CHAPTER XVII.

THE

CHRIST AND THE NATION.

HE nation should make a constitutional recognition of God as the Source of all authority, the Lord Jesus Christ as the divinely-appointed Ruler of nations, the Bible as the fountain of all law, and of the true Christian religion. This is our first and highest duty.

I. It will bring the Constitution into harmony with the history, character and life of this nation.

Dr. Scovel, in his address at Pittsburgh, gave a very striking résumé of the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States by Justice Brewer in the Alien Contract Labor Law Case (Feb. 29, 1892): "The court declares that the law could not be operative in the case under consideration (that of a minister brought over to New York), on this broad ground: No purpose of action against religion can be imputed to any legislation, State or national, because this is a religious people.' In sustaining this ground the court says: This is historically true. From the discovery of this continent to the present hour there is a single voice making this affirmation.'

Then the commission to Christopher Columbus is cited, followed by the first colonial grant made to Sir Walter Raleigh by Queen Elizabeth in 1584, and that by the first charter of Virginia, granted by James I., in 1606, and this by the affirmation that language of similar import may be found in the subsequent charters of that colony from the same king in 1609 and 1611, and the same is true of the various charters granted to the other colonies. In language more or less emphatic is the establishment of the Christian religion declared to be one of the purposes of the grant.

"Coming to acts of the colonists themselves, the learned justice begins with the celebrated compact of the Mayflower (1620), continues with the fundamental orders of Connecticut (1638-9), establishing an 'orderly and decent government according to God,' and closes with the charter of privileges granted by William Penn to the province of Pennsylvania in 1701.

"Nearing the present time he quotes three of the four striking references and appeals to the Supreme Being made in the immortal Declaration of Independence, and then examines the constitutions of the various states, finding in them a constant recognition of religious obligations. Every constitution of the forty-four states contains language which, either directly or by clear implication, recognizes a profound reverence for religion and an assumption that its influence in all human affairs is essential to the well-being of the community.' The Federal Constitution, it is noted, possesses its first amendment, and the

provisions of excepting 'Sunday' from the President's ten days of deliberation over bills sent from Congress. The court affirms that 'there is no dissonance in these declarations. There is a universal language pervading them all, having one meaning. They affirm and reaffirm that this is a religious nation. These are not individual sayings, declarations of private persons. They are organic utterances. They speak the voice of the entire people.'

Approaching then the formal decisions of courts, the opinion says: While, because of a general recognition of the truth the question has seldom been presented to the courts, yet we find that in Updegraph v. the Com., 11 Serg. and R. 394,400, it was decided that Christianity, general Christianity, is and always has been a part of the common law of Pennsylvania. . . Not Christianity with an established Church and tithes and spiritual courts, but Christianity with liberty of conscience to all men.' Then the equally famous decision of Chancellor Kent is quoted (in People v. Ruggles Johns. Rep, 290, 294, 295), establishing the fact that the government is not neutral as toward all religions, because the 'case assumes that we are a Christian people, and the morality of the country is deeply engrafted upon Christianity and not upon the doctrines or worship of those impostors, (Mahomet and the Grand Lama are referred to). The well-known Girard will case is also cited, and the affirmation quoted that 'the Christian religion is a part of the common law of Pennsylvania.'

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'Passing next to the 'view of American life as

expressed in its laws, its business, its customs and its society,' the justice finds 'everywhere a clear recognition of the same truth.' 'Among other matters,' he says, 'note the following: The form of oath universally prevailing concluding with an appeal to the Almighty; the custom of opening sessions of all deliberative bodies and most conventions with prayer; the prefatory words of all wills, In the name of God, Amen;' the laws respecting the observance of the Sabbath, with the general cessation of all secular business and the closing of courts, legislatures and other similar public assemblies on that day; the churches and church organizations which abound in every city, town and hamlet; the multitude of charitable organizations existing everywhere under Christian auspices; the gigantic missionary associations with general support and aiming to establish Christian missions in every quarter of the globe. These and many other matters which might be noticed add a volume of unofficial declarations to the mass of organic utterances that this is a Christian nation." Thus the opinion closes. impressively a cyclus of evidence not easy to gainsay. And it is the highest judicial authority in the land. The written constitution ought to reflect the moral character and purpose of the nation. The amendment is necessary. Decision obiter dictum of the Supreme Court of the United States, delivered by Justice Brewer, in the Alien Contract Labor Law case, anent the Trinity Church Minister brought over from Europe, Feb. 29, 1892.

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II. It will bring our written constitution into harmony with our unwritten or vital constitution. We distinguish between the vital and written. constitution of a nation. The vital constitution is the life and character of the nation. You pass through a Mohammedan country, and everything you see, the language, manners, laws, mosques, all bear the stamp of the false prophet. It is a Mohammedan nation. Its unwritten or vital constitution is Mohammedan. You pass through a Pagan nation and study its temples, language, customs and laws, and all bear the stamp of Paganism. It is a Pagan nation. Its vital constitution is Pagan. So you study the language, customs, laws, institutions and pursuits of a Christian nation, and everything bears the stamp of Christianity. It is a Christian nation. The written constitution is simply the translation into legal language of the vital forces of the nation. So that a Mohammedan nation will make a Mohammedan constitution, a Pagan nation will frame a Pagan constitution, and a Christian nation ought to adopt a Christian constitution. "The constitution of the political people has a twofold character: there is a real and a formal constitution. The one is the development of the nation in history-the historical constitution; the other is the formula which the nation prescribes for its order the enacted constitution." "The formal constitution must correspond to the real.”—Mulford: "The Nation," pp. 144-147.

III. It would conserve public rights. The nation that does not recognize the Divine rights will soon