Christianity Does Not Need It.
A CORRESPONDENT of Reason has struck the right chord in opposition to the proposed Sunday law, as will be seen from the following, which we clip from that paper:— “On grounds of public policy there are grave objections to the proposed legislation, but the objections from the standpoint of those who have the best interests of religion at heart are equally weighty. The Christian Church in America occupies a position different from that in those countries where it has been in league with the State. While there may be much indifference and unbelief, there is but little active hostility. Secularism in the European sense of bitter hatred of all that savors of the church, has little power among our native-born population. It is because here the church has not been identified with ecclesiastical annoyance and intolerant legislation. “Our Protestant churches cannot afford to enter the arena of politics, and transform what had been mere unbelief into active enmity. Religious legislation in a country like this has no power to convince, nor to coerce, it can only irritate. “Christianity must be true to itself before it can perform its work; and Christian charity ‘vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own.’ Christianity ‘vaunting itself’ in legislative enactments and ‘seeking its own’ in the Constitution is true neither to its highest mission nor faithful to its best spirit. Dogmatic and sectarian Christianity is, even in the proposed amendment, refused the recognition of the Government; spiritual Christianity does not need it nor ask for it.” It is not enough to say that Christianity does not need such legislation; it cannot stand it. Christianity will not ask for legislation in its favor, even as Christ did not, and if men secure legislation in favor of Christianity, they will succeed only in driving Christianity out of the Church as well as out of the State.