Jeremiah 29:7

Seek the peace of the city.

The best Christians the best citizens

1. They know that the prosperity of the whole is their own prosperity. They o not, therefore, selfishly seek their own advantage.

2. They actually labour with all diligence for the furtherance of the common good.

3. They employ for this end the power of Christian prayer. (Naegelsbach.)

The duties of Christians to their country

I. What are the things absolutely necessary to the security and prosperity, the true glory and happiness, of our country?

1. The true honour of a nation, like that of the individual, lies in character.

2. The security and prosperity of our nation are inseparably associated with the advancement of religion among the people.

II. What are the best means for securing those things which are essential to our country’s highest welfare?

1. General diffusion of education. “Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army.”

2. Equally essential that the people be virtuous. Knowledge is power, but unsanctified power is power for evil.

3. The general distribution of the Bible--the great instrument for enlightening the conscience and purifying the heart.

4. Preaching the Gospel Our nature is a wreck, a chaos, which the Cross of Christ alone can adjust.

5. Prayer (2 Chronicles 7:13; Psalms 106:23; Exodus 32:10).

III. What arguments may enforce the duties of personal and combined activity in seeking the highest good of our land?

1. Because our own individual good is intimately connected with its general happiness and prosperity. “For in the peace thereof ye shall have peace.”

2. We shall thereby recommend the religion we profess.

3. The work of supplying our land with the preached Gospel, and with religious institutions, is the most important work to which Christians can devote their energies. (Samuel Baker, D. D.)

The civil obligations of Christian people

When a man becomes a Christian does he cease to be a member of civil society? Allowing that he be not the owner of the ship, but only a passenger in it, has he nothing to awaken his concern in the voyage? If he be only a traveller towards a better country, is he to be told that because he is at an inn which he is soon to leave, it should not excite any emotion in him, whether it be invaded by robbers, or consumed by flames before the morning? “In the peace thereof ye shall have peace.” Is not religion variously affected by public transactions? Can a Christian, for instance, be indifferent to the cause of freedom, even on a pious principle? Does not civil liberty necessarily include religious, and is it not necessary to the spreading of the Gospel? (W. Jay.)