THE first amendment to our national Constitution annunciates one of the cardinal principles on which the greatness of our nation rests,—freedom to worship God according to the dictates of conscience. The framers of this memorable instrument recognized the fact that religion had to do with men's duty to God; that it was not within the purview of civil governments to say how a man should worship, or whether he should worship at all. When civil government has protected every man within its jurisdiction in the exercise of his inalienable rights, it has accomplished all for which it was ordained. It was the just conception of what is due to God and what to Cæsar that led our forefathers to give us what some denominate "a godless Constitution." Prominent among this class is the Reformed Presbyterian Church, many of whose membership have conscientiously refrained from exercising the right of franchise because God was not acknowledged therein as the rightful ruler of the nation. They say that there is no respect whatever shown to the Christian religion by this "atheistical blunder." On the contrary, it is susceptible of the strongest proof that the Constitution was made as it is, entirely out of respect to religion, for the Christian churches were the chief factors in the movement.
However, from the very first adoption of the Constitution this people and those holding kindred views on this point, aught to secure a change, and so early as Oct. 27, 1789, "The First Presbytery Eastward in Massachusetts and New Hampshire" sent an address to President Washington, complaining that there was no "explicit acknowledgment of the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom he has sent, inserted somewhere in the Magna Charta of our country." This is but the reflection of the sentiments that have been expressed all the way down through the century until in 1864, when these sentiments had crystallized to the extent that through the efforts of the Reformed Presbyterian church, the National Reform Association was organized, the avowed object of which is to "place9all the Christian laws, institutions and usages of our government on an undeniable legal basis in the fundamental law of the land." This means in effect and fact that if this proposed change can be effected, our government will be run on a theocratic basis.
For years the promoters of this association labored under many discouragements, yet they never lost sight of the one object in view. The writer well recalls a National Reform convention held in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, in the year 1874, and of the profound impression it made upon him. The attention of an old gentleman, whose father had served in the Revolutionary War, was called to the demand they were making for an amendment to the Constitution, and the arguments in its favor. He shook his head, and declared that the American people too well knew what religious liberty meant to ever seriously entertain their demand. Twenty-two years have elapsed since that time, and what do we see? A bill before Congress championed by influential senators and representatives, the object of which is to secure just the very thing this association has been working for all these years. The Chicago Tribune, of recent date, in a despatch from Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, one of the strongholds of this people, has this to say:—
"A blank petition, which required a two-horse wagon to transport and which cost $1,200 in postage before it was signed, will start out from the Beaver Falls post office to-morrow morning. For weeks the Covenanters on College Hill have been addressing envelopes to people all over the country. The task was finished yesterday, and 60,000 pieces of mail were hauled in a two-horse wagon and dumped into the Beaver Falls post office. Each envelope contained a memorial addressed to 'the Body of Believers of the Saviour King on the Christian amendment now pending before Congress for the acknowledgment of God and Christ and the Bible in the Constitution of the United States.' Each petition will have as many signatures as it is possible to get, and will be returned to be afterwards presented to Congress in such gigantic form that favorable action is expected. The work is being done under the direction of the National Reform Association of the Covenanter Church."
And what is the meaning of all this? It means that if such an amendment is secured, the days of religious freedom in our land are numbered; it means that the church will then be the dominant power, and history furnishes not a single instance of a civil government conducted in the interest of ecclesiasticism, where innocent blood was not shed.
More than forty years ago Seventh-day Adventists predicted that our government would one day repudiate the heaven-born principles upon which it was founded, and thus become a persecuting power. All reading people know that within the past two years within our borders, scores of honest, conscientious, God-fearing men have languished behind prison bars, and worked in chain-gangs, because they dared to worship God according to the dictates of conscience. This is but a drop in the bucket, to what may be expected if the trend of popular sentiment on religious legislation crystallizes into law. Seventh-day Adventists protested against this when to them it was a matter of faith. They now raise their voice like a trumpet against the evil that is at hand, and will continue to do so until every one shall know what it means to him to join issue in behalf of the wicked thing.
Des Moines, Iowa.
