The Hillsborough recorder. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1820-1879, 1848-05-24

aod hlnsrlis q extended 10 great gaFl'
ely Of objeels II Infinite importance 10 lhf
Wrlfare Of men. bur whirh could not eOms
within The reach Of human legislation; Il
eOnbined lie temporal and spiritual IN.
Ihoriiies iPgslher. and regulated not only
The actions but the passions Of lhUse %
whom il Was given.
Human legislators can undertake only
10 prescribe The asiinns Of men. Ihey &C,
knowledge their inability 10 govern and d.
rect The stnlimenis nf Ihe heari: The rery
law ilsslf 10 \ rule Of civil conduct. not Of
internal principles, and there is no crime
in the power nf sn individual b. perpe-
iraie whi~h he may not design. project.
and fully intend. without mourning guilt
in the eye Of human law. n l. one Of
the greatest marks Of divine favor besiow-
ed upon the children Of ISRAEL. that the
legislator gave them rules not Only of ac.
lion, bot ioT the government Of the heart.
There were occasionally Few snort SEN
tenliOns principles Of morality issued from
the oracles Of Greece; among them, and
undoubtedly the mot excellent of them.
was that Of selEknowledge. which one of
the pnrest mnIalisls aud finest poets Of
Rome expressly says came from heaven.
But if ynu would remark the distinguish
ing characteristics between true and false
religion, compare the manner m which
the ten commandments were proclaimed
by the voice Of the Almighty God. from
Mount Sinai. with thunder and lightning.
and earthquake. By the sound Of the Irum-
pet anil in The hearing Of six hundred
thousand souls, with the studied secrecy
and mystery and mummery, with which
the lelphic and other oracles Of the Gre.
clan gods were delivered. The miraru.
lnus interpretations Of divine power recOr-
ded in every parl Of the Bible. were inva-
riably marked with grandeur and sublini.
" worthy Of The Creator Of the world,
and before which The gods Of Homer, not
excepting his Jupiter, dwindie into the
most contemplate pigmics; but on no
occasion was the manifestation Of Deity
so solemn, so awful, SO calculated TO make
! indelihle impressions upon the magma
tons and souls Of the mortals 10 whom He
revealed himself, as when He appeared
in the character of their Lawgiver.
The law thus dispensed was, howevcr,
imperfect; il was destined 10 be partly
s"sPs.i~.i aud is.P-o-s.l into ahsols'is
perfection many ages ailerward, by the
appearance of Jesus Christ upon the earth.
but TO judge oG its excellence as system
OF laws, il must be compared with human
codes which existed, or were promulgated
at nearly the same age Of the world in
other nations. Remember, that the law
was given 400 years before Christ was
born, at the time the Assyrian and Egyp-
tian monarchies existed; but of their go
vernment and laws we know scarcely any
thing, save what is collected from the BIZ
bic. OF the Phrygian, I.ydIan and Tro.
jan states at the same period, little more
is known. The President G"rget, in a
very elaborate and ingenious work on the
origin Of letters. arts and science among
the ancient nations, says tina, " The max
inns, the civil and political laws Of these
people are absolutely unknown; that not
even an idea of them can be formed, with
the single exception Of the l.ydlans. oil
whom Herodolus asserts, that their laws
were the same as the Greeks" The
same author contrasts the total darkness
and Oblivion into which all the insti,u-
tions Of those mighty empires have fallen,
with the fullness, and cleamess, and adj
mirable composition of the Hebrew code,
which has not only descended TO us en-
tire, but still continues the national code
Of the Jews, (sca,tered as they are over
the whole face of the EARTH and enters so
largely into the legislation of almost every
civilized nation upon the globe. He OBJ
serves " that these laws have been pre-.
scribed by God himself: the merely hu'
man laws Of o'her contemporary nations
cannot bear any comparison with them.
But my motive in forming the compari
son, is to present to your reflections as
proof-and to my mind very strong
proof-of the reality of their divine origin.
For how is it that the whole system Of
government and administration. the mu-
nicipal, political, ecclesiastical, military
and moral laws aud institutions which
bound in society the numberless myriads
Of human beings who formed for many
successive ages the stupendous monar-
chies OF Africa and Asia-should have
persisted entirely, and been obliterated
from the memory of mankind, while the
laws of paltry tribe Of shepherds, cha
racterlzed by Tacitus, and the sneering
infdelily of Gibbon, as 81 the most despis-
ed portion Of their slaves" should not on
ly have survived the wreck of those en-
pires, but remain to this day rules of faith
and practice to every enlightened nation
of the world. and perish only with it !!
The reason is obvious: il is their iHtrin-
sic excellence which has preserved them
from the destruction which befals all the
works of mortal man. The precepts Of