Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1924-12-11
OLD-TILWE RELIGION
BY BISHOP w. 4. GAMBLER

Inc COIOnlStS ala not set out to make a
republic, nor did they come with any pre-
conceived theories of political government
In DR.. Horace Bushnells noble address in
"The Founders Great in Their Unconscious
ness" he says: Their end was religion,
simply and only religion. Out upon the lone
ocean, feeling their way cautiously it
were, through the unknown waves, explor-
ing in their busy fancies and their prayers
the equally unknown future before them,
they little conceived that they had in their
ship the germ of vast republic that, in two
centuries would command the respect and
attract the longing desires of the nations, as
that they saw with their eyes the lonely
wastes about them whitening with the sails
and foaming under the swift ships of that
republic, already become the first CONNER
cial power of the world. No! they
crossed the sea in Gods name only, sent by
Him, as they believed. to be the voice Of one
crying in the wilderness, Prepare we the way
of the Lord, make His paths straight But
whittier those Strengthened paths will lead
and in what shape the new kingdom of the
Lord will come they as little conceive as
John the Baptist himself"
To the same purpose speaks the historian,
John Richard Green, in the "Short History
of the English People, when he says of the
American cOlonists, "They were driven forth
from their fatherland not by earthly want,
or by the greed of gold, or by the lust Of
adventure, but by the fear of God, and the
What sort of colonies would have been
made by them if their colonial companies
had been composed of Voltaires, Tom Paines,
Boiling brOkes or even Thomas Jeffersons?
Liberalism did not give birth to the Amer
lean colonies, nor can it support and pre-
serve the American Republic.
Great revivals of religion in the Old World
produced colonies in the New World, at the
outset of our Colonial history, and religion
Iunderlay and brought to a successful issue
the struggle of the Colonies for their indie
pendence and freedom at later day.
DR.. Leonard Woolsey Bacon has stated an
indisputable fact concerning the effect of
the "Great Awakening" which began in the
first half Of the eighteenth century, in these
words "The quickened sense of common
religious life and duty and destiny was no
small part Of the preparation for the birth
of the future nation"
At the outset of the War of Independence
the Continental Congress by formal action
expressed its desire "tO have the people of
all ranks and degrees duly impressed with
solemn sense of Gods experimenting provi-
dence. and their duty to rely in all thor
lawful enterprises upon His aid and direc-
ton Accordingly, a general fast was pro-
claimed, that the people might. with united
hearts, confess and bewail their manifold
sins and transgressions and by a sincere
repentance and amendment of life appease
Gods righteous dispeasure. and through the
merits and mediation OF Jesus Christ obtain
His pardon and forgiveness"
In the midst of the war General Washington
did not yociferously proclaim that he had
quit going to church," but he issued order
commanding a proper observance Of the Sab
bath and regular Christian woship by the
army.
In his Farewell Address" the father Of
his country exhOrted the people of the
public, for the founding Of which he had
fought and suffered, to cling to religion and
morality 'the indispensable supports" 20
political prosperity and the firmest props"
Of governmental stability.
From Colonial times, through the period OF
he Revolution. and down TO the present the
American republic has been saved by grace
and secured by goodness. The Great Revival
of 1900" recued the Northwest Territory"
from ruin and made a second Aaron Burr in
that region impossible. "The Revival Of 1852
broke the shock Of Civil to marked de-
gree, and made the problems of the era Of
reconstruction" more easy of solution.
The Revival in the days Of Moody and
Sankev" was scarcely less blessed in its re-
suits, binding up as it did, the wounds Of