The Sun.
London, England, 1862-12-23 00:00:00

AMERICAN PA2RIO7IC

The Rev. Dr. S. Tyng, of New York, who is
known by report to a large nannber of Englishmen,
preached the sermon at St. George's Church on
Thanksgiving-day. In the progress of his discourse
he said—No class, no form of human government,
in its institutions and its promises, ever attained to
an exaltation like this. lam grateful, under God,
to those venerable and elevated men, the fathers of
the generation past, who humbly and solemnly said,
" We owe it all to the grace and beneficence of God.
The people are the rulers by their elected represen-
tatives. They devise, enact, proclaim the laws, by
their elective commissioned magistrates; they com-
mand their laws to be justly executed and enforced
by their own appointed judges; they interpret and
decide the particular application of their laws, as
occasions demand, and having thus, in the majesty
of their power and the right of their control, under
God, from whose beneficence they confess the right
to proceed to establish their authority, they claim,
and rightly claim, that it shall be thoroughly and
properly administered for their good ; and having
thus settled its authority in every :lepartment of
execution of their sovereign will, they, as volun-
tary subjects of their own law, submit themselves
to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake
whether it be the king, as supreme, or to go-
vernors as unto them that are sent by them for
the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of
them that do well ; for so is the will of God, that
with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance
of foolish men. The justice of our ruler is a
righteousness in the fear of God. It is not our
theory merely to restrain, but to uproot the crimes
of the wicked. Our inherited, adopted view of
plfolic justice is the protection of the innocent, the
secured welfare of the deserving—the education of
the ignorant—and the destroying those who destroy
the earth. This has been the great positive scheme
which the beneficence of God permitted our fathers
to inaugurate for us, and have transmitted to us as
our dearest inheritance. It has established a
system of free public education, constantly im-
proving—proclaimed laws for the faithful honour-
ing of the Lord's Day, which have made, as the
eminent Duponceau declared, the American Sabbath
to be the chief distinction and honour of the nation.
It has constantly restrained and limited, and in
some highly favoured sections of our country abso-
lutely prohibited, the sale of intoxicating liquors,
the direct instrument in 40 years past of consign-
ing to a grave more than 1,000,000 of the men of
our land. It has regularly compressed the power,
denied the claims and testified against the wicked-
ness of African slavery, until it has realised the
dawn, and given the promise of a universal eman-
cipation. It has solemnly testified for the validity
and authority of pn.blic law, of majestic national
sovereignty, over ell inferior dissent, and against
every aspect of individual and sectional rebellion,
until it has evr.,n risked the issues of a war of un-
precedented extent, and of terrific inflictions of
individual suffering and cast, rather than yield to
any rebellion that national sovereignty and integ-
rity which is the only foundation of individual
security. It has raised up a spirit of energy transmit-
ted from father to son which will stop at no sacrifice,
and flinch from no danger, in defending and main-
taining a national unity so justly dear. Can you
suppose that a nation so educated will yield ? It
is impossible. Its going forth in its high progress
is as sure as the dawn of morning. Clouds may
come over it—l have unbounded hopes for the
glorious advancement of my nation, and I have no
abiding or overwhelming fears. No internal re.
bellion can break it down. No outward assaults in
whatever combination can overthrow.