GOVERNMENT exists in the very nature of
the existence of intelligent creatures. For the very term "creature"
implies the Creator; and as certainly as any intelligent creature
is, he owes to the Creator all that he is. And, in recognition
of this fact, he owes to the Creator honor and devotion supreme.
This, in turn, and in the nature of things, implies subjection
and obedience on the part of the creature; and this is the principle
of government.
Each intelligent creature owes to the Creator
all that he is. Accordingly, the first principle of government
is, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,
and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy
strength.
This is pronounced by the Lord to be the
first of all the commandments. It is not the first of all the
commandments because it was the first one that was ever given;
but simply because it exists in the very nature and existence
of every intelligent creature, and so inheres in the nature of
things as soon as a single intelligent creature exists.
It is, therefore, the first of all the
commandments, simply because it is but the expression of the
inherent obligation in the first relationship which can possibly
exist between creature and Creator. It is the first in the nature,
the circumstances, and the existence of created intelligences.
It is the first of all the commandments
in the supreme and most absolute sense. It inheres in the nature
and the relationship of the first intelligent creature, and stands
as complete in the case of that one alone as though there were
millions; and stands as complete in the case of each one in the
succession of future millions as in the case of the first intelligent
creature, as he stood absolutely alone in the universe. No expansion,
no multiplication of the number of the creatures beyond the original
one, can ever in any sense limit the scope or meaning of that
first of all commandments. It stands absolutely alone and eternally
complete, as the first obligation of every intelligent creature
that can ever be. And this eternal truth distinguishes individuality
as an eternal principle.
However, just as soon as a second intelligent
creature is given existence, an additional relationship exists.
There is now not only the primary and original relationship of
each to the Creator, for both owe equally their existence to
the Creator, but also an additional and secondary relationship
of each to the other.
This secondary relationship is one of
absolute equality. And in the subjection and devotion of each
to the Creator,in the first of all possible relationships, each
of these honors the other. Therefore, in the nature of things,
in the existence of two intelligent creatures, there inheres
the second governmental principle, mutuality of all the subjects
as equals.
And this principle is expressed in the
second of all the commandments, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself." This is the second of all the commandments,
for the like reason that the first is the first of all the commandments:
it exists and inheres in the nature of things and of intelligences
just as soon as a second intelligent creature exists. And also,
like the first, this is complete and absolute the moment that
two intelligent creatures exist, and it never can be expanded
nor can it be modified by the existence of the universe full
of other intelligent creatures.
Each, himself, alone, in his own individuality,
is completely subject and devoted first of all to the Creator;
because to Him he owes all. And in this subjection and devotion
to the Creator first of all, each honors every other intelligent
creature as his equal: as equally with himself occupying his
place in the design of the Creator, and responsible individually
and only to the Creator for the fulfillment of that design. Therefore
out of respect to the Creator, to his neighbor, and to himself,
he loves his neighbor as himself. And this second eternal truth,
equally with the first distinguishes individuality as an eternal
principle.
This is original government. It is also
ultimate government; because these are first principles complete
and absolute; and because they eternally inhere in the nature
and relationships of intelligent creatures. And this government,
which is at once original and ultimate, is simply self-government—self-govemment
in rationality and in God. For it is only the plainest, simplest
dictate of rationality that the intelligent creature should recognize
that to the Creator he owes all; and that, therefore, subjection
and honor are the reasonable dues from him to the Creator. It
is likewise a simple dictate of reason that, since his neighbor
equally with himself owes all to the Creator, his neighbor must
be respected and honored in all this as he himself would desire
to be respected and honored in it.
It is also the simple dictate of rationality
that, since these have all been created,and in their existence
owe all to the Creator, this existence with all its accompaniments
in the exercise of abilities and powers should be ever held strictly
in accordance with the will and design of the Creator. Because
it is still further the simple dictate of reason that the Creator
could never have designed that the existence, the faculties,
or the powers of any creature should be exercised contrary to
His will or outside of His design. Therefore it is the simplest,
plainest dictate of rationality that this original and ultimate
government, which is self-government, is self-government under
God, with God, and in God. And this is truly the only true self-government.
God has created all intelligences absolutely
free. He made man, equally with other intelligences, to be moral.
Freedom of choice is essential to morals. To have made an intelligence
unable to choose would have been to make it incapable of freedom.
Therefore, He made man, equally with other intelligences, free
to choose; and He ever respects that of which He is the Author
the freedom of choice.
When, in the exercise of this freedom
of choice, an intelligence chooses that his existence, with its
consequent faculties and powers, shall be spent strictly subject
to the will and within the design of the Creator, and so, indeed,
with the Creator and in the Creator, this is in the truest sense
strictly and truly self-government.
And when the service, the worship, and
the allegiance, of each intelligence is to be rendered entirely
upon his own free choice, this reveals on the part of God, the
Supreme and true Governor, the principle of government with the
consent of the governed.
Thus the divine government as it relates
to both the Governor and the governed, the Creator and the creature,
is demonstrated as well as revealed to be government of perfect
freedom; and of perfect freedom because of perfect individuality.
Through sin man lost his freedom and therefore
his individuality. But in the gift of Christ all was restored.
"He hath sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives."
"Christ suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that
He might bring us to God."
Christ Jesus, therefore, came from Heaven
unto the world to bring back to man, and to bring man back to,
what man had lost. Individuality was the Creator's supreme gift.
In the fall, this was lost. In the gift of Christ the day that
man sinned, the gift of individuality was restored to man.
In the long ages of sinful and imperial
despotism from Cain to Tiberius Caesar, men had been so continually
and systematically oppressed that they had been robbed of every
vestige of individuality. Then Christ came into the world in
human flesh as man, and through every phase of human experience
established the individuality of man upon its own original and
eternal basis. Matt. 25:15. Therefore, without Christianity in
its original and native purity there cannot be true individuality.
But in the interests of despotism the
very name of Christianity was perverted. And through long ages
of ecclesiastical imperialistic tyranny men were again systematically
robbed of every vestige of individuality. In the Reformation,
God again restored men to Christianity and 'individuality. But
Protestantism hardened in forms and creeds; and every form and
denomination of Protestants has denied, and done all that it
could to destroy, Christian liberty and individuality. And now,
through denominational, national, international, and world federation
and confederation in religion and of religions, again ecclesiastical
imperialistic despotism will work with all worldly power, deceiving
signs, and lying wonders, systematically to rob man finally of
every vestige of individuality.
But Christianity in its supreme gift of
individuality, as always before, will now and finally triumph
over all. Rev. I5:2, 3. And Christianity triumphing through individuality,
in the nature of the case, does it now as always before only
in and through the blessed individual: the individual under God
and with God, the individual maintaining in perfectsincerity
the Divine Right of Individuality in Religion, and Religious
Liberty Complete.
Individuality, bear in mind always: not
individualism: for it is distinctly and eternally an "ity";
never an "ism."
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