A BAPTIST PROTEST AGAINST STATE AND CHURCH LEGISLATION.
By Enoch H. Sweet
[From the Baptist Watchman.] To THE EDITOR OF THE Watchman: A petition is in circulation in the State of Vermont, in which the petitioners memorialize "the honorable Senate and House of Representatives of the Vermont Legislature" for the passage of "a law regulating the running of railroad trains on Sunday." The petition is addressed to pastors of all denominations in the State—Protestant and Roman Catholic—to be circulated among their churches and congregations. Everybody in Vermont will probably admit the existence of the evils which the petitioners deprecate. Christian people generally will sympathize with the avowed purpose to "lessen" the desecration of the Sabbath day. But the writer wishes hereby to express an emphatic opinion against the method adopted for attaining this purpose, and to expose the subtle error underlying such a movement. The churches cannot, without adopting an anti-scriptural policy, implore the State for aid to support the Sabbath as a religious institution. To understand fully the purpose of the petition, we should note the following significant facts:— 1. The petition emanated from an ecclesiastical gathering. In the preamble it is stated that action was taken to memorialize the Legislature by the "General Convention of Congregational Ministers and Churches of Vermont." 2. The petitioners are asked to subscribe to the following: "We, the undersigned, in behalf of the churches and Christian sentiment of the State, do hereby respectfully petition your honorable bodies for the passage of a law curtailing the complained-of abuse." The design is here confessed to be a law "in behalf of the churches and Christian sentiment," etc. 3. "The committee appointed by the convention" have sent uniform copies of the petition to the pastors, with the following direction: "Will you not kindly see that the accompanying petition is circulated among your church and congregation, and all others it is desirable to reach?" Thus the signatures shall be secured by the pastors from their churches and congregations, etc. This movement is, therefore, seen to be nothing less than a petition emanating from an ecclesiastical body, drawn up in behalf of the churches, to be circulated by the pastors among the churches, etc. The following considerations are suggested to the Watchman readers in Vermont: Are churches justified in invoking Legislatures for laws in the interests of religion? Shall they appeal to the secular powers to support a religious institution? Shall they take up the sword to defend the sanctity of the Sabbath day? God forbid! "The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds" (Paul). "My kingdom is not of this world; if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight" (Jesus). Let not the hydra-headed monster of the past—the union of Church and State—be resurrected, by Protestants, at least, in these last days. Let not Christian hands be put to a memorial for State legislation in support of religious institutions. May our appeals be directed rather to the throne of God, whence cometh the help of the saints. "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts."