NATIONAL REFORM ASSOCIATION.
The National Reform Association assembled for its annual meeting, in the First Presbyterian Church, Pittsburg (Rev. S. F. Scovel, pastor), on Thursday, the seventh inst., at 7:30, o’clock. The Hon. Felix R. Brunot occupied the chair, and called on Dr. David R. Kerr to open the meeting with prayer. In the absence of the secretary, Rev. W. W. Barr, D. D., of Philadelphia, the Rev. Wm. H. Vincent was chosen secretary pro tem. Mr. Brunot said that it seemed fitting to give at this annual meeting, something of a history of the movement. In the year of 1863, on the 3d day of February, a conference of Christians was held in Xenia, Ohio, which had been called with special reference to the then unhappy condition of the country, and at which eleven denominations of Christians were represented. Among the topics set for consideration were, “Religion in the heart,” “Religion in the Church,” and “Religion in the Nation.” When, before the second day of the session, the last-named of this series was under discussion, a paper was presented and read which bore the single indorsement, “From a member of the Convention.” Beginning with these words, “In this day of our national calamity it becomes us to inquire what the Lord would have us do,” it briefly called to mind the nation’s early struggle for independence; its devout reliance upon God during that struggle, and his marvelous interference in our behalf against the enemies of civil and religious liberty; and then spoke of the ingratitude of the nation after its prayer had been answered:— “Instead of going on to promote more and more the glory of God and the rights of man, a terrible and, if God’s mercy prevent not, a fatal, backward step was taken, in adopting that otherwise noble instrument without any direct recognition of God or his authority, and with a toleration of human slavery; thus contradicting two of the noblest principles of the Declaration of Independence; viz., Reliance upon Divine Providence, and acknowledgment of the equal rights of man. These two defects in our otherwise inimitable Constitution, so dishonoring to God and unjust to man, we believe to be the plague spots in the heart of our nation, corrupting its vital fountains and threatening its dissolution. . . . We regard the Emancipation Proclamation of the President, and his recommendation to purge the Constitution of slavery, as among the most hopeful signs of the times; but we regard the neglect of God and his law, by omitting all acknowledgment of them in our Constitution, as the crowning original sin of the nation, and slavery as one of its natural outgrowths. Therefore the most important step remains yet to be taken,—to amend the Constitution so as to acknowledge God and the authority of his law; and the object of this paper is to suggest to this Convention the propriety of considering this subject, and of proposing such an amendment to the Constitution as they may think proper to propose.” The paper also set forth a form of amendment such as seemed to its author suitable, in the preamble of the Constitution, and which is substantially that which is advocated by this Association. Some objection was at first made to the consideration of the paper in the conference, but it was referred to a committee embracing members of each of the eleven denominations in the conference. The committee made a favorable report on the sentiments and suggestions of the paper, and the report was adopted. It seemed to the conference, said one who took part in its proceedings, that the question presented “was the real question of the hour and of the weightiest importance; God was forcing it upon them, and there was danger in delay; they must begin the work, and begin it then.” The action of this conference was the first step that led to the organization of the body which holds its annual meeting to-night, and the composition of the body attests the unsectarian character of the origin of our movement. Before the final ratification of the Constitution, in some of the State Legislatures and Conventions which discussed it, and at every period since its adoption, the religious defect of the Constitution has been lamented by many of the wisest and best men our country has produced. Says one who has collected their recorded utterances on the subject for publication: “The witnesses are of the highest standing. Learned and patriotic men,—lawyers, judges, divines, legislators, editors, professors of political science,—all unite in harmonious and most explicit testimony to the religious defect of our Constitution.” But there seems to have been no definite proposition to set about the work of removing the defect until it was made in the little assemblage of Christian patriots at Xenia. The friends of the measure at first thought that the already organized church bodies presented the machinery through which the work could be carried on, and accordingly they were invited to appoint delegates to a Convention to be held in Allegheny on the 4th day of July following. But few delegates were appointed, and it became evident that more efficient measures should be adopted. The Allegheny meeting issued an able address to the public, and invited all persons who felt interested in the subject to meet in Allegheny on the 27th day of January, 1864. THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION.
At this meeting, the National Association to secure the religious amendment of the Constitution was organized, and most fittingly chose for its first President, John Alexander, Esq., the author of the paper which had been presented in the conference at Xenia. The Association adopted appropriate resolutions, setting forth its objects, and a form of memorial to Congress, and appointed a committee to prepare and present an address to the President of the United States. A short extract from this address will serve to indicate the mind of the movement at this early stage:— “For we hold it as most certain truth, that nations, as such, and not individuals alone, are the subjects of God’s moral government, are responsible to him, and by him are graciously rewarded for their obedience, or justly punished for their disobedience of his divine laws. “We believe also that our civil and religious liberties, our free institutions, and all our national prosperity, power, and glory, are mercies and blessings derived from God to us, through the channel of the Christian religion. Notwithstanding, either from inadvertency or following some Godless theory of civil government, we have omitted even the mention of his blessed name in the most significant and highest act of the nation. “We believe that in thus leaving God out of our political system, we have grievously sinned against him, and have brought upon ourselves and children his just displeasure. “We believe, therefore, that it is our duty to repent of this, and all our national sins, and to return to our obligations as a Christian people, by acknowledging the true God as our God in our fundamental and organic law, in order that we may consistently implore his merciful interposition in our behalf, to give victory to our national arms and success to the national cause; to establish the unity of the nation and the authority of the Government now assaulted and shattered by rebellion. We ask for no union of Church and State—that is a thing which we utterly repudiate. We ask nothing inconsistent with the largest religious liberty or the rights of conscience in any man. We represent no sectarian or denominational object, but one in which all who bear the Christian name, and all who have any regard for the Christian religion, can cordially agree, and one to secure which we are persuaded that any lawful and wise movement would call forth an overwhelming public sentiment in its support.” THE FIRST ANNUAL MEETING.
The first annual meeting of the Association was held in the Eighth Street Methodist Episcopal Church, Philadelphia, on the 7th and 8th of July following. Rev. J. C. Eddy, of the Tabernacle Baptist Church, was elected President for the ensuing year, and an address issued to the public in furtherance of the cause. This able paper abounded with clear and conclusive argument, and in a few words at its close again expressed the animus of the body from which it emanated: “In this movement, prompted by pure Christian patriotism, participated in by various Christian denominations, all of whom are opposed to any sectarian establishment of religion, we invite the co-operation of every lover of his country and every follower of Jesus Christ.” A Convention was held in the Arch Street Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, on the 29th of November, 1864, at which ex-Governor James Pollock presided, and a meeting in New York, May 16 and 17, 1866. The next important meeting was held in Philadelphia, March 5, 1867, at which Hon. Wm. Strong presided. Judge Strong was at this meeting elected President of the Association. In September of that year Rev. D. McAllister and T. P. Stevenson began the issue in Philadelphia of the Christian Statesman, a semi-monthly journal, devoted to the cause. The Statesman proved itself to be a most efficient agency in carrying on the work of the Association, and has now become one of the most valuable and useful unsectarian religious weeklies published in this country. ACTION OF REPRESENTATIVE BODIES.
During the war of the rebellion the representative bodies of every religious denomination, in their deliverances relative to the state of the country, in some form indicated the same convictions which lie at the foundation of our movement. Nor was this conviction confined to the religious bodies. In the days of our calamity the rulership of Almighty God, and the dependence of the nation upon his divine mercy and power for its relief, was the dominant thought which found expression upon every hand. The Senate of the United States, on the second day of March, 1863, passed a resolution “Devoutly recognizing the supreme authority and just government of Almighty God in all the affairs of men and nations; . . . deploring the national offenses which have provoked his righteous judgment, yet encouraged in this day of trouble, by the assurances of his word, to seek to him for succor according to his appointed way, through Jesus Christ.” And in his proclamation President Lincoln, “acknowledging the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence on the overruling power of God,” recognized also in glowing words “the sublime truth announced in the Holy Scriptures, and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.” This action of the Government of the United States, it will be observed, was almost coincident in point of time with the beginning of our reform movement. The moral entity of the nation, supposing as such the just punishment for its national crimes and its forgetfulness of God, was an awful fact in those dark days which none ventured to deny, if any dared to doubt it; and as a personality, it sought in God’s appointed way of repentance, humiliation, and prayer to deprecate his wrath. Said President Lincoln, speaking for the nation in the noble document from which I have already quoted: “Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us. It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.” OPPOSITION TO THE MOVEMENT.
It is a noticeable fact that whilst the hand of God pressed heavily upon our country, and so many voices were raised in behalf of the duty of conforming the Constitution to the devout and God-fearing spirit of the nation and the people, none ventured to demand that the national authorities should cease their unconstitutional acts of religion. It is not so now. Hardly had our prayers been answered and God’s messenger of peace returned with her attendant train, when this key-note of ingratitude sounded from the metropolitan city through its then leading newspaper: “We deny that this is a Christian nation,” it said, “though a majority of its inhabitants probably are. ‘Almighty God’ is not ‘the source of all authority and power’ in our Government; the people of the United States are such source. . . . The Federal Constitution is based on the idea that religious faith is purely a personal matter, with which governments have properly nothing to do.” Among the memorable utterances of the ecclesiastical bodies, was the admirable pastoral letter of the House of Bishops of the Protestant Episcopal Church, issued from the General Convention in October, 1862. This document sets forth with consummate ability the scriptural argument, with its examples and warnings, which inevitably shadow forth the duty of a national constitutional acknowledgment of Almighty God, and the peril of the neglect to honor him. The General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, which met in Philadelphia in May, 1864, unanimously adopted a series of resolutions, reported by the committee on the state of the country, of which the third and fourth were as follows:— “That we regard our calamities as resulting from our forgetfulness of God, and from slavery, so long our nation’s reproach, and that it becomes us to humble ourselves and forsake our sins as a people, and hereafter, in all our laws and acts, to honor God.” “That we will use our efforts to secure such a change in the Constitution of our country as shall recognize the being of God, our dependence on him for prosperity, and also his word as the foundation of civil law.” The General Synod of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in May, 1863, adopted a preamble and resolutions, a part of which reads as follows:— “Whereas, The exigencies of the war have brought the authorities of the nation, civil and military, subordinate and supreme, to formal recognition of the being, providence, and grace of God and of Jesus Christ his Son, to an extent and with a distinctness such as the country has never witnessed before; therefore, “Resolved, 1. That in the judgment of this Synod the time is come for the proposal of such amendments to the Federal Constitution, in the way provided by itself, as will supply the omission above referred to, and secure a distinct recognition of the being and supremacy of the God of divine revelation.” FIRST NATIONAL DELEGATE CONVENTION.
The first National Convention, properly so called,—it being the first to which delegates were generally appointed by the local associations and meetings of the friends of the movement,—was held in Pittsburg on the 7th and 8th of February, 1870. It was followed by National Conventions in Philadelphia on the 18th and 19th of November, 1871; in Cincinnati January 31 and February 1, 1872; in New York February 25 and 26, 1873; and in Pittsburg February 4 and 5, 1874, and again in Philadelphia on the 28th and 29th and 30th of June, 1876. The General Secretary presented the following report, which was accepted:— GENERAL SECRETARY’S REPORT.
Two Conventions were held in the interest of the National Reform cause during the past year. One of these was intended for the Northwest, and therefore met in the city of Chicago. The date of this Convention was April 10 and 11. For a number of weeks previous to the assembling of the Convention, meetings were held in prominent towns and cities of Illinois and adjoining States. Five States, in all, were represented in this Convention,—Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Iowa. A large number of prominent citizens, of various denominations, who had never before co-operated in the National Reform movement, were heartily enlisted in the work by means of the Chicago Convention. On December 18 and 19, a Convention for Western New York was held in the city of Rochester. In connection with this Convention meetings were held in Oswego, Syracuse, Auburn, Buffalo, and other cities and towns of that part of the State. The action of the School Board of Rochester in expelling the Bible and devotional exercises from the schools prepared the way for a deeply interesting Convention. And here, as at Chicago, the practical value of the National Reform cause was made clear, and not a few able men were won over to its support and advocacy. The still more recent action of the School Board of New Haven, dispensing at the beginning of this year with the reading of the Bible and prayer in the schools of that city of the Puritan fathers, called for the active aid of this Association. Important work has been done, in connection with the numerous friends of Christian education in New Haven, to secure the reversal of the decision of the Board. But thus far the effort has been unsuccessful. Only a few meetings have been held in Western Pennsylvania in connection with the present Annual Meeting. At all the meetings held, however, there has been a very large attendance and unusually deep interest. And in other parts of the country where the work has been carried forward, particularly in the Northwest, where the Rev. M. A. Gault has conducted a most successful series of meetings, there has been a marked awakening of public sentiment to the importance and necessity of the movement. Beginning with the arrangements for the Rochester Convention, I have spent nine weeks in public labors for the cause this present winter. This necessarily restricted amount of work has been utterly inadequate to the demands of the times. With the leaven of the truth silently operating among the leaders of thought, and even among the masses of the people, and with doors of opportunity open on every hand, there should be many lecturers devoting their whole time to the work. The most effective way of prosecuting the work in future would appear to be by districting the whole country, and having district secretaries in charge of the work within their own territorial limits. It is hoped that this method of operation, at present only entered upon, may be carried forward until the movement is thoroughly organized throughout the land.—Christian Statesman.