T

HE Christian Statesman for November last, had this note on page 491:

One of the stock objections to any and all connection between the state and religion is the fact that the state has often abused its power in forcing creeds upon people against their convictions. But however difficult of adjustment this matter may be, it is poor logic that reasons in this manner."

The trouble with this so-called "stock objection" is that it does not touch the principle at all. The state has no right to enforce any creed upon any one. This is just as true of one creed as of another, without reference to the truth or falsity of that creed.

It was just as wrong for Elizabeth to burn Roman Catholics as for Mary to burn Protestants. The state can only declare and guarantee human rights. To go beyond this in any way is to usurp a

divine prerogative and to trench upon the rights of conscience.

The reason for this is twofold. First, God has the right to every man's voluntary service. That which is forced is not and cannot be voluntary. Therefore to make religion obligatory is to deprive the divine Being of the voluntary service which is his by right. Second, so far as his fellow men are concerned, every man has the absolute and undeniable right to believe in, to reverence, and to worship God, or not to do any of these things, just as seemeth to him to be good; and to attempt to enforce all or any of these duties is to deny to the individual the rights that the Creator has given to him

Union of church and state has always worked evil and only evil, and we greatly marvel that it still has defenders, or even apologists.

B.

T

HE citizen owes allegiance to the

state and obedience to God. The decalogue constitutes a complete system of legislation pertaining to this dual relationship. The last six precepts enjoin one's duties to his fellows. They may be re-enacted or enforced by the state, in so far as citizenship is concerned, without violating religious obligations or rights of conscience. They have a literal application to the citizen, and a spiritual application to the Christian. Thus the laws against murder and adultery may be transgressed by the heart of hate and the lustful, salacious eye. The state can only take cognizance of the overt act, regardless of the impurities of the mind and heart.

Whether the transgression is menta or physical, all these six commandments. define what is right and prohibit what wrong, and the guilty have no right to claim that the enforcement of them by the state violates liberty of conscience or freedom of religion.

With the first four commandments this is not so. They enjoin one's duties to his God. Their obedience requires faith and worship. They are church properties, and the foundation of church gov ernments and regulations. The state can measure up to the highest ideals of civility and good citizenship without the nee or assistance of them. An attempt by the state to change, modify, or enforce any one of them makes a union of church

and state. The union of church and state is responsible for the history of ntolerance of the Dark Ages, the Inquisition, with its chamber of horrors, the millions of martyrs whose blood is still crying out against such wicked alliance. The light of the Reformation has swept from the statute books all laws pertainng to the first three commandments. We are not now answerable to the state for alleged heresies, nor for refusing to bow to images.

How about the Sabbath?

The Sabbath belongs to God and not to the state, for he calls it "my holy day." Therefore, keeping the Sabbath holy is a Christian, not a civil, duty. All Sunday laws are directly or indirectly religious legislation, and they therefore make a union of church and state. They are repugnant to the principles of reli

gious freedom guaranteed to the citizen by the Federal Constitution. They violate every bill of right of every State of the Union. They invite persecution, and have been the means of fining, imprisoning, and making martyrs of God-fearing Christians. They are a black mark against the fundamental principles of Americanism. How can they survive the enlightenment of the twentieth century? They do not, they can not, make better citizens. In Rome the union of paganism and state made it possible for Nero to feed Christians to the hungry lions, and transfix their burning forms, that had been dipped in pitch, to light his pleasure gardens.

Divorce the church from the state. Emancipate the mind as well as the body. "Render therefore unto Cæsar the things which are Cæsar's; and unto God the things that are God's."

"I SHALL pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again." This doctrine is the essence of true religion.

L.

mont and Maryland," for the purpose of learning how Sunday laws operate. These two articles ought to stir every liberty-loving citizen to send a protest against the passage of these bills to his Senators and Representative.

L.

THE recent Sunday law crusades carried on in certain localities of North Dakota and Iowa are now past history. Just like all Sunday law crusades in the past, they came suddenly and unexpectedly, like the swift-fleeing meteors of the night, produced a startling flash, and then

sank into utter oblivion. What fools we mortals be! When shall we learn sense, and realize that Americans are free men, and not slaves? True Americans will not permit any ecclesiastical or political autocracy to juggle with religious freedom and civil democracy.

L.

THE only punishment which the Scriptural Christian church imposed upon an unbeliever or a wrong-doer, was a re

fusal to fellowship him. Christ said: "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." If the followers of Jesus Christ had always imitated the example of their divine Pattern in their attitude toward sinners and unbelievers, such a thing as Christians' persecuting one another could never have been possible. But the history of the church is far different. In her golden censer she holds the precious lifeblood of millions of martyrs slain by her hands. Truth and conscience still have their Gethsemane and Calvary.

L.

THE Christian Statesman, in its November issue, in commenting upon political conditions in one of our great American cities, says:

"Whatever the outcome, the situation calls attention to the deplorable condition of our city politics, and recalls the drastic remark of Dr. Josiah Strong in one of his books, that holding a municipal office in a large city almost impeaches a man's character."

Then follows in due course this suggestion by the Statesman:

"When civil government, national, State. and municipal, is founded on the Word of God, and candidates are required to square with righteous public sentiment, then, and only then, will we have proper government."

Does not the editor of the Statesman know, or knowing, does he ignore the fact, that some of the most corrupt governments and corrupt eras that have ever cursed the world and disgraced Christianity have been governments and eras wherein civil rulers made the highest profession of serving God, and wherein the church and the state were the most

closely united? If he does not know, let him read the records of the past, not forgetting the terrible abuses that incited the people of France to revolt against both church and state in the latter part of the eighteenth century, and let him give special study to the private lives and crimes. and vices of that illustrious pair of "Christian" emperors. Constantine and Charlemagne.

If it should be discovered that anything is lacking to make conditions utterly bad and utterly rotten in the particular city referred to by the Statesman, that lack would doubtless be supplied in short order by establishing a religious qualification for public office, for surely the sum of all villainies is found in a combination of the political rascal with the religious hypocrite. Human experience has dem onstrated the truth of this proposition. and history records the evidence in language that cannot be misunderstood, and in letters large and clear enough so that even he who runs may read.

慌慌慌

After the War

B.

THE Sunday schools of all nations are planning to join forces after the war in order to give the world a moral and religious reconstruction. The World Sunday School Association has a membership of 35,000,000. A special committee. comprising representatives from all Christian countries, is "to prepare a world message and program for the moral and religious reconstruction of the world following the war." The object is to formulate a religious program that will unify religious belief and morals. and then to advocate legislation which will adequately "carry these plans into full effect."

The National Federation of Religious Liberals held its eighth congress in Boston, on November 25 and 26. It is affiliated with eleven different religious bodies. Many of the leading clergymen and thinkers of the country are connected with this organization in an official capacity. The object of this organization is just the reverse of those who are striv ing to unify religious belief and urging a formulated program of religion upon the world. Its purpose is stated as follows:

"The central purpose of the National Federation of Religious Liberals is to promote in the public and especially the religious — mind the conviction that true and enduring religious fellowship cannot he brought about

by uniformity of belief and worship. It can only be attained by oneness of moral sympathy and purpose, by mutual respect for differences of opinion and custom, by that unity of the spirit which makes possible interdenominational and interreligious co-operation for human and social service beyond the lines of sect and creed. For while intellectual sympathies are limited, moral sympathies are universal."

It is a good thing to have large religious organizations that entertain opposite views upon such vital issues. It has the tendency to equalize matters, and to give the people a freedom which otherwise would be well-nigh impossible.

THE Anti-Saloon League, which assembled in this city December 10, is to be transformed shortly into a general "reform" organization, if certain sinister inAluences now at work succeed. This is definitely understood and agreed to, even by some of the leaders. These men believe that a few years will see the whole country "bone dry," so far as law statutory and constitutional can make it. The work to be done then will not be to mold and direct public opinion against the saloon, but to enforce the law. A large number of ministers and others who have been employed for years in creating antisaloon sentiment and crystallizing it into law, will then be without occupation, unless some provision is made in the meantime for the promotion of other "reforms." It is understood, therefore, by the inner circle, that the constitution of the league will be so amended as to broaden the sphere of its operations, and it will at once put its mighty force behind a multitude of so-called moral reforms, among which strict Sunday enforcement, state and national, is to take first place. The only reason this was not more publicly advocated in the Washington meeting was the fear that it might alienate from the league the sympathy and co-operation hitherto given it by many who are opposed to the liquor traffic, but who oppose also anything savoring of union of church and state, or the enforcement of religion or religious observances,

Connecticut Blue Law Repeal

BLUE laws were brushed aside, August 5, throughout the State, and Connecticut celebrated its first open Sunday in three hundred years.

For three centuries only drug stores could be open on Sunday. But now bakeries, ice-cream parlors, milk stations. fruit stands, tobacco stores, news stands, and automobile shops were all open and did a thriving business. The motion picture theaters were stormed in many places by the big crowds who were out for a good time. One section of the new act allows amateur baseball and other sporting events to take place on Sunday, provided no admission fee is asked. Rifle ranges may also be opened.

The reaction from the old blue laws of New England to the liberalized Sunday laws, in imitation of the Continental sabbath, is a mistake and a grave moral danger. God's law, giving one day in seven for rest for man, and a day of peaceful and orderly worship for those who desire it, is recognized in the Sunday laws of the Christian nations of the world. To weaken these laws and give the day over to pleasure, mirth, or dissipation, is not only a sin before God. but a serious menace to the perpetuity of our free institutions. The principle underneath the stated period for rest and worship is so deep that the Almighty incorporated it thus in the ten commandments: "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy." Ex. 20:8.-The Christian Herald, Aug. 22, 1917.

The editor of the Christian Herald very naively assumes (a) that Sunday is the Sabbath by divine appointment; and (b) that it is the duty of the state

Blue Laws in District are Proposed in Bill

A BILL which would virtually establish Sunday blue laws in the District of Columbia was introduced today by Senator Jones of Washington and referred to the District committee.

The measure would prohibit the performance of all unnecessary work in Washington on Sunday. Newspaper workers and employees of public service corporations, however, would be exempted under its provisions.

All other kinds of work except domestic servants' work is prohibited on Sunday. Fines ranging from $10 to $50 for the first offense, and from $25 to $100 for the second offense, with jail imprisonment from one to three months, are provided as penalties.- The Evening Star, Washington, Dec. 11, 1917.

MEN of national reputation, standing high in governmental positions, have told us that the LIBERTY magazine is the best of its kind in the field, and that its style, make-up, and contents are improving with each issue. A Congressman recently informed us that he felt that this magazine ought to be placed in every reading home in America. If you read this magazine through, you will doubtless receive the same impression. Will you not help us to extend its circulation? Organize a club of subscribers. Help us to place it in all public and school libraries. By ordering fifty or more copies at one time, you can obtain them at four cents each. See special rates on the first page.

L.

MONDAY, Dec. 17, 1917, the national House of Representatives passed, by a vote of 282 to 128,- eight more than a

two-thirds majority,— the joint resolu tion proposing to the States a national prohibition amendment to the Federal Constitution.

The resolution had previously passed the Senate, which body the next day. namely, the 18th, concurred in the onl amendment offered by the House, making the time limit for the approval by the States seven instead of six years.

This question now goes to the State legislatures to be fought out. As amend ments to the Constitution must have the approval of three fourths of the States. thirteen can defeat the measure. It is not believed, however, that the liquor interests can hold that number of States ir line for seven years, and the friends of national prohibition, including LIBERTY magazine and a host of its readers, art jubilant over prospective victory for the amendment.

B.

A PACIFIST orator, speaking in Cincinnati a few weeks ago, was taken out of the city, carried across the river int Kentucky, and cruelly whipped. Referring to this fact, the Catholic Columbias (Columbus, Ohio), in its issue of November 9, said:

"Every law-abiding citizen must conden the beating given to the Rev. Herbert S. Big low, of the People's Church in Cincinnati, by a mob, in punishment for his opinions on the war. There is a law for all crime, and ther are authorized officials to enforce it. No m violence should be tolerated."

This is good sentiment. However mis taken their ideas may be, the pacifist are not the most dangerous enemies of the nation; its worst enemies are those who would by mob violence or by overriding Constitutional guaranties, den freedom of speech and fetter and enslave the press. Here is our greatest nationa danger.

B.

THE truths of the gospel are not to b safeguarded by civil law. The state has no shadow of right to define or in any way to punish sin, or offenses against the divine Being.