p. 4 | REVERENCE FOR LAW by Joseph Clarke

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Mar 13, 1893

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 19, No. 19.

REVERENCE FOR LAW.

By Joseph Clarke

BY JOSEPH CLARKE.

THEN Peter and the other apostles answered and said, "We ought to obey God rather than men." Acts 5:29. Notice here the apostles had been commanded to preach no more in the name of Jesus. See Acts 4:18. Not much reverence had the apostles for a wicked law, even made by the highest earthly court, the great Sanhedrin, when in conflict with the laws of God.

"Love for our free civil institutions in our country is," says President Harrison, "on the increase." I had concluded it was on the wane, from the apathy he manifests towards religious intolerance in some of our States, and from the zeal shown by the Supreme Court and by himself to return to religious legislation. For the honor of our country, we may be in a measure less critical, and hide the evidence of national hypocrisy. But the Sunday question is causing high officials to declare their own shame. Let good men weep and lament for the country, once the cradle of liberty, now the hope of the Romish inquisitor and the paradise for hypocrites. Our liberties are no more. Heathen principles triumph; Christians mourn; patriots blush; and the genius of liberty departs from our land.