May 11, 1899
CHRISTIANITY does not “follow the flag;” it follows the cross.
THE “civil Sabbath” represents an effort to secure rest without religion, recreation, or sleep.
TRUE Sabbath rest is derived from the Sabbath itself, not from an enforced quiet and cessation of business.
THE true Christian warfare is not where one nation overcomes another, but where an individual overcomes the world.
ONLY the law of Christ can provide the religion of Christ. A Sunday law can provide only the religion of the State.
A SUNDAY law shuts off competition in trade; it provides a way to be religious without costing anything. But religion which costs nothing is too cheap to be worth anything.
THE religion God has provided costs something. The price of it was advertised on Calvary. Nor has it gone down in price since the crucifixion. It costs now just as much as it did then.
THE true religion demands the crucifixion of self. And he who has crucified self for the sake of religion has done infinitely more than any Sunday law could secure. He has done that which State religion does not demand, and the Sunday law is expressly designed to avoid.
THE law of Christianity demands the crucifixion of self; the State Sunday law demands the crucifixion of conscience. That is the difference between the religious laws of God and of man. And that is why no man or body of men has any business to enact such laws.
GOVERNMENT of the people by the people, cannot be any more righteous than the people are themselves. And the people cannot make themselves any more righteous than they are.