The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1886-08-18
A CHRISTIAN NATION.
The Great Moral Power That Underlies
All Our Institutions.

The Great Moral Power That Cnderlies
All Our Institutions.
The religion taught in the Scriptures
of the Old and New Testament, of
which Jesus Christ the wonderful
Man of Galilce, and, at the same time,
God manifest in the fesh-is the CEN
trail sun, and which came into this
world by supernatural revelation, is,
by an overwhelming preponderance,
the religion recognized and established
in the convictions of the American peo-
pie. Such it has been ever since the
first settlement of this land by civilized
men. Not all the people profess to be
Christians; yet, so far as they have any
religious faith at all, that faith, as cx-
listing in the great mass of the people,
turns its eye toward Christianity.
The growth of the Christian Church
in the United States has been proper
tionately fully equal to the growth of
population. There is not the slightest
danger that Christianity will ever be
superseded in this country by any 9TH
er religious system. or that it will be-
come obsolete by its own feebleness
and decay. 1t is here to stay; and here
it will stay to the end of time. -
1t is quite true that the American
people have not adopted the theory Of
"Church and State" and are not likely
to do SO; and that they do not add the
commands and sanctions of the civil
power to those of religion, thus
abridging the rights of the individual
conscience. Both the Church and the
State in this country are too wise to
commit so great an error.
1t is not the less true, however. that
Christianity, as embodied and realized
in individual souls, and as organized
for maintenance and propagation by
Christian denominations. is the great
moral power that underlies all our in
stitutions; that, more than any thing
else, has made them what they are,
and that contains their most reliable
promise for the future. In this sense
the American people may be justly
called Christian nation. They form
a nation that owes more to Christianity
than to any other cause, and, indeed,
to all other causes put together. The
conscience of this country is IL
lumined with the ethics of the
Bible; and the practice of the people is,
in thousand ways, nodded and affect
ed by its authority. The people are
certainly not what they would have
been if Christianity had never visited
these shores, and established perma-
nent domicile among them. No form
of paganism ever did or ever will pro-
duce such nation as that of the Unit
ed States. Intidelity can not do it.
Socialism can not do it. Mere intellect
ual culture will not do it. Such Gre
alton demands moral power that
purifies the heart, and hence reforms
the life; and this power we find in
1.-THE glorious Gospel of the blessed
God" as preached by Christ and His
apostles.
Let God be praised, then, for the re-
ligion of this country. 1t came down
! from Heaven to bless mankind, and
has pre-eminently blessed this land.
Let all the people praise God for the
Heavenly gift. Let rulers in high
places and the humblest citizen re-
member that the surest path to ma.
tional safety is to honor God. Let the
Church, by the pulpit, by the Sabbath,
by the missionary organization, by thu
printed Bible and the Christian tract
yea. by all the agencies within hel
! power-dO her utmost to bring Chris
tianity into direct and living contac
with the conscience of the people
THIS will serve their interests alike fo
both worlds. N Y. Independent.