p. 277, para. 1 | Untitled article

Untitled article

Pacific Press Publishing Company · New York · September 3, 1891

FromThe American Sentinel, Vol. 6, No. 35

THE National Reform movement of the nineteenth century is the National Reform movement of the fourth century over again. Then under stress of so-called Christian influence the State declared the principles of the Church to be those to which everything must be subordinated, and the demand is made now that the State shall do the same thing. Can we hope that the result would be different? The demand as now formulated is that “Christian morality shall be taken as the ultimate standard of right, and that all our laws shall conform to this standard.” This simply means to make the divine law, or rather that which the courts may hold or the Church decide to be the divine law, the fundamental law of the land. It would then be superior to the Constitution, and human judges would administer the divine law and decree punishment for its infraction! The Church and the State would both be governed by the same law; in the Church it would be known as ecclesiastical law, in the State as civil law; but it would be the same law. This is simply what was done in the Dark Ages, and the evils of a union of Church and State are inseparable from such a system whether it be called a union of Church and State or only a union of religion and the State.