Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. III.djvu/462

Rh to see and to comprehend, and with her the new community and life.

Contemplate with me then for a moment this humanity as she emerges from the bosom of the Mayflower and plants on the new soil the earliest legislative colony; behold her in the little company of the Pilgrim Fathers.

They have come hither from the Old World, because in the midst of persecution for their faith and struggle for daily bread, they felt themselves called upon to extend the kingdom of Christ in the New World; yes, even though they should be, as it were, merely stepping-stones for others. They call themselves Independents, Nonconformists and Puritans, because they have separated themselves from the outward church, and from all worldly power, and demand their right to govern themselves conformably only to the word of God, and the light of their own conscience. The Bible and implements of labour were the principal effects which they conveyed with them to the New World.

They wished to establish on that new, virgin soil, a church and a social state of the purest character of the inner man enlightened by the Word of God.

Every individual of that little company is made free by God, and is a free fellow-citizen. And not fellow-citizen merely; ruler, priest, magistrate, public official, of every kind, because he may and must also be all these, if he is nominated to them by the community. Man bears within himself the ability for all. Each individual feels himself a man, and at the same time intimately bound up in consolidated union with the rest. The community governs itself by the appointment of its own governors. These are elected by vote. The majority of votes decides the election; all agreeing to respect rules and rulers, which the majority have agreed to. The document of this agreement was signed by the emigrants before they left the Mayflower; before they had landed on the new