A Judicial Opinion by A. SMITH

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 13, 1911

A Judicial Opinion

By A. SMITH

A. SMITH

IN an opinion of the United States Supreme Court on the Standard Oil case, Justice Harlan, in dissenting from the opinion, said:—

“The opinion to-day means that the courts may, by mere judicial construction, amend the legislation of the United States, and amend the statutory laws. . . . If the law as written is to be amended, Congress is the only constitutionally co-ordinate branch of the government with power to amend it. It does not rest with this court by a process of judicial legislation wholly unjustifiable to read into the law words not written there by the legislative branch of the government.”

This statement of the case is sound and logical. The same principle as here applied is pertinent to the law of God. Clothed in the phraseology of the eminent jurist, the dictum would properly take the following form:—

“If the law of God, written upon tables of stone, is to be amended, Jehovah, its Author, is the only power to amend it. It does not rest with the church by a process of clerical legislation wholly unjustifiable to read into the law words or meaning not written there by its Author.”

But many would-be reformers set aside every precedent of judicial reasoning, and reads into the law of God a meaning not sustained by the Bible, but wholly formulated from the traditions of men. “From such turn away.”

Grandville, Mich.