"Christianity is in its essence, its doctrines, and its forms, republican. It teaches our descent from a common pair; it inculcates the natural equality of mankind; and it points to our origin and our end, to our nativity and our graves, and to our immortal destinies, as illustrations of this impressive truth." And what is more to our purpose, considering the prepossessions which the writer has so often avowed against the religion of the New Testament, the author of Travels, in England, France, Spain and the Barbary States, pays the following unreluctant homage to the beneficial influence which Christianity exerts upon civil liberty. After landing in France from the last named country, he remarks, "I could breathe freely, speak freely, I no longer viewed my fellow men with distrust, and I thanked God that I was in a Christian land.”* And what is the language of facts? Whence, with the exception of slavery in the United States, an evil brought into the country originally under the authority of the British government, and continued in defiance of all the remonstrances of our ancestors, whence is that equality of condition which is so indicative of liberty, so much more complete in Christian countries, than in any other part of the world? Who but a Christian poet has ever sung, ""Tis Liberty alone that gives the flower Every where the men whose minds have been im * Travels in England, France, Spain and the Barbary States, by Mordecai M. Noah. bued with the light and spirit of the Holy Scriptures, have been the devoted friends of civil liberty. Such were the Lollards in England, the adherents of Luther in Germany, and of John Knox in Scotland. Such was Holland, when her sturdy republican virtues, the learning and piety of her clergy, and the excellence of her moral and literary institutions spread her fame throughout the earth. Such was Switzerland, not only during those periods when she was most free, but those in which she struggled, however unsuccessfully, for her freedom. Such were the protestant non-conformists from the days of the Reformation to the death of Queen Elizabeth. Such were the Presbyterians in the days of the first Charles. Such were others, who, though in some respects misguided men, laid their hands upon the Bible, and boldly proclaimed, that "resistance to tyrants is obedience to God." Such were those noble men, the Huguenots of New York and New Jersey, as well as others of their suffering companions, who fled from France, and sealed their testimony with their blood, on the fatal revocation of the edict of Nantes. Such also were the Puritans of New England, who, through the favour of Divine Providence, opposed, though not a bolder, a more successful resistance to despotic power. With the courage of heroes and the zeal of martyrs, they struggled for and obtained the charter of liberty now enjoyed by the British nation. Even the historian, Hume, whose prepossessions all lay on the side of absolute monarchy, and who was sufficiently prejudiced against the Bible, was constrained to the confession, "that the precious spark of liberty had been kindled and was preserved by the Puritans alone, and that it was to this sect the English owe the whole freedom of their constitution." It has been common with a certain class of writers to speak evil of these excellent men. Those who would not do this ignorantly, should acquaint themselves with their character as it is exhibited in Brodie's British Empire, from the accession of Charles I. to the Restoration; in Vaughan's Stuart Dynasty; in Godwin's History of the Commonwealth, and in Bishop Burnet's History of his own times. The general character of the dissenters of the independent denominations in England, also verifies the scope and spirit of these remarks. On the celebrated motion in the House of Lords, for inquiry into the cause of the death of the devoted missionary, Smith, in Demarara, Lord Brougham spoke of the Independents as a "body of men to be held in lasting veneration for the unshaken fortitude with which, in all times, they have maintained their attachment to civil liberty: men, to whose ancestors England will ever acknowledge a boundless debt of gratitude, as long as freedom is prized among us. For they, I fearlessly confess it, they, with whatever ridicule some may visit their excesses, or with whatever blame others-they, with the zeal of martyrs, the purity of early Christians, the skill and courage of the most renowned warriors, obtained for England the free constitution she now enjoys." It is worthy of remark, that the Bible recognizes and maintains the only principle on which it is possible for a nation ever to enjoy the blessings of civil liberty. That principle is, that all that is valuable in the institutions of civil liberty rests on the character which the people sustain as citizens. The fear of God is the foundation of political freedom. "He is the freeman whom the truth makes free, Bad men cannot make good citizens. It is impossible that a nation of infidels or idolaters should be a nation of freemen. It is when a people forget God, that tyrants forge their chains. The principles of liberty and the principles of the Bible are most exactly coincident. A vitiated state of morals, a corrupted public conscience, is incompatible with freedom. Nothing short of the strong influence of that system of truth which God has revealed from heaven is competent so to guide, moderate, and preserve the balance between the conflicting interests and passions of men, as to prepare them for the blessings of free government. Holland was free so long as she was virtuous. She was a flourishing republic, she produced great and enlightened statesmen, until she became corrupt, and infidelity spoiled her of her glory. France would have become free on the accession of her present citizen king, but for the radical deficiency in her moral virtue. When the distinguished Perrier, who succeeded La Fayette in the office of prime minister to Louis Philippe, was on his bed of death, he exclaimed with great emphasis and fervour, La France doit avoir une religion! "France must have religion." Liberty cannot exist without morality, nor morality without the religion of the Bible. It is a nation's love of law, its love of wise and benevolent institutions, its attachment to the public weal, its peaceful and benevolent spirit, its love of virtue, and these alone, that can make it free. Take these away and there must be tyrants in their place. I hold no axiom more true or more important than this, that man must be governed by moral truth or despotic power. As soon as a nation becomes corrupt, her liberties degenerate into faction; and then nothing short of the strong arm of despotism will restrain the passions of men, and control their pride, their selfishness, their love of gold, their thirst for domination, and their brutal licentiousness. The Bible alone is the source of that high-toned moral principle which is necessary to all classes, in all their intercourse, for the exercise of all their rights, and the enjoyment of all their privileges. Without it, rulers become tyrants, and the people are fitted only for servitude, or anarchy. Without it, there is no such thing as an intelligent, lofty, ardent, honourable and disinterested character. Nothing else is capable of combining a nation into one great brotherhood; annihilating its divisions; quenching its hate; destroying its spirit of party; bringing all parts with all their jarring interests into one great whole, and inscribing on the banner, forever sacred to freedom and virtue, E pluribus unum. Nothing else will rightly control its suffrages; send up a salutary influence into its senate chamber; diffuse its power through all ranks of office; direct learning and laws; act on commerce and the arts, and spread that hallowed influence through every department of society that shall render its liberties perpetual. Statesmen may be slow to learn from the Bible; but they will find no surer guide to political skill and foresight. The common people may be slow to learn from the Bible; but they will no where find their interests so watchfully protected, and their liberties defended with such ability and so many counsels of wisdom. The designs of ambitious and intriguing men, the artifices of demagogues, the usurpations of power, the corrupting influence of high places, and the punishment of political delusion, all find their prototype and antidote in the principles, prophecies, biography, and history of the Bible. Where may a people learn a more affecting lesson, than in the succession of weak and |