January 4, 1900
THE conscience can acknowledge no master but God alone.
NO moral question can be settled by the ballot, or by vote of the legislature
ANY scheme which makes one man morally accountable to another man, or set of men, is popery; and no such scheme can be any better than the papacy.
THE scheme to have the Constitution “acknowledge God” is really a scheme to have that document acknowledge the theocrats it back of the scheme as the moral rulers of the nation.
THE agencies of the divine government are not human, but invisible spiritual agencies which proceed from the throne of God. With their appointment man can have nothing to do.
THE true acknowledgement of God is always made in the individual heart; and if God be not acknowledged in the hearts of the people, any outward acknowledgement of him is only hypocrisy and sin.
WE have been told that “this is a Christian nation;” but we have never been pointed to the time when it was baptized, or the occasion when it was “born again,” or to any evidence that it is “crucified with Christ,” or that it exists to serve rather than to be served.
“GOVERNMENT of the people, by the people,” is responsible alone to the people; the creature is responsible alone to its creator. God is the Creator of the people, and they are responsible to him; but directly, as individuals, and not through some creature which they may bring forth.
“THE kingdom of God is within you,” said Jesus Christ; hence the throne of God is in the Christian’s heart, and the voice that speaks from it is the voice of God. And any attempt to set up a national conscience over the individual conscience is an attempt to drive God from his throne in the heart, and set him upon a man-made throne in the state.