Part II ]

DUTIES OF PATRIOTISM.

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country by a revolution, and to establish another. It is in conse-quence of the overwhelming evils of anarchy and revolution, thatthe duty of civil obedience has been prescribed in so stronglanguage. Still no attempt is made to fix limits to an obe-dience, to which, from the nature of the case, no well markedlimits can be assigned. All Christian duties are treated alike,in this respect, in the New Testament. Thus the duty ofhusbands and wives, of parents and children, of masters andservants, are all prescribed, but no attempt is made to assignthe exact limits of these duties.

The right of revolution, or making forcible resistance to civilgovernment, cannot be ascertained by any precise boundaries ; —it commences at the point where civil obedience ceases to be avirtue. What this point is, those who undertake a revolutionmust of necessity judge for themselves, upon a view of all thecircumstances and under the weight of the most solemn respon-sibility to God, their country, and mankind. In undertaking tomake forcible resistance to government, “ the end should beseen from the beginning and to bear present evils while theyare tolerable, is preferable to rushing into a revolution, where theevils are certain and very great, and the good in prospect mustalways be, in a considerable degree, problematical.

“ The speculative line of demarcation, where obedienceought to end, and resistance must begin, is,” says Mr. Burke,“ faint, obscure, and not easily definable. It is not a single act,or a single event, which determines it. Governments must beabused and deranged, indeed, before it can be thought of; andthe prospect of the future must be as bad as the experience ofthe past. When things are in that lamentable condition, thenature of the disease is to indicate the remedy, to those whomnature has qualified to administer, in extremities, this critical,ambiguous, bitter potion, to a distempered state. Times, andoccasions, and provocations will teach their own lessons. Thewise will determine from the gravity of the case, — the irritable,from sensibility to oppression, — the high-minded, from disdainand indignation at abused power in unworthy hands, — the braveand bold, from the love of honorable danger, in a generous