never find a savage tribe, however low and degraded, that does not assert somewhere, in the father, in the elders, or in the tribe itself, the rude outlines or the faint reminiscences of some sort of government, with authority to demand obedience and to punish the refractory. Hence, as man is nowhere found out of society, so nowhere is society found without govern

ment.

Government is necessary: but let it be remarked by the way, that its necessity does not grow exclusively or chiefly out of the fact that the human race by sin has fallen from its primitive integrity, or original righteousness. The fall asserted by Christian theology, though often misinterpreted, and its effects underrated or exaggerated, is a fact too sadly confirmed by individual experience and universal history; but it is not the cause why government is necessary, though it may be an additional reason for demanding it. Government would have been necessary if man had not sinned.

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 the action of the divine providence itself.

It is the minister of wrath to wrongdoers, 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 fulfillment 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 it should be loved, respected, obeyed, and, if need be, defended at the cost of all earthly goods, and even life itself.

ORESTES A. BROWNSON.

THE UNIVERSAL PRAYER

Father of all! in every age,

In every clime adored,

By saint, by savage, and by sage,
Jehovah, Jove, or Lord!

Thou Great First Cause, least understood:

Who all my sense confined

To know but this, that Thou art good,
And that myself am blind;

Yet gave me, in this dark estate,
To see the good from ill;

And binding Nature fast in Fate,

Left free the human will.

What conscience dictates to be done,

Or warns me not to do,

This, teach me more than hell to shun,
That, more than heaven pursue.

What blessings Thy free bounty gives,

Let me not cast away:

For God is paid when man receives;
To enjoy is to obey.

Yet not to earth's contracted span Thy goodness let me bound,

Or think Thee Lord alone of man,

When thousand worlds are round.

Let not this weak unknowing hand Presume Thy bolts to throw,

And deal damnation round the land
On each I judge Thy foe.

If I am right, Thy grace impart,
Still in the right to stay;

If I am wrong, oh, teach my heart
To find that better way.

Save me alike from foolish pride
Or impious discontent,

At aught Thy wisdom has denied,
Or aught Thy goodness lent.

Teach me to feel another's woe,
To hide the fault I see;

That mercy I to others show,
That mercy show to me.

Mean though I am, not wholly so,
Since quickened by Thy breath;

Oh, lead me wheresoe'er I go,

Through this day's life or death.

This day, be bread and peace my lot:

All else beneath the sun,

Thou know'st if best bestowed or not;
And let Thy will be done.

To Thee, whose temple is all space,
Whose altar, earth, sea, skies,

One chorus let all being raise;

All nature's incense rise!

ALEXANDER POPE.

GETTYSBURG ADDRESS

Fourscore and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that the nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who

struggled here have consecrated it far above our power