A BAPTIST VIEW OF THE CHRISTIAN AMENDMENT.
By Editor
A BROTHER desires us to express our views as to the so-called Christian amendment for inserting the name of God and of Jesus Christ in the United States Constitution. Religion is something with which the Constitution of the United States has nothing to do, except to guarantee to all citizens liberty in the exercise of their non-religious sentiments. If we put into the Constitution a recognition of God and of Jesus Christ, we disfranchise all who cannot subscribe to these sentiments. It is an approach toward the union of State and Church, which has been one of the most mischievous and baleful things existing on earth. There would be just as much reason for putting the name of God and of Christ into the charter of every town and village, and the incorporating act of every bank or insurance company. If it is said that the laws of God lie at the foundation of all government, it is also true that they lie at the foundation of every contract and of every corporation. Civil government is a secular institution, intended to promote the temporal welfare. In making laws it recognizes certain acts as harmful to civil society. Again, the amendment is futile. It accomplishes nothing. It will not change the sentiments of anyone; it will not prevent the most wicked and unchristian legislation or action. No one would propose to carry out the amendment to its logical result and to disfranchise Hon. Oscar S. Strauss, or Mayor Sulzberger, or any other of our fellow-citizens, because they are Jews, or Prof. Felix Adler or his associates, who, it is generally supposed, do not believe in a personal God. We object to the amendment, because it is futile if not carried out; it is despotic and contrary to religious liberty if it is carried out. Good men, very good men, are prone to lack confidence in the power of God. We have seen Christianity make its way; in spite of obstacles and menaces and persecution; now we are afraid that it cannot continue to exist without a great deal of legal help. Christianity has asserted itself against the dominion of Nero, of Louis XIV., of the Inquisition. It will still conquer, and it will not allow itself to be indebted to the legal power for the triumphs which it will win.—National Baptist.