HE who spends the Sabbath day with God will enjoy a quiet and restful Sabbath, whether any one else around him is at rest or not.AMS October 14, 1897, page 625.3

THE right to do that which God commands, can be solely claimed by any individual without reliance upon any other power than God.AMS October 14, 1897, page 625.4

THERE is no right more important to mankind, none left more unguarded at the present time, and none so seriously menaced to-day, as that of individual freedom of conscience.AMS October 14, 1897, page 625.5

THE civil law cannot undertake to enforce morality, without being forced to turn aside from its legitimate work of preserving human rights, and becoming an instrument of their destruction.AMS October 14, 1897, page 625.6

IF the nation if a moral personality, as is claimed, it must have a conscience, and its conscience and must direct the latter in any matter with which it has to do. And this being so, the nation becomes the individual’s god, and nationalism the individual’s religion.AMS October 14, 1897, page 625.7

IT is a sure sign of a bad law that it is largely made use of by bad people, or with malicious motives.AMS October 14, 1897, page 625.8

THE effectual cure for evil is not repression, but eradication; and the work of eradication must always be done in the heart.AMS October 14, 1897, page 625.9

IF it is fitting that the mighty work of creation should be commemorated by the setting apart of a weekly day of rest, what is there fitting about the setting apart of such a day by the State, which never created anything, nor has any power to create even a grain of sand? Is not such an act highly presumptuous?AMS October 14, 1897, page 625.10

“Civil Law and Morality” American Sentinel 12, 40, p. 628.

ATJ

CIVIL law is not fitted to deal with matters on the basis of their character as moral or immoral; its province is to consider them on the basis of their compatibility with human rights.AMS October 14, 1897, page 628.1

The Declaration of Independence sets forth that governments are instituted to preserve the natural rights of mankind; and the truth of the statement is declared to be self-evident. But it is a lie if the doctrine be true that civil law can properly concern itself with questions of morality.AMS October 14, 1897, page 628.2

The Christian Statesman, however, and the “reform” party which it represents, evidently do not believe in the Declaration of Independence. In a late issue of the Statesman the editor makes note of the objection to National Reform work, that moral reforms must be put into the hearts of the people before they will come out in the life, and says:—AMS October 14, 1897, page 628.3

“But if the civil law has properly nothing to do with Sabbath, temperance, or other reforms, as matters of public morals, why should it have anything more to do with the moral principle of ownership in property or the sacredness of human life? Are we content to have regard for human life or property or the marriage relation wrought into the hearts of the people and left there without any expression of civil law concerning impurity, stealing, and murder? No civilized commonwealth dreams of carrying into effect any such limping code of morals.”AMS October 14, 1897, page 628.4

This may look and sound plausible, but it is mere sophistry. The answer is that civil law does not prohibit theft, murder, and adultery in order to prevent immorality, but in order to protect the rights of the individual. If its object were to prevent immorality, it would utterly fall of its purpose; for according to the testimony of Scripture—and of human experience as well—the man who covets, or hates his fellow men, or harbors impure thoughts, is as verily immoral as is the one who steals, murders, or commits adultery. Immorality is not an act, but a condition. It is impossible for an individual to commit an immoral act before he has become an immoral person.AMS October 14, 1897, page 628.5

He does not become immoral by committing the immoral act, but he commits the immoral act because he has become immoral. “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh.”AMS October 14, 1897, page 628.6

Therefore, as stated, the civil law would utterly fail of its purpose it if should undertake to prohibit immorality. If that has been its object, it has utterly failed from the first.AMS October 14, 1897, page 628.7

But civil law is not a failure. It is necessary to civil government, and civil government is necessary to the preservation and enjoyment of individual rights, without which this life would fail to realize the purpose which it is designed to serve.AMS October 14, 1897, page 628.8

And as no question of the violation of individual rights is concerned in the observance or non-observance of the Sabbath, but only a question of morality, the civil law can properly have no concern with it. The law is bound to protect every person in his right of exercising his own judgment and free will in such a matter.AMS October 14, 1897, page 628.9

“A ‘Non-sectarian’ Myth” American Sentinel 12, 40, pp. 628, 629.

ATJ

IT is entirely proper that the Roman Catholic press should protest against governmental recognition of “non-sectarian” Protestantism. This is a myth which certain Protestant religious journals have persistently assumed to be a reality. They have assumed, in other words, that a union of Church and State could only be where the State was joined with some particular religious denomination, and that where State aid was given in behalf of principles and dogmas held by a number of denominations in common, no union of Church and State could be charged.AMS October 14, 1897, page 628.1

These Protestants have always maintained emphatically that State aid or patronage given to the Catholic Church constituted a union of Church and State, but they have denied that a similar relation of the State to the Protestant Church in general, as distinguished from the adherents of the papacy, constituted a similar union.AMS October 14, 1897, page 628.2

Now comes the Catholic Review (New York) with a strongly-worded demand that Protestants shall stand by their professions of regard for a secular government,—professions made when opposing the advances of Rome,—and that the government shall give no aid or recognition to Protestantism, just as she is asked to do toward the Church of Rome.AMS October 14, 1897, page 628.3

The program of reform which this Catholic journal demands is given as the following:—AMS October 14, 1897, page 628.4

“Put the Protestant version of the Bible out of the public courts and the public schools; do away with the religious oath at the taking of testimony; discharge the Protestant ministers who are chaplains of legislatures, prisons, and reformatories; dismiss preachers and priests who are drawing money from the public treasury in payment for their services in preaching their beliefs in the Christian religion to soldiers and sailors; forbid the election or appointment of a clergyman to any political office; and let the so-called American principle of the separation of Church and State drive God and his Christ and the Word and his rule and his kingdom and his clerical representatives out of the official life of this nation. Let it not be only Catholic Indian schools or Catholic charters that are ‘sectarian.’ Let Protestant schools, and Protestant teachers, and Protestant ministers, and Protestant institutions fall under the same ban. It is Protestants who are prescribing this treatment. Let them take their own medicine.”AMS October 14, 1897, page 628.5

Rome frequently displays the virtue of being consistent, and does so in this instance. The Protestant preachers should not refuse to take their own medicine, and cannot refuse without standing discredited in the public place. But Rome does not want the Protestant bodies to “take their medicine,” and of course, knows full well that they will not do so. Her object is to force them to assist from their opposition to herself, by exposing their inconsistency in the matter.AMS October 14, 1897, page 629.1

Let it be noted that the Church of Rome stands fully ... of any Protestant church in claiming that the American principle of separation of Church and State since “God and his Christ and his Word and his rule and his kingdom ... out of the official life of this nation.” The Church of Rome does not admit that all this can be in the official life of the nation without having Protestantism first driven out: and on the other hand, the “national reform” Protestant bodies are equally positive that the rule of God and his Word in the seat of national government is entirely incompatible with any recognition of the Church of Rome. The principle which leads any religious body to seek for governmental support of its principles, dogmas, or institutions, is an intolerant principle, and always leads to bitter sectarian words. It is not a Christian Church in any sense.AMS October 14, 1897, page 629.2

It the Roman Catholic Church be a sect, the Protestant Church is likewise a sect, for the two bodies stand over against each other. And when any Protestant body calls for a non-sectarian government, it calls for its own exclusion, and that of all other religious bodies, either singly or combined, from any position of government patronage or aid.AMS October 14, 1897, page 629.3

“Note” American Sentinel 12, 40, p. 629.

ATJ

THE attempt to suppress immorality by civil law when logically and consistently carried out, leads directly to the establishment of the Inquisition.AMS October 14, 1897, page 629.1

October 7, 1897

October 21, 1897