The real test of a true sentiment on religious liberty is not what one desires as regards himself, but what he is willing to grant to his opponents. The Roman Catholic or the Mohammedan believes in religious liberty—for himself. So did the Puritans of New England. So does every one. But the true sentiment of religious liberty holds to the same liberty for the other man. The Catholic, if he holds to religious liberty, will demand for the Protestant the same liberty he demands for himself. The Protestant, if he holds to religious liberty, will demand the same liberty for Catholic and Jew and other Protestant “sects” which he demands for himself. The believer, if he believes in religious liberty, will demand liberty for the infidel; and the infidel will, if like-minded, contend for liberty for the believer. The basis of true liberty is broader than this: it is liberty for the man, the person, so long as his liberty does not by deed bodily injure his neighbor’s life, property, or reputation. And the laws which secure this right must bear equally upon all, excepting no class because of belief or opinion. The man is to be protected in his rights; the religious belief or institution or religion is to be left to itself, its author, its devotees. The only wise way to secure religious liberty is to secure it for all. There are then no exceptions to be repealed or modified; and it is much easier to prevent them from being enacted. It is a sad fact, however, that in this country, the only place on earth where true religious liberty as a right has been justly estimated and secured by civil statute, we hear men now talking of “toleration” and “exemptions.” These things are invariably found connected with Sunday laws, and should show to every right-minded man the evil of the law. We know that good men advocate Sunday laws; that these same good men propose the exemption of certain religionists from some of the provisions of this law; but the law is unequal and evil or it would need no exemptions; and to even admit the right of the government to grant an exemption, is to grant the right to take it away. It is strange that liberty-loving men can not see this. It is all in the Golden Rule: “All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.”