The Bible and Religious Liberty
By W. A. Colcord
Its Principles in National Life
SOME seeds when planted spring forth quickly and bear fruit; others may lie dormant for years before germinating and yielding returns. So of Christ's teachings; some took effect at once, while others were not to ripen for generations to come. When, to silence the Pharisees, who were seeking to entangle Him in His talk, and to find a pretext for putting Him to death, Christ said, "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's," He planted a seed that was not to spring forth and come to its full fruitage for nearly two thousand years. Not until these latter times was this truth to be so generally received as to find expression in a nation. All along the way, individuals, of course, had received it and acted upon it; but no nation. But Providence had ordained that before the close of the career of this sin-stricken world, mankind should see exhibited on a national scale, and before the whole world, a government founded and conducted upon this divinely enunciated principle. As Christ came to bless men by turning them away from their sins; as His first discourse opened with benedictions, telling men how to be happy and blessed; and as all His teachings were designed to bless and uplift mankind, so this instruction was given to bless the world. In consequence of this instruction's not being heeded for long ages, the world was brought into a state of tyranny and bondage. Five years before the discovery of America, Pope Innocent VIII issued a bull for the subjection or extirpation of the Waldensian Christians from the Piedmont valleys. It brought no charge against them as lawless, idle, or dishonest. Their fault was that "they did not worship as Innocent worshiped." If they refused to abjure their faith, said the Roman pontiff, let them "be crushed like venomous snakes." See Wylie's "History of Protestantism," volume 2, page 435. To Cardinal Thomas de Vio, his legate, Pope Leo X, in 1518, gave the following instruction concerning Luther and his followers: If he should persist in his stubbornness, and you fail to get possession of his person, we give you power to proscribe him in all places in Germany; to put away, curse, and excommunicate all who are attached to him, and to enjoin all Christians to shun their society.—D'Aubigné's "History of the Reformation," book 4. Three years later, 1521, Henry VIII of England wrote to the elector Palatine, of Germany, concerning Luther, thus: Surely, it is no other than the devil, who, by the agency of Luther, has kindled this wide-spread conflagration. If Luther will not retract, let himself and his writings be committed to the flames.—Id., book 9. And in his book "Defense of the Seven Sacraments, against Luther," this King of England further said: All the servants of Jesus Christ, whatever be their age, sex, or rank, should rise up against this common enemy of Christendom.—Id. In 1604, King James of England said: I will have none of that liberty as to ceremonies; I will have one doctrine, one discipline, one religion in substance and in ceremony.—Bancroft's "History of the United States," volume 1, page 196 (ed. 1888). Instead of granting the Puritans permission occasionally to assemble, and at their meetings to have the liberty of free discussion, he said: I will make them conform, or I will harry them out of the land, or else worse, . . . only hang them; that's all.—Id. Sixty years later, under Charles II, Bunyan was imprisoned for exercising his freedom in matters of religion. While in prison he was told that he must "leave off those meetings you were wont to have," and "submit yourself to the laws of the land, or during the next session it will go worse with you."—"Life and Times of John Bunyan." The Correct Principle Little Understood
Such was the general attitude of prelates and rulers in the Old World during the Dark Ages. Freedom of thought and opinion was not tolerated, nor the rights of conscience respected. Civil authority was substituted for Scriptural argument; and where conviction could not be produced, obedience was demanded. And so little did many even of the most devout followers of Christ understand the true meaning and the practical application of the great principle which He had enunciated, that those who had fled from the hand of oppression in the Old World at once proceeded to exercise it in the New. To quote the words of President Taft: "They came to establish freedom for their own religion, and not the freedom of anybody else's religion. The truth is that in those days such a thing as freedom of religion was not understood." "Freedom of conscience," says Bancroft, "was in that age an idea yet standing on the threshold of the world, waiting to be ushered in; and none but exalted minds—Roger Williams and Penn, Vane, Fox, and Bunyan—went forth to welcome it." There was need of a new nation, founded upon a new principle, and establishing "a new order of things." Slowly men emerged from the religious despotism of the middle ages into the light of the civil and religious liberty of modern times. Little by little they began to recognize the rights of men, and to see that "proscription and persecution are no part of the legitimate business of civil government," that "the stake, the rack, the gibbet, the dungeon, thumbscrews, sword, pillory, and stocks have no rightful place in the machinery for the propagation of the Gospel." Finally freedom came into full bloom. Despite the noxious plants brought over from the Old World, in the New World the seed of civil and religious liberty had taken deep root. From the virgin soil a nation arose in which there was "a church without a pope, and a State without a king." Conscience was placed above the civil power, and the Word of God above the authority of the visible church. Its founders said: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." They enacted that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;" and that "no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust" under the Government. The bell of "Liberty" rang out, on which were cast the words: "Proclaim liberty throughout all the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof." The story of all this has been told so well and so beautifully by Bancroft, that we quote him here. He says: In the earliest States known to history, government and religion were one and indivisible. Each State had its special deity. . . . No one thought of vindicating liberty of religion for the conscience of the individual till a voice in Judea, breaking day for the greatest epoch in the life of humanity by establishing for all mankind a pure, spiritual, and universal religion, enjoined to render to Caesar only that which is Caesar's. The rule was upheld during the infancy of the Gospel for all men. No sooner was the religion of freedom adopted by the chief of the Roman Empire, than it was shorn of its character of universality and enthralled by an unholy connection with the unholy State; and so it continued till the new nation—the least defiled with the barren scoffings of the eighteenth century, the most sincere believer in Christianity of any people of that age, the chief heir of the Reformation in its purest form—when it came to establish a government for the United States, refused to treat faith as a matter to be regulated by a corporate body, or having a headship in a monarch or a State. Vindicating the right of individuality even in religion, and in religion above all, the new nation dared to set the example of accepting in its relations to God the principle first divinely ordained in Judea. It left the management of temporal things to the temporal power; but the American Constitution, in harmony with the people of the several States, withheld from the Federal Government the power to invade the home of reason, the citadel of conscience, the sanctuary of the soul; and not from indifference, but that the infinite spirit of eternal truth might move in its freedom and purity and power.—Bancroft's "History of the United States," volume 6, pages 443, 444. The influence which this nation has exerted throughout the world in favor of religious freedom has been very great. Would that it might ever remain true to the great principle upon which it was founded. But, like a worm at the root of some beautiful plant, there are elements at work here to undermine this principle, and to undo all that the fathers and founders of it have done. And few realize how rapidly this work of destruction is going on. At the present rate of progress, a few years more will see its complete undoing.