"NATIONAL REFORM" ILLUSTRATED.
By W. N. G.
THE so-called National Reform Association is increasing from year to year the effort to have the United States Government assume a religious aspect. It is first one proposition and then another, all to the same end. One time it is a constitutional amendment formally recognizing God in the fundamental law. Another time it is an educational amendment, providing for governmental religious instruction. Again, or rather all the time, it is enforced Sunday observance by the national government, as well as by the States and municipalities. The association has secured various allies of varying degrees of influence, the most notable and energetic being the Woman's Christian Temperance Union and the Young People's Society of Christian Endeavor. Now both of these associations have ample fields of usefulness without extending their energies to the work of the National Reformers in the effort to cripple both Christianity and the State by an adulterous alliance. As a most striking illustration of what the formal assumption of religious functions by an American republic may logically lead to, we refer the National Reform allies to the case of Ecuador. The following document speaks for itself, being the culmination of efforts (like those of the National Reformers in the United States) to make the State subsidiary to the church:— "PREAMBLE.—Considering (1) that the Third Provincial Council of Quito has by special act consecrated the Republic of Ecuador to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, placing it under His protection and patronage; "(2) That the Legislature should join in name of the nation in the approval of an act so satisfactory to its sentiments of eminent Catholicity, as it is also the most efficient medium for the conservation of the faith and the realization of progress and welfare of the State; therefore, the Senate and Chamber of Deputies of Ecuador, in Congress assembled, decree:— "ARTICLE I. The Republic of Ecuador is consecrated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, declaring Him its patron and protector. "ART. II. The feast day of the Sacred Heart of Jesus shall be civic, with assistance of the first class, celebrated in all the cathedrals of the republic with the greatest possible solemnity by the prelates of the dioceses. "ART. III. In all the cathedrals an altar will be erected dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus for the purpose of heightening the zeal and piety of the diocesans. "ART. IV. In the face of each of these altars shall be engraved, at the expense of the government, the present decree. "G. GARCIA MORENO, President." "Quito, Ecuador, Oct. 8, 1873." National Reformers scout the idea that the United States would ever go to such an extreme. Neither did Ecuador take such a step in the beginning of its career as a republic, on gaining independence from Spain. But this whole State-religion principle is a Roman Catholic principle, in so far as it aims to affect the Christian religion; and when the first step is taken, consistency and the precedent of that first step lead to and impel the final step. The underlying so-called evidences adduced by the Supreme Court in the declaration that "this is a Christian nation," would be far more potent in support of the claim that this is a Catholic nation. Then if the religious legislation sought by the National Reformers be consistent with the principles of our republican government, there can be no logical reason for our not adopting such a measure as that in vogue in Ecuador. We should not take the first step unless we are prepared to endorse the last step, to which the precedent of the first naturally leads. People who are being importuned to aid the National Reform cause would do well to ponder the possible outcome. W. N. G.