National Character | Page 4

the State seen to have a religious character. All this
admits of abundant proof and illustration.
The State, then, has a character directly religious, due to its origin and
nature, as instituted by God for doing his ministry with men. Hence, its
laws should be founded on the highest views of the divine will
ascertainable. It should enact that alone to be crime which God
pronounces to be sin. And again, the State has a character indirectly
religious, in view of the fact, that it is administered by and upon those
who are under religious obligations, and in view of the fact that religion
has material connection with that public welfare which it is the design
and duty of the State to promote. The State must, on the one hand,
respect the conscience of its citizens, leaving them free in religious
opinions and practices; and yet, on the other hand, it must seek to
promote the interests of true religion, with whose prosperity the public
welfare is vitally connected.
It belongs to our government, my hearers, to conform its legislation to
the principles of the Bible, and to impose its penalties for violated law,
on the authority and with the sanction of the God of the Bible: and it
belongs to our government, while indulging the largest and most liberal
toleration of religious opinions and practices, still to seek the diffusion
and establishment of Christianity throughout the length and breadth of
our land. It is right that our government enforces, to a good degree, the
observance of the Christian Sabbath. It is demanded that such
observance be enforced in still larger degree. Our government, if it be
bound to afford an education to the children of its citizens at all, is
bound to give them a Christian education. The Bible should be in all
our Public Schools. Chaplains should be provided for all State
institutions, as they are for the Army and Navy.
I know, indeed, that these views, when fully expressed, are not
generally conceded. Many seem to think that government has no proper
connection with religion. The cry of Church and State--of the invasion
of religious rights--is raised against these views.[B] But not only has
government a necessary connection with religion, but what may seem

still more objectionable, the freest government must have reference, in
its laws and institutions, to some form of religion, as that held by the
great body of its citizens: and it is a mistake, as egregious as it is
frequent, which supposes that because our Federal Constitution
prescribes no religion as that of this country, and unites the government
to no Church, our country is therefore as much Pagan or Infidel as it is
Christian. The Constitution and the legislation of our country
presuppose and take for granted, if they do not distinctly affirm, that
Bible Christianity is the religion of this country. And they must do so,
in order that this be a free government, since the great body of our
people are believers in this religion. The President of the United States,
standing in the portico of the Capitol, before the face of heaven and in
view of the assembled people, swears upon the Bible to support the
Constitution. The great functions of government cease to be exercised
among us when the morning of the Christian Sabbath dawns. The
Executive closes his mansion, Congress vacates its halls, the judge
comes down from his bench;--all pause and wait through the day of
which the God of the Bible and the Lord our Saviour has said--it is
mine. How solemn the testimony, and how frequently recurring, that
this is a Christian nation.
And whose rights are invaded by this observance of the Christian
religion? The Jew's? Why he can observe his Sabbath on Saturday, and
the law will protect him in the observance. None shall molest or make
him afraid. The infidel's? It may be that he is put to inconvenience. He
cannot have his cause tried in Court; he cannot lay his petition before
Congress or the Executive; he may not be able to procure his letters
from the Post Office: but is this an invasion of his rights? Who has the
right to compel the judge to violate the Sabbath by trying his cause, or
the mail-carrier or post master by delivering his letters? Would not the
non-observance of the Sabbath by the government operate at once to
close the doors of office against four-fifths of our conscientious citizens?
For the very reason, then, that the body of our people are Christians,
our government does and must, as a free government, respect the
Christian religion; and furthermore, because this religion is, as we
know, the true religion of God, and its influence most happy in
sustaining a free government, the State is