RELIGIOUS LIBERTY

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Dec 12, 1900

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 26, No. 50.

RELIGIOUS LIBERTY.

It is refreshing to find such forthright utterances as the following by a religious denominational paper in these days when intolerance of unpopular beliefs is growing more manifest. This is from the Christian Advocate, and is entitled, "Within His Legal and Moral Right."

"A citizen of Connecticut has left about fourteen thousand dollars, the residue of his estate, to the Advent Publication Society of Boston. The provision of the will is:—

"I hereby give, devise, and bequeath the remainder of my estate to the Advent Christian Publication Society, located in Boston, which is duly and legally formed and organized. I charge this society with the duty of faithfully improving, according to their judgment and wisdom, chiefly by publications, in counteracting as far as may be the greatest of all pagan delusions, and upon which is founded all the great systems of error and superstition in the world—namely, the unscriptural, unreasonable, and pernicious doctrine of the immortality of the soul—that hereby the entire Christian system may be readily and clearly perceived, and the way leading to eternal life made free and plain to all who will follow it.

"Some of the heirs have appealed against the probate of the will and taken the case to the Supreme Court. They claim that it would be contrary to public policy to allow the bequest to stand, which is made for the purpose of attacking a doctrine universally believed by Christian peoples, and which is a corner-stone of civilization. This is no ground for breaking a will. This wing of Adventists simply believe this: that immortality is a gift to the true believer; that without this gift people are extinguished by the dissolution of the physical body, but Christ gives the principle of immortal life to those who believe in Him. Mr. Hall, the testator, has been for years a leader in the Second Adventist Church, and has spent thousands of dollars publishing tracts attacking the ordinary view of immortality and the relation of Christianity to it. He has the same right to propagate these views, and leave money to do it, that ordinary Christians have to support the ordinary view. The Unitarians, Universalists, Swedenborgians, and all other classes have similar rights. The great sum that was left to the society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, whereby its fine building was erected, was left by a man who believed in the transmigration of souls, and he was particularly interested in the brutes on that account. An appeal was taken, but the courts decided that it was no evidence of insanity, and that he had a right to act in harmony with his belief."

It will be of interest to know how the court decides this question.