Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. I.djvu/213

Rh King James, having undertaken, for the glory of God and advancement of the Christian faith, and honour of our king and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia, do, by these presents, solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God and one of another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil body-politic, for our better ordering and preservation, and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof, to enact, constitute, and frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most convenient for the general good of the colony. Unto which we promise all due submission and obedience.”

This instrument was signed by all the men in company, forty-one in number. Thus was framed, in the cabin of the “Mayflower,” the most truly democratic constitution which the world had yet seen. That democratic, self-governing community came forth in a state of complete organisation from the “Mayflower” to the shore of the New World.

Like Abraham, the pilgrim-band went forth, obedient to the voice of God, into a land to them unknown, and not themselves fully cognisant of the work they were called to do.

They went forth to seek a free virgin soil on which to found their pure church, for the glory of God's kingdom, and unconsciously to themselves, likewise, to found, in so doing, a new civil community which should be a home and a community for all people of the earth. The “Mayflower” gave birth to popular constitutional liberty at the same time that it established the pure vitality of religion: and that was but natural, the latter included the former. The Pilgrims conveyed with them the new life of the New World without being themselves conscious of it.

They landed on a rock, since called “Plymouth Rock,”