THE GOLDEN RULE AND THE RIGHTS OF CONSCIENCE.
By C. P. Bollman
The most comprehensive law ever given to direct men in their conduct toward their fellow-men is the Golden Rule: “All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them; for this is the law and the prophets.” Matt. 7: 12. This rule obeyed would reduce human woe to the minimum, for selfishness is directly accountable for very much of the misery incident to our selfish natures. “Man’s inhumanity to man makes countless millions mourn.” The thought of doing as we would be done by runs all through the Gospel. It is as plainly taught in the parable of Matt. 18: 27-35 as in the Golden Rule itself; and the conclusion shows that eternal life depends upon loyalty to this principle. Referring to the fate of the unforgiving servant, our Lord says:— “So likewise shall My heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.” Matt. 18: 35. Nor is this principle taught alone in God’s written Word. The Creator implanted love of justice in the very nature of man, a trace of which still remains; and every man feels that he ought to be free in matters of conscience, and he knows that every other man has the same natural right to soul liberty. Hon. Richard M. Johnson, in his capacity as Chairman of the House Committee of Post-offices and Post-roads, in his matchless report to the National House of Representatives on Sunday Mails, March 4, 1830, expressed this truth in these ringing words:— The framers of the Constitution recognized the eternal principle that man’s relation with his God is above human legislation, and his right of conscience inalienable. Reasoning was not necessary to establish this truth; we are conscious of it in our own bosoms. It is this consciousness which, in defiance of human laws, has sustained so many martyrs in tortures and in flames. They felt that their duty to God was superior to human enactments, and that man could exercise no authority over their consciences. It is an inborn principle which nothing can eradicate. The bigot in the pride of his authority, may lose sight of it; but strip him of his power, prescribe a faith to him which his conscience rejects, threaten him in turn with the dungeon and the fagot, and the spirit which God has implanted in him rises up in rebellion, and defies you. This consciousness is doubtless more acute in the Christian than in other men, for in such an one it springs not only from a native sense of his own right to liberty, but from the conviction that God has a right to his service,4and to the undivided allegiance of his soul. But, as Mr. Johnson has so well said, it is innate in the human breast. Bruno, the Italian freethinker, met death at the stake even more heroically than did Servetus, the Christian victim of the intolerant Calvin; and Thomas Paine, probably the most noted deist of modern times, said:— Man worships not himself, but his Maker; and the liberty of conscience which he claims, is not for the service of himself, but of his God. In this case, therefore, we must necessarily have the associated idea of two beings; the mortal who renders the worship, and the immortal Being who is worshiped. . . . Who, then, art thou, vain dust and ashes! by whatever name thou art called, whether a king, a bishop, a church or state, a parliament, or anything else, that obtrudest thine insignificance between the soul of man and his Maker? Mind thine own concerns. If he believeth not as thou believest, it is a proof that thou believest not as he believeth, and there is no earthly power can determine between you. Our own matchless Declaration of Independence recognizes this principle in the words, “All men are created equal, and are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.” Thus, notwithstanding the fact that sin has so darkened the human mind, a sufficient trace of the Golden Rule remains in the human heart to cause all classes of men, as we have seen, to recognize it, at least theoretically, in its application to the rights of conscience. But only he who has the Spirit of Christ is capable of a practical application of this principle. The Golden Rule is the expression of the character of Christ, and he who finds himself unwilling to cheerfully award to every other individual equal liberty of thought and action with himself, certainly has need that some one teach him again the first principles of the Gospel of the Son of God. In other words, “If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.”