ity from a consent, real or implied. The maxim that "government rests on the consent of the governed" still continues popular; but the philosophy of which it is an expression has long since been abandoned by all historical and philosophical students. There never was such a state of nature as Rousseau imagines; there never was such a social contract as he has conceived. The earlier stages of life are not those of liberty, but those of absolutism. As Rousseau's theory has no basis in history, so it has none in analogy. The government of the father does not depend on the consent of the children, nor that of the teacher on the consent of the pupil, nor that of God on the consent of men. No more does the government of the state depend on the consent of the citizens. For America the notion that government rests on the consent of the governed was forever demolished by the Civil War. The basic principle of the Hebrew government was neither the authority of one man over other men because he has power to enforce his commands, nor the consent of other men to accept the will of one man that is, the consent of the governed; it was the authority of Almighty God. There are certain great natural laws of heat, of light, of electricity, of gravitation. Men neither make them nor unmake them, mend them nor modify them. They must obey them, and then they can use them; but they violate them at their peril. So there are laws of health which men neither make nor unmake, mend nor modify. If we obey them, we have health; if we disobey them, we sicken and die. The fundamental principle of the Hebraic commonwealth was that there are great moral laws by which human society is bound together. These laws men neither make nor unmake, mend nor modify. They are not dependent upon the will of monarch, oligarchy, aristocracy, or public assembly. They are eternal, absolute, immutable. We must find out what they are and obey them, or suffer the penalty of our ignorance or our willfulness. "The seat of law," says Hooker, "is in the bosom of Almighty God." This is the doctrine of the Hebraic commonwealth. Neither Czar nor Council of Ten nor British Parliament nor American Congress can make law. All that man can do, whatever governmental mechanism he adopts, is to ascertain what are the laws of social order, and apply them to the problems of his own time and his own community. This is the first and fundamental principle of the Hebraic commonwealth; the authority for law is neither the power of one man to enforce his will over other men nor the consent of the governed; it is the authority of the one and only Lawgiver. If by our governmental organization we ascertain what the law of the social order is, we shall do well; if we fail to ascertain, or, ascertaining, fail to obey, we shall do ill. The second principle or congeries of principles in the Hebraic constitution is found in its state ment of the essential laws of the social order. These are very simple and very vital. They were stated in the Ten Commandments in concrete forms, but they are concrete forms of great principles which may be restated somewhat thus: Spiritual reverence for God; preservation of some time free from the drudgery of toil for the development of the higher nature; respect for parents; regard for the rights of person, of the family, of property, of reputation; and, last, this respect real and spontaneous, not formal and enforced. When a community bases government on either the power of the governor, leading to despotism, or on the consent of the governed, leading to anarchy, it violates the first of these laws. When it substitutes symbols for realities, promotes and encourages the spirit of irreverence, devotes all its energies to material advancement, forgetting all need of and all ministry to the higher life, and makes every day a workday, and wealth the measure of prosperity, it violates the second, third, and fourth laws. When, through the disregard of parents, it suffers the disintegration of the family, which is itself the unit of organized society, and so prepares the way for widespread social disorder, it violates the fifth law. When it fails to afford protection of the innocent from the oppressions of the strong or the violence of mobs, or suffers such industrial conditions as destroy men and women and children before their time in mining and manufacturing industries, it violates the sixth law. When it permits the practice of polygamy, or encourages licentiousness in legalized forms by freedom of divorce, it violates the seventh law. When it taxes a helpless and prostrate people under forms of law, giving them by law none of the benefits for which governments are organized, it violates the eighth law. When it allows honored citizens whose life has been devoted to the public service of the community to be slandered by a sensational and unprincipled press, and continues to give the press its support, it violates the ninth law. When it depends wholly or chiefly on force to maintain these laws, failing to furnish such education as will make obedience to them voluntary and spontaneous, it violates the tenth law. are the fundamental laws of human life. maintenance is essential to social order. called laws are just which do not work in harmony with them. These Their No so These ethical and spiritual laws, as simple as they are fundamental, are easily apprehended by mankind. Their sanction is in the universal conscience. This is the third principle of the Mosaic constitution. The force of these laws does not lie primarily in the power of the human governor to enforce it; nor does it lie in the consent of the governed; it lies in the inherent authority of divine law and in the sanction given to that law by human conscience. This principle is recognized in the history of the giving of the Ten Commandments. Moses, it is said, came down from Mount Sinai, submitted to the people the question whether they would accept Jehovah as their king and his will as their law, and "all the people answered together and said, All that Jehovah hath spoken we will do." This acceptance by the people of the divine constitution gives to the Book of the Covenant, which contains the Ten Commandments, its name; gives, indeed, to the collection of books in which that Book of the Covenant is found the ancient title, the "Old Testament," or "Old Covenant." Throughout their history the relation between God and Israel was treated as a covenant relation. The prophetic indictments of Israel were not merely because they had violated the divine law, but because they had broken their covenant with their God. The law was not imposed upon them; it was accepted by them; its authority was divine, and they had recognized their obligations to obey it. This fact is written large in Hebrew history. There are no threats of punishment in a future life; of rewards in a future life; no priesthood is vested with power to enforce the law by appeals to superstitious fears, as the law was enforced in the Middle Ages. Nor was there permitted to Israel in its governmental ideals a standing army to enforce against a recalcitrant people the laws which they had made their own by their acceptance of them. "Out of Zion shall come forth the law," said one of Israel's great prophets. That is, the obligation of law was a religious obligation recognized there are no promises |