THE real test of the principles of religious liberty is prosperity. There has never been a persecuted class but what has loudly declaimed in favor of religious liberty, or liberty of conscience. The Puritans believed in religious liberty when they themselves were persecuted. The Roman Catholic believes in it where he is not the dominant authority; but when power came to Puritan or was possessed by Catholic, they both persecuted. Prosperity tested them as it frequently tests individuals. True religious liberty will grant to the powerless (physically or secularly considered), or the smallest minority, equal rights in all religious matters with the majority.
In our Federal government for one century religious liberty existed. Even Catholics laud the freedom granted in this country. In a recent book of sermons on the "Life of Christ," by "Father" Didon, a noted Catholic priest, of Paris, we have the following:—
It may be said that the surroundings most favorable to Christian belief, and consequently to the belief in the divinity of Christ, are those in which it has, I do not say the protection of authority, but the fullness of liberty. In modern civilization the two countries where that liberty is largest, England and the United States, are precisely those two countries where the belief in Jesus Christ declares its vitality by its most vigorous expansion. It is notorious that in England, a country of great individual autonomy and much public liberty, the Catholic faith, faith in Jesus Christ, is extending and developing. In the United States this phenomenon is still more manifest and astonishing.
But the principles of religious liberty, that which will give the other, weaker man liberty to think, talk, and practice as he desires, equally with the stronger, are the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He who has the Spirit of Christ will do as Christ did. He said, "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 is our example. On the other hand, speaking of those who would think they were doing God's will in persecuting others, Jesus says, "And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me." The spirit of intolerance and persecution is the spirit of antichrist. The secret of religious liberty is the gospel of Christ. That will stand the test. But both Protestants and Catholics are endeavoring to destroy liberty of conscience in that government under which—both government and liberty—they claim to have achieved their greatest successes.