The Greatest Strength Of The Constitution Is In The Hearts Of The People The Greatest Weakness Of The Constitution Is In The Hearts Of The People.
It takes much more than a constitution written on paper to make a great nation. Empires that have lived a lot longer than America have had constitutions far less wise, far less eloquent, and far less virtuous. To put it very simply there are two types of government, one stands on the foundation of the other; one is visible the other is invisible, one is spiritual the other is physical, one you cannot see with your eyes, the other you can read with your eyes; the former cannot survive without the latter. The greatest constitutions are not external but internal; they are not written on paper but on the tablets of men’s hearts. Internal government, or self-government is the most important and determines the outcome of external government
Self-government or Internal government spring from the heart, it is born of the conscience. Our character, our reasoning, our sense of duty all flow from our conscience: from what is within us, from our souls. Self-government, Internal government determines how we treat our fellow-man, determines our sense of community, our speech, our aspirations, our hopes for the future. All this is pre-determined before a line like “We the people…” is penned to paper. The finest constitution is only words on paper and is as useless as a mirror to a blind man, unless he has the will to obey it. The visible always stands on the foundation of the invisible.
No government can last very long unless its rulers and citizenry first learn to morally govern themselves. That is what the Apostle Peter meant when he said; “Judgment begins in the house of God,” (I Peter 4:17).
History bears out the comfortable truth that the more moral a nation is the less rules it needs to govern itself; and the uncomfortable truth that the more immoral a nation becomes the more rules it needs to govern itself. Immorality compounds into more government control which egotist politicians, who never like to ‘never waste a crisis,’ use to make more rules and thus making government more and more autocratic.
America’s fourth President, James Madison stated the concept well when he declared:
“We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government; upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.”
When a nation loses its founding principles it is not too long afterwards that it loses its way morally. It becomes lost out on a choppy, merciless sea from which she cannot find her way back home again. The grave yard of former nations is filled with the same old wreckage of nations that lost their moral compass.
Samuel Adams, also known as the “Father of the American Revolution” will shout a loud “Amen!” here. Virtue and morality are more necessary to a nation than any constitution written on paper. He writes that when a people “are virtuous they cannot be subdued; but when they lose their virtue they will be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or internal invader…If virtue and knowledge are diffused among the people, they will never be enslaved. This will be their great security.”
The American constitution is the oldest and most envious constitution of any nation to date. Its precepts have served its citizenry well making it the most free & prosperous nation on earth. But that is no guarantee of its permanence; other nations have lasted longer with lesser constitutions.
It ire’s me to no end to hear Machiavellian progressive, social political professors bragging how we have at last learned the art of governing ourselves. It’s all a matter of science they say. Yet this very day I read of fifteen murders in one week in Chicago alone. I reminded myself that every day of the same week 4000 babies had their lives snuffed out. It is these witless-wonders, naïve to the bone that destroy every nation, not some written constitution.
Again, that is what the Bible means when it says, “For the time has come for judgment, and it must begin with God’s household. And if judgment begins with us, what terrible fate awaits those who have never obeyed God’s Good News?” (I Peter 4:17). A spiritual fall usually precedes a physical fall.
What commandments of God’s Law does our society not smirk at everyday?
-Taking his name in vain is part of TV comedy today.
-The Lord’s Day has become Fun-Day
-To Honor your father and mother has been made irrelevant by homosexuality.
-Do not murder means little in a nation that has one of the highest abortion rates in the world.
-Don’t commit sexual immorality is the main theme of many movies and Sitcoms.
-You shall not steal? Gambling has become the biggest sucker game imaginable, where there is a million suckers for every winner.
-Don’t bear false witness. Washington scandals are like a national plague. Its credibility is such that you cannot believe them even when you think they may be telling the truth. -Don’t covet? This is the mother of all sins is America. Greed is king, whereby we judge ourselves by how much we have and no matter how much we have we want a little bit more. Many who deny it can’t even get their car in the garage which is packed with Stuff they all but forgotten about.
Well might we be reminded of the words of Jesus in Luke 12:15, “Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”
The pillars of our constitution are shaking violently because Biblical morality has been forsaken and is slowly being forgotten. Jesus said in his famous Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6: 23, “If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” All the worldly wisdoms of the past like humanism, communism, reasonism, enlightmentism, secularism have failed us. These so-called beacons of hope have drawn whole nations further and further out into the darkness, where lost of a choppy & merciless sea multitudes perished. People have pointed their fingers of accusation at their leaders for leading them astray, and they always play a major role, but not the decisive one. In the end it is the darkness of our individual hearts that leads us astray. The enemy is us.
Again, the pillars of our constitution are not physical but spiritual and whenever they fall all the blessings which they safeguard come tumbling down with them. The strength of the American constitution is not the constitution itself, but the moral strength of the people themselves. Only a spiritual revival will preserve us.
“Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,” (Psalm 33:12)
That’s Something To Pray About.
Pastor Bryant