finds, that he made a mistake in giving that assent, or allowing it to be inferred, it will be hard to convince him that he has not a right to rectify that mistake, either by nullifying that act of government to which he ought not to have consented, or by seceding from government altogether. His right to resist, on his own authority, any act of government to which he has not given his consent, is perfect and unquestionable.

All advocates of this system agree, that a man's natural rights extend only to such things as do not conflict with the natural rights of others. This limitation shows a consciousness in their own minds, that their system tends to conflicts of rights. Of course, it tends to controversies about rights, and to decisions of those controversies, unpleasant to one party, or to both. But the parties are not bound to submit these controversies to the decision of government, or to respect its decisions when given, or to permit their execution by force, any farther than they have previously consented to be so bound. And if either party finds the decision so unreasonable that he ought not to have foreseen it as possible when he gave his consent, he cannot feel that he ever consented to be bound by such a decision. Evidently, this doctrine, applied to a world like this, is à prolific breeder of quarrels. "Only by pride cometh contention;" and none but proud men can forget that they are sinners, and have forfeited the rights which belong to man as man.

Very different is the tendency of the true doctrine, that men have forfeited their natural rights; that God has placed them under a dispensation of mercy; that, for the execution of his purposes of mercy, he requires them to maintain and administer government, and be in subjection to it; that government should leave men in the enjoyment of such portions and fragments of their natural rights as public safety permits, and that they must submit to such limitation as government, administered in mercy, finds it necessary to impose. Under this system, no man can demand, for himself or for his neighbor, all the rights that pertain to man considered simply as man, and not as a sinner; and every man is bound, whether he consents or not, to coöperate with God, and with government, which is one of his agents, in his merciful work of restraining evil and doing good. If God has given him wisdom, he may use that

wisdom in modifying the form and action of government, so that it shall better accomplish its objects; but he must use it in a lawful way.

These principles make short and effectual work with "the divine right of kings" and of dynasties, to dominion over the inhabitants of certain territories, and to all other claims of sinners, to the right of exercising, for their own benefit, dominion over other sinners. He who has forfeited his own right to life and liberty, would not retain, unforfeited, his right to dominion over others, even if he had ever possessed it. Under a dispensation of mercy, where all rights have been forfeited, men may sustain only such relations to each other as may be administered for the ends and in the spirit of mercy.

But the claims of tyrants, public or domestic, are to be resisted only on such principles, in such a spirit, and by such means, as are consistent with truth and with the actual facts

of the case. They cannot be rightfully, or safely, resisted by assuming, as the logical basis of resistance, that men have not fallen by sin and forfeited their rights. The horrors of the first French revolution were the inevitable product of that logic, pervading, as it did, the mass of French mind, and of the passions which that logic, dominant in the minds of such a population, inevitably excited. That error, whenever it has hold enough on any people to produce any practical effect, must, from its nature, produce effects of the same kind.

On the contrary, the claims of tyrants, (we use the word in its old Greek meaning, to designate one who seizes authority to which he has no right, however he may use that authority,) the claims of tyrants are to be resisted as inconsistent with the dispensation of mercy under which we are placed; a dispensation which forbids men to sustain any relations to each other, except such as are required by the ends and administered in the spirit of mercy. On this basis, all tyranny is effectually excluded, and excluded by such arguments as appeal unanswerably to every man's conscience, and to such feelings only as God and conscience approve.

How far the error here pointed out has pervaded the American mind, and how far it has misled the reasonings and injured the spirit of the pulpit, the political assemblage, and the

press, we will not attempt to decide. We only suggest, that each one should consider, candidly, seriously, patiently, how far it may have affected himself and his influence. We say, patiently; for the full discovery, if any needs to be made, will not be made at once. By those who have always held the common doctrine of "modern philosophy," this article will be understood but very imperfectly, if it be not wholly misunderstood, on the first perusal. A change of system, so fundamental and far-reaching as we have endeavored to indicate, cannot be completed in a day. There must be time to become familiar with it, and with its numerous inferences, applications, and relations to other subjects, before the merits of the system, if true, can be fully appreciated, and sometimes before even its leading propositions can be fully and correctly understood. But to extricate ourselves from the misguidance of a false theory, and to place our doctrine of social and political life on a true and safe basis, and to bring our habits of thought and feeling and expression into conformity with it, must be worth all of time and patient labor that it can possibly cost.

ARTICLE IX.

SHORT SERMONS.

"Unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required." - Luke xii. 48.

CHRIST takes a common principle of equity among men, and applies it to the conduct of the divine government over us. The general idea is, that opportunities measure responsibilities. Several points present themselves as involved in the subject:

1. Spiritual knowledge has been developed gradually to mankind. A law of progressiveness obtains in the moral as well as the material world. Light has advanced from morn to meridian in revelation as in

2. Through all the stages of the growing illumination, God has condemned and punished sinners. Because, he has an original and inde

structible claim on their love, and in the worst conditions of moral ignorance, man has light enough to show him the equity of that claim.

3. Increase of knowledge brings increased obligation, and adds to the guilt of disobedience. If an antediluvian Enoch could walk with God, much more should the contemporaries of Abraham, and Moses, and David, and Isaiah have kept his testimonies. If Sodom, and Nineveh, and Tyre were guilty, much more were Capernaum, and Bethsaida, and Jerusalem.

4. Rebellion against God assumes no form more culpable and fatal than under the Gospel's offered grace. The apostle specifies the reason. It treads under foot the Son of God, in the temper of an indifference to his person, or of hardened hostility against his redemption. It counts the blood of the covenant wherewith he (Jesus) was sanctified (set apart as a victim) an unholy (a common) thing; undervaluing his atonement, and rejecting its proposals of reconciliation. It does despite to the Spirit of grace; grieves and resists him, until this sin becomes the sin unto death, which hath no forgiveness.

Three observations are suggested by this train of thought:

(a) It is proper to show impenitent persons the alarming aspects of their case with utmost faithfulness.

(b) It is safe to make our appeal to the sinner's own conscience, to attest the righteousness of his condemnation.

(c) A most undesirable but unavoidable interview and settlement is hastening between the incorrigibly disobedient and the Lord Jesus Christ. If much requires more, what must be the doom of him who renders no return for richest gifts from God?

"What! could ye not watch with me one hour?"— Matt. xxvi. 40.

OBSERVE what are emphatically the watching hours of the soul. These may be prominently noted:

1. The hour of personal trials ; that, while the waves of trouble roll over it, however terribly, it lose not, like Job, its confidence in God; but still shall sing the psalm of Habakkuk

66

Although the

fig-tree do not blossom. yet will I rejoice in the Lord."

2. The hour of personal temptations; that, though Satan and the flesh renew the scenes of the desert and the mountain, to the Christian, he shall, through Christ's aid, repeat the victory of his Great Exemplar over the subtlety of the Adversary.

3. The hour of general religious declension; that, though all others should deny and desert his Lord, he shall not only say, "Yet will not I be offended"; but shall be found faithful among the faithless.

4. The hour of excessive worldly excitements; that, if the passions of the multitude be aroused to feverish heat, in the pursuit of business, or speculations, or political partisanships, or fashionable follies, or irreligious hatreds, he shall not be floated or forced away from his Christian consistency and steadfastness; shall not be separated from his Master's side.

That Master's pathetic appeal to his unwatchful disciples, furnishes two inducements to us thus to keep alive our vigilance:

(a) "With me." It is still a claim on his disciples' sympathy and sense of honor to sentinel his person and his kingdom amid ever-clustering dangers. At the same time, Christ watches with his friends. It is never a solitary vigil, whether in the wilderness, or on the ocean, in the city, or midst the anguish and faintness of the chamber of disease and death.

(b) "One hour." Only this a little hour of Gethsemane wakefulness and fidelity, for the Christian, and then no more need forever of holy care and guarded defence.

"Because the way is short, I thank thee, God!"

ARTICLE X.

LITERARY NOTICES.

The New American Cyclopædia: a popular Dictionary of General Knowledge. Edited by GEORGE RIPLEY and CHARLES A. DANA. Royal 8vo. Volumes I. - XVI., with a Supplement. New York: D. Appleton & Co. London: 16 Little Britain. 1863.

THE gentlemen engaged in bringing out this work have shown great enterprise in completing so promptly their undertaking amid the embarrassments of the past two years. It was begun less than six years ago, and has been issued at the rate of about two and a half volumes a year. We learn from authentic sources that the capital invested in this literary venture amounts to the formidable sum of $415,000. A