p. 16 | Common Sense by G.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Nov 24, 1898

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 24, No. 47.

Common Sense

By G.

Common Sense.—The Christian Citizen has this apt suggestion for overcoming the many evils of which there is so much complaint in the administration of the government:—

“Apply our common sense to all the affairs of government, as we now do to some of them, and as all successful men do to their private business. Not only in war matters but also in peace matters, and all possible matters, of government, the merit system, and that only, should be applied.”

The suggestion is good, and if we should ever be so fortunate as to see it carried out, we would not see any more church interference in political affairs, or political interference in church affairs. “Common sense” always profits by past experience, which shows that the most prosperous days of religious and civil liberty have been when the State and the Church each attended strictly to its own sphere of action. On the other hand, experience has shown that the most distressing chapters of the world’s history are those connected with the church’s efforts to control the governments of earth, and to enforce Gospel precept by means of civil law.