July 7, 1897
JUSTICE is above statute.
IT is the business of legislators and courts to discover law, not to make it.
THERE is slavery in every other pathway than that of the law of God.
BEING a stickler for “the law” proves nothing more than that the man may be a good Pharisee.
GOD does not care anything about governments, but He does care a great deal about men.
IT is the business of the law to protect society; of the gospel, to reform the criminal. There is no reforming power in a statute.
THERE are a great many creeds and denominations in the world, but—from a moral standpoint—only two classes of people; namely, those who believe on Jesus Christ unto salvation, and those who believe not. From God’s standpoint, this is the only different there can be between any two individuals on earth.
IT was because of envy that Cain murdered Abel, and this evil sentiment has been the actuating motive in every case of religious persecution from Cain’s time to our own. The wicked envy the happy estate of the just, which is theirs by virtue of “righteousness, and joy, and peace in the Holy Ghost.”
“IN order that every man may enjoy the religious Sunday,” said the Rev. Mr. Reed, of Haverhill, Mass., in a recent discourse, “every man must observe the civil Sunday.” Was it then an oversight on the part of the Creator that in his Sabbath commandment he makes no allusion to a civil sabbath, or provision for its observance? Sunday observance, to be sure, is not commanded by the Creator, but if it were, could not one person observe it independently of the actions of some other persons? Is our obedience to God dependent upon the uncertainty of the obedience of others around us? We think not.