A Little Mixed | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jun 26, 1889

FromThe American Sentinel, Vol. 4, No. 22.

A Little Mixed.

In the remarks of Rev. M. A. Gault, in the Missouri National Reform Convention, on another page of this paper, will be noticed the characteristic mongrel logic of the Reformers. The discussion being on the question whether the State should appeal to the divine law in the enforcement of Sabbath observance, Mr. Gault said: “The church appeals to the divine law, and so the State appeals to the divine law.” Then, to be sure of being understood in the matter, he added: “Now let me explain here that we do not mean that the State should appeal to the ecclesiastical law, nor to the divine law.” This is in keeping with the consistency of the Blair Educational Amendment bill, which in the first section provides that “no State shall ever make or maintain any law respecting an establishment of religion;” and then in the second section makes it the duty of the Government to see that each State maintain public schools for the very purpose forbidden in the first section.

Mr. Gault continued: “The ecclesiastical law binds the church, and the civil law binds the State. Civil government has no right to compel people to religiously observe the Sabbath-day.” That is wholesome doctrine, if he would only stick to it; but previously, in the same speech, he had said: “Government should say to the people, You must keep the Sabbath and have the Sabbath’s rest secured to all classes, not merely because it is good for you, but because God says so; because there is a divine appointment behind this question.” Now the solution to all this muddle of doctrine seems to lie in his treating the ten commandments as a civil law, as well as a divine law; for he says, “The civil law—the ten commandments—because they are civil—they bind the State.” In this, he seems to speak of “things that are not as though they were,” in contemplation of what shall be when National Reform rule shall have been established in the Government. However, the decalogue seems to be a very convenient code for the Reformers,—moral when it best answers their purpose, and civil when any emergency in their cause demands that construction. But that is characteristic of Church and State logic everywhere.