tions with it. The state, for instance, proclaims a fast-day, and the church observes it. But with regard to expediency and to possibility, that is another matter. I do not think that such relations can become intimate or influential without danger. A salary, for instance, paid by the state to the church, besides having other inconveniences, gives the state a hold upon the church, and compromises the latter. A church jealous of maintaining the prerogative of the Lord, and which would withstand the state as soon as it made the least encroachment upon her, must always be in opposition, and in conflict with the state. Of this the history of the Church of Scotland is a proof. Should it, then, be the aim of these two great associations, the state and the church, to hate and wage incessant war upon each other? Are these two powers, which both proceed from God, which are both placed by him above the nations, to diffuse inestimable benefits among them, set up merely as two champions, two gladiators, to fence incessantly together, and aim at each other's lives? I am too desirous of a real and cordial union between the civil and the religious body, not to wish those ties to be severed, those complications unravelled, which, hitherto, have never ceased to make them rivals and enemies. In my opinion, the greatest argument against such union is its impossibility,its incompatibility with the peace, the liberty, the vitality, and the prosperity both of the state and of the church. I ask not, therefore, the suppression of a union, but of a discord. I am tenacious of establishing this fact. It is no question now, of a discord which existed in past ages, in the times of Henry of Germany, of Gregory VII., of Philip Augustus, of Boniface VIII., of Frederick Barbarossa, of Gregory IX., or of Innocent III. No; our business is with a deplorable discord and struggle which exists in our own day, which is vigorously recommencing in France (see the late "pastoral letters," for example), in Germany, in England, and even in our own Switzerland, once deluged in blood by the questions of the convents and the Jesuits, and destined, perhaps, to be so again. I say nothing of the Canton de Vaud; of the struggle even now sustained there by a few noble witnesses for the kingship of Jesus Christ; of the conflict in which the power of faith is opposed by the power of the bludgeon; of that battle which is going on at our own doors, which is felt even in our own homes, and which speaks with a voice from which some useful lesson might surely be learnt. Yes; I accuse those governmental systems which would, at any price, keep up these complications, these invasions, these subjections. I accuse them as enemies of a cordial and healthful union between the church and the state. I accuse them of being the instigators of troubles and conflicts between the two bodies. I accuse them as being calculated to perpetuate among the nations the causes of their desolation and their ruin; and it is in the name of this very principle of union which they assert, while they pervert its nature, that I condemn them. May the Free Church of Scotland maintain that ancient and grand principle, by virtue of which the kindly influence of Christianity is to penetrate not only into individuals, but into families; not only into families, but into the most extensive societies, and most especially into the great body of the nation. May the Church of Scotland maintain, that there is upon earth, neither individual nor society in behalf of which she is not to offer up this prayer, "Thy kingdom come." May she reject with alarm, as we ourselves do, the saying of a celebrated French Roman Catholic politician; "The state is Atheist" (a saying which, I am aware, has been explained, but which nevertheless has been perniciously invented). May the Church of Scotland never cease to repeat before the whole world, that she will not have a state without God; but let her at the same time acknowledge with thankfulness what God has done for her, and glory in her perfect freedom. I conclude by observing that, while the Scottish system builds its theories upon a solid scriptural basis, a powerful principle, which is too much neglected by separatism; the latter developes the Scottish system in a very important application. Q They are, or at least ought to be, two friendly systems, each the complement of the other. Allow me, in conclusion, to make a strange supposition. Should a madman, in order to establish a greater union in our solar system, propose connecting the earth, the moon, and the sun together by some monstrous chain, what, I ask, would be the result; but that such a bond would prevent the free motion of these bodies, would draw our system into unheard of disorder, and plunge us into a fearful cataclysm, into the darkness and desolation of chaos? Far better is that liberty which God has given them, a liberty which allows of the free circulation of light, heat, and life! Not only in Scotland, therefore, but throughout the world, may the church become free, and avail herself betimes of the advantages of that freedom to cause all nations, and consequently all states, to rejoice in the light of the Sun of Righteousness! |