"Consider that God is not once named in our National Constitution.
There is nothing in it which requires an 'oath of God,' as the
Bible styles it (which, after all, is the great bond both of
loyalty in the citizen and of fidel in the magistrate); nothing
which requires the ob of the day of rest and of worship, or which
re its sanctity. If we do not have the mails carried and the
post-offices open on Sunday, it is because we have a
Postmaster-General who respects the day. If our Supreme Courts are
not held, and if Congress does not sit on that day, it is custom,
and not law, that makes it so. Nothing in the Constitution gives
Sunday quiet to the custom house, the navy yard, the barracks, or
any of the departments of government.
"Consider that they fairly express the mind of the great body of
the American people. This is a Christian people. These amendments
agree with the faith, the feelings, and the forms of every
Christian church or sect. The Catholic and the Protestant, the
Unitarian and the Trinitarian, profess and approve all that is here
proposed. Why should their wishes not become law? Why should not
the Constitution be made to suhf and to represent a constituency so
overwhelmingly in the majority?...
"This great majority is becoming daily more conscious not only of
their rights, but of their power. Their number grows, and their
column becomes more solid. They have quietly, steadily opposed
infidelity, until it has, at least, become politically unpopular.
They have asserted the rights of man and the rights of the
government, until the nation's faith has become measurably fixed
and declared on these points. And now that the close of the war
gives us occasion to amend our Constitution, that it may clearly
and fully represent the mind of the people on these points, they
feel that it should also be so amended as to recognize the rights
of God in man and in government. Is it anything but due to their
long patience that they be at length allowed to speak out the great
facts and principles which give to all government its dignity,
stability, and beneficence?"
Thus for several years a movement has been on foot, daily growing in
extent, and importance, and power, to fulfill that portion of the
prophecy of Rev. 13:11-17, which first calls forth the dissent of the
objector, and which appears from every point of view the most improbable
of all the specifications; namely, the erection of the image and the
enforcing of the mark. Beyond this, nothing remains but the sharp
conflict of the people of God with this earthly power, and the eternal
triumph of the overcomer.
An Association, even now national in its character, as already noticed,
and endeavoring, as is appropriate for those who have such objects in
view, to secure their purposes under the sanction of the highest
authority of the land, the National Constitution, already has this
matter in hand. In the interest of this Association there is published,
in Philadelphia, a semi-monthly paper called the _Christian Statesman_,
in advocacy of this movement. Every issue of that paper goes forth
filled with arguments and appeals from some of the ablest pens in our
land, in favor of the desired Constitutional amendment. These are the
very methods, by which, in a country like ours, great revolutions are
brought about; and no movement has ever arisen so suddenly as this to so
high a position in public esteem with certain classes, and taken so
strong a hold upon their hearts.