p. 320 | Making Men Moral by Law by C. M. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Apr 3, 1913

Making Men Moral by Law

By C. M. S.

WHEN the spirit of liberty so far permeated the mass of the people that men in the world and in the church began to see that principles of truth and justice were being violated in the union between church and state, the emissary of evil coined another phrase, “the union of religion and the state,” and is now industriously pressing upon the people the necessity of that union. But the two mean the same, and are put forward for the same purpose—dominance over men’s consciences and their religious rights, that through a religion of force the true triumphs of the gospel may be hindered.

The same turn is now being taken upon the idea of making men moral by law. The common people and their representatives in the legislatures have been made to see the folly of the idea that character can be shaped and men made moral by human legislation. In the Examiner (Baptist) of March 13 the editor devotes considerable space to that idea. He says: “It is true that you can not make men moral by law, but you can remove the facilities which make it easy for them to be immoral;” and then asks, “Is not that a gain for morality?” The same erroneous idea is manifest here that is seen in the idea of the union of religion and the state as a substitute for the union of church and state. In the latter proposition, it is assumed that the state exists for the sole purpose of advancing the interests of the gospel and can not serve its ends unless guided and controlled by the church. In this idea of morality by human legislation, it is assumed that it is the purpose of legislation to make men moral; that the state exists for the purpose of enforcing morals, or making men moral by law “indirectly if not directly.” But if that is the business of government, then certainly the government ought to be under the exclusive control of those who are commissioned to teach religion and morals, for they can not be separated. The state ought to have the best material it can obtain to help it in carrying on its work; and certainly consecrated ministers of the gospel ought to know more about how to teach morals than does the lay member and the unconverted man. This idea, if carried to its logical conclusion, would demand as strong a union of church and state as could be established.

The state stands as the guardian of the rights of the people. It is the protector of the people. It is the business of the state to see to it that the rights of individuals are not trespassed upon. It is not difficult to see wherein a state is within its rights in enacting legislation for the prohibition of the liquor traffic. The liquor traffic is destroying the homes of the people; is taking away the property of some that the unnatural appetites of others may be gratified. It takes away the reason and control of some men, and through that the lives of other men and of women and children are taken away. They have a right to life, and the state must protect them in that right, just as it protects them in prohibiting the indiscriminate sale of other poisons. With the state protecting its citizens in their individual rights and with the church attending to the work which her divine Lord commissioned her to do, both organizations are fulfilling their God-ordained missions. The morals of the people are then being looked after by those properly commissioned to do that work.

Every good law helps to make the world a better and safer place to live in; but when the state attempts to make laws for the purpose of correcting the morals of men and women, or of influencing and guiding them in matters of faith and religion, the state is out of its place and attempting to do the work of the church; the church is shifting its responsibility onto the shoulders of the state; both organizations are then in the wrong; the rights of the people are invaded; and persecution is as sure to follow as night is certain to follow day. The state legislates to protect its citizens when it does what the state was established to do. The church labors to bring men’s lives into harmony with the gospel of Christ when she does the work she was commissioned to do. With each attending to its own proper field of endeavor, the interests of humanity and of the kingdom of Christ are best conserved. With either invading the field of the other, there is confusion, strife, hypocrisy, persecution, and the ruin of souls whom the church was set to lead into the kingdom of God.

C. M. S.