or seek to hold the appointment of priests to offer fulsome sacrifices and obsequious oblations.

All who listen to other words, or follow the dictates of authority less exalted, are "after ill example gone astray.” "One is not born," said he whom principle and nature made a republican, but circumstances and ambition an emperor,—“ one is not born with a boot on his leg, and another with a packsaddle on his back. There are no naked kings; they must all be dressed." We enter upon the present existence invested with certain inalienable rights, which constitute natural liberty; if we are components of a true republic, the enjoyment of our inherent rights is guarantied by righteous laws; and this is civil liberty. Civil liberty is natural liberty established and protected upon fixed principles by equitable government, the rightful possession of all mankind, to bestow which in the highest and purest form is the grand prerogative of Christianity alone. Cicero defined a republic to be "the union of a multitude, cemented by an agreement in what is right, and a participation in what is useful." Christ announced the eternal law of true social and national organizations more definitely and divinely when he proclaimed that but one is our Master, and all we are brethren. Never, for one moment, are we to stand in awe before presumptuous rulers, civil or religious, "alien from heaven, with passions foul obscured;" but reverence and obey only the almighty King, "who was on earth for our sakes crucified."

Truth, even the most abstract, invariably becomes the object of hatred, whenever practical virtue is not the object of love; and as hatred, by its intrinsic nature, is destructive, in the same manner as love is conservative, man, brutalized by sensuality, and given up to physical pleasures, naturally becomes a hateful destroyer. His obdurate soul gloats over spectacles of ruin and blood, while he confirms barbarous tastes and ferocious habits: hence it is remarkable that all people who are incredulous or impious are voluptuaries, and the voluptuous are always cruel. As a primary example,

look at pagan nations: what forgetfulness of humanity in war as in peace, in laws as in customs, in their temples as at the theatre, in the heart of the father as in that of a tyrant with his scourge! Under such circumstances, what abject materialism do we 'see in religion, and what aversion to those doctrines which tend to elevate men and spiritualize their thoughts! Polished and erudite Greece condemned Socrates to martyrdom because he despised the gross superstitions of his country; and those same refined patrician Greeks, crowned with flowers and singing exquisite songs, strangled human victims, and covered their territory with altars the most infamous.

Always the aristocratical subjugation of soul to sense produces haughty opposition to the noblest intellectual and moral truths, and is the only explanation we need seek for the profound hatred which, in all ages, certain nations and ranks have manifested toward the example and doctrines of Christ. It is the perpetual and deadly conflict of the flesh against the spirit. The one would degrade and destroy; the other tends constantly to enfranchise, enlighten, and render divine, through those precepts and influences which are the aggregate and manifestation of all the truths useful to mankind. When Christianity first appeared, the human race were universally involved in the grossest sensuality. What little worship

remained on earth was but an empty phantom, allied to no substantial belief, but a mere ceremony preserved by habit, because of its ostentatious pomp suited to lascivious festivals, and, above all, because of its relation to civil institutions. The religion of that age inspired neither faith nor veneration. The sages and grandees, who first produced the degeneracy they could but despise, committed religion to the masses with contempt, who, less corrupt than the aristocrats, still continued to imagine, even in ignoble emblems, something divine. Nevertheless, there existed really no other religion than that of voluptuousness; and the sects most sincere at first, degenerated rapidly into factitious austerity, and, by a confusion of

ideas, which passed into current language, went even so far as to identify virtue with pleasure.

The "upper classes," as they are usually termed, but really the most degraded, and who have ever demonstrated their superiority only by standing aloof from the greatest good of the greatest number, as they were the most active corrupters of ancient religions, so were they the most malignant foes to Christianity, from the first. All who have sacrificed their worldly interests and comfort for the good of their fellowmen, and been impelled to painful efforts by no motive but love to God and his creatures, are viewed and treated by them in every age as the vilest criminals, and as enemies to their arrogant prerogatives. The aristocrats of Judea, under the pretence of patriotism, entreated that Jeremiah might be put to death, because "he weakened the hands of the men of war, and of all the people;" of Paul they said, "We have found this man a pestilent fellow, and a mover of sedition ;" and of Christ himself," We found this fellow perverting the nation.” But the teachers of truth and freedom the most divine persevere in their beneficent enterprise, knowing that the love of liberty, turbulent though it be deemed by exclusive circles, has so much affinity to law, and so wholesome a jealousy of force, that, if generously treated, it composes in the end popular disorders, and confers the widest and most salutary blessings on all. When Christianity shall come at length to pour its tide of sacred republicanism through the chief arteries of the body politic, it will impart healthful action to limbs long palsied by the inactivity which tyranny has produced, and elevate the masses into the gladsome possession of those functions of which all have need. Says Sir James Mackintosh, "The generous sentiments of natural equality are so deeply engraven on the human heart, and so inseparably blended with the dictates of reason and conscience, that no appeal to them can be wholly vain; their power over those who grievously suffer from their violation never can cease to be great."

The ancient republics were much more aristocratic than democratic in the form and spirit of their institutions. The mass of the people were slaves; and those that were nominally free, with a few exceptions, were excluded from popular influence and power. The few were as entirely the masters, as autocrats and priests were in Persia and Egypt. Petty tyrants rose up with blasphemous pretensions to the right of excluding their fellow-men from the bountiful repast of providence and grace. In their despotic lust of possession, they were eager then, as now, to monopolize the popular share; or, worse still, they would frighten or coerce the common people to forsake the exalted privileges which Heaven designed all equally to grasp and enjoy. These are the persons whose character, conduct, and fearful destiny, are so strikingly described by our Lord, whose equalizing spirit and ennobling doctrines they always so much hate. The true Light 66 came unto his own, and his own received him not." "I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive." "Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge; for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in." "Ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?" And when some well-disposed listeners inquired of the apostles, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" they were obliged to reply, "Save yourselves from this untoward generation." Arrogant and hypocritical aristocrats were Christ's most malignant adversaries, and the worst obstacles which the apostles met.

It is recorded of Cornelia, the noble mother of the Gracchi, that, on a certain occasion, when some vulgar and haughty gossip boasted of worldly wealth, ornaments, and power, she proudly and magnanimously cried, pointing to her children, some of them the future saviors of Rome from aristocratic thraldom, "These are my jewels." Thus of the true church

of Christ, the mother of all exalted virtues, patriotic, civilizing, and saving. Her brightest ornaments are they who recognize the great brotherhood of the human race, who labor to break down all iniquitous oppression, and to raise all to a like participation of unclouded light and undistinguished love. Says Pollok,

"He was the freeman whom the truth made free;'—,

Who first of all the bands of Satan broke;

Who broke the bands of Sin; and for his soul,
In spite of fools, consulted seriously;
In spite of fashion persevered in good;
In spite of wealth or poverty, upright;
Who did as reason, not as fancy, bade;

Who heard temptation sing, and yet turned not
Aside; saw Sin bedeck her flowery bed,

And yet would not go up; felt at his heart

The sword unsheathed, yet would not sell the truth;
Who, having power, had not the will to hurt ;

Who blushed alike to be, or have, a slave;

Who blushed at nought but sin, feared nought but God;

Who, finally, in strong integrity

Of soul, 'midst want, or riches, or disgrace,
Uplifted calmly sat, and heard the waves

Of stormy folly breaking at his feet;

Now shrill with praise, now hoarse with foul reproach,
And both despised sincerely; seeking this

Alone

the approbation of his God,

Which still with conscience witnessed to his peace.
This, this is freedom, such as angels use,

And kindred to the liberty of God.

First-born of Virtue! daughter of the skies!

The man, the state in whom she ruled, was free;
All else were slaves of Satan, Sin, and Death."

Secondly, aristocracy was not only the first foe of the church, but has ever remained, at best, but a hypocritical friend.

The true principles of republican Christianity do not consist in degrading the higher ranks to the lowest, but in elevating the greatest possible number to the highest standard of