civilization to the present day it has never been absent from the human heart. Every people that has achieved any exalted position has been actuated more or less by the spirit of liberty. It has called into active exercise the noblest talents of the race, and has inspired men to their most heroic endeavors. Liberty has been the battle cry which has led to victory on a thousand battlefields; it wrung from King John the Magna Charta; it razed the Bastile to the ground; it peopled the solitudes of America with a hardy race of Pilgrims; it led Washington and his faithful army through the perils and sufferings of a seven years' war. It has been the presiding genius which, age after age, in Greece, Rome, Switzerland, England, France, America, and in the South Seas has molded. constitutions, framed laws, and elaborated institutions, all seeking to secure to the individual the highest possible liberty. The spirit of freedom is the spirit of progress. It represents much of what is strongest, noblest, and best in the human race. - T. J. M. All in vain will timorous ones essay Still as a sleeping lion, while a swarm Rings down its grooves the knell of shuddering kings. Shines that high light whereby the world is saved, -John Hay. Chains may subdue the feeble spirit, but thee, That creed is written on the untrampled snow, Thundered by torrents which no power can hold, The bitter cup they mingled strengthened thee – William Cullen Bryant. I am firmly persuaded, both by study and observation, that the church is more sturdy in her growth, and is more prosperous in her career, when she is free to pursue her divine mission without any interference on the part of the state. Here, thank God, the church is free, and therefore she is prosperous. Here the church and the state run in parallel lines, each assisting the other, and neither of them unwarrantably intruding on the domain of the other. Here the constitution holds over the church its protecting arm without interfering in ecclesiastical affairs. -JAMES GIBBONS. RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. Define Religious Liberty. It is the right of every individual to regulate his own religious activities; he may accept or reject any creed; adopt any or no form of worship without interference. Nothing can be conceived more abhorrent to the spirit of true religion, than the hypocritical pretensions of kings, princes, rulers, and magistrates, to uphold her holy cause by their unholy violence. - William Gaston. Religious liberty is a natural, fundamental, and inalienable right of every man. It is founded in the sacredness of conscience, which is the voice of God in man, and above the reach and control of human authority. - Philip Schaff Religious liberty is realized when every citizen possesses the right to judge in religious matters, and to determine the faith or the religion by or after which he shall order his life. -A. M. Fairbairn. Religion being sacredly personal, a direct relation between each soul and God, it must, of necessity, be a voluntary rela |