IN the plan of salvation through Jesus Christ God is ever held before us as a being of love. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16. He is not willing that any should perish. His wish is that all should live eternally. Satan, by his deceptions, not only insnared our first parents, but has been successful in bringing the human family into bondage. “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” Rom. 3:23. The great deceiver desires to keep all in his bonds, that he may at last cast them down to destruction, thus defeating the purpose of God. While God does not save man against his will, yet he has provided everything that can be provided to show his mighty power to those who will believe. “Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God; and such we are.” 1 John 3:1, Revised Version. But when we speak of being children, the question arises, How can we, servants of Satan, become children of God?
We enter life in this world by being born. Before this act of nature we were to ourselves as though we were not. The only way ordained by God for human beings to come into the conscious possession of earthly life is by a birth. None since Adam ever came into an earthly life in any other way than that of being born. To everyone thus born into this world, his birth is, to him, the beginning of his existence.
Every individual that enters the life in613Christ, and is called his child, must experience a birth. The life that is produced thereby is just as real as is the life following the natural birth. This birth of which we speak is commonly known as the new birth, and, as expressed in the Scriptures, is from above: “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” John 3:6.
The Father, the Son, and the Spirit are the three great agencies in creation and redemption, and are all represented as from above. The flesh is used to represent the outward form of human nature, and its sinful condition. The natural birth, which is of the flesh, brings with it the inherent weakness of the parents, which is the door through which Satan enters to bind the soul, that its life may be under his control.
The new birth is not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. “Born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.” 1 Peter 1:23. Before this the individual was as one dead, having no more consciousness and experience of spiritual life than an unborn infant of the life of its parents. He was “dead in trespasses and sins.”
A Necessity.
The corruption of human nature demands just such a change as the new birth will produce. Man’s natural birth, whatever his station in life, brings no good thing with it. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh.” But what is in the flesh? “I know that in me (that is, in my flesh), dwelleth no good thing.” Rom. 7:18. “They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For the mind of the flesh is death; but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace; because the mind of the flesh is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be.” Rom. 8:5-7, Revised Version. There is no power in the flesh to produce life, for there is no life in it. It cannot give what it does not possess, and it contains no good thing. “Wherein aforetime ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the Spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience; among whom we also once lived in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.” Eph. 2:2, 3, Revised Version.
There is no power over death in the life of the natural man, for his life is only death itself. Sin is natural to his heart. “From within, out of the heart of man, evil thoughts proceed, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, covetings, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, railing, pride, foolishness; all these evil things proceed from within, and defile the man.” Mark 7:21-23, Revised Version. But the heart is represented as the center of life. “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” Prov. 4:23. The issues of life are from the heart, and the unregenerate heart is filled with sin, which is death, therefore the very life of man is so poisoned that it is only a living death. It cannot be wondered that the convicted and penitent soul should cry, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from this body of this death?” Rom. 7:24, margin. This being man’s condition, he is certainly in need of help which he himself does not possess.
His heart being evil, and thoroughly leavened with death, every pulsation is only one more stroke towards the destruction that awaits him.
“A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things; and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.” Matt. 12:35. Then a man that has only evil in his heart cannot bring forth good things. But life is one of the good things that God desires man to have. John 3:16. The fleshly mind cannot receive it, for it is enmity toward God. It is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. The law of God is spiritual (Rom. 7:12), and can only be written in a spiritual mind and heart. Since man is naturally evil, and his heart and mind bring forth only evil, there must be an entire transformation of character before he is fit to dwell with God, or to have Christ dwell with him. To such Jesus speaks, as he spoke to Nicodemus: “Except a man be born again [margin, ‘from above’] he cannot see the kingdom of God.” John 3:3. This change does not come from man, nor by man. It is from God. “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.” Jer. 13:23. Who ever heard of a black man changing the color of his skin? Such a thing would be called a miracle; and such it would be, for it is contrary to all natural law. Until we hear of such a circumstance, we need not expect to hear of a sinner changing his life. It requires a power that can make a dead man live to perform this change. As nothing of which we can form conception can take the place of a birth as a way into physical life, so nothing within the whole sphere of spiritual things can take the place of the new birth, as a door of entrance into the life of grace. As we became partakers of Adam’s nature, and death reigned in us (Rom. 5:12, 17), so we must become partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4), that the life of Christ may reign in us.
Scripture Figures.
The Scriptures were given to man for instruction, for profit, that he may be wise unto salvation. See 2 Tim. 3:17. The Lord does not want us to put our trust in man’s wisdom or learning for our salvation. The gospel is the “power of God unto salvation.” Rom. 1:15. So the Lord makes the gospel so simple that man can understand if he will but read. We say that a teacher is an excellent instructor who simplifies his instruction by the use of familiar terms, already understood by the student. This is the way the Lord has given his instruction to man. It is his will that all should be saved, and become partakers of eternal life. To this end he uses different expressions to show how man may enter this spiritual life. In one place we read, “Except a man be born again;” in another, “Except ye be converted, and become as little children;” while in another, “Neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.” All these expressions refer to the change that is necessary in order to become Christ’s. In other places we read: “A new heart also will I give you;” “Being justified by faith we have peace with God;” he saved us by “the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost.” Yet in another place the Scriptures saith: “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean
thing; and I will receive you, and will be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.” All these scriptures lead man in the same direction, i. e., from sin to righteousness. Some of them speak more particularly of man’s part, while others speak of what God does.
The term “conversion” means, literally, “a turning one’s self around, or towards; a turning about.” But man has no power in himself to turn round. He must be moved by the Spirit of God. He can will to turn from sin, but without the power of God he will never accomplish what he wills. To justify is to set forth as righteous, to free a man from his guilt, which stands in his way of being right. Man may will to turn from his sinful life, but that alone does not change his past life. Had he the power to do right when he desires to turn from sin, he could not change his past record. So we see man needs something more than to turn. He needs his past life declared what it has not been, viz., righteous. Who can do this? Not the sinner. “To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.” Rom. 4:5. Man’s heart is represented as a fountain of evil. It is not partly good and partly evil. This cannot be. A fountain cannot send forth both bitter and sweet water at the same time. As soon as the bitter water begins to flow, the whole stream becomes bitter. You will have no success cleansing the stream as long as the bitter water is mixing with the sweet. The fountain head must be changed. This is what God wants to do for us. He wants to create within us a new heart, the issues of which will be a fountain of living water.
“If any man be in Christ, let him be a new creature.” 2 Cor. 5:17, margin. Here is another expression used that represents God’s power to the sinner who will turn to him. The word “regeneration” is closely connected with the new creation, for it means, literally, to “create back again.” This would be to put man back again where he was when he was first created. When we speak of the earth being renewed, we understand that the sin in it will be destroyed, and the curse removed from it. So, when man is regenerated, sin must be moved from him, and he be innocent before his Maker.
The Saviour said to Nicodemus, “Except a man be born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” John 3:3, margin. “Born again” is an expression whose literal meaning is “to bear again; a new beginning of personal life.” It means all that conversion and justification can mean, and possibly more than either of them alone. Man converts when he turns to God. He is justified when God declares him righteous. But justification in itself can only deal with past sins. “Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remissions of sins that are past.” Rom. 3:24, 25. The sinner needs to turn from more than the sins of the past. He needs more than righteousness imputed for past sins. He needs a new life.
Our Righteousness.
Righteousness is the doing, or being, what is just and right. The least deviation from this is unrighteousness, which is sin. But the wages of sin is death; so every unrighteous614act in a man’s life is that much death. A man’s life, like the fountain, is made impure by one unrighteous act. He may think he has some good in his life because he can bring to mind some good things he has done. So a man may say there is good water in his well that has a vein of pure water flowing into it. But if there is another smaller vein of brackish water flowing into it at the same time, it will be difficult for him to prove that his well contains good water by asking his friend to taste and see. So it is with our righteousness. If it be only a small portion of unrighteousness that is there, we may be assured that the whole fountain is contaminated. “We are all become as one that is unclean, and all our righteousnesses are as a polluted garment.” Isa. 64:6, Revised Version.
If our past life has been all unrighteous—“there is none that doeth good, no, not one”—what effect will justification have on our future life? If all our past unrighteous life is blotted out, are we in ourselves any better able to live a better life in the future than we were before? Does it put any goodness into us to pronounce a past sinful life righteous? Is it not here that many honest souls are stranded on the shoals of legalism? While trying to steer clear of the rocks of antimonianism on one side, some have run their bark into the mire of legalism on the other. If we would keep our eyes off from both these errors, and turn them toward the Polar Star, Christ Jesus, we might have much more joy. It is very difficult to distinguish which has the least joy, the soul that is indifferent to all the claims of God’s law, and expecting salvation while living in sin, or he who is constantly trying to be good, and sinning and confessing all the time with his efforts to be righteous.
(Concluded next week.)
DESOLATIONS AND BURNINGS OF THE EARTH.
By William Covert
BY ELDER WM. COVERT.
AS THE antediluvian earth and world met with desolation on account of sin, so must the present age close with a breaking up of all things upon it, that sinners may be removed and the iniquity purged out of it. Says our Saviour:—
"For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be." Matt. 24: 38, 39.
"Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed." Luke 17 : 28-30.
As truly as destruction and desolation resulted from the visitations of the judgments described above, so must there be seen like things when Jesus comes.
A general righting up will be necessary that the earth may be fitted for the final abode of the righteous. When the prophet looked down through time upon the scenes with which this age shall end, he saw the earth without form and void, and when he looked upon the heavens they had no light. The mountains trembled and the hills were moved. There was no man left upon the earth, and the birds of the heavens had fled. The fruitful place had become a wilderness, and the cities of the earth were broken down. See Jer. 4: 23-26.
The earth was made waste and empty, and then turned upside down, and the land utterly emptied and utterly spoiled. Isa. 24: 1-3.
The scene is one of the most desolate and dreadful that the universe will ever behold. The indignation of the Lord will be upon all nations, and his fury upon their armies. They will be delivered to the slaughter, for the prophet says, "It is the day of the Lord's vengeance, and the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion." Isa. 34: 8.
The hosts of evil will try with all the energy of desperation to keep possession of the earth. But the armory of heaven will destroy every hiding place, and break up all their entrenchments. John in his vision saw the islands flee away, and the mountains were not found. This was the result of a mighty earthquake. See Rev. 16: 18-20. David had a view of the same, and his testimony is that the mountains will be carried into the midst of the sea. Ps. 46: 1-3 (study the whole psalm).
The touch of sin is so vile and its pollutions so detestable that God will not settle his redeemed children upon the earth until it has been thoroughly purged from the foul stains of the devil and all his followers. "He will thoroughly purge his floor, . . . and burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." Matt. 3: 12. Sin has entered deep down in its pollutions. The prophet saw the iniquity of the wicked resting upon their bones in their graves. Eze. 32: 27. To reach and cleanse the earth from this defilement a fire will be kindled which shall burn to the lowest hell (sheol, grave). It will even set on fire "the foundations of the mountains." Deut. 32: 22.
The upheavals described in the sacred scriptures quoted in this article will expose to the purifying fires of the judgment day every defilement not purged by the blood of Christ and purified by the glory of God's grace. All the works of sin, together with all who remain with their sins, including Satan himself, must be consumed. This means will be applied in the destruction of sin and the clearing away of its poison.
Would that all sinners might, before it is too late, learn the strength of that kind hand which they now oppose. If they but knew the might and love of Him against whom they war, would not their rebellion cease and loyalty adorn their life?
Be assured that the hand which is so mighty to destroy, is the strength of his people, the Saviour of the meek who trust him. For them he has prepared a city of refuge from the dreadful storm of fire and brimstone, a solid place which cannot be affected by the coming earthquake, an ark that will be as secure against billows of fire as was that which Noah built against the deluge. Secure a place in the ark of safety before the approaching storm cloud compels the keeper to close its doors.
THE LIMITATION OF MEN.
By S. S. Times
ONE of the sure ways of accomplishing too little is by expecting too much. To one who knows men, no truth is more patent than the limitations of men of power. Some men are so profound that we despair of measuring their possibilities; but they are like the narrow vein of gold-bearing quartz,—very deep down they go, but the line on each side of them is a hard, fast line of limitation. Other men cover vast fields and wide ranges of learning and power, so that, as we survey them, their capabilities outrun the horizon of our view. But only a few inches or yards below this promising surface is a definite line of limitation. They are only a thin stratum. Both sorts, and mixed sorts, and all sorts must be viewed and estimated by their limitations, as well as their capabilities. No power, human or other, can be utilized to the best advantage, if we lose sight of the lines of limitation. Within those lines of limit any power can be developed to unlimited effectiveness and utility.—S. S. Times.
DEMONOLATRY.
By I. E. Kimball
BY ELDER I. E. KIMBALL.
THE more evident extravagances of the monks, the wild, frenzied imagination, the uncouth appearance, have been considered, together with the licentiousness, hypocrisy, and the pitiful delusion under which they operated. We can but feel a vivid disgust when thinking of their hawking about dead men's bones, relics, etc., as a panacea for every ill. Even Augustine in the latter part of his life could but feel disgusted with them. Thus he said:—
The devil hath dispersed in every corner such a crew of hypocrites, under the habit of monks, gadding about every country, sent no whither, staying nowhere, everywhere restless, whether sitting or standing. Some sell the limbs of martyrs (if so be of martyrs), and all are asking, all expecting, either the expenses of a painful poverty, or the hire of a counterfeit sanctity.—De Opere Monachorum, cap. 28.
Thus we see, "under the habit of monks," Augustine acknowledged many hypocrites, who "spake lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron." Such persons played pranks and palmed them off for miracles, rehearsing the day before. What can we expect of such an one with the keys of a convent at his belt, simply that he might roll in the mire of fornication. The coarse, brutal, benumbed mind revealed nothing of that transformation whereby we may "show what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." The mass released from the burden of sin, or regeneration, came by "holy baptism," not the Spirit of God. And what shall we say of the mass—the breaden god of those times?—It was a sort of image worship or relic worship. As the dead martyr took possession of a statue, or manifested himself in his bones, or relics, so Christ was in the bread and wine, and that horrid idea of transubstantiation, whereby the blood became "body, blood, and divinity," took possession of the mind. To say the least, it is idolatry pure and simple. "Holy baptism" became the sprinkling of holy water. It was used in very nearly all the heathen mysteries, as Dr. Newton, in the March number of the Forum, 1886, plainly showed. In all heathendom it was the sign of "spiritual regeneration." In some of the forms of Buddhism the newborn babe was dipped in sacred water three times, and then the name given. So did the ancient Persian to his babe. The Mithraic mysteries had a similar service for the adults. The Egyptians had the same rites in the mysteries of Isis, whose priests were cloistered monks. The water was known as the "water of ablution," and the person was thus "regenerated." The sprinkling of holy615water was thought to have a "mystic power," exactly as the monks of the Nicenes thought, who used it to dissolve the charm of Satan and cleanse the soul from sin.
In the Mithraic mysteries the sacred sign of the cross was made upon the forehead. How well the monks and everybody else took up this ancient usage and perpetuated it in Christianity we well know. "Hindus, Assyrians, Egyptians, and Romans employed this sacred sign." It was understood to stand as the symbol of regeneration. Who cannot see that all the religions of polytheism contributed not merely their votaries, but their practices, to the Nicene Church, and how it came about that the dragon gave his power to the beast; and, while worshiping the beast, they worshiped the dragon which gave power to the beast? Rev. 13: 2-5.
But the dragon represents the power wielded by Satan, and, indeed, Satan himself. And that Satan and his angels were worshiped, I will now show. The demons of the Gentiles, which were worshiped, as we have shown, are identified in the New Testament as angels that sinned, and kept not their first estate. Satan, at their head, "was a liar from the beginning and abode not in the truth," and by his lies down through the ages he has "deceived the whole world." Rev. 12: 8. Satan and his demons will terminate their existence in the lake of fire. Matt. 25: 41. Luke speaks of one possessed with a devil as being possessed with the "spirit of an unclean demon." Chap. 4: 33, Murdoch's translation. This identifies these unclean spirits which filled the land,—unclean because sinful, and which were cast out by Christ—with the demons of the Gentiles. Everybody will therefore acknowledge that the demon gods of the Gentiles are the demons, or devils, of the New Testament.
How came these Gentiles to so fully rule and possess the Gentile world?—Eusebius will tell us:—
When those wicked spirits [as he has shown the demons to be] saw mankind brought off to a deifying of the dead, they insinuated themselves, and helped forward their error, by certain motions of the statues which anciently were consecrated to the honor [memory] of the deceased, as also by ostentation of oracles and cures of diseases, whereby they drove the superstitious headlong, sometimes to take them to be some heavenly powers and God indeed, and sometimes to be the souls of their deified worthies, and so the earth-neighboring demons, which are those princes of the air, those spiritualities of wickedness, and ringleaders to all evil, were on all hands accounted for great gods. And the memory of those ancient deceased was thought worthy to be celebrated with a great service, the features of whose bodies the images dedicated in every city seemed to represent, but the souls of them, and the divine incorporeal powers, the wicked demons counterfeited, by working many miracles.
Tertullian exhorted the Gentiles to renounce the whole mystery, "which under the names and images of the dead, through signs, miracles, and oracles, obtained an opinion of divinity." Chrysostom said that the demons wrought many miracles for the confirmation of paganism.
How came the demons to get possession of the Nicene Church?—Ah, in the same way, under the names and images of the dead, through signs and miracles, not this time personating the proud heroes of the battle field, but the martyrs of Christ! Comment is unnecessary. I will quote from Theodoret's eighth book, concerning the curing of the affections of the Greeks, the title of which is "Concerning Martyrs":—
If, then, the poet [Hesiod] calls good men after their decease guardians and preservers or deliverers of mortal men from all evil, and, accordingly, the best of philosophers, in confirmation of the poet saying, would have their sepulchers to be served and honored, I beseech you, sirs, why do you find such fault with what we do? For such as were eminent for piety and religion, and for the sake thereof suffered death, we also call preservers and physicians. In nowise do we term them demons. God forbid that we should ever fall into such desperate madness [what difference did it make what they called them], but the hearty friends and servants of God. That the souls of holy men, even when they were out of the body, are in a capacity of taking care of men's affairs, Plato affirmeth in the eleventh book of his laws. But you do not only disbelieve us, but are utterly unwilling to hearken to the loud voice of the events or effects themselves. [That is, the miracles reported.] The martyr temples [dead men's sepulchers, as it were the Gentile temples] are frequently to be seen, famous for their beauty and greatness.
They that are in health pray for the continuance thereof, and they that have been long sick pray for recovery; the barren pray for children, and they that are to take a long journey desire them [the martyrs] to be their companions, or, rather, their guides in the journey, not going to them as gods, but making application to them as divine men and agents for them with God. Now that they who made faithful prayers have obtained their petitions, clearly appears by the presents and gifts brought by the votaries, as so many grateful acknowledgments of their recovery. Accordingly, some do present the effigies of eyes, others of hands, and these made of gold or of silver. Nay, the martyrs have utterly abolished and wiped out of the minds of men the memory of those who were called gods [demons]. Our Lord God hath brought his dead into the place of your gods, whom he hath sent packing, and hath given their honor to his martyrs. For, instead of the feasts of Jupiter and Bacchus, are now celebrated the festivals of Peter and Paul and Thomas and Sergius, and other holy martyrs. Wherefore, since you see there is so much advantage by honoring the martyrs, be persuaded, I beseech you, to flee from the errors of demons, and, making use of the martyrs as so many lights and guides, follow the way which leads directly to God.
Hear the apostle: "But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God; and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils." "The doctrine of demons" was the doctrine of the mediation, intercession, and ministry of dead men, as divine agents with the gods. It matters not whether they be called saints or heroes who were thus invoked. The Gentile doctrine of demons was transferred to the Catholic Church; and demons wrought as fully therein as they had before in paganism. It is the same doctrine now taught in Spiritualism, and in very many of the pulpits of our land, howbeit the Bible asserts that the dead have no more a part forever in anything that is done under the sun, that their "love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished." "They praise not the Lord," until the final resurrection.
Thus the prophecy of Paul in 1 Timothy 4 was fulfilled. They departed from the faith of Jesus, and gave heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, speaking lies in hypocrisy, forbidding to marry, commanding to abstain from meats, etc.
It is futile, absurd, outrageous to claim for the Nicene Church any holiness. They were one and all mastered by an illusion, of which demon worship was the all-absorbing thought, the central figure. It is madness to say that monkery was not then held up by the great divines as the summit of Christian attainments, more than madness to claim that the vows of continence and virginity, taken by
FIRST PRINCIPLES, OR INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS.
By H. F. Phelps
Even in Religion, and in Religion above All Things.
BY H. F. PHELPS.
No ONE thought of vindicating religion for the conscience of the individual, till a voice in Judea, breaking day for the greatest epoch in the life of humanity, by establishing a pure, spiritual, and universal religion for all mankind, enjoined to render to Cæsar only that which is Cæsar’s. The rule was upheld during the infancy of the gospel for all men. No sooner was this religion adopted by the chief of the Roman Empire than it was shorn of its character of universality, and enthralled by an unholy connection with the unholy State; and so it continued till the new nation,—the least defiled with the barren scoffings of the eighteenth century, the most general believer in Christianity of any people of that age, the chief heir of the Reformation in its purest forms,—when it came to establish a government for the United States, refused to treat faith as a matter to be regulated by a corporate body, or having a headship in a monarch or a State.
Vindicating the right of individuality even in religion, and in religion above all, the new nation dared to set the example of accepting, in its relations to God, the principle first divinely ordained of God in Judea. It left the management of temporal things to the temporal power; but the American Constitution, in harmony with the people of the several States, withheld from the Federal Government the power to invade the home of reason, the citadel of conscience, the sanctuary of the soul; and not from indifference, but that the Spirit of eternal truth might move in its freedom, and purity, and power.—History of the Formation of the Constitution, in Two Republics.
The only reason why “the power to invade the home of reason, the citadel of conscience,” was not withheld from the several States which adopted the Federal Constitution, was because of the jealousies that existed at the time of its adoption, in regard to State rights, and because of the fact that nearly all the States did have laws, either defining or enforcing religion and religious institutions, which were considered necessary to the welfare of the State, and by which they could “invade the home of reason,” and because so many, at that time, were so firmly wedded to the idea that a union of religion and the State was necessary. Witness their laws against sabbath—Sunday—breaking, blasphemy, and witchcraft, also laws imposing taxation for the support of religious instruction, and compulsory attendance at public worship—laws which had existed from almost the first settlements, some of which exist even to this day. If the framers and defenders of the national Constitution had insisted that these laws did “invade the realm of conscience,” disputing the right of the States to enact or to enforce such laws, it would only have resulted in the defeat of their plans for a general government, and the rejection of the Constitution itself.
Thus, while it was the purpose of our fathers616to vindicate the rights of the individual, and in the general Constitution they did even dare to vindicate “the right of individuality even in religion, and in religion above all;” yet the several States adopting the Constitution were left with the fangs of that hideous monster which has cursed the world,—a union of religion and the State,—fastened upon their very vitals. And each succeeding State entering the sisterhood of States has adopted similar laws, thereby stultifying their own constitutions.
Now these very things are brought forward by the horde of National Reformers and Roman Catholics as proof that a union of Church and State, or religion and the State, always has existed in this government, that this is as it should be, and that the Constitution itself teaches the same. Thus it is that they subvert, instead of guarding, the rights of the individual—“individuality even in religion, and in religion above all.” And not only so, but these laws, in the hands of ignorance, bigotry, and superstition, entirely supersede the supreme laws of the State and nation. As proof of this, we look at one of the original States, Maryland, where Seventh-day Adventists are suffering loss of property, or are confined in loathsome jails, because their individual rights in matters of religion are not respected. Their Declaration of Rights says:—
ARTICLE 36. That, as it is the duty of every man to worship God in such a manner as he thinks most acceptable to him, all persons are equally entitled to protection in their religious liberty; wherefore, no person ought, by any law, to be molested in his person or estate on account of his religious persuasion or profession, or for his religious practice, unless, under color of religion, he shall disturb, etc.
And yet the very same section brings in a religious test, in that no person is to “be deemed incompetent as a witness, or juror, on account of his religious belief; Provided, he believes in the existence of God, and that, under his dispensation, such a person will be held morally accountable for his acts, and be rewarded or punished therefor, either in this world or the world to come.” So, if a person does not “believe” in all this, he is not competent.
And section 11, article 3, Legislative Department, reads:—
No minister or preacher of the gospel, or of any religious creed or denomination, . . . shall be eligible as senator or delegate.
Thus in one line they declare for freedom for all men, and in the next place a barrier in the way of that freedom, or else a bid to a man to stifle his own convictions. But this glaring inconsistency is made more apparent as we examine their Sunday laws. Not only does the State constitution, as we have seen, declare in preference of the man who professes faith in God (and in this we see a bid for hypocrisy), but the State declares in favor of the “Lord’s day” as the Sabbath, which, of course, is true; but it says that the day is “commonly called Sunday.” And it says that no person having children or servants “shall command or willingly suffer any of them to do any manner of work or labor on the Lord’s day;” nor were these “to profane the Lord’s day by gaming, fishing, fowling, hunting,” under a penalty of five dollars. Engaging in trade or sale of various kinds of merchandise is deemed as Sabbath breaking, and punishable by a fine of from $20 to $50, while other so-called offenses are punishable by heavier fines and imprisonment, as, for example, a man is to be imprisoned from three months to one year if he shall catch oysters on Sunday.
Another example of this glaring inconsistency may be seen by examination of Georgia’s “Declaration of Fundamental Principles”:—
SECTION 1. Protection of person and property is the paramount duty of government, and shall be impartial and complete.
And yet, in this State, under cover of her Sunday laws, a minister of the gospel, and a teacher in a school, both Seventh-day Adventists, are held to answer at court for working in the rear of a school building, with saw and hammer, on Sunday, like offenses(?) of which are often witnessed, but without arrest.
But all this is done in face of the following:—
SECTION 6. Perfect freedom of religious sentiment shall be, and the same is hereby secured, and no inhabitant of this State shall ever be molested in person or property . . . on account of his religious opinion.
And yet the penalty for violation of her Sunday laws is very severe. Persons convicted “shall be punished by a fine not to exceed $1,000, imprisonment not to exceed six months, to work in the chain gang on the public works . . . not to exceed twelve months, and any one or more of these punishments may be ordered in the discretion of the judge.” So that if the judge should be a bigot, he could impose the whole list of penalties.
More than this; take these men before mentioned, who are observers of the “Sabbath day according to the commandment,” should they be found guilty and be sentenced to the chain gang, their consciences would not allow them to work on the seventh day of the week; and by this refusal they would, according to their law, “be deemed guilty of a capital offense, the penalty of which is death, or such other punishment as the judge in his discretion may inflict.” Thus the life of the offender(?) will depend altogether upon the humanity of the judge.
Take, for another example, a Northern State, lest the reader may think that such is especially peculiar to these States, and that such is not the case in the North. The “Bill of Rights” of Minnesota declares that—
The right of every man to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience shall never be infringed, . . . nor shall any control of or interference with the rights of conscience be permitted, or any preference be given by law to any religious establishment or mode of worship.
Yet the Sunday laws of the State define Sunday as the sabbath, and also define sabbath breaking, thus declaring in favor of a certain religious institution, and thereby giving “preference” “by law,” to a certain “mode of worship,” thus contradicting and making utterly void, in fact, all the guarantees of the Constitution, and making it possible to repeat the same persecutions in Minnesota as are now seen in Maryland, Tennessee, and Georgia. Not only so, but at the last session of the Minnesota Legislature a law was enacted by which it is possible to place violators of these Sunday laws upon the streets with the chain gang.
And nearly every State, if not all of them, are in the same predicament, declaring for perfect freedom of conscience in the supreme law of the States, and denying these same principles in the statute laws. As before stated, and experience emphasizes the statement, these, in the hands of bigots, become paramount to the supreme law of the State, while the principle of individual rights, freedom of conscience, is totally lost to sight, and the supreme law trampled in the dust.
All of this but emphasizes the fact that these principles should be studied and better understood by the people. To this end we ask the army of readers of this paper to follow us carefully through a few papers touching this subject, not that they will be exhaustive of the subject, but we trust they may be an incentive to deeper thought.