less through some
grievous moral fault of his own.

The true end of life is that we may 'glorify God, and enjoy Him
forever.' How this may be attained, as far as outward circumstances or
activities are concerned, we can hardly judge for ourselves: but there
is one sure test; and that is in the duties of our station. If we
honestly perform them, and especially as under the teachings of the
gospel of Christ, there can be no real and permanent failure. We shall
have done what we were set to do upon the earth; and with this we may
well be content.

OUR GREAT AMERICA.

The republican government of the United States, when first originated by
the fathers of the commonwealth, was regarded by the old fossil
despotisms with secret dread and a strange foreboding; and neither the
ridicule which they heaped upon it, nor the professed contempt wherewith
its name was bandied from throne to throne, could wholly mask their
trepidation. They looked upon it, in the privacy of their chambers, as
the challenge of a mighty rebellion of the people against all kingly
rule and administration; they saw in it the embodiment of those popular
ideas of freedom, equality, and self-government, which for so many
centuries had been struggling for adequate utterance in England and
France, and they knew that the success of this sublime experiment must
eventually break asunder the colossal bones of the European monarchies,
and establish the new-born democracy upon their ruins.

That they saw truly and judged wisely in these respects, the history of
modern Europe, and the current revolutions of our time, bear ample
testimony. There is no luck nor chance in human events, but all things
follow each other in the legitimate sequences of law. The American
republic is no bastard, but a true son and heir of the ages; and sprang
forth in all its bravery and promise from the mammoth loins of the very
despotism which disowns and denounces it.

We have a full and perfect faith in the mission of this republic, which
breaks open a new seal in the apocalypse of government, and unfolds a
new phase in the destiny of mankind. Feudalism has had a sufficient
trial, and, on the whole, has done its work well. After the
dismemberment of the Roman Empire, we do not see how it was possible for
society to have assumed any other form than that of kings and princes
for rulers, and the people for passive and more or less obedient
subjects. It was a great problem to be re