The time was when it would have been necessary to dwell largely upon this statement. The occupants of power are always disposed to claim an uninquiring recognition, as well as an unresisting obedience. They are to rule and the people to submit, pay taxes, and bear all the burdens. This was once the theory. Some changes have, indeed, passed over society in many Christian countries.
Men do now yield so readily a blind and superstitious obedience.
But, after all, the principle is not yet fully recognised that, like every thing else in human hands, the affairs of government are, in every aspect, open to be questioned and tried. Even in this land, with all its licentiousness of opinion and even contempt of authority, there is yet not a little of the old leaven. Not a few still appear to regard the constitution, and even some enactments, and these the worst of them, as possessing a sort of extraordinary sacredness. For all this there is no reason. It is one of the hateful peculiarities of the great Apostacy, to demand an uninquiring subjugation of the understanding and conscience to its arrogant demand of implicit recognition and obedience.