The Portland daily press., 1894-07-14
"H0NOR THE KING"
The Duty of Citizens to Honor and
Support Government.


Street Church.
At State street church last Sunday
DR.. j. L. jenkins, the pastor of the
church, preached from the words found
IN the First Epistle of Peter, End chapter,
18th verse" Honor the King" He said;
A king represents one kind of civil gov
eminent. AS vegetable life appears under
an infinite variety of shapes, as animal
life is manifested in countless and most
diverse organizations. SO legitimate civil
government assumes most dissimilar
forms, and yet is in substance the same.
Government may be by a King, by a
President, by a Council as in Switzer-
land, the particular form with which it
IS invested being no essential part OF 1t.
OF necessity then, Christianity which
does not concern itself with outward and
unimportant and changing details, but
with the essential, the permanent, must
regard not the form, but the reality, of
government. This fact makes the precept
of the text Honor the King applicable to
us republican Americans who having
no king, cannot obey it to the letter.
Civil government exists among and over
us as really rs among and over those to
whom Peter wrote, and we change only
the expression, not the meaning, when we
read the text, Honor the government.
In treating the precept l consider
/. The CLAIM of government to be honored;
II. What honoring it involves.
/. Civil government is to be honored
because it is an ordinance of God. That
the existence of government in one I'M
varying form has been decreed is neither
asserted nor believed. God-appointed
worship did not prescribe ritual of
perpetual ana universal obligation. So
saix vrovst,I aEv,t n of 1C
His ordinance. Of the Divine Decree es-
tablishing civil government there is
three fold proclamation.
IL In mans nature. The decree
which creates and sanctions the family
is in the nature God gave man. The de-
cree which calls for and approves civil
government is also in his nature. Men
have had no trouble in reading it. Gov
eminent exists in some form in all com
munities of men. Community life is
impossible without it. Civil govern
ment being a product of mans nature,
is an ordinance of God.
Z (2l. In Scripture the Divine Decree es-
tablishing civil government is distinct
lv witnessed to. "There is no power but
of God; the powers that be are ordained
of God"
(3) There is witness to the Divine
DecrEe in the respect for civil govern
ment which Christianity commands and
Render unto Caesar the things that are
Caesars With the supreme teaching
ali other Christian teaching agrees One
commentator speaks of the opening
verses of the 13tn chapter OF st. Paul's
Epistle to the Romans as containing
"counsels of mode ration" Roman Chris
uians were not to put themselves in op-
position 80 the imperial government upon
every pretext. They were to bear till en-
durance became criminal. Christianity
always cOunsels moderation under griev-
ances from civil government. 1t does
not prohibit resistance, revolution but
insists that all possible patience be ex-
ercised before recourse Is had to them.
To these teachings Christians have been
obedient Riots and unjustifiable revo-
lutions have not had their beginnings
among them. The uniform attitude of
Christianity towards civil government
justities remark Of Mr.. Webster, "What-
ever made men good Christians made
them good citizens" Whoever pane-
trates deeply finds under the contempt
and hate cast upon the doctrine of the
divine right of kings powerful and val
liable truth-a truth we Americans can
not afford to give up or pe Indifferent
to. Government exists by the appoint
ment of God. 1t has divine right TO be.
Greater perversion than it has yet known
cannot destroy it's sanctity, it's legiti-
macy, its authority. Particular govern
ments may become cruel, oppressive,
may oppose Gods purposes, be in the
way OF His wishes, then they lose legiti-
macy, divineness. 1t is with govern
nAent as with the family. When the fam
lily ceases to fulfil the Offices of a family,
it ceases to be a family, has DO rightful
claims upon members. When govern
nent ceases to fulfil the Offices ofgovern-
ment it ceases to be government, and
has no claims upon citizens that they
should respect.
The Divine element in government is
the element which inspires and perpeGu-
ates deep, general reverence for it. Kew
erence for work is much IN proportion
to the character of the maker. The
works of great men are respected at once
So divine institutions excite reverence
as nothing else. The Sabbath-all legal
enactments the world over cannot so
enthrone another day in the esteem of
men, because this day is in peculiar
sense Gods day. No book excites rev.
erence as the ible, because in pecu-
liar sense Gods book. So before a pro-
found and general reverence is felt for
government must the people come to
recognize it as Divine. 1t is not little
thing in its influence upon national
character that every British coin bears the
acknowledgment that the Queen power
is from God. She is Queen by the grace of
God. We did not allow the name of God
TO appear in our Constitu tion. He Is in
it, else the Constitution and the gov
ernment have no right to be- For all
power is of God. 1t is favorite figure
of speech to call the Constitution the
ark of our national safety. We know
what made the ark of old sacred. The
Divine things in it, and Divine things in
our government make it sacred These
divine things nave not been much es-
teemed among us. In fact we have hard
" supposed there was anything divine
about our government, it was common
human affair.
If mistake not, God in the tremen-
dous civil war, whose shadows have not
yet wholly passed, lifted up despised
and neglected institution of His own to
its proper honor. Whatever may have
been the immediate cause of the strug-
gle it was the struggle of government
seeking to exalt itself in the respect
and SO secure the allegiance of the
people. God was protecting His own
institution from insult, abuse, destruc-
ton. The cost of the protection measures
the value of what was protected.
Ii. Civil government is to be honored
because it is essential to human welfare
That civil government is Divine insti-
tuition is proof of its necessity God
does not expend thought and resources