“WE have a law,” was the excuse by which the Pharisees justified themselves in putting Jesus Christ to death.
IT is a bad sign when the clergy get more concerned over the suppression of crime than over the eradication of sin.
UNTIL there can be a law passed which will make the devil cease work on Sunday, it will be well not to have laws making idle hands for him to find employment for on that day.
THE best people in the State are not those who are willing to conform their consciences to the decisions of legislatures, but those with whom conscience is the dictator of conduct under all circumstances.
THAT the Creator did not make man incapable of doing wrong, is conclusive proof that He did not mean that any man should be forced to do right.
JESUS CHRIST did not say to his followers, Tarry ye in the halls of legislation, till ye be endowed with power from the State; but “Tarry ye, … until ye be endowed with power from on high.”
A QUIET Sabbath can always be obtained by spending the day in the company of the Lord of the Sabbath. No worldly labor by others will disturb the one who does this.
THE Creator stamped man with His own image, yet this did not save man from falling into the gulf of ruin; yet it is now proposed to save the nation by stamping God’s name on its Constitution.
SINCE the people create the state, it is radically wrong for the state to act as if it were the creator of the people, and the dispenser of their rights.
THE more state religion, the less home religion, is a never-varying rule.
STATE law and religious persecution never settled a religious controversy.
TRUE religion is ever intolerant of false principles, but never intolerant of men.
THE sacredness of a right depends not at all upon the number of people that possess it.
HUMAN law cannot be based upon God’s law, for the divine law is finitely higher than the level of the laws of men.
CIVIL government cannot undertake to compel people to do right without working at cross purposes with the gospel.
CHRISTIANITY has invariably proved a blessing to the savage races of the earth, but mere “civilization” has more often than otherwise proved a curse. The white man’s vices are copied far more readily than his virtues.
THE deep piety and spirituality which may be seen in the religious work of people who derive no aid or support in religion from either the law of the land or popular custom—as for example those who observe the seventh day Sabbath—is proof positive that real piety and spirituality are in no way conserved by such “helps,” and will in no way suffer among the people if these are wholly withdrawn. The more a person leans on the world, the less will he depend on the Lord.
A RIGHTOUS nation cannot be a nation whose righteousness is of the law. For righteousness is not of the law, but of faith.