p. 16 | Compulsion in Religious Exercises

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jan 29, 1902

Compulsion in Religious Exercises

The Gospel is free, and is designed to make men free. It is free for all who receive it, and all are just as free to reject it if they do not want it. God never compels any one to accept it. The only power He employs is the power of His Word, by the Spirit of love, to persuade. But men sometimes try to compel obedience to the Word; at least they would compel an observance of formal religious service. In this they set themselves above God. An instance of such attempt at compulsion is noted by the press as having occurred at Topeka, Kansas, where a boy of ten years was expelled from the public school for declining to take part in the religious exercises set for the opening.