Problems of Statecraft

HIS EXCELLENCY JOHN D. LONG, HIS HONOR BYRON WESTON, THE HONORABLE COUNCIL, AND THE LEGISLATURE OF MASSACHUSETTS, AT THE ANNUAL ELECTION , KING'S CHAPEL , BOSTON , Wednesday, January 3, 1883. BY Robert R, Meredith, D, D„ Phillips Church, Boston. BOSTON : WRIGHT & POTTER PRINTING CO., STATE PRINTERS, 18 Post Office Square. 1883. <P<RO<BLEMS OF STATE LIFE. A SERMON HIS EXCELLENCY JOHN D. LONG, HIS HONOR BYRON WESTON, THE HONORABLE COUNCIL, AND THE LEGISLATURE OF MASSACHUSETTS, AT THE ANNUAL ELECTION , KING'S CHAPEL, BOSTON, Wednesday, January 3, 1883. BY Robert R, Meredith, D, D„ Phillips Church, Boston. BOSTON : WRIGHT & POTTER PRINTING CO., STATE PRINTERS, 18 Post Office Square. 1883. ) '• 7 Jn 5 i/f i fiEommantoealtj} of lltass&cfwsttts. House of Representatives, Boston, Jan. 31, 1883. Rev. R. R. Meredith, D.D. : Dear Sir, — The Joint Committee on Printing having recommended the publication of two thousand extra copies of the very excellent election sermon delivered by you before the Executive and Legislative branches of the State Government, and the Honorable Senate and the House of Representatives having adopted their recommendation, I am instructed by the Committee to respectfully ask of you the manu- script of said sermon, that the intention of the Legislature may be fulfilled by its publication and circulation. Very respectfully, ALBERT TYLER, Clerk of Joint Printing Committee. Boston, Feb. 17, 1883. My Dear Sir, — Thanking the Committee for the recommendation, the Senate and House of Representatives for the honor conferred upon me by their vote, and yourself for your courtesy in communi- cating their request, I herewith place in your hands the manuscript of the election sermon, preached in King’s Chapel, on Jan. 3, 1883. Your obedient servant, Mr. Albert Tyler, Clerk of Joint Committee on Printing. R. R. MEREDITH. SERMON. “ Righteousness exalteth a nation : but sin is a reproach TO ANY PEOPLE.” — Pl'OV. xiv. 34. In this good old Commonwealth, as fully per- haps as in any known to history, the conception of a “ government of the people, by the people, for the people ” is realized and illustrated. The very success which has been achieved in this direction has become a temptation. We are in danger of forgetting, so complete is the rule of the people, that they do not govern in their own right, — that civil government is an ordinance of God, who is the primal source of all its authority. We need to read often and ponder seriously the words of holy writ: “ Let every soul be in subjection to the higher powers, for there is no power but of God; and the powers that be are ordained of God. Therefore, he that resisteth the power withstand- eth the ordinance of God: and they that withstand Election Sermon. shall receive to themselves judgment.” If the people govern, they do so by virtue of a delegated authority. The state, equally with the family and the church, is a divine institution, and with them is in some form necessary to the existence of soci- ety, as society is essential to the progress, the happiness, and even the existence of the race. They who are chosen to enact or to execute the laws of the state are, by virtue of such election, constituted “ ministers of God,” under a most solemn responsibility, not to a human constitu- ency merely, but to the “ King of kings and Lord of lords.” There is, therefore, an eminent fitness in this custom, peculiar to Massachusetts, born of the piety of her founders, and perpetuated now through two and a half centuries, according to which we are assembled in this venerable house of worship, at the opening of another civic year, to make our acknowledgments to Almighty God, to invoke his blessing, and to listen to his Word. In the endeavor to turn this service to practi- cal account, it cannot be inappropriate or wholly without profit to consider, in a cursory way, the nature and comprehensiveness of the corporate Election Sermon. life of our State, that we may be able more clearly to see what are the most pressing and important of the problems which wait for solution at the hands of those who are charged with the admin- istration of our State affairs. And as the well- being of a Commonwealth like this covers a broad field, and embraces a great diversity of interests, we shall find it helpful to study it, partially at least, in the materials and conditions of individual well-being. Aristotle’s wise saying, “ The nature of a thing is best seen in its smallest portions,” finds illustration here. What is true of men as individuals must be true of the same men as mem- bers of the social compact. The distinction be- tween organic and individual life, if, indeed, there be any distinction, is exceedingly fine. We can hardly conceive of a community apart from the individuals who compose it. So we cannot sepa- rate the character of the State from the character of those who make up the State. Paralyze the industry of men as individuals, and you dry up the resources of the community; depress the tone of morals universally, and you have a wide-spread scene of national degeneracy; and whatever influ- ence predominates, so as to regulate the feelings, Election Sermon . aims and pursuits of men, must determine the organic character of the commonwealth to which they belong. Whatever is essential to the well- being of the individual is also, in some sort, a condition of the public good. Understanding the one, we have a key to the other. The truth is trite that man exists in a threefold condition. He has a physical, a mental and a moral nature — is at once material, intellectual and spiritual. The elements of his well-being are to be found in both the material and the spiritual worlds, and to both he stands intimately related. …