accordance with this apprehension of things that kings of old were called the children of the gods. In our own Sacred Writings they are called gods, and sons of God, because they are the ministers of that justice, which is God's, which went forth originally from his throne, and after penetrating and governing all things, comes back to perch forever upon his sceptre.

Government is the means, which under the guidance of Providence, mankind have adopted for the enforcement of the moral instincts, and it is perfect when it enables every man to enjoy his own, what God has given him, in security and peace. A good government therefore is one of the greatest earthly blessings. It gives the widest scope to the human faculties. It invites and encourages man to put forth his highest energies, and placing no bar to his exertions, enables him to produce the greatest results. Under a good government a people advance with giant strides along the road of improvement. They are strong, prosperous, and contented. God intended mankind for prosperity and contentment, he put his moral

law within their hearts to accomplish that purpose.

But it unfortunately happens that governments may prove false to the purpose for which they were created. They may through mistake misinterpret the law written on the heart, or through corruption bend it to their own purposes; and thus power conferred to do good may become irresistible to do wrong. Good laws may be badly executed, or not executed at all. Or they may be incumbered by so many useless forms as to cost more than they are worth, or be attended with so much delay as altogether to defeat the ends of justice. Thus that which was intended by God as the greatest blessing, when perverted becomes the greatest curse. Abuses of government are of all things most difficult to correct. They become so fixed by habit and prescription that it is next to impossible to shake them off. So far are governments oftentimes from being the executives of the dictates of the moral sense, the purpose for which they were appointed, that they arm the moral sense of mankind against them, and the whole people rise in their might and put them down, and re-assert and

re-establish the primitive laws of moral rectitude.

It is saddening to contemplate the infinite miseries, which have been heaped upon mankind by bad government. Think of the millions who live, and have lived in Asia, not one of whom has ever known what good government is. What is, bad and unjust as it is, has become so fastened upon the people as to shut out of their conceptions what ought to be. The actual has been so long inculcated, and so long, acquiesced in, that it has taken the place of the just, those primitive and natural ideas of right, which God originally stamped upon the soul of man.

To secure the performance of the right as well as the perception of it, God has implanted in the human heart besides the sense of justice, the feeling of benevolence. As he has given us peculiar affections towards our nearest relatives to secure the performance of necessary duties, such as the parental and the filial tie, so has he given us a feeling to correspond to our relations to the whole species, but fainter in intensity because the duties it secures are less imperious and indispensable. We naturally wish well

to the whole human family. Where there is no conflict of interests, no previous injury or prejudice, we had rather learn that any human being is in health, prosperity, and happiness, than hear that he is sick, or in misfortune, or misery. That the final purpose of this may not be mistaken, it is found that this feeling increases or diminishes in direct proportion to the nearness or the distance of the object. Sympathy, which seems to be a sort of involuntary benevolence, obeys the same laws, and springs up with an intensity precisely proportionate to our opportunity to relieve the afflicted. We read that a whole city is swallowed up by an earthquake on another continent,—and we are slightly moved it is true, but by no means violently excited. But let us hear that our friend's house is on fire at the other end of the town, and we are on our feet, and on our way to assist him before we are aware. That there is such a principle as benevolence in the human heart for our species, is demonstrated every day. It is shown by the species of eloquence which is most efficient in eliciting charity. It is by no appeals to the reason as to its propriety, or to the con

science as to its obligation, that the solicitor succeeds. It is by a plain statement of the case, by a moving picture of distress. Then the miser's grasp is unclosed, which was only clenched the firmer while reason and conscience pleaded the cause. These two feelings, of benevolence and sympathy, which together may be denominated humanity, are a strong auxiliary to the sense of justice in restraining the impulses of the desires, the appetites, and the passions, which are excited by all objects alike that are calculated to gratify them, without reference to the propriety or the impropriety of their indulgence. It is often complained that these feelings are no stronger. I believe that what they want is not greater intensity, but better direction. God knew best what relative strength to give them. And it is now found that, weak as they are, they are sometimes turned into a channel, which injures rather than benefits mankind. Those immense charitable establishments, which modern philanthropy has raised up, are found after all to nurse the very evil which they are intended to cure.

So strong and so prevailing is this feeling of humanity in the human breast, that it was