reason for demanding it. Government would have been necessary if
man had not sinned, and it is needed for the good as well as for
the bad. The law was promulgated in the Garden, while man
retained his innocence and remained in the integrity of his
nature. It exists in heaven as well as on earth, and in heaven
in its perfection. Its office is not purely repressive, to
restrain violence, to redress wrongs, and to punish the
transgressor. It has something more to do than to restrict our
natural liberty, curb our passions, and maintain justice between
man and man. Its office is positive as well as negative. It is
needed to render effective the solidarity of the individuals of a
nation, and to render the nation an organism, not a mere
organization--to combine men in one living body, and to
strengthen all with the strength of each, and each with the
strength of all--to develop, strengthen, and sustain individual
liberty, and to utilize and direct it to the promotion of the
common weal--to be a social providence, imitating in its order
and degree the action of the divine providence itself, and, while
it provides for the common good of all, to protect each, the
lowest and meanest, with the whole force and majesty of society.
It is the minister of wrath to wrong-doers, indeed, but its nature
is beneficent, and its action defines and protects the right of
property, creates and maintains a medium in which religion can
exert her supernatural energy, promotes learning, fosters science
and art, advances civilization, and contributes as a powerful
means to the fulfilment by man of the Divine purpose in his
existence. Next after religion, it is man's greatest good; and
even religion without it can do only a small portion of her work.
They wrong it who call it a necessary evil; it is a great good,
and, instead of being distrusted, hated, or resisted, except in