RELIGIOUS AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION, the proposed insertion in the constitution of the United States of an acknowledgment of God, the Scriptures, and Christ. The reasons advanced by its advocates are: 1. The nation must proceed from a power higher than itself. Having supreme jurisdiction over a portion of the earth, it acknowledges no superior unless it be God. As, therefore, it must be in subjection to the supreme governor, the fact ought to be acknowledged in the constitution. 2 The United States are a Christian nation. The first settlers acknowledged God, the Bible, and Christ. Christianity pervades our institutions, is the preservative element and inspiring soul of the national life. It should, therefore, be recognized in the constitu tion. 3. The present condition of the country requires the amendment to be made. Large numbers of persons holding secular, infidel, and socialistic theories of govern ment have made it their home, and are diffusing their sentiments•, education is dis. cussed more earnestly than ever before, and many are seeking to sepal-ate from it all religions principles and restraints. Such facts require that the religions institutions of the land should' have a guaranty in the constitution. The reasons offered against the amendment are: 1. The quality of the acts of a state depends on their tree nature, and not their outward appearance; on what the state really is, and not what it professes to be. If the people of a country act as Christians,no formai profession of being so is necessary; if they do not act so, no formal profession can be of any avail. 2. Christian ity first made known to the world the true idea of religion. In settling the functions of
the church it declared also those of the state; it determined, their respective limits, within which each might act without collision with the other. The church and the state correlate each other, each fulfilling its proper ends. The state gives the church protection, security, and liberty; the church influences the state, forming the character of citizens, and elevating, enlarging, and the laws. All this can be done without making any alteration in the constitution. 3. The advocates of the amendment confess that hitherto it has been a fact that Christianity is an element of the common law of the land. As this has been the fact under the constitution as it is, it may con time to be the fact without the constitution being changed. 4. There are in the constitution implied acknowledgments of God, in the midis which it requires to be administered; of the Scriptures, in recognizing Sunday as a day of rest from avocations required or other days; of religion, in forbidding any law to be made establishing it or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; and of Christ, in using, concerning him, the expression " our Lord." Without deciding the question, which may finally dependon considerations not above adduced on either side, it is open to remark that not all the above arguments against the proposed amendment seem valid; some proving too much, and others inapplicable to the case. The movement for amendment, however, does not seem to be gaining strength.