THE Christian Statesman, of March 13, says that “Sabbath breakers” it means all who do not keep Sunday.
“Anarchists at heart” are not essentially different from any anarchists. As it is true that “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh,” It must be true that “anarchists at heart” will be anarchists in word and acct; and they are therefore to be subjected to the most rigid restraints of the law. This is the Statesman’s idea of “religious liberty,” by the plain logic of the premises it sets up.
But the question of “Sabbath breaking” is purely a theological one. It is purely a question of theology whether the Statesman is not itself guilty of “Sabbath breaking.” For whether the Sabbath be the seventh or the first day of the week, is a question not determine by human law, but by the Word of God; and this question is warmly disputed by religionists to-day. It is a question which theologians would be called upon to decide and these having decided in any given case who were the anarchists, it would be left for the latter to be dealt with as such by the civil authorities.
This is precisely the regime which prevailed in the Dark Ages.
SEPARATION of Church and State means recognition of the fact that it does not belong to the Church to undertake the work of the State, or of the civil authorities or even though the latter may show themselves negligent or incompetent in the performance of their duties.