Author
Daniel Dana
Daniel Dana (1771–1859) was an American Congregationalist minister and theologian whose intellectual contributions shaped New England religious thought during the early nineteenth century. As a prominent voice in the Congregationalist tradition, Dana engaged with contemporary theological debates while maintaining orthodox Reformed principles, as evidenced in works such as The Annual Election Sermon. His ministry and writings reflected the broader tensions between traditional Calvinist theology and emerging liberal religious movements that characterized the Second Great Awakening era.
From The Annual Election Sermon
But Christianity, while it promotes and restrains and perpetuates the liberties of a people, is not less decisively favorable to the energy of government. It reminds the citizens that civil rulers, duly elected or appointed, are ordained by God; and that to resist them in the proper exercise of their authority, is to resist the ordinance of God. This, surely, does not invest rulers with omniscience, or infallibility. Still less does it justify or palliate any misuse of their powers. The sacredness of their oflice renders its prostitution but the more criminal. And it would be at once absurd and impious to suppose that the God of heaven will sanction their acts, when they contravene his own authority. Still, the fact, that in the regular and right exercise of their high functions, they act in the name, and by the authority of God, is a fact of great significance. Conscientious…
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