The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-02-04
God and tho CONFERENCE.-The Late Farce
at CincInuati.

/
We are great people for holding conven-
tions. That particular one which assembled
at Cincinnati during two days of last week,
having for its object the securing religious
amendment to the constitution, has dissolved
into its Municipalities Of college professors,
parsons and zealot laymen, without doing
much more than demonstrate its absurdty.
Its collective enthusiasm of that mildly eush-
Ing type for which parsons and professors are
famous has disintegrated. and number of
little rills Of religious amendment eloquence
may be expected to bubble furtively here and
there over the country for week or two, aud
and then no more will be heard of 1t for year
or so. As a harmless amusement. gratifying
a human vanity Of strutting before the public
eye for q day or so, we have no objection
to this performance of theirs; but it may
surprise them to learn that there are one or
two elements In their proposition which, in
their cant and fippancy, they have never
touched upon. The fanfaronade about the
Christian character of our institutions we can
pass over and come to the avowed object of
the overwhelmingly, to place the august
name Of the Supreme Being in the constitu-
ton; in other words, nationally to recognize
God and the Bible.
| Now, before advancing further with this
proposition let us recall that it was by no acct
dent that everything concerning religion was
left out of the constitution as framed by the
fathers. Solemnly impressed with the neces-
| sity Of founding government covering the
largest possible political equality, they knew
that no better means could be taken to that
end than leaving room for the broadcast reli-
gious freedom the world has ever seen. It was
recognized fully by them as one of the necessi-
ties Of the liberty they invoked for mankind.
And the result has justified them. Upon this
free field Of religious belief or disbelief the
country has prospered beyond precedent, and
the people are as much Christian to-day and
more proudly 80 that there is no human law
telling them in religion to do this or that. We
have given the same rights to the Jew, the pagan
and the materalst as to the Christian, and while
! allowing the former to feel themselves free,
Christianity has In nowise suffered from the
fact. 1t ia to force by law on these men what
is a sentiment of the soul, and If this step
once be taken where will 1t stop? The enthu-
siastic or earnest gentlemen who advocate it
may not foresee the consequences, but there
is so much danger in the proposal that in the
name of the freedom of conscience which is
our boast, and the vigorous tree of Christian
ity which has grown and blossomed upon that
healthy soil, we oppose the movement
This proposition to patronize the Almighty
Giver of All by lacking His name on our con-
stitution, after the fifteenth amendment is one
of those curious paradoxes whereby cant, in
its smiling egotism, becomes an enemy of the
religious sentiment on which it is q libel.
The ground from which the materialist hurls
his iconoclastic thunder at the clouds may be
narrow as o grave, cold as q stone and hard
as hatred; but what improved idea can he
have Of the Ruler Of the Universe when he
sees His ministers on earth writing Him down
to an election ticket at ward primary Do
they think that there are none in the land but
Jews, iufidels, positivists and atheists who
would shrink from such an affirmation ?-not
that they believe less in the God of Heaven,
but that they respect His name too much to
link it with every political nostrum of the day.
Materialism is nothing if not aggressive, and
the only value of such movement would be
to concentrate and combine the various
SCHOOLS" of that sad belief aud strengthen
them by the antics # those who propose the
! amendments.
When we look back over the turmoils of
the last century to the scenes which took
place in France in the days of ''the terror"
these mild white-chokered gentlemen would
hardly expect to meet their historic parallels
in such pitiless boodspillers as Robespierre
and the restless spirits round him. And yet
| to such level does their self-complacency
bring them. In 1893 the religion of reason
had been abolished, after short and dis
graceful existence, and as the National Con-
vention, which, though proolaiming separa-
ton of Church and State, took care to sup
press religion, the people, led by the atheist
party, ran into such extremes that even
| Robesperre became alarmed, and early in
1894 we find him take up the subject of
| divinity, in the same light as the divines at
Cincinnati, as political expedient. He said -
''The idea of Great Being who watches
over oppressed innocence and Furnishes tri-
umphant crime is popular with all. - am
but the more attached to the idea lay down, if a
| God did not exist it would become necessary to
invent one." And shortly after we find the same
men who instituted the religion of reason hail
the monster of the guillotine with reclamation
when he presents his opostion-amendmen
to the constitution-as follows:-
ARTICLE 1.-The French people recognize
the existence Of the Supreme Being and the i'm
mortality Of the soul.