Page:The Relation of the Sunday-school System to our Christian Patriotism.pdf/8

8 but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.” If this was the duty of the early Christians under a foreign rule, gained and upheld by force, it is surely ours, under a rule of laws established and maintained by the popular consent. The freedom of our institutions and our rights as citizens, do not absolve us from the allegiance thus imposed on us as Christians by our Almighty and absolute King, the Lord of heaven and earth. The legitimately expressed will of the people is the power ordained of God, to which we are by His will subject. What, therefore, the Scriptures asserted of kings, according to the mode of government existing when they were written, it now asserts of the popular sovereignty existing among us; not of the magistrates except as the representatives of the people, but of the people themselves, as the higher power. This, you will bear in mind, is not a human opinion, which we may adopt or deny, but the ordinance of God; as the apostle Peter says: “Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: whether it be to the king (or sovereign) as supreme; or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him (that is the supreme power) for the punishment of evil doers, and for the praise of them that do well; as free, and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of God.” If questions respecting the right of resistance or protest in particular cases arise, as they have arisen, they are to be settled on the same principle under our system as under a monarchy. Therefore, when we read: “It is not for kings to drink wine nor for princes strong drink,