THE BIBLE AND THE CONSTITUTION.
By W. N. G.
“The Seventh-day Adventist and the Seventh-day Baptist journals are trying to show that an acknowledgment of the Bible in the fundamental law of our land would make necessary the keeping of the seventh-day Sabbath. This is a characteristically cool assumption that the Sabbath of the Bible is the seventh-day Sabbath. Do not these brethren know that the great mass of the keepers of the first-day Sabbath, base their Sabbath-keeping on the Bible? The Bible is their ultimate rule of morals. And the Christian Sabbath, based on the Scriptures of him who is Lord also of the Sabbath, is the first day of the week.”—Christian Statesman. The “cool assumption” comes in when men profess to base upon the Bible an institution of which the Bible says nothing. The Bible iterates and reiterates that “the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” Whether it be “cool assumption” to believe the plain assertion of the word itself, or the unwarranted assertion of men that the immutable law of God has been changed, let the word itself be the witness and God the judge. The formal acknowledgment of the Bible in the Constitution would not make any Sabbath-keeping, or any other religious duty, “necessary.” It is the requirement of God’s word, in and of itself, that makes Sabbath-keeping necessary; and all the constitutions of earth could not add anything to the obligation. Nor can all the laws that man is capable of enacting produce a single Sabbath-keeper, altho they may produce millions of deluded hypocrites. “The law is spiritual,” and God accepts no service but that which is in spirit and in truth. “With the heart man believeth unto righteousness;” Again, were the Bible to be incorporated into the Constitution, the enforcement of any religious requirement would be unconstitutional; for the Bible nowhere sanctions the compulsory service of God. The express doctrine of the Author of the Bible is: “If any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not; for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him; the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.” Then the civil government has nothing to do with judging any one in respect to the word of God, whether he receives it or not. And with this doctrine the Constitution is already in harmony. The First Amendment explicitly provides that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” But both Congress and the Supreme Court have in a measure ignored this provision. Congress has declared that the first day of the week is the Sabbath, and the Supreme Court has decided that the enforcement of the religious Sunday institution in the states is constitutional. Thus the government is already committed in principle to the amendment which the Statesman and its legion of so-called “reform” auxiliaries are so urgently advocating. It is thus committed, in spite of the Constitution, to the principal thing that is desired by the proposed amendment. The original idea of a free government, civil and religious liberty for all, is fast waning before the fast-gathering storm of persecution for conscience’ sake.