To which Washington replies: "The tribute of thanksgiving which you offer to the gracious Father of Lights, for his inspiration of our public councils with wisdom and firmness to complete the national Constitution, is worthy of men, who, devoted to the pious purposes of religion, desire their accomplishment by such means as advance the temporal happiness of their fellow men. And here I am persuaded you will permit me to observe, that the path of true piety is so plain as to require but little political direction. "To this consideration we ought to ascribe the absence of any regulation respecting religion from the Magna Charta of our country. To the guidance of the ministers of the gospel, this important object is, perhaps, more properly committed. It will be your care to instruct the ignorant, to reclaim the devious, and in the progress of morality and science, to which our government will give every furtherance, we may confidently expect the advancement of true religion, and the completeness of our happiness. "I pray the munificent Rewarder of virtue, that your agency in this good work may receive its compensation here and hereafter. G. WASHINGTON." A collection of addresses and replies published in 1796 is now before me, in which the purest and most exalted patriotism is surpassed by an all-pervading and ever-present religious element, which goes very far to prove that, though the Constitution makes not the most distant allusion to the Supreme Being, it first drew the breath of life amidst the most fervent prayers of God's people, and was baptized with that Name which is above any name, with a faith as earnest as it was peaceful. How can we, then, deem it a Godless instrument, or for a moment doubt that the prayers and the tears of the Church for its perpetuity will not come up before God for a perpetual remembrance? E. S. S. Albany, March 19, 1861. The venerable Dr. Rodgers once met Alexander Hamilton, soon after the adoption of the Constitution of the United States, and said to him, "Mr. Hamilton, I am grieved to see that you have neglected to acknowledge God in the Constitution." Hamilton replied, "My dear sir, we forgot to do it." It is a cause for rejoicing to those who fear God, and desire the permanent prosperity of our new government, that its framers have not forgotten who it is that has brought us on prosperously thus far, and to whom we are to look for the future success of our noble enterprise thus gloriously begun. In the very first sentence of the new Constitution we read: "We, the Deputies of the Sovereign and Independent States of South Carolina, &c., invoking the favor of Almighty God, do ordain and establish this Constitution." Can we expect the favor of God to be manifested towards a nation, when by it officially His very existence and overruling providence are ignored? It is not surprising that a government, whose only foundation is professedly human wisdom, should gradually become entangled in those inextricable meshes which must ultimately result in its destruction. But when the favor of God is sought in the same article that binds together a people, may we not hope better things for them? 36-VOL. VII. The War of the South Vindicated AND The War Against the South A DISCOURSE Preached on Occasion of the Appointment by the BY REV. THOMAS SMYTH, D. D. |