National Character | Page 3

the Bible representation of nations as the
great agents of God's Providence. The Assyrian nation sent against the
people of Israel is "the rod of his anger" and "the staff of his
indignation." Said God to his ancient people, "I will bring a nation on
you from far, O house of Israel." God of old sent his prophets to this
nation and that; Elijah to Israel, Jeremiah to Judah, Jonah to Assyria.
Moreover, the Bible recognizes the importance of national relations in
the position it assigns to nations in the historic and prophetic
development of the plan for man's redemption. Before the advent of our
Saviour, God was in covenant with a nation. To conserve the true
religion amidst the corruptions which a second time were coming over
the whole earth, God took Abraham and his family into special
relations to himself. Yet God did not see fit to keep these special
relations confined to a single family in successive generations. It
entered directly into his plan, to make of this chosen family a nation, to
set them in a land of their own, to give them a government of their own,
to place them amidst the other nations of the earth. The influence of a
nation was required to prepare the world for the coming of Messiah. So
also in prophecy. Whatever may be thought of the beasts of the
Revelation, with their heads and horns, the beasts of Daniel are
distinctly stated to be "Kingdoms upon Earth." They are States and
Empires. It is, moreover, a kingdom which the Lord God will set up
upon earth, which, as a little stone cut out of the mountain, shall smite
and break and crush the kingdoms of earth, and itself occupy their place.
"The saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, and possess the
kingdom for ever."
With this consideration of the idea of a nation, and of the importance of
national relations, let us now, turning and beholding the race of men
dwelling together in a family of nations, ask more particularly after
their duties and destinies.
* * * * *
I. The State has a religious character. Nations derive their existence as
such from God. The State is of divine institution. It enjoys and
exercises divine prerogatives. It is hence under duty to God; it has

herein a religious character.
I do not propose to argue the question of the nature of civil government.
I will not undertake to show that the theory of a social compact--the
theory that all just powers of government are derived from the people,
who voluntarily yield them up and consent to their exercise--that this
theory is false. Enough for me--enough for you, I presume,--that it is
unscriptural and infidel. Enough for us that the Scriptures say, "The
powers that be are ordained of God," and the civil ruler is "the minister
of God." I do not deny,--the Scriptures do not deny--the distinction
between things civil and things religious. The Christian does not
demand that the State shall be a theocracy. The State and the Church
has each its appropriate end and sphere. The prime end of the State is
the dispensing of justice, the protecting of its citizens, and the securing
by agriculture and commerce and the arts, and by the intelligence and
virtue of its citizens, of the general welfare. The prime end of the
Church, so far as man is concerned, is the promotion of his spiritual
and eternal good, through the agency of the Scriptures of revealed truth.
The sphere of the one is the affairs of this life,--that of the other, the
affairs of the life to come. Yet the State and the Church are not wholly
separated and absolutely independent; and neither is independent of
God.
Again: Man in his entirety, is a religious being, and must carry his
religion with him into all his relations. He is a religious citizen; so that
not only is government instituted by God and to be administered in his
name, and is therefore religious, but being administered by men and
upon men, who themselves are under responsibility to God, it is
therefore again religious.
And again: Although the prime end of the State be the promotion of
man's temporal welfare, and that of the Church, the promotion of his
spiritual welfare, and although the prime sphere of the State be the
things of the present life, and that of the Church those of the life to
come, yet things temporal and things spiritual, and the things of the
present life and those of the life to come, have most intimate and
important connections. The spiritual welfare tells upon the temporal,

and the life to come is but the issue and result of the present life. Here,
once more, is