National Character | Page 5

bound not simply coldly to

protect it in common with all forms of religion, but warmly to foster it
as its own chosen religion.
It would not be well longer to dwell on this topic. It may only be added
that while the understanding of this subject is of the very first
consequence to us as a nation, there is no subject of general interest
which seems to be so little understood.[C]
Nations of necessity have a religious character. The civil government is
of God's ordination, and does God's ministry. The civil government is
administered by and upon men who are religious beings, who cannot
under any circumstances divest themselves of their religious character.
The prevalence of true religion amongst its citizens, is of the highest
advantage to the State.
Every nation has its God or its gods. "Blessed is the nation whose God
is the Lord." Blessed is America so long as a pure, scriptural
Christianity stimulates and governs its public life.
It may be mentioned, but need not be discussed as a distinct topic,
although its full consideration would greatly enforce the views just
presented, that, as a matter of fact, God does regard nations as
responsible persons, and does hold them in strict account to himself.
The highest truth of universal history being the universal and
comprehending providence of God, and the great factors of history
being the nations of mankind, and the personal and responsible
character of nations continuing only in this life and obtaining God's full
judgment of mercy or wrath during the time of their present
continuance, the historic page, recording the majestic movements of
empires in their rise and fall, becomes unspeakably sublime as the
record of the Almighty's manifested character, smiling and blessing in
their righteous prosperity, and frowning and overthrowing in their
guilty doom.
* * * * *
II. But let us pass to another view of nations. The race of men we
behold in a family of nations. We may consider the relations of these

nations one to another.
I use the word family in reference to nations, to indicate at once, at the
outset, and as fully as possible, their true relations. Nations are most
closely and most tenderly related. Their relation is one of blood, and
their one parent is God. "He hath made of one blood all nations of men,
for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times
before appointed and the bounds of their habitation." Each nation has a
certain completeness in itself, yet it is but a partial completeness.
Nations are still connected. They are dependent on one another. They
are under obligations to one another. They are alike and together bound
to the same God. They are a brotherhood before God their common
Father. Patriotism has its limits, and philanthropy, its appropriate and
transcendent sphere.
See the physical dependence of nations. Does not every nation on the
face of the earth contribute to the conveniences and comforts and
luxuries, not to say the necessities of our every-day life? And do we not,
as a nation, contribute something for the physical well-being of every
nation in turn? What mean these thousand ships, at all times and in all
directions traversing the main? Are they not all hastening on the wings
of the wind, with their precious burdens, to do the ministries of nations
one toward another? All commerce is significant, first of all, of national
interdependence.
This mutual dependence in things physical is, however, but an image of
a higher dependence. What is civilization? Is it the culture of the
national life? Yet how is national life cultivated? Is it by self-effort
only, put forth from a stimulus self-begotten? Or is not civilization, like
the education of the individual, in some measure dependent on the
efforts of others? Must there not be an outward contact, and a stimulus
provoked by such contact? Turn a child into the woods, and let him
grow up to manhood without the society or the sight of his fellow-men.
Where is his self-culture? He is a wild man of the woods; he is a
barbarian. So nations need the stimulus which comes from a contact
with their fellow nations; and that, not only that they may advance in
civilization, but even that they may save themselves from going down

into barbarism. See China, the largest empire of men, yet separated
from its neighbors by a stone wall. See Hindostan, insulated by
surrounding seas and mountains, and destitute of commerce for many
hundred years. See Africa, secluded from all the world by its miasmatic
regions and its fever-bound coasts. What stereotyped character! What
stagnant life! What hopeless barbarism! Interchange of thought among
the nations,--communication of the products of art and literature, and of
the discoveries of