There is frequently much excitement on this subject; and many people ignorant of these things, are led to suppose that their resources will be increased, and their circumstances bettered; but when they find, after much contention, struggling, and bloodshed, that it does not rain bread, cheese, and clothing; that it is only a change of men, papers, and parchment, chagrin and disappointment naturally follow. There is much that is good, and much that is bad in all governments; and I am not seeking here to portray a perfect government, but to show some of the evils associated with them, and the utter incompetency of all the plans of men to restore a perfect government; and as all their plans have failed, so they will fail, for it is the work of God, and not of man. The moral agency of man without God, has had its full development; his weakness, wickedness, and corruption, have placed the world where it is: he can see as in a glass his incompetency, and folly, and nothing but the power of God can restore it.
It is not to be wondered at, that those various plans should exist, for the world is in a horrible situation. Jesus prophesied of it, and said, there should be upon the earth "distress of nations, perplexity, men's hearts failing them, for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming upon the earth," Luke xxi. 25, 26. Men see these things, and their hearts fear; confusion, disorder, misery, blood, and ruin, seem to stare them in the face; and in the absence of something great, noble, and magnificent, suited to the exigency of the case, they try the foregoing remedies, as a sailor, in the absence of a boat, would cling with tenacity to any floating piece of wreck, to save him from a watery grave.
Neither can men be blamed for trying to do good; it is certainly a laudable object; and with all the selfishness, ambition, and pride, associated with the foregoing, it must be admitted that there is much uprightness, sincerity, and honest zeal.
There are very many philanthropists who would gladly ameliorate the condition of men, and of the world, if they knew how. But the means employed are not commensurate with the end; every grade of society is vitiated and corrupt. "The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint." Our systems, our policy, our legislation, our education, and philosophy, are all wrong, neither can we be particularly blamed, for these evils have been the growth of ages. Our fathers have left God, his guidance, control, and support, and we have been left to ourselves; and our present position is a manifest proof of our incompetency to govern; and our past failures make it evident, that any future effort, with the same means, would be as useless. The world is diseased, and it requires a world's remedy.
Chapter IV.
What Is Man? What Is His Destiny and Relationship to God?
Having shewn in the foregoing chapters, that the rule of God is perfect where he governs alone, that the rule of man is imperfect, and has introduced confusion and misery, and that the plans of men are not competent to restore the world to happiness, and the fulfilment of the object for which it was created; it now devolves upon us to investigate the way that this thing can, and will be accomplished; for there is a time spoken of in the Scriptures, when there will be a reign of righteousness.
First, then, we will enquire who and what is man? and what is his destiny, and what his relationship to God? For before we can define government correctly, it will be necessary to find out the nature of the being that has to be governed.
What, then, is man? Is he a being temporal and earthly alone, and when he dies, does he sink into forgetfulness? Is he annihilated? or has he a spirit as well as a body? If the first be the case, he alone has a right to regulate his own affairs, to frame his own government, and to pursue that course which to him seems good; if not, the case is different. I do not here wish to enter into a philosophical disquisition on the subject, but, as I am writing at present to believers in the Bible, I shall confine myself more to that. I will state, that man is an eternal being, composed of body and spirit: his spirit existed before he came here; his body exists with the spirit in time, and after death the spirit exists without the body. In the resurrection, both body and spirit will finally be reunited; and it requires both body and spirit to make a perfect man, whether in time, or eternity.
I know there are those who suppose that the spirit of man comes into existence with his body, and that intelligence and spirit are organized with the body; but we read, that when God made man, he made him of the dust of the earth; he made him in his own likeness. Man was then a lifeless body; He afterwards "breathed into him the breath of life, and man became a living soul."