Page:The Moral and Religious Bearings of the Corn Law.djvu/15

15 dependence of different nations, and the policy and propriety of the intercourse which that dependence suggests. It may sound as well, as it is easy, to talk of one country—being entirely able to do without the aid and contributions of all other countries, but the heavens and the earth, the history of the world, and, in our own case, the facts of every day and every hour reprove it. We are dependent—we must be dependent. Every thing shows that God intends that we should be. If we look abroad upon the various countries of the earth we discover a great diversity in their resources. All lands are not alike, nor all people. Climates, soils, atmospheres, national capabilities, the moral, and intellectual, and physical characters of the inhabitants, all present a beautiful and beneficial variety. Instead, therefore, of nations considering how they may best erect themselves into a posture of proud independence, it becomes them to fulfil the evident pleasure of their common Father who "hath made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation," and, in doing this, has made it the interest of all to seek and promote the interests of each. This cannot be without a free and fair interchange of the various commodities and productions of each. The course which the divine dispensations suggest is the course to which divine revelation has afiixed its most solemn and sacred sanction. We are too much accustomed to consider the men of other countries as if they came not within the scope of the sympathies and dispositions of the religion of Christ. We fall into the Jewish error of restricting the command, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour," to our own countrymen. This is wrong. We are of one nature and one origin with the inhabitants of all countries. Differences of locality, and language, and creed, do not affect the principles of justice and btenevolence which we are bound to show to all alike and every where. When, therefore, we are enjoined to love our neighbour with the same love with