The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-07-03
THE VOICE OF THE PULPIT
THE sANCTITY OF THE NATION; AN
INDEPENDENCE DAY SERMON.
BY Rev. VIM. Bayard Hale, NJ. A., ID. D.,
LII. D., Rector of the Church of Our
Saviour, MiddIebOrO, Mass.
And they shall bring the glory and honor
Of the nations into it.-Rev xxi, Is.

or the nations INTO lt.-keV. XXI, 70.
AS we again approach the anniversary Of
our countrys BIRTH we may we'll give
thought, especially in view of present condi-
lions. to the sanctity of statehood and to
some of the responsibilities to which we
have attained.
Government is sometimes regarded as q
necessary evil; nation exists to curb the
selfshness Of men, their proneness to fraud
and violence, and is itself 10 be endured
only less evil than these. Mr.. Spencer
in speculative and Mr. Calhoun in practical
politics, so regarded it. 1t is sometimes rep
resented as a system of police for the pre-
vention of disorder within established lin
its. Or it is looked upon as an economic ar
rargement, a vast joint stock concern,
guaranteeing permanence in titles and val
ues and promoting trade Its origin is by
some attributed to mere might; it is found
ed upon the right of the stronger to control
the actions of the weaker.
BY others-and these voice what is, per-
haps, the most common vew-the nation is
declared to have its origin in mutual
compact entered into by its citizens. This
theory assumes that human society is arti-
fetal and arbitrary in its organization; that
it is the result of voluntary associations
into which men enter for selfish ends. 1t
would see in nation a mere device of tran
sient expedience; a mere creature Of COM
pact.
This proposition, conceived in France, and
gaining its strongest influence through
Rousseau. early became a popular theory
in American political philosophy, and sur
vived until One wiser than human theorists
judged and condemned it and uttered His
condemnation in the defeat of the Confed-
crate rebellion. 1t is very sane and cold
blooded conception; it calls for no effort OF
the imagination. 1 pause to remark that it
is of the establishments of history that
it should ever have been espoused by the
imagintive South, and ! venture the pre-
diction that, now she has been revealed to
it in the power and beauty of her unity, the
South will surpass us of the North in devo-
ton to the beloved Republic.
1t is an eminently sane conception, but
the divine wrath has been upon it in every
age. L need not speak of Greece, ensaved
when shE exchanged the national idea for
the confederate idea; nor of Germany, in
whom afEefz4ang. years of humiliation the
national spirit las awakened to Stay that Of
confederacy. rthe supreme trial between
the two notions was in our midst. and the
judgment. we are all persuaded, came forth
from Him with whom are the issues of con-
fiicts.
Nor could it have been otherwise Armies
far mghtier, and men Drawer chad that been
possbe) could never have been victorious
against the nation. A confederacy is a
phantom, it does not exist, it confesses to
be no more than convenient fiction; arms
in its service have no conservation like that
of those vowed to the defense OF ma
tons life-and must ever remain unanointed
with the secret power of victory. The sin
of the contract theory of nationality is that
it conceives the foundations of human or
der as laid in the caprice of men rather than
in the will of God.
A DIVINE INSTITUTION.
For the nation is a divine institution, and
not a human device. Neither can any theory
account for it, justify it, or adequately de-
scribe it, which does not concede its divine
foundation, and its divine character. 1t is
not thing brought into necessary being by
evil and selhshness. Evil is destructive. new
er constructive. 1t is an element of disor-
der, and cannot produce order. Government
does more than restrict evil tendencies, 1t
guarantees freedom and provides conditions
for progress, prosperity and happiness We
cannot account for the instructive love, for
the reverence citizen feels for his coun-
try on the theory that it is a large police
precinct The conception that a nation ex-
lists to protect property and enforce rights is
inadequate. History has never produced a
people that had not higher and more spirit
ual purposes, and was not ready in crises
of it's history to sacrifice its material inter-
ests Census tables and schedules of trade
do not represent the character of an insti-
tuition which can call forth from its sons
devotion whose measure is the Offering Of
fortunes, honor and lives.
The Nation is not the creature Of human
wills. 1t is not to be enrolled among the
devices of human ingenuity. 1t is not the
product of the citizens who compose H. but
conversely citizens are its product. So far
from men bringing it into being the nature
of manhood, the full glory of manhood,
cannot be realized except within the ma
ton. And the citizen has 10 more real a
personality than has the nation. THE ma
ton" is not a phrase; it is not name; IL
is not an abstraction, a convenient express
sion; 1t is a concrete living being The ex-
preston 1.-The United States of America
connotes something more than the total Of
the people who live within It's boundaries
it connotes thng-it describes a being
independent of its members. and existing
Of itself. The name Of the nation is the
name Of an actual personality, whose
character is not just the sum of the char
acters of its people. but is above. and in
deed is unlike. that Of any citizen.
This we have failed yet full to appre-
ciate. but the hint and preparation for ap-
preciating it is in every mind. a new con-
seriousness is awakening among US; the self
consciousness Of the American Nation.
There is evolving in US a consciousness Of
ourselves in each other, and Of ourselves
as sharers in the consciousness Of a larger
life Of which we are part. national con-
seriousness, a common spirit, mind Of the
people. is awakening 10 know and TO won
der at itself. Out Of the years; out OF the
deeds OF her heroes; out of contentious. out
of ideals, humiiations and victories; cut Of
dreams and brave words and great hearts;
out of her stretch of prairies, mountains,
railways, cities and mines and coasts. the
splendid life thFobbing upon the breast or
a mighty land, forthstruggles into the world
a new being. a living, breathing rejoicing
personallty-the American people.
A LIVING PERSONALITY.
Can you see her, gigantic. actual, the Re-
public?-see her, as in the Columbian year
we saw her symbolized in a figure of vast
golden height bathed in the glory OF the
West?-only unlike that. because living.