Which Is the Inconsistency?
—The fiction “This is ‘a Christian nation,” uttered by the U. S. Supreme Court in 1892, has been given as much prominence in National Reform literature and oratory as tho it expressed an actual condition. Numerous and various have been the demands on legislative bodies and other public functionaries because “this is a ‘Christian nation.’” But in a recent issue of the Christian Statesman, the editor says: “The studied ‘and almost unvarying omission of the name of ‘Christ from our Fast and Thanksgiving proclamations, is an inconsistency and an offense.” Is not the inconsistency rather on the other side,—the calling of a nation “Christian” whose executives study to evade the use of the name Christ? One of the National Reform arguments is that this is a Christian nation because the Supreme Court says so. But Christianity is not imparted in that way; it is the work of the Spirit of God.