The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-12-07
THIS A CHRISTIAN LAND
SERMON BY RIGHT REV. BISHoP
 COLEMAN OF DELAWARE

Given at Christ Church Yesterday Morning
 Why America is Christian Land-God
 Is Its Great Citizen-Annual Beriely Ser
 mon Also by Bishop Coleman in Trinity
 Church Last Evening.
 The Rt. Rev. Leighton Coleman. bishop of Delaware, preached at Christ church yesterday morning, taking as his text Numbers 95:S4. 'Detile not, therefore, the land which ye shall in habit wherein I dwell; for l the Lord dwell among the children of Israel" Bishop Coleman spoke, in part, as fol- lows:
 "I wish to impress upon you in a simple yet very practical way the fact of the personal presence of God with you and with this nation. There is nothing so natural as the supernatural and the existence of the natural pre- supposes the supernatural. What is 1t that makes the sacrament of the Lords supper so clear but the personal pres ence of Christ; and the fact that His presence is spiritual makes it so real. It is the soul of the man that makes me real to you and you real to me. It is the failure to recognize this fact that makes it so necessary to restate it..
 "If we realized that God is a citizen of the United States, just as much as you and I, how much better this coun- try would be than it now is.
 T will not take up your time to prove to you that this country is defiled; you papers which are filled with the ac- counts of crimes and other deeds of un- righteousness.
 "The presence of God in this nation Is a plain and practical truth, but it would keep us from many a sinful thought, word and deed if we were to remember that we were standing be- fore the first citizen of the land and I am quite sure that the land would not be filled with so much of it's defile- ment.
 "The charters granted by the kings and queens of England for the coloni zation of America seem to have been granted not so much for the honor of the Kingdom as for the honor of Christ. So much was this the case that it seem ed almost as important for them to make provision for chaplain as 1t did aa ,f pie speak as though this was no more of a Christian country than is China or Japan, but whether the constitution of the United States declares that this is a Christian land or not, the fact re- mains that a great portion of its laws is based on Christian principles and that God is its great citizen. There were some criticisms made by Jews on President Cleveland's reference in his Thanksgiving proclamation to the fact that this is Christian land and though I have the greatest respect for the Hebrew, remembering from what race our blessed Lord came, yet I can- not but think that they came here with people of many other nationalities. knowing that Christianity is the com- mon law of the land.
 ''Let us at least keep this land a Christian land and go forth to conquer and make it better than it is.
 'I am sorry that the distinguished representative of a heather land was here and saw what was done here on the Sabbath and on other days. Per- naps he wondered what was the differ ence between his own heather land and our Christian land, but neverthe- less the fact remains that Christ is here and that this is a Christian land.
 We are soon to celebrate Christmas, and We celebrate not the birth of an idea or system, but of a person. We should think of His re-coming to earth as person who will, as other per- sons, give us new tokens of His love- Lift up your heads, for your redemp- ton draweth nigh. These words, though spoken ctnuries ago, are just as applicable to our own country and time as they were to Israel"
 In the evening Bishop Coleman de- 1ivered the Berkeley sermon before the Berkeley association in Trinity church. tIndividual Christianity was the sub feet of Bishop Coleman's address, and it was listened to by a large audience of the members and friends of the as- sociation.