governments must forever rest, such as the following: That government is instituted for the good of the people; that it is the right and duty of the people to become acquainted with their public interests; that all laws, constitutionally enacted, should be faithfully and conscientiously obeyed; that the people, by their representatives, should have a voice in the enaction of these laws; that mild and moderate laws should be invested with energy; that the life, liberty, and property of no man shall be infringed upon, except by process of law; that every man, who respects and obeys the laws, has a right to protection and support; and that all that is valuable in civil and religious institutions rests on the intelligence and virtue of the people.

Ed. When communities will not govern themselves by rules of right, God raises up tyrants to govern them by force of arms.

Ib. Force has hitherto governed the world, but righteousness is destined to supplant it and reign over the whole earth without a rival.

ль. The fact that civil and parental law, with sufficient penalties to secure obedience, are adapted to restrain sin and crime, is too obvious to admit of doubt. Be it that there is a powerful tendency in Christian forbearance, kindness, and love, to overcome moral evils. Be it that the Bible enjoins these duties in terms of peculiar precision, extent, and force. Be it that these duties, like consistency, are rarely exemplified upon earth, and that the danger lies in the want of the meek and forbearing graces. Are there no limits to forbearance? Is there no room for disapprobation of evil workers, unequivocally expressed? Why may not restraining justice operate in harmony with constraining love, and each have their proper province? Do not all history, all observation, all experience teach us, that the union and coöperation of these two principles, on the basis of Scripture precept and precedent, is the strength and perfection of that influence, which, under God, holds the intelligent creation to the orbit of reason, of order, and of happiness? [See 683, 705.]

GOVERNMENT, GRACE.

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401. GOVERNMENT, UPHELD BY RELIGION. Em. The history of the world affords abundant evidence of the insufficiency of all human laws to restrain men from disturbing the happiness of civil society. Civil government has always stood in need of religion to supply its essential defects. Those, therefore, who maintain that religious instructors are useless in society, are totally unqualified to have any official concern in government. For, should such men be invested with power to make, or to execute the laws of the land, they would strip them of their greatest influence, and strike away the strongest pillar of their own authority. And, should they only have an opportunity, they would exert their power to banish religion from the face of the earth. Politicians of this description lately seized the opportunity offered them, to carry their infidel opinions into practice; and they ordained that there should be no teachers, nor even object of religion in the nation. They denied the existence of God, destroyed the professed ministers of the Gospel, and endeavored to set the people free from all the motives and obligations of religion. And what were the consequences of this bold and presumptuous attempt to govern without the ministers of religion, and without the motives of eternity? They were anarchy and confusion, and the untimely end of those who made the foolish and wicked experiment. [See 594, 800.]

402. GOVERNMENT, DOMESTIC.

Those parents who govern best, make the least noise.

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Edwards, (Tryon). "A family without government," says Matthew Henry, "is like a house without a roof, exposed to every wind that blows." He might rather have said, like a house in flames, a scene of confusion, and commonly too hot to live in.

403. GRACE.

"What is grace?" inquired the Moderator of a Southern Presbytery, of a colored candidate for licensure, who had been for nearly forty years a slave. "Grace!" he sententiously replied; "Grace! that is what I call something for nothing!"

Grace is glory in its nonage; and glory is grace, grown up to its perfect stature.

Em. Mankind must see the justice of the law, before they can discover the grace of the Gospel.

Grace without gifts, is more desirable than gifts without grace.

Internal signs of grace. Ed. These consist in gracious exercises. Whoever have not these, "there shall no sign be given them."

Em. Grace is the only evidence of grace.

404. GRACE, MANIFESTED.
Rivers to the ocean run,

Nor stay in all their course;
Fire, ascending, seeks the sun;
Both speed them to their source:
So a soul that's born of God,
Pants to view his glorious face;
Upward tends to his abode,

To rest in his embrace.

Em. All true believers embrace the Gospel understandingly, and consequently love to hear it preached as clearly and fully as possible.

Ed. A forbearing, forgiving spirit towards injurers and enemies, and a disposition to overcome evil by good, is one of the clearest manifestations of grace in believers.

405. GRACE, MEANS OF.

Ed. God has an important present use for all those means of grace which sinners abuse. Besides, every degree of light and truth, and every warning, are carefully treasured up for future and eternal use. Nothing exists without a great and good end, which is sure to be answered, though the wicked" mean not so, neither do their hearts think so."

Ib. The means of grace are the truths of the everlasting Gospel, faithfully proclaimed by the instruments of grace, and set home upon the hearts and consciences of men, by the Author of grace.

GRACE, GRATITUDE.

406. GRACE, MEANS OF, IMPORTANT.

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Em. The view which Christians have of eternity, gives them a deep conviction of the importance of all the means of grace. They have found that the Bible, the Sabbath, and the ordinances of the Gospel, have had a powerful, a happy, and saving effect upon their minds. They ascribe all their peculiar knowledge of God, of themselves, and of time and eternity, to the light they have derived from these means of grace. They are sensible that they should have lived without God, without Christ, and without hope in the world, if they had not enjoyed and improved the precious privileges of the Gospel. Though mankind generally make light of all the means of grace, yet Christians, who live in the light of eternity, view all religious advantages as infinitely important to themselves, and to all who enjoy them. They know that the Gospel is an everlasting Gospel; that its truths are everlasting truths; that they will make everlasting impressions upon their minds; and that they will prove a savor of life unto life, or of death unto death, to all eternity; which stamps an infinite importance upon them. This inspires them with a zeal to read the Bible, sanctify the Sabbath, to attend upon Divine institutions themselves, and to lead others to improve the means of grace to their own spiritual and eternal benefit.

Ed. The means of grace are the most effectual of all the outward restraints upon vice and disorder. Since this is the great end of civil government, it is consummate folly for this to counteract, obstruct, and disparage the means of grace, which ought rather to be fostered by government. [See 480.]

407. GRATITUDE, THANKFULNESS.

Gratitude is the memory of the heart.

Our thanks should be as fervent for mercies received, as our petitions for mercies asked.

We should give thanks for all that befalleth us, whether it be sweet or bitter, good or evil, since we see only the beginning, and not the winding up, of events in this life.

Cowper. One act that from a thankful heart proceeds,

Exceeds ten thousand mercenary deeds.

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GRAVE, GREATNESS.

Gray. Sweet is the breath of vernal shower,

The bee's collected treasure sweet,

But sweeter yet the still small voice
Of gratitude.

Who does not enjoy what he has, with contentment a devout gratitude, would be equally ignorant of true happine had he all he could wish for.

Ed. Gratitude to God should be as habitual as the recepti of mercies is constant, as ardent as the amount of them is nume ous, and as devout as the riches of Divine grace and goodne is incomprehensible. It is a wonder and a shame that manki are not in a continual ecstacy of gratitude, for their existen and manifold, astonishing mercies.

408. GRAVE.

How peaceful, and how powerful is the grave.
None but the actions of the just,

Gray.

Smell sweet and blossom in the dust.

Full many a gem of purest ray serene,
The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear;
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,

And waste its sweetness on the desert air. Ed. The grave is a very powerful preacher, but needs all-powerful Spirit, to make saving impressions.

409. GREATNESS.

Lavater. All great minds sympathize.

Ib. Who seeks the good of those greater than himself, th greatness enjoys, and forgets his own greatest qualities in th greater ones, is himself truly great.

Ib. He who can, at all times, sacrifice pleasure to duty, a proaches sublimity.

Ib. He only is great, who, after performing what not one ten thousand could accomplish, passes on, like Samson, and te neither father nor mother.

Ed. Greatness involves the discovery of personal insign

cance.

Webster, (Daniel.) A solemn and religious regard to spir