THE NEW QUALIFICATION FOR OFFICE.
By W. N. G.
THE progress of the evil genius of Church-and-State union in the United States is marked by frequent steps forward. These steps, however, are of such an artful character that in most cases even the promoters are not aware of their undermining influence upon the primitive principles of the government. Yet some of these acts are so bold that it seems almost impossible that they do not proceed from deliberate purpose. While they are capsulated in a zeal for the moral welfare of the people, the casing is so very thin as to be transparent at a glance to the practical Protestant eye. The latest move in this direction is thus stated by the Keystone Gleaner: “The friends of Senator M. S. Quay [of Pennsylvania] are bringing into his canvass for re-election his record as a maker of Sunday laws. This record consists of having made an amendment to the bill appropriating $5,000,000 to the World’s Fair, in 1892, the amendment making the condition of receiving the appropriation that the fair should be closed on Sunday. It was during the debate over the passage of this bill that the House of Representatives decided by a vote of 131 to 36 that Sunday is the ‘Christian sabbath,’ and by a vote of 149 to 11 that the ‘seventh day is not the Sabbath.’” The subject of the last vote grew out of the fact that the senator supported his Sunday amendment by having the clerk read the fourth commandment. Being reminded that the commandment specified the seventh day as the Sabbath, the vote was taken, as above stated. One of the ostensible purposes of the National Reformers is to have the government administered in all departments by Christians, and to give all the Christian laws, usages, and institutions the sanction of the national Constitution, and, therefore, of the national and State laws; also to make the law of God the basis of all national law. The practical working of such a political scheme, however, is seen in the quotation we have given from the Gleaner, coupled with the fact that, while the senator is being boomed for re-election on his Sunday-law record, both he and his son are under indictment for the misuse of public funds. Whether they can be proved innocent or guilty does not matter for the purpose of this reference. We are not endeavoring to establish either position; that is the business of the courts. But the fact is already demonstrated that a religious profession, especially a zeal for the establishment of religious institutions by the government, is being set up as a qualification for high political position—and that, too, in the face of criminal indictment not yet disposed of. The arrogance of this Church-and-State influence, when it has once gained a foothold in any government, has a history of centuries, reaching its height in the Dark Ages, and, according to prophecy, is to come to the full again before the coming of the Lord. Its upward tendency and consequent arrogance are now manifest in this republic by a growing disregard of the rights of conscience, and even of the plain language of the Constitution, which emphatically declares that “no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.” See Article VI., section 2. The promulgation of such a qualification in any candidate for office is equivalent to its requirement, at least by those who support him on that ground. And the action of Senator Quay’s political supporters (that is, those who support him because of his Sunday-law record) demonstrates that they do so either in ignorance or in disregard of both the Scriptures and the Constitution. It is hardly possible that it can be in ignorance. W. N. G.