NATIONAL CONSIDERATIONS. 87
because it demonstrates the divine truth, that to
get into office, and to hold it when in, it is not
necessary that he should be a cunning politician,
filled with selfishness and deceit. Lastly, it shows
m
in a strong light that politics, in its high and
honorable sense, is not separable from a high
morality and a sublime faith in God, which is
one of the highest manifestations of religion, be¬
cause it enables an officer to do right though
death stares him in the face; and, more still, to
do right though all the powers in the state be op¬
posed to him; for to die when it is popular, for a
popular cause, with state power behind us, is small
heroism compared with the heroism of a man who
does right when popular opinion and state power
are combined and opposed to him. Such was
the heroism of the illustrious prophet and pre¬
mier. Let us not forget the relations of Joseph
and Daniel to society at the time when their faith
in God was tried and their grand traits of char¬
acter were developed. The one was a slave in a
foreign land, the other a captive without fortune
and without powerful friends. Now, what docs
history teach us by these two interesting facts?
That the humblest citizen or subject, whose par¬
ents or guardians have trained him as a child
ought to be trained, may, in some great emer¬
gency, become the greatest benefactor of his
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