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actments, rigidly enforced by the judicial decisions of a Government, must be admitted as valid evidence of its general religious character, or as proofs of the particular system of religious doctrines which it may favor, then it must be conceded, that the religion of the United States, is Christian, Protestant, and Evan: gelical.

Although this article has already exceeded the limits within which it was intended to confine it, we must beg indulgence for a few concluding reflections.

It seems then after all, that the founders of our Government, and the framers of our Constitutions and Laws, did not shrink from the responsibility of committing the nation in favor of the great and fundamental doctrines of Christianity. They did not consider it an infraction upon civil liberty, or the rights of conscience, to have such sentiments adopted and avowed, by the State, as might give mankind unequivocally to understand the position maintained by the American Republic in reference to religion. There is indeed no formal creed-no stately establishment. Every thing is done, on the contrary, to prevent a union of Church and State. And we may well be glad of it. But whilst this extreme is avoided, the other of utterly discountenancing religion is equally shunned. It was well understood by those wise, and brave, and good men, that as there was a political medium between tyranny and anarchy, so there was also a religious medium, for the State, between a pampered establishment and national infidelity. In both cases they sought and found the desired medium. And their ready adoption of it teaches us that, if their political creed be sound, Governments have no right to act in such cases as if they were dead impersonal abstractions. That on the contrary they are invested with all the faculties and powers that render the individuals composing them responsible agents. They are subject to the same natural and moral laws, and can under no circumstances escape from their accountability to the King of kings. However loudly therefore those who deny all religion may complain, that the Government should obtrude religious doctrines upon their civil relations to it, the evil, if an evil, cannot be remedied, unless by some means the moral obligations of the State can be dissolved, without at the same time involving an utter dissolution of every moral and social bond by which civil society is held together.

But we insist upon what has been already proven, that no wrong is done by the position thus assumed, to a single upright citizen, which could possibly be redressed, without inflicting greater wrong upon ten thousand others. They who would

VOL. III.NO. IV.

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have our constitution and laws stripped of every feature by which they are allied to christianity, can surely not reflect upon the import of their demands. If they did, it seems to us that the injustice and absurdity of them would become so manifest, that they would be instantly abandoned. For to name no other consideration, the fact that their demand, if granted, would disfranchise fourteen millions of our citizens, for the sake of accommodating the provisions of the Government to the irreligious fancies of a few thousand, would be sufficient to condemn it.

Such then being the actual position of our Government upon this subject, we see no reason why it should not be freely proclaimed. Rather is it due to the nation, to mankind, and to religion, to give full and clear utterance to the fact. It is due to religion that this should be done; for if our country owes its greatness mainly to Christianity, then it is just that He should have the praise, to whose Divine goodness we are indebted for the blessings of the Gospel. It is due to the nation that this should be done; for if a nation is responsible for its moral influence, it has a right assuredly to ask, that its provisions and enactments in favor of truth, morality, and righteousness, be publicly proclaimed without reserve. And again this is due to mankind; for as the mutual moral and social dependencies of individuals extend to nations, each separate nation owes the full weight of its moral influence in favor of social virtue and happiness, to all the rest.

Instead therefore of tamely and tacitly yielding the assumptions of unbelievers and ultra-liberalists upon this point, why should not all who are concerned for the true honor and welfare of our country, rather be zealous in securing for her, as well as for humanity and truth, the full advantage of this her true position in reference to christianity? Why should the whole weight of our national influence be allowed to go, without contradiction, against the world's highest and truest life? Why should our own children be compelled to contend, in their moral development, against the force of this additional impediment? Why should strangers of other climes and of utterly different religions, be enticed to make our land their home, under the false impression that they can here enjoy a degree of freedom from all moral or religious limitations, which no civil Government could grant, without thereby laying a ruinous train for its own ultimate explosion? It is indeed the glory of our Republic, to be the asylum for the oppressed of all nations, to which the wronged may flee for refuge from the relentless persecutions of civil and religious tyranny. But because it is thus

an asylum for the suffering, no one has a right to convert it into a sewer for the abandoned and depraved.

Easton, Pa.

J. H. A. B.

THE APOSTLE PETER.

[An extract from Schaff's Church History.]

His Character.

SIMON, according to his old name, or according to his new one PETER, was the son of the fisherman Jonas, (Matth. iv: 18, xvi: 17, John i: 43, xxi: 16), born in Bethsaida of Galilee (John i: 45), and settled at Capernaum (Matth. viii: 14, Luke iv: 38), where he pursued himself his father's business. His brother Andrew, a disciple of John the Baptist, first brought him to Jesus, by whom he was called to become a fisher of men (Matth. iv: 18 ff. Mark i: 16 ff. John i: 41 f.). From the time of that miraculous draught of fishes, which served to overwhelm him at once with the sense of his majesty and power and with the feeling of his own weakness and sinfulness (Luke v: 3 ff.), he gave himself up entirely to his service, and with John and the elder James stood ever after in the nearest intimacy with his person, being along with them a witness of the transfiguration on Tabor and of the awful conflict of Gethsemane. Among these three moreover he appears evidently the most prominent. He is the proper "organ of the entire apostolic college," he speaks and acts in their name. While the contemplative selfcommuning John lay in mysterious silence on Jesus' breast, the more practical and active Peter was never able to conceal his inmost nature; it comes everywhere involuntarily to light, so that we are thus better acquainted both with his virtues and faults from the evangelical narrative, than we are with those of any other apostle. With the most ardent devotion he gives himself up to the Saviour, and confesses in the name of his fellow dis

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So Chrysostom styles him, in Joann. homil, 88, where he says of him: ἔκκριτος ἦν τῶν ἀποστόλων καὶ στῆμα τῶν μαθητῶν καὶ κορυφὴ τοῦ χορου.

ciples that he is the Messiah, the Son of the living God (Matth. xvi: 16). Soon after he undertakes, with unbecoming familiarty and unconscious presumption, to administer to him a rebuke, and to dissuade him from the course of suffering which was required for the redemption of the world (Matth. xvi: 22). On the mount of transfiguration he is bent prematurely on building tabernacles, to perpetuate the happiness he felt in a simply outward way (Matth. xvii: 4). At the feet-washing, his highminded modesty leads him to make himself wiser than his Master: "Lord, dost thou wash my feet?-Thou shalt never wash my feet!" (John xiii: 6, 8). What a remarkable mixture of glowing love to Christ and rash self-reliance proclaims itself in his vow, shortly before the scene in the garden: "Though all men shall be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended!-Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee!" (Matth. xxvi: 23, 25). What a stormy inconsiderate and carnal zeal he displays in Gethsemane itself, where he grasps the sword instead of preparing himself meekly to suffer (John xviii: 10)! Soon after followed his deep deplorable fall, when through fear of men and love of life he became untrue to his Master. In the hand of God, however, this was to serve the purpose of bringing him by bitter experience to the knowledge of his own weakness, to heartfelt humiliation, and to the settlement of his strength in a better form on God's grace alone. The Lord did not forsake him; he prayed that his faith should not fail (Luke xxiii: 32), restored him again after his resurrection to the pastoral office of which he had rendered himself unworthy by his fall, and gave him the charge of his sheep and lambs. He had to meet indeed a severe trial first in the thrice repeated inquiry: "Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me-lovest thou me more than these?" by which, to fill him with contrition and shame, the Saviour reminded him of his threefold denial and of the way in which he had exalted himself before above his fellow disciples. We find his pride now bowed down, his ardor purified; he ventured no more to place himself above the rest, but submitted the measure of his love to the Searcher of hearts, being well assured that he loved him and recognizing in this love the very element of his life, but at the same time painfully sensible that he did not love him as he ought and as he gladly would (John xxi: 15 ff.). That he allowed himself even after this to be hurried by the impulse of the moment into inconsistent conduct, is shown by the occasion which drew on him Paul's rebuke at Antioch (Gal. ii: 11, 14). This whole occasion also however he had grace to improve to his own humilia

tion, keeping in view continually the last prophetic word of his Master, that he must walk in the way of self-denial and complete his obedience and faithfulness finally by suffering without any will of his own (John xxi: 19). For otherwise we find, that before the people and the chief council, and in view of the greatest danger, he confessed his faith without fear, and maintained his love towards the Lord with fidelity through all toil and hardship even to martyrdom itself in the most excruciating form, amply justifying thus the honor bestowed upon him by his new name (Acts iii: 1-26 iv: 1-22, v: 17-41, xii: 3-17).

These traits from the life of Simon Peter give us a picture, in which great natural gifts and excellencies are strikingly combined with peculiar defects. He is distinguished from the other eleven disciples by a fiery, excitable, choleric-sanguine temperament, by an open, clearly intellectual, practical nature, bold selfreliance, prompt readiness for action, and a considerable talent for representation and church government. He is prepared at all times to speak out his mind and heart, to come to purpose and deed. This natural constitution itself, however, exposed him strongly to the temptation of vanity, self-confidence and ambition. His excitable, impulsive nature ran very easily into a false estimate of his own powers, by which he was in danger of being thrown off his guard, and so of being carried just as easily away for the moment, in seasons of temptation, by impressions of a quite opposite sort. This explains his denial of the Lord, notwithstanding the joyful firmness that characterised the profession of his faith at other times. In depth of knowledge and love he falls short doubtless of a Paul and a John, and he was not so well fitted as they were accordingly for the business of completion. His strength lay in the fire of immediate inspiration, in promptness of speech and action, and in an imposing authoritative manner which at once commanded respect and obedience. He was a born church prince, and his gifts were admirably suited, after proper purification by the Spirit of Christ, for the business of beginning, for the first formation and ordering of the christian community.

The Position of Peter in Church History.

What has now been said indicates the place and significance of this apostle in the history of the Church, as determined by his natural qualifications, sanctified by the Holy Ghost and made to stand in the service of the truth. The Lord knew what was

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