justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the Lord saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment." In Jer. vii. the people are accused of despising God's people; and at verse 28, we read, "But thou shalt say unto them, this is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the Lord their God, nor receiveth correction: truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth;" ix. 1-3, "Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people! Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men, that I might leave my people, and go from them! for they be all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men. And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies; but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth: for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, saith the Lord." Verse 9, "Shall I not visit them for these things? saith the Lord: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?" The severest judgments are denounced against the prophets who prophesied falsely. In Jeremiah, we have this remarkable promise: v. 1, "Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, and seeketh the truth, and I will pardon it."— What an encouragement to the friends of the truth of God! how cheeringly does it echo to the church or nation in which are the righteous that keep the truth-"Destroy it not, for a blessing is in it."

Does any one ask in this connection, what is truth? Our Saviour, though he did not answer Pilate's sceptical, jesting, and cavilling question; yet most satisfactorily resolves it in these words: "Sanctify them through thy truth-thy word is truth." And besides these more general declarations which we have now quoted to show the importance and obligation of truth nationally, we find the word of God sanctioned

as the standard of national duty, and the rule of morals to the public authorities.

I have not time to institute a variety of general reasonings, or to specify the explanations and limitations with which the doctrine is to be understoodthat the word-the truth, of God-the Bible, is the standard of public, as well as private morality; and that, consequently, the nation must maintain, defend, and diffuse the truth of God. I can only enumerate,

in general terms, a few of the proofs or facts in the Jewish history, by which it is proved.

As God governs the universe-all departments of the natural world, by fixed unerring laws, it is reasonable to infer that in the revelation of his will to men, he would not leave them destitute of all light in their most important social relations. Accordingly, in point of fact, we find that the Scriptures do lay down, with great clearness, the great principles of national morality, and that not merely in abstract precepts or maxims, but in numerous examples; and if so, the nations that despise them are rebels against God, "the King and Governor among the nations;" and the people and rulers that will not be guided in all their actings thereby, must incur his indignation; and he can never want the means of vindicating his insulted majesty. Thus therefore, he spake to his ancient people, 1 Sam. xii. 14, 15, "If ye will fear the Lord, and serve him, and obey his voice, and not rebel against the commandment of the Lord; then shall both ye, and also the king that reigneth over you, continue following the Lord your God; but if ye will not obey the voice of the Lord, but rebel against the commandment of the Lord; then shall the hand of the Lord be against you, as it was against your fathers." We have already seen, from the iv. of Deut., that the Israelites as a nation were commanded to receive, and highly privileged above all nations in possessing, the revealed will of God; and from the xxviii. chap. of the same book-that as they obeyed or disobeyed it, were they promised or threatened, and actually experienced the great blessing or

the awful curse; and that other nations experienced the same.

We learn further, not only that the Lord Jesus Christ, the Head of the church and creation of God, is called "King of kings, and Lord of lords:" "The Prince of the kings of the earth;"-that God says, "I will make him, my first-born, higher than the kings of the earth. Yea, all kings shall fall down before him"-not only charges all official men-the highest and the lowest, to serve him, thus, "Be wise now, therefore, O ye kings; be instructed ye judges of the earth, and serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little;" but they are most expressly enjoined to yield obedience in their official capacity to his laws. Thus to Moses who was a king in Jeshurun, God said, Exod. xviii. 19, 20, “Be thou for the people to God-ward, that thou mayest bring the causes unto God: and thou shalt teach them ordinances and laws, and shalt show them the way wherein they must walk, and the work that they must do." To Joshua, the successor of Moses, Joshua, i. 7, 8, God says, "Be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. Observe the law laid down for the king, of whom it was foretold that he should reign over them; Deut. xvii. 14—20, "When thou art come unto the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, and shalt possess it, and shalt dwell therein, and shalt say, I will set a king over me, like as all the nations that are about me: thou shalt in any wise set him king over thee whom the Lord thy God shall choose; one from among thy brethren

shalt thou set king over thee: thou mayest not set a stranger over thee, which is not thy brother. But he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses: forasmuch as the Lord hath said unto you, ye shall henceforth return no more that way. Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away; neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold. And it shall be, when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book, out of that which is before the priests the Levites: and it shall be with him, and he shall read therein all the days of his life; that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, to keep all the words of his law, and these statutes, to do them: that his heart be not lifted up above his brethren, and that he turn not aside from the commandment, to the right hand or to the left: to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he, and his children, in the midst of Israel." Jehoshaphat sent Levites throughout all Judah to teach the law of the Lord; he told his judges, " Take heed what ye do, for ye judge not for man, but for the Lord, who is with you in judgment;" and moreover, "he set of the Levites, and of the priests, and of the chief of the fathers of Israel, for the judgment of the Lord and for controversies, when they returned to Jerusalem; and he charged them, saying, "Thus shall ye do in the fear of the Lord, faithfully, and with a perfect heart."

Here we have a different standard entirely-from either the popular will-fickle public opinion-an ever-shifting expediency, or the will of a tyrannical despot; all being made subject to the will and responsible to the authority of God: which alone can regulate and control the passions of man.

Good

God prospered Jehoshaphat abundantly. Josiah read the book of the law in the hearing of all the people, and engaged to abide by God's testimonies. Ezra confessed the sins of the people, " because they had forsaken the commandments which God had

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commanded by his servants the prophets." And Artaxerxes who was not a typical but a heathen king, with the Divine approbation, among other things for the rebuilding of the temple of God, and the re-establishment of his worship, enjoined, “ And thou, Ezra, after the wisdom of thy God that is in thine hand, set magistrates and judges which may judge all the people that are beyond the river, all such as know the laws of thy God; and teach ye them that know them not." It would be very difficult to show why rulers should not be equally bound, and find it equally easy now to ascertain the mind and will of God for the same ends-having the clearer and more full revelation of the gospel, complete in all its parts, and so many means and aids for knowing it; and what advantage can be gained either for the honour of God, the purity of religion, or the welfare of mankind, by absolving them from the obligation of ascertaining, maintaining, and acting upon this standard, it is difficult to understand.

This argument might be carried still further, by showing that rulers were severely punished for disobeying the revealed will of God, as in the case of Jeroboam, Ahab, and others: who brought destruction on themselves and their house, and ruin and desolation on their country; while, on the other hand, those rulers who obeyed the divine law, were honoured and blessed of God, and the people under them prosperous and happy, such as David, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Amaziah, Hezekiah, and Josiah, 1 Kings xix. 8; xv. 11; xxii. 43; 2 Kings xiv. 3; xviii. 3; xxii. 2; illustrating the saying, "When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice." Prov. xxix. 2. How totally different from the perverted, and I must say irreligious and wicked conduct of many in the present day, who raise to offices of trust and power, irreligious, unprincipled, and even most immoral men, merely because they are the ready tools to execute their schemes-as if men whose virtue could not be trusted in the ordinary relations of life, could be wise and upright magistrates or legislators. What an example