intense self-abhorrence, leading it to an acceptance of the cleansing blood (offered life) of Christ by faith, which is witnessed to by the sealing of the Spirit, who thereafter occupies, fills, inspires. Following this is the appointment to continuous service and final reward by the great High-priest.

Human volition and faith must precede the baptism of the Holy Ghost. The period intervening between the decision of the will and the exercise of faith may be of great length or very brief, as the mind is well-instructed in the truth or ignorant of it. But a living faith cannot be separated from the witnessing Spirit any appreciable measure of time. I will submit-I see my need-I do believe-I am received, may, after a long struggle, with careful study and divine guidance, come to be so closely associated as to be apparently simultaneous or co-etaneous. Why prolong the process? Why space out years between the purpose and the experience? What forbids the consummation of immediate and constant entire sanctification? Why need anything be future except the sanctified destiny?

ART. IV.-RELATIONS OF POLITICS AND CHRISTIANITY.

IT is a fact of history that the early and widely separate colonies which settled this country, fleeing, as they in large part did, from kingly and aristocratic rule at home, rejected the severer, as also the looser, principles of those several governments, and adopted what they understood to be the safer, wiser, and more popular principles inculcated in the Bible. They took the civil and ecclesiastic laws of Moses, interpreted and modified by the teachings of Christianity, as the basis of their colonial laws, both for the State and for the Church. In this they were wise. To have adopted the laws of England would have been contrary to the object of their emigration. Had they based their new organizations on the Roman laws which were dominant in Europe, they would have experimented with principles of government with which most of them were unacquainted, and which would have awakened the suspicions of Englishmen, to whom they were mostly in

debted for their charters and protection. They therefore wisely adopted in outline a system of laws with which, as Christians, they were familiar. And as the Mosaic laws, modified and enlarged by Christianity, are now the constituent elements of all truly enlightened and civilized governments, so they were then eminently suited to the new situations of our Puritan and Pilgrim Ancestors.

In his "Historical Discourses " Dr. Bacon says:

The laws of Moses were given to a community emigrating from their native country, into a land which they were to acquire and occupy for the great purpose of maintaining in simplicity and purity the worship of the one true God. The founders of these colonies came hither for the self-same purpose. . . . The laws of Moses were given to a people who were to live, not only surrounded by heathen tribes on every frontier save the seaboard, but also by heathen inhabitants. . . . Similar to this was the condition of our fathers. The laws of the Hebrews were designed for a free people. The aim of them was equal and exact justice.*

This was also true of our ancestors. And though we have learned to make somewhat wiser interpretation and application of those laws, we have not improved on the principles that run through the Bible as fundamental elements of sound jurisprudence and wise government. Indeed, it were better for us as a nation to go back to the simple principles of our colonial governments, and particularly to those adopted by the Colonial Congress, and embodied in the Declaration of Independence, than to adopt, as we seem to be doing, the loose and unchristian principles which largely prevail in European governments. Our States, instead of being a confederacy of small and somewhat independent sovereignties, constitute a union under a government chosen, adopted, and shaped by representatives of the people. Our National Constitution is modeled after the constitutions of the several colonies, under the guiding minds of God-fearing and liberty-loving patriots. Purely democratic at first, it grew into a grand and federal system of republican government that should at all hazards be sustained.

As between the Tories and Whigs of colonial times there were wide differences of political ideas that do not now exist, * William L. Kingsley, in "Methodist Quarterly Review," January, 1878.

so between the dominant parties of the present there are other, and yet important, diversities of sentiment on matters that relate to finance, to popular education, to civil service, to the elective franchise, and to the equality of all citizens before the laws. Some of these interests relate especially to the South, and affect the relations of whites and blacks. Others of them run antagonistic to the historic genius of Romanism in its opposition to popular education. It is, therefore, important that the principles obviously essential to the safe maintenance and perpetuity of a republican government and of free institutions in this country, be soon and so far settled as the mind of the people is concerned, and so far, also, as the intelligence and ballot of a free people can effect it. But reforms are slow. A great change is to be only gradually wrought among the people of the South. It is not strange that it is so. The whole drift of life-long education, and the whole shaping of the habits and business of the people there, hold them so strongly to their late condition of things that common sense would indicate that any adjustment to their new political relations is and must be slow. But in reference to the antagonism between ignorance and intelligence, between equal rights and priestly rule, between a free ballot and a conscience-ridden servility, there is no such apology to be made, no such moderation to be exercised, no such conservatism to be encouraged. The masses of papal zealots are, indeed, ignorant and superstitious, but not all. The educators and priests who have any knowledge of governments at home and abroad, know that in their efforts to exclude religious instruction from our public schools, to secure a pro rata division of the public funds for the maintenance of their parochial schools, and that in vigorous opposition to our established school system, they are attempting to sap the foundations of this Republic.

And though it may not be openly avowed in the platforms of the dominant parties, it is, nevertheless, a fact, that temperance principles also are involved in the politics of this nation. The national Government has its revenue laws in reference to the manufacture, rectification, and sale of alcoholic liquors. State legislatures enact laws for the prohibition or for the regulation of traffic in them. These things show how closely related to government and politics are the great reforms of the

day, and particularly the national curse of intemperance. It is really a financial as truly as a moral question. No taxes are equal to those which rise both directly and indirectly from the use and the abuse of alcoholic liquors. And possibly no frauds reach to such enormous figures as do the "whisky frauds." The great question of slavery out of the way, there are no other questions that just now more deeply concern the public weal than do the grave ones which relate to the education, temperance, and purity of the whole people. And we are among the number who believe that these two interests are largely involved in every political movement made in our large cities, and in our State and National legislatures.

Matters of education and intelligence are openly wrought into the announcements of one of our great national parties. And should the same party as openly and as vigorously advocate the principles of righteousness and temperance—which it seems reluctant to do-no power on earth could impede its progress or impair its usefulness. It would gather to its support all the moral forces that now wait to see what is to be done, or that are in a latent state, and that are ready to be allied with the right in politics as in other things. If only the political lines were distinctly drawn in reference to all that is essential to a pure and permanent government, the friends of intelligence and honesty would soon be marshaled in such numbers as would perpetuate our governmental privileges and blessings to the latest generations.

However slimy and muddy may be some of its rivulets and shallows, the political stream that runs through our country and irrigates the continents of the world has a pure source; for nothing is more certain than that government is of God. In the family, its earliest embodiment; in the Church, which grew out of the family; and in the State, a later form and outgrowth of the two preceding-however many or few the offices and their incumbents-the chief authority is the will of God.

The lines of authority for the government, the restriction, and the direction of the people, are the divine commands and precepts. "There is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God." This great idea should be recognized by the people and by governors. But let it be understood that the will of the people is the sole source of authority and govern

ment, and the elements of discord and party lines become incorporated into the body politic, the great Supreme is ignored, the people lean to faction and anarchy, and the rulers-as in the earlier stages of most countries-become autocrats and monarchists. And it is just here that are found the germs of the ideas which widely prevail, that neither God, nor the Church, nor the pulpit, has any thing to do with the politics of a people. A sad state of things, when these sentiments prevail. Both social and juridical science, both moral and religious ideas, have much to do with the politics of a people.

That there is in politics a "higher law," reaching over all human laws, and casting its divine influence on and over all human authorities and powers, no legislator, no executive head, no citizen, who holds the elective franchise, should think of denying, much less of antagonizing. That the will of God should be done on earth, and by all men as truly as in all hearts, is a profound idea that should not be ignored. It concerns nations as certainly as it does individuals, or even the Church. It is the true governmental idea that underlies all sound legislation and all wise rule. Of this fact, though variously expressed, and though it runs into every avenue of society, the holy Scriptures are full. And to most men these are authority. Not a prophet speaks, not an historian writes, not a judge is installed nor executes justice, not a king reigns, not a nation is exalted nor subverted, but on principles closely related to this idea. Not more truly does righteousness exalt a nation than is sin a reproach to any people. How shall a king reign? "In righteousness." In what shall princes rule? "In judgment." What will be the consequences of such ruling? "Then judgment shall dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness remain in the fruitful field." What are the grand results of an administration that in this way brings prosperity to the wilderness and fruitfulness to the field? "The work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever." And there is no solid, enduring, nor desirable peace but on this broad basis. There is no assurance as to the stability of government but on these religious principles. They are fundamental. They run into the "Civil Service," as into any other.

The only embodiment and the best form of these religious