The Hearth-Stone

"[...]which, next to the Bible, is the safeguard of the dwelling, and which bands the whole nation together in defence of every citizen's right, -the constitution of our country, to us the bequest of ages, guided by an arm mightier than man's, and to issues beyond his dream. In two grand lines of influence it brings to every household the co-ordinate powers which, from quarters once antagonistic, unite in a true civilization. It guarantees to every family the liberty so dearly prized by the old parent races of the Germanic North, whilst it gathers them into a great nation under the guidance of that law which was the bequest of the Roman empire to the world. These and all the leading lines of history meet in the home, and in them we own God's guiding hand. From the East with the Star of true empire, came the benign power that united these two mighty agencies of our civilization. Surely it was the religion of Jesus that wedded Roman law to[...]."