The Alleged Weakness of the Constitution of the United States of America

It has been said that the greatest weakness of the Constitution is that it does not acknowledge God and that this will be the nation's undoing until by divine judgements the people act to correct said wrong.

A few quotes from history:

October 27, 1789, “The First Presbytery Eastward in Massachusetts and New Hamphire,” sent to President Washington an address in which they complained because there was no “explicit acknowledgement of the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he has sent, inserted somewhere in the Magna Charta of our country.”

September 20, 1793, in a sermon preached in New York City on a fast day on account of the yellow fever in Philadelphia, and entitled “Divine Judgements,” Dr. John M. Mason magnified the “irreligious” feature of the Constitution as one of the chief causes of the calamities of which he was speaking.  He solemly observed that had “such momentous business” as forming a Constitution, been transacted by Mohammedans, or even the savages, they would have done it “in the name of God” or “paid some homage to the Great Spirit.”

1803, Samuel B. Wylie, D. D., of the University of Pennsylvania, preached a sermon in which he inquired: “Did not the framers of the instrument...in this resemble the fool mentioned in Ps. Xiv, 1,3, who said in his heart, 'There is no God'?”

1811, Samuel Austin, D. D., a New England Congregationalist, afterward president of the University of Vermont, preached a sermon in Worcester, Mass., in which he declared that this “capital defect” in the national Constitution “will issue inevitably in the destruction” of the nation.

1812, President Dwight of Yale College preached a sermon in the college chapel, in which he lamented the failure of the Constitution to recognize a God, declaring that “we commenced our national existence, under the present system, without God.”

1819, on a thanksgiving day appointed by the governor of Pennsylvania, Dr. Duffield preached a sermon at Carlisle, in which he declared the Constitution “entirely atheistical.”

1859 Prof. J. H. McIlvaine, D. D., of the College of New Jersey, known also as Princeton College, published an article in the Princeton Review for October, in which he really lamented that “the practical deffect” of the Constitution as it is, with respect to religion, “is the neutrality of the government with respect to all religion;” and seemed much to be grieved “that no possible governmental influence can be constitutionally exerted for or against any form of religious belief.”

To this alleged weakness I wish to add a simple request upon all intellects, namely look at the magnificent works of creation and find within the tree, the antelope, the blade of grass, the hydrogen atom, the lofty peaks, the lush jungles, the humming bird and all other magnificent works of creation and show where the name of God is written in words, show where there is a written acknowledgement of the Creator in the very framework of the object being scrutinized.  Can it be found?  No.

The highest form of praise and glory given to the Creator by these created objects is not in their own ability to express praise nor in a written expression which is fraught with all of its own weakness in endurance and universality, but rather in the simple function of these objects in harmony with divine law.  There is no greater praise than obedience to God's precepts and being without freedom of choice, these created objects perpetually yield their praise and testimony to their Creator.  Their very frame testifies and glorifies the Creator who made them because they can be seen to be wonderful and in harmony with divine intent and law even amidst the blight of the curse.

So it is with the Constitution of the United States of America.  The very document praises God by its own framework.  His divine hand can be seen in its wisdom and harmony with the divine government, namely freedom of conscience, which is to say, freedom of choice, and a separation of State law and Church dogma.  So long as the Constitution remains in harmony in this way with divine law, it will stand until the end of this world.

The addition of a written acknowledgement or praise of the Creator would be a weak and impotent influence upon the minds of men, but would instead provide those who love to usurp power and abuse it for their own means with an opportunity to impose upon all men their religious opinions and influences under the dictates of the State and its policies.  This must never happen for when it does, then the judgements of God shall fall upon the nation who would dare to remove God's governing principles from the highest law of the land and replace them with despotic doctrines of demons and opinions of men.