people unto the Lord.” So that the Theocracy was elective; yet it was never alleged that the election gave the Theocracy its Divine authority. (See Exodus xix., 3-9.) And on the other hand, when the Jewish nation, in the time of. Samuel, revolted against the political government of Jehovah—demanding “ a king to judge us like all the (heathen) nations”—God did not renounce His'authority, nor withhold His presence; but vindicated His unseen, but real, Sovereignty, in every subsequent vicissitude of their political fortune. (See Kings and Chronicles.) Wherefore, inasmuch as Jehovah himself abdicated the visible throne at the voice of the people, no human Potentate may claim the crown in defiance of the popular consent, by Divine right; while, on the other hand, since Jehovah demanded the assent of the nation before He visibly assumed the throne of Theocracy, it follows that the people’s Sovereignty (so-called) is all exhausted in the simple exercise of electing its rulers. The Government becomes, in either case, the Government of God; and the people are at once made “ subject ” under the “ powers and principalities,” established and instituted as Divine ordinances, in fundamental principles and laws; and are, thenceforth, bound by religious obligations, to “ obey the magistrates,” as “ the ministers of God to them, for good.” This view of the character and authority of Civil Government represents the conscience, as the soul’s eye, looking heavenward and seeing the sanction of eternal judgment vindicating the duty -of political loyalty. It appeals to the conscience, as the judicial faculty of the soul, to determine the moral obligation of submission and of obedience to the constituted authorities of the State. It elevates politics among the interests of man, along with ethics, and flings around the Civil Government of a nation the saeredness of the Divine presence, and the authority of Almighty Go 1. This is the religious aspect of Civil Government. But there is, furthermore, the Christian aspect ; and this is ■embraced in the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, after his Resurrection: “All power is given unto Me, in Heaven and in earth'' {Matt, xxviii, 18.) He is the only Sovereign, “the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords.” Wherefore, the authority of Civil
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