, when Jehovah proceeded to introduce his kingdom in a visible form under the old economy through the ministry of Moses, he prefaced the institution of the ceremonial system, which is a shadow of the gospel, by a most striking repromulgation of his moral law amidst the awful thunders and lightnings and earthquakes of Sinai. Never are the exalted holiness and inexorable justice of that law so emphasized as when the law is shown in connection with human redemption, as that which extorts expiation at such a dreadful cost as on Calvary, and as that which demands that the whole of human life must be raised to the height of such an inexorable standard of righteousness as on Sinai.
That the moral law still binds the unregenerate, and must be enforced upon them rigorously, has always been clearly admitted by Christians. But there grew up a controversy in the second generation of the Lutheran theologians, chiefly resulting from misunderstanding of the terms employed relating to what was called among them the "Third Use of the Law." This all resulted in a very luminous answer being given to the question in the "Formula of Concord," which has since been accepted as true and wise by the whole Church. This statement recognizes these three uses of the law under the gospel dispensation:
1st. Its primary use by its commands and its terrible penalties is to restrain wicked men, and thus make human society possible in this state of probation.
2d. Its second use is to convince men of sin by revealing to their eyes the awful whiteness of the divine holiness. In this light they see their own moral vileness and the true measure of their guilt. This is the instrument the Holy Spirit uses in bringing us to genuine repentance and to the humble, sincere embracing of Christ as our Saviour. It is thus that the moral law even more efficiently than the ceremonial law becomes our "schoolmaster (tutor or disciplinarian) to bring us to Christ."
3d. The third use of the law, which is as essential as either of the others, is that it should ever continue in this life to the regenerated and progressively sanctified Christian the transcendent measure and test of right, the standard of character and the stimulus to effort. To live up to this standard of excellence is the goal to which the Christian runs, the prize for which he fights. The all-perfect law, embodying the righteousness of God, continually reveals our shortcomings, condemns our corruptions, evokes our repentance and drives us to endeavor. In the case of the Christian the law remains, although the motives to obedience are changed. Our obedience is spontaneous, our motive is love; yet all the while the law towers above like the white glistening peaks of the Alps, forbidding us to loiter, summoning us to the skies. Our obedience is possible because the Holy Ghost of Christ has been sent to dwell in our hearts for this very end. The obediences we render are the "fruits of the Spirit." We are not discouraged. We press onward to the absolute fulfillment of all righteousness, for all things are possible to him in whom the Spirit of Him dwells who in our stead and in our behalf has "fulfilled the law in the flesh."
VI. Since the kingdom of God on earth is not confined to the mere ecclesiastical sphere, but aims at absolute universality and extends its supreme reign over every department of human life, it follows that it is the duty of every loyal subject to endeavor to bring all human society, social and political, as well as ecclesiastical, into obedience to its law of righteousness. It is our duty, as far as lies in our power, immediately to organize human society and all its institutions and organs upon a distinctively Christian basis. Indifference or impartiality here between the law of the kingdom and the law of the world, or of its prince the devil, is utter treason to the King of righteousness. The Bible, the great statute-book of the kingdom, explicitly lays down principles which when candidly applied will regulate the action of every human being in all relations. There can be no compromise. The King said with regard to all descriptions of moral agents in all spheres of activity, "He that is not with me is against me." If the national life in general is organized upon non-Christian principles, the churches which are embraced within the universal assimilating power of that nation will not long be able to preserve their integrity.
Population increases geometrically, and food only arithmetically. Capital seeks aggregation in masses; labor becomes more plentiful and cheaper. The weaker goes to the wall and the stronger survives. The masses crowd into vast cities, forced by the irresistible pressure up into garrets and under ground into cellars. Capital is massed as never dreamed of before into hundreds of millions. Vast corporations aggregate and perpetuate the wealth of kingdoms through succeeding generations. Machinery takes the place of human labor in cultivating the earth and in the manufacture and distribution of all commodities. The terrible struggle of competition, directed by science and whipped into intensity by steam and electricity, is assuming proportions never conceived of before by the wildest dreamer. The pressure of the advancing column is overwhelming; the weakling has no possibility of maintaining his ground. Combinations are increasing and assuming a more threatening aspect every year. In the old monarchical nations of Europe the ships of state labor terribly in the storm. The experienced navigators propose to lighten their ships and relieve their strain by throwing overboard obnoxious institutions. They would grant the principles of "nationalities," of "home rule," of land distributed among the multitude of small proprietors; they would abolish class distinctions, aristocracy and monarchy. And all this may relieve the stress of the contest in Europe for a generation. But, alas! all this has already been long done in our America, and yet the war has not slackened. There remain no more lumbering abuses for us to sacrifice in the forms of our institutions. For a free republic like ours there is no salvation except in obedience to the principles of the kingdom of God.
That kingdom rests ultimately upon the Fatherhood of God, the Elder Brotherhood and the redeeming blood of Christ, and the universal brotherhood of men. Its principle is love. Its law is duty. It appeals not to the right of the weak, but to the love and duty of the strong. Brothers are never all equal; but true brothers respect, sympathize with and love one another. The interest of one is the interest of all, and the anguish or the joy of one is experienced alike by all. This human brotherhood is essential, it is eternal. The earthly conditions which separate us are accidental and transient. There is no gulf of ignorance or poverty or vice which should cut off or modify our expressions of tender love and sympathy. Even the very least of these humble ones Christ calls brethren. We must not keep them at arm's length, we must not neglect their interests, we must not in the competitions of trade push them to the wall. We must love them and make them know we love them, and help them in their struggles with poverty and sin.
The kingdom of God embraces all classes, but it recognizes no class distinctions. We know neither capitalists nor laborers, neither rich nor poor, as such, but only men as men, men as brothers in Christ Jesus. If the rich operator under the pressure of competition, obeying the so-called "laws of trade," pays starvation wages, we warn him not as a rich man, but as a brother, that he is sinning against the law of the kingdom. Our brothers should, in spite of all the laws and competitions of trade, be enabled to live as becomes our brethren while they do our work. Charity degrades the lazy receiver. So the withholding a full share in the profit of the common business degrades the man hastening to get rich. If the poor brother joins the association to fight capital, we warn him, not as a poorman, but as a brother, of the duty which he owes to his employer, and of their mutual responsibilities in the common enterprise. If capitalists combine to fight labor, laborers will combine to fight capital, and one is as right as the other, and, whatever may be hoped for from a mutual recognition of their rights, more is imperatively necessary. But if all will open their hearts to the love of Christ, and submit their wills absolutely to the reign of righteousness, and devote themselves to the performance of duty instead of the vindication of rights, then the strong will bear the burden of the weak, and we will all together enjoy a common prosperity, in which the sympathy of all multiplies the happiness of each. It is said that Socialism is opposed to religion and the inviolable sacredness of the family tie. If so, then religion and the holiness of the marriage bond are the great weapons with which to fight Socialism. Carry the cross and the love of Christ into every home. Practically recognize the brotherhood in Christ of every man. Prohibit divorce, hold sacred the marriage tie. Consecrate your personal service and all your wealth to the Master's cause. And the dark clouds of threatened anarchy will melt away into the clear sky. It is too late to go back. In this free republic repression of the monster of social chaos by sheer force is impossible. In the grant of universal suffrage we have burnt our ships behind us. There lie before us now only the two alternatives—either a war between the forces, which will shatter the social fabric and end in anarchy, or the supremacy of the reign of the kingdom of God.
VII. And to us and to our fellow-countrymen of this generation God has committed this tremendous trust of forwarding or of retarding by centuries the coming of the kingdom of heaven in all the world. He has placed us in the centre of the field and at the crisis of the battle on which the fate of the kingdom for ages turns.
When human society was reconstructed after the destruction by the Flood, the laws of differentiation and dispersion prevailed for millenniums. At the Tower of Babel the languages were confused and multiplied, and the children of men driven in all directions over the face of the earth. The different divisions were isolated from one another by physical barriers, pre-eminently by the Souliman Mountains in Asia and the great Desert of Sahara in Africa. Thus, after the lapse of ages, through the influence of climate and other providential conditions, different permanent varieties of the human family were generated, which may be grouped under three great types—the Mongolian of Eastern Asia and Oceanica; the African; and the Caucasian of Western Asia and Europe. The Caucasian race, itself divided by mountain-chains and seas and distributed on peninsulas, generated innumerable races and national varieties, as the Celt, the Teuton, the Sclav, the Russian, the French, the Anglo-Saxon. Under the Old Dispensation every epoch-making movement was divisive. The children of Eber were chosen and the rest of mankind rejected. Out of the Hebrews were selected the Israelites, and out of the Israelites the Jews.
But when Christ assumed the reins of his kingdom at the right hand of the Majesty on high, the tendency was instantly reversed. His commission was, "Go, disciple all nations, baptizing them, teaching them, and lo, I am with you to the end of the ages." The banner of the kingdom was set up in Jerusalem and carried throughout the Roman empire, then throughout Europe, thence throughout the world. Always the standards of the kingdom have followed the course of empire westward. But beyond the shores of our Pacific there is no more west. There the Occident and the Orient stand face to face. The whole continent is ours, and it stands with all its mountain-chains running north and south, its immense plains, including all zones from the tropics to the poles, open to the free access of all nations and races, facing the western migration of all the inhabitants of Europe and Africa on our eastern side, and the eastern migration of the multitudinous Mongolians on our western side. Celts, Teutons, Sclavs, Russians, Germans, Frenchmen, Anglo-Saxons, are all incorporated in our population. Africans, Mongolians, Caucasians, Africa, Asia, Europe, all pour their tides of superfluous population into our wide areas. Here the kingdom is to be consummated in the reunion of all the varieties of the long-rent family of man. Here, where the multitudinous hosts rally, is the very eye of the battlefield. To-day is the day of fate, the crisis of the world's history.
At the beginning God sifted the foremost nations of Christendom and sowed our soil with the finest of the wheat. The Puritans, Huguenots, Dutch, Scotch-Irish, Episcopalians, German Reformed of the old Palatine stock, and the best of the Roman Catholics laid the foundations of our empire. During the first ages religion controlled the development of the State. It was established at first in nearly all the colonies in some definite form of church government. It was recognized in the colonial charters and in the constitutions of the first States. For nearly two hundred years every college and almost every academy was founded and administered by Calvinists.
During the first two centuries our growth was slow, the elements brought in by immigration were homogeneous, and the process of assimilation to the original type was rapid and complete. In the first one hundred and sixty years, from the colonization of Plymouth Bay to the Revolutionary War, the population only grew to be three millions. It required nearly fifty years more to raise it to ten millions, while in the last fifty years it has increased thirty-seven millions, and at present it advances at the rate of considerably more than a million a year. It is estimated that during the fifty years preceding 1847 the number of immigrants did not amount to one million, while in the forty years since that time more than ten millions have been received. In the single year 1882 nearly eight hundred thousand were received. At present Dr. Strong, in his wonderful book entitled Our Country, estimates the foreign population, consisting of the foreign-born and of their children, as fifteen millions. He calculates that at the present rates of progression the foreign population will in 1900 amount to not far from forty millions. During the first one hundred and sixty years only thirteen colonies were organized. These multiplied to sixteen in 1800, to twenty-six in 1840 and to thirty-eight in 1880. Others of immense size are demanding recognition, and many of the new States are much larger than all the New England States together. There is no question that the moral and spiritual destiny of the world depends upon the moral and religious character ultimately assumed by the population of the United States. There is no more room to question the obvious fact that the moral and religious character of the populations filling the States and Territories of the great West, which must soon control the whole nation, is rapidly forming now, and must take its permanent stamp for ages within the next thirty or forty years.
Men of this generation, from the pyramid top of opportunity on which God has set us we look down on forty centuries! We stretch our hand into the future with power to mould the destinies of unborn millions. We of this generation occupy the Gibraltar of the ages which commands the world's future.
"We are living, we are dwelling,
In a grand and awful time,
In an age on ages telling--
To be living is sublime!"
This divine institution under its title of "Church" is too habitually regarded as simply the sphere of a divine redemption. The member of the Church is looked upon as a beneficiary unconditionally delivered from condemnation, whose happiness is rendered infallibly secure for ever. But the essential idea of the kingdom is a community of men in communion with God, whose whole nature and life are dominated by the law of righteousness, where every individual is holy as our Father in heaven is holy, and where all spontaneously perform to perfection all the duties which grow out of their several relations.
There are here two opposite and equally false conceptions of the nature of the kingdom of God which must be discriminated and rejected—that which makes its righteousness consist of natural morality divorced from religion, and that which makes it consist of religious sentiments and observances, morality being unemphasized.
I. It is a characteristic position of the modern rationalists, who maintain the perfectibility of human society through a process of natural evolution, that a morality which provides for all the duties which man owes to his fellows may be cultivated to perfection independent of any religious motives. It is maintained, even, that religious faith is injurious to pure morality: (1) Because it diverts the thoughts and efforts of men from their fellow-men and from the present life, which they insist is the only sphere of moral relations and obligations, and directs them toward an invisible, spiritual world, and to a future world of which we can know nothing certainly, and to which we can, at least in our present condition, owe no duties. And (2) they hold that the motives which religion presents in the future reward and punishment of the individual are purely selfish, and therefore can never prompt to a genuinely moral and noble character or course of conduct. They insist that the moral relations of men are necessarily confined to their fellow-men and to the present life, and that all genuine morality is prompted by the natural sense of justice which regards our fellows, and by the natural sympathies which bind us to them. And (3) they point triumphantly to the degrading superstitions and the cruel fanaticisms which in the course of human history have been associated with all forms of religion.
On the contrary, we are able to show that neither degrading superstition nor cruel fanaticism has any source or encouragement in the principles of genuine Christianity; that these evils spring, like all other vile things, from the corrupt hearts of sinful men; that they have existed during all periods of human history independent of all forms of religion; and that their association with any of the doctrines or institutions of Christianity has been only accidental and temporary. We maintain that the pleas for the separation of morality and religion are rational only on the supposition that Atheism is true. On the other hand, if the existence of God is admitted, then conscience instantly proclaims itself to be his voice in the soul, and speaks in his name. All morality, personal and social, must have a theistic basis to give it depth, authority and power. The morality of these boasting opponents of religion is superficial in the extreme. The noblest motives they present are those of sympathy and compassion for others. They have no eternal Moral Governor, no heavenly Father, no divine Elder Brother, no indwelling Holy Ghost; no infinite sanctions of eternal rewards or punishments. Their pale and languid lives prove that their vaunted altruistic morality is supported by no faith in its truth and no enthusiasm for its beauty. It has done nothing for the world beyond what is rationally referred to natural amiability, a passing cant of the hour, a self-admiring desire for human recognition. How miserably poor do the best showings of the ephemeral flower of non-religious morality appear when laid in the effacing radiance of the life and cross of Christ, and of that immense company of his humble disciples who through all ages and in all spheres of human life have followed his example of self-sacrifice in the interests of humanity and of heroic devotion to the will and service of his heavenly Father! All true morality has its root and ground in, and derives its only adequate motives from, the doctrines of Christianity and from the fellowship of God with man which Christ secures. A rebel against supreme and fundamental obligation cannot possibly be righteous in any relation, however subordinate. And the only motives which render any action completely righteous are supreme love to God and love to man for God's sake, "for whether we eat or drink or whatever we do," if we would claim the meed of the righteous, we must "do all for the glory of God."
II. The danger most easily besetting many apparently zealous Christians lies in the opposite direction of holding to the validity of a religious experience, the immediate effect of which is anything short of the love and practice of all righteousness. The gratuitous justification of a sinner on the ground of another's righteousness, imputed to him freely without respect to his personal past character or record, is legitimately the root and necessary precondition of the most perfect morality. Nevertheless, this doctrine in the hands of ignorant and impure men is capable of the most serious abuse. And even among orthodox Christians, who are theoretically all right in their acknowledgment of all moral obligations, the least lapse of watchfulness will bring us in danger of a comfortable resting in the security of our position in Christ, while we neglect the full performance of all the moral obligations which spring out of our relations as Christians alike to God and man. The very end for which the stupendous enginery of redemption was devised and executed, including the incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection of the Son of God and the mission of the Holy Ghost, is to establish a community of regenerated and sanctified men, absolutely perfect in righteousness. The very conception of an immoral Christian is monstrous. And, however, imperfect the Christian may be at any stage of his spiritual growth, he can make no compromise with any sin; he must put forth all his powers in ceaseless efforts after absolute moral perfection in all directions. He must include all the duties which spring out of our relations to God, and all those which spring out of all our relations to our fellow-men of every kind. There can be nothing overlooked, much less willingly neglected. He must include not only the theological graces and the cardinal moral virtues, but the bloom and symmetry of moral excellence which result from the perfect harmony of all the virtues. He must be pure in thought as well as in life, magnanimous and generous in feeling and impulse, as well as just in his transactions. A narrow-minded, conceited and selfish Christian is an incongruity as real, though not quite so shocking, as an immoral Christian. Whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are of good report, whatsoever things are edifying, whatsoever things are spiritually beautiful, whatsoever things are Christ-like,—all these things are involved in the righteousness of all saints. To be a gentleman or a lady in the essential, not the conventional sense, is the very least demanded in the moral character and conduct of any Christian. Anything beneath that is out of the question. But beyond that the Christian hero and heroine must ever aspire to the heights of moral and spiritual excellence and beauty, such as will be realized perfectly only in the spirits of just men made perfect in the holy city.
III. The sublime source of this law is the uncreated, absolute and immutable moral perfections of the divine nature. This nature is presupposed in the divine volition, the self-existent nature being immanent in the will. This perfection is absolute; it admits of no qualifications or degrees. Every, even the least, element of duty is imperative. Every, even the least, shortcoming in that which is right is of the essential nature of sin and guilt. This law, having its seat in the nature of the supreme Moral Governor, must be at the same time original, supreme, absolute, universal, and immutable. It must have been one in all ages and in all realms, over all orders of creatures of all degrees of knowledge and power, over the heights of heaven and over the pit of hell. The specific duties may vary indefinitely, but the principle of duty—the absolute obligation to all that is right and to the rejection of all that is not right—is universal and immutable.
The absolute obligation of all moral excellence is universal and immutable, but specific duties grow out of relations immediately when those relations are constituted. (1) The obligation of universal love? and of absolute truth binds all God's moral creatures equally everywhere, because these are absolutely demanded by the unchangeable nature of God, and because they are results under the universal law of moral perfection, from the essential relations which all moral agents sustain to God and to each other. (2) There is another very large class of duties which immediately spring out of the permanent relations which God has sovereignly established in the constitution of human society in this world. These are expressed by the commandments, "Thou shalt not steal," "Thou shalt not kill," "Thou shalt not commit adultery." These would have no meaning in a state of relations in which there was no property, no mortal life and no sexual constitution. But as soon as these relations exist, the moral obligations necessarily exist. (3) A third large class of duties spring for a time from certain temporary relations which God has constituted among a particular people and during a particular dispensation or constitutional period: as, for instance, the judicial laws of the Jews, many of which appear to us so peculiar, grew necessarily from the application of the eternal principles of right to the very peculiar social, governmental and ecclesiastical conditions which God, for wise purposes, had at that time established among them. The specific laws last as long as the special reasons for them continue, and pass into desuetude as soon as these reasons cease to exist. (4) A fourth class of duties spring from the simple sovereign volition of God. He is of course always rational and righteous in all his decrees. But the reasons which determine him may be utterly unknown to us, and whether we see or appreciate the reason or not, the sovereign volition of God binds us by a perfect moral obligation to obey, because he is our Owner and Lord. Thus, the command to observe as holy the first day of the week as the Christian Sabbath has two parts—the one invariable, because it rests upon the general nature of man, physical and spiritual, which needs a day of rest; and the other variable, because it is positive purely, resting only on the volition of God, who has set apart one day in seven, and a particular one of the seven, to be that day of rest; which otherwise would have been a matter of indifference.
Hence the moral law of the kingdom is absolute and perfect and universal, descending from above, never ascending from below. It is immutably one, yet always comprehending new conditions, and generating an indefinite variety of new special obligations out of the changing relations constantly developed under the sovereign guidance of the great King. We never elected God. The united power of all his creatures can never limit or condition his will. No rebellious barons will ever coerce from him a charter which will limit the absolute autocracy of his reign. There is in all the ages and in all the provinces of his kingdom no such thing as human rights to disturb his government or to distract righteousness. No creature, from the very nature of the case, can possess any rights over against Him who causes him to exist and to be what he is. Nor can any creature possess any rights over against any other creature, except such as are given by God. If I possess a right relative to my brother, my brother owes it to God to render it to me, and my possession of it creates a new obligation on me to God. Thus, all so-called human rights are divine appointments for our benefit, creating special duties on all sides, which all the parties concerned owe directly to God. The universe is an absolute monarchy in which absolute moral perfection, interpreted by infinite wisdom and executed by infinite power, sits upon the throne. In this realm there are no rights but universal honor and blessedness secured by the mutual discharge of all duties, all which spring ultimately from the will of God, and hence are all duties owed to him. The King of the kingdom is the incarnate God, who has redeemed us by his blood, as well as created as by his power. The only ultimate right is his right to us, and the only source of law is the moral perfection of the divine nature expressed in his will. All service is worship; all righteousness is service to him rendered out of love and gratitude for his redemption. The obligation which descends upon us from his absolute right and sovereign will is loyally accepted by us, and rendered back in our loving service as the spontaneous tribute of our hearts. "To the only wise God, our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, now and for ever."
IV. This divine law is made known to the subjects of the kingdom through many different channels. All these mutually supplement and corroborate the testimony of one another. The fundamental fact upon which all others of this order depend is that man in his moral nature as in his intellectual was created in "the likeness of God." Our nature is essentially finite and contingent, and our knowledge imperfect and variable; whereas God's knowledge is infinite, and his nature essentially perfect and absolute. Nevertheless, the immanent spontaneous moral law of our intrinsic nature corresponds, as an imperfect reflection, to the transcendent moral perfection of God's nature, and answers obediently to every indication of his will. Sin has perverted and deteriorated this law, but the voice of God can always arouse it to intense action; and the regenerating and sanctifying power of the Holy Ghost restores it to its original purity and vigor; and as our whole nature is developed into perfect manhood, into the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, "the moral law within us" will be more and more assimilated to the divine standard. The light of nature, as reflected even in the outward physical and lower animal world, and pre-eminently as witnessed in the providential course of human history, testifies to the same eternal principles of righteousness. "For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead." For even the Gentiles, who are without the supernaturally revealed law, and "do by nature the things contained in the law, these having not the law are a law unto themselves; which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another."
But such has been the deteriorating influence of sin that "the law written on the heart" and "the light of nature," although these remain, no longer suffice as the organ of signifying God's will to man. A supernatural revelation has been necessary to reveal the law of duty, as well as to reveal the method of salvation through redemption. For this purpose God has at sundry times and in divers manners spoken unto the fathers by the prophets, and afterward by his Son whom he hath appointed heir of all things, who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sin, sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
The entire mass of this prophetical testimony, and, above all, this personal self-revelation of God in Christ, as represented by the pen of inspiration in the sacred Scriptures, constitute the volume of the supernaturally revealed will of God. This is the divinely authoritative and infallible rule of all duty as well as of all faith. All the principles of duty binding us are herein contained. Nothing not in principle commanded in the Bible can be held to be obligatory on any Christian, and all that is thus enjoined is obligatory upon every Christian. The will of God, as indicated in the current leadings of providence and in the dealings of his Holy Spirit with our hearts, never imposes new principles of duty, but only applies the general principles already revealed in the Bible to the changing conditions of our providentially guided lives. The Bible, the Holy Ghost dwelling in us, and providence, the two latter always read in the light of the former, constitute the Christian's complete organ of knowing the will of his Lord. A summary of this moral law, including, in general principle, all the duties which grow out of our relations to God and to our fellow-men, is presented in the ten commandments, engraved by the finger of God on two tablets of stone on Mount Sinai.
And all the members of the kingdom of God are under equal obligations to obey this law absolutely. There are no classes of subjects, no allowed degrees of saintship. We are all alike redeemed by one price, and under the same moral obligations and sanctions. The ordained minister is no more bound to consecrate his powers to the Lord than the most secular layman. The missionary and the martyr owe no higher measure of duty than the most self-indulgent professor. If a man does not open his conscience to every indication of the divine will, and if he is not prompt to obey, he is an alien and not a subject; and if he is found masquerading under false colors, he is in danger of being arrested as a spy.
This law, moreover, demands instant and absolute obedience, not only from all classes of Christians, but also in every sphere of human life equally. A Christian is just as much under obligation to obey God's will in the most secular of his daily businesses as he is in his closet or at the communion table. He has no right to separate his life into two realms, and acknowledge different moral codes in each respectively—to say the Bible is a good rule for Sunday, but this is a weekday question, or the Scriptures are the right rule in matters of religion, but this is a question of business or of politics. God reigns over all everywhere. His will is the supreme law in all relations and actions. His inspired Word, loyally read, will inform us of his will in every relation and act of life, secular as well as religious, and the man is a traitor who refuses to walk therein with scrupulous care. The kingdom of God includes all sides of human life, and it is a kingdom of absolute righteousness. You are either a loyal subject or a traitor. When the King comes how will he find you doing?
V. If we are asking for the conditions of salvation alone, the law and the gospel mutually exclude each other. For, what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God has accomplished in the flesh of his own Son, whom he sent for that purpose in the likeness of sinful flesh. And yet in this work both the law and the gospel co-operate in different ways to one end. What, then, are the uses of the moral law under the gospel dispensation?
If man had never fallen, his obedience would have been wholly spontaneous, and his knowledge of the will of God for the most part intuitive. But after man sinned it was necessary that God should reveal his will super-naturally by his inspired spokesmen, and vindicate it by terrible demonstrations of power and judgment. So, when Jehovah proceeded to introduce his kingdom in a visible form under the old economy through the ministry of Moses, he prefaced the institution of the ceremonial system, which is a shadow of the gospel, by a most striking repromulgation of his moral law amidst the awful thunders and lightnings and earthquakes of Sinai. Never are the exalted holiness and inexorable justice of that law so emphasized as when the law is shown in connection with human redemption, as that which extorts expiation at such a dreadful cost as on Calvary, and as that which demands that the whole of human life must be raised to the height of such an inexorable standard of righteousness as on Sinai.
That the moral law still binds the unregenerate, and must be enforced upon them rigorously, has always been clearly admitted by Christians. But there grew up a controversy in the second generation of the Lutheran theologians, chiefly resulting from misunderstanding of the terms employed relating to what was called among them the "Third Use of the Law." This all resulted in a very luminous answer being given to the question in the "Formula of Concord," which has since been accepted as true and wise by the whole Church. This statement recognizes these three uses of the law under the gospel dispensation:
1st. Its primary use by its commands and its terrible penalties is to restrain wicked men, and thus make human society possible in this state of probation.
2d. Its second use is to convince men of sin by revealing to their eyes the awful whiteness of the divine holiness. In this light they see their own moral vileness and the true measure of their guilt. This is the instrument the Holy Spirit uses in bringing us to genuine repentance and to the humble, sincere embracing of Christ as our Saviour. It is thus that the moral law even more efficiently than the ceremonial law becomes our "schoolmaster (tutor or disciplinarian) to bring us to Christ."
3d. The third use of the law, which is as essential as either of the others, is that it should ever continue in this life to the regenerated and progressively sanctified Christian the transcendent measure and test of right, the standard of character and the stimulus to effort. To live up to this standard of excellence is the goal to which the Christian runs, the prize for which he fights. The all-perfect law, embodying the righteousness of God, continually reveals our shortcomings, condemns our corruptions, evokes our repentance and drives us to endeavor. In the case of the Christian the law remains, although the motives to obedience are changed. Our obedience is spontaneous, our motive is love; yet all the while the law towers above like the white glistening peaks of the Alps, forbidding us to loiter, summoning us to the skies. Our obedience is possible because the Holy Ghost of Christ has been sent to dwell in our hearts for this very end. The obediences we render are the "fruits of the Spirit." We are not discouraged. We press onward to the absolute fulfillment of all righteousness, for all things are possible to him in whom the Spirit of Him dwells who in our stead and in our behalf has "fulfilled the law in the flesh."
VI. Since the kingdom of God on earth is not confined to the mere ecclesiastical sphere, but aims at absolute universality and extends its supreme reign over every department of human life, it follows that it is the duty of every loyal subject to endeavor to bring all human society, social and political, as well as ecclesiastical, into obedience to its law of righteousness. It is our duty, as far as lies in our power, immediately to organize human society and all its institutions and organs upon a distinctively Christian basis. Indifference or impartiality here between the law of the kingdom and the law of the world, or of its prince the devil, is utter treason to the King of righteousness. The Bible, the great statute-book of the kingdom, explicitly lays down principles which when candidly applied will regulate the action of every human being in all relations. There can be no compromise. The King said with regard to all descriptions of moral agents in all spheres of activity, "He that is not with me is against me." If the national life in general is organized upon non-Christian principles, the churches which are embraced within the universal assimilating power of that nation will not long be able to preserve their integrity.
Population increases geometrically, and food only arithmetically. Capital seeks aggregation in masses; labor becomes more plentiful and cheaper. The weaker goes to the wall and the stronger survives. The masses crowd into vast cities, forced by the irresistible pressure up into garrets and under ground into cellars. Capital is massed as never dreamed of before into hundreds of millions. Vast corporations aggregate and perpetuate the wealth of kingdoms through succeeding generations. Machinery takes the place of human labor in cultivating the earth and in the manufacture and distribution of all commodities. The terrible struggle of competition, directed by science and whipped into intensity by steam and electricity, is assuming proportions never conceived of before by the wildest dreamer. The pressure of the advancing column is overwhelming; the weakling has no possibility of maintaining his ground. Combinations are increasing and assuming a more threatening aspect every year. In the old monarchical nations of Europe the ships of state labor terribly in the storm. The experienced navigators propose to lighten their ships and relieve their strain by throwing overboard obnoxious institutions. They would grant the principles of "nationalities," of "home rule," of land distributed among the multitude of small proprietors; they would abolish class distinctions, aristocracy and monarchy. And all this may relieve the stress of the contest in Europe for a generation. But, alas! all this has already been long done in our America, and yet the war has not slackened. There remain no more lumbering abuses for us to sacrifice in the forms of our institutions. For a free republic like ours there is no salvation except in obedience to the principles of the kingdom of God.
That kingdom rests ultimately upon the Fatherhood of God, the Elder Brotherhood and the redeeming blood of Christ, and the universal brotherhood of men. Its principle is love. Its law is duty. It appeals not to the right of the weak, but to the love and duty of the strong. Brothers are never all equal; but true brothers respect, sympathize with and love one another. The interest of one is the interest of all, and the anguish or the joy of one is experienced alike by all. This human brotherhood is essential, it is eternal. The earthly conditions which separate us are accidental and transient. There is no gulf of ignorance or poverty or vice which should cut off or modify our expressions of tender love and sympathy. Even the very least of these humble ones Christ calls brethren. We must not keep them at arm's length, we must not neglect their interests, we must not in the competitions of trade push them to the wall. We must love them and make them know we love them, and help them in their struggles with poverty and sin.
The kingdom of God embraces all classes, but it recognizes no class distinctions. We know neither capitalists nor laborers, neither rich nor poor, as such, but only men as men, men as brothers in Christ Jesus. If the rich operator under the pressure of competition, obeying the so-called "laws of trade," pays starvation wages, we warn him not as a rich man, but as a brother, that he is sinning against the law of the kingdom. Our brothers should, in spite of all the laws and competitions of trade, be enabled to live as becomes our brethren while they do our work. Charity degrades the lazy receiver. So the withholding a full share in the profit of the common business degrades the man hastening to get rich. If the poor brother joins the association to fight capital, we warn him, not as a poorman, but as a brother, of the duty which he owes to his employer, and of their mutual responsibilities in the common enterprise. If capitalists combine to fight labor, laborers will combine to fight capital, and one is as right as the other, and, whatever may be hoped for from a mutual recognition of their rights, more is imperatively necessary. But if all will open their hearts to the love of Christ, and submit their wills absolutely to the reign of righteousness, and devote themselves to the performance of duty instead of the vindication of rights, then the strong will bear the burden of the weak, and we will all together enjoy a common prosperity, in which the sympathy of all multiplies the happiness of each. It is said that Socialism is opposed to religion and the inviolable sacredness of the family tie. If so, then religion and the holiness of the marriage bond are the great weapons with which to fight Socialism. Carry the cross and the love of Christ into every home. Practically recognize the brotherhood in Christ of every man. Prohibit divorce, hold sacred the marriage tie. Consecrate your personal service and all your wealth to the Master's cause. And the dark clouds of threatened anarchy will melt away into the clear sky. It is too late to go back. In this free republic repression of the monster of social chaos by sheer force is impossible. In the grant of universal suffrage we have burnt our ships behind us. There lie before us now only the two alternatives—either a war between the forces, which will shatter the social fabric and end in anarchy, or the supremacy of the reign of the kingdom of God.
VII. And to us and to our fellow-countrymen of this generation God has committed this tremendous trust of forwarding or of retarding by centuries the coming of the kingdom of heaven in all the world. He has placed us in the centre of the field and at the crisis of the battle on which the fate of the kingdom for ages turns.
When human society was reconstructed after the destruction by the Flood, the laws of differentiation and dispersion prevailed for millenniums. At the Tower of Babel the languages were confused and multiplied, and the children of men driven in all directions over the face of the earth. The different divisions were isolated from one another by physical barriers, pre-eminently by the Souliman Mountains in Asia and the great Desert of Sahara in Africa. Thus, after the lapse of ages, through the influence of climate and other providential conditions, different permanent varieties of the human family were generated, which may be grouped under three great types—the Mongolian of Eastern Asia and Oceanica; the African; and the Caucasian of Western Asia and Europe. The Caucasian race, itself divided by mountain-chains and seas and distributed on peninsulas, generated innumerable races and national varieties, as the Celt, the Teuton, the Sclav, the Russian, the French, the Anglo-Saxon. Under the Old Dispensation every epoch-making movement was divisive. The children of Eber were chosen and the rest of mankind rejected. Out of the Hebrews were selected the Israelites, and out of the Israelites the Jews.
But when Christ assumed the reins of his kingdom at the right hand of the Majesty on high, the tendency was instantly reversed. His commission was, "Go, disciple all nations, baptizing them, teaching them, and lo, I am with you to the end of the ages." The banner of the kingdom was set up in Jerusalem and carried throughout the Roman empire, then throughout Europe, thence throughout the world. Always the standards of the kingdom have followed the course of empire westward. But beyond the shores of our Pacific there is no more west. There the Occident and the Orient stand face to face. The whole continent is ours, and it stands with all its mountain-chains running north and south, its immense plains, including all zones from the tropics to the poles, open to the free access of all nations and races, facing the western migration of all the inhabitants of Europe and Africa on our eastern side, and the eastern migration of the multitudinous Mongolians on our western side. Celts, Teutons, Sclavs, Russians, Germans, Frenchmen, Anglo-Saxons, are all incorporated in our population. Africans, Mongolians, Caucasians, Africa, Asia, Europe, all pour their tides of superfluous population into our wide areas. Here the kingdom is to be consummated in the reunion of all the varieties of the long-rent family of man. Here, where the multitudinous hosts rally, is the very eye of the battlefield. To-day is the day of fate, the crisis of the world's history.
At the beginning God sifted the foremost nations of Christendom and sowed our soil with the finest of the wheat. The Puritans, Huguenots, Dutch, Scotch-Irish, Episcopalians, German Reformed of the old Palatine stock, and the best of the Roman Catholics laid the foundations of our empire. During the first ages religion controlled the development of the State. It was established at first in nearly all the colonies in some definite form of church government. It was recognized in the colonial charters and in the constitutions of the first States. For nearly two hundred years every college and almost every academy was founded and administered by Calvinists.
During the first two centuries our growth was slow, the elements brought in by immigration were homogeneous, and the process of assimilation to the original type was rapid and complete. In the first one hundred and sixty years, from the colonization of Plymouth Bay to the Revolutionary War, the population only grew to be three millions. It required nearly fifty years more to raise it to ten millions, while in the last fifty years it has increased thirty-seven millions, and at present it advances at the rate of considerably more than a million a year. It is estimated that during the fifty years preceding 1847 the number of immigrants did not amount to one million, while in the forty years since that time more than ten millions have been received. In the single year 1882 nearly eight hundred thousand were received. At present Dr. Strong, in his wonderful book entitled Our Country, estimates the foreign population, consisting of the foreign-born and of their children, as fifteen millions. He calculates that at the present rates of progression the foreign population will in 1900 amount to not far from forty millions. During the first one hundred and sixty years only thirteen colonies were organized. These multiplied to sixteen in 1800, to twenty-six in 1840 and to thirty-eight in 1880. Others of immense size are demanding recognition, and many of the new States are much larger than all the New England States together. There is no question that the moral and spiritual destiny of the world depends upon the moral and religious character ultimately assumed by the population of the United States. There is no more room to question the obvious fact that the moral and religious character of the populations filling the States and Territories of the great West, which must soon control the whole nation, is rapidly forming now, and must take its permanent stamp for ages within the next thirty or forty years.
Men of this generation, from the pyramid top of opportunity on which God has set us we look down on forty centuries! We stretch our hand into the future with power to mould the destinies of unborn millions. We of this generation occupy the Gibraltar of the ages which commands the world's future.
"We are living, we are dwelling,
In a grand and awful time,
In an age on ages telling--
To be living is sublime!"
