Words from Wm. Ellery Channing

Channing is among my most favorite thinkers and preachers. Here are some good words from his sermon "Spiritual Freedom" :

"I mean not to disparage political science. The best constitution and the best administration of a state are subjects worth of the profoundest thought. But there are deeper foundations of public prosperity than these. The statesman who would substitute these for that virtue which they ought to subserve and exalt will only add his name to the long catalogue which history preserves of baffled politicians. It is idle to hope, by our short-sighted contrivences. to insure to a people a happiness which their own character has not earned. The everlasting laws of God's moral government we cannot repeal; and parchment constitutions, however wise, will prove no shelter from the retributions which fall on a degraded community."