LIBERTY-LOVING TENNESSEE.
By Editor
TENNESSEE ought to be the headquarters, the Mecca, of National Reformers and Sunday-law people; for Tennessee not only believes in Sunday laws, but she has one which is by no means a dead letter, as those who are faithfully endeavoring to obey God have in the few years past found out. Some of these cases of persecution have from time to time been laid before our readers. There are some in Tennessee who go further than Sunday laws. They do not believe in tolerating anything not strictly "orthodox." The following from the Dayton (Tennessee) Leader will explain itself:— Where do we live, in Christian Dayton, or Western lands? In an age of religious liberty, or the blind intolerance and bigotry of the sixteenth century? A Christian minister ordered to leave town! A few weeks ago a Seventh-day Adventist minister from California, by the name of J. W. Scoles, was sent to East Tennessee by his church to do missionary work in behalf of that organization. He located at Graysville, and a short time afterward began a series of meetings in this city, and, it is said, made a number of converts to his creed. He is said to be an earnest and intelligent speaker, and discoursed upon abstruse scriptural doctrines peculiar to his church, but advocated the same standard of ethics that is accepted and preached by all theologians and moralists of whatever creed. From what we have been able to learn, he has transgressed no moral law, but has simply expounded his scriptural doctrines and advocated his creed, as all other preachers do every day in the year. Notwithstanding our boasted liberality, blind bigotry has asserted itself in this instance, as the following note, which Mr. Scoles received through the Dayton post-office last Monday morning, will show, and which we give verbatim et literatim:— "Mr Scoles we Notify you in Short to leave this town and Never More Return know We Will gave You till Monday Morning to leave In, and if you Do not leave you May take What follows
"We W C" This is an infamous outrage. Our Constitution and advanced civilization guarantee to every man the right to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience, and everyone who would deny a man this right is an enemy to free government and free thought. We neither indorse nor condemn Mr. Scoles' doctrines, for we do not know anything about them. If he is satisfied with them, and conforms to a pure standard of morals, everyone else ought to be. We do not think he will submit to bull-dozing, and will likely be in town next Monday.