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Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la m^thode. rrata to peiure, nd n 32X 1 2 3 / 1 2 3 4 5 6 i *mn tt n» m mi»mfimimt tm J*aS>Hyiw mvfi>it-^^iiiti<>ft*irW'/iir'imMaos 1 I Belief in God the Essential Condition of National Permanence and Prosperity »>>■ f A Sermon Preached at the Seventy-fourth Annual Meeting of the Congregational Home Missionary Society, at Detroit, Michigan June 5th, 1900 r1^, 3 By Rev. Philip S. Moxom, D.D. jO of Springfield, Mass. The Congregational Home Missionary Society 1900 l .Mlj ! jM' —- — \V .<^ ^^^ ^■^ \^ V-? *7 r» ►»< rr « BELIEF IN GOD THE ESSENTIAL CONDITION OF NATIONAL PERMANENCE AND PROSPERITY. " Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance." Ps. xxxiii : 13. *f J T The real greatness and glory of a nation lie not in its material resources. These are elements of strength or weakness, according to its moral condition. It is as true of a nation as it is of an individual man that its "life consisteth not in the abundance of the things" it possesses. Fe/tile acres and mines of gold and silver and copper and coal and a luxuriant commerce and prosperous industries do not make a people great. The real strength of a state is men, and only character makes men. While ancient Rome had virtue, she u^as both noble and invincible ; when she lost that, her wealth, her provinces and her legions did not avail to prevent her downfall. The rock on which Prince Rupert's cavalry dashed itself to fragments at Marston Moor was the moral character even more than it was the muskets and pikes of Cromwell's Ironsides. It was the character of the patriots who fought under the inspiration of great moral ideas that glorified Lexington and Bunker Hill. Gettysburg was won not merely by bayonets that could think, but by bayonets that had conscience. Battles become crucial experiences in a nation's life when the moral principles of the nation grow incarnate in armies. But as the strength of a man is most thoroughly tested by the steady strain of daily life, so the strength of a nation is tried by the ordeal of prolonged experience. In the growth of laws and manners and institutions, in the evolution of social and political forces, and in the pursuit of dominant aims and ideals, the truth appears that a nation's right and ability to maintain its existence are determined ulti- mately by the presence or want in the hearts of the people of a high moral purpose. To the thoughtful student of history, there is revealed in the pass- ing of the centuries the inevitable execution of God's law that the i morally fittest shall survive. That nation is the greatest, the most tenacious of power and the most permanently influential on the civili- zation of the world, which has the most virtue, the purest manhood and womanhood — in a word, the highest character. Blessed are the people in whom righteousness is regnant ; thus we may render the Psalmist's judgment: "Blessed is thie nation whose God is the Lord." The recognition of this truth, that not material resources, but moral character, is the basic element of national greatness, will impart a higher quality to our instinctive patriotism. While we exult in the richness and splendor of our material possessions, we shall not forget to inquire, with a seriousness that greatly tempers our exultation, whether, along with our increase in wealth and territory, we are pre- serving that vigor of moral life without which the splendor of our material civilization is but the phosphorescence tliat transparently veils putrefaction. There is no graver question of the day than this. There is none beside this, for it includes all others. It has been said that "peace hath her victories no less renowned than war." Peace, too, no less than war, has its perils. There have been nations that came out of the ordeal of war purified and strengthened which yet could not endure the subtler but more searching ordeal of prosperous peace. We are accustomed to speak of our government as having success- fully passed the period of experiment. But there is always the element of experiment in human government. Our heaviest trials are still to come. This modem air is full of sharp solvents, and political, social and religious faiths and institutions must be gold to resist corrosion. And always, over all the play of the disintegrating forces of human conceit and passion and selfishness, is the irresistible movement of "a power not ourselves which makes for righteousness" — a power that is set with steadfast, awful, yet beneficent, rigor aginst iniquity. "Right- eousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people." An inescapable Nemesis follows hard on the track of a nation in which morality decays. "History," said Froude, in one of his ablest and most serious papers, "is a voice forever sounding across the centuries the laws of right and wrong. Opinions alter, manners change, creeds rise and fall, but the moral law is written on the tablets of eternity. For every false word or unrighteous deed, for cruelty and oppression, for lust or vanity, the price has to be paid at last. * * * Justice and truth alone endure and live. Injustice and falsehood may be long- lived, but doomsday comes at last to them, in French revolutions and other terrible ways." the most the civili- ihood and ; thus we on whose irces, but ill impart ult in the lot forget xultation, J are pre- >r of our ;ntly veils •e is none •eace hath less than the ordeal he subtler 3f success- e element re still to :al, social :orrosion. )f human ent of "a er that is . "Right- ?le." An in which and most turies the reeds rise lity. For ssion, for istice and be long- tions and V The course which an inquiry as to the real stability of our nation must take, and the importance of such inquiry, are alike determined by two vitally related propositions. First. The supremacy of the moral sentiment is the essential condition of national permanence and prosperity. Second. Belief in God is necessary to the continued supremacy of the moral sentiment. These propositions I propose briefly to discuss. I. The supremacy ok the moral sentiment is the essential CONDITION OF NATIONAL PERMANENCE AND PROSPERITY. In all human knowledge and experience there is nothing so august as righteousness, and there is nothing so persistent as the pressure of moral obligation. If history proves anything, it proves this: that the nation which sets itself against the demands of moral law has undertaken a task as futile and as fatal as if it should set itself against the momentum of a falling planet. In law, in politics, in commerce, in social customs and in educa- tion, as well as in religion, the moral sentiment — the inward response of man to moral law — is the sound heart of healthy life and the unfail- ing spring of vigor .and strength. I. The supremacy of the moral sentiment is necessary to the ex- istence and execution of just laws. The laws of a land reflect the moral sense of the lawmakers. Civil law is, in large measure, utilitarian. It must be so, for civil law takes cognizance not of sins but of crimes. But at bottom all just civil law rests on the demands of moral law. The specific laws of any age, interpreted by history, are seen to reflect the generic moral preceptions of that age. The execution of law, too, is determined by the average moral character of the people more than it is by their mere intelligence. The working law of a com- munity is a transcript of the public conscience. Hence it is that some- times good laws are a "dead letter." What is it that guarantees the execution of i 'il law? Is it courts and police ? Is it army and navy? No. Mere seii- merest may facilitate the execution of law, but it is the moral sense which the law expresses, and to which in turn the law appeals, that is the chief guaranty of the law's execution. Let the moral sense of a community be broken down or temporarily weakened by passion, and civil anarchy follows as inevitably as the fall of a building follows the undermining of its foundation. Partial and sug- gestive illustrations of this truth are furnished by such events as the well-known riots in New York and Pennsylvania and Ohio and Montana and Illinois. In every center of population there are elements 1 '•t i/^ of lawlessness and forces of evil that are ready to s|)ring into action the moment the moral sense of the community relaxes its vigilance. 2. Political instilntions arc n'isc and beneficent only ivhcn con- science holds the seat of authority in the hearts of the (>eo(>le. We are familiar with complaints of corruption in our politics. Making all possible abatements on account of exaggeration and parti- sanship, we must admit that the complaints are not groundless. Fraud and venality in caucus, in convention, and at the polls have brought the honorable title of "politician" into only too well deserved reproach. Jobbery in Congress and State Legislatures and municipal councils and partisanship in courts have made some ugly chapters in our nistory. From what source do these evils come? From ignorance? In large part, without doubt. From defects in political method? To a con- siderable degree. But we must confess that the chief source is in the mass of the people. The presence of demagogues and spoilsmen in the councils of the Nation is symptomatic. They would not be there if the popular conscience were not dull. There is no justification of the pessimism in which many indulge with reference to our political lendencies. A reasonable familiarity with our political history will convince one that the present compares favorably with the past. But many features of local politics in our country to-day emphasize the need of more conscience in the discharge of political duties. The moral sentiment must become more and more the controlling force in the selection of candidates for office, in voting, and in the exercise of all political functions. The main evil is im- morality. We need a revival of political righteousness. Our whole political system must be freshly ensouled with a vigorous moral senti- ment, or evils will breed evils until retribution comes with fiery storm of revolution and carnage to purge away the sins of the people. 3. Commerce is dependent for its security and permanent exten- sion on the supremacy of the moral sentiment. The priestly writer of the exile, describing the creation of a co- herent and disciplined people out of a horde of Hebrew freedmen 'by Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, undoubtedly commits an anachronism in ascribing to Moses a law that could have significance only in a set- tled and commercial nation; but he formulates an ethical principle which had been taught in the divine school of experience : "Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, with mete-yard, with weight, or^ with measure. Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin shall ye have."* The prophet Micah and the DcUeronomist de- nounce deceitful measures, and in Proverbs false weights are spoken of as "an abomination to the Lord." ito action filance. vhcn coH' r politics, and parti- is. Fraud e brought reproach, uncils and ir nistory. In large lo a con- Lirce is in oilsmen in it be there ly indulge familiarity compares ics in our discharge and more in voting, ;vil is im- 3ur whole loral senti- lery storm pie. lent exten- n of a co- eedmen 'by lachronism y in a set- 1 principle "Ye shall weight, or^ and a just nomist de- are spoken i, It is not more certain that God sets his face against all sin than it is that immorality in trade invites an V ' "\