TRUE WORDS FROM CANADA.
By Editor
The agitation for religious legislation is not by any means confined to the United States. From numerous points in Canada we hear echoes of the conflict that is going on there over this matter. There has been agitation there over post-office closing on Sunday, over street-car traffic on that day, over the closing of stores, etc., and even those quietly laboring on farms, disturbing none, have been hailed before courts for the so-called "desecration of the Lord's day." But if Canada needed a precedent in this matter, she need not look farther than our own United States to find them by the hundreds. It is good to know that there are some worthy men who see the injustice of these things and are not afraid to declare their position. The declarations of one such we quote, in part, from the Listowel (Ontario) Banner: When Christ was here on earth, He taught the total separation of church and state by rendering to Caesar (civil government) that which is Caesar's and to God that which is God's. Matt. 22: 15-22. The Sabbath belongs to God. Ex. 20: 10. That the church of Christ is positively prohibited from using worldly force, or power of any kind, to enforce the principles of the spiritual kingdom, is evident from the following: - Christ says that His kingdom is not of this world, hence He will not allow His servants to fight for it. John 18: 36.
- He rebuked Peter because he used his sword to defend his Master. Matt. 26: 47-53.
- He rebuked the disciples because they desired to see those destroyed who would not believe Jesus. Luke 9: 51-56.
When He was upon earth, He preached the Gospel and did not act the part of a policeman. Those ministerial secretaries of the Alliance who go about with "a big stick" enforcing a sabbatical law, instead of preaching the Gospel (to which work they once affirmed they were called), have much to learn both from the precepts and example of the Christ they profess to follow. We quite agree with you, Mr. Editor, that we can not make a person holy by legislative enactment. We drive more people away from religion by any attempts to follow Lord's Day Alliance lines, than we draw to it. Sabbath observance and religion are governed by the conscience, and the sooner we learn this, the less hypocrites there will be, for men will never be other than hypocrites who act a part with which they are not in sympathy.
ROBERT SAINT CLAIR,
Pastor U. B. Church. We are glad that the editor of the Listowel Banner is brave enough to declare in his own columns the truth that "we can not make a person holy by legislative enactment." It is a matter of deepest regret that so many of the professed ministers of Jesus Christ are so unwilling to admit that most obvious fact, and continue to advocate a course which the Master never sanctioned and did not and could not employ in His work. No coercion of conscience should be the Christian's motto; for no coerced conscience ever was, or ever can be, acceptable to our Lord. Religious legislation is a power for the making of hypocrites, but it can not make Christian character, and it has no right to make the attempt.