These mighty words, rolling down the ages, and gathering weight in human consciousness from the accumulative agreement of man's highest ideal of justice and Divine impartiality, have manifested themselves in the phenomena of thrones of kings o'erturned, empires dissolved, personal aggrandizement and despotism laid low, and young Republics springing up in all continents of the known world.
Governments have changed their form and force under the mellowing influence of the Christ-spirit, and are still changing, still struggling to demonstrate the ideal of the prayer,—"thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven," first voiced beside the Galilean Sea, nineteen hundred years ago, and since repeated by millions of fervent, faithful lips.
Great counsils of men have been shaken; bloody and determined wars have been fought under the inspiration of the idea of liberty, until to-day it has become a dear and revered word in every tongue and clime. It has become associated with the thought of moral and spiritual right and privilege, until the restricting of individual liberty is met with an involuntary protest by almost every thinking mind.
