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Pacific Press Publishing Company · New York · June 5, 1890

FromThe American Sentinel, Vol. 5, No. 23

“ALL crime against the State,” says Rev. W. J. Coleman, “is an open sin against God.” If this were true, it would follow that the State can require nothing wrong, and forbid nothing that is right. It would also follow that the three Hebrews who refused to fall down before the great image which Nebuchadnezzar set up, were guilty of sin; that Daniel sinned in praying to God when forbidden so to do by the king; and that the apostles and martyrs of Jesus also sinned when they chose to obey God rather than men. God has ordained civil government; he did this when he created men and placed them together in families and communities; and when governments confine themselves to their proper sphere it is sin to resist their authority; but when they enter the domain of morals and assume to rule in things pertaining to God, they put themselves in the place of God, and must be disobeyed by all who would remain loyal to God. It is this principle alone that justifies the martyrs; any other reduces them to the level of criminals who suffered justly, condemned alike by God and man.