THE RELIGIOUS AMENDMENT.
By Roswell F. Cottrell
The position of those who insist upon Christianizing our government is truly marvelous. Their organ, the Christian Statesman, sees the corruption, the utter rottenness, of government officers and political parties, and also that in the history of the past such corruption as now exists here has been the certain prelude to national overthrow; and yet a firm hope is cherished that amid this teeming corruption we are suddenly to arise to the eminence of a truly Christian government, an eminence that has never been attained by any earthly government during the more than eighteen hundred years of the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Such a transformation would be marvelous in the extreme. The faith and hope they entertain is bold indeed. It looks for wonders; wonders not exceeded by a resurrection of the dead. This, God has promised; but the other, never. The hope of the resurrection is sure; because it rests in the promise and the power of God, the God who spoke the universe from naught. But how men can expect that out of the mass of civil and political rottenness which they see existing, purity is suddenly to arise, and that from the prevailing iniquity and infidelity a pure, moral, and truly Christian, government is about to come forth, and all this without a single promise of God to that effect, is a thing too wonderful to be expressed in words; “expressive silence” itself can only faintly point the amazement due to so bold a hope. And it is not only contrary to all appearance, and without a promise of God, but in direct opposition to what God has said of the latter days of the dispensation. “The Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter days some shall depart from the faith;” “evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse;” “in the last days perilous times shall come;” and “when they shall say, Peace and safety, sudden destruction shall come upon them.” Said Jesus, “Because iniquity shall abound the love of many shall wax cold; but he that shall endure unto the end the same shall be saved;” and, “as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.” The religious amendment which they demand has no other hope of success but by securing the suffrage of one or another of the corrupt political parties. When it shall be clearly seen that this “Christian party in politics” holds the balance of power, the most corrupt and degraded politicians will not scruple to espouse their cause, in order to their own advancement, and aid in the glorious work of fabricating what the world never saw, a government truly Christian. Then the fabled millennium of “peace and safety” will have begun. Out of the rotten materials of a degenerate republic, out of iniquity and infidelity, the true spiritual reign of righteousness and peace, the kingdom of God on the earth, is to be built! And this by the suffrages of a corrupt people, and contrary to the word of the living God! Did men of sane mind ever entertain a hope so preposterous?