To the Individual

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · May 21, 1912

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 39, No. 20.

To the Individual

THE government which regards the rights of its subjects, will not exalt institutions above men, but men above institutions. The institution may be honored if men will, but its observance will never be compulsory. Not only this, but a true government will not subject the individual man to the arbitrary demands of the many. Man surrenders no inalienable right to society or government. If the government be a true government, it conserves and guards the rights of each one, and each one in his rights. And when each person is protected in his rights, all are protected in their rights. And as long as each man is protected in his rights, so long can no person or class suffer from the infringement of their rights. The thing to be exalted, therefore, in a just and permanent government, is the individual man and his inalienable rights, whether he be Jew or Christian, infidel or believer, Roman Catholic or Protestant; for in this only are the rights of all conserved.