Christianity a National Law

CHBISTIAUITY .A. UATIOl^AL LA"W. ELECTION SERMON PREACHED BEFORE THE nttuim mi w%%%M\m Icpssmeise GOVERNMENT OF MASSACHUSETTS, HOLLIS STREET CHURCH, BOSTOX, Wednesday, January 7, 1874. By RICHARD GLEASON GREENE. BOSTON: WRIGHT & POTTER, STATE PRINTERS, Corner Milk and Federal Streets. 1874. dommonfoealtlj of iWassacfjusetts, House of Representatives, January 19, 1874. The Committee on Election Sermon, to whom was intrusted the duty of presenting the thanks of this House to the Rev. Richard G. Greene for his able and eloquent discourse, beg leave to report that they have attended to that duty, and have the pleasure of presenting a copy of the discourse for publication. Per order, GEO. J. SANGER. J. F. MOORS. JOSEPH E. FISKE. Springfield, Mass., January 14, 1874. Gentlemen :— Thanking the House of Representatives for the honor which they confer upon me by their vote and request, as transmitted through your esteemed hands, I herewith place at your disposal the manuscript of the recent Election Sermon. Your obedient servant, RICHARD G. GREENE. To Messrs. Geo. J. Sanger, J. F. Moors, Joseph E. Fiske, Coynmittee of House of Representatives of Massachusetts. dommonfoealtfj of sHasigarfjttgett*. House of Representatives, January 20, 1874. Ordered, That three thousand copies of the Sermon preached by the Rev. Richard G. Greene he printed, under the direction of the Committee on Printing, for the use of the executive and legislative branches of the government. GEO. A. HARDEN, Clerk. S E R M O N . " GENERATION, SEE YE THE WORD OF THE LORD. HAVE I BEEN A WILDERNESS unto Israel ? a land of darkness ? Wherefore say my people, We are lords; we will come no more unto Thee?" — Jeremiah ii., 31One of the questions prominent in the public thought of to-day, concerns the relation of Christianity and civil government in our land. It is a vast question, having its references to wide fields of history and political economy, and involving profound problems of ethics and statesmanship. It is, moreover, an urgent question, crowded by popular pressure through many sidechannels of debate, and, by the same pressure, — the atmospheric pressure of our new social life, — driveii imperiously toward its main and ultimate issue. This main issue is not to be evaded; it cannot be much longer postponed by either the State or the Church. To bring some considerations on this theme so momentous, so difficult, and already so involved with partisanship, 8 Christianity a National Law. may, through your patience, be permitted to a humble minister of Jesus Christ, honored by the Civil Power with a call to stand and utter such message as the Lord gives him, in this dignified presence, and in that noble succession of preachers who have adorned this usage of our fathers. Yet, so undeveloped must be the thoughts advanced in this brief hour, that they can claim to be nothing more than suggestions, whose incompleteness opens them to easy misconstruction; in view of which fact it is encouraging to reflect that the wise need no man to come and do their thinking for them, but can use even feeble hints as materials for the fabric of their opinion. Is Christianity to be recognized as standing in any organic and legal connection, whatever, with our civil government? You must have noticed that the answers to this question from the high places of both the State and the Church, are different to-day from the answers given by our fathers, or even from those of less than a score of years since. The public drift, already strong toward utter separateness in the administration of these two great elements, is setting in with increasing power in each successive year. The question now wakes negative answers on all Christianity a National Law. 9 sides, like echoes, — fervent negatives from the Pulpit, learned negatives from the Bench, crisp negatives from the Press, thunderous negatives from the Political Rostrum. It is not for us to assert that the very soul of wisdom, wandering through dry places, seeking rest and finding none, has not at last housed itself fitly within the body of these answers; but we may take liberty of noting that not always do these swift, popular, easy answers of the day fit the great question which we are impelled to ask. There may be a fair body and a proper soul, yet not the man who was summoned. Thus, when it is asked by earnest men, "Is Christianity to have any recognized administration in our civil government?" it will not suffice to cast up coruscating negatives to the questions whether there shall be persecution for opinion's sake ; whether there shall be a usurpation of the liberty of conscience ; whether there shall be a union of Church (meaning a sect) and State ; whether it be fit or safe for the State to teach a theology ; whether the nation shall be compelled to enact the dumb show of a formal compliment in recognition of God by crowding his great name edgewise into its Constitution. All these questions 10 Christianity a National Law. may be magnificently answered on any Fourth of July, before, applauding crowds ; and yet the passing years that bring all nations under heaven to stern, inevitable account at last before the bar of human conscience, and in the presence of the Eternal God, may be sad witnesses to the neglect of this nation to answer aright on a point involving its very existence. Let us reduce to its lowest terms the whole problem of the relation of State and Religion; let us discharge from it all side-issues ; let us put it into words specific enough to point us to some definite principle, yet generic and flexible enough to allow a wide diversity of methods for the wisdom of statesmanship; let us — let the people — stand and answer like men, whether Christianity is to have any recognized administration in civil government in this LAND. …