The Newtown bee. (Newtown, Conn.) 1877-current, 1897-07-16

must be home to us, filled with all
hallowed associations and the source
and centre of all domestic and civil
virtues.
1t must be more than a place in
which to make money and enjoy all the
good things of this life, it must be the
land of liberty, social equality, common
privileges of. education, political rights.
1T MUST BE MORE THAN A CONDITION OF
SOCIAL LIFE
favorable to the seeking of position, learn.
ing, power and social privilege; it must
be regarded with the highest reverence
and affection as the sacred birthright OF
the Inheritance of the saints of God in
which to live out the purest, noblest life
for the Kingdom of truth and holy love.
And having this true patriotism, born OF
God, we ought also to cherish that same
spirit Of loyalty and devotion which led
the slgners of the great Declaration,
with firm reliance on the protection
OF Divine Providence" "to pledge to each
other their lives, fortunes and sacred hon.
or" for the maintenance of the integrity
of our laws, traditions and essential insti-
buttons against the spoiler and the OPP
pressor.
To be good and faithful Christians we
must be good and faithful citizens of the
town, the commonwealth, and of the ma
ton. To be good citizens we must first
of all be good and faithful Christians.
In ancient Israel the seat of Justice and
| the administration of the civil law were
side by side and hand in hand with the
place Of worship and the spiritual law Of
God.
The Church and the State were one in
their purpose and end in the sight of God
and 80 they ire, even now, and always
will be, for ''the powers that be are Or
dained of God" "And the man that do
eth presumptuously, in not hearkening
unto the priest that standeth to minister
there before the Lord thy God, or unto
the Judge, even that man shall die and
thou shalt put away the evil from Israel"
And the Christian Church has ever rec
ognized this vital relationship of the
Christian citizen to the commonwealth.
The true follower OF Christ must in the
nature of the case be loyal and patriotic.
We pray for the president Of the United
States, the governor of this State, and all
others in authority; we pray for Con-
gress and for all Christian rulers and
magistrates, that they may be divinely
directed and have "grace to execute jug
tice and to maintain truth" and if we do
not live and labor as we are taught to
pray we are not worthy of the exalted
privileges of this Christian land.
1 am deeply impressed by the patriotic
words of Cardinal Gibbons in his address
on 'sThe Religious Element In American
Civilization" 1.-THE laws of the United
States" he says, s'are so intimately inter-
woven with the Christian religion that
they cannot be adequately expounded
without the light of revelation" nThe
common law says Kent, sis the common
Jurisprudence Of the United States, and
was brought..from England and establish
ed here, so far as it was adapted to our
institutions and circumstances. It is an
incontrovertible fact that the common
law Of England ls, TO great extent,
founded on the principles of Christian
ethics. The maxims of the Holy Scrip
lures form the great criterion of right
and wrong in the civil courts.
THE PURITANs WHO FOUNDED NEW ENG
LAND,
the Dutch vino settled Ia New York, the
Quakers and Irish who established them
selves in Pennsylvania, the SWedes in
Delaware, the English Catholics who
colonized Maryland, the English Episco-
palians who colonized Virginia, Georgia
and North Carolina. the Irish Presbyter-
ians who also emigrated to the last-nam-
ed state, the French Huguenots and the
English colonists who planted themselves