is a manifestation of his will that those endowed
with those gifts, should be reverenced and loved. It follows, therefore,
from the universal providence of God, that "the powers that be are
ordained of God." We have no more right to refuse obedience to an
actually existing government because it is not to our taste, or because
we do not approve of its measures, than a child has the right to refuse
to recognize a wayward parent; or a wife a capricious husband.

The religious character of our civil duties flows also from the
comprehensive doctrine that the will of God is the ground of all moral
obligation. To seek that ground either in "the reason and nature of
things," or in expediency, is to banish God from the moral world, as
effectually as the mechanical theory of the universe banishes him from
the physical universe and from history. Our allegiance on that
hypothesis is not to God but to reason or to society. This theory of
morals therefore, changes the nature of religion and of moral
obligation. It modifies and degrades all religious sentiment and
exercises; it changes the very nature of sin, of repentance and
obedience, and gives us, what is a perfect solecism, a religion without
God. According to the Bible, our obligation to obey the laws of the land
is not founded on the fact that the good of society requires such
obedience, or that it is a dictate of reason, but on the authority of
God. It is part of the service which we owe to him. This must be so if
the doctrine is true that God is our moral governor, to whom we are
responsible for all our acts, and whose will is both the ground and the
rule of all our obligations.

We need not, however, dwell longer on this subject. Although it has long
been common to look upon civil government as a human institution, and to
represent the consent of the governed as the only ground of the
obligation of obedience, yet this doctrine is so notoriously of infidel
origin, and so obviously in conflict with the teachings of the Bible,
that it can have no hold on the convictions of a Christian people. It is
no more true of the state than it is of the family, or of the church.
All are of divine institution. All have their foundation in his will.
The duties belonging to each are enjoined by him and are enforced by his
authority. Marriage is indeed a voluntary covenant. The parties select
each other, and the state may make laws regulating the mode in which the
contract shall be ratified;