[By Prof. Percy T. Magan, Dean of Battle Creek College, Mich.]
ON the pages of prophecy the great events in the history of nations are written—written long centuries before their occurrence; but faithfully and accurately recorded nevertheless.
Oftentimes in dimness of human vision we separate the things of this life into deeds secular and sacred—things profane and religious. In a limited way this analysis may be correct. But in a greater, nobler, truer sense those things with which we sometimes think God has the least to do, are the most tender objects of His loving care.
Men look upon the affairs of nations as being matters of coldness and cruelty, and upon the part of the human instrument this is only too many times so. Yet the doings of governments are by no means absolutely divorced from the thinkings of the Almighty. Angel councils consider these things far more than human congresses. Senates of seraphim weigh them with a carefulness as infinite as that of parliaments or politicians is finite.
Wonderful and vast beyond the ken of man are the realms of thought constantly traversed by the mind of the great I AM. Was war to be waged between the United States and Spain? Our Father knew it all. Think ye not that He cared for the young lives to be sacrificed in the awful strife? Turned He not many a boy away from it that in later days He might make of him a soldier of the cross? Led He not others to a sailor's sepulcher to save them from a life of sin? Spared He not men, as by a miracle, in the midst of the carnage of battle, that the story might touch the hearts of those whom they had left behind them at home, and melt their cold proud hearts by a knowledge of His wonderful power to keep in danger's hour? Plucked He the fairest flower from a family? It was but that in the furnace of affliction He might refine and purify those whom He permitted to linger on awhile.
Is Congress to pass an act of tariff for revenue or protection? Doth He not consider it? Is a certain duty so high that factories, away over in Austria, perhaps, must close their doors for need of a market? Then helpless little children must lack bread and frail wee frames must suffer with the cold. Thinketh He not on that? Ah, true are the lines of the hymn—
> There's no place where human sorrow
> Is felt so much as up in heaven.
He, without whose knowledge not even a sparrow falleth to the ground, pondereth upon all these things; and could the vail be lifted, our eyes would see that many times angel warriors have decided battles and heavenly visitants have turned the balance of elections.
The laws and wars of governments among men leave behind them many shadows, all long, some few bright, and many dark; but God has set a light before all these, that men may know the weal or wo which is to come, and be prepared beforehand. All this He has told through His servant Peter: "We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts; knowing this first, that no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man; but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." 2 Peter 1:17-21.
Did you ever consider how large a portion of the prophecies of the Bible are simply and solely the history of nations? The larger part of the Old Testament is nothing but history.
Then it is not strange at all that when the Father of Lights would establish a home for the oppressed of every clime He should note it in His Book. Such an asylum was the United States, founded for the defence of two great principles, pregnant with happiness for millions of men—Freedom of Conscience on the one hand, and the Equality of Man before the Law on the other. These are the two great commandments in the fundamental law of the United States. On them hang all other statutes. These are the "two horns like a lamb" brought to view by John in The Revelation, as the characteristics of this nation. In the defence of these two principles this nation was conceived and born, and to them her life was dedicated. When once she shall have departed from them her charter of corporate existence is canceled. These two principles form the political creed of the nation. Yea, more than this, they form the prophetical creed of the nation. When the nation departs from them she commits national apostasy. Yet the Bible brings to view that this very state of things will come in the United States. The verse referred to reads: "And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon." Rev. 13:11. That is to say that the United States comes in like a lamb; but goes out like a dragon. But this in itself is national apostasy; for a dragon is the exact opposite in character of a lamb. Now the mind of man can not think of two governmental principles more calculated to impart to a government a lamb-like character than those of Freedom of Conscience on the one hand and the Equality of Man before the Law on the other. Equally, the mind of man can not conceive of two principles in things governmental more calculated to impart the character of a dragon than the doctrines that consciences should not be free, and that all men should not be equal before the law.
There is still another point in this verse well worthy of consideration. The two lamb-like horns still remain, while the nation speaks like a dragon: "He had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon." That is, while the United States still proclaims allegiance to these principles she speaks utterly and entirely contrary to them. She brandishes them upon her banners, while at the same time she murders them with her bayonets.
And the United States has departed, and is now departing daily, from these two great commandments upon which her destiny hangs. The principle of freedom of conscience is being repudiated in the Sunday laws which have been passed and enforced so many times during the last few years, and which, moreover, have in so many cases been upheld by the courts on cases of appeal. In our treatment of the Filipinos the other great principle has also been abandoned. Abandoned, perhaps, only for a few distant dependencies, but abandoned, nevertheless, and just as much. Long ago it was said by a great authority that "the British constitutions and large exclusions can not subsist together; that the constitution must destroy them, or they will destroy the constitution." These words are everlastingly true. They are more true of the American Constitution than they could possibly be of the British. And besides this they are just as true concerning any kind of an "exclusion" as they are true concerning a "large exclusion." Exclude the application of these principles in some remote islands, and you sow a seed which in time will produce a harvest of exclusion so great that there will not be a State or Territory in the Union exempt. And this is exactly what the prophecy predicts as coming in the United States, for these States are to "make an image to the beast."
Now the image to the beast is the image of the Papacy; and the sum and substance of the Papacy is the union of Church and State. But the State with which the Roman apostate church united was an apostate State. Once Rome had been republican, she turned toward imperialism, and became Imperial Rome instead of Republican Rome. And it is altogether fitting that at the time when Church and State join hands in this boasted land of freedom, the church which has apostatized from the principle of freedom of conscience should join with a State which has apostatized from the principle of equality before the law. In fact, were both sides to remain true to these two principles, it would be absolutely and utterly impossible for them ever to make an "image to the beast."
But the image of the beast is being formed. Rome was a republic, and, being a republic, made high pretensions to being the great conservator of the true principles of liberty in the earth. She pretended to love and desire liberty for other peoples. She espoused the cause of the small States of Greece which were struggling against the kingdom of Macedon. "In the cause of humanity" she marshaled her armies and mobilized her fleets and sent them across the seas in order that she might carry liberty to these poor suffering ones. Everywhere her arms were victorious; but when the smoke of battle had cleared away the peoples whom she had ostensibly set out to liberate, awoke to the fact that they were not free after all. They found that they had only changed masters, and that in place of Macedon, a weak master, they had gotten Rome, a strong master. And7this is precisely the experience of some other small States who have been struggling against monarchies in this day and age of the world. And the worst of it all is that the United States is playing the role of Rome.
The history of the Republic of Rome was written in the book of Daniel 370 years before it occurred; and then that sketch was closed up and sealed, not for 370 years, not till 168 B. C. and onward; but for 2,400 years, 'till the time of the end.'
All of this was in the wisdom and kindness of God. Because the Lord knew that at the time of the end there would be another republic, the United States, which would go the way of Rome. Therefore he opened the book before the time of the end that all who live at this time, and in this Republic, may be warned of the course the nation is bound to pursue, and being warned, flee the wrath to come. For just as certain as ruin and trouble overtook Rome in her wicked course, just so sure will ruin and trouble overtake the Republic of the United States in its wicked course. Now is the accepted time to be naturalized into the kingdom of God, to become citizens of another country, even an heavenly.
PERCY T. MAGAN.
JEFFERSON'S PROPHECY.
By Thomas Jefferson
BESIDES, the spirit of the times may alter, will alter. Our rulers will become corrupt; our people careless. A single zealot may commence persecution, and better men be his victims. It can not too often be repeated that the time for fixing every essential right on a legal basis is while our rulers are honest, and ourselves united. From the conclusion of this war we shall be going down hill. It will not then be necessary to resort every moment to the people for support. They will be forgotten, therefore, and their rights disregarded. They will forget themselves, but in the sole faculty of making money, and will never think of uniting to effect a due respect for their rights. The shackles, therefore, which shall not be knocked off at the conclusion of this war, will remain on us long; will be made heavier and heavier, till our rights shall revive or expire in a convulsion.—Notes on Virginia, Query XVII.
Religion Beyond Government
By James Madison
Religion is not within the purview of human government. Religion is essentially distinct from government, and exempt from its cognizance. A connection between them is injurious to both.—James Madison.
Religious Accountability to God
Every man is accountable to God alone for his religious faith.—George Washington.
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY THROUGH THE CHRISTIAN ERA.
By C. M. Snow
SIXTY-THREE years before Christ, Julius Caesar became head of the State religion of Rome, the director of the worship of the Roman deities, empowered by authority of the State to punish, banish, or put to death those offending against the laws of the realm in matters of religious practise. In short, the State and its officials were the ultimate authority in affairs of religion; State and Church were united; patriotism and religion were one; consequently, to refuse homage to the gods was unpatriotic as well as irreligious. Thus could the Roman Senate declare sacred the person of Caesar, and make it an act of sacrilege to show him disrespect in any way, no matter of what unworthy deed he might be guilty; for by the votes of the people he was "Caesar the Demi-god," "The Invincible Deity."
In such a system of government, religious liberty was a thing unknown. The subject of such a government was the property of that government—its slave—in each and all its functions. Did he have mental and physical abilities? they existed for the ends and purposes of the State, and for it alone. Did he have religious aspirations, reachings out after God? the ownership and directorship of these, too, were the legal property of the State that owned him. Under such a government as this the worship of Jehovah became permissible only because the laws of Rome made the gods of a subject nation a part of the deities of the realm, and Palestine was such a nation.
This was the condition of the world when the Son of Joseph, the Carpenter of Nazareth, proclaimed His mission in Galilee of Judea. Tho others before Him had asserted their own individual liberty in matters of conscience, Jesus Christ was the first to proclaim openly the emancipation of all mankind in this regard:—
"If any man hear My words, and believe not, I judge him not; for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world." John 12:47.
Christ Himself heralded the liberation of the soul from the prison-house of a State religion; and He Himself went to the cross a victim of the religious intolerance of the Jews, a criminal under the laws of the Hebrew nation, tho spotless under the laws of God. That was but the beginning of the persecution of Jesus Christ. He has been slain and burned and racked and scourged and imprisoned and banished in the person of His followers from then till now. And that He knew all this would come to those who would follow in His footsteps is shown in His words again and again:—
"And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul." Matt. 10:28.
"But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another." Matt. 10:23.
"Behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes; and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogs, and persecute them from city to city." Matt. 23:34.
"The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you." John 15:20.
"They shall put you out of the synagogs; yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service." John 16:2.
"Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for My sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad; for great is your reward in heaven." Matt. 5:11, 12.
There was no waiting time between the utterance of these prophetic words of Christ and their fulfilment. They began to be fulfilled at once, and are being fulfilled still even in the United States of America. Christ had not left the tomb before the wrath of the Jews was being poured out upon His apostles. As a result of this they were gathered in a room with the doors closed "for fear of the Jews" on the evening of the day of Christ's resurrection. The stoning of Stephen fulfilled the words of Christ's prophecy, as did also the intolerant career of Saul, till the glory of Christ's presence smote him on his last tour of persecution, and Saul, the persecutor, became Paul, the apostle of peace.
Following this the history of the early church is a history of persecution sustained at the hands of Jew and heathen alike. So firm a hold had intolerance in religion secured upon the world that we have no record of real religious liberty by government or people (except in the dominion of Theodoric the Goth ) toward those holding differences of religious belief until after the Reformation, only as the true followers of Christ exercised it toward those who differed from them. It is true that the fires of persecution were allowed to cool at times, but only to be renewed later with the same cruel malignity.
When Christianity had succeeded in winning converts from heathenism and Judaism alike to such an extent as to attract the attention of the Roman Government and be recognized as a new religion, apart from the religion of the Jews, the heavy hand of Roman law fell upon it in an attempt to crush it out. The bloody work of Nero (A.D. 64) is familiar to all, carried on in part to please the populace, and in part to turn away their anger from himself; but all made possible because it was in harmony with the cruel intent of the laws of the time. According to Milman there was a modified form of religious toleration in the city of Rome from the time of Nero's notorious slaughter of the Christians until the reign of Decius 249-251. But during this time persecution was going on continually in some part of the Roman Empire. During the reign of Trajan, A.D. 98-117, there seems to have been a lightening of the skies for the Christians so far as the emperor himself was concerned. In his instructions to Pliny the Younger, governor of Bithynia, Trajan said: "These people are not to be sought for; but if they be accused and convicted, they are to be punished." This is the law which he was to enforce: "No man shall have for himself particular gods of his own; no man shall worship by himself any new or foreign gods, unless they are recognized by the public laws."—Cicero.
Trajan was not desirous of persecuting the Christians; but there stood the established Roman law, and when any were accused of its violation and convicted, he must instruct that the punishment provided for such violation be carried out. This the emperor did, coupling with his instruction the advice not to seek for or encourage accusation against them. This instruction may be regarded as discouraging rather than encouraging religious persecution—as a faint glimmering of religious liberty; and it was nothing but the union of the Church and the State that restricted such men as Trajan and Alexander Severus from granting religious liberty, and gave free rein to such men as Nero and Caligula.
True Christianity, and the true humble followers of Christ, were unalterably opposed to the whole foundation principle of Church-and-State religion, and the growth of true Christianity was coextensive with the growth of the true principles of religious liberty. But there came a time when those who called themselves Christian were not such in truth. As the ranks of the Christians grew, it became less odious to bear the name, and multitudes joined the church whose hearts were wholly with the world.
Finally, after a terrible persecution under Valerian, Christianity was recognized as a legal religion. The subjects of Rome could be Christians if they would, without governmental interference. There was religious toleration for a time, if not religious liberty. This much of history is repeated in the persecution carried on during the reign of Diocletian, and continued until Galerius, who had instigated the persecution, smitten by a loathsome disease, granted toleration to the Christians and requested them to pray for his recovery.
Following this came the celebrated edict of Milan, drawn up by Constantine and Licinius in March, A.D. 313. By this edict freedom of worship was granted to all throughout the whole Roman realm. It ordained "that no freedom at all shall be refused to Christians to follow or to keep their observances or worship. But that to each one power be granted to devote his mind to that worship which he may think adapted to himself. . . . The privilege is also granted to others to pursue that worship and religion they wish." But this same Constantine was an idolater, a sun-worshiper, noted for the magnificence of his gifts to the gods, attempting to propitiate the God of the Christians and secure His favor by granting to Christians freedom of worship. Here is his own reason for issuing the edict of Milan: "That whatsoever divinity and celestial power may exist, may be propitious to us and to all that live under our government. . . . That the Deity may in all things exhibit to us His accustomed favor and kindness." He wanted the favor of all the gods, including the God of the Christians.
Under this emperor and through the influence of ambitious bishops the Church and State were reunited, with Catholic Christianity as the State religion, and protected from "pernicious adulteration," by imperial command. The religious liberty that had been enjoyed was now, and through centuries to follow, replaced by an intolerance more hateful than that which existed under pagan rule; for it was done in the very name of Him who was the Author of religious liberty. A counterfeit theocracy was established, with man sitting in the place of God, and true Christianity entered upon her struggle of twelve centuries. Under this false theocracy, Papal Rome, there never was and there never can be religious liberty. Space forbids to tell of what the adherents of true Christianity suffered during those dark and dreary years while millions of Christ's followers were giving their lives as the price of worshiping God according to "the dictates of their own consciences."
The idea of what constituted acceptable worship of God had become so debased that Augustine, one of the "church fathers," could say:—
"It is, indeed, better that men should be brought to serve God by instruction than by fear of punishment or by pain. But because the former means are better, the latter must not therefore be neglected. Many must be brought back to their Lord, like wicked servants, by the rod of temporal suffering."
And of this "church father" the historian Neander says:—
"It was by Augustine, then, that a theory was proposed and founded, which . . . contained the germ of that whole system of spiritual despotism, of intolerance and persecution, which ended in the tribunals of the Inquisition."
And the Inquisition was the direct and necessary working out of the principle of religious intolerance under a Church-and-State government; and in that iniquitous institution we have a history of the most disreputable transactions this earth has ever seen. The Inquisition is the very antithesis of religious liberty—it is religious intolerance worked out.
Against the mystery of iniquity Martin Luther set his hand in the sixteenth century, and the key of his success was the spirit in which he did it. "It is by the Word that we must fight. I am unwilling to employ force against the superstitions or unbelieving. None ought to be constrained. Liberty is of the essence of faith. . . . I have never drawn the sword, nor called for vengeance. I have committed all to God, and awaited His strong hand. It is neither with the sword nor the musket that Christians fight." These principles were the headlight of Luther's work; but when Lutheranism, still professing the principles laid down by Luther, became the State church of Prussia and the Scandinavian countries, it denied its right to the title, and might well be likened to a great express train bearing along in the darkness with its headlight pointing backward rather than forward. What the Lutherans have done in these countries, Zwingli was instrumental in accomplishing in Switzerland. Calvinism in Geneva8was of the same type, and citizens were compelled to swear to the confession of faith. Scotland suffered under the same system, and religious liberty in England, France, and Ireland was overridden by the decrees of Henry the Eighth, first head of the Church of England.
Out of all this wilderness of intolerance came the early settlers of the Western Hemisphere, fleeing from the persecutions of the Old World, and bearing with them its pestilential seeds, to propagate in the home they sought that same wickedness from which they fled. And they pruned and cultivated it well, and saturated the soil in which they planted it with the blood of those who differed from them in matters of faith and conscience. Instance, John Cotton teaching in Massachusetts Colony the blessedness of persecution; the banishment of Roger Williams and William Cartright for teaching religious liberty, and the banishment of scores of others for practising it; the mutilation of Quakers by cutting off their ears, boring their tongues with a red-hot iron, whipping at the cart's tail, and, finally, the death sentence passed upon them and executed; the whippings and other persecutions of the Baptists; the "blue laws" of Connecticut, and similar legislation and persecution in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Georgia, and Virginia.
In the midst of this religious oppression stood the little State of Rhode Island, with a liberty-loving, Christian governor, an exile for Christ's sake from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Rhode Island stood among the States as a star of hope, lighting the path to religious liberty in the nation. The policy of her governor in this respect is declared in these words: "Any breach of the civil law shall be punished, but the freedom of different consciences shall be respected." "But whatsoever fortune may befall, let us not be compelled to exercise any civil power over men's consciences."
Thus came the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States. The glorious flower of religious liberty had bloomed among the thorn trees planted by the first settlers of the country. Religious liberty, instead of a State religion, was established in the New World. The great truth of the equality of man and his unalienable rights was set before the world, and protection guaranteed to all in worshiping according to the dictates of conscience, or in not worshiping at all. Congress was forbidden to establish a religion, or make laws in regard thereto. In short, all were equal before the law in all particulars; and thus did America become a city of refuge, an asylum, for the oppressed of every land.
But even this government did not go far enough. The States were not forbidden to legislate in religious matters, and, as a result, every State in the Union, save two only, has a Sunday law, and conscientious Christians, against whom no fault in temporal affairs is found—no fault save in the law of their God—are to-day condemned to imprisonment, to fines, and to working in chain-gangs. And the situation, instead of growing better, is fast growing worse. In 1892 the Supreme Court of the United States declared this to be a Christian nation, which virtually established the Christian religion, and paved the way for the passage of a religious law in the following year—the law closing the gates of the World's Fair on Sunday, thus committing itself to the principle of religious legislation.
Now the whole country is stirred by those working in behalf of the enforcement of existing Sunday laws and the enactment of more stringent ones, and the most powerful religious orders in the country (numerically) are throwing the weight of their influence in favor of such legislation. In view of all the sickening persecutions of the past, in this country and the world at large, have not the people of this age seen enough of religious legislation? and has not the purchase of religious liberty been dear enough? Has it not paid its pound of flesh? or must Shylock have the heart as well?
C. M. SNOW.
OUR COUNTRY—ITS DANGERS.
By Ellen G. White
BY MRS. E. G. WHITE.
THE greatest and most favored nation upon the earth is the United States. A gracious Providence has shielded this country, and poured upon her the choicest of Heaven's blessings. Here the persecuted and oppressed have found refuge. Here the Christian faith in its purity has been taught. This people have been the recipients of great light and unrivaled mercies. But these gifts have been repaid by ingratitude and forgetfulness of God. The Infinite One keeps a reckoning with the nations, and their guilt is proportioned to the light rejected. A fearful record now stands in the register of heaven against our land; but the crime which shall fill up the measure of her iniquity is that of making void the law of God.
Between the laws of men and the precepts of Jehovah will come the last great conflict of the controversy between truth and error. Upon this battle we are now entering,—a battle not between rival churches contending for the supremacy, but between the religion of the Bible and the religion of fable and tradition. The agencies which will unite against truth and righteousness in this contest are now actively at work.
Bunker Hill Monument, Breed's Hill, Boston.
God's Holy Word, which has been handed down to us at such a cost of suffering and blood, is but little valued. The Bible is within the reach of all, but there are few who really accept it as the guide of life. Infidelity prevails to an alarming extent, not in the world merely, but in the church. Many have come to deny doctrines which are the very pillars of the Christian faith. The great facts of creation as presented by the inspired writers, the fall of man, the atonement, and the perpetuity of the law of God, are practically rejected by a large share of the professedly Christian world. Thousands who pride themselves upon their wisdom and independence regard it an evidence of weakness to place implicit confidence in the Bible, and a proof of superior talent and learning to cavil at the Scriptures, and to spiritualize and explain away their most important truths. Many ministers are teaching their people, and many professors and teachers are instructing their students, that the law of God has been changed or abrogated; and they ridicule those who are so simple-minded as to acknowledge all its claims.
In rejecting the truth, men reject its Author. In trampling upon the law of God, they deny the authority of the Lawgiver. It is as easy to make an idol of false doctrines and theories as to fashion an idol of wood or stone. Satan leads men to conceive of God in a false character, as having attributes which He does not possess. A philosophical idol is enthroned in the place of Jehovah; while the true God, as He is revealed in His Word, in Christ, and in the works of creation, is worshiped by but few. Thousands deify nature, while they deny the God of nature. In a different form, idolatry exists in the Christian world to-day as verily as it existed among ancient Israel in the days of Elijah. The god of many professedly wise men, of philosophers, poets, politicians, journalists, the god of polished fashionable circles, of many colleges and universities, even of some theological institutions, is little better than Baal, the sun-god of Phoenicia.
No error accepted by the Christian world strikes more boldly against the authority of Heaven, none is more directly opposed to the dictates of reason, none is more pernicious in its results, than the modern doctrine, so rapidly gaining ground, that God's law is no longer obligatory upon men. Every nation has its laws, which command respect and obedience; and has the Creator of the heavens and the earth no law to govern the beings He has made? Suppose that prominent ministers were publicly to teach that the statutes which govern our nation and protect the rights of its citizens were not obligatory,—that they restricted the liberties of the people, and therefore ought not to be obeyed; how long would such men be tolerated in the pulpit? But is it a graver offense to disregard the laws of States and nations than to trample upon those divine precepts which are the foundation of all government? When the standard of righteousness is set aside, the way is open for the prince of evil to establish his rule in the earth.
It would be far more consistent for nations to abolish their statutes, and permit the people to do as they please, than for the Ruler of the universe to annul His law, and leave the world without a standard to condemn the guilty or justify the obedient. Would we know the result of making void the law of God? The experiment has been tried. Terrible were the scenes enacted in France when atheism became the controlling power. It was then demonstrated to the world that to throw off the restraints which God has imposed is to accept the rule of the cruelest of tyrants.
Whenever the divine precepts are set aside, sin ceases to appear sinful, or righteousness desirable. Those who refuse to submit to the government of God are wholly unfitted to govern themselves. Through their pernicious teachings, the spirit of insubordination is implanted in the hearts of children and youth, who are naturally impatient of control; and a lawless, licentious state of society results. While scoffing at the credulity of those who obey the requirements of God, the multitudes eagerly accept the delusions of Satan. They give the rein to lust, and practice the sins which called down judgments upon the heathen.
Let the restraint imposed by the divine law be wholly removed; and human laws would soon be disregarded. Because God forbids dishonest practices,—coveting, lying, and defrauding,—men are ready to trample upon His statutes as a hindrance to their worldly prosperity; but the results of banishing these precepts would be such as they do not anticipate. If the law were not binding, why should any fear to transgress? Property would no longer be safe. Men would obtain their neighbors' possessions by violence, and the strongest would become richest. Life itself would not be respected. Those who disregard the commandments of God sow disobedience to reap disobedience. The marriage vow would no longer stand as a sacred bulwark to protect the family. He who had the power, would, if he desired, take his neighbor's wife by violence. The fifth commandment would be set aside with the fourth. Children would not shrink from taking the life of their parents, if by so doing they could obtain the desire of their corrupt hearts. The civilized world would become a horde of robbers and assassins; and peace, rest and happiness would be banished from the earth.
Already the doctrine that men are released from obedience to God's requirements has weakened the force of moral obligation, and opened the flood-gates of iniquity upon the world. Lawlessness, dissipation, and corruption are sweeping in upon us like an overwhelming tide. In the family, Satan is at work. His banner waves, even in professedly Christian households. There is envy, evil surmising, hypocrisy, estrangement, emulation, strife, betrayal of sacred trusts, indulgence of lust. The whole system of religious principles and doctrines, which should form the foundation and framework of social life, seems to be a tottering mass, ready to fall to ruin. The vilest of criminals, when thrown into prison for their9offenses, are often made the recipients of gifts and attentions, as if they had attained an enviable distinction. The greatest publicity is given to their character and crimes. The papers publish the revolting details of vice, thus initiating others into the practise of fraud, robbery, and murder; and Satan exults in the success of his hellish schemes. The infatuation of vice, the wanton taking of life, the terrible increase of intemperance and iniquity of every order and degree, should arouse all who fear God to inquire what can be done to stay the tide of evil.
Courts of justice are corrupt. Rulers are actuated by desire for gain, and love of sensual pleasure. Intemperance has beclouded the faculties of many, so that Satan has almost complete control of them. Jurists are perverted, bribed, deluded. Drunkenness and revelry, passion, envy, dishonesty of every sort, are represented among those who administer the laws. "Justice standeth afar off; for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter."
Our land is in jeopardy. The time is drawing on when its legislators shall so abjure the principles of Protestantism as to give countenance to Romish apostasy. The people for whom God has so marvelously wrought, strengthening them to throw off the galling yoke of popery, will, by a national act, give vigor to the corrupt faith of Rome, and thus arouse the tyranny which only waits for a touch to start again into cruelty and despotism. With rapid steps are we already approaching this period. When Protestant churches shall seek the support of the secular power, thus following the example of that apostate church, for opposing which their ancestors endured the fiercest persecution, then will there be a national apostasy which will end only in national ruin.
Conscience and Religious Coercion
If minor punishments would not restrain the Jew, or the Sabbatarian, or the infidel, who believes Saturday to be the Sabbath, or disbelieves the whole, would not the same system require that we should resort to imprisonment, banishment, the rack, and the fagot, to force men to violate their own consciences, or compel them to listen to doctrines which they abhor?—Report of House of Representatives, 1830.
