Election Excitement and Religious Liberty
By Editor
THERE will be found in this issue that which should arouse in serious minds earnest thought even in these days of election excitement. Elections are temporal; the things of God are eternal. Religious Liberty Library No. 41.—The title of this number is "Fighting against God," by A. F. Ballenger. It is a nicely printed tract of 16 pages, on fine calendared paper, with six fine cuts illustrating the original poem which the tract contains, together with many notes and telling passages of scripture on man's relation to God. It should have a large circulation. Regular discounts to the trade. Single copies, price 3 cents. How Long?—How long does it take a lie to become the truth? How long must a counterfeit bill pass before it becomes genuine? How long must black be called white to make it white? Of course, we know that the common-sense answers to these questions are that the lie remains the lie, the counterfeit remains a counterfeit, black never becomes white. But, reader, this is just as true in religion as in common ethics, commerce, or physics. The Sunday can never become the Sabbath of the Lord by calling it so. It bears not the image and superscription of God. It is not a current coin in the kingdom of heaven. Under-officials may assume power to change it, may conspire with the counterfeiter to despoil and cheat the subjects, but it is counterfeit still; and "when the fulness of the time" has come God will reveal its hollowness. "The Sabbath and the Sunday."—The articles on this subject will close at present with the one published in this issue, altho much more might be said. We have gleaned but a few of the testimonies of the ages relative to the Sabbath of the Lord and its rival, the pagan Sunday. Do not think the name harsh, dear reader; study the question to see if it be not the proper term to apply to the so-called Lord's day. We grant that good men and women, accepted of God, have kept and are keeping the Sunday, believing it to be taught of God. We are not condemning them; the matter lies between them and God. He accepts them not because of Sunday observance, but in spite of it,—because their hearts are right. Good men and women have passed counterfeit notes and coins. This did not make them worse, because they did it ignorantly; but did it or does it make the coin better? THE vicissitudes and incongruities of party politics is well illustrated in the fact that the Democratic candidate for President to-day is traveling through the country quoting and indorsing the sentiments expressed by Abraham Lincoln when he was the Republican candidate for President, and the Republicans of to-day are calling it Anarchy. It seems that the "two great parties" (perhaps inadvertently in the scramble for spoils) have been swapping principles. But such is politics. A Triple Meteor.—A despatch from Nevada, Cal., of the 22d inst., says:— "A triple connected meteor was observed in the northern heavens at ten minutes past six o'clock this evening. Three balls of fire, all in a row, and connected like a train of cars, with a long fiery tail, flashed in view just a few degrees above the western horizon and traveled in a direction a little north of east. In half a minute it disappeared from view high in the heavens, apparently somewhere over the great dipper and north star. From all accounts this grand sight was not generally observed, as the hour and time did not find many people on the streets. The sight was magnificent and awe-inspiring, and one long to be remembered, as it did not appear to be over forty or fifty miles above the earth. A splendid view of the triple-connected meteor was taken by W. M. Richards." The same phenomenon was witnessed in this city, and noted as a remarkable sight.