A WRONG CONCEPTION by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Sep 30, 1897

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 23, No. 38.

A WRONG CONCEPTION.

By Editor

Is the Nation Christian?

THE Presbyterian Banner, quoted by the Christian Citizen, prints an extract from a recently published speech of David Agnew, a jurist of Pennsylvania, now in his eighty-ninth year. The purpose of the address was to show that the Constitution of the United States was Christian. He thus concludes:—

In conclusion, I have shown (conclusively, I think) that this is a Christian nation—that this continent and the provinces were settled by a Christian people—that the States formed from them continued Christian, and set the legal evidence of their belief in their early constitutions—that other religions are exceptional, and were tolerated for individual conscience’ sake only—that the Constitution of the United States formed by the same people, contemporary with their state constitutions, and with identical provisions for the toleration of individual freedom of conscience, expressly reserved to them all their ungranted rights, among which are their Christian institutions—that the Constitution itself carries internal evidence of its Christian character; that its continued existence rests on the fabric of the States; and that infidels, pagans, cavilers, and Mormons derive from it no support in their warfare against Christianity. I have shown, also, that the safety of this Christian character, peace, order, and prosperity, demand its citizenship to be protected against promiscuous and loose naturalization.

Upon this the Presbyterian Banner remarks:—

This address is both timely and conclusive. There is no escape from the facts which Judge Agnew presents to show that this is a Christian nation.

Now all of this would doubtless be true if Christianity were a mere form or creed or system; but right in this very thing lies the fallacy of the reasoning. The aged judge does not know Christianity. He judges it as he does Mohammedanism, by the Koran; or Presbyterianism, by the Westminster Confession of Faith; or Episcopalianism, by the Thirty-nine Articles. Christianity is the life, the power, of God; and it is nothing but a mockery if it is not this.

Men might pile up constitutions, the sentences of which were taken bodily from the creed of the Presbyterian or Congregational or Seventh-day Adventist Church, but that would not make a constitution Christian, nor the nation which accepted it Christian. Is the nation Christian? Here is the test of Jesus Christ: "Every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. . . . Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them." Matt. 7:17-20. Is the nation Christian? What say the myriad of murders of last year? What say the corrupt congresses and legislatures? What say the oppression of the poor? the building up of great corporations? the ten thousand other evils with which the nation abounds? Is the nation Christian? There are a billion dollars spent for drunkenness and a paltry five millions to convert the heathen. A tree is known by its fruit. Is the nation Christian?—No; Christianity is more than a creed; it is life and power from God given through faith in Jesus Christ, and how can a nation be said to have faith when the greater mass of those who compose it do not know faith, have no living connection with or personal faith in Jesus Christ?