October 7, 1897
THE best way to restore Sabbath observance, is to observe it. A good example will accomplish more in this direction than law or precept.
THE Sabbath of the Lord is a gift: the man-made sabbath is an institution thrust upon the people by the force of civil pains and penalties.
THERE are always plenty of men in the world who are willing to become lawmakers for other people and by their zeal in this to atone for their own shortcomings.
THE “concert” of “Christian” Europe will evidently always remain a thing to be, judging from the length of time the would-be participants have been vainly trying to get in tune with each other.
THE rights of a Christian do not include the prohibiting of other people from going contrary to his own religious belief or practice. His rights are not concerned by his religious belief.
THERE are a great many more heathen in the United States than there are in Christians, determined by the Bible rule that all persons are heathen who do not know the Lord.
THERE is a vast difference between being directed by the Lord, and being under the direction of some man who claims to speak for the Lord. We prefer to be guided by the Word of the Lord, interpreted by his Spirit.
A DISPATCH from Rome says that “the pope has instructed the papal nuncio at Madrid to insist upon the clergy opposing Carlism and to urge the clergy to earnestly support the Spanish ministry and present Spanish dynasty.” And the pope and clergy of “the church” never have anything to do with politics, no never—well hardly ever, unless the interest of “the church” or something else demands it, and their own inclination justifies it.
IF it be true that the government has a right to enact laws for the preservation of morality, is it also true that morality can change with every change of the government and its regulations? Since every government on the earth does change (and none more frequently than a republican government), and since morality does not change, how can the latter be properly a subject of governmental regulation? When human laws are altered, is there ever, in any case, an alteration of right and wrong?—Certainly not; and this is conclusive evidence that human legislation is not adapted to deal with right and wrong: or, in other words, with morality.