Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1874-03-26
THE NATION.
An Eloquent Tribute to the Memory
of Charles Sumner.

Prof. Swing, of Chicago, preached the
following discourse at the Fourth Pres
byterian Church in that city on Sunday,
March Is, his text being:
The powers that be are ordained OF God.
The world has always loved TO speak of
the Infinite One as being the God OF ma.
tions because there is greatness in
volved in the idea Of nation which makes
il seem worthy of the attention and love
of the Infinite. 1t is easy for the individ-
ual heart possessed of ordinary humility
to feel quite overlooked in the daily adj
ministrations of Providence, but nation
is so vast in its interests and in its life,
which lies over centuries, that into its
great events meA can generally see de-
scending in love or wrath the sublime
form of God.
Notwithstanding the most elaborate
and conclusive argument that our Heaven
ly Father is in all places and times alike,
vet we all go away from the argument to
confess Him sooner at Waterloo than
where child is playing or bird sing
ing, more visible where slaves are shout
ing in a new liberty than where the
farmer turns his furrow or the lonely
woodman swings his Ak. Thus marking
the habits of the human mind, we May
perceive at least how great a thing is a
nation.
What vast idea it is that il always
claims the care of the Almighty and almost
compels the atheist to confess there is at
least nations God. A nation is sec
ond world into which we are all born
The first world is only the good green
earth with its seasons, and food, and Ia
Dor, and natural vicissitudes, but this is
a poor birthplace for mind or a soul,
for into these poor, british arms falls the
Indian child or the young Arab. To be
born into earth alone is fate that robs
birthday Of all worth 1t is only when
some second world called nation" be-
comes the souls cradle that it becomes
desirable to fall heir to life. A nation is
grand equipment for a career; it is
food and clothes and friends first, and
education and employment and rewards
afterward 1t is the atmosphere into
which the many-winged spirit comes, and
a bird might as well spread its wings in
vacuum as for human soul to be born
away from the treasured-up virtues OF
national life. When the rude black
face, with retreating forehead and
great thick lips, meets you on
the Southern coast, you know he
was born, but you associate this knowledge
with the other fact that he was born to
savage Africa. Great beyond estimate,
therefore. is the fact of nation, for it
shapes the soul, and is the JOY or sorrow
of every being that comes into this ex-
istence. As when, in the setting sun after
summer shower, all things, clouds, hills,
and even the very grass and the'faces OF
our friends, standing in the refracted light,
are covered with the tinge OF gold, so
when man is born into nation he is IN
stantly bathed in its light, and sets forth
in double destiny that determines the
value of life. When Bunyan saw cul-
prit ascending the steps OF the gallows ne
said: "That were |, but for the grace OF
God" But the grace does not busy itself
only with individuals here and there, but
Il marks out a vast realm and makes q
great, free, civilized state, and then the
millions that come to life in its blessed
confines can, in their later years, when
they realize the value of the great father
land. say: 81 was a savage, Congo
negro. but for the grace OF God"
Next to the grandeur of star that car
ries thousand million of people upon its
bosom and whirls them along through day
and night, and summer and winter, and
youth and old age, is the grandeur OF a
well.equipped State which for hundreds
of years guards the liberty, and industry,
and education, and happiness of the de-
pendent millions, crowding Its influence
In upon them gently as the atmosphere
lies upon the cheek In June. Her Ian
guage, her genius, her idols, her religion,
her freedom enwrap US better than our
mothers arms, for IL enwraps her too, and
wreathes her forehead with merit that
warrants her Office and her affection. The
State Is defined to be-
Sovereign law, that with collected Will -,
Sits empress, browning good, depressing IN.
Emit by her sacred frown
The hend Dissension Ike vapor sinks,
And e'en the all dazzling Crown
Hides his faint rays, and 81 her bidding snrnSs
Whence comes this grand instrument
which, as new existing in our continent
under the flag of liberty, pours around
100000 of people such golden air as
no millions ever breathed before? Who
gathered those flowers that wreathe
equally our cradle, our altar, our homes,
and our whole earthly pilgrimage? This
much of reply is given by human ex.
perience: Nothing comes TO man OF ex'
cellence without labor. All that man
possesses of ART. of science, OF literature
~ srvanf;ov, has ccyua he regular DaV-