JK 361 .B8 1905 
 Brewer, David J. 1837-1910. 
 rhe United States a 
 Christian nation 
 
V 
 
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 THE UNITED STATES 
 A CHRISTIAN NATION 
 
^atierforD Lf&rarp Lectures! 
 
 THE UNITED STATES 
 A CHRISTIAN 
 NATION 
 
 BY 
 
 DAVID J. BREWER 
 
 Associate Justice of the Supreme Court 
 of the United States 
 
 fl^flatoelplna: 
 
 THE JOHN C. WINSTON COMPANY 
 
 1905 
 
Copyright, 1905 
 
 By THE JOHN C. WINSTON COMPANY 
 
 Set up, electrotyped and published 
 September, 1905 
 
^atierforti JLib tat? JLtctnw 
 
 From the provisions of the donor: 
 
 “The money [$10,000] to be kept safely in¬ 
 vested, the Income only to be used for an annual 
 course or series of lectures before the senior 
 class of the College and other students, on the 
 Bible, its history, and its literature, and, as way 
 
 may open for it, upon its doctrine and its teach- 
 
 • „ „ > > 
 mg. 
 
THREE LECTURES 
 To the Students of Havep.ford College 
 
 I. Thb United States a Christian Nation 
 II. Our Duty as Citizens 
 
 III. 
 
 The Promise and the Possibility of thb Future 
 
I. THE UNITED STATES A 
 CHRISTIAN NATION 
 
THE UNITED STATES A 
 CHRISTIAN NATION 
 
 E classify nations in various ways, 
 as, for instance, by their form 
 of government. One is a king¬ 
 dom, another an empire, and 
 still another a republic. Also by 
 race. Great Britain is an Anglo- 
 Saxon nation, France a Gallic, Germany a 
 Teutonic, Russia a Slav. And still again by 
 religion. One is a Mohammedan nation, 
 others are heathen, and still others are Chris¬ 
 tian nations. 
 
 This republic is classified among the 
 Christian nations of the world. It was so 
 formally declared by the Supreme Court of 
 the United States. In the case of Holy 
 . Trinity Church vs. United States, 143 U. S. 
 471, that court, after mentioning various 
 circumstances, added, “these and many other 
 matters which might be noticed, add a vol¬ 
 ume of unofficial declarations to the mass of 
 organic utterances that this is a Christian 
 nation.” 
 
 11 
 
But in what sense can it be called a Chris¬ 
 tian nation? Not in the sense that Christi¬ 
 anity is the established religion or that the 
 people are in any manner compelled to sup¬ 
 port it. On the contrary, the Constitution 
 specifically provides that “Congress shall 
 make no law respecting an establishment of 
 religion, or prohibiting the free exercise 
 thereof/' Neither is it Christian m the sense 
 that all its citizens are either in fact or name 
 Christians. On the contrary, all religions 
 have free scope within our borders. Num¬ 
 bers of our people profess other religions, 
 and many reject all. Nor is it Christian in 
 the sense that a profession of Christianity is 
 a condition of holding office or otherwise 
 engaging in the public service, or essential 
 to recognition either politically or socially. 
 In fact the government as a legal organiza¬ 
 tion is independent of all religions. 
 
 Nevertheless, we constantly speak of this 
 republic as a Christian nation—in fact, as 
 the leading Christian nation of the world. 
 This popular use of the term certainly has 
 significance. It is not a mere creation.of 
 the imagination. It is not a term of derision 
 but has a substantial basis—one which justi¬ 
 fies its use. Let us analyze a little and see 
 what is the basis. 
 
 Its use has had from the early settlements 
 
 12 
 
on our shores and still has an official founda¬ 
 tion. It is only about three centuries since 
 the beginnings of civilized life within the 
 "limits of these United States. And those 
 beginnings were in a marked and marvelous 
 degree identified with Christianity. The 
 commission from Ferdinand and Isabella to 
 Columbus recites that “it is hoped that by 
 God’s assistance some of the continents and 
 islands in the ocean will be discovered.” 
 The first colonial grant, that made to Sir 
 Walter Raleigh, in 1584, authorized him to 
 enact statutes for the government of the 
 proposed colony, provided that “they be not 
 against the true Christian faith now pro¬ 
 fessed in the Church of England.” The first 
 charter of Virginia, granted by King James 
 I, in 1606, after reciting the application of 
 certain parties for a charter, commenced the 
 grant in these words: “We, greatly com¬ 
 mending, and graciously accepting of, their 
 desires for the furtherance of so noble a 
 work, which may, by the providence of Al¬ 
 mighty God, hereafter tend to the glory of 
 His Divine Majesty, in propagating the 
 Christian religion to such people as yet live 
 in darkness and miserable ignorance of the 
 true knowledge and worship of God.” And 
 language of similar import is found in subse¬ 
 quent charters of the same colony, from the 
 
 13 
 
same king, in 1609 and 1611. The cele¬ 
 brated compact made by the Pilgrims on the 
 Mayflower, in 1620, recites: “Having under¬ 
 taken for the glory of God and advancement 
 of the Christian faith and the honor of our 
 king and country a voyage to plant the first 
 colony in the northern parts of Virginia/’ 
 
 The charter of New England, granted 
 by James I, in 1620, after referring to a 
 petition, declares: “We, according to our 
 princely inclination, favoring much their 
 worthy disposition, in hope thereby to ad¬ 
 vance the enlargement of Christian religion, 
 to the glory of God Almighty.” 
 
 The charter of Massachusetts Bay, granted 
 in 1629 by Charles I, after several provisions, 
 recites: “Whereby our said people, inhabi¬ 
 tants there, may be so religiously, peaceably 
 and civilly governed as their good life and 
 orderly conversation may win and incite the 
 natives of the country to their knowledge 
 and obedience of the only true God and 
 Saviour of mankind, and the Christian faith, 
 which in our royal intention and the adven¬ 
 turers free profession, is the principal end of 
 this plantation,” which declaration was sub¬ 
 stantially repeated in the charter of Massa¬ 
 chusetts Bay granted by William and Mary, 
 in 1691. 
 
 The fundamental orders of Connecticut, 
 
 14 
 
under which a provisional government was 
 instituted in 1638-1639, provided: “Foras¬ 
 much as it has pleased the Almighty God 
 by the wise disposition of His divine provi¬ 
 dence so to order and dispose of things that 
 we, the inhabitants and residents of Windsor, 
 Hartford and Wethersfield, are now cohabi- 
 tating and dwelling in and upon the River 
 of Connecticut and the lands thereto ad¬ 
 joining; and well knowing where a people 
 are gathered together the word of God re¬ 
 quires that to maintain the peace and union 
 of such a people there should be an orderly 
 and decent government established accord¬ 
 ing to God, to order and dispose of the 
 affairs of the people at all seasons as occa¬ 
 sion shall require; do therefore associate and 
 conjoin ourselves to be as one public state 
 or commonwealth; and do for ourselves and 
 our successors and such as shall be adjoined 
 to us at any time hereafter enter into combin¬ 
 ation and confederation together to main¬ 
 tain and preserve the liberty and purity of 
 the gospel of our Lord Jesus which we now 
 profess, as also the discipline of the churches, 
 which, according to the truth of the said 
 gospel, is now practiced amongst us.” In 
 the preamble of the Constitution of 1776 it 
 was declared, “the free fruition of such lib¬ 
 erties and privileges as humanity, civility 
 
 15 
 
and Christianity call for, as is due to every 
 man in his place and proportion, without im¬ 
 peachment and infringement, hath ever been, 
 and will be the tranquility and stability of 
 churches and commonwealths; and the de¬ 
 nial thereof, the disturbance, if not the ruin 
 of both.” 
 
 In 1638 the first settlers in Rhode Island 
 organized a local government by signing the 
 following agreement: 
 
 “We whose names are underwritten do 
 here solemnly in the presence of Jehovah 
 incorporate ourselves into a Bodie Politick 
 and as He shall help, will submit our per¬ 
 sons, lives and estates unto our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords 
 and to all those perfect and most absolute 
 laws of his given us in his holy word of 
 truth, to be guided and judged thereby. 
 Exod. 24: 3, 4; II Chron. 11: 3; II Kings 
 11 :iy.” 
 
 The charter granted to Rhode Island, in 
 1663, naming the petitioners, speaks of them 
 as “pursuing, with peaceable and loyal minds, 
 their sober, serious and religious intentions, 
 of godly edifying themselves and one an¬ 
 other in the holy Christian faith and wor¬ 
 ship as they were persuaded; together with 
 the gaining over and conversion of the poor, 
 ignorant Indian natives, in these parts of 
 16 
 
America, to the sincere profession and obedi¬ 
 ence of the same faith and worship/’ 
 
 The charter of Carolina, granted in 1663 
 by Charles II, recites that the petitioners, 
 “being excited with a laudable and pious zeal 
 for the propagation of the Christian faith.” 
 
 In the preface of the frame of government 
 prepared in 1682 by William Penn, for 
 Pennsylvania, it is said: “They weakly err, 
 that think there is no other use of govern¬ 
 ment than correction, which is the coarsest 
 part of it; daily experience tells us that the 
 care and regulation of many other affairs, 
 more soft, and daily necessary, make up 
 much of the greatest part of government; 
 and which must have followed the peopling 
 of the world, had Adam never fell, and will 
 continue among men, on earth, under the 
 highest attainments they may arrive at, by 
 the coming of the blessed second Adam, the 
 Lord from heaven.” And with the laws 
 prepared to go with the frame of govern¬ 
 ment, it was further provided “that accord¬ 
 ing to the good example of the primitive 
 Christians, and the ease of the creation, 
 every first day of the week, called the Lord’s 
 Day, people shall abstain from their com¬ 
 mon daily labor that they may the better dis¬ 
 pose themselves to worship God according 
 to their understandings.” 
 
 2 
 
 *7 
 
In the charter of privileges granted, in 
 1701, by William Penn to the province of 
 Pennsylvania and territories thereunto be¬ 
 longing (such territories afterwards con¬ 
 stituting the State of Delaware), it is re¬ 
 cited : “Because no people can be truly happy, 
 though under the greatest enjoyment of civil 
 liberties, if abridged of the freedom of their 
 consciences as to their religious profession 
 and worship; and Almighty God being the 
 only Lord of Conscience, Father of Lights 
 and Spirits, and the author as well as object 
 of all divine knowledge, faith and worship, 
 who only doth enlighten the minds and per¬ 
 suade and convince the understandings of 
 the people, I do hereby grant and declare/’ 
 
 The Constitution of Vermont, of 1777, 
 granting the free exercise of religious wor¬ 
 ship, added, “Nevertheless, every sect or de¬ 
 nomination of people ought to observe the 
 Sabbath, or the Lord’s Day, and keep up and 
 support some sort of religious worship, 
 which to them shall seem most agreeable to 
 the revealed will of God.” And this was 
 repeated in the Constitution of 1786. 
 
 In the Constitution of South Carolina, of 
 1778, it was declared that “the Christian 
 Protestant religion shall be deemed and is 
 hereby constituted and declared to be the 
 established religion of this State.” And fur- 
 18 
 
tlier, that no agreement or union of men 
 upon pretense of religion should be entitled 
 to become incorporated and regarded as a 
 church of the established religion of the 
 State, without agreeing and subscribing to 
 a book of five articles, the third and fourth 
 of which were “that the Christian religion is 
 the true religion; that the holy scriptures of 
 the Old and New Testament are of divine 
 inspiration, and ar^ the rule of faith and 
 practice.” 
 
 Passing beyond these declarations which 
 are found in the organic instruments of the 
 colonies, the following are well known his¬ 
 torical facts: Lord Baltimore secured the 
 charter for a Maryland colony in order that 
 he and his associates might continue their 
 Catholic worship free from Protestant perse¬ 
 cution. Roger Williams, exiled from Massa¬ 
 chusetts because of his religious views, estab¬ 
 lished an independent colony in Rhode Island. 
 The Huguenots, driven from France by the 
 Edict of Nantes, sought in the more southern 
 colonies a place where they could live in the 
 enjoyment of their Huguenot faith. It is not 
 exaggeration to say that Christianity in some 
 of its creeds was the principal cause of the 
 settlement of many of the colonies, and co¬ 
 operated with business hopes and purposes in 
 the settlement of the others. Beginning in 
 
 19 
 
this way and under these influences it is not 
 strange that the colonial life had an em¬ 
 phatic Christian tone. 
 
 From the very first efforts were made, 
 
 largely it must be conceded by Catholics, to 
 
 bring the Indians under the influence of 
 
 Christianity. Who can read without emo- 
 * 
 
 tion the story of Marquette, and others like 
 him, enduring all perils and dangers and 
 toiling through the forests of the west in 
 their efforts to tell the story of Jesus to the 
 savages of North America? 
 
 Within less than one hundred years from 
 the landing at Jamestown three colleges were 
 established in the colonies; Harvard in Mas¬ 
 sachusetts, William and Mary in Virginia 
 and Yale in Connecticut. The first seal used 
 by Harvard College had as a motto, “In 
 Christi Gloriam,” and the charter granted 
 by Massachuetts Bay contained this recital: 
 “Whereas, through the good hand of God 
 many well devoted persons have been and 
 daily are moved and stirred up to give and 
 bestow sundry gifts . . . that may con¬ 
 
 duce to the education of the English and 
 Indian youth of this country, in knowledge 
 and godliness.” The charter of William 
 and Mary, reciting that the proposal was “to 
 the end that the Church of Virginia may be 
 furnished with a seminary of ministers of 
 20 
 
 
the gospel, and that the youth may be piously 
 educated in good letters and manners, and 
 that the Christian faith may be propagated 
 amongst the western Indians, to the glory 
 of Almighty God” made the grant “for prop¬ 
 agating the pure gospel of Christ, our only 
 Mediator, to the praise and honor of Al¬ 
 mighty God.” The charter of Yale declared 
 as its purpose to fit “young men for public 
 employment both in church and civil state,” 
 and it provided that the trustees should be 
 Congregational ministers living in the col¬ 
 ony. 
 
 In some of the colonies, particularly in 
 New England, the support of the church was 
 a matter of public charge, even as the com¬ 
 mon schools are to-day. Thus the Constitu¬ 
 tion of Massachusetts, of 1780, Part I, Arti¬ 
 cle 3, provided that “the legislature shall, 
 from time to time, authorize and require, the 
 several towns, parishes, precincts, and other 
 bodies politic or religious societies to make 
 suitable povision at their own expense for 
 the institution of the public worship of God 
 and for the support and maintenance of Prot¬ 
 estant teachers of piety, religion and moral¬ 
 ity in all cases where such provision shall 
 not be made voluntarily.” 
 
 Article 6 of the Bill of Rights of the Con¬ 
 stitution of New Hampshire, of i 7 & 4 > re " 
 
 21 
 
peated in the Constitution of 1792, empow¬ 
 ered “the legislature to authorize from 
 time to time, the several towns, parishes, 
 bodies corporate, or religious societies within 
 this State, to make adequate provision at 
 their own expense for the support and main¬ 
 tenance of public Protestant teachers of 
 piety, religion and morality.” In the fun¬ 
 damental Constitutions of 1769, prepared 
 for the Carolinas, by the celebrated John 
 Locke, Article 96 reads: “As the country 
 comes to be sufficiently planted and distrib¬ 
 uted into fit divisions, it shall belong to the 
 parliament to take care for the building of 
 churches, and the public maintenance of di¬ 
 vines to be employed in the exercise of re¬ 
 ligion according to the Church of England, 
 which being the only true and orthodox and 
 the national religion of all the king’s do¬ 
 minions, is so also of Carolina, and, there¬ 
 fore, it alone shall be allowed to receive pub¬ 
 lic maintenance by grant of parliament.” 
 
 In Maryland, by the Constitution of 1776, 
 it was provided that “the legislature may, in 
 their discretion, lay a general and equal tax, 
 for the support of the Christian religion.” 
 
 In several colonies and states a profession 
 of the Christian faith was made an indis¬ 
 pensable condition to holding office. In the 
 frame of government for Pennsylvania, pre- 
 22 
 
pared by William Penn, in 1683, it was pro¬ 
 vided that “all treasurers, judges . 
 and other officers . . . and all members 
 
 elected to serve in provincial council and 
 general assembly, and all that have right 
 to elect such members, shall be such as pro¬ 
 fess faith in Jesus Christ.” And in the char¬ 
 ter of privileges for that colony, given in 
 1701 by William Penn and approved by the 
 colonial assembly it was provided “that all 
 persons who also profess to believe in Jesus 
 Christ, the Saviour of the World, shall be 
 capable ... to serve this government in 
 any capacity, both legislatively and execu¬ 
 tively.” 
 
 In Delaware, by the Constitution of 
 1776, every officeholder was required to 
 make and subscribe the following declara¬ 
 tion : “I, A. B., do profess faith in God the 
 Father, and in Jesus Christ His Only Son, 
 and in the Holy Ghost, one God, blessed for¬ 
 evermore; and I do acknowledge the Holy 
 Scriptures of the Old and New Testament to 
 be given by divine inspiration.” 
 
 New Hampshire, in the Constitutions of 
 1784 and 1792, required that senators and 
 representatives should be of the “Protestant 
 religion,” and this provision remained in 
 force until 1877. 
 
 The fundamental Constitutions of the Car- 
 
 23 
 
olinas declared: “No man shall be permitted 
 to be a freeman of Carolina, or to have any 
 estate or habitation within it that doth not 
 acknowledge a God, and that God is publicly 
 and solemnly to be worshiped.” 
 
 The Constitution of North Carolina, of 
 1776 , provided: “That no person who shall 
 deny the being of God or the truth of the 
 Protestant religion, or the divine authority 
 either of the Old or New Testaments, or 
 who shall hold religious principles incom¬ 
 patible with the freedom and safety of the 
 State, shall be capable of holding any office 
 or place of trust or profit in the civil depart¬ 
 ment within this State.” And this remained 
 in force until 1835, when it was amended by 
 changing the word “Protestant” to “Chris¬ 
 tian,” and as so amended remained in force 
 until the Constitution of 1868. And in that 
 Constitution among the persons disqualified 
 for office were “all persons who shall deny 
 the being of Almighty God.” 
 
 New Jersey, by the Constitution of 1776, 
 declared “that no Protestant inhabitant of 
 this colony shall be denied the enjoyment of 
 any civil right merely on account of his re¬ 
 ligious principles, but that all persons pro¬ 
 fessing a belief in the faith of any Protestant 
 sect, who shall demean themselves peaceably 
 under the government as hereby established, 
 24 
 
shall be capable of being elected into any 
 office of profit or trust, or being a member of 
 either branch of the legislature.” 
 
 The Constitution of South Carolina, of 
 1776, provided that no person should be eligi¬ 
 ble to the Senate or House of Representatives 
 “unless he be of the Protestant religion.” 
 
 Massachusetts, in its Constitution of 1780, 
 required from governor, lieutenant-governor, 
 councillor, senator and representative before 
 proceeding to execute the duties of his place 
 or office a declaration that “I believe the 
 Christian religion, and have a firm persua¬ 
 sion of its truth.” 
 
 By the fundamental orders of Connecticut 
 the governor was directed to take an oath to 
 “further the execution of justice according 
 to the rule of God’s word; so help me God, 
 in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.” 
 
 The Vermont Constitution of 1777 re¬ 
 quired of every member of the House of 
 Representatives that he take this oath : “I do 
 believe in one God, the creator and governor 
 of the universe, the rewarder of the good 
 and punisher of the wicked, and I do ac¬ 
 knowledge the scriptures of the Old and 
 New Testaments to be given by divine in¬ 
 spiration, and own and profess the Protest¬ 
 ant religion.” A similar requirement was 
 provided by the Constitution of 1786. 
 
 25 
 
In Maryland, by the Constitution of 1776, 
 every person appointed to any office of profit 
 or trust was not only to take an official 
 oath of allegiance to the State, but also 
 to “subscribe a declaration of his belief in 
 the Christian religion.” In the same State, 
 in the Constitution of 1851, it was declared 
 that no other test or qualification for ad¬ 
 mission to any office of trust or profit shall 
 be required than the official oath “and a 
 declaration of belief in the Christian relig¬ 
 ion; and if the party shall profess to be a 
 Jew the declaration shall be of his belief in 
 a future state of rewards and punishments.” 
 As late as 1864 the same State in its Consti¬ 
 tution had a similar provision, the change 
 being one merely of phraseology, the provi¬ 
 sion reading, “a declaration of belief in the 
 Christian religion, or of the existence of 
 God, and in a future state of rewards and 
 punishments.” 
 
 Mississippi, by the Constitution of 1817, 
 provided that “no person who denies the 
 being of God or a future state of rewards 
 and punishments shall hold any office in the 
 civil department of the State.” 
 
 Another significant matter is the recogni¬ 
 tion of Sunday. That day is the Christian 
 Sabbath, a day peculiar to that faith, and 
 known to no other. It would be impossible 
 26 
 
within the limits of a lecture to point out all 
 the ways in which that day is recognized. 
 The following illustrations must suffice: By 
 the United States Constitution the President 
 is required to approved all bills passed by 
 Congress. If he disapproves he returns it 
 with his veto. And then specifically it is pro¬ 
 vided that if not returned by him within ten 
 days, “Sundays excepted,” after it shall have 
 been presented to him it becomes a law. 
 Similar provisions are found in the Consti¬ 
 tutions of most of the States, and in thirty- 
 six out of forty-five is the same expression, 
 “Sundays excepted.” 
 
 Louisiana is one of the nine States in 
 whose present Constitution the expression, 
 “Sundays excepted,” is not found. Four 
 earlier Constitutions of that State (those of 
 1812, 1845, 1852 and 1864) contained,while 
 the three later ones, 1868, 1879 an d 1881 
 omit those words. In State ex rel. vs. Sec¬ 
 retary of State, a case arising under the last 
 Constitution, decided by the Supreme Court 
 of Louisiana (52 La. An. 936), the question 
 was presented as to the effect of a governor’s 
 veto which was returned within time if a 
 Sunday intervening between the day of pre¬ 
 sentation of the bill and the return of the 
 veto was excluded, and too late if it was 
 included; the burden of the contention on 
 
 27 
 
the one side being that the change in the 
 phraseology of the later Constitutions in 
 omitting the words “Sundays excepted” in¬ 
 dicated a change in the meaning of the con¬ 
 stitutional provision in respect to the time 
 of a veto. The court unanimously held that 
 the Sunday was to be excluded. In the 
 course of its opinion it said (p. 944) : 
 
 “In law Sundays are generally excluded 
 as days upon which the performance of any 
 act demanded by the law is not required. 
 They are held to be dies non juridici. 
 
 “And in the Christian world Sunday is re¬ 
 garded as the ‘Lord’s Day/ and a holiday— 
 a day of cessation from labor. 
 
 “By statute, enacted as far back as 
 1838, this day is made in Louisiana one of 
 ‘public rest.’ Rev. Stat., Sec. 522; Code of 
 Practice, 207, 763. 
 
 “This is the policy of the State of long 
 standing and the framers of the Constitution 
 are to be considered as intending to con¬ 
 form to the same.” 
 
 By express command of Congress studies 
 are not pursued at the military or naval 
 academies, and distilleries are prohibited 
 from operation on Sundays, while chaplains 
 are required to hold religious services once 
 at least on that day. 
 
 By the English statute of 29 Charles II 
 28 
 
no tradesman, artificer, workman, laborer, 
 or other person was permitted to do or ex¬ 
 ercise any worldly labor, business or work of 
 ordinary calling upon the Lord’s Day, or 
 any part thereof, works of necessity or 
 charity only excepted. That statute, with 
 some variations, has been adopted by most 
 if not all the States of the Union. In Mass¬ 
 achusetts it was held that one injured while 
 traveling in the cars on Sunday, except in 
 case of necessity or charity, was guilty of 
 contributory negligence and could recover 
 nothing from the railroad company for the 
 injury he sustained. And this decision was 
 affirmed by the Supreme Court of the United 
 States. A statute of the State of Georgia, 
 making the running of freight trains on 
 Sunday a misdemeanor, was also upheld by 
 that court. By decisions in many States a 
 contract made on Sunday is invalid and can¬ 
 not be enforced. By the general course of 
 decision no judicial proceedings can be held 
 on Sunday. All legislative bodies, whether 
 muncipal, state or national, abstain from 
 work on that day. Indeed, the vast volume 
 of official action, legislative and judicial, 
 recognizes Sunday as a day separate and 
 apart from the others, a day devoted not to 
 the ordinary pursuits of life. It is true in 
 many of the decisions this separation of the 
 
 29 
 
day is said to be authorized by the police 
 power of the State and exercised for pur¬ 
 poses of health. At the same time, through 
 a large majority of them, there runs the 
 thought of its being a religious day, con¬ 
 secrated by the Commandment, “Six days 
 shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: 
 but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the 
 Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any 
 work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, 
 thy man servant, nor thy maid servant, nor 
 thy cattle, nor the stranger that is within 
 thy gates.” 
 
 While the word “God” is not infrequently 
 used both in the singular and plural to de¬ 
 note any supreme being or beings, yet when 
 used alone and in the singular number it 
 generally refers to that Supreme Being 
 spoken of in the Old and New Testaments 
 and worshiped by Jew and Christian. In 
 that sense the word is used in constitution, 
 statute and instrument. In many State Con¬ 
 stitutions we find in the preamble a declara¬ 
 tion like this: “Grateful to Almighty God.” 
 In some he who denied the being of God was 
 disqualified from holding office. It is again 
 and again declared in constitution and 
 statute that official oaths shall close with an 
 appeal, “So help me, God.” When, upon 
 inauguration, the President-elect each four 
 30 
 
years consecrates himself to the great respon¬ 
 sibilities of Chief Executive of the republic, 
 his vow of consecration in the presence of the 
 vast throng filling the Capitol grounds will 
 end with the solemn words, “So help me, 
 God/’ In all our courts witnesses in like 
 manner vouch for the truthfulness of their 
 testimony. The common commencement of 
 wills is “In the name of God, Amen.” Every 
 foreigner attests his renunciation of allegi¬ 
 ance to his former sovereign and his accep¬ 
 tance of citizenship in this republic by an 
 appeal to God. 
 
 These various declarations in charters, con¬ 
 stitutions and statutes indicate the general 
 thought and purpose. If it be said that sim¬ 
 ilar declarations are not found in all the 
 charters or in all the constitutions, it will be 
 borne in mind that the omission oftentimes 
 was because they were deemed unnecessary, 
 as shown by the quotation just made from 
 the opinion of the Supreme Court of Louis¬ 
 iana, as well as those hereafter taken from 
 the opinions of other courts. And further, 
 it is of still more significance that there 
 are no contrary declarations. In no char¬ 
 ter or constitution is there anything to even 
 suggest that any other than the Cln istian 
 is the religion of his country. In none of 
 them is Mohammed or Confucius or Buddha 
 
iii any manner noticed. In none of them 
 is Judaism recognized other than by way 
 of toleration of its special creed. While 
 the separation of church and state is often 
 affirmed, there is nowhere a repudiation of 
 Christianity as one of the institutions as well 
 as benedictions of society. In short, there is 
 no charter or constitution that is either infi¬ 
 del, agnostic or anti-Christian. Wherever 
 there is a declaration in favor of any religion 
 it is of the Christian. In view of the multi¬ 
 tude of expressions in its favor, the avowed 
 separation between church and state is a 
 most satisfactory testimonial that it is the re¬ 
 ligion of this country, for a peculiar thought 
 of Christianity is of a personal relation be¬ 
 tween man and his Maker, uncontrolled by 
 and independent of human government. 
 
 Notice also the matter of chaplains. These 
 are appointed for the army and navy, named 
 as officials of legislative assemblies, and uni¬ 
 versally they belong to one or other of the 
 Christian denominations. Their whole range 
 of service, whether in prayer or preaching, 
 is an official recognition of Christianity. If 
 it be not so, why do we have chaplains? 
 
 If we consult the decisions of the courts, 
 although the formal question has seldom 
 been presented because of a general recogni¬ 
 tion of its truth, yet in The People vs. Rug- 
 32 
 
gles, 8 John. 290, 294, 295, Chancellor Kent, 
 the great commentator on American law, 
 speaking as Chief Justice of the Supreme 
 Court of New York, said: “The people of 
 this State, in common with the people of this 
 country, profess the general doctrines of 
 Christianity, as the rule of their faith and 
 practice.” And in the famous case of Vidal 
 vs. Girard’s Executors, 2 How. 127, 198, the 
 Supreme Court of the United States, while 
 sustaining the will of Mr. Girard, with its 
 provision for the creation of a college into 
 which no minister should be permitted to 
 enter, observed: “It is also said, and truly, 
 that the Christian religion is a part of the 
 common law of Pennsylvania.” 
 
 The New York Supreme Court, in Lin- 
 denmuller vs. The People, 33 Barbour, 561, 
 held that: 
 
 “Christianity is not the legal religion of 
 the State, as established by law. If it were, 
 it would be a civil or political institution, 
 which it is not; but this is not inconsistent 
 with the idea that it is in fact, and ever has 
 been, the religion of the people. This fact 
 is everywhere prominent in all our civil and 
 political history, and has been, from the first, 
 recognized and acted upon by the people, as 
 well as by constitutional conventions, by leg¬ 
 islatures and by courts of justice.” 
 
 3 33 
 
The South Carolina Supreme Court, in 
 State vs. Chandler, 2 Harrington, 555, cit¬ 
 ing many cases, said : 
 
 “It appears to have been long perfectly 
 settled by the common law that blasphemy 
 against the Deity in general, or a malicious 
 and wanton attack against the Christian re¬ 
 ligion individually, for the purpose of ex¬ 
 posing its doctrines to contempt and ridicule, 
 is indictable and punishable as a temporal 
 offense.” 
 
 And again, in City Council vs. Benjamin, 
 2 Strobhart, 521: 
 
 “On that day we rest, and to us it is the 
 Sabbath of the Lord—its decent observance 
 in a Christian community is that which 
 
 ought to be expected. 
 
 “It is not perhaps necessary for the pur¬ 
 poses of this case to rule and hold that the 
 Christian religion is part of the common law 
 of South Carolina. Still it may be useful to 
 show that it lies at the foundation of even 
 the article of the Constitution under consid¬ 
 eration, and that upon it rest many of the 
 principles and usages, constantly acknowl¬ 
 edged and enforced, in the courts of justice. 
 
 The Pennsylvania Supreme Court, in Up- 
 degraph vs. The Commonwealth, 11 Ser¬ 
 geant and Rawle, 400, made this declara¬ 
 tion : 
 
 34 
 
“Christianity, general Christianity, is, and 
 always has been, a part of the common law 
 of Pennsylvania; Christianity, without the 
 spiritual artillery of European countries; for 
 this Christianity was one of the considera¬ 
 tions of the royal charter, and the very basis 
 of its great founder, William Penn; not 
 Christianity founded on any particular re¬ 
 ligious tenets; not Christianity with an es¬ 
 tablished church, and tithes, and spiritual 
 courts; but Christianity with liberty of con¬ 
 science to all men. ,, 
 
 And subsequently, in Johnson vs. The 
 Commonwealth, io Harris, in. 
 
 “It is not our business to discuss the obli¬ 
 gations of Sunday any further than they 
 enter into and are recognized by the law of 
 the land. The common law adopted it, 
 along with Christianity, of which it is one 
 of the bulwarks.” 
 
 In Arkansas, Shover vs. The State, io 
 English, 263, the Supreme Court said: 
 
 “Sunday or the Sabbath is properly and 
 emphatically called the Lord’s Day, and is 
 one amongst the first and most sacred institu¬ 
 tions of the Christian religion. This system 
 of religion is recognized as constituting a 
 part and parcel of the common law, and as 
 such all of the institutions growing out of it, 
 or, in any way, connected with it, in case 
 
 35 
 
they shall not be found to interfere with the 
 rights of conscience, are entitled to the most 
 profound respect, and can rightfully claim 
 the protection of the law-making power of 
 the State.” 
 
 The Supreme Court of Maryland, in Jude- 
 find vs. The State, 78 Maryland, 514, de¬ 
 clared : 
 
 “The Sabbath is emphatically the day of 
 rest, and the day of rest here is the Lord’s 
 Day or Christian’s Sunday. Ours is a Chris¬ 
 tian community, and a day set apart as the 
 day of rest is the day consecrated by the 
 resurrection of our Saviour, and embraces 
 the twenty-four hours next ensuing the mid¬ 
 night of Saturday. . . . But it would 
 
 scarcely be asked of a court, in what pro¬ 
 fesses to be a Christian land, to declare a 
 law unconstitutional because it requires rest 
 from bodily labor on Sunday (except works 
 of necessity and charity) and thereby pro¬ 
 motes the cause of Christianity.” 
 
 If now we pass from the domain of official 
 action and recognition to that of individual 
 acceptance we enter a field of boundless ex¬ 
 tent, and Lean only point out a few of the 
 prominent facts: 
 
 Notice our educational institutions. I 
 have already called your attention to the pro¬ 
 visions of the charters of the first three col- 
 
 36 
 
leges. Think of the vast number of acad¬ 
 emies, colleges and universities scattered 
 through the land. Some of them, it is true, 
 are under secular control, but there is yet to 
 be established in this country one of those 
 institutions founded on the religions of Con¬ 
 fucius, Buddha or Mohammed, while an 
 overwhelming majority are under the special 
 direction and control of Christian teachers. 
 
 Notice also the avowed and pronounced 
 Christian forces of the country, and here I 
 must refer to the census of 1890, for the 
 statistics of the census of 1900 in these 
 matters have not been compled: The popu¬ 
 lation was 62,622,000. There were 165,000 
 Christian church organizations, owning 
 142,000 buildings, in which were sittings for 
 40,625,000 people. The communicants in 
 these churches numbered 20,476,000, and the 
 value of the church property amounted to 
 $669,876,000. In other words, about one- 
 third of the entire population were directly 
 connected with Christian organizations. 
 Nearly two-thirds would find seats in our 
 churches. If to the members we add the chil¬ 
 dren and others in their families more or less 
 connected with them, it is obvious that a 
 large majority were attached to the various 
 church organizations. I am aware that the 
 relationship between many members and 
 
 37 
 
their churches is formal, and that church re¬ 
 lations do not constitute active and para¬ 
 mount forces in their lives, and yet it is clear 
 that there is an identification of the great 
 mass of American citizens with the Christian 
 church. It is undoubtedly true that there 
 is no little complaint of the falling off in 
 church attendance, and of a lukewarmness 
 on the part of many, and on the other hand 
 there is a diversion of religious force along 
 the lines of the Young Men's Christian As¬ 
 sociation, the Christian Endeavor Society 
 and the Epworth League. All these, of 
 course, are matters to be noticed, but they do 
 not avoid the fact of a formal adhesion of 
 the great majority of our people to the 
 Christian faith; and while creeds and dog¬ 
 mas and denominations are in a certain sense 
 losing their power, and certainly their an¬ 
 tagonisms, yet as a vital force in the land, 
 Christianity is still the mighty factor. Con¬ 
 nected with the denominations are large mis¬ 
 sionary bodies constantly busy in extend¬ 
 ing Christian faith through this nation and 
 through the world. No other religious or¬ 
 ganization has anything of a foothold or is 
 engaged in active work unless it be upon so 
 small a scale as scarcely to be noticed in the 
 great volume of American life. 
 
 Again, the Bible is the Christian’s book. 
 
 38 
 
No other book has so wide a circulation, or 
 is so universally found in the households of 
 the land. During their century of exist¬ 
 ence the English and American Bible Socie¬ 
 ties have published and circulated two hun¬ 
 dred and fifty million copies, and this repre¬ 
 sents but a fraction of its circulation. And 
 then think of the multitude of volumes 
 published in exposition, explanation and il¬ 
 lustration of that book, or some portion 
 of it. 
 
 You will have noticed that I have presented 
 no doubtful facts. Nothing has been stated 
 which is debatable. The quotations from 
 charters are in the archives of the several 
 States; the laws are on the statute books; 
 judicial opinions are taken from the official 
 reports; statistics from the census publica¬ 
 tions. In short, no evidence has been pre¬ 
 sented which is open to question. 
 
 I could easily enter upon another line of 
 examination. I could point out the general 
 trend of public opinion, the disclosures of 
 purposes and beliefs to be found in letters, 
 papers, books and unofficial declarations. I 
 could show how largely our laws and cus¬ 
 toms are based upon the laws of Moses and 
 the teachings of Christ; how constantly the 
 Bible is appealed to as the guide of life and 
 the authority in questions of morals; how the 
 
 39 
 
Christian doctrines are accepted as the great 
 comfort in times of sorrow and affliction, 
 and fill with the light of hope the services for 
 the dead. On every hilltop towers the steeple 
 of some Christian church, while from the 
 marble witnesses in God’s acre comes the 
 universal but silent testimony to the com¬ 
 mon faith in the Christian doctrine of the 
 resurrection and the life hereafter. 
 
 But I must not weary you. I could go on 
 indefinitely, pointing out further illustra¬ 
 tions both official and non-official, public and 
 private; such as the annual Thanksgiving 
 proclamations, with their following days of 
 worship and feasting; announcements of 
 days of fasting and prayer; the universal 
 celebration of Christmas; the gathering of 
 millions of our children in Sunday Schools, 
 and the countless volumes of Christian liter¬ 
 ature, both prose and poetry. But I have 
 said enough to show that Christianity came 
 to this country with the first colonists; has 
 been powerfully identified with its rapid de¬ 
 velopment, colonial and national, and to-day 
 exists as a mighty factor in the life of the 
 republic. This is a Christian nation, and we 
 can all rejoice as truthfully we repeat the 
 words of Leonard Bacon : 
 
 “O God, beneath thy guiding hand 
 
 Our exiled fathers crossed the sea, 
 
 40 
 
And when they trod the wintry strand, 
 
 With prayer and psalm they worshiped 
 Thee. 
 
 “Thou heardst, well pleased, the song, the 
 prayer— 
 
 Thy blessing came; and still its power 
 Shall onward through all ages bear 
 The memory of that holy hour. 
 
 “Laws, freedom, truth, and faith in God 
 Came with those exiles o’er the waves, 
 And where their pilgrim feet have trod, 
 The God they trusted guards their graves. 
 
 “And here Thy name, O God of love, 
 
 Their children’s children shall adore, 
 
 Till these eternal hills remove, 
 
 And spring adorns the earth no more.” 
 
 41 
 
II. OUR DUTY AS CITIZENS 
 
/ 
 
OUR DUTY AS CITIZENS 
 
 CONSIDERED last night the 
 proposition that the United 
 States of America is a Chris¬ 
 tian nation. I pointed out that 
 Christianity was a primary 
 cause of the first settlement on 
 our shores; that the organic instruments, 
 charters and constitutions of the colonies 
 were filled with abundant recognitions of 
 it as a controlling factor in the life of 
 the people; that in one at least of them 
 it was in terms declared the established 
 religion, while in several the furthering 
 of Christianity was stated to be one of 
 the purposes of the government; in many 
 faith in it was a condition of holding office; 
 in some, authority was given to the legisla¬ 
 ture to make its support a public charge; in 
 nearly all the constitutions there has been 
 an express recognition of the sanctity of the 
 Christian Sunday; the God of the Bible is 
 appealed to again and again. Sunday laws 
 
 45 
 
have been enacted and enforced in most of 
 the colonies and States. About one-third of 
 the population are avowedly Christian and 
 communicants in some Christian organiza¬ 
 tion; there are sitting accommodations in 
 the churches for nearly two-thirds; educa¬ 
 tional institutions are largely under the con¬ 
 trol of Christian denominations, and even in 
 those which, in obedience to the rule of sep¬ 
 aration between church and state, are secular 
 in their organization, the principles of Chris¬ 
 tianity are uniformly recognized. By these 
 and other evidences I claim to have 
 shown that the calling of this republic a 
 Christian nation is not a mere pretence but 
 a recognition of an historical, legal and 
 social truth. 
 
 I come this evening to consider the conse¬ 
 quences of this fact and the duties it imposes 
 upon all our citizens. 
 
 And first let it be noticed that there is no 
 incompatibility between Christianity and 
 patriotism. The declaration of the Master, 
 “Render therefore unto Caesar, the things 
 which are Caesar’s; and unto God, the things 
 that are God’s,” is not a declaration of an¬ 
 tagonism between the two, but an affirma¬ 
 tion of duty to each. Indeed, devotion to 
 one generally goes hand in hand with loyalty 
 to the other. When Havelock, the hero of 
 46 
 
Lucknow, died, most appropriate were the 
 words of the English poet: 
 
 “Strew not on the hero’s hearse 
 Garlands of a herald’s verse: 
 
 Let us hear no words of Fame 
 Sounding loud a deathless name: 
 
 Tell us of no vauntful Glory 
 Shouting forth her haughty story. 
 
 All life long his homage rose 
 To far other shrine than those. 
 
 ‘In hoc signo,’ pale nor dim, 
 
 Lit the battlefield for him, 
 
 And the prize he sought and won, 
 Was the crown for duty done.” 
 
 But we need not go elsewhere. In our 
 own land, from the very first, Christianity 
 and patriotism have worked together. When 
 the Pilgrim Fathers touched New England s 
 shores their first service was one of thanks¬ 
 giving and praise to that Infinite One who 
 had, as they believed, guided them to their 
 new home. In the long struggles of the 
 early colonists with their Indian foes, the 
 building on the hill was both church and 
 fort. They fell on their knees and then on 
 the aboriginees, was the old satire, to which 
 now is added, they fall on the Chinese. In 
 
 47 
 
the convention that framed the Constitution, 
 when doubt and uncertainty hovered over 
 the result, at Franklin’s instance prayer was 
 offered for the success of their efforts. In 
 the dark days at Valley Forge the great 
 leader sought strength and inspiration in 
 prayer. When the nation stood aghast at 
 the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, the 
 clarion voice of Garfield rang out above the 
 darkness and the tumult, “God reigns, and 
 the government at Washington still lives.” 
 And so I might go on with illustration after 
 illustration showing how the faith of the 
 Christian has stood in times of trial and 
 trouble as the rock upon which the nation 
 has rested. 
 
 Again, Christianity is entitled to the trib¬ 
 ute of respect. I do not of course mean that 
 all individuals, nominally Christian, deserve 
 trust, confidence, or even respect, for the 
 contrary is too often the case. Too often 
 men hold religion as they do property, in 
 their wives’ names. Nor is Christianity be¬ 
 yond the reach of criticism and opposition. 
 It is not lifted up as something too sacred to 
 be spoken of save in terms and tones of 
 reverence. This is an iconoclastic and scien¬ 
 tific age. We are destroying many beliefs 
 and traditions. William Tell is a myth. The 
 long hairs of Pocahontas never dropped in 
 
 48 
 
protecting folds over the body of John 
 Smith. The Arabs never destroyed the great 
 library at Alexandria, though if some wan¬ 
 dering Arabs would destroy all the law books 
 in the land they would bless the courts and 
 help the cause of justice. We challenge the 
 truthfulness of every assertion of fact, every 
 demand upon our faith and confidence; and 
 Christianity must stand like all other insti¬ 
 tutions, to be challenged, criticised, weighed 
 and its merits and demerits determined. The 
 time has passed in the history of the world 
 when anything is too sacred to be touched, 
 when anything is beyond the reach of the 
 inquiring and scientific spear. But while 
 conceding all this I insist that Christianity 
 has been so wrought into the history of this 
 republic, so identified with its growth and 
 prosperity, has been and is so dear to the 
 hearts of the great body of our citizens, that 
 it ought not to be spoken of contemptuously 
 or treated with ridicule. Religion of any 
 form is a sacred matter. It involves the re¬ 
 lation of the individual to some Being be¬ 
 lieved to be infinitely supreme. It involves 
 not merely character and life here, but des¬ 
 tiny hereafter, and as such is not to be 
 spoken of lightly or flippantly. And we who 
 are citizens of this republic—recognizing the 
 identification of Christianity with its life, 
 
 49 
 
 4 
 
the general belief that Christianity is the 
 best of all religions, that it passed into the 
 lives of our fathers and is taken into the lives 
 of our brethren as something of sacred 
 power—ought, even if not agreeing with all 
 that is claimed for it, to at least accord to 
 it respect. 
 
 I once listened to a conversation which 
 illustrates my thought. It was between two 
 young men returning after the close of a 
 summer’s vacation to the college at which 
 both were students. The principal talker 
 was, as I discovered in the course of the 
 afternoon, an only son. On his upper lip 
 was the first dark shadow of a coming mus¬ 
 tache. He possessed that peculiar wisdom 
 which belongs in this world to only the col¬ 
 lege sophomore. He was expressing to his 
 companion his views on the Bible and relig¬ 
 ion, said he knew too much to believe in 
 either; admitted that his mother believed in 
 both and read her Bible every day; said that 
 that might do for women and children, but 
 not for any intelligent man in the light of 
 present scientific knowledge. You would 
 have thought that Darwin and Huxley and 
 Lord Kelvin had studied at his feet and that 
 he was the Gamaliel of the present day. It 
 is impossible to reproduce in language the 
 self-sufficient sneering tone in which he 
 50 
 
spoke of the Bible, classing it with nursery 
 rhymes, the story of Jack and the Beanstalk 
 and the like, and the complacent pity with 
 which he referred to those who were foolish 
 enough to regard it as a sacred book. It is 
 to be hoped that the budding sophomore 
 lived long enough to learn that no gentleman 
 speaks sneeringly of that which has been the 
 life-long faith and comfort of his mother. 
 
 From the standpoint of citizenship the 
 treatment of Christianity may be regarded 
 as in some respects similar to that which is 
 accorded and is due to the national flag. 
 Who looks upon that as a mere piece of 
 cloth costing but a trifle, something to be de¬ 
 rided or trampled upon at will? A particu¬ 
 lar banner may not have cost much. It may 
 be cheap to him who sees only the mate¬ 
 rial and work which have passed into it, 
 but to every patriot it is the symbol of 
 patriotism. Its history is a record of glory. 
 A century ago the Barbary pirates, who had 
 defied the flags of Europe, saw it waving 
 over Decatur’s vessels and bowed in submis¬ 
 sion. Commodore Perry sailed beneath it 
 into the unknown harbors of Japan, opened 
 that nation to the nineteenth century, and 
 to-day her civilization and power command 
 universal respect and admiration. The op¬ 
 pressed Cuban appealed to it for deliverance, 
 
 5i 
 
and in response thereto Manila and Santiago 
 de Cuba introduced a new sister into the 
 family of nations. 
 
 “Wherever man has dared to go, 
 
 ’Mid tropic heat or polar snow, 
 
 On sandy plain or lofty crag, 
 
 Has waved our country’s starry flag. 
 
 In that far North where ceaseless cold 
 Has built its alabaster hold, 
 
 And where the sun disdains to show 
 His brightness on unbroken snow, 
 Where icy pillars tower to heaven 
 Pale sentinels to nature given, 
 
 To watch the only spot she can 
 Withhold from grasping hand of man, 
 There Kane unfurled this banner bright, 
 Resplendent with auroral light.” 
 
 To-day it waves at the masthead of Amer¬ 
 ican vessels in every water of the globe, and 
 commands the world’s respect. An insult 
 to it every citizen feels is an insult to him¬ 
 self, and all insist that it shall be accorded 
 due respect. We remember how, in the early 
 days of our great civil struggle, the loyal 
 heart was stirred with the thrilling words of 
 Secretary Dix, “If any man attempts to haul 
 down the American flag, shoot him on the 
 spot.” We honor Stonewall Jackson, who, 
 52 
 
seeing Barbara Frietchie waving this ban¬ 
 ner from the window of her home in Fred¬ 
 erick, and the threatening guns of his sol¬ 
 diers, called out: 
 
 “ ‘Who touches a hair of yon gray head 
 Dies like a dog. March on;’ he said.” 
 
 We rejoice that now it floats in peace and 
 triumph over all our fair land. We love to 
 watch its fold swing out to the breeze on 
 every patriotic day, to see it decorate the 
 walls where gather our great conventions. 
 We glory in every tribute that is paid to it 
 in any part of the globe. It tells the story 
 of conflicts, of defeats and victories. It has 
 waved over many a held of battle, and the 
 blood of our noblest and best has been shed 
 in its defense. It is eloquent of all the suf¬ 
 ferings and trials of days gone by, of all the 
 great achievements of the American people, 
 and as we swing it to the breeze we do so 
 with undoubting faith that it will wave over 
 grander things in the future of this republic. 
 
 Christianity has entered into and become 
 part of the life of this republic; it came with 
 its beginnings and prompted them; has been 
 identified with its toils and trials, shared in 
 its victories, cheered in the hour of darkness 
 and gloom, and stands to-day prophetic of 
 
 53 
 
untold blessings in the future. And shall it 
 be said that it alone of all our benedictions 
 has forfeited a claim to receive from every 
 American citizen the tribute of respect? 
 
 Respect for Christianity implies respect¬ 
 ful treatment of its institutions and ordi¬ 
 nances. This does not require that every 
 one must conform his life to those institu¬ 
 tions and ordinances. That is something 
 which each one has a right to settle for him¬ 
 self. Take, for instance, the matter of 
 church services. No one is in duty bound 
 as a citizen to attend a particular church 
 service, or indeed any church service. The 
 freedom of conscience, the liberty of the 
 individual, gives to every individual the 
 right to attend or stay away. At the same 
 time there is an obligation not to unneces¬ 
 sarily interfere with or disturb those serv¬ 
 ices. This is something more than the duty 
 which rests upon one attending those serv¬ 
 ices to avoid the ungentlemanly and unseemly 
 act of disturbing the exercises. That is only 
 a part of the common courtesy of all going 
 into a gathering assembled for any lawful 
 purpose. They who call the meeting and 
 who are engaged in service of any legiti¬ 
 mate character have a right to be free from 
 annoyance and interference. But beyond 
 that the citizen who does not attend, does 
 
 54 
 
not even share in the belief of those who do, 
 ought ever to bear in mind the noble part 
 Christianity has taken in the history of the 
 republic, the great share it has had in her 
 wonderful development and its contribution 
 to her present glory, and by reason thereof 
 take pains to secure to those who do believe 
 in it and do attend its services freedom from 
 all disturbance of their peaceful gathering. 
 The American Christian is entitled to his 
 quiet hour. 
 
 Take another illustration,—Sunday. Its 
 separation from the other days as a day of 
 rest is enforced by the legislation of nearly 
 all if not all the States of the Union. Beyond 
 that it is to the Christian a sacred day. It 
 does not follow that it is the duty of every 
 individual to observe the Sabbath as Chris¬ 
 tians do. Indeed, there is no unanimity of 
 view among the latter as to the manner in 
 which it should be observed. We have gone 
 far away from the Puritan Sabbath and the 
 austere, severe observance of it which pre¬ 
 vailed in the early days of New England 
 colonies, and which made the day a terror 
 to children as well as burdensome to adults. 
 I believe it is conceded that notwithstand¬ 
 ing the fabled blue laws of New England, a 
 man may without impropriety kiss his wife 
 on Sunday and possibly if he have a chance 
 
 55 
 
some other sweet-faced woman. That old- 
 time terror has been superceded by gentler 
 and kindlier modes of observance, which 
 tend to make the day welcome to all, both 
 young and old, one in which is not merely 
 rest from the ordinary toils of the 
 week, but one in which the companion¬ 
 ship of friends, the sweet influences of 
 nature, and lessons from the higher forms 
 of music and other arts are recognized as 
 among its benedictions. While the latter 
 modes, though very likely more helpful, 
 more really Christian, are a great departure 
 from the former, yet it still remains true that 
 it is a day consecrated of old, a day sepa¬ 
 rated by law and religion as well as by the 
 custom of the church for ages, and ought 
 not to be turned into a day of public frivolity 
 and gayety. While it may be true that all 
 are not under obligations to conform to the 
 higher and better uses of the day, yet at least 
 they owe that respect to Christianity to pur¬ 
 sue their frivolities and gaieties in such a 
 way as not to offend those who believe in 
 its sacredness. I recognize the fact that it is 
 not always easy to draw the line and that 
 freedom implies not merely the freedom of 
 those who would keep the day sacred, but 
 also the freedom of those who do not so re¬ 
 gard it. 
 
 56 
 
Again, it deserves the attention and study 
 of every citizen. You are all patriots, you 
 love your country, are proud of its past and 
 mean to so live and act that you can help it 
 to the best possible future. Now, as I have 
 pointed out, Christianity was a principal 
 cause of the settlements on these western 
 shores. It has been identified with the 
 growth and development of those settle¬ 
 ments into the United States of America, 
 has so largely shaped and molded it that to¬ 
 day of all the nations in the world it is the 
 most justly called a Christian nation. In 
 order to determine what we ought to do for 
 the future of the republic we must review 
 its history, inquire into the causes which 
 have made its growth and influenced its 
 life, ascertained which have been the most 
 controlling and which have helped on the 
 better side of its development, and why 
 they have been so influential. I have 
 shown that Christianity has been a great 
 factor, and the student of our history will 
 find that it has been a helpful and uplift¬ 
 ing factor. Making full allowance for all 
 the imperfections and mistakes which have 
 attended it, as they attend all human insti¬ 
 tutions, I am sure that the student will be 
 convinced that its general influence upon 
 our national life has been for the better. 
 
 57 
 
It has always stood for purity of the home, 
 and who doubts that our homes have been 
 the centers of the holiest living. It is Mor- 
 monism, Mohammedanism and heathenism 
 and not Christianity which have proclaimed 
 polygamy and debased woman from the 
 sacred place of wife to the lower level of 
 concubine. It is not Christianity which has 
 sustained the social evil. All through our 
 history, colonial and national, the hope and 
 ambition of every young man and woman 
 have been for a home of their own, into 
 which one husband and one wife shall enter, 
 “and they twain shall be one flesh.” One of 
 the sad features of city life to-day is the 
 crowding into apartments, where the janitor 
 is master of the house and the independence 
 of the home life is only partially secured. 
 The barracks around our great manufactur¬ 
 ing establishments are freighted with equally 
 sad significance. While admitting this tem¬ 
 porary departure we rejoice that this has 
 been pre-eminently a land of homes, whether 
 in the city, or village, or country. And the 
 power which has ever stood in the land for 
 the purity of home life has been a crown of 
 glory to the republic. 
 
 It has stood for business honesty and in¬ 
 tegrity. Its proclamation has been the 
 golden rule. Do unto others as you would 
 58 
 
they should do unto you, is a summons 
 to honesty and fair dealing in all business 
 as well as other relations in life. The 
 Master never suggested that ability to keep 
 outside the penitentiary was a sufficient test 
 of honesty. 
 
 It has stood for liberty and the rights of 
 man. In the great revolutionary struggle 
 the trusted counselors of the people were the 
 preachers. While they may not be known 
 in history as the leaders, were not the law¬ 
 yers to draft the statutes and the constitu¬ 
 tion, nor the military heroes to command the 
 armies, yet the local centers of influence 
 were the Christian churches, and the Chris¬ 
 tian preachers were the men who kept the 
 mass of the people loyal to the leadership of 
 Washington and his associates. And in the 
 later struggle for human liberty Christianity 
 was always on the advance line. Those of 
 us who remember the ante-bellum days re¬ 
 call the bitter flings that were made against 
 preachers in politics. That was signifi¬ 
 cant of the recognized truth that they were 
 leading the great mass of the loyal people 
 on in that most wonderful civil war of all 
 the ages. That struggle, as every one 
 knows, commenced on the plains of Kansas, 
 and the New England emigrant crossed 
 those plains, singing the song of Whittier: 
 
 59 
 
“We go to plant our common schools 
 On distant prairie swells, 
 
 And give the Sabbaths of the wild 
 The music of her bells. 
 
 “Upbearing like the ark of old, 
 
 The Bible in our van, 
 
 We go to test the truth of God 
 Against the fraud of man.” 
 
 And all during the terrible days of the 
 great war, from every Union camp and com¬ 
 pany rolled up the majestic music of the 
 battle hymn of the republic: 
 
 “In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born 
 across the sea, 
 
 With a glory in his bosom that transfigures 
 you and me: 
 
 As he died to make men holy, let us die to 
 make men free, 
 
 While God is marching on.” 
 
 It has stood for education. I have already 
 called your attention to this matter in proof 
 of the Christian character of the nation. It 
 may be added that outside of the institutions 
 with direct State support nearly every acad¬ 
 emy, college and university was founded by 
 and is under the control of some one of the 
 60 
 
several Christian denominations. Indeed, a 
 frequent criticism of many is that they are 
 too much under such control. Certain is it 
 that they would never have come into being 
 but for the denominations back of them. 
 Up to a recent date the rule was that the 
 presidents and an exceedingly large major¬ 
 ity of the faculty of all these institutions 
 be ministers. It was a national surprise 
 when first a layman was elected a college 
 president. In the common schools the Bible 
 has been as much a text-book as the New 
 England primer. It is only within very late 
 years that any objection has been raised to 
 its daify use, and that objection has sprung 
 as much from differences between the Cath¬ 
 olic and Protestant denominations concern¬ 
 ing the version to be used as from opposi¬ 
 tion to the book itself. 
 
 It has stood for the great charities and 
 benevolences of the land. What single or¬ 
 ganization has done more for the orphan 
 than the Catholic Church ? What one, 
 through hospital and asylum, more for the 
 sick and afflicted? If you were to select a 
 single face and form as the typical expres¬ 
 sion of the great thought of charity and 
 kindness, whose would you select other than 
 the face and form of a Sister of Charity? 
 
 61 
 
“The Little Sister of the Poor. 
 
 “Amid the city’s dust and din 
 Your patient feet have trod; 
 Wherever sorrow is or sin 
 You do the work of God. 
 
 “You seem in many a shadowed place 
 A glory from above, 
 
 The peace of heaven is in your face, 
 And in your heart is love. 
 
 “Your brow is lined with other’s cares, 
 And aches for others’ needs; 
 
 You bless the dying with your prayers, 
 The living with your deeds. 
 
 “You sow the wayside hope that lives 
 Where else were only death; 
 
 Your love is like the rain that gives 
 Heaven’s secret to the earth. 
 
 “The pitying thoughts that fill your eyes, 
 And rob your years of rest, 
 
 That lead you still where misery sighs 
 And life is ah unblest, 
 
 “Are as the tears that angels shed 
 O’er darkened lives forlorn— 
 
 Stars in the gloom till night has fled, 
 And dew on earth at morn.” 
 
 62 
 
In times when epidemics rage, when death 
 seems to haunt every city home, who are the 
 devoted ones to risk their lives in caring for 
 the sick and paying the last offices to the 
 dead? Surely as the vision of this rises in 
 your mind you see the presence and form 
 of those whose faith is in the Man of Galilee. 
 
 It has stood for peace. I need not content 
 myself by referring to that Christian denom¬ 
 ination, one of whose distinguishing tenets 
 is unqualified opposition to all wars. I can 
 with safety point to the great body of those 
 who in days gone by have been the cham¬ 
 pions of the cause of peace; to the memorials 
 which have been presented to the two Houses 
 of Congress in favor of arbitration; to those 
 who are at the head of the various peace 
 societies, and who are always found upon 
 the platforms at their gatherings, and whose 
 voices are most constant and potent in its 
 behalf. Indeed, strike from the history of 
 this country all that the Christian Church 
 has done in the interest and to further the 
 cause of peace and there is not as much life 
 left as was found in the barren fig tree. 
 
 It has stood for temperance. Not that it 
 has stood alone, but it has been a leader. 
 The foremost advocates of the cause have 
 been pronounced Christians. Frances Wil¬ 
 lard was president of the Woman’s Chris- 
 
 63 
 
tian Temperance Union, not of the Woman’s 
 Mohammedan Temperance Union, and the 
 White Ribboners are not disciples of Con¬ 
 fucius or Buddha. The churches have been 
 the places of the great gatherings of the 
 friends of temperance. Indeed, when you 
 
 survey the efforts made to further that cause 
 * 
 
 you will find that running through them all 
 Christianity has been distinctively present. 
 
 In short, it has sought to write into the 
 history of this nation the glowing words of 
 the apostle: 
 
 “Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentle¬ 
 ness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance; 
 against such there is no law.” 
 
 It has stood for all these things because 
 they represent its thought and purpose. So 
 he who studies the history of the country, 
 finding this to be the lesson of its influence 
 upon our history, can but be led to the con¬ 
 clusion not merely that it has been a potent 
 factor in the life of the nation, but also that 
 it has been a healthful and helpful factor. 
 When one who loves his country realizes 
 this fact, does there not open before him 
 a clear vision of his duty to further its influ¬ 
 ence. If in the past it has done so much 
 and so well for the country is there any 
 reason to doubt that strengthened and ex¬ 
 tended it will continue the same healthful 
 64 
 
and helpful influence? It has been often 
 said that Christian nations are the civilized 
 nations, and as often that the most thor¬ 
 oughly Christian are the most highly civil¬ 
 ized. Is this a mere coincidence? Study 
 well the history of Christianity in its rela¬ 
 tion to the nation and it will be found that 
 it is something more than a mere coinci¬ 
 dence, that there is between the two the 
 relation of cause and effect, and that the 
 more thoroughly the principles of Christian¬ 
 ity reach into and influence the life of the 
 nation the more certainly will that nation 
 advance in civilization. At least it is the 
 duty of every patriot, finding that it has been 
 such a factor in our life, to inquire whether 
 it does stand to its civilization in the rela¬ 
 tion of cause and effect, and it would be in 
 the highest degree unphilosophical to assume 
 that there has been only a coincidence, and 
 therefore that its presence in the nation is a 
 matter of indifference. 
 
 If found that it has been both a potent 
 and helpful factor in the development of our 
 a helpful factor in the development of our 
 civilization, then it is a patriot's duty to up¬ 
 hold it and extend its influence. This is in 
 line with the general obligation which rests 
 upon all to help everything which tends to 
 the bettering of the life of the republic. 
 
 65 
 
 5 
 
Who does not recognize that obligation in 
 other directions? 
 
 To-day a prevalent belief is that in order 
 to maintain our position in the world, a posi¬ 
 tion which has rapidly changed from one of 
 isolation to that of intimate relation with all 
 nations, we ought to pay larger attention to 
 our navy. If that belief is well founded, if 
 it be true that a larger and more efficient 
 navy is essential to the maintenance of our 
 position in the world, then who will question 
 the duty of every citizen? May we antag¬ 
 onize that which the nation’s interests de¬ 
 mand? Shall we through selfishness or in¬ 
 difference permit that which means the well¬ 
 being and glory of the nation to become 
 weak or to fail altogether? Who hesitates 
 about the answer to such a question? So 
 with our commerce. Is it not praiseworthy 
 effort on the part of each and all to enlarge 
 that commerce and thus to add to the pros¬ 
 perity which attends a successful world com¬ 
 merce ? 
 
 Or to come closer to those things which 
 touch the social and moral well-being of the 
 nation, who doubts a patriot’s duty to fur¬ 
 ther the cause of education ? Who questions 
 that the best interests of the republic are 
 prompted by extending education to all ? 
 And can any one, doing justice to himself, 
 66 
 
and without violating his duty to the repub¬ 
 lic, plead that he is wholly indifferent to the 
 matter? Take another illustration—civil 
 service reform. I shall not enter into any 
 argument in its favor. I assume that the 
 principle of it commends itself to the 
 thoughtful as something which, wisely ad¬ 
 ministered, will eliminate much of the pitiful 
 scramble for office and secure a better ad¬ 
 ministration of public affairs. Upon that 
 assumption who does not feel that he has a 
 duty in so far as in him lies to further the 
 movement in its favor? It may be that it 
 has not yet accomplished that which its 
 friends believe it possible of accomplishing; 
 that much is to be done before it is placed 
 upon a permanent and efficient basis. And 
 yet if it be something which in its develop¬ 
 ment will redound to the national well-being 
 is there not a duty resting upon all to 
 strengthen and perfect it? 
 
 Now these are mere illustrations of the 
 duty which, as patriotic citizens, we all feel 
 in reference to those measures which tend 
 to promote the well-being of the republic. 
 Upon what grounds may we recognize our 
 obligations in these directions and decline 
 to do anything to extend and make more 
 efficient the principles of Christianity? I 
 am not now presenting this as a question 
 
 67 
 
affecting the life hereafter. I am putting it 
 before you simply as a citizen’s duty; as a 
 matter affecting only the well-being and 
 glory of the republic. You may concede 
 that, as illustrated by the lives of its pro¬ 
 fessed followers, Christianity comes far short 
 of what you think it ought to be, and yet if 
 you believe that its spirit and principles are 
 freighted with blessing to the individual as 
 well as to the nation, is it not an obvious 
 duty to seek to purify it in the individual 
 and strengthen it in the nation ? The selfish 
 spirit is not a commendable element in the 
 life of a true citizen. It is as old as scrip¬ 
 ture that no man liveth unto himself alone, 
 and in the marvelously and increasingly in¬ 
 timate relations of individuals one to the 
 other and the growing power of the citizen 
 over the life of the nation, the unselfish pa¬ 
 triot must always consider not simply his 
 own interests, his own comfort and conven¬ 
 ience, but those things which make for the 
 well-being of all. 
 
 The significance of this duty has another 
 aspect. No man liveth unto himself alone, 
 may be broadened into, no nation liveth unto 
 itself alone. Neighbor is no longer confined 
 to the vocabulary of the individual. It is a 
 national word. Modern inventions have an¬ 
 nihilated distance. Commercial relations 
 68 
 
have broken down barriers of race and relig¬ 
 ion, and the family of nations is a recog¬ 
 nized fact. This republic has joined in the 
 movement of the age. She no longer lives 
 an isolated life separated by the oceans from 
 the great powers of the world. She sits in 
 the councils of the nations and we rejoice 
 to speak of her and hear her spoken of as a 
 world power. Indeed, some begin to think 
 ambitiously of this republic as a sort of in¬ 
 ternational policeman, with the right to ex¬ 
 ercise all the functions of a policeman in pre¬ 
 serving order and keeping peace. The Mon¬ 
 roe Doctrine is to be extended. No longer 
 simply a prohibition upon further European 
 colonies, but a declaration that if any Euro¬ 
 pean power claims anything from any nation 
 on this hemisphere it must appeal to the 
 United States and not attempt to assert by 
 force its claims. We propose to administer 
 the estate of San Domingo, even before its 
 death. We intend to preserve the integrity 
 of China. We intimated to Russia that the 
 Jews must no longer be persecuted. We are 
 disposed to say to Turkey that Armenian 
 life and property must be safe, and we hear, 
 as the Apostle of old, the cry, “Come over 
 into Macedonia and help us.” I do not stop 
 to discuss whether we are not overdoing in 
 this direction; whether it is wise wholly to 
 
 69 
 
forget Washington’s farewell advice to avoid 
 entangling alliances with other nations. 
 Neither shall I attempt to criticize the re¬ 
 cently announced maxim of national duty, 
 “speak softly, but carry a big stick.” But of 
 one thing I am sure. In no other way can 
 this republic become a world power in the 
 noblest sense of the word than by putting 
 into her life and the lives of her citizens the 
 spirit and principles of the great founder of 
 Christianity. We have faith in the future 
 of the United States. We believe she will 
 advance in many directions. She may in¬ 
 crease her territory, add to her population, 
 her commerce may grow larger, her accu¬ 
 mulations in wealth surpass the wildest 
 dreams of the Pilgrim Fathers, her inventive 
 skill subject all the forces of nature to do 
 her bidding and surround every home with 
 comforts and luxuries unknown even to the 
 present day. Besides her statues and paint¬ 
 ings the chiseled beauties of Phidias and the 
 pictured splendors of Raphael may seem the 
 works of tyros, her literature may dwarf all 
 the achievements of the writers and thinkers 
 of ages past and thus she may tower in 
 greatness in the sight of the world. But 
 grander far, and far more potential over the 
 nations will she be when the beatitudes be¬ 
 come the magna charta of her life and her 
 70 
 
citizens live in full obedience to the Golden 
 Rule. Then, and not until then, will all 
 nations and their peoples join rejoicingly 
 with our citizens in this triumphal song to 
 the great republic: 
 
 “Thou, too, sail on, oh Ship of State! 
 
 Sail on, oh, Union, strong and great! 
 Humanity with all its fears, 
 
 With all the hopes of future years, 
 
 Is hanging breathless on thy fate! 
 
 We know what Master laid thy keel, 
 
 What workmen wrought thy ribs of steel, 
 Who made each mast, and sail, and rope, 
 What anvils rang, what hammers beat, 
 
 In what a forge and what a heat 
 Were shaped the anchors of thy hope! 
 
 Fear not each sudden sound and shock, 
 
 ’Tis of the wave and not the rock; 
 
 ’Tis but the flapping of the sail, 
 
 And not a rent made by the gale! 
 
 In spite of rock and tempest’s roar, 
 
 In spite of false lights on the shore, 
 
 Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea! 
 
 Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee, 
 
 Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears, 
 Our faith triumphant o’er our fears, 
 
 Are all with thee,—are all with thee!” 
 
 % 
 
 71 
 
III. THE PROMISE AND 
 POSSIBILITIES OF THE FUTURE 
 

 
THE PROMISE AND POSSIBIL¬ 
 ITIES OF THE FUTURE 
 
 ND now, what of the future? If 
 Christianity has been so largely 
 identified with the life of this 
 nation and identified in a help¬ 
 ful and blessing way, what 
 promise and possibilities does 
 it bring of the future? Of course what¬ 
 ever tends to the better life of the individ¬ 
 ual, helps to promote the welfare of the 
 nation. Anything that conduces to per¬ 
 sonal purity, morality and integrity, in¬ 
 creases the same characteristics in the com¬ 
 munity. It needs no declaration of scrip¬ 
 ture to convince that “righteousness exalteth 
 a nation; but sin is a reproach to any peo¬ 
 ple.’’ In so far, therefore, as the principles 
 and precepts of Christianity develop right¬ 
 eousness in the individual, to the same ex¬ 
 tent will a similar result be found in the life 
 of the nation. This subject in its general 
 features opens the door to extended discus- 
 
 75 
 
sion and is susceptible of many illustrations. 
 The contrast between the standard of life in 
 a heathen and that in a Christian nation 
 shows the range of examination into which 
 we may enter. 
 
 Out of the wide field of illustration, let me 
 call your attention to one or two matters in 
 which the Christian character of this repub¬ 
 lic shines out with richest promise. One 
 arises from the fact that this nation is com¬ 
 posed of people of various races and not 
 wholly or even substantially of one. We 
 all have read the story of the dispersion at 
 Babel. That story may not be the narration 
 of an actual experience, yet it is a correct 
 foreshadowing of the world’s history. In 
 whatsoever way it commenced, through all 
 the ages the inhabitants of the globe have 
 been gathered in separate localities, each race 
 or tribe occupying its own locality. The 
 history of the world is one long story of 
 strife between nation and nation, tribe and 
 tribe, race and race. And everywhere to¬ 
 day, except here, we find within the territory 
 of a nation one race alone, or so nearly 
 alone, that it is supremely dominant. You 
 go to Germany and the Germans are there, 
 forming the substantial controlling part of 
 the population. There may be a few for¬ 
 eigners engaged in business or travel, some 
 76 
 
may even make it their home, but it is a 
 German nation pure and simple, and the 
 other races have no place in its life. In 
 France, Russia, Turkey, it is the same. But 
 in this republic it is different, and no race 
 monopolizes American life. The dispersion 
 at Babel has ended on the banks of the Mis¬ 
 sissippi. And the races that once separated 
 and have continued separate and antagonis¬ 
 tic for untold centuries are mingling here 
 in a common life. 
 
 While all doubtless have in a general way 
 some notion of the many foreigners in our 
 midst, few realize the extent to which this 
 nation is made up of different races. Let 
 me give a few figures taken from the census 
 of 1900. The total population was 76,000,- 
 000, of which 67,000,000 were white, and 
 9,000,000 colored. That is one race, 9,000,- 
 000, out of the 76,000,000. Of the white 
 population there were of native parentage 
 41,000,000, of foreign, 26,000,000. Of the 
 latter, 10,000,000 were also of foreign birth; 
 and when you speak of foreign parentage 
 you must remember that almost all of us, 
 going back two or three generations, will 
 find foreign ancestors. Of the 26,000,000 
 of foreign parentage there were (counting 
 by hundreds of thousands) from Austria, 
 400,000; Bohemia, 400,000; Canada, 2,100,- 
 
 77 
 
ooo; Denmark, 300,000; England, 2,100,- 
 000; France, 300,000; Italy, 700,000; Ger¬ 
 many, 7,800,000; Hungary, 200,000; Ire¬ 
 land, 5,000,000; Norway, 800,000; Poland, 
 700,000; Russia, 700,000; Scotland, 600,- 
 000; Sweden, 1,100,000; Switzerland, 300,- 
 000; Wales, 200,000; other nations, 1,100,- 
 000, and of mixed parentage, 1,300,000. 
 
 This multitude is here, not as travelers, 
 not with a view of temporary sojourn, but 
 to make this their home. They are invited 
 under our law to become and they do be¬ 
 come citizens, sharing with us the duties and 
 responsibilities of citizenship, so that we 
 have gathered as members of our nation 
 hundreds of thousands from almost every 
 race on the face of the globe. They come, 
 bringing with them that antagonism of race 
 which has continued for centuries. The old 
 quarrels are not forgotten. They bring with 
 them differences in habits and thoughts, in 
 political hopes and convictions, differences 
 of religious faith, and in many instances a 
 lack of any faith. They come and are 
 merged into the life of this nation, and are, 
 as you and I, to make its destiny. They 
 form part of the forces which are to shape 
 the future of this country. Some think, or 
 say they think, that there is no such thing 
 as an overruling Providence, that we are 
 
mere atoms of matter tossed to and fro on 
 the face of the earth, and that here is the 
 beginning and the end. They do not take 
 into thought the great life of the ages, or 
 measure its movements from its first feeble 
 steps; and yet they sometimes feel compelled 
 to admit that it seems as though there were 
 something more than mere blind chance. I 
 remember that Speaker Reed once said in a 
 public address (I am not quoting his exact 
 words) that while he himself was not much 
 of a believer in special providences, it did 
 seem as though these things—referring to 
 some of the great events of history—were 
 brought about by an intelligent and infinite 
 Being. You may fancy that the mingling of 
 all these races in this country is a mere acci¬ 
 dent ; that it simply happened so. And yet if 
 you will reflect a little you will be led to the 
 conclusion that, as Tennyson writes: 
 
 “Through the ages one increasing purpose 
 runs.” 
 
 Four centuries ago the nations in the then 
 known world were living their isolated and 
 separate lives. Racial antagonism was per¬ 
 sistent. There was little intercourse be¬ 
 tween them. Education was practically un¬ 
 known. There were a few learned men here 
 and there. The common people were crushed 
 
 79 
 
to earth. Religion, the religion of Christ, 
 was largely buried beneath a mass of super¬ 
 stitions. The Bible was a chained book. 
 The world was creeping on through the 
 darkness of the Middle Ages, and the morn¬ 
 ing seemed away off in the distance. Then 
 Gutenberg invented printing. Luther said 
 the Bible must be an open book. The masses 
 began to read and dream of liberty. Colum¬ 
 bus declared that there was a land away to 
 to the west, he journeyed in little caravels 
 across the ocean, and America was discov¬ 
 ered. To the temperate part of this western 
 continent came the Huguenot from France, 
 the Pilgrim from England, the persecuted 
 from different lands, and settled along the 
 Atlantic shore. Religion was a potent fac¬ 
 tor in the settlement of these colonies. Now 
 is it not strange that by mere chance, print¬ 
 ing, a free Bible, an unoccupied country, and 
 an absorbing desire for greater liberty should 
 come about the same time, and that as the 
 outcome of this coincidence there should set¬ 
 tle upon the virgin soil of this new conti¬ 
 nent colonies escaping from persecution and 
 bringing here education, liberty and relig¬ 
 ion ? And then is it not singular that to this 
 new continent there should come through 
 the years that followed, from every race on 
 the face of the globe, a multitude seeking a 
 80 
 
new home, settling beneath the Stars and 
 Stripes, feeling that in some way or other 
 this was the place where the great destinies 
 of the future were to be wrought out? Is 
 this all accidental ? Does it not suggest that 
 in the councils of eternity, long before man 
 began to be, it was planned that here in this 
 republic should be worked out the unity of 
 the race—a unity made possible by the influ¬ 
 ences of education and the power of Chris¬ 
 tianity? Certainly, to me it is a supreme 
 conviction, growing stronger and stronger 
 as the years go by, that this is one purpose 
 of Providence in the life of this republic, 
 and that to this end we are to take from 
 every race its strongest and best elements 
 and characteristics, and mold and fuse them 
 into one homeogeneous American life. 
 
 Some of you know something about com¬ 
 posite photography, and how face after face 
 is thrown upon the same plate until a picture 
 is produced which is a representation of 
 thirty or forty faces, one upon another. As 
 you look at this composite picture you see 
 that the marked and strong characteristics 
 of each face are visible, while the weak ones 
 are lost. America is the great national pho¬ 
 tographer. She takes from every race its 
 best elements and is to mold them into one 
 American character. 
 
 6 
 
 81 
 
What does all this mean? If there be a 
 purpose running through the life of the 
 world, is it not plain that one thought in the 
 divine plan was that in this republic should 
 be unfolded and developed in the presence of 
 the world the Christian doctrine of the 
 fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of 
 man? To the full realization of this some¬ 
 thing more is necessary than a mere unit¬ 
 ing in the active duties of our daily life; 
 something more than interracial marriages 
 bringing the races into one common stock; 
 something more than a mingling in toil, 
 whether on the farm, in the shop, the factory 
 or the office, the working together in the 
 same political parties, or the prosecution of 
 the same lines of study and identification in 
 all material interests. Beyond all this must 
 be developed the essentials of a pure family 
 life, a community of thought and purpose in 
 those higher things which make for the bet¬ 
 terment of all. It is not that here one race 
 shall be enabled to rise to the fullest develop¬ 
 ment of its capacity, while all other races 
 are ministering to that uplifting, but rather 
 that each and every one of every race should 
 be given the amplest opportunity for his own 
 elevation. No perfect family exists where 
 one is bound down with the lower duties in 
 order that another shall rise. It exists only 
 82 
 
when each is given the fullest possible scope 
 for his own uprising. There will always be 
 diversity of work, but the open door must 
 be before every one. 
 
 For the realization of this can anything be 
 more potent than the golden rule, the pres¬ 
 ence of the spirit of Christianity? Under 
 its power each will be faithful in the work 
 he does, while evermore to him is out¬ 
 stretched the helping hand of all. And so 
 it will be that all races mingling in the com¬ 
 mon American life will give to it of >their 
 best, and here, first of all, will be realized the 
 fulfillment of the final prayer of the Master 
 in the Upper Chamber, “That they all may 
 be one; as Thou, Father, art in me, and I in 
 Thee.” Surely this republic may glory in 
 the opportunity through its Christian life 
 and power of winning for herself the great 
 glory of such achievement. 
 
 Another door of promise is open in the 
 opportunity before her of realizing within 
 her borders the highest standard of life. One 
 of the pressing dangers facing all civilized 
 nations is the enervating influence of wealth 
 and great material development. That was 
 the one thing which sapped the life of the 
 great nations of antiquity and buried them 
 in the tombs of their own vices. In each 
 there was a wonderful accumulation of 
 
 83 
 
wealth, marvelous manifestations of mate¬ 
 rial splendor, but the moral character of 
 their citizens was undermined thereby and 
 they declined and fell. The hanging gar¬ 
 dens of Babylon, the pyramids of Egypt, the 
 sculptured beauty which lined the, streets of 
 Athens, and all that luxurious display which 
 attended the centering in Rome of the prod¬ 
 ucts of the civilizations of the earth in their 
 day provoked the admiration and were the 
 boast of their citizens. They passed through 
 the same round of experience. Wealth 
 brought luxury, luxury brought vice and vice 
 was followed by ruin and decay. And now 
 we dig through the accumulating dust of cen¬ 
 turies to find even the ruins of their vanished 
 splendor. 
 
 To-day we are in the presence of a like 
 marvelous material development. It is one 
 of the phenomena which attracts everybody’s 
 attention. You hear on all sides descriptions 
 of the wonderful things which the scientific 
 mind and the ingenious skill of the country 
 is accomplishing. The skyscrapers, the tun¬ 
 nels, the railroads, the mighty steamships, 
 the telegraph, the cable, the telephone, all 
 these things, with their accompanying con¬ 
 veniences and luxuries, are before us. I 
 am not here to say aught against the mag¬ 
 nificence of this material development, but, 
 84 
 
remember it is only a means to an end. We 
 do not live to make bricks and mortar, nor 
 to build skyscrapers. You go on the banks 
 of the Nile, and there, rivalling all that we 
 have builded, stand those gloomy, lofty pyra¬ 
 mids, as they have stood for century after 
 century, looking out over the silent sands, 
 speaking no word to humanity of cheer and 
 encouragement, telling no tale of something 
 done for the betterment of the race, and in 
 their cold, sad solitude witnesses only to 
 unrequited toil in behalf of men whose 
 names have almost vanished from history. 
 Macauley, in one of his beautiful essays, 
 suggests that possibly the time may come 
 when some South Sea Islander will stand on 
 the broken arches of London Bridge, look¬ 
 ing upon the deserted ruins of that city and 
 wondering at the civilization that in it once 
 prevailed. That which alone will save this 
 country from the destiny which has attended 
 those nations which have vanished into ob¬ 
 livion, that which will make our marvelous 
 material development something for the 
 glory of humanity and the upbuilding and 
 permanence of this republic, is the putting 
 into the life of the nation the conviction 
 that the purpose and end of all is the build¬ 
 ing up of a better manhood and womanhood. 
 
 How is this to be accomplished? Not 
 
 85 
 
certainly by giving up all our thought to 
 material development. “As a man thinketh, 
 so is he.” And if the nation puts all its 
 energies and thought into simply the work 
 of extending its commerce, improving its 
 highways, building up great cities and add¬ 
 ing to its manufactures, it may expect the 
 fate which attended those departed nations. 
 
 Neither is it accomplished by any incul¬ 
 cation of the merely utilitarian philosophy of 
 a selfish morality. Honesty undoubtedly is 
 the best policy. It is a maxim, good in itself, 
 but if the only thought is of the pecuniary 
 results of such a policy it will fail. He who 
 is honest in his dealings simply because of 
 the social prestige and position it secures will 
 never develop his higher nature, but will 
 always live along the lower lines. You must 
 fill the soul with the impulses of the higher 
 spirit of righteousness, the spirit that makes 
 justice and uprightness things to be sought 
 after because of their own blessed influences 
 upon the individual—that spirit which is 
 measured not by its capacity for coinage into 
 dollars, but by its power upon the life. The 
 better life rests less on the prohibitions of 
 the Ten Commandments and more on the 
 parable of the Good Samaritan and the 
 Golden Rule. The rich man who came to the 
 Master, declared in reference to the Com- 
 86 
 
mandments, ‘'All these have I kept from my 
 youth up,” but his weakness was pierced by 
 the searching reply, “One thing thou yet 
 lackest; go—sell whatsoever thou hast—and 
 follow me.” In other words, Christianity, 
 entering into the life of the individual, and 
 thus into the life of the nation, is the only 
 sure antidote for the poisonous touch of mere 
 material prosperity. Do you ever doubt the 
 outcome, or dread to think of the possible 
 future of the republic ? Remember that— 
 
 “Behind the dim unknown, 
 Standeth God within the shadow, keeping 
 watch above His own.” 
 
 Another illustration is in its influence for 
 peace in the world. Christianity is called the 
 gospel of peace. Among the names which 
 in prophecy were ascribed to its founder is 
 that of “Prince of Peace.” At the time of 
 his birth it is said that the doors of the 
 Temple of Janus in Rome were closed by 
 reason of the fact that peace for the time 
 being prevailed in all the nations. Among 
 the last words to his disciples in the upper 
 chamber were, “Peace I leave with you.” 
 The dream of the warring world has ever 
 been of the coming of a time when peace 
 
 87 
 
should prevail. War, however just, how¬ 
 ever righteous, is attended with unspeakable 
 horrors. All accept General Sherman’s char¬ 
 acterization that “war is hell.” It is to the 
 glory of this nation that it has already done 
 so much in the interests of peace and to 
 minimize the horrors of war. In Jay’s 
 Treaty with Great Britain, in 1794, there 
 were stipulations against the confiscation of 
 debts due from the individuals of the one 
 nation to individuals of the other, and for 
 the peaceful residence of citizens of either 
 nation in the territory of the other during 
 the continuance of the war. At the time 
 of the French Revolution our govern¬ 
 ment issued stringent orders in respect to 
 the preservation of neutrality—so stringent 
 as to call from Mr. Hall, the recent leading 
 English writer on international law, the 
 declaration that “the policy of the United 
 States in 1793 constitutes an epoch in the 
 development of the usages of neutrality.” 
 During the administration of Mr. Monroe 
 our government proposed to France, Eng¬ 
 land and Russia, that in times of war mer¬ 
 chant vessels and their cargoes belonging to 
 subjects of belligerent powers should be ex¬ 
 empt from capture. While we did not assent 
 in 1856 to the Declaration of Paris, by 
 which privateering was abolished, we of- 
 88 
 
fered to agree to it if the nations would con¬ 
 sent that private property on the seas should 
 be free from capture. Since then we have 
 agreed to the abolition of privateering. The 
 proclamations of our Presidents at the com¬ 
 mencements of recent wars and the decisions 
 of our Supreme Court have been along the 
 line of ameliorating the hardships of war. 
 We stood with Great Britain at Ihe Hague 
 Conference as the most earnest advocates of 
 the establishment of an international arbitra¬ 
 tion tribunal, and in the Orient, China and 
 Japan each recognize this government as of 
 all, the most free from selfish motives in its 
 treatment of them and action for them. 1 he 
 integrity of China depends on this republic, 
 and the territorial limits of the present war 
 have been narrowed at our instance. Our 
 international relations have been lifted from 
 the lower to a higher plane. Diplomatic 
 language is no longer a means of concealing, 
 but of expressing thought and purpose. 
 Neither Machiavelli nor Tallyrand is the 
 type of American diplomacy. 
 
 Does the day of peace seem a long way 
 off? Think of the ages upon ages during 
 which, even within the limits of a nation with 
 its compact and unifying forces, has been 
 evolving the supremacy of right over might 
 and the settlement of disputes by judicial 
 
 89 
 
action rather than physical force. We have 
 no reason to expect a speedy coming of the 
 day when the judicial function will settle all 
 disputes between nations. A nation may be 
 born in a day, but the great truths which 
 make for the glory and uplift of the race 
 only through long ages permeate and con¬ 
 trol humanity. We must have the divine 
 patience and understand the divine mathe¬ 
 matics of a thousand years as one day. 
 There will yet be wars and rumors of wars. 
 Our own loved land will not be exempt. The 
 cry for a larger navy will long be a party 
 slogan. The air will be resonant with the 
 blare of bugles. The tramp, tramp, of armed 
 battalions will be along our streets. Statues 
 of our great commanders will be seen in all 
 our parks and buildings, and present history 
 will be filled with the story of military and 
 naval achievements. But the leaven of the 
 immortal truth that right rather than might 
 attests the ideal life is already working in 
 the mass of humanity, and slowly it will 
 leaven the whole lump. I am not here to 
 make light of the patriotic devotion of our 
 military and naval heroes. I would not take 
 one jot or title from all the glory which at¬ 
 tends our army and navy and crowns with 
 laurel its heroes. But at the same time I 
 want to affirm my faith that the laurels of 
 90 
 
peace are more enduring than those of war. 
 Time, which is the Almighty’s great right 
 hand of recompense, will brighten the one 
 while it dims the other. John Marshall will 
 be remembered when Winfield Scott is for¬ 
 gotten. In the far off future the names of 
 our greatest commanders will fill a lessening 
 space in the horizon of history, while with 
 ever brightening splendor will shine the 
 name of America’s peace-loving and golden- 
 rule diplomat, Secretary John Hay. The 
 measure of fame will be meted out by Him 
 who has declared that He will lay judgment 
 to the line and righteousness to the plummet. 
 Is not it a great thing to be a leader among 
 the nations in the effort to bring on that 
 day when the sword shall be beaten into the 
 ploughshare and the spear into the pruning 
 hook, and when war shall cease? And the 
 more thoroughly this republic is filled with 
 the spirit of the gospel, the more universal 
 the rule of Christianity in the hearts of our 
 people, the more certainly will she ever be 
 the welcome leader in movements for peace 
 among the nations. 
 
 Nineteen centuries ago there broke upon 
 the startled ears of Judea’s shepherds watch¬ 
 ing their flocks beside the village of Bethle¬ 
 hem, the only angel’s song ever heard by the 
 children of earth: 
 
 9i 
 
“It came upon the midnight clear, 
 
 That glorious song of old, 
 
 From angels bending near the earth 
 To touch their harps of gold: 
 
 ‘Peace on the earth, good-will to men 
 From Heaven’s all gracious king.’ ” 
 
 The air above Judea’s plains no longer 
 pulsates with the waves of this celestial song. 
 For sad and weary centuries the march of 
 humanity upwards has been through strife 
 and blood. But a growing echo of the heav¬ 
 enly music is filling the hearts of men and 
 the time will come, the blessed time will 
 come— 
 
 “When the whole world gives back the song 
 Which now the angels sing.” 
 
 One thing more. Whatever difference of 
 opinion there may be as to the divinity of 
 the Man of Galilee, His position as a man 
 is confessedly supreme. Renan, the brilliant 
 French writer, closed his life of Christ with 
 these words: 
 
 “Whatever the unexpected phenomena of 
 the future, Jesus will never be surpassed. 
 His worship will constantly renew its youth, 
 the legend of His life will bring ceaseless 
 tears, his - sufferings will soften the best 
 92 
 
hearts; all the ages will proclaim that, 
 amongst the sons of men, none has been 
 born who is greater than Jesus.” 
 
 By common consent he stands the most 
 potent individual force for the highest 
 things of life. How strange it is that a 
 Galilean youth, away from the centers of 
 civilization, untaught in the schools, living 
 a humble life among country people, famil¬ 
 iar with poverty and having no place 
 whereon to lay His head, dying at the age of 
 thirty-three, after only three years of public 
 presentation of Himself, at the time making 
 so little impression on the life of the world 
 that only a single word or two respecting 
 Him is found in the records of Rome, the 
 great center of civilization—should now, 
 after the lapse of nineteen centuries, be re¬ 
 vered as Divine by millions upon millions, be 
 universally acknowledged as the most up¬ 
 lifting power known to humanity and whose 
 power is ever widening until it touches all 
 quarters of the globe. Faith in Him goes 
 hand in hand with the highest civilization, 
 and all realize that the more His spirit enters 
 into one’s life the better that life becomes. 
 In the light of this admitted fact, can any 
 one look thoughtfully upon the future of 
 this nation without believing that if His 
 spirit shall become more and more potent 
 
 93 
 
not merely the individual citizens, but the 
 nation as a whole will rise in all the ele¬ 
 ments of moral grandeur and power. 
 
 With patriotic and prophetic vision we 
 see our beloved country advancing, not alone 
 along the lines of material prosperity and 
 accumulating wealth, but also along the bet¬ 
 ter lines of increasing intelligence and a 
 loftier sense of duty. We see her quickened 
 by the ennobling power of the golden rule, 
 and the spirit of the Good Samaritan, bid¬ 
 ding all her citizens to seek first the king¬ 
 dom of God and its righteousness; intro¬ 
 ducing into the vocabulary of international 
 law the blessed word neighbor, and leading 
 humanity along the kindly ways of peace 
 and mutual helpfulness until “out of every 
 kindred, and tongue, and people, and na¬ 
 tion” shall rise a glad psalm of thanksgiving 
 and joy that in the good providence of the 
 Almighty there has been planted upon these 
 western shores the living and growing tree 
 of liberty, education and Christian princi¬ 
 ples. 
 
 Young gentlemen, to you, as to compara¬ 
 tively few in the long lapse of centuries, 
 comes the magnificent opportunity. Before 
 you is the open door to great achievement 
 and great usefulness. With rich endow¬ 
 ment of youth, health, friends and educa- 
 
 94 
 
tion you stand in the morning hours of that 
 which is to be a century of unsurpassed sig¬ 
 nificance. We look back on the last fifty 
 years as years of wonderful scientific devel¬ 
 opment and marvelous inventions, yet Lord 
 Kelvin, perhaps the greatest scientist of to¬ 
 day, said in substance, not long since, that, 
 wonderful as have been the accomplishments 
 in these respects during those years, we are 
 trembling on the verge of inventions and 
 discoveries as far surpassing them as they 
 do any that have gone before. That declara¬ 
 tion coming from such a mind was and is 
 prophetic. Since then wireless telegraphy 
 has come, and who shall guess the next mar¬ 
 vel ? 
 
 The spirit of liberty is shaking thrones 
 and dynasties the world over, and making 
 government of the people, by the people, and 
 for the people, a nearer fact. Even that great 
 embodiment of despotism among civilized 
 nations, Russia, is now rocking from one 
 end to the other through its dynamic explo¬ 
 sions. Education is sweeping through the 
 world and the common school is lifting the 
 masses up to a higher level and a stronger 
 citizenship. Engineering skill seems to 
 know no limits. Time and space are abol¬ 
 ished. Steam is slow and giving place, to 
 electricity. Gigantic combinations of capital 
 
 95 
 
grapple without hesitation gigantic schemes 
 of improvement. Overflowing streams of 
 commerce circle the world. The human 
 brain is under constant strain. Life has 
 become strenuous. Every one is throwing 
 into the great cauldron of public opinion 
 some scheme or plan or idea, practical or 
 visionary, sensible or foolish, until it seems 
 as though beside that cauldron were ever 
 present the witches of Macbeth chanting— 
 
 “Double, double, toil and trouble; 
 
 Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.” 
 
 Out of this tremendous activity, these gi¬ 
 gantic combinations, will come achievements 
 marvelous beyond even the flights of fancy. 
 Into this century with all its possibilities you 
 enter as young men. You have the grasp 
 of a lifetime upon them. Your presence in 
 this institution is to fit yourselves to take 
 pait in those achievements. I know not 
 what may be your respective places in life. 
 The avenues of labor and usefulness are 
 many and pointing in diverse directions. 
 Business, science, art, medicine, law, theol- 
 ogy, all are before you. In no country on the 
 face of the globe is there an equal oppor¬ 
 tunity for the individual brain and the per¬ 
 sonal force. There is that freedom which 
 96 
 
gives ample scope for individual activities. 
 All that you do and achieve will enter into 
 and become part of the national glory or the 
 national shame. You can make your names 
 honored ones in the history of the republic, 
 or by-words and a reproach. You may re¬ 
 peat the story of Alexander Hamilton or 
 that of Aaron Burr. 
 
 I cannot doubt your choice and purpose. 
 No man covets infamy and the young, thank 
 God, have lofty ideals. 
 
 “Fear not to build thine eyrie in the heights 
 Where golden splendors play; 
 
 And trust thyself unto thine inmost soul, 
 
 In simple faith alway; 
 
 For God will make divinely real 
 The highest forms of thine ideal.” 
 
 How can those ideals be best incorporated 
 into your lives and thus into the life of the 
 nation? You know what a Christian home 
 is, even if not brought up in one. Whether 
 a humble one with scanty furnishings, or a 
 more pretentious one with costlier adorn¬ 
 ments, in each you found truthfulness, 
 purity; the spirit of peace was upon it; in¬ 
 dustry dwelt there, self-respect in the indi¬ 
 vidual and mutual respect in all. Will you 
 add one more to the many of those homes 
 
 97 
 
 7 
 
in the land? You can bring to it strength 
 and ability to work. You can bring culti¬ 
 vated intelligence and the delights of litera¬ 
 ture and science. You may introduce into 
 it the sweet and refining touch of music and 
 the other arts. You may place on the other 
 side of the table the angel of the household, 
 whose gentleness and grace add so much to 
 the sweetness of home life. Crown all these 
 with the inspirations which come from 
 Christianity, place the Bible on your table 
 and enshrine the Master in your heart and 
 you may be sure you are building up a home 
 which will be not merely peace and blessing 
 to you, but also for the strength and glory 
 of the republic. And when the evening of life 
 comes nigh and you see such homes multiply 
 in the land, this nation become more thor¬ 
 oughly filled with the spirit and principles 
 of Christianity, more justly and universally 
 entitled to the appellation of a Christian 
 nation, you will sing with Julia Ward 
 Howe: 
 
 “Mine eyes have seen the glory of the com¬ 
 ing of the Lord.” 
 
 98 
 
SOCIAL LAW IN THE 
 
 SPIRITUAL WORLD 
 
 Studies in Human and Divine Inter-Relationship 
 
 BY 
 
 Rufus M. Jones, A.M., Litt. D. 
 
 Professor of Philosophy in Haverford College , Pa. 
 
 This is a fresh interpretation of the deep¬ 
 est problems of life. It discusses the most 
 interesting phases of recent psychological in¬ 
 vestigation into spiritual subjects. 
 
 “ Professor Jones offers here a series of studies 
 on the nature and meaning of Personality. 
 
 He is at home in modern psychology and tells 
 it effectively for his purpose in freedom from 
 technicalities .”—The Outlook. 
 
 “The author has written the twelve chapters 
 of this book dealing with such subjects as The 
 Meaning of Personality, The Realization of 
 Persons, The Sub-Conscious Life, The Inner 
 Light, etc., etc., with an aim to show through 
 Psychology, as Drummond showed through 
 Biology, that life can be unified from top to 
 bottom .”—Christian Work and the Evan¬ 
 gelist. 
 
 “The author bears a unique equipment for 
 the task, having stndied Philosophy at Harvard 
 under Royce and Palmer, and acquired the art 
 of presenting it to untrained thinkers in his 
 capacity of Professor of Philosophy at Haver¬ 
 ford College. ”—British Friend. 
 
 12mo. 272 pages. Extra Vellum Cloth , 
 Gilt Top , Uncut Edges. Price $ 1.25 
 Net (Postage 10 Cents). 
 
 THE JOHN C. WINSTON COMPANY 
 
 PHILADELPHIA, PA. 
 
Practical Christianity 
 
 By Rufus M. Jones, A.M., Litt.D. 
 
 Professor of Philosophy at 
 Haverford College 
 
 This is a collection of short, prac¬ 
 tical articles on important religious sub¬ 
 jects. It deals with questions which every 
 thinking man must meet in a practical 
 way, and it contains a positive message 
 for the times. 
 
 In the fifty-three essays many of the 
 most important phases of the spiritual life 
 receive consideration, and the notes of 
 hope and victory, and faith in the over¬ 
 coming life, are everywhere manifest. 
 
 It is a book which should appeal to all 
 classes of Christians. The book also 
 contains a suggestive chapter on “The 
 Message of Quakerism.” 
 
 12mo. 208 Pages. Oxford 
 
 laid paper. Bound in 
 silk cloth , gilt top. 
 
 Price $1.00 
 postpaid. 
 
 The John C. Winston Co., 
 
 PHILADELPHIA, PA. 
 
The Roots of Christian 
 Teaching as Found 
 in the Old Testament 
 
 By George Aaron Barton, A. M., Ph. D., 
 
 Associate Professor of Biblical Literature and Semitic 
 Languages in Bryn Mawr College. 
 
 Author of “ A Sketch of Semitic Origins,” Etc., Etc. 
 
 This volume has been written from the 
 standpoint of modern knowledge and modern 
 methods, for those who would study the Old 
 Testament devotionally. It gives brief sketches 
 of Old Testament ideas and institutions mingled 
 with character-studies of a number of Old Tes¬ 
 tament heroes, with brief meditations upon the 
 great themes of Christian truth, Christian 
 character and Christian duty as foreshadowed 
 in the Old Testament Revelation. It is written 
 in a pleasing, popular style for the lay reader. 
 
 ‘ ‘ Taken in connection with Professor Bar¬ 
 ton’s noteworthy, critical work on “ Semitic 
 Origins,” this series of brief meditations for 
 busy men and women testifies especially to 
 those who shrink from modern views of the 
 Old Testament, and that critical studies yield 
 devotional fruit. ****** Devotional 
 books of this sort are rare, and one which can 
 be read with satisfaction, undisturbed by con¬ 
 tradictions of modern learning, is especially 
 welcome .”—The Outlook , New York . 
 
 12mo. 275 pp. Size, l l A x 5%. 
 
 Cloth, gilt top, uncut edges. 
 
 Price, postpaid, $1.25. 
 
 THE JOHN C. WINSTON CO. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA, PA. 
 
A History 
 
 OF 
 
 The Society of Friends 
 in America 
 
 BY 
 
 ALLEN C. THOMAS, A.M. 
 
 HAVERFORD COLLEGE 
 AND 
 
 RICHARD H. THOMAS, M.D. 
 
 BALTIMORE, MD. 
 
 NEW AND REVISED EDITION, 1905 
 
 Brought down to date and including valu¬ 
 able statistics and information irj regard to 
 the Society of Friends in America. 
 
 “ A work on ‘ The History of the Society 
 of Friends in America,* which is likely for 
 many days to be a standard text-book on the 
 subject.” — The London Friend. 
 
 “We have read it with interest. It gives 
 evidence of much research and of a disposi¬ 
 tion to observe the impartiality of faithful 
 historians .”—The Friend , Philadelphia. 
 
 12mo. Cloth. Price, $1.00 Net 
 
 (Postage, 10 Cents) 
 
 THE JOHN C. WINSTON CO. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA, PA. 
 
The Life and Letters 
 
 OF 
 
 ‘Richard H. Thomas, M.D. 
 
 BY HIS WIFE 
 
 ANNA BRETHWAITE THOMAS 
 
 With a Preface by 
 J. RENDEL HARRIS, Litt.D. 
 
 Illustrated with Portraits and Scenes 
 Connected with His Life. 
 
 This is the life story of a high-souled and 
 valiant man; a spiritual teacher in the Society ot 
 Friends, well-known and beloved in America and 
 England. 
 
 “ All who read the book will be impressed 
 with the splendid heroism of the man whose 
 health broke down at 26, just as he was open¬ 
 ing a great career of usefulness, and who kept 
 his face straight to the sunlight and went on 
 doing what he could. Losses and misunder¬ 
 standings came, too, but he was not defeated; 
 rather, he turned these things into spiritual 
 fibre, and came through them with a new 
 sweetness and tenderness. It was a beautiful 
 life, and one can only wish that the story of it 
 now told may help many readers to find the 
 real quality and power of it.” 
 
 The American Friend. 
 
 12mo. 438 pp. Bound in Cloth. 
 Deckel Edge, Gilt Top, Lettering 
 on Side and Back. $2.00 Prepaid. 
 
 THE JOHN C. WINSTON COMPANY 
 
 PHILADELPHIA, PA. 
 
New and Suggestive Editions in the “International” Bible Series 
 
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 With Introduction and Helpful Suggestions for the 
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— ■ ~ 
 
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