How the Jews Like It

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 7, 1871

How the Jews Like It.

DOES any one believe that, if Judge Strong could procure the mention of the Deity in the Constitution, he would rest satisfied? That would be absurd, for next to an atheist, a deist is, to a godly person, the most hateful creature that breathes, and the next step would be the adoption of Christianity as the national religion. This would at once logically exclude the Jews from all participation in the Government, for it would be highly inconvenient that a Christian country should have laws made for it by people who not only denied, but crucified, the Saviour. Having progressed so far, our reformers would naturally direct their attention to the blaspheming Unitarians, whom they consider as almost equaling, if not exceeding, the Jews in iniquity; and the Christianity of the constitution would here assume a decided Trinitarian government. The next question to be determined would be, whether the Roman Catholics, whom many Protestants regard as no better than pagans and image-worshipers, are to be admitted as Christians within the view of the Constitution; at this point, the controversy would reach its climax, and would become as imbittered as only those contests can which are waged for the purpose of deciding which party possesses the real secret of brotherly love and good will to all men. Whether the Romanists or the Calvinists gained the ultimate victory, the result would be equally disastrous to the best interests of religion, morality, and progress. While there is, presumably, no danger that the people of this country will ever be so entirely forsaken by their usual good sense as to enter on so ruinous a career of religious dissension, we must remember that, for nations as for individuals, there is no safety except in adhering strictly to correct and approved principles. The fathers of our institutions weighed all the arguments carefully before arriving at the determination that civil liberty and prosperity could only be secured by the most rigid separation of the Church from the State. Experience has shown the wisdom of their conclusion, and the States of Europe, incited by our example, are gradually, but steadily, conforming their practices to our theory, and cutting loose from old habits which had almost become a part of their nature. Shall we now put on their cast-off tinsel, and, having helped to rescue them from all errors, fall in, irretrievably, ourselves? Let us, then, beware of entertaining or encouraging, in any way, the anachronistic and narrow-minded proposals of Judge Strong and his fellow-bigots.—Jewish Times.