Q
180 THE UNITED STATES IN PROPHECY.
and all the evils of unbridled Intemperance,—ends
which we abhor with all the strength of a moral
nature quickened by the most intense religious con-
victions. And while the indignation of the better
portion of the community will be aroused at the
want of religious principle and the immorality at-
tending the popular anti-Sunday movement, a little
lack of discrimination, by no means uncommon
will, on account of our opposition to the day though
we oppose 1t on entirely different ground casily as-
sociate us with the class above-mentioned, and “ab.
Ject us to the same odium. |
Meanwhile, some see the evils involved in this
movement, and raise the note of alarm. The
Christian Union, January, 1871, said:—
“If the proposed amendment is anything more than a,
bit of sentimental cant, it is to have a legal effect It 18
to alter the status of the non-Christian citizen before the
law. It is to affect the legal oaths and instruments the
matrimonial contracts, the sumptuary laws, ete. eto of
the country. This would be an outrage on natural right.”
The Janesville (Wis.) Gazette, at the close of an
article on the proposed amendment, speaks thus of
the effact of the movement, should it succeed: —
“ But, independent of the question as to what extent
we are a Christian nation, it may well be doubted whether
if the gentlemen who are agitating this question should
succeed, they would not do society a very great nur
Such measures are but the initiatory steps which ae
mately lead to restrictions of religious Sreedom, and to
commit the government to measures which are as foreign
fo its powers and purposes as would be its action if it
hoslogy Ee to determine a disputed question of
The Weekly Alta Cali ; .
March 19 Sr of at ifornian of San F rancisco,
THE BEGINNING OF THE END. 161
«The parties who have heen recently holding a con-
vention for the somewhat novel purpose of procuring an
amendment to the Constitution of the United States rec-
ognizing the Deity, do not fairly state the case when
they assert that it is the right of a Christian people to
govern themselves in a Christian manner. If we are not
governing ourselves in a Christian manner, how shall the
doings of our government be designated t The fact is,
that the movement is one to bring about in this country
that union of Church and State which all other nations
are trying to dissolve.”
The New York Independent, February, 1870,
spoke of the movement as having the same chance
of success that a union of Church and State would
have.
The Champlain Journal, speaking of incorporat-
ing the religious principle into the Constitution, and
in effect upon the Jews, said: —
« However slight, it is the entering wedge of Church
and State. If we may cut off ever so few persons from
the right of citizenship on account of difference of relig-
ious belief, then with equal justice and propriety may a
majority at any time dictate the adoption of still further
articles of belief, until our Constitution is but the text-
book of a sect beneath whose tyrannical sway all liberty
of religious opinion will be crushed.”
For a union of Church and State, in the strict
medizval form and sense, we do not Jook. In place
of this, we apprehend that what is called “the 1m-
age,” a creation as strange as it is unique, comes in,
not as a State controlled by the church, and the
church in turn supported by the State, but as an ec-
clesiastical establishment empowered to enforce its
own decrees by civil penalties; which, in all its prac-
tical bearings, will amount to exactly the same thing.
Some one may now say, As you expect thismove-