Objection 10.   The same Supremacy must be conceded to Jews,
Infidels,
               Atheists or others, whenever or wherever they are a
Majority.

        The written Constitution of a Jewish nation, with its Jewish laws
and institutions, should and would undoubtedly be Jewish. So with a Roman
Catholic or Mohammedan nation. A Christian written Constitution for a
nation infidel or atheistic in its laws and customs, if such a nation were
possible, would be a mockery.   Better have the written instrument
correspond to the fact. Intelligent Christians  in a Mohammedan or pagan
country will not object to having the written Constitution, if there be
one, express the facts of the nation's life. But a majority of Jews or
Mohammedans in some locality in a Christian nation, js a very different
thing from a Jewish or Mohammedan nation. The nation is a unit. Its
interests are the same everywhere. Its laws are supreme within all its
borders.. When the national form of government is republican, no local
majority of monarchists have a right to a local monarchy. The Constitution
ought, as ours does, to guarantee a republican form of government to every
part of the nation. When the nation's policy is protection, no local
majority of free-traders have a right to disregard the tariff laws. Is it
said that these are national interests? Very true. But the vital connection
of a nation's government with the religion of the people is a national
interest of the highest moment. To say that a local majority who may object
to this connection. shall have the right to withdraw and set up their own
moral and religious standard in national affairs, is to assert the
political heresy of secession the mischievous theory of state rights or
sectional rights, which would inevitably destroy the unity, and ultimately
the life, of any nation.
        Thus the Religious Amendment movement holds the true theory of
republican government, while at the same time it holds that nations, as
sovereign powers under no human authority above their own, are

                                                18
amenable to the Supreme Governor, the Ruler of nations, and his moral laws.
This is the only solution of the difficult problem, the balance of liberty
and law-the nation as an organic moral unit, sovereign in all its domain,
under the law of Christianity, the only, perfect law of liberty.

        Objection 11.   Christ and his Apostles did not seek to have
Christianity
                             acknowledged by the Civil Power.

        " Did not Christ," it is asked, "distinguish between the things due
to Caesar and the things due to God? Did he not declare, ` My kingdom is
not of this world?'" Most assuredly. But does the fact that certain things
are to be rendered to the civil power rule out Christianity from the
relations between that power and its subjects, and from the relations
between both these and God? Or does the truth that Christ's kingdom takes
its origin not out of this world, and the passage quoted literally reads,
but from a higher source, and that it employs no such power as the sword,
conflict with the equally important truth that Christianity is the most
potent of social forces, ever at work molding and controlling social and
national institutions, and that under its mighty influence the kingdoms or
governments of the world, the political organisms as such, "shall become
the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ ?" It is true, Christ and his
apostles did not ask civil governments to acknowledge Christianity in
written Constitutions. There were no written Constitutions of government in
those days. But they did assert the claims of Christianity as the true
moral standard for all moral agents-all beings under the obligations of
moral law. The standard of Christian morality was with them the standard of
man's conduct in every relation of life, public or private, individual or
national. Through their teachings Christianity has woven itself into close
and rightful connection with our civil government, and the constitutional
authentication of a connection proper in itself is not only just and right,
but it has become, in our present circumstances, as a nation, an imperative
necessity.

                        Objection 12. Religion is Dishonored and Degraded.

This savors of the utterances of the Pharisees who blamed Christ for
associating with publicans and sinners. Politics are corrupt, beyond ail
controversy. But is not Christianity the salt of the earth? Our National
Constitution, destitute of the salt of Christianity in a most vital
respect, has fostered the idea among our rulers and people chat moral and
religious qualifications for office are utterly unnecessary. Hence, in no
small measure, the immoralities of our
                                                19
public men. Not a few who were honest and virtuous to private life, have
soon become infected, in official positions, with the virus of political
infidelity and immorality. Christianity will never fulfill her mission
until her followers cease to fear dishonor and degradation, and set
themselves to their appropriate work of purging political life of its rank
pollutions. Nothing short of Christianity will truly reform and save an
individual; and nothing but Christianity, that  holy religion which never
shrinks from contact with Social or private moral diseases which it seeks
to cure, will ever reform or save a nation. This leads to the last
objection-

                Objection 13.   Christianity needs no Support from the
State.

        But does not the state need the aid of Christianity?    That is the
point in question. No doubt a truly Christian nation will secure such a
state of society as will be greatly helpful to the work of the church. But
there is no concern about the church here. " No weapon that is formed
against her shall prosper." It is not as church members we labor in this
cause. It is as citizens. We are specially concerned for the nation's
welfare. Christianity can and will triumph whether our nation survive or
perish. But the nation cannot prosper and realize the aspiration of her
citizens except by and in connection with the Christian religion. For the
nation's sake, then or the sake of our national institutions; for our civil
and governmental interests; for the welfare of the rising generation of
American citizens, `and for the happiness of generations yet unborn, we
seek to plant the nation on the firm foundation of the divine law for the
rulers and governments of the earth. As patriots, animated by the purest of
motives, and guided by the soundest principles of political philosophy, we
aim to secure for our beloved country the blessedness of that nation whose
acknowledged God is the Lord. (Ps. 144. 15.) Combining genuine patriotism
with fealty to our Lord and Master, who has " on his vesture and on his
thigh a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords," we labor and pray
to have our nation say to Him,
                                " Come, then, and added to thy many crowns
                                Receive yet one, * * *  *
                                Thou who alone art worthy."

        We have thus gone over briefly, as was necessary in a tract, as
complete a summary as we could make of objections urged against the
Religious Amendment. It is hoped that the substance of no objection has
been overlooked, though other forms of statement, or different aspects of
objections may be met with, notice of which would have
                                                20
required greater space. It will be seen that the principal objections are
all against the connection of Christianity and civil government. This vital
connection is what is of essential importance. In maintaining this we have
the help of thousands who do not yet see the necessity for the amendment.
When, with the help of these co-laborers, the objections to the connection
of our government with Christianity are overcome, all remaining objections
will speedily fall, and the vindicated connection will be expressed and
stamped with the fiat of the nation's approval ill its fundamental law.
                                  -------------------------
        Since the foregoing pages were stereotyped the First Objection has
been brought
to our notice in another form by an eminent citizen of New England. He says
"The Declaration of Independence is really the full Preamble of the
Constitution. It sets forth sentiments and principles ; the Constitution
follows it with rules and regulations.That document, at the outset,
declares it to be a self-evident truth that all men are created equal and
endowed by their Creator with all their rights; and closes with an appeal °
to the Supreme Judge of the World.'"
        We are fully sensible of the value of these expressions in the
Declaration. They prove that the nation then owned her allegiance to God.
They vindicate her right, now strenuously denied, to acknowledge God in
public documents. They show that what we propose is consistent with the
spirit and example of our fathers, in the noblest passages of our history.
But we must clearly distinguish between these two documents. The
Declaration is not part of the written Constitution. Its value is
historical rather than legal. It is a deed of the nation which has passed
into history ; the Constitution, as. a law, is an ever-present act of the
nation's will. The argument  which is drawn from the silence of the
Constitution concerning God and Religious against all Christian features of
our government as contrary to °` our political covenant," not covered by
the bond, cannot be adequately met by an appeal to the Declaration of 1776.
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                        The Christian Statesman,
                             A WEEKLY JOURNAL.
                                 DEVOTED TO THE CAUSE OF
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political events in the
light of Christianity, to resist the encroachments of secularism, to
maintain Our Sabbath Laws, the Bible in the Common Schools, the Christian
Law of Marriage and Other Christian Features of the American Government,
and to advocate the Religious  Amendment of the Constitution of the United
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The CHRISTIAN STATSMAN appeals for the support of all thoughtful American
citizens,
        1. Because it gives special attention to the arguments which prove
the historical con-
nection of the American Government with the Christian Religion
        2 Because it watches carefully and records faithfully the attempts
which are constant.
ly made t: overthrow the Christian features of our Government.
        3. Because it contains full reports of cases in our k- ourts which
involve the relation of
the Government to Christianity. and of the judicial decisions upon them
        4. Because it contains the fullest notices of similar discussions
in other lands
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sectarian character
Price, $2.00 a Pear; To Ministers, $1.50; To new ~Subscribers for the first
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        'THE CHRISTIAN STATESMAN, Philadelphia.
 The Christian Statesman Tracts No. 6, Answers to Objections to the
Religious Amendment of the United States Constitution. By the Rev. D.
M'allister. (1874)