Farewell to the First Congregational Church in Norwalk, Conn. (bound with other addresses)

You perceive, here, into what a dreadful error those fall, who contrive to do the very thing which the laws prohibit, while they do it in such a way that, owing to the technicalities of law, they cannot be punished. They may keep out of the reach of the civil power, but they fall into the hands of the living God ; and that under the ♦ double guilt of disobedience and fraud. Many a villain has rejoiced in the success of such an evasion' of law, while,' in evading the law^ he has brought upon his soul the damnation of hell. Of this nature are all those villainous contrivances for evading the laws concerning the sale of intoxicating drinks ; evasions to which, it should seem, none but the most abandoned of the vile could ever descend. Of this nature are those evasions of the laws concerning usury. Many seem 36 THE NATIONAL PREACHER. to think that there is no guilt in doing these things ; and-that they may do them provided they are willing to risk the penalty. But if human laws sleep, the law of God does not. These gains are, like the gains of Judas, the wages of iniquity. If not the price of blood, they are the barter taken for integrity, for duty to the law, and for the salva- tion of the soul. This is what they gain, who deal in arts of eva- sion and shuffling with law. It is no game of chance : win or lose ; no matter what the immediate issue,— only try the game and you forfeit your soul. But if evasions of law are so dangerous, what shall be said of the open and palpable disregard to law which is sometimes witnessed? What shall be said of the wanton disregard of such laws as those made for the defence of suifering humanity, and for the protection of the virtue and the peace of the community — by pro- hibiting, save under certain regulations, the traffic in intoxicating drinks ? Magistrates, upon whose souls rests the oath of God, may be unfaithful to their trust ; jurors may trample on their oaths ; the community may wickedly endure the wrong ; but all together will be confronted with the widow and the fatherless at the bar of God ; and how think ye this unfaithfulness to the authority of law will fare at that tribunal ? If " the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it," against him that " coveteth an evil covetousness" to his house, by thriving on the gains of an un- lawful and murderous traffic ; how will the voice of the betrayed law, and the voice of violated oaths, mingle with the cries of widows and orphans against the unfaithful magistrates who bear the sword in vain, and against the community that silently tolerate the wrong 1 Will there be no account in the judgment for such things as these 1 Having shown the foundation upon which the scriptures rest the obligation of obedience, we inquire, 2. To what extent obedience is due. "Without limit," say some ; and back up their declaration by repeating the passages : " submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake : whoso resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God." This doctrine goes against all resistance to arbitrary power ; against all non-conformity to civil or religious establishments ; it annihilates all constitutional rights, and gives tlie world over to hopeless despot- ism. As our Puritan fathers resisted such claims, as our fathers of the Revolution rebelled against them, and as the people of these United States deem such sentiments subversive of all political and religious freedom, it becomes a matter of interest for us to inquire whether for DTHORITY. 87 all this we are liable to be condemned at the bar of God. Are we, and were all our fathers wrong on this fundamental principle ? What is the design of these scriptures, which enjoin obe- dience to civil authority. Is it to enjoin submission in general, or do they speak especially of the extent of a submission whose obligation in general is not doubted ? The questions are en- tirely distinct : — Is submission a duty 1 — Is unlimited submission a duty ? If a child inquires, " Must I obey my father 'P I answer, yes ; and repeat the authority — " Children, obey your parents in all things." He goes away, and the next news I hear is, that his abandoned father has ordered him to commit murder, and he has obeyed. I talk with him, and try to show him the enormity of his guilt. He replies. Sir, you taught me that it was my duty to obey my father, and I have but obeyed the word of God, which' requires me to obey my father " in all things." These are the words of scripture ; they teach the duty of filial obedience ; but they do not teach an unlimited obedi- ence, to the destruction of the authority of the great moral law of God. It is altogether a perversion of these words of scripture, to allege them in justification of the crime of murder. So in the present instance, if the design of the scripture is to teach the duty of obedi- ence, it by no means follows, of course, that they teach unlimited obedience. The passages to which we have referred, are evidently treating of the duty of submission in general ; they are not agitating the ques- tion of unlimited submission. We have numerous approved examples to the contrary of such a doctrine. The rulers, elders and scribes, with the high-priest, - once commanded the apostles not to speak at all, nor teach in the name of Jesus. The apostles took no exception to the authority of the tribunal, as not being the proper body to take cognizance of proper matters; they would have yielded to no authority. They simply answered, " Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye." They disobeyed the mandate. When Nebuchadnezzar commanded Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to fall down and worship the golden image, they replied : " We are not careful to answer thee in this matter : — Be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up." God delivered them from the fiery furnace, and justified their disobedience. Daniel chose to be cast into the lions' den, rather than yield obedi- ence to a command that put it at his option either to give up his re- 88 THE NATIONAL PKEACHEB. ligion or lose his life. God justified his disobedience, and delivered him. When Jeroboam set up priests " for the high places, and for the , devils, and for the calves which he had madfe," most of the ten tribes siibmitted to his new institutions, and God punished them for yield- ing obedience, because they " left all the commandments of the Lord their God," in obeying this ordinance of man. For disobedience to human laws, when human laws conflict with the laws of God, it is a sufficient justification to say, as Peter did '"when called to an account by the Jewish Sanhedrim, " We ought to obey God rather than man." The Bible is no instrument of tyranny. The firiiiest, boldest, most enlightened champions of freedom, have been such as submitted their consciences to the word of God. But while the Bible is the best friend to liberty, it is also the best friend to law, and the surest support of civil authority. A consistent Christian can never be a turbulent citizen. A Chris- tian community will always be a community of order and law. If Christian missionaries follow the instructions and the exam- ples of Apostles, they will never encourage their converts to at- tempt a subversion of the government under which they live. If they go to the Sandwich Islands, to Persia, to Turkey, or Siam, they will never make a direct assault upon the civil insiitutions of the land, however absurd and despotic they may be. Christianity will break the yoke of thraldom, but it acts upon civil institutions only as an alterative, by a silent, gradual, irresistible impulse. Upon the individual Soul, the gospel is like a fire and a hammer ; political and civil improvements are fruits which it does not attempt to gather beforie they are ripe. JBut if the scriptures furnish instances of approved resistance to human authority, let it be remembered that these were cases where human authority came into direct conflict with the rights of con- science and with the law of God. The warrant of disobedience should be of a nature like this, and undeniably plain. We must be able to plead that we could not yield obedience, without rebellion against obligations of higher and paramount authority. In such a land as this, where those who make laws are to share ia their opera- tion ; where thos6 who make, and those who execute the laws, are soon to return to the common level, and are at any moment liable to impeachment and removal ; where there is an independent judiciary ready to step in between the humblest citizen and the exercise of ar- bitrary power, or the operation of unconstitutional law; where no man is condenmed without a trial by a jury of his countrymen, or UTHORITY. 39 without the aid of learned counsel to secure him whatever aidv^ritagi? there naay be in any, the least, irregularity in the prpsecution ; — what plea in the wide world can be brought to justify disobedience to law, or the withholding. of the deference due to the proper authorities 1 If they who " resisted the power," under the despotism of Nero, " resisted the ordinance of God, and should feceive to themselves damnation," what vengeance will God visit upon hina who is a cpi^r temner of law under such a government as this ? In conclusion, it is proper briefly to advert to a few things incom- patible with the spirit of these instructions. 1. All captious railing at the properly constituted authorities is in- consistent with these commands, if not indje.ed directly prohibited. " Honor all men : Honor the king ;" or, by implication, tre^t all in authority with the respect due to their office. " Render to al^ their dues : Honor to whom honor." A Christian citizen shoulid always be pleased with th,e management of the poyvers that b§, where it is possible to be so, and bp true to the constitution ?ind tlj^ best interests of the country. Captious fauU-finding is not only pro- hibited by the scripture under consideration ; it defeats its own end. The hoy in the fable who was always cryipg out, " The wolf," " The wolf," was not believed when the wolf came in eeirnest. So cap- tious fault-finding defeats its own end, and repders it the ipore diffi- cult to correct the evil when evil really exists. 2. This injunction of holy writ is scandalously disobeyed in those caricatures with which reckla^s partizans on either side assail the leaders of the opposite party, and especially the magistrates of the land. Oh what monuments of a nation's shame ! What marks of loose morality, of corrupt taste, and of low scurrility, are those dishonorable prints that appear so often in the windows of the shops, and attach themselves so prominently to the walls of places of public resort ! What a sha^ie to a comniunity it is, that self-respect and good taste — not to say respectable morality — do not thunder out in a voice that will not be disobeyed, take these things hence ; let not the purveyors of politics and amusements cater for us as though we were a nation of blackguards. Finally, nothing can be more directly incompatible with the spirit of these injunctions, than that usurpation of the functions of civil authority, which l^^s so ofjten begiji ^j^itriessed in our country iij these days of excitement. The thief, the highwayman, the assassin, may glUin4eir property Bind destroy life. JgiUt ^hey do uot'^tr^iie ^t the jf^undpitions of all order and all lavy. They who t^^s. it u,pon the^ s?lwsi tp £^dIpinister \y^at h^ beeifi termed " Lynp^ l^" §x^§^ts^ 40 THE NATIONAL PREACHER.