In that grand old document which our forefathers set forth as their bill of rights--the Declaration of Independence--they declared : " We hold these truths to be self-evident , that all men are created equal ; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights ; that among these are life , liberty , and the pursuit of happiness ." And the Constitution guarantees , in the most explicit terms , the inviolability of conscience : " No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office of public trust under the United States ." " Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion , or prohibiting the free exercise thereof ."
" The framers of the Constitution recognized the eternal principle that man ' s relation with his God is above human legislation , and his rights of conscience inalienable . Reasoning was not necessary to establish this truth ; we are conscious of it in our own bosoms . It is this consciousness which , in defiance of human laws , has sustained so many martyrs in tortures and flames . They felt that their duty to God was superior to human enactments , and that man could exercise no authority over their consciences . It is an inborn principle which nothing can eradicate ." -Congressional documents ( U . S . A .), serial No . 200 , document No . 271 .
As the tidings spread through the countries of Europe , of a land where every man might enjoy the fruit of his own labour and obey the convictions of his own conscience , thousands flocked to the shores of the New World . Colonies rapidly multiplied . " Massachusetts , by special law , offered free welcome and aid , at the public cost , to Christians of any nationality who might fly beyond the Atlantic ' to escape from wars or famine , or the oppression of their persecutors .' Thus the fugitive and the downtrodden were , by statute , made the guests of the commonwealth ." --Martyn , vol . 5 , p . 417 . In twenty years from the first landing at Plymouth , as many thousand Pilgrims were settled in New England .
To secure the object which they sought , " they were content to earn a bare subsistence by a life of frugality and toil . They asked nothing from the soil but the reasonable returns of their own labour . No golden vision threw a deceitful halo around their path . . . . They were content with the slow but steady progress of their social polity . They patiently endured the privations of the wilderness , watering the tree of liberty with their tears , and with the sweat of their brow , till it took deep root in the land ." The Bible was held as the foundation of faith , the source of wisdom , and the charter of liberty . Its principles were diligently taught in the home , in the school , and in the church , and its fruits were manifest in thrift , intelligence , purity , and temperance . One might be for years a dweller in the Puritan settlement , " and not see a drunkard , or hear an oath , or meet a beggar ." --Bancroft , pt . 1 , ch . 19 , par . 25 .
It was demonstrated that the principles of the Bible are the surest safeguards of national greatness . The feeble and isolated colonies grew to a confederation of powerful states , and the world marked with wonder the peace and prosperity of " a church without a pope , and a state without a
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