f the land, even when we deem them oppressive or
unjust.

The principles advocated in this paper appear to us so elementary, that
we feel disposed to apologize for presenting them in such a formal
manner. But every generation has to learn the alphabet for itself. And
the mass of men are so occupied with other matters, that they do not
give themselves time to discriminate. Their judgments are dictated, in
many cases, by their feelings, or their circumstances. One man simply
looks to the hardship of forcing a slave back to bondage, and he
impulsively counsels resistance unto blood. Another looks to the evils
which follow from resistance to law, and he asserts that human laws are
in all cases to be obeyed. Both are obviously wrong. Both would
overthrow all government. The one by justifying every man's taking the
law into his own hands; and the other by destroying the authority of
God, which is the only foundation on which human government can rest. It
is only by acting on the direction of the Divine Wisdom incarnate:
"Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things
that are God's," that these destructive extremes are to be avoided.
Government is a divine institution; obedience to the laws is commanded
by God; and yet like all other divine commands of the same class, there
are cases in which it ceases to be obligation. Of these cases every one
must judge for himself on his own responsibility to God and man; but
when he cannot obey, his duty is to submit. The divinely appointed
remedy for unjust or oppressive legislation is not private or tumultuous
opposition, but the repeal of unrighteous enactments, or the
reorganization of the government.

What, however, we have had most at heart in the preparation of this
article, is the exhibition of the great principle that all authority
reposes on God; that all our obligations terminate on him; that
government is not a mere voluntary compact, and obedience to law an
obligation which rests on the consent of the governed. We regard this as
a matter of primary importance. The character of men and of communities
depends, to a great extent on their faith. The theory of morals which
they adopt determines their moral charactcter. If they assume that
expediency is the rule of duty, that a thing is right because it
produces happiness, or wrong because it produces misery, that this
tendency is not merely the test between right and wrong, but the ground
of the distinc