THE RELATIONS 
 
 OF 
 
 CHRISTIANITY TO LAW 
 
 AND 
 
 THE LEGAL PROFESSION. 
 
 A DISCOURSE. 
 
 KEY. E. P. EOGERS, 
 
 PASTOR OF THE FIRST I'liEsB VTERIiN CHURCH, AUGUSTA. GA. 
 
 CHARLESTON: 
 
 STEAM POWER-PRESS OF WALKER AND JAMES. 
 1852.
 
 T
 
 TO THE 
 
 AUGUSTA BAR, 
 
 MANY OF WHOSE MEMBERS ARE AMONG THE AUTHOR'S CONGREGATION, AND OF THE 
 NUMBER OF HIS MOST VALUED PERSONAL FRIENDS, 
 
 THIS DISCOURSE 
 
 IS 
 
 RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 IT may be proper to state that this Discourse was prepared for the Author's con- 
 gregation, among whom are a large number of highly respectable members of the 
 Legal Profession. It was, subsequently, preached before the Governor and members 
 of the Legislature of Georgia, during the late session at Milled geville. The sub- 
 stance of it has also appeared in the form of an Essay, in the Southern Presbyterian 
 Review for October, 1851. The kind reception with which it has met, and the 
 suggestions of valued friends, that it might be more extensively useful in this form, 
 must be the Authors apology for thus presenting it to the public. 
 
 The Author begs leave to acknowledge his obligations to the able productions of 
 Rev. Dr. Spring of New-York, Rev. Dr. Boardman of Philadelphia, and Samuel 
 Warren, Esq., of London, for valuable assistance in the preparation of this Dis- 
 course. E. P. R. 
 
 AUGUSTA, JAN. 1852.
 
 DISCOURSE. 
 
 Romans 3 : 31. " Do we then make void the law through faith \ God forbid 1 
 Tea, we establish the law." 
 
 IN these words the great Apostle paid his impressive tri- 
 bute, as a Christian, to the ancient moral law. It had been 
 said by cavillers against the Gospel, that the revelation of a 
 new ground of justifying man, other than by his own obe- 
 dience to the law, was calculated to weaken its force, and 
 sully its glory. . The Apostle repels this insinuation, as to the 
 licentious tendency of the doctrine of Justification by Faith, 
 and shows conclusively, that it tended rather to exalt and 
 commend the law to the reverence and obedience of every 
 true and pious heart. The truth, that its claims were satis- 
 fied with nothing less than the obedience, sufferings and death 
 of the Son of God, who honored it alike by his life of obe- 
 dience, and his death of agony and shame ; and the truth, 
 that faith in Christ, and love for him, leads every believer to 
 reverence more sacredly, and obey more scrupulously, all its 
 requirements, both testify to the influence of the Gospel upon 
 the law, and prove, that instead of making it void, it estab- 
 lished it on an immoveable, and everlasting, and glorious 
 foundation. 
 
 But while the system of religion taught by our Saviour and 
 his inspired Apostles, is not in opposition to the divine code, 
 known as the moral law, neither is it opposed to the science 
 of human jurisprudence. Nowhere is human law so well 
 defined, respected and obeyed ; nowhere does it so fully carry 
 out its noble mission, as :he guardian of human rights, and 
 the defender of man's dearest interests, as where Christiani-
 
 8 
 
 ty is most widely diffused among the people. Those who are 
 the most zealous advocates for the support of law and the 
 maintenance of public justice, who cultivate and uphold a 
 law-loving and law-abiding spirit in the community, are not 
 the vicious, and depraved, and abandoned portion of the peo- 
 ple, but they are the sober, the virtuous, the godly those 
 who reverence the divine, and therefore are bound to respect 
 the human, law. And if the Genius of lawlessness and an- 
 archy would seek to establish her reign of terror in the state, 
 and trample beneath her feet the dearest rights of men, her 
 first blow should be levelled against the religion of the Bible, 
 for nothing would prove such an insuperable obstacle to her 
 progress, as the conservatism of piety. Faith must be abol- 
 ished, if men would make void even Human Law. 
 
 One great distinction between a Christian and a Heathen 
 nation, is the enthronement of Law, in its majesty, among 
 the people, and the regular, unfettered, impartial administra- 
 tion of justice. In such a land, the science of jurisprudence 
 will be honored as one of the noblest of the sciences, and 
 the legal profession, whose vocation it is to expound and ap- 
 ply its principles, will be deservedly regarded as one of the 
 most honorable and important of all earthly vocations. It is 
 well said by an eminent English jurist and author,* " that the 
 due discharge of the varied, arduous and responsible duties 
 of the lawyer, his intellectual and moral fitness for his pro- 
 fession, is a matter of vital concernment to society at large ; 
 to every individual in the community, from peer to peasant ; 
 nay, from the august occupant of the throne, down to the 
 very humblest subject in her dominions." And a distinguish- 
 ed divine of our own countryf also remarks with truth, that 
 " the moral character of the Bar, no less than its character 
 for learning and ability, is a matter of deep and universal 
 concern. It is not a matter, Gentlemen of the Bar," says he, 
 "which pertains merely to your reputation as individuals, 
 nor to the relations between yourselves and your clients. 
 Even if it were, it might be pertinent to ask, who are your 
 clients ? For the purposes of this argument, the whole com- 
 
 * Samuel Warren, F.R.S., of the Inner Temple, London, 
 t Rev. Dr. Boardman, of Philadelphia.
 
 munity are your clients. There'is no citizen, however hum- 
 ble, or however exalted, who may not at any time become 
 your client. There is not one among our honorable and opu- 
 lent merchants, among the ministers of religion, among the 
 able and upright jurists who preside over your own courts ; 
 nay, not one among our refined and gentle females, our moth- 
 ers, wives, and daughters, who may not on any day be com- 
 pelled to invoke your protection. You are the conservators 
 of our property, of our liberty, our lives, our characters, the 
 guardians of our fire-sides, the defenders of our altars. Have 
 we no stake, then, in your character ? Have we no right to 
 insist, that a profession which is the depositary of our most 
 sacred earthly interests, shall omit nothing that may help to 
 qualify them for their high trust ? that they shall not only 
 make themselves masters of their noble science, in its princi- 
 ples and its technicalities, but cultivate those elevated moral 
 sentiments which alone can assure us that our confidence 
 will not be misplaced?" 
 
 The Bar, likewise, in all civilized countries, and especially 
 in our own, is the royal road to distinction in the state. Law- 
 yers are the leading men, generally, in all public movements, 
 and exert a greater influence than any other class of men, in 
 guiding and controlling the public mind. They are at the 
 head of our parties, they are usually the selected orators in 
 our popular assemblies, they shape the course of our legisla- 
 tive bodies, they fill the chairs of state, and bear the insignia 
 of office ; they are, in a word, our public men. They direct 
 the councils and policy of the nation, they are often our re- 
 presentatives at foreign courts, and have our national honor 
 in their keeping. Surely it cannot be a matter of too great 
 importance, that the legal profession be qualified to discharge 
 its high behests, in such a manner as to be at once the orna- 
 ment and the safeguard of the state. 
 
 In considering the relations of Revealed Religion to Juris- 
 prudence, it will be pertinent to glance briefly at the history 
 of Legal Science.* 
 
 It is an interesting fact, that the first written code of law 
 
 * See Springs' " Obligations of the World to the Bible," to whose able lecture 
 on Legislative Science, the author is indebted for valuable aid.
 
 10 
 
 ever delivered to any people, is found in the Holy Scriptures. 
 The Mosaic code, delivered by the great Legislator of the 
 Universe to His ancient people, is the first published code 
 which the history of the world has recorded ; and, it may be 
 remarked, that it is a very perfect system of law. We know 
 that it has been said, that in the early history of our race, 
 when the state of human society was ruder, their manners 
 simpler, and the whole social structure less complicated and 
 ramified than in later days, codes of law were necessarily 
 rude and simple, and that the science of jurisprudence, like 
 other sciences, has been enlarged and improved from age to 
 age, as the wants of society demanded, and increasing civili- 
 zation and refinement ensured. It is undoubtedly true, that 
 great additions have beea made to this science in the pro- 
 gress of time, and that the application of its principles has 
 been extended over a vastly wider range. Mercantile Law 
 has had its origin and made its progress since the Mosaic 
 code was published, for the ancient Hebrews were not to any 
 extent a commercial, but an agricultural people. And the 
 isolated character of the Hebrew commonwealth would, 
 doubtless, leave much for after ages to add in the form of 
 International Law. The condition of different countries, 
 too, would call for special enactments, appropriate to those 
 countries. But when you look at the great principles of le- 
 gal science, the genius of human jurisprudence, you will find 
 them in that first great code which the ancient Hebrew Pa- 
 triarch received from the hand of the Almighty, amid the 
 thunders and lightnings of Sinai. 
 
 Foremost in that code, coming with all the authority of the 
 Legislator of Heaven, stands The Moral Law. 
 
 This wonderful and comprehensive code is not, as some 
 have asserted, a system for the government of individual con- 
 duct, in which the Divine Being, or conscience, his vice-ge- 
 rent in the human heart, alone sits as Judge. It is true that 
 this law has to do with the relations which man sustains to 
 the moral government of God ; that it concerns the inner as 
 well as the outer life of men ; that it extends its sceptre into 
 that mysterious mental and moral realm, over whose affairs 
 human law has no jurisdiction, and issues mandates which
 
 , 11 
 
 earthly tribunals cannot enforce. But it is no less true, ac- 
 cording to an able writer,* that it lays down principles and 
 rules for men in communities and states, which are essential 
 to their very existence, which indeed lie at the foundation of 
 human society. No social organization, he remarks, could 
 exist, much less could it advance and secure the best interests 
 of men, which was not based upon the statutes of the Moral 
 Law. These statutes are, in fact, but the embodiment of 
 those immutable and eternal principles of right and wrong, 
 to which God himself always conforms, and which are desig- 
 nated by writers on Jurisprudence, as the " Law of Nature." 
 This moral law " is founded in those relations of justice, that 
 existed in the nature of things antecedent to any positive 
 precept." The things which it requires are right, and those 
 which it forbids are wrong, by the universal, immutable ver- 
 dict of reason, of man's natural constitution, as well as by 
 the various codes of all but the most barbarous and degraded 
 of the nations of the earth. All the enactments of human 
 law, respecting man's duties to his fellow-man, spring from 
 this code, and to this they owe all their force. The crimes 
 of murder, of theft, of adultery, of perjury, are prohibited 
 and punished by human law, but they only re-echo the con- 
 demnation of the divine code. Human legislation can add 
 nothing to the unlawfulness of those offences. It arises out 
 of their being in opposition, to the laws of God, and this in- 
 trinsic unlawfulness cannot be affected by human enact- 
 ments. All the legislation on earth could not take away the 
 moral turpitude from murder, nor make it right for a man to 
 rob his fellow of his money or his good name. The Divine 
 code has made it wrong, the law of nature asserts boldly its 
 unlawfulness, and human jurisprudence can only add its 
 feeble assent to these majestic enunciations. 
 
 And when we examine those three general precepts so fa- 
 mous in human jurisprudence, to which the Emperor Justi- 
 nian, in the sixth century, reduced " the whole doctrine of 
 Law," " honeste vivere, alterum non ladere, suum cuique tri- 
 buere" what is there here but the very spirit of the moral 
 code of the ancient Hebrew legislator ? Let these precepts 
 
 * Dr. Spring.
 
 12 
 
 be carried out into practice, and what statute of that code 
 would not be observed ? Ancient and venerable as are the 
 Institutes of Justinian, there is an earlier and more authori- 
 tative system than his; and for his three great principles, 
 which are so often quoted by the expounders of human codes, 
 we must go back not only five hundred years to the God- 
 man Christ Jesus, and his heavenly teachings, but we must 
 travel across the waste of twenty centuries, and behold the 
 hoary patriarch of Israel receiving them from the hand of 
 Jehovah, on the trembling and smoking mountain. 
 
 But when we examine the civil code of the ancient He- 
 brews, we shall still find that the fundamental principles of 
 all wise legislation, and the basis of the science of jurispru- 
 dence, is contained in that first written code of laws known 
 to history. Dr. Spring, in his lecture on " TJie obligations of 
 Legislative Science to the Bible" has specified various partic- 
 ulars in which the Mosaic laws have not been surpassed by 
 the enactments of any succeeding code, especially in respect 
 to personal rights, and the transactions of ordinary life. 
 Says he, " the caution with which the Mosaic laws prevent- 
 ed the accumulation of debt ; the fidelity w r ith which they 
 required the restoration of lost property ; the restoring of 
 property which was injured, or stolen, in the lormer case, to 
 the full amount of its original value, and in the latter, to 
 double that amount, and the distinctness and simplicity of 
 the law of bailment, are replete with instruction to every 
 succeeding generation of men. Any man who carefully 
 reads that beautiful treatise of Sir William Jones on this last 
 subject, will see that all the leading principles of the law of 
 bailment, there illustrated, are found in the law of Moses. 
 In the Mosaic code you find the following law in relation to 
 injuries arising from carelessness and inattention : " If a man 
 shall open a pit, or if a man shall dig a pit, and shall not 
 cover it, and an ox or an ass fall therein, the owner of the 
 pit shall make it good, and give money unto the owner of 
 them ; and the dead beast shall be his. And if one man's 
 ox hurt another's that he die, then they shall sell the live ox 
 and divide the money of it ; and the dead ox also they shall 
 divide." (Exodus, 21 : 33, 35.) This law contains the germ
 
 13 
 
 of all the existing refinements of the law of injuries arising 
 from want of care, and those arising without fault. There 
 is a nice equity in this law, where upon payment for the 
 damages ' the beast shall be his' who was the occasion of the 
 injury. The division of the loss, too, where neither party is 
 in fault, is a very refined notion of equity. It is the rule at the 
 present day, in the case of the collision of ships, and is both 
 more equitable and more tender than leaving the loss upon 
 that party who, by accident, first sustains it. Dividing the 
 loss also greatly diminished the temptation to quarrel about 
 the probable fault, and to prevent litigation, and this is a 
 cardinal object of all wise governments. * * * The law 
 of depositaries, or the law concerning property given in 
 charge for safe keeping, is not to be surpassed for wisdom 
 and equity : and all the refinements of the law to this day, 
 do not carry the principle any farther. No rule of damages, 
 in cases of seduction, is so wise as^that in the law of Moses. 
 It is the usual one lawyers now present to juries, where the 
 case is one of real deception. These, and other similar laws, 
 are expressive of great wisdom, and have been uniformly 
 honored by all wise and benevolent legislators." 
 
 History, too, according to Dr. S., testifies to the obligations 
 which modern jurisprudence owes to that code of law of 
 which we speak. It cannot be doubted, that the surround- 
 ing nations \vere acquainted with the Jewish code of laws. 
 Egypt, Persia, and Greece herself, felt the influence of that 
 code. Many points of resemblance, between the laws of the 
 Hebrews and those of the Greeks, have been traced out by 
 learned writers. Not to speak of others, it may be interest- 
 ing to mention, that in the history of the common law of 
 England, written by that eminent jurist, Sir Matthew Hale, 
 it is declared, that there is almost an exact resemblance be- 
 tween the codes in these two nations in regard to the law of 
 descents. 
 
 The Roman faw, which was collected and reduced to sys- 
 tem under the direction of the Emperor Justinian, is the foun- 
 dation of modern civil jurisprudence. No pains were spared 
 in its compilation and arrangements. The regal constitu- 
 tions of their ancient kings, the twelve tables of the decem-
 
 14 
 
 viri, the edicts of the praetors, and the opinions of learned 
 lawyers were examined, and from their immense stores the 
 " body of the civil law" was formed. But it is a matter of 
 history, that when the twelve tables were formed, the laws 
 of Greece were carefully examined, and the element infused 
 into the Grecian codes from that of Moses, doubtless thus 
 found its way into the Roman law. 
 
 In the History of the Fall of the Roman Empire, by Sis- 
 mondi, it is said that when Alfred the Great, who, as is well 
 known, collected a portion of the common law of England, 
 "caused a republication of Saxon laws, he inserted several 
 laws, taken from the Jewish ritual, into his statutes, as if 
 to give new strength and cogency to the principles of morali- 
 ty." " And hence," says Dr. S., "it is no uncommon thing in 
 the early English reporters, to find frequent references to the 
 Mosaic law." Sismondi also states, he continues, that one 
 of the first acts of the clergy under Pepin and Charlemagne 
 of France, was to introduce into the legislation of the Franks, 
 several of the Mosaic laws found in the books of Deuterono- 
 my and Leviticus. The learned Michaelis, who was professor 
 of law in the University of Gottingen, remarks, " that a man 
 who considers law philosophically, who would survey them 
 with the eye of a Montesquieu, would never overlook the 
 laws of Moses. And one of the most distinguished states- 
 men of our own country, whose name will always live in 
 American history, the celebrated Fisher Ames, remarked 
 that " no man could be a sound lawyer, who was not well 
 read in the laws of Moses." 
 
 It thus appears that Legal Science is under peculiar obli- 
 gations to the Bible and the Christian religion ; that it is in- 
 debted to Divine Revelation for the very principles and ge- 
 nius of its institutions. The highest glory of Human Law is, 
 that it is the reflection of the Divine ; faint indeed, and far 
 ess glorious than its original, yet irradiated with splendors 
 from its heavenly source, which justly command our admira- 
 tion and respect. 
 
 If this be so, then the Bible should find its warmest friends 
 and supporters among the members of the legal profession. 
 It should be regarded indeed as a text book, wherein the
 
 15 
 
 principles of that noble science, of which they are the ex- 
 pounders and administrators, are laid down and enforced with 
 all the authority of Divinity. Containing the first code 
 of law which was ever recognized among men, and which 
 came from the hand of a Divine Legislator, embodying prin- 
 ciples which have largely entered into the various systems 
 of human jurisprudence, and reflecting upon them something 
 of the grandeur and dignity of the Divine Original, it is 
 worthy to be had in the highest reverence and admiration by 
 that important and honorable profession whose relations and 
 duties are now under consideration. 
 
 But we think that the Bible is worthy of such respect and 
 admiration, because of the special honor which it seems to 
 do to the legal profession. The most superficial reader of 
 its pages cannot have failed to notice that frequent allusion 
 is made to the forms and proceedings of legal tribunals, as 
 well representing that most august and solemn transaction 
 to which all human life is tending, and upon which all the 
 events which are transpiring around us, are exerting a most 
 important influence. There is a scene which is to be enact- 
 ed before the moral universe, of which no type or representa- 
 tion could be found, save in the solemnities and forms of a 
 court of justice. The Judge is to be seated on the Bench, 
 arrayed in all the dignity and majesty of that position, and 
 to conduct the trial of the world according to the principles 
 and requirements of an infinite and eternal Law. The indi- 
 viduals to be tried are to appear before the tribunal. The 
 law is there, the evidence is there, recorded in massive vol- 
 umes then to be opened, for the acquittal or condemnation of 
 those who are on trial. It is, to our mind, a circumstance 
 worthy of notice, that the Holy Scriptures, when they would 
 represent the most solemn and momentous transaction in 
 which men can be engaged, and shadow it forth in a most 
 striking and impressive form, should have selected a scene 
 with which the members of the legal profession are most fa- 
 miliar, and in which they are most frequently the actors. 
 This could never have been the case were this profession an 
 unnecessary and injurious one to the interests of human so- 
 ciety, or the scenes of its practice other than solemn and ira-
 
 16 
 
 pressive. It may indeed be the case that our courts are bur- 
 dened with much unnecessary and frivolous litigation. But 
 he who can be indifferent to the scenes which are sometimes 
 enacted there, when man's dearest interests are involved in 
 the issue, must have lost his sensibility to all that is solemn 
 and overwhelming in interest and impressiveness. When 
 we see an earthly tribunal sitting in judgment upon the case 
 of an individual whose life is at stake, it is to us a fitting 
 type of that tremendous scene which is to be presented at 
 the last great day. The position and office of the Judge ac- 
 quires additional solemnity and dignity in our estimation, as 
 we remember that the Holy Scriptures make Him a type of 
 that Great Being who shall sit upon " the great white throne," 
 and "judge the world in righteousness." The office of the 
 Advocate also gathers fresh claims to our consideration when 
 we recall that language of the inspired Apostle which de- 
 clares that " if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the 
 Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous." The whole scene gath- 
 ers force and impressiveness from the consideration that the 
 Divine Spirit has used it in the sacred volume to describe 
 and image forth that most stupendous transaction which the 
 universe is to behold the final judgment. 
 
 And if this be so, if the Divine Spirit has singled out 
 from among all the scenes which are enacted among men, 
 those \vhich lie in the daily path of the legal profession, and 
 in which they are the principal actors, to represent that event 
 to which all the providences of God, and all the actions of 
 men, are tending, which is to be the winding up of the affairs 
 of Time, and the opening of the unchanging destinies of 
 Eternity it is to us no slight tribute to the dignity and the 
 majesty of earthly tribunals, and to those who are called to 
 administer their lofty behests. Their character should ever 
 be such as to make them worthy of the sublime association. 
 
 It has also seemed to us that the members of the legal 
 profession were under peculiar obligation to examine fairly 
 into the divine claims of Christianity. The very nature of 
 their profession leads them to habits of the nicest investi- 
 gation, and the most rigid scrutiny of evidence. Testimony 
 is everything with them. We are not insensible to the
 
 17 
 
 power and value of eloquence in our tribunals of law. We 
 have listened with admiration to an earnest and impassioned 
 advocate, in his plea for an unfortunate client whose liberty 
 or life was in danger. We have seen the rapt attention^of 
 bench, bar, jury, and spectators the breathless silence the 
 rapidly-varying expression the deep-drawn sigh yea, the 
 sob the tear that testified to the power of the speaker, as 
 he touched with a master-hand the deepest chords within 
 the soul, and swept them at his pleasure. We know that 
 some of the noblest efforts of genius, and some of the finest 
 specimens of eloquence, have graced the annals of tribunals 
 of law. But even in these cases, the foundation of the 
 masterly argument the vivid description the thrilling ap- 
 peal, was the evidence ; and the great effort of the advocate 
 was to place that before the minds of his auditors, and give 
 it a thousand voices, that it might speak conviction either of 
 the guilt or innocence of his client, to the minds of those 
 who were the arbiters of his destiny. To place the evidence 
 clearly before the jury to sift it thoroughly and keenly to 
 examine and cross-examine, until everything which has a 
 direct or remote bearing upon the case, is brought out as 
 clearly and unequivocally as possible, " hie labor, hoc opus 
 est" in conducting a case. Therefore lawyers, from the 
 very nature of their profession, should and do attach great 
 weight to evidence, and make it a principle to take nothing 
 for granted. But the system of Christianity is one which 
 proffers its high claims to universal reception upon the in- 
 fallible evidence which it adduces. It asks nothing at the 
 hands of man but a thorough examination of that evidence. 
 It invites the most rigid, and only asks that it be a candid 
 scrutiny. The testimony of miracles, of prophecy, of the 
 noble and exalted system of morals it proposes the perfect 
 agreement of all parts of its great text-book with each 
 other, and with profane history the character of the writers, 
 and the moral effects which it has produced upon the world ; 
 this chain of testimony, which has stood the assaults of un- 
 believers for two thousand years, and of which not a link is 
 broken, Christianity offers to the world. Who then so fitted, 
 by the very nature of their daily avocations, to examine and 
 2
 
 18 
 
 feel the force of the evidences of Christianity, as the mem- 
 bers of the legal profession? There never was a case adju- 
 dicated in a court, where the evidence was as conclusive 
 and overwhelming as that which Christianity adduces ; and 
 she appeals with peculiar force to those who are, by the 
 very nature of their profession, fitted to appreciate and in- 
 vestigate claims thus presented and supported. To be an 
 unbeliever in Christianity, then, seems to be peculiarly in- 
 consistent in a member of the legal profession. To reject a 
 system which challenges the nicest scrutiny of the evidence 
 which supports it, and presents a chain of testimony which 
 would carry instant conviction to the minds of any unpre- 
 judiced tribunal, is unworthy of those who are accustomed 
 daily to the examination of evidence with careful scrutiny, 
 and the most minute and thorough investigation, and to 
 base their opinions, and their line of action, upon the results 
 of such examination. Let lawyers give to the evidences of 
 Christianity the same scrutiny, subject them to the same 
 searching process, examine and cross-examine with the 
 same critical acumen which they display in the conduct of 
 their cases in the courts, and they will be convinced that 
 Christianity has fully established her case, and that the evi- 
 dences of her divine character cannot be invalidated. 
 
 Again : To be not only a believer in Christianity, but 
 practically to honor its claims in daily life, seems to be, in a 
 peculiar sense, binding upon the members of that profession, 
 whose obligations and duties we are considering. They are 
 the guardians, defenders, expounders, and administrators of 
 the law. They are sworn to maintain and advance the inte- 
 rests of truth and justice. They are to see that the good 
 are protected, and that the bad are punished. Every kind 
 of crime is to be by them rebuked, and its perpetrators held 
 up to deserved reprobation. The dearest earthly interests 
 of society are to be protected by them, and, in fine, there is 
 no class of men on earth, except the ministers of the gospel, 
 who are called to such a noble and important vocation. 
 But does it not seem to be a striking inconsistency, that he 
 who is set for the maintenance and observance of human, 
 should himself be a violator of the divine, law ? Does it not
 
 19 
 
 seem to be in the highest degree consistent with his profes- 
 sional obligations and responsibilities, that he who is the 
 expounder and minister of that law which has been well 
 said by Mr. Warren to be " that power by which civil 
 society is constituted and sustained in existence, overpower- 
 ing the unruly elements of our fallen nature ; with heaven- 
 born energy converting the savage into the citizen, making 
 the wilderness to bloom and blossom as the rose, redolent of 
 the balmy air of peace and order, and surrounding its con- 
 fines with impregnable bulwarks against brute force and 
 arbitrary will ;" does it not, we say, seem in the highest 
 degree consistent for him who is the minister of a system so 
 noble and beneficial, to respect profoundly, and obey faith- 
 fully, that "higher law" of which this is but the shadow and 
 the abridgement ? Shall he who inculcates the duty of obe- 
 dience to the laws of man, himself set the example of dis- 
 obedience to the laws of God? Shall he who expounds and 
 maintains the enactments and requirements of human legis- 
 lators, and whose professional life is regulated and con- 
 trolled by these, and whose business it is to see that by their 
 proper interpretation and application, the order and pros- 
 perity of human society are preserved and advanced, be re- 
 gardless as to the ordering of his life by the principles of 
 that law " whose seat is the bosom of God, and whose voice 
 is the harmony of the universe ?" Inasmuch as human law 
 is the creature of the divine, and shining with reflected 
 light, feebly images forth the glories of its sublime original, 
 with what propriety or consistency can the lawyer insist 
 upon the claims of the less, without a practical acknowledg- 
 ment of the obligations of the greater ? Shall the puny 
 articulations of the legislators of earth command his per- 
 sonal respect, and claim the devotement of his noblest 
 talents and his most precious time, and shall he refuse to 
 hear and obey the mighty utterances of the great Lawgiver 
 of the Universe ? Shall he spare no pains to bring the 
 offender against the laws of his country to merited punish- 
 ment, and thus secure the best welfare of that country, and 
 yet never feel within his bosom a pang of bitter self-con- 
 demnation for his own daily breaches of the laws of God's
 
 20 
 
 moral universe, which, in their infraction, bring the direst 
 confusion, wretchedness, and ruin upon the great family of 
 man ? Shall he stand up to plead for a fellow man arraign- 
 ed at the bar of an earthly court, and not" ask, " who will be 
 my advocate before the tribunal above ?" Shall he engage 
 in the daily business of the court, and not be reminded of 
 that assize where he must soon appear, not as an advocate, 
 but as a client ; not as a minister, but as a subject of law ? 
 No conformity or devotion to the law of man, will be re- 
 ceived at that day as a substitute for a constant neglect of 
 the laws of God. Yea ! his must be an aggravated con- 
 demnation. Next to him who appears as the herald of the 
 skies, God's ambassador to men, and is faithless to his trust, 
 must he stand in depth of guilt and ^bitterness of condem- 
 nation, whose earthly vocation it was to uphold the majesty 
 and the sanctions of law and justice among his fellow men, 
 and was yet regardless of the law of God. If any man 
 should be rebuked by his daily vocation for an irreligious 
 life, by the very principles which he is called upon daily to 
 uphold, defend, and apply, it should be a member of the 
 legal profession. Its high vocation, and honorable and im- 
 portant mission, impose upon it peculiar and proportionably 
 solemn responsibilities. And will it not be seen to be a 
 truth in its application to this most honorable profession, 
 that a solemn sense of the paramount obligations of the law 
 of God, and a consistent practical obedience to that law, is 
 entirely compatible with and friendly to the most distin- 
 guished attainments in jurisprudence, and the highest honors 
 of the bench or the bar. The names of Hale, and Selden, 
 and Marshall, and Reeve, and Sherman, give ample testi- 
 mony to the truth of this, in whom the attainments and 
 honors of the jurist were so beautifully blended with the 
 faith and graces of the Christian. 
 
 Again : The peculiar relation which the members of the 
 bar sustain to the community, makes it in the highest degree 
 desirable that they should be men actuated by pure Christian 
 principle. We have already adverted to the fact that the 
 bar is the high-road to preferment ; that lawyers generally 
 are our public men, who make our laws, administer our
 
 21 
 
 government, and have our national honor in keeping. In 
 these public relations it is easy to see how desirable it is 
 that they should be pure, upright, God-fearing men. But 
 we speak now more particularly of that intimate and confi- 
 dential relation which, as lawyers, they sustain to the com- 
 munity, and to their clients. The character of that relation 
 has been well described by Mr. Warren, and we therefore 
 quote his words at length. He remarks, addressing lawyers : 
 
 " Gentlemen, I repeat, speaking as one of the public, that 
 we could not do without you even if we wished. Whatever 
 be our talents or acquirements, whatever our tempers and 
 dispositions, whether amiable and yielding, or exacting, irri- 
 table and overbearing whether we be virtuous or profli- 
 gate, we may have to take you into our confidence, and open 
 to you the most secret recesses of our hearts. We tell you 
 what we would declare to no one else on earth ; we pour 
 into your ears the accents of anguish all but unutterable ; 
 to your eyes are exposed hearts bleeding and quivering in 
 every fibre, pierced by the serpent's tooth of ingratitude, 
 broken by the toss of those whom we love more than life 
 itself, whether taken from our arms by death, or ravished 
 from us by fiendish lust or the ruthless ruffian hand of vio- 
 lence. When our domestic peace is slain when the most 
 hallowed relations of life, and society are dislocated by the 
 evil passions of others by cupidity perfidy, fraud hypo- 
 crisy, malice and revenge in short, whether our honor, our 
 life, our liberty, our property, or those of our families, are 
 endangered or outraged, to you per force we must fly in our 
 extremity : living or dying, yes, I say dying, for we descend 
 into the grave in relianie on the discretion and integrity 
 with which you have undertaken to carry into effect our 
 wishes on behalf of those loved ones whom we are leaving 
 behind us, whom we would fain shelter as far as we may 
 from calamity and the world's reverses, by providing for 
 them out of the produce of a life's labor, anxiety, and priva- 
 tion ; and we look to do all this through the instrumentality 
 of your judicious and conscientious exertions. 
 
 " When the shaft of calumny has wounded us, it is to you 
 that we fly to vindicate our smarting honor ; into your ear 
 are poured the affrighted accents of those to whom guilt is 
 imputed ; crime of fearful enormity, attaching infamy mad- 
 dening to contemplate crime, too, which may be falsely 
 imputed to him whom the mere imputation is blighting be- 
 fore your very eyes, and who, in his agony and horror, has
 
 22 
 
 sent for you has summoned you that he may listen, in the 
 dread gloom of a prison cell, to your sympathizing words of 
 counsel and guidance that he may whisper into your ear 
 the indignant protestations of an innocence which with con- 
 fiding eagerness relies on you for its vindication." 
 
 This peculiar, intimate, and confidential relation, renders 
 it especially desirable that they in whom we are thus oblig- 
 ed to confide, should be worthy of the trust. They should be 
 men of sterling integrity, purity, and honor of quick sym- 
 pathies of nice discrimination of refined delicacy of feel- 
 ing. We do not say that all these may not be possessed in 
 a good degree where there is not piety, for we think we 
 have known such cases ; but it is certainly true that there 
 is greater security where religion adds her graces to the 
 character, and gives also to natural endowments a crown- 
 ing glory. The influence which the lawyer may have over 
 his client, growing out of the confidential relation existing 
 between them, may be immense. He becomes acquainted 
 with his secrets, his embarrassments, his perplexities, his 
 fears, his trials ; he often takes his property into his hands, or 
 what is far more precious, his reputation ; his client is forced 
 to put himself entirely in his power, and commit to his dis- 
 cretion and fidelity the guardianship of his dearest interests. 
 Surely there is great opportunity for the abuse of influence, 
 the perversion of power, here ; how difficult for poor human 
 nature to maintain under such circumstances always a 
 spirit of integrity and disinterestedness, and how valuable 
 the aids of true piety ! Here, again, we quote from Mr. 
 Warren, and give you a few sentences from the close of one 
 of his lectures. After presenting, in a very comprehensive 
 and forcible sketch, the duties and responsibilities of the 
 profession, he proceeds : 
 
 " Well may you modestly ask, who is sufficient for these 
 things ? You cannot become so except through help from 
 on high. I tell you that your character will be utterly rot- 
 ten, all your resolution and efforts abortive, unless under the 
 constant influence of piety and virtue, ruling the heart and 
 directing the will on all occasions whatsoever. Oh, let not an 
 immortal spirit bow itself into the dust, forgetful of its high 
 destiny, and becoming of the earth, earthy. It can degrade
 
 23 
 
 itself, but cannot get rid of those awful responsibilities which 
 it has incurred in this transitory scene of probation. Forget 
 not God, but remember him constantly, and obey his pre- 
 cepts. Piety and virtue will give you true elevation of cha- 
 racter can alone extinguish envy, hatred, malice, and un- 
 charitableness extract the sting from adversity dignify 
 even failure, and add unspeakable sweetness to success." 
 
 Finally : We think that the peculiar temptations of the 
 legal profession are such as to demand the aids and influ- 
 ences of piety. We trust that we have expressed, in suffi- 
 ciently explicit terms, the high estimation in which we hold 
 both the science and the practice of jurisprudence. There 
 is a well known passage from Hooker, one of the ablest of 
 the old English divines, of the sixteenth century, which ex- 
 presses in masterful style what ought to be every man's 
 opinion. It is this : 
 
 "Of law there can be no less acknowledged than that her 
 seat is the bosom of God her voice the harmony of the 
 world ; all things in heaven and earth do her homage the 
 very least as feeling her care, and the greatest as not ex- 
 empted from her power : both angels and men, and creatures 
 of what condition soever, though each in different sort and 
 manner, yet all with uniform consent admiring her as the 
 mother of their peace and joy."* 
 
 And in Sir James Mackintosh's " Discourse on the Law of 
 Nature and Nations," occurs the following forcible passage : 
 
 " There is not, in my opinion, in the whole compass of 
 human affairs, so noble a spectacle as that which is display- 
 ed in the progress of jurisprudence ; where we may con- 
 template the cautious and unwearied exertions of wise men 
 through a long course of ages, withdrawing every case as it 
 arises, from the dangerous power of discretion, and subject- 
 ing it to inflexible rules, extending the dominion of justice 
 and reason, and gradually contracting within the narrowest 
 possible limits the domain of brutal force and arbitrary 
 will." 
 
 Yet noble as is the science, and essential to the well being 
 of society, and honorable as is the practice of jurisprudence, 
 
 * Hooker's Works, p. 240.
 
 24 
 
 it cannot be denied that there are great and peculiar temp- 
 tations connected with it. The lawyer, immersed in the 
 duties of his practice, may sometimes fail to keep before his 
 mind's eye "the lofty and everlasting principles of virtue 
 and justice, which are concerned in the structure of law," 
 and is in danger of overlooking the importance of always so 
 using his office as to " magnify and make it honorable." 
 
 There is one peculiarity about the legal profession, as Dr. 
 Boardman remarks " Its daily element is controversy." This 
 is the source of its great temptations. The excitements of 
 the judicial arena are not altogether favorable to the preser- 
 vation of a candid, even, magnanimous temper, free from 
 envy, malice, petulance, and an unscrupulousness in the use 
 of means ; nor is this arena always the scene of that noblest 
 of all victories the conquest of self. 
 
 " There is no sphere," continues Dr. B., " in which inte- 
 grity is of greater value, and none where it is more rigor- 
 ously tested, than at the bar. The temptations to swerve 
 from it are of daily recurrence, and are sometimes clothed 
 with a most specious garb. The profession has to do with 
 two classes of persons the wronged and the wrong doers. 
 And to deal with either as their confidential adviser, in a 
 perfectly frank, straightforward, and kind manner, demands 
 a stern and lofty virtue. We know how difficult this is in 
 private life ; and the difficulty must be greatly increased 
 when the parties bear to each other the relation of client 
 and counsel. Among men who live by the law who look 
 to it for support and for fame, the inducements must be very 
 strong to encourage litigation. It has always been the op- 
 probrium of the profession, that it was infested by indivi- 
 duals who were ready on all occasions to pander to the 
 basest passions, and to become the instruments of the avari- 
 cious, the revengeful, and the hard-hearted, in oppressing 
 their victims. Such men unhappily rarely want for clients." 
 
 Yet, while this is true, there are many instances where 
 the lawyer has been the means of settling on an amicable 
 basis a case of difference which might have grown under his 
 fostering care into a vexatious protracted litigation, involv- 
 ing not only a ruinous expenditure of property, but cherish- 
 ing every malignant feeling of the heart, and entailing some-
 
 25 
 
 times a deadly feud upon after generations. The public are 
 not aware how often the legal profession, frequently repre- 
 sented as a promoter of strife and discord, is entitled rather 
 to the noble benediction, " Blessed are the peace-makers." 
 
 Yet the temptations are certainly very powerful the other 
 way. It is no easy thing for one whose character and sup- 
 port are dependant upon his professional business, to refuse 
 any case that offers, or any side of any case. When clients 
 come excited and heated by real or fancied injuries, to seek 
 from their attorney the redress which the law provides 
 when they demand that the screws shall be applied without 
 mercy, and every means of harassing and crushing their 
 adversary shall be put into operation which the mighty en- 
 gine of the law can furnish, it requires very high and noble 
 views of duty to rise above the promptings of self-interest, 
 and endeavor to soothe their excitement examine into the 
 real merits of the case, and endeavor to settle it by an equi- 
 table compromise. It requires a lofty moral courage, espe- 
 cially in one who is young, and naturally ambitious of rising 
 in his profession, to decline a case presented, either on 
 account of its frivolous character or its injustice, and to re- 
 fuse peremptorily to allow his client to attempt not only to 
 perpetrate a wrong under color of law, but to do it through 
 his agency. And there is equal need of stern virtue in the 
 conducting of a case, when rightfully undertaken, in the 
 avoidance of any of the tricks of the trade, the packing of 
 juries the brow-beating and intimidation of witnesses the 
 misquoting or straining of authorities the appeal to the 
 baser passions, or to sectional or political preferences the 
 attempt to direct the mind from the real question at issue, 
 and secure a verdict on other grounds than its real merits. 
 All these things may purchase the reputation of being a 
 very keen lawyer, but this is not the same thing with being 
 a true, honorable man. Let him contend for the rights of 
 his client as firmly as he may, but let him contend fairly ; 
 let him remember the f ..indamental principle, " suum cuique 
 tribuere" and apply it oven to his opponent, so that if suc- 
 cessful his laurels may be greener because fairly won, and, 
 if unsccessful, he may at least console himself w r ith the re-
 
 26 
 
 flection that he contended honorably, and suffers no disgrace 
 in failure. 
 
 Lawyers often see the worst side of human nature. Ava- 
 rice, revenge, malice, cupidity, falsehood, often come to them 
 to seek, by their means, to gain their wicked ends. They 
 may hold out a glittering bribe to influence the counsel they 
 consult, and win them to their vile uses. They may have 
 the letter of the law on their side, but not its spirit ; and, 
 therefore, an honorable, high-minded practitioner will refuse 
 to prostitute his abilities in their cause. It needs a lofty 
 sense of the responsibilities of the profession to take this 
 course to scorn to become the knife with which some mer- 
 ciless "fShylock" will cut away "his pound of flesh" to 
 look beyond the bare technicalities of the case, and ask, " Is 
 the spirit of the law with my client?" We do not mean to 
 say that this temptation is never resisted, save by the aid of 
 religious principle : there are men of intrinsic nobleness of 
 mind, who would scorn to become the agents of avarice or 
 revenge ; but it is not always resisted, and it cannot be sure 
 of universal resistance, except the pure principles of virtue 
 and piety pervade the entire profession. Then, indeed, 
 would this noble science, and this honorable and useful pro- 
 fession, take everywhere the exalted rank which belongs to 
 it ; then would the stale and groundless insinuation that its 
 practice was unfriendly to integrity and virtue, be forever 
 silenced, and its true nature and excellency would be ac- 
 knowledged by the world. Then would there be more 
 numerous instances of men like Sir Matthew Hale, of whom 
 his biographer has well said, that " the singular uprightness 
 and piety of his life, which excited the admiratiou of his 
 contemporaries no less than of posterity, have rendered inte- 
 resting to the most ordinary peruser, the quaint and senten- 
 tious record of his thoughts and actions which have been 
 transmitted to us by himself and his historian." And what 
 a noble testimony is it to his goodness, that " the beautiful 
 details of his domestic life have rendered his memory even 
 more cherished by the good and pious in all professions, than 
 it is venerated on other grounds by the learned of his own. 
 His piety among his many virtues was the most conspicu-
 
 27 
 
 ous, and is the best remembered." He was an intimate 
 friend of the pious Baxter, and this intimacy was the source 
 of mutual advantage and pleasure to both. " Once, when 
 suddenly called upon in the capacity of counsel, he shrank 
 not, like a true-hearted follower of Christ, from averring as 
 the reason of his unpreparedness, that it was late Saturday 
 night before he had notice of the engagement, and that the 
 next day was not a day to think of these things." His con- 
 scientious observance of the Sabbath was a trait in his cha- 
 racter in which he has set a noble example to the profession 
 of which he was one of the brightest ornaments. Notting- 
 ham, Talbot, and Blackstone, all eminent jurists, paid their 
 tribute to religion and her claims, and proved that the temp- 
 tations of their profession and position could be successfully 
 combated by the aid of piety. 
 
 Far be it from us to say that there have not been instan- 
 ces in the legal profession of distinguished ability and of 
 high moral excellence, when there has been no pretension to 
 piety. Doubtless there have been and are such instances. 
 " But," as Dr. Boardman well remarks, " it is contended that 
 even in cases of this sort, religion would impart an addition- 
 al lustre to the character ; while its influence, if diffused 
 throughout the body, would be most advantageously felt in 
 removing the prevalent vices and defects of the profession, 
 and augmenting all those virtues which make it one of the 
 chief supports and ornaments of a refined civilization. What 
 the profession would be if it were consecrated by the perva- 
 ding power of a vital Christianity, may be inferred from such 
 instances as I have mentioned, and other examples of living 
 members of the bar, of men who combine the noblest intel- 
 lectual gifts, the most accurate and profound knowledge of 
 jurisprudence, rhetorical abilities of a high order, the purest 
 affections, and the greatest amenity of manners, with an en- 
 lightened and unostentatious piety." 
 
 It would be a blessed thing for society if such were the 
 character of every member of the legal profession. Import- 
 ant, useful, honorable as it is, its influence must be great upon 
 the public welfare. It is said that there are more than twen- 
 ty thousand lawyers in our country more than one to every
 
 38 
 
 fifteen huiulred of our population. Let this large body of 
 men, who are, as a class, well educated, intelligent, honora- 
 ble men, foremost in public life by virtue of their peculiar 
 relation to the community, wielding a more universal and 
 universally powerful influence than any other class of men 
 our orators, our rulers, our ambassadors to foreign nations 
 let them be men of moral worth and true piety, and what a 
 blessing and a pride they would be to our country ! Says 
 Dr. Boardman 
 
 " Piety alone will not fit men to become jurists, diploma- 
 tists or legislators. But piety is the basis of good morals. 
 It makes men conscientious. It stimulates them to acquire 
 the qualifications demanded by the station Providence may 
 assign them, and puts them upon using their abilities for the 
 best ends. If evangelical Christianity were enthroned, not 
 in our halls of justice merely, but in the hearts of all who 
 serve at her altars, their great influence would tell far more 
 auspiciously than it does now, upon the leading interests of 
 this country. It would moderate the spirit of faction, the 
 bane of all republics. It might repress the idolatry of mam- 
 mon, and curl) the lust of conquest, two of the brood o baser 
 passions which have acquired an Herculean growth in our 
 soil. It would check the prevailing tendency to rashand 
 hasty legislation, and teach visionary reformers that they 
 * should approach to the faults of the state, as to the wounds 
 of a father, with pious awe, and trembling solicitude.' It 
 would be felt throughout all the framework of society, in 
 extinguishing vice, alleviating misery, fostering education, 
 and consolidating the institutions of Christianity." 
 
 We would, then, respectfully recommend to those whose 
 high vocation it is to expound and administer human law, to 
 study deeply its divine original ; we would urge them to be 
 familiar with its principles and its precepts ; to recognize its 
 'peculiar claims upon them, and to fulfil with fidelity and 
 zeal all its holy requirements. Then shall their earthly 
 course be one of honor, of usefulness and success, and when 
 at last they appear before the great tribunal of God, not to 
 conduct another's case, but for the final adjudication of their 
 own, they shall receive a sentence of approval, from the 
 Judge of all, which shall admit them to the unfading glories 
 and the everlasting joys of The Heaven of the Good.