rable things necessary to
the producing and serving of it, without whom there would be nothing of
all the good things on the table.

In the representation about my pleasure in the services of the church
and their value to me, and in many representations scattered throughout
this letter, I have in mind the question of an unanswered letter of
yours, bearing date, February 25th, 1919, the one in which you ask, in
effect, by what right a man can remain in an institution after he has,
as I have, abandoned its chief doctrines and aims as they are
authoritatively interpreted.

The right of revolution is the one by which I justify my course, and
surely no consistent Protestant Christian or American citizen will doubt
the solidity of this ground; for Protestantism and Americanism had their
origin in revolutions.

Our national declaration of independence contains this famous
justification of political revolutions, and it is equally applicable to
religious ones, for religion and politics are but the ideal and
practical halves of the same social reality:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created
equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain
inalienable rights; that among these, are life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are
instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent
of the governed: that, whenever any form of government becomes
destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter
or to abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its
foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such
form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and
happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long
established, should not be changed for light and transient causes;
and, accordingly, all experience hath shown, that mankind are more
disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right
themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
But, when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing
invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under
absolute despotism, it is their right--and it is their duty--to
throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their
security.

Jesus was nothing if he was not a revolutionist. Anyhow, his