Book Description

Excerpt from Church and State in the United States: Or the American Idea of Religious Liberty and Its Practical Effects, With Official Documents This little work is a contribution to American Church History, and to the Centennial Celebration of our National Constitution. It discusses that part of the Constitution which protects us against the despotism of a state church, and guarantees to us the free exercise and enjoyment of religion, as an inherent, inviolable, and inalienable right of every man. The First Amendment is the Magna Charta of that freedom, and well worthy to be set forth in its true light with its antecedents, surroundings, and effects at home and abroad. This I have endeavored to do, for the first time, from the stand-point of a church historian and theologian. American Church History has yet to be written. We are so busy making history that we have little time to study and to write history. But monographs on sectional and local topics are multiplying fast, and already present a formidable mass of material for a comprehensive view of the whole field. There is scarcely a more inviting task for a rising American historian than to exhibit from the broad platform of truth and justice, in life-like reproduction, the genesis and growth of American Christianity in its connections with the mother Christianity of Europe, its distinctive peculiarities, and its great mission for the future. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.