May 30, 1904

“Truth in a Nutshell” Australasian Signs of the Times 19, 22 p. 265.

ATJ

BY A. T. JONES

The church and the state occupy two distinctly different realms. The realm of the church is the realm of morals; the realm of the state is the realm of civics. The realm of the church is the inner life of man, and the world to come: the realm of the state is the outward life of man, and the world that is.BEST May 30, 1904, page 265.1

The state rightly constituted, and abiding within its own realm, never can interfere with the affairs of the church; and as a matter of fact, no state ever has interfered with the affairs of the church, except when it went outside of its proper realm, and assumed to itself the garb of religion. The church, abiding in its own realm, can never interfere in any way with the interests of the state; and, as a matter of fact, the church has never done so, except where she left her own realm, ascended the throne of civil power, and presumed to wield the sword of the state.BEST May 30, 1904, page 265.2

The state, within its own realm, and for itself, has a right to establish a system of education which in the nature of things must be only of this world. The church, in her own realm, must maintain Christian education.BEST May 30, 1904, page 265.3

The state, in establishing and conducting such system of education as may seem to it best, can not ask that the church shall abandon Christianity. The church, in her own realm, in maintaining Christian education, can not ask that the state shall abandon such system of education as it may have adopted; and must not antagonise the state in its chosen system of education, any more than in any other affair or act of the state within its own realm.BEST May 30, 1904, page 265.4