A PAPER which is devoted to the propagation of the doctrine that religion and politics ought to be united, says:—
“Were the powers of the state used to protect the Sabbath and maintain its sacredness, to purify the family and prevent vice, it would be the church’s mightiest helper.”
Think of it: the state becoming the church’s mightiest helper! What church, what religion, could hold to such a view? Not Christianity; for that affirms that the church’s helper in her contest with evil here is none other than the almighty One above.
No; this is the religion which seeks the help of the state and the pathway of politics. That the state can become the church’s mightiest helper is exactly what that religion teaches. It is what every one must accept as truth who holds to the idea of religion in politics. It is the old principle of church and state union. The very essence of that union is the idea that the state can—and therefore ought to—help the church.
But it is not the truth, and brands as false the religion which maintains it. When the church looks for the state to become her “mightiest helper,” she turns her back upon Him who said to His people, and for them in all ages, “All power is given unbto Me in heaven and in earth;” and “Lo, I am with you always, even unbto the end of the world.”