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if nation after nation has been born into savagism, if they have gradually unfolded out of their low condition, and if there has been a long process of their education through ages, then it is true that any comprehension of the divine nature must follow the capacity of the race upon which moral government is administered. And if, taking them at their lowest physical state, God would govern men, he would do it with power, with imperiousness, compelling obedience; this would be the side of divine nature and manifestation which their circumstances demanded and required.

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We whip children; but we do not whip men. The rod in the family is good, whatever people may still say. As long as men have bodies, there will be motive in the skin which a rod can find out in a thousand instances in which it could not be found out in any other way. O yes, persons who have one child, or two children, in affluence, with so much time that they do not know what to do with it, and who with all their resources can sit and take care of the child, watch for it beforehand, and turn the switch so that at every point the father's and mother's forethought necessarily causes it to run on the right track—it is very well for such persons to be indignant at the brutality of the discipline of other people, and to say, "The way to govern children is to win their love, and imbue them with all knowledge." That is the best way, when you can resort to it; but take a washerwoman who has nine children, and who goes out to work through the live long day, and comes back at evening to cook the food of her husband and children, and sits up at night to repair their scanty raiment, and works until nature is weary and worn, and let those nine great robust children be quarreling with each other, or with the neighbors' children, right and left, and say to her, "The best way is to win the confidence of these children, and to exercise forethought in their behalf"! I tell you, she must use the instrument which she can use, and must use it promptly-the instrument which God has given; and that instrument, and the circumstances for the use of it, are apparent to everybody in this audience who was brought up in New England!

And that which is true in the lower sphere of our own

existence is true elsewhere. the thing which is to be governed. If you are governing animals you must address yourselves to that which will be recipient in them. If you are governing savages you must put an amount of fear and force into your government which will make itself appreciated by the savage. Always working away from the lower motive, we are to use that which shall prepare the subject for the next higher plane, and the next higher, and the next higher. It has been true in the history of the world that, in the unfoldings of the divine economy, and in the interpretation of the divine character, the earlier periods have been obliged to represent God as more imperious, as more full of physical punishment; and figures abound which indicate this. As represented in the Bible, God is lion, eagle, thunder, lightning, monarch, and even despot, saying, "I will do what I will do, and obey thou shalt." But as the world unfolded more and more, and became more and more competent, there were larger proportions given, and motives were set forth which disclosed the higher nature of God; and these were addressed to national life, to pride of nation, to the life and affections of the family; and these left the old motives effaced. For God, in the higher revelations of his character, is paternal and national.

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And out of these higher views and motives, in the fullness of times, it begins to appear that God is paternal, not to one nation, not to one household, not to the lineage of Abraham alone, but to the whole world-that he is God of the entire earth, and that he governs all mankind, not for the sake of his own selfishness; not for the oriental idea of his own personal resplendency; not as Solomon governed, who sucked the nation dry that his individual glory might be augmented, leaving its foundations rotten, so that the moment he disappeared it toppled down; not for the sake of making himself look beautiful as the Governor of nations: he is revealed to us in the last day, through Jesus Christ, as the Universal Sufferer. When the times had come in which the world could hear it, then came the last disclosure of the divine nature, which is that, having been the Creator and Preserver, he was also, from eternity to eternity, the One who thought,

cared, suffered for every living thing upon the globe, that it might be saved by his parentage.

Rising thus from the lower forms of appeal and motive, rising from the earth, rising from the simple phenomena of nature, rising from the ruder forms of primitive government, and from all the developments of the household, just as fast as men's moral ideas enlarge themselves, the conception grows larger and more bountiful and merciful. Not that it leaves out the fact that sin entails suffering. The truth remains that God, by the very constitution of his nature, of the globe and of the universe, will forever join disobedience to law, and to consequent suffering. That abides. It is the mainspring for the upbuilding of a race or people. But while that remains, there are other glories that remain— namely, the power of conscience; the power of faith; the power of suffering love, which is the definition of Jesus Christ, the Revelator of God's suffering for the universe: suffering, not as one endures an ignominious penalty, not as one undergoes punishment for wickedness, but as a hero suffers for his country, who, when he dies, is praised by the whole world; or as the mother suffers, who takes care of her children, and dies for them, and, dying, becomes illustrious; or as men suffer who sacrifice their interests, and lay down their lives, for their fellow-men.

By these experiences, and by these symbols, at last it comes forth that God, standing central in the earth, is doing that which among men is noblest-namely, carrying, suffering, enduring; the great Burden-bearer and Atoner of the universe.

This disclosure of God has been gradual. It is not fully out. It is like the rose, whose sepals are glued together, so that sometimes the beautiful petals cannot break them open, until some kind hand pulls them asunder, when, in an instant, the blossom bursts forth. The unfolding of the knowledge of God has been waiting through long periods. It has not yet fully blossomed out. And this truth of the universality of God, of the fraternity of God, of the relation of God to men as the God of the whole earth, is one of those truths that have lingered long.

He is not the God of the whole earth as the Jews held that he was, who thought that Jerusalem was his fishing place, and that he was to sit in the temple, and throw out his line, and draw in all nations, and make them all Jews, just as to-day the Churchmen think that God is a Churchman, and that he is going to sit on the dome of the cathedral, and throw out his gospel line, and bring all people in and make them Churchmen.

How good a thing it is that, amid the criminations of theology, now and then there is a laughing-spot!—for I think that wit and humor are the natural antagonists of the malign feelings and belluine passions. The devil never laughs.

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See how people are going to bring in the unity of all nations."Now let us compromise, and let us have unity," say the different churches, and they all respond, "O, yes, let us have unity." Says the Presbyterian Church, "There must be government, and there must be something definite to be believed. Now, our system contains the greatest simplicity and the utmost liberty of worship, and exactly the statement of truth as it is revealed in the Bible; and you cannot expect us to give up that which is as clear as daylight. To have unity only requires that men should all agree to that which we teach"-which I suppose is true.

The Episcopal Church says, "Why, unity ?-it is the great desire of the heart of God, the world is waiting for it, and why should it not be? The world have nothing to do but to accept our form of worship and government, if they would all be united in one."

The Methodist Episcopal Church agree to this, except that they hold that there should be more enthusiasm. Episcopacy runs to taste, and Methodism to social fervor. They are the same, either in America or in England, with his difference.

Meanwhile, the very modest Congregational Church steps in, and says, "It is unreasonable to expect that the Presbyterian will give up his system, that the Episcopalian will give up his system, or that the Methodist will give up that which is peculiar to him. If you bring them together and expect

them to give up their separate notions, and go contrary to their education, you cannot do anything in the direction of unity; but if you bring together all sorts of people, and let them vote exactly what they will do, and allow them to determine among themselves what shall be their government, you will accomplish something"-(and that's Congregationalism!) So every one of the denominations stands substantially on its own platform, and says to everybody else, "My dear friend, let us be united; let me swallow you, and then we will be one!"

So it was that the old Jews interpreted language like my text. It was revealed to them that God was the God of the whole earth; and they interpreted it to mean that he would be the God of all men when they were Jews. According to their interpretation, the Assyrian was to turn Jew; the Egyptian was to turn Jew; the Roman was to turn Jew; every one of them was to kiss the foundations of the temple in Jerusalem. Said they, "It is the promise of God that he will be the God of his people; we are his people; we are to subdue all meu ; and they are to be his people through us."

I need not say to you that, when you see this spirit delineated in one class, you at once see how widespread it is among all classes.

Now, if God is the God of the whole earth, he must be the God of the whole earth just as it is; and I remark that while believers in the true God were tribal and national, the natural mistake which was made, and which should put us on our guard lest we fall into it again in substance, was that of supposing that God was in a special manner the God of a particular class. So let us not forget that if he is the God of the whole earth he is the God of all those physical conditions under which men are born. He is the God of those laws of descent which make the character of the parent go down to the children through many generations. He is the God of those decrees by which the drunkard's children inherit the drunkard's proclivities; by which deceit propagates deceit; by which honor breeds honor; by which motives brought to bear upon parents have an effect on the welfare of their children, reaching down to the depths of futurity. He is the God of

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