Lessons from the Reformation Chap 21 (F.o.U.B. 2013)

Adriel
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Joined: May 29th, 2012, 8:41 pm

Lessons from the Reformation Chap 21 (F.o.U.B. 2013)

Postby Adriel » April 24th, 2013, 4:56 pm

21. THE CHRISTIAN AND REFORMATION RELIGIOUS LIBERTY
OF THE FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT. (Part 1)

[The matter that composes this chapter was originally a speech that was delivered by the author of this book, in Washington, D. C., Jan. 6, 1912, and was published in the daily Washington Herald, Jan. 7, 1912. There was no thought then that this book should ever be written. Yet no more fitting close of the book could be made than is already supplied in the speech. It is therefore inserted exactly as it was made.]

In preceding speeches I have made perfectly clear the church origin, the religious and ecclesiastical character, and the un-American and unconstitutional standing, of all Sunday laws in the United States.

In this speech I shall make just as clear the truth that by the National Constitution, and particularly by the Fourteenth Amendment, in its certain intent and plain provisions, every citizen of the United States is entirely free from every Sunday law in every State in the United States. The particular provisions of the Fourteenth Amendment that I shall discuss are contained in the first two sentences of Section 1: --

"All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States, and of the State in which they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States."

"Before this amendment was adopted, primarily there was no such thing as citizenship of the United States. Men were first citizens of their respective States; and as a consequence, or by inference, were citizens of the United States.

This was because of the fact that the thirteen original States were all here as independent States before the National government was formed. In the then situation, citizenship of the United States was both indefinite and precarious.

The Fourteenth Amendment completely reversed that order of things. It makes citizenship of the United States both primary and paramount. It also makes this citizenship definite, and certain, and secure, everywhere in the Nation, by prohibiting every State from ever making any law, or enforcing any law already made, that abridges the privileges or immunities that pertain to this now and forever primary and paramount citizenship of the United States.

Before, all that any man could be certain of, as to his citizenship, was that he was a State man. Since, in his citizenship every man knows that he is absolutely and irrevocably a National man.

There has been gained the impression that the Fourteenth Amendment was framed with particular reference to the race that lately had been emancipated. However that may be as to the other sections of this Amendment, it is not in any sense true as to the first section.

Nothing can be more certain than that the first section was designed as an original measure, and on original ground, to remedy the long-existent defect as to citizenship of the United States; and to make effective to "the whole people of the United States" the full intent of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

This was expressly declared by Thaddeus Stevens, John A. Bingham, James G. Blaine, and others, to be the intent of the first section.

Thaddeus Stevens, as Chairman of the Committee, had charge of the Resolution in the House, where it originated. Speaking directly of the First Section, he said: "Our fathers had been compelled to postpone the principles of the Declaration [of Independence], and wait for their full establishment till a more propitious time. . . . I can hardly believe that any person can be found who will not admit that every one of these provisions is just. They are all asserted in some form or other in our Declaration or organic law. But the Constitution limits only the action of Congress, and is not a limitation on the States. This
Amendment supplies that defect." "The public mind has been educated in error for a century. How difficult, in a day to unlearn it." -- Cong. Globe, May 8, 1866, P. 2459

Mr. Miller said: The First Section "is so clearly within the spirit of the Declaration of Independence of the 4th of July, 1776, that no member of this House can seriously object to it." -- Id., May 9, P. 2510.

John A. Bingham closed the debate on the Resolution in the House. He said: "There was a want, hitherto, and there remains a want now, in the Constitution of our country, which the proposed Amendment will supply. What is that? It is the power of the people, the whole people of the United States, by express authority of the Constitution, to do that by Congressional enactment which hitherto they have not had the power to do, and have never attempted to do: that is, to protect by national law the privileges and immunities of all the citizens of the Republic, and the inborn rights of every person within its jurisdiction,
whenever the same shall be abridged or denied by the unconstitutional acts of any State."

He said that no State ever had the right to do these things, yet that "many of them have assumed and exercised the power, and that without remedy." "Many instances of State injustice and oppression have already occurred in the State legislation of this Union, of flagrant violations of the guaranteed privileges of citizens of the United States, for which the National Government furnished and could furnish no remedy whatever. . . . That great want of the citizen and the stranger, protection by National law from unconstitutional enactments, is supplied by the First Section of this Amendment." -- Id., May 10, Pp. 2542, 3.

James G. Blaine also had a material part in it all. And in his history of it he says that it "establishes American citizenship upon a permanent foundation, which gives to the humblest man in the Republic ample protection against any abridgement of his privileges or immunities by State law, which secures to him and his descendants the equal protection of the law in all that relates to his life, his liberty, or his property. The first section of the Constitutional Amendment which includes these invaluable provisions, is in fact a new charter of liberty to the citizens of the United States" -- "Twenty Years of
Congress," Vol. II, P. 312.

What then are the privileges and immunities of citizens of the United States, that no State shall abridge? In the Senate, Senator Howard, of Michigan, had charge of the Resolution. In answer to this direct question, he said that they are "the privileges and immunities of citizens of the several States" as in Section 2 of Article IV of the National Constitution; and that now, "to these should be added the personal rights guaranteed and secured by the first eight Amendments to the Constitution." -- Cong. Globe, May
23, 1866, P. 2765.

Further authority in answer to this question is,

"Whatever one may claim as of right under the Constitution and laws of the United States by virtue of his citizenship, is a privilege of a citizen of the United States. Whatever the Constitution and laws of the United States entitle him to exemption from, he may claim an exemption in respect to. And such a right or privilege is abridged whenever the State law interferes with any legitimate operation of Federal authority which concerns his interest, whether it be an authority actively exerted, or resting only in the express or implied command or assurance of the Federal Constitution or law." -- Cooley, "Principles,"
P. 247.

I really found this speech very interesting and inspiring especially towards the end. While this speech focuses primarily on the then current "National Sunday Law" legislation, and the current States Sunday laws as being unfair and unjust, this applies with just as much force to the equally unfair and unjust trademark law we as CSDA's face. May Yahweh bless our understanding and continue to give us Holy boldness to continue to protest this "un-American and unconstitutional standing" of the trademark law regarding our name.

Adriel
Posts: 463
Joined: May 29th, 2012, 8:41 pm

Lessons from the Reformation Chap 21(2) Day 2 F.o.U.B. 2013

Postby Adriel » April 25th, 2013, 12:32 pm

Part II

The privileges and immunities of citizens of the United States specifically and by direct statement include "The personal rights guaranteed and secured by the first eight amendments of the Constitution."

The very first privilege assured in the first eight amendments, is the first one in the First Amendment: that of absolute individuality in religion. And the very first immunity is also the first one in that First Amendment -- that of absolute exemption from any and all legislative or other governmental cognizance in, or connection with, religion or things religious.

For Madison said: "There is not a shadow of right in the general government to intermeddle with religion. Its least interference with it would be a most flagrant usurpation."

This, then, is the very first and the very certain privilege and immunity of every citizen of the United States. And by express intent and explicit statement this privilege and immunity of every citizen of the United States is by the Fourteenth Amendment extended to, and is made absolute in, every State in the Union. So that now every citizen of the United States is just as free from religion or religious things by law, in any and every State, as he is under national jurisdiction alone.

If there were no States at all, but there were only the one solid National government everywhere over all the land, then beyond all question absolute exemption from all governmental cognizance in or of religion or things religious, would be a privilege and an immunity of every citizen of the United States everywhere in all the land. Yet under the Fourteenth Amendment the existence of all the forty-eight States affects not to a scintilla the universality of this privilege and immunity of every person born or naturalized in the United States.

Whatever pertains to the citizen of the United States, as a citizen of the United States, is of itself National, primary, and paramount; and is secured to him by the guaranty of the national power.

Absolute exemption from any and all governmental cognizance in or of religion or things religious, is indisputably an immunity of every citizen of the United States.

Therefore, it follows inevitably that when and wherein the Fourteenth Amendment declares that "No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States," it specifically and authoritatively extends this privilege and immunity of every citizen throughout all the several States, and prohibits any and every State from making any law, and from enforcing any law already made, in furtherance of the old order of things of religion or religious things recognized and enforced by law.

This is the unescapable logic of the Fourteenth Amendment, itself, and of the plain words of those who made it expressing its intent. Yet we are not left to the logic of it, sure as this is. We have the plain declaration that just that was intended to be its scope and force.

As already stated, James G. Blaine was one of those who had a material part in making the Amendment. He also wrote the history of it. Whoever is most acquainted with the whole story, will most readily perceive that Mr. Blaine's history and exposition of the Amendment is practically a digest of the debates on the resolution in the House and the Senate. Of the religious liberty feature of this Amendment he says: --

"The language of the Fourteenth Amendment is authoritative and mandatory. No State shall make or enforce any law abridging the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States . . . Under the force of these weighty inhibitions, the citizen of foreign birth cannot be persecuted by discriminating statutes . . . Nor can the Catholic, or the Protestant, or the Jew, be placed under ban or subjected to any deprivation of personal or religious right. The provision is comprehensive and absolute, and sweeps away at once every form of oppression and every denial of justice. It abolishes caste and enlarges the
scope of human freedom. It increases the power of the republic to do equal and exact justice to all its citizens, and curtails the powers of the States to shelter the wrongdoer, or to authorize crime by statute." -- "Twenty Years of Congress," Vol. II, Pp. 313, 314.

It makes absolutely void and of no effect every one of those provisions, whether of statute or of constitution, of the old systems of church and State or established religion, that are still nursed in Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Georgia, the Carolinas, Delaware, Pennsylvania, or any other of the original States; and everything of like nature in any other State.


The privileges and immunities of every citizen of the United States on the subject of religion in law or by law are clearly defined and fixed in the National Constitution. And these privileges and immunities of the citizen of the United States are primary and paramount in all the States, all those lingering, nursed, and coddled provisions of the decrepit old church and State systems to the contrary notwithstanding for a moment. They were all quenched more than forty years ago.

And this includes every Sunday law in every State or municipality throughout the whole nation. In the preceding speeches I have given the indisputable evidence that all Sunday legislation ever in the world has been and is exclusively religious and ecclesiastical; that Sunday, being an institution and an observance wholly of the church, its recognition or incorporation in the law of any State is of itself the union of church and State; and that the enforcement of any Sunday law ever, anywhere, is the enforcement of a religious idea, and of submission to the institution and authority of the church, and that the church of Rome.

All Sunday legislation, being only religious and ecclesiastical, is positively excluded from the cognizance of the government of the United States, and explicitly from that of Congress: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."

In truth, in principle, in intent, and in fact, that provision of the Constitution prohibits every phase or thought of Sunday legislation as certainly as if it read, "Congress shall make no Sunday law."

Yah bless
Sis Jody

Adriel
Posts: 463
Joined: May 29th, 2012, 8:41 pm

Lessons from the Reformation Chap 21 (3) Day 3 F.o.U.B. 2013

Postby Adriel » April 26th, 2013, 1:37 pm

Part III

That this inhibition was intended to include Sunday laws is certain --

First, from the notorious fact that the Sunday laws of the original States that took part in the making of the Constitution, were so essentially of the established religions of those States that it was impossible to discriminate them from those establishments of religion.

Secondly, from the fact that then there had not been evolved the judicial casuistry that without a twinge or a blush can turn an avowedly religious statute into a "mere civil regulation"; and

Thirdly, from the fact that in all the States that had any part in making the Constitution except Virginia, there were nothing but established religions; and there was neither thought nor room for thought on the part of anybody, that Sunday laws were or could be anything else than essentially of those State establishments of religion.

The National Constitution was intended to cause the National government and the American people to stand forever free from every vestige of that old order of things; of which all those national men had had experience enough. This is the one thought of every word of that clause of the first amendment, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."

Those were intentionally pregnant words telling to all people that none of those old establishments of religion, nor anything pertaining to them, that had characterized the States and cursed the people, should ever have any recognition or place in the National
government; and should no more afflict any citizen of the United States.

Yet to make the National government itself thus free was all that the makers of the Constitution could just then actually do. The Fourteenth Amendment, however, does accomplish in all the States, and for all the people of the United States, what originally could be done only for those under the National government: and so completes the splendid design which the national fathers originated but could not then perfect -- full and complete Religious Liberty throughout all the land to all the inhabitants thereof.

Finally: That the inhibition of the First Amendment includes Sunday legislation is certain from the fact that we know that this was the direct intent of the makers of the Constitution in the making of it.

The famous letter of George Washington, Aug. 4, 1789, on Religious Liberty, is well known. But there is not well known the fact that in this justly famous letter, Sunday laws are directly involved.

The known facts are these: In Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Virginia, there were Sabbath-keeping Christians, Seventh-Day Baptists. These were all stanch friends of liberty.

In several ways, and especially by the German Sabbath keepers of the Community at Ephrata, Pa., these had come most favorably within the personal knowledge of Washington. They were subjected to harassment and persecution through the State Sunday laws that were essentially of the established religions of the States.

When the National government was formed some of these people addressed Washington to inquire whether the Religious Liberty of the Constitution would extend to them, or whether this Constitution also would allow persecution by statute.

The particular "right" that with these people was endangered was their right not to observe Sunday by law. The "liberty of conscience," of which they were necessarily solicitous, was the enjoyment of liberty of conscience unmolested and unendangered by Sunday law.

With these fundamental facts in mind, it is easy to discern the pointed clauses in Washington's letter, that runs as follows:

"If I had had the least idea of any difficulty resulting from the Constitution adopted by the convention of which I had the honor to be president when it was formed, so as to endanger the rights of any religious denomination, then I never should have attached my name to that instrument. If I had any idea that the general government was so administered that the liberty of conscience was endangered, I pray you be assured that no man would be more willing than myself to revise and alter that part of it, so as to
avoid all religious persecution. You can, without any doubt, remember that I have often expressed as my opinion that every man who conducts himself as a good citizen is accountable alone to God for his religious faith, and should be protected in worshipping God according to the dictates of his conscience."

And the further fact that this letter was used by courts as a defense against Sunday law prosecutions, is full confirmation of the foregoing presentation as to the original intent of the letter.

An instance in point is the fact that in 1798 one of these people in New Jersey was prosecuted for the violation of the State Sunday law. In the justice's court he was convicted. He appealed, and secured a new trial in a higher court.

In the higher court the judge read to the jury Washington's letter, and the accused was instantly acquitted.

And now the crowning fact of it all is that Washington's letter is an exposition of the Constitution as regards the Religious Liberty contemplated in the Constitution, by him who presided over the making of it, and who was then, the unanimously chosen first Executive to administer it. Than this there could not possibly be any higher or purer expression of the intent of the Constitution.

And by that which called forth the letter, by the letter itself, and by the general and even judicial use of the letter while Washington was yet alive the demonstration is perfect that the Religious Liberty intent of the Constitution was and is absolute freedom from the force and effect of all Sunday laws.

Part IV continued tomorrow.

Yah Bless
Sis Jody

Adriel
Posts: 463
Joined: May 29th, 2012, 8:41 pm

Lessons from the Reformation Chap 21 (4) Day 4 F.o.U.B. 2013

Postby Adriel » April 27th, 2013, 5:12 pm

Part IV

Therefore, beyond all question or subterfuge, by the express intent of the makers of the Constitution, absolute liberty from all Sunday legislation is a privilege and an immunity of every citizen of the United States. And in the provision that "No State shall make or enforce any law abridging the
privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States," the Fourteenth Amendment makes this liberty absolute in all the States.

Thus by every evidence of language, logic, law, and intent, the Religious Liberty of the Constitution as a whole, and of the Fourteenth Amendment in particular, includes Religious Liberty from every vestige of every phase of Sunday legislation everywhere throughout the United States and in every State.

And by this complete and unvarying evidence of the language, the logic, the law, and the intent, of the Constitution as a whole, and of the Fourteenth Amendment in particular, every Sunday law in every State in the United States is made absolutely void and of no effect.

And that has been true all over this broad land for more than forty years. And yet all this time legislatures, executives, and courts, State and National, have gone steadily along in the same old way, just as if the Fourteenth Amendment had never been heard of.

In many -- in any that chose -- of the States, the highest and most explicit privilege and immunity of citizens of the United States, have been not only abridged, but absolutely disregarded. Citizens of the United States have been deprived of property, of liberty, and indirectly of life, by the enforcement of State Sunday laws that were openly declared by United States courts to be "most certainly religious," and by procedure recognized by the same courts as "persecutions," just as if the Fourteenth
Amendment had never existed.

Is, then, the Fourteenth Amendment, in truth, "a new charter of liberty?" Does it really "enlarge the scope of human freedom?" Does it make effective the "full intent of the Declaration and the
Constitution?"

Is that all true, as those who made it said? Or is the Fourteenth Amendment a tantalizing figment?

It is all true, eternally true. The Fourteenth Amendment stands full and true in all its life and power and majesty to every citizen of the United States, and in every square foot of every State. And under it, no State shall make or enforce any Sunday law.

However, this long lapse of time, and the actual experiences in so many places painfully felt in this time, since the Fourteenth Amendment was ordained and established, have conclusively demonstrated that no legislature, no court, and no executive, State or National, can ever be expected to take the initiative in making effective to the citizens of the United States the guaranties of that Amendment against the abridgment by any State, of this supreme privilege and immunity of citizens of the United States.

What then? Shall this constitutional guaranty go utterly by default? Nay, nay; never! The people, the people of these United States, "We, the people," have ordained and established this Constitution, and it is ever the original and unfailing prerogative of "We, the people," to proclaim and maintain all the provisions and guaranties of the Constitution which "We, the people," have ordained and established.

As the appointed and sworn agencies of the people, it is the part and place of legislatures, courts, and executives, State and National, to do this. All of these agencies are pledged by oath to do it. But when these all fail, as in this plain matter of the Religious Liberty of the Fourteenth Amendment they all for more than forty years have most dismally failed, then this prerogative, right, and power, "incapable of annihilation," rests by additional tenure with the people.

Here I am on ground, that though not at all uncertain, is to most people unfamiliar. I therefore present authority.

James Wilson, of Pennsylvania, from beginning to end, was a master spirit in the making of the Constitution. He said: "The supreme power resides in the people, and they will never part with it. There can be no disorder in the community but may here receive a radical cure. . . . In this Constitution all
authority is derived from the people." -- Bancroft, "Hist. Const.," II, P. 245.

John Dickinson was another of these. In a pamphlet on "The Federal Constitution," in 1788, he said: "It must be granted that a bad administration may take place. What then is to be done? The answer is instantly found. Let the Faces be lowered before the supreme sovereignty of the people. It is their duty to watch, and their right to take care, that the
Constitution be preserved; or, in the Roman phrase on perilous occasions, to provide that the republic receive no damage.

"When one part [of the government] without being sufficiently checked by the rest abuses its power to the manifest danger of public happiness, or when the several parts abuse their respective powers so as
to involve the commonwealth in like peril, the people must restore things to that order from which their functionaries have departed. If the people suffer this living principle of watchfulness and control to be extinguished among them, they will assuredly, not long afterward, experience that of their temple there shall not be left one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down."

James Bryce, at present British Ambassador in this Capital City, discussing this very principle of our government, says: "There stands above and behind the legislature, the executive, and the judiciary, another power, that of public opinion. The President, Congress, and the courts are all, the two former directly, the latter practically, amenable to the people." -- American Commonwealth," chap. xxxiii, pars. 20-22.

And Abraham Lincoln said: "I insist that if there is anything which it is the duty of the whole people to never intrust to any hands but their own, that thing is the preservation and perpetuity of their own liberties and institutions."

"The people, the people of these United States, are the rightful masters of both Congresses and courts; not to overthrow the Constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution."

Strong language indeed!

Yah Bless
Sis Jody

Adriel
Posts: 463
Joined: May 29th, 2012, 8:41 pm

Lessons from the Reformation Chap 21 (5) Day 5 F.o.U.B. 2013

Postby Adriel » April 28th, 2013, 2:19 pm

Part V

There is abundance more, but these are sufficient here. It is, therefore, certain that it is the undeniable prerogative of the people, at all times, to proclaim and maintain the Constitution which they have ordained and established.

And now, because of the complete failure of their own sworn agencies, legislative, judicial, and executive, State and National, to maintain the Constitution, in its plain language and certain intent touching the highest privilege and immunity of citizens of the United States, it is now the bounden duty, no less than the supreme prerogative, of the people of the United States, ourselves personally, and each in his place, perpetually to proclaim and to maintain, this Constitution in all its guaranties and its intents, of liberty; religious, as well as civil. And this, still, in order that "government of the people, by
the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

The situation demands it. The necessity is upon us. No man can evade it and still be free. Meet it we must. Then let us meet it as men, as manly men. Yes, as American, Constitutional, Christian men!

And the way to do this is all plain before us. It is plain by virtue of unquestionable principle; it is plain by the authority of unquestionable and actual practice.

Originally, in the States there were the twin despotisms of slavery and enforced religion. The National Constitution and government were established without either; and it was intended to lead all away from both. Both despotisms resisted this intent of the National power, and aimed both to become national.

The crisis came first as to the nationalization of the despotism of body slavery. A decision of the National Supreme Court was rendered setting forth principles which, carried to their logical as well as apparently intended conclusion, accomplished the nationalization of the civil despotism of slavery.

Under God and the splendid leadership of Abraham Lincoln, that crisis as to civil slavery issued in the total abolition, by the Thirteenth Amendment, of slavery even in the States where it had held sway.

In this issue of that crisis as to that civil despotism, the twin despotism of the soul slavery of established religion was also abolished by the Fourteenth Amendment.

In spite of this, however, the despotism of enforced religion has persisted in its determination to become National. A decision of the National Supreme Court has been rendered, declaring that "This is a Christian nation," and that "the establishment of the Christian religion" is within the meaning of the Constitution.

As certainly as that declaration shall be followed up, it logically and inevitably will lead to the nationalization of religious despotism. And the church federations and other religious combines are all diligently following it up, and pressing it to exactly that conclusion.

Thus there has now come the crisis as to the nationalization of religious despotism.

Upon the vantage ground of the Constitution as a whole, and of the Fourteenth Amendment in particular, we have the high honor to meet the crisis of this despotism of soul slavery, as Abraham Lincoln and they with him met that crisis of body slavery: and with the hope that this crisis shall issue as did that --in the total abolition of all religious despotism, even in the States where at first it held sway.

And the course of Abraham Lincoln and those who stood with him in that crisis, which carried them to that glorious issue, has not merely "blazed the way," but has established a solid and a broad highway over which we with all confidence can proceed unto an issue as much more glorious as Religious Liberty surpasses civil liberty.

First, it is ours to say in the very words of Abraham Lincoln himself, "We have to fight this battle upon principle, and upon principle alone. So I hope those with whom I am surrounded have principle enough to nerve themselves for the task, and leave nothing undone that can fairly be done to bring about the right result."

When we shall be charged, as was he, with "resistance to the decisions of the Supreme Court," we can answer in his own words, as truly and as fitly spoken: "I do not resist it. All that I am doing is refusing to obey it as a political [a religious] rule. But we will try to reverse that decision. Somebody has to reverse that decision, since it was made; and we mean to reverse it, and we mean to do it peaceably."

When the promoters of despotism shall charge us, as they did him, with inciting "anarchy, violence, and mob law," we can give his own answer: "By resisting it as a political [a religious] rule, I disturb no right of property, create no disorder, excite no mobs. It is not resistance; it is not factious; it is not even disrespectful; to treat it as not having yet quite established a settled doctrine for the country."

When we shall be denounced, as was he, only because of "the monstrous revolutionary doctrines" with which we are "identified," and that we are "determined to carry out," we can reply as did he, "I am fighting upon these original principles -- fighting in the
Jeffersonian, Washingtonian, and Madisonian [and Lincolnian] fashion."

When we shall be flouted, as was he, because of some of "the company" in which we may find ourselves, we can make true and confident reply, as did he: "Stand with anybody that stands right. Stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong. To desert such ground because of any company is to be less than a man, less than an American" -- yea, less than a Christian.

And, finally, in Lincoln's noble words, we may exactly say: "Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations against us, nor frightened from it by menaces of dungeons to ourselves. Let us have faith that right makes might; and in that faith let us to the end dare to do our duty as we understand it."

Thus, then, individually and from free choice and mastering conviction, standing upon original ground and original principles; free in the religious liberty, Christian, American, and Constitutional, which in fullest meaning of the term is ours -- standing thus free, we possess, and must proclaim, and maintain, in the full and certain nature of it as doubly an "inborn right," and upon positive guaranty of the Constitution, this privilege and immunity of citizens of the United States: this full and complete Religious Liberty from all Sunday laws everywhere.

Amen!

Part VI continued tomorrow

Yah Bless
Sis Jody

Adriel
Posts: 463
Joined: May 29th, 2012, 8:41 pm

Lessons from the Reformation Chap 21 (6) Day 6 F.o.U.B. 2013

Postby Adriel » April 29th, 2013, 1:29 pm

Part VI

It is the very principle of the emancipation proclamation. By that noble document every slave was free. Those who were interested in his being a slave, did all that they could to persuade him that he was not free. And some were so persuaded, and so could not enjoy
the liberty that was surely theirs. But all who stood up free, and proclaimed it, were free.

It is the very principle of the Gospel. By the redemption fully provided in Christ, every soul is free. By the Author of that redemption and that freedom, the proclamation has gone forth of "liberty to the captives and opening of prison to them that are bound." The arch-despot of enforced religion continues to do all that he can to convince men that they are not free. Many allow themselves to be so convinced; and so never know the blessed liberty that has been provided and ordained and established, and that is theirs. But all who accept the provision and the guaranty, and stand up free and proclaim it, are free.

Here, then, by the National Constitution every citizen of the United States is absolutely free from all Sunday laws, as from every other form of enforced religion. The remnants, relics, and representatives of the old religious despotisms still try to persuade free citizens of the United States that they are not free. Who will any longer allow himself thus to be hoodooed out of his assured liberty?

Citizens of the United States are thus assuredly free. The people of the United States have ordained and established it. The Constitution declares and guarantees it. Let the people of the United States now and forever stand up and proclaim and maintain it. and be free.

Then all will be free. There is no other way. And there cannot be any other way; for there is no power in the government or the Constitution above that of the people.

There is yet a deeper sense in which this issue is the principle of the Gospel. It was "upon the principles upon which the Gospel was first propagated" that this American, Constitutional, and Christian Religious Liberty was founded. Jefferson, Washington, Madison, and their compatriots, who made the nation, expressed it thus: --

"Religions or the duty which we owe to our Creator and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only be reason and conviction, not by force or violence; and is nowhere cognizable but at the tribune of the Universal Judge. Therefore, to judge for ourselves, and to engage in the exercise of religion agreeably to the dictates of our own consciences, is an unalienable right, which upon the principles on which the Gospel was first propagated and the Reformation from popery carried on, can never be
transferred to another."

As related to God and religion, the principle on which the Gospel was first propagated is: "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things which are God's." "If any man hear my word and believe not, I judge him not." "So then, every one of us shall give account of himself to God."

In this matter of the observance or regard of a day, the principle upon which the Gospel was first propagated is: "One man esteemeth one day above another, another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. He that regardeth the day regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day to the Lord he doth not regard it."

"In his own mind" -- mark it. "Fully persuaded in his own mind"; not by governmental force; not by Congressional or legislative enactments; not by judicial decisions; not by police; not by prosecution, nor by persecution. But only "in his own mind," by his own personal choice, and his own free thinking, upon his own personal and free faith, and unto God only.

That is the principle of the Gospel as to the observance or regarding of a day. And that is the Religious Liberty that is the privilege and immunity of every citizen of the United States, ordained and established in the Constitution; and now to be proclaimed and
maintained everywhere throughout all the land by all the inhabitants thereof. It is all of God, and is eternally right.

Through its Sunday laws this principle of the Gospel was repudiated, and this liberty blotted out in all Europe by the world despotism of the papacy that sunk the Roman Empire and carried the world to the brink of perdition. In the Reformation God again rescued mankind, and called men to the principles of Religious Liberty upon which the Gospel was first propagated. But not till the planting of this Newest Nation did these principles ever find any place of recognition in government.

The principles had always been there for recognition by every government. The principles were ordained of God for the recognition of governments and of men everywhere. But to this Nation alone in all the world befell the splendid distinction of taking this divinely ordained way of genuine Religious Liberty as a fundamental governmental principle.

And this Religious Liberty has assured in this land civil liberty in higher degree and larger measure than was ever known before on earth. And by these two great principles of Religious Liberty and civil liberty this Nation has led the whole world out of the darkness and into the light.

We'll conclude this powerful speech will be tomorrow.

Yah Bless
Sis Jody

We'll conclude this powerful speech will be tomorrow.

Adriel
Posts: 463
Joined: May 29th, 2012, 8:41 pm

Lessons from the Reformation Chap 21 (7) Day 7 F.o.U.B. 2013

Postby Adriel » April 30th, 2013, 11:00 am

Final part

And here she is, Columbia, Queen of the nations; glorious in her goodly apparel, and majestic in her beautiful form.

And now who wants to see her with troubled countenance and tear-stained face, with bowed head and disheveled hair, and her fair limbs marred with manacles, at the tail end of a dismal, mewling procession ecclesiastically led, trailing along the old and hateful paths of despotism, back and down into the dark valley of the humiliation and despair of mankind and the world?

No, no, no! Let her be devoutly kept and sacredly guarded free -- body, soul, and spirit, forever free. And she with noble head erect, and her face to the light; her countenance radiant and eyes sparkling; her glorious tresses joyously tossing in the bracing breezes of Religious Liberty; and she herself leading the grand march of mankind and the world upward and onward to the sublimest heights of the divine destiny.

Why not? And if not, then what? Can the divine call, these divine principles, and this divine opportunity and destiny, all be disregarded with impunity?

All that all of this means to any individual, it means to the Nation. All that it means to the Nation it means to the whole world.

With before them the open book of the awful story of the world religious despotism of the papacy, if the people of these United States allow an officious, meddling ecclesiastical combine of false Protestantism to turn this model free Nation into a religious despotism in the living likeness of, and even in alliance with, that identical original one, then what possible language could too severely reproach that crowning folly of the ages?

Should or could it then be thought strange if the divine judgment stored up for that great original should burst upon both together, in the vials of unmingled wrath poured out to the very dregs? Read Revelation, 13 to 16, inclusive.

But, and if in the blindness of men that awful perversion must be wrought, and the supremacy of spiritual despotism and evil must again seize sway, then only the more does it devolve upon all who will be free, either now or then, to hold up so high, so openly, so fully, and so true, all these divine principles that have been committed to this Nation in trust for the world: so that only in the very desperation of defiant despotism can that perversion be made to prevail.

Conclusion.

And now all of this means you; each one of you, whoever you may be. This appeal is to you. Will you stand up free, and be free, in this blessed liberty wherewith Christ has made us free; and which, in the providence of the God of nations, has been made, ordained, and established, as American and Constitutional?

Standing up thus free and being free, will you proclaim and maintain this Religious Liberty throughout all the land to all the inhabitants thereof?

There are already a few so doing. There may be more. There may be fewer. But whether there shall be more, fewer, or any other, I personally know one who stands and who purposes ever to stand precisely in the way and upon the principles indicated in this speech.

Do you personally know one such? If you think that you do, then just fairly face yourself before God and in the light, and see if you can recognize him. And if you really and confidently can, then come along. There is plenty of room, and sore need, for all such. Come along.

Whosoever will, let him come; with fully enlisted will and energies, body, soul and spirit; with all his powers, moral, mental, and spiritual; and all his influence, religious, social, and financial -- all enlisted and employed in this splendid and crowning contest of all
the ages.

Whosoever will,
Whosoever will,
Send the proclamation
Over vale and hill;
Let this ransomed army,
Like a mighty sea,
Sound aloud this Jubilee.

End

As was said at the beginning, while this speech was primarily aimed at the then present threat of a National Sunday law (1912), sadly our country has in fact given up many of it's freedoms since then. The particular freedom we have lost through an unfair trademark law that restricts the use of our Divinely mandated name "Creation Seventh Day Adventist" is Religious Liberty. Sorry to say the picture he portrays of "Columbia" has come to pass. Please join our protest against this unfair law, and sign our petition found here

http://tinyurl.com/libertypetition

Yah Bless
Sis Jody


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