Page:On the Desert - Recent Events in Egypt.djvu/168

, all threw a shield of protection over the desolate and the unhappy. By this spirit of humanity infused into the relations of life, all the members of the community — the rich and the poor, the strong and the weak — were united in fellowship and fraternity. One sacred tie bound them still closer: not only were they of the same race and nation, but they had an equal share in the same religious inheritance; all were fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God.

Thus did the Hebrew Commonwealth contain in itself the two principles of theocracy and democracy in perfect union — a union in which there was the greatest freedom consistent with order, and a degree of equality hardly to be found in any other ancient or modern state. And I make bold to affirm that there is not, that there never has been, and never will be, any true liberty which does not receive its inspiration from the same source. Not that modern governments are to adopt the theocratic form, but that the spirit which recognizes God as the Supreme Ruler of nations as well as of individuals, which inspires loyalty and obedience to Him, is the only spirit which consists with liberty. No free state can keep its liberty which has not God as its Protector. Men cannot protect themselves; they need to be protected against themselves. Man is by nature selfish, and if invested with unlimited power, he is by nature a tyrant. Men are the oppressors of men, and there is nothing against which society and individuals need to be protected so much as "man's inhumanity to man."

Let the student of history make a special study of the History of Liberty, and see how all spasmodic attempts like those of the French Revolution have perished ignominiously, because there was no power in mere liberty to restrain the natural passions of men. The Paris Commune may placard the walls of the city with the high-sounding