17 everlasting testimony of the Almighty to the value of law. When we shout, therefore, at a victory gained over rebels to the government, it should mean joy that the authority of the laws is being vindicated. Every victory gained in their defence deepens the foundations of individual happiness and national security. Finally, It ought to mean the reinforcement of the moral power of the government to a degree which will render it positive and renovating in its character. . It needs all the support it can get. Not too deeply versed in the ethics of government, nor prone to radicalism in that direction, it needs every enlightening, stimulating influence which the nation can bring to bear upon it. As a nation we have been atheistical. For years, law's of God have been set aside, and His venerated word made the endorser of national crimes. Moses, Paul, and Christ, have been employed to forge manacles for the slave. The highest use government has had for revelation, has been to quiet the public conscience with a perverted interpretation of a book which was venerated by the vulgar, and therefore to be regarded. The present government was born in the awakening of the people, and truly represents the peculiarly national condition to which it owes its birth. It should be awake, and nothing but the voice of the people can awake it. It should be aroused to an activity such as the stern demands of the times require, and nothing but the thunder of the popular voice can arouse it. The shout of the people should mean, that the institutions they venerate, and the body of laws they revere, shall be cleansed and- renovated. It should express that arousing of the principle of life in the body which will throw off disease and its corruptions. It is the natural result of progress, that each succeeding 3
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