October 20, 1898
THE religious state means always religion enforced by the power of the state.
SIN reigns in this world wherever grace does not reign; and the reign of sin will be just as bad as sin is bad, and sin is as bad as anything can possibly be. Grace, and not legislation, is the effective antidote for sin.
THE state always casts a dark shadow when it gets between God and human souls.
THE state conscience is guided not by the Word of God, but by the popular vote.
WHEN the state professes religion, it cannot consistently remain out of the church; and when the state applies for admission to the church, it logically places itself in subjection to the church.
“THE noonday of the papacy was the world’s midnight.”
THE first Sunday edict was issued in 321 A.D. by a pagan emperor; and the first shadows of the coming Dark Ages appeared in legislation for the observance of Sunday.
SINCE Christianity means love and persuasion, while the state always secures its ends by compulsion, the state cannot profess to be Christian without making itself a hypocrite.
THE union of church and state extinguished the sunlight of the gospel and lighted the fires of the Inquisition.
TO STAND on the highest earthly eminence, the Christian Church must descend from the heavenly eminence where God has placed her.
FOR the state to become religious, and yet refuse to join the church would be for it to discredit either the church or its own religion.
THE cloak of piety is always in demand by the representatives of intolerance and the enemies of popular rights.
[Inset.] THE DARK AGES COMING UPON THE WORLD FROM CHURCH AND STATE UNION. THE Christian Church went forth to the world from the baptism of Pentecost proclaiming with power the pure gospel, and the light of it penetrated to all countries. But a change came over her attitude of separation from the world, and in the fourth century she clothed herself in the robes of civil authority and ascended the throne of the Cesars. In A.D. 321, the Roman emperor, Constantine, made an edict commanding the people in the cities and towns to abstain from work on “the venerable day of the sun,” which marked the beginning of that legislation which the church has clamored for and defended down to the present. Church and state joined hands, and as the union progressed, the sunlight of the gospel of love became more and more obscured, until the long night of the Dark Ages settled down upon the world. Only this could be the result of uniting religion with the civil power.