RELIGIOUS LIBERTY, as meaning that which can be affected by the law of the land, is only a part of civil liberty. It is civil liberty in religious matters. Hence a person’s civil liberty cannot be denied without affecting his religious liberty; and a denial of the right of self-government is as truly an assault upon religious freedom as is the enactment of a Sunday law. The person whose civil rights are not respected, will in vain look for any deference to be shown to his religious. This is logical, and this is the way it has always been in history.
MAN, as a prophet, is a dazzling failure. Yet the world to-day is full of would-be prophets who assure us there is a better time just ahead, and whose predictions find ready acceptance with the people. Here is an illustration which we find mentioned in an exchange. A Frenchman, M. Bloch, last year wrote a book showing that war is impossible, on account of the marvelous efficient of the modern army rifle. Soon after its publication came the Transvaal war. And now the author has reissued his volume under a different title, and shows in it that with modern weapons the civilian is as good a fighter as the regular soldier; thus proving as our exchange remarks, that “the more effective and deadly the weapons, the more general will war be; and that is what anybody might have known beforehand.”
THE Sunday laws exalt idleness above honest labor, make tobacco a greater “necessity” for people than bread, distinguish between a forenoon “shave” and an afternoon “shave” on the same day, and present endless similar inconsistencies and restrictions upon honest industry and individual freedom. What is the necessity for such laws? Why not class them with the outgrown relics of church-and-state times, where they belong, and drop them from the statute-books of the nation? Why not allow that the people have the right to be free on Sunday the same as on other days? Why treat them as capable adults six days in the week, and as children who must be kept under surveillance the remaining day? Will some advocate of the Sunday laws please tell us?