1884.—Power of the State.
Why has the state a right to enforce marriage laws and not Sabbath Laws? Isn't one a divine institution as well as the other? Yes, both are divine institutions; so is man and all that pertains to him; that is, God is their origin; but God gave us different things in different spheres of action. Marriage laws have wholly to do with man's relation to his fellow men. On a purely economic basis the state would have a right to regulate marriage laws. In this, of course, it does not say as to whom one shall marry. Some states prohibit certain marriages, but they do not direct the marriage nor the persons entering into such a contract. Marriage has to do with the home, has to do not only with the rights of those who enter into that relation, but to their children, grandchildren, and to all their posterity; and therefore it has to do with the settling and transfer of property. It has to do with one's citizenship, or transfer of citizenship or property rights from one country to another. Not so, however, with Sunday-keeping. The Sabbath is to be kept, not holy to man, not holy to the state, but holy unto the Lord. It is a worship day that pertains to the great Jehovah on the one side, and to His human child on the other, and therefore lies entirely outside the province of the state.