Magyar Egyház, 1974 (53. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)

1974-02-01 / 2. szám

8

MAGYAR EGYHÁZ

OUR FAITH —

FREEDOM’S FOUNDATION

The founders and developers of our great nation were Bible-reading, churchgoing, God-honoring men and women. The very foundation upon which this great, free, constitutional republic was founded was the underlying faith in the overruling Providence of God. Their faith, yes, our faith, is freedom’s foundation.

Religion permeated nearly every facet of the lives of the people during the early years of this nation’s formation. Religion was part of home life. The Bible was the most important book, and in some cases, the only book to be found in nearly every home. Bible reading and prayer were taught in our schools. The early colleges were church schools, and many of the college presidents were members of the clergy. John Witherspoon, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, was president of Princeton College. The legislative bodies of most of the colonies opened their sessions with prayer, and in some instances, with a sermon. A number of clergymen served on the early Congresses. Many sermons of the early Colonial days were published, and for many people it was their only way of knowing what was taking place in this nation’s struggle with its British rulers. Most of the clergy were outspoken in their feelings toward the oppressions of the time that eventually led to the people declaring their independence.

On January 17, 1776, the Reverend Samuel Sherwood of the Norfield Episcopal Church in North Fairfield, Connecticut, said these thought-provoking words in his sermon entitled, “The Church’s Flight into the Wilderness,” in which he used as his text: Revelation 12:14-17: “This American quarter of the globe seemed to be reserved in Providence, as a fixed and settled habitation for God’s church, where she might have property of her own, and the right of rule and government, so as not to be controlled and oppressed in her civil and religious liberties by the tyrannical and persecuting powers of the earth, represented by the great ‘Red Dragon.’ The Church never before this had prime occupancy, or first possession of any part of this terraqueous globe, in any great extent of territory. In all countries and kingdoms wherever Christianity had been planted, before its introduction into this American wilderness, the ruling powers in possession of the property, and right of jurisdiction and dominion, were in opposition to this benevolent institution, and the church had to

make her way through the greatest possible difficulties and dangers. While thus in an enemy’s land, her persecutions and oppressions, her bloody trials and sufferings, furnish out the chief subject of her history from her beginning to the present day, from which site is not wholly exempted from this. However, her degree of peace and quiet rest has been greater than she has ever known since she has had existence and being. When that God, to whom the earth belongs, and the fullness thereof, brought His church into this wilderness, as on eagles’ wings, by His kind protecting Providence, He gave this good land to her, to be her own lot and inheritance forever.”

The signers of the Declaration of Independence and members of the Continental Congress, some of whom were signers of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, were very familiar with the church practice of carefully preparing papers to sustain the convictions that were moving in men’s minds. A sense of religious duty was producing—and with great care—papers for all men to read, and which could gather together the testimony to which their minds consented. From the howling wilderness of Plymouth and Jamestown had grown thirteen wonderful colonies, and by 1776 it had truly become a delightful land with opulent towns, several colleges, pleasant homes, vast resources, and, most notably, room to grow and prosper. Here people could truly plan their civic and commercial life, close to the principles of revealed religion.

I firmly believe that the Providence of Almighty God brought together the fifty-six men who signed the Declaration of Independence. By their own statements and writings, they revealed that they felt the hand of God in their deliberations, and asked for His guidance in doing what was right in His sight, as they declared independence from England, and then helped govern their several colonies. Many of the same men later returned to Philadelphia to hammer out the Constitution of the United States, the greatest document yet devised by the mind of man for the setting up of government.

There is every proof for us to see that America's greatness was built on faith. “In God We Trust,” is our motto. To the wonderful influence of Christianity we owe that degree of civil freedom, and much of our political and social happiness, that we now enjoy in this great land of ours. But what we can also be certain of, if we have learned anything from history, is that in proportion as the genuine effects of Christianity are diminished in any nation, either through unbelief, or corruption of its doctrines, or neglect of its institutions, in the same proportion will the peo-