The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1896-05-22

acknowledgment Of Divinity than our
fathers had. Since then the continent
has been peopled, and great cities from
the Atlantic TO the Pacific built. and
and all in peace; Showing that there
must have been supernal superviszl.
Since then the war Of 1912, and ours
the victoryl Since then the great
financial prostrations, out of which
we came to greater prosperity
than anything that preceded. Since
then sanguinary 1859, 1868, 1864 and
1865, and Notwithstanding the fact
that all the foreign despotism were
planning for our demolition, we are a
united people, and tomorrow you will
find in both houses of congress the
men who fought for the north and the
south, now sitting side by side, armed
with no weapon except the pen, with
which they write home TO their con-
stituents who want to be appointed
postmasters.
The man who can not see God in our
American history is as blind Of soul as
he would be blind of body If he could
not at ~ o'clock of an unclouded noon
see the sun in the heavens. As mat
ter of gratitude to Almighty God, gen.
tlemen of the American congress, be
pleased to insert the four words sug-
gested by the Methodist conferencel
Not only because of the kindness
of God to this nation in the
past should such a reverential
insertion be made, but because
of the fact that we are going to
want Divine interposition still further
in our national history. This gold
and silver question will never be set
tied until God settles it. This ques-
ton of tariff and free trade will never
be settled until God settles it. The
question between the east and the
west, which is getting hotter and hot
ter, and looks toward a republic of
the Pacific, will not be settled until
God settles it. We needed God in the
100 years of our past national life,
and we will need Him still more
in the next 100 years. Lift up your
heads, We everlasting gates of our glo-
rious constitution, and let the King of
Glory come inl Make one line of that
immortal document radiant with On
impotence! Spell at least one word with
Thrones! At the beginning, or at the
close, or in the center, recognize Him
from whom as a nation we have re-
ceived all the blessing of the past and
upon whom we are dependent for the
future. Print that word God" or
Lord" or Eternal Father" or
Ruler of Nations" somewhere be-
tween the first word and the
last. The great expounder of the
constitution sleeps at Marshfield,
Mass, the Atlantic ocean still hum
ming near his pillow of dust its pro-
longed lullaby; but is there not some
one now living, who, in the white mar
BILE palace of the nation on yonder hill
not ten minutes away, will become the
irradiator of the constitution by caus-
ing to be added the most tremendous
word of our English vocabulary, the
name of that Being before whom all
nations must bow or go into defeat
and annihiliation-"God
Again before the approaching adj
journment of our American congress,
it ought to be decidedly and forever
settled that no appropriation be made
to sectarian schools, and that the
courtship between church and state
in this country be forever broken up.
That question already seems tempo
rarily settled. All schools and all in
situations, as well as all denomina-
tions should stand on the same
level before American law. EN-
peror Alexander of Russia, at his
Peterhof palace, asked me how many
denominations of religion there were
in America, and 1 recited their names
as we'll as l could. Then he asked me
the difference between them, and there
l broke down. But when 1 told him
that no religious denomina ton in
America had any privileges above
the others, he could hardly under
stand it. The Greek church first
in Russia. The Lutheran church
first in Germany. The Episcopal
church first in England. The
Catholic church first in Rome. Moham-
mechanism first in Constantinople. The
emperor wondered how it was possible
that all the denominations in America
could stand on the same platform. But
so it is, and so let it ever be. Let there
be no preference, no Partially, no at
tempt to help one sect an inch higher
than another. Washington and Jeffer-
son, and all the early presidents and all
the great statesmen of the past, have
lifted their voice against any such tend
ency. If school or an institution can
not stand without the prop of a national
appropriations, then let that school or
that institution go down. On the 9TH
er side of the sea the world has had
plenty of illustrations of church and
state united. Let us have none of the
hypocrisy and Generalization born of
that relation on this side of the At
lantic. Let that denomination come
out ahead that does the most for the
cause of God and humanity. Men, in
situations and religions getting what
they achieve by their own right are
of usefulness, and not by the favorit-
ism of government AS you regard
the welfare and perpetuity of our in
situations, keep politics out of rell-
gion.
But now, that l am speaking of ma
tional affairs from a religious sand
point, be5hink myself of the fact
that two other gavels will soon lift
and fall, the one at st. Louis and the
other at Chicago, and before those ma
tional conventions adjourn, ask that
they acknowledge God in the plat
forms The men who construct those
platform are here this morning, or
will read these words. Let no polit-
ical party think it can do its duty un-
less it acknowledges that God who
built this continent, and revealed it