IF the legislature can properly tell an individual what is allowed on the Sabbath and what is a desecration of the day, the legislature can take the place of conscience in the matter of Sabbath observance; and if it can take the place of conscience in this matter, it can take it in other matters as well, and the individual conscience can be dispensed with.
And this is exactly the tendency of religious legislation. It invades the realm of conscience, and wherever conscience consents to the invasion, it is weakened, and the individual robbed in like degree of his manhood.
Legislation which destroys manhood is not a blessing to any land, but a curse.