Word. Let their understandings become instructed in the true relations which exist between man and man, and between man and his God. Let their hearts become impressed with the great cardinal truth of the Bible, that man was intended to "love his neighbor as himself," and to "do to others as he would they should do to him"—that great law which lies at the base of all true and happy civil society: let them see and feel this, and begin to practise it, till they become at length imbued with it, and it will fit them for freedom, because they will then be able to be free, without being licentious; they will know how to enjoy their own rights, and at the same time respect the rights of others. It was for want of this great Bible law, that the freedom given by the old French Revolution first degenerated into brutal licentiousness, and then passed over into the most horrible of despotisms. And so would it be with any people, not imbued with the profound precepts of the Divine Word. God, in His wisdom, sees this; and He waits, therefore, till the nations are thus inwardly armed, before He sounds the trumpet for that outward struggle, which is to set them free. Let the minds of the people but become fully imbued with these lofty truths,—and such a flame of righteous indignation would be kindled at usurpation and tyranny, as,—like Elijah's fire descending from heaven on the captain and his band of persecutors[1],—would consume the tyrants and their armies together. The people would not want for arms: they would have the arms that God has given them, stout hearts and strong hands. They would tear their oppressors in pieces. They would shake off their bonds, as Samson, rising in
- ↑ See 2 Kings i. 9—12.
