THE Christian Statesman, of February 16, publishes an address delivered by Dr. R. J. George, at a convention of compulsory Sunday-observance advocates, held recently at New Castle, Pa. The address, which, with others, the Statesman promises will soon appear in pamphlet form, is entitled, “The Duties of the States to the Church,” and is treated under eight heads. The reader may be inclined to doubt that it is possible for a minister outside the pale of Rome to take such positions, but each of the eight positions were boldly taken and soberly defended and heartily indorsed by the convention and by the leaders in the movement for the enactment and enforcement of Sunday laws. The following positions are startling indeed, but they are the logical outcome of the first step,—a Sunday law:—
1. It is the duty of the State to recognize the independent authority of the Church.
2. The State is to be subservient to the Church.
3. The State should profess the true Christian religion.
4. The State should require scriptural qualifications in her rulers.
5. The State should restrain practices that are injurious to religion.
6. The State should maintain a true standard of morals.
7. The State should protect the Church.
8. The State should support the Church by timely gifts.
And now we ask, if this is not a faithful description of the “beast,” the papacy? And since it is not the “beast” that is here speaking but an apostate Romanizing Protestantism, it can be none other than the Apocalyptic “image to the beast.”
The Roman Catholic Church, in the darkest of the darkness of the Dark Ages, never demanded more from the State and never employed more in exterminating heretics than is here demanded. And this is the dominant sentiment of the present crusade for the enforcement of the Sunday-Sabbath, the “mark” or badge of the “beast,” on those who “keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.” (See Revelation 14:8-12.) [84]