Religious Liberty for All
Nearly all men—we know of no exceptions—believe in liberty of conscience, religious liberty for themselves. Even the pagans, and most ultra-papists, and Mohammedans, believe this. But this is not true religious liberty. The man who believes that, believes it for the other fellow as well as for himself. He may not believe the other man to be right; he may believe him to be fearfully wrong, but he will, at the same time, demand equal liberty for the other man as for himself; but if he will not do this, he does not know the first principles of religious liberty. Jesus Christ was superlatively right. His enemies were positively wrong. But He said: “If any man hear My sayings, and keep them not, I judge him not; for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.” He who sets himself to judge his neighbor, assumes authority which our Lord did not assume.