The Liverpool Standard, and General Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-11-21 00:00:00

people which were beyond the river, all such as knew the
laws of his God, and that he should teach them that knew
them not."

Now, mark here we have legislative interference in the
affairs of religion on the part of a heathen king—a king of
Persia. He commanded that material support should be
given to the Jewish priesthood, and for the maintenance
of God's house out of the public treasury, replenished from
the taxation of his heathen subjects. Yea, he went further.
He proceeded to enforce obedience to his law, and the law
of God on the matter, by severe penalties. "Whosoever,"
he says, "will not do the law Of_ thy. God, and the law of
the king, let judgment be executed upon him speedily,
whether it be unto death or to banishment, or to confiscation
of goods, or to imprisonment."
Upon this striking passage of Scripture, so clear a proof
that, if the ALMIGHTY disapproved of State interference
in religion, he would not have specially inspired a heathen
monarch to do so, he argues that the entire controversy
between the Church and the Voluntaries is settled defi-
nitely, once and for ever. Leaving, however, the Old
Testament, he refers to the New for an inculcation of
similar principles, and boldly contends that, as the Chris-
tian religion was first established by the poor and the
despised, it was manifested that the Church is independent
of all State support for its existence. And he adds :

Z.lf all the kings and emperors, senators and people, in the
world were to combine against the Church of Christ, their
efforts would be in vain. They did so once before, in the
Apostolic times: "the kings of the earth and the rulers,
the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered to-
gether against the Lord and against his Christ ;' but " they
could do nothing against the truth, but for the truth."
These very persecutions but served to scatter the seed of the
Word more widely.
The Church is independent of the State, but the State
is not independent of her, nor can it afford to dispense
with her assistance. "And," he asks,
If the civilising influences of Christianity be essential to
the well-being of a state, to its moral and intellectual
advancement,—can the State afford to leave its people
unprovided with those means of grace —those public
ordinances—whereby the Church may dispense the Waters
of Life amid the parched and arid deserts of a moral
wilderness ?

In concluding this part of his subject, he sums up by
saying that over and above what is actually found in the
New Testament, the case stands thus :-
1. We have the principle fully admitted, yea, enjoined
in the elder dispensation ; and what was once set up by
Divine authority can never have been wrong in itself.
2. We have, in the New Testament, all that we could
have under the circumstances, viz., a general principle for
the guidance of rulers; a principle which, fairly acted out,
leads us, by strictest logical deduction, to the National
Establishment of Religion.
The next part of this valuable pamphlet refers to the
Anti-State-Church theory, the several points of which he
replies to ; but we have already trespassed so much on
our space, that we must defer the consideration of it until
next week. We may, however, remark that our readers,
whether Churchmen or Dissenters, would do well to
obtain the work for themselves; for, as truth must be the
object of both, it will amply repay their perusal.