Scripture and Civil Religion
By Editor
The following from the New York Christian Advocate is to be commended by all who love consistency:— "The propriety of printing a text of Scripture at the head of a secular newspaper is a matter of taste. But about the consistency of placing such a passage as this— 'Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them, to be rulers of thousands, and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens'— At the head of a newspaper, and in the same number calling upon the people to vote for five rumsellers for aldermen of the city, we have a decided opinion, which is this: That the men do not answer to the description, and if such men are to be voted for, this would be more appropriate: 'WHEN THE WICKED BEARETH RULE THE PEOPLE MOURN.'" The above use of Scripture is on a par with religion by law, and the enforcement of religious observances by civil enactment. But does not this text of Scripture sanctify the men?—Yes; in the same way and degree that calling Sunday a civil sabbath makes it a civil institution, and no more. Calling wicked men good will not make them so; calling Sunday a civil institution will never alter the fact that it is religious and ecclesiastical.