The Yale expositor., 1896-05-15

| frmation Is worth more than many de-
malls" So says the article sent me.
| There Is no doubt that Ethan Allen was
the vulgarest sort Of an infidel, for, sit
| ting in Presbyterian church, his ad-
| mirers say he struck the pew in front of
| him and swore out loud, so as to disturb
| the meeting, and no gentleman would
do that. / do not wonder that some Of
| his descendants are ashamed OF him i;
| but of course they could not help it,
and are not to blame. But of all the
| decent men of the revolution believed
in God, and our American congress,
now assembled, will only echo the SEN
| timents of the fathers when they en-
throne the name of God in the consti-
tuition. We have now more reason for
inserting that acknowledgment OF d.
vinity than our fathers had. Since
then the continent has been peopled
and great cities from the Atlantic to
the Pacific built, and all in peace, show
ing that there must have been super
nal supervisal. Since then the war Of
1872, and ours the victory! Since then
great financial prostrations, out Of
which we came to greater prosperity
than anything that preceded. Since
then sanguinary 1852, 1868, 1864 and
| 1865, and notwithstanding the fact that
all the foreign despotisms were plan
ming for our demolition, we are a
united people and tomorrow you will
find in both houses of congress the men
e.. I. D,,tlx IA 4.
now sitting side by side, armed with no
weapon except the pen, with which they
write home to their constituents who
want to be appointed postmasters. The
man who cannot see God in our Amer
lean history is as blind of soul as ne
would be blind Of body if he could not
at II o'clock of an unclouded noon see
the sun in the heavens. AS matter
of gratitude to Almighty God, gentle
men of the American congress, be
pleased to insert the four words sug-
gested by the Methodist conferences!
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 60
ing to want Divine interposition still
further in our national history. This
gold and silver question will never be
settled until God settles it. This 1ues-
ton of tariff and free trade will never
be settled until God settles it. This
question between the east and west.
which is getting hotter and hotter and
looks toward a republic of the Pacific,
will not be settled until God settles it.
We needed God in the one hundred and
twenty years of our past national life,
and We will need Him still more in the
next one hundred and twenty years.
Lift up your heads we everlasting gates
of our glorious constitution, and let the
King of Glory come in! Make one line
of that immortal document radiant
with Omnipotence! Spell at least one
word with Thrones! At the beginning,
or at the close, or in the center, recog-
nize him from whom as a nation we
have received all the blessing Of the
past and upon whom we are dependent
for the future. Print that word Cod"
or Lord" or Eternal Father" or
Ruler of Nations, somewhere between
the first word and the last. The Great
Expounder of the constitution sleeps at
Marshfleld, Massachusetts, the Atlantic
ocean still humming near his pillow of
dust its prolonged lullaby but is there
not some one now living, who, in the
white marble palace Of the nation on
yonder hill, not ten minutes away, will
become the irradiator of the constitu-
ton by causing to be added the most
tremendous word of our English vocab-
ulary; the name of that being before
whom all nations must bow or go into
defeat and nihilation-"God?"
Again before the approaching adj
journment Of our American congress,
it fought to be decided and forever settled
that no appropriations be made to sec
tartan schools, and that courtship ne
tween church and state in this country
be forever broken up. That question al
ready seems temporarily settled. |
wish it might be completely and for
ever settled. All schools and all in
situations, as we'll as n denominations,
should stand on the same level before
American law. Emperor Alexander of
Russia, at his Peterhoff Palace, asked
me how many denominations Of relig-
ion there were in America, and recited
their names as well as l could. Then
he asked me the difference between
them, and there | broke down. But
when told him that no religious de-
nomination in America had any privi-
leges above the others, he could hardly
understand 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. Mohammedanism first
in Constantinople. The emperor Won
dered how 1t was possible that all the
denominations in America could stand
on the same platform. But so 1t is,
and so let it ever be. Let there be no
preference, no Partially, no attem.t to
help one sect an inch higher than an
other. Washington am Jefferson and
all the early presidents, and all the
great statesmen of the past, have lifted
their voice against any such tendency.
If school or institution cannot stand
W fbn,,t tha ~ oil onnrnnrio-