The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1868-11-25

creeds of private & particular churches
of special congregations of a single |
city," The Board of (
Education is not authorized to have |
any protestant Pastors'' as such, rep |
resented before them, and they can |
not lawfully make or modify any |
rules or regulations respecting the !
public schools of education to favor
their private creeds of religion or
Christian has the right to have his
creed thus favored in the public
schools, so has the Jew, the Mahome-
dan, the Chinese, the Mormon, the
DeiSt and the Atheist; for admitting
that, socially and morally we are a
Christian people, yet the body polite
of the State of Ohio has no religion
whatever, and it provides especially
only for the perfect freedom of all re-
ligions before the laws in respect to
public education as well as in respect
to every other subject of civil polity.
And even if it is established, as a part
of itself, the Christian Religion, yet
it has certainly not adopted either or
and can not favor either or any of
them specially; and the Board OF
Public Education cannot do what the
Sovereign State itself has never as
sumed and can never assumed and
can never assume to do as long as re-
ligious freedom exists. But granting
that q merely temporal body polite
can establish and has established
Christianity as part of itself that it
has a religion and that religion in
general is in its care ana Jurisdiction,
yet it has certainly adopted no form
or ritual of even Christian Religion,
either Roman, or Greek, Catholic or
Protestant. And granting that it is
Christian in its character, but that 1T
has acknowledged no authority of a
Pope, yet it has also in like manner
acknowledged no authority of any
Protestant Bishop, Pastor, Priest,
Presbyter, Deacon, Preacher, Teacher,
or Elder, and it prefers and favOrs no
Catholic or Protestant Christian sect,
neither Romanist or Greek, of CathO-
| lies, nor Presbyterian new or old
school, no Paide or Anapaide Baptist,
nor Methodist Epispocat or Protes-
tant, nor Episcopalians, nor COngre-
| gationalist, nor German Lutheran,
nor any other private or public sect
or religion. And it would be utterly
unchristian, because tyrannical for
the State as body polite, or any Of
It's institutions supported by all sects
/
! tial laws for any religion.
For this fundamental reason then,
that State, not spiritual but tempo
raj. limited to time and having no
| eternal future, could have no religion
il itself, natural or revealed or spirit
ual, with eternal rewards and punish
ment for its sanction, with nothing
but human power to enforce conform
ity in time and before men, and with
out the moral power of Gods grace to
| cOnstrain the human will and reason
and conscience and conduct in the in
ner man every free government has
left religion and its forms and eXcr-
cises free. II has not abstaided from
meddling with the religion and con-
sciences of men because it ignored
God, but because it feared to lay i'm
pious hands ON the things of God
which were not the things of Caesar.
They did not deny God or His Divine
PrerogatiYe or His Homage or His
Worship; but the Christian Fathers
of American Republics pojusly left to
God alone to tread where angels lear
ed to tread on the grounds of the eter-
nal responsibilities of the souls oft
men. They let religion to the Inf
mite and OmniscienU as revealed in
Himself, aud continuing to show
himself daily in His spiritual church
and ministry; they dared not attempt
to reveal Him, who declared to Moses
even 81 am that 1 am'' or to preach
or teach of Him for they were not His
priesthood. They knew that the pure
and undefled religion which is o.
God. whichever that religion is, would
by his own omnipotence prevail, il
his own time end in his own way
L. -
province of Deity; and that if not o
God all their wits and ways could no
make it prevail though aided by eve
ry device of evil. They omitted no
to acknowledge God, and His Old anC
New Testament, by making it by Law
the sign of His omnipreSence and thu
seal of appeal to Deity for the truth o
, all attestation for all who would swea
on the Holy EVangelistS. But Whel
the Quaker came to the Book ant
could not conScientionsly lay his hanC
on it to swear at all they allowed
him anu any other like him to affirm
to Deity with uplifted hands! The.
hallOWed a Sabbath of rest, but whel
the Jew came to his appointed day O
Sabbath and could not according t
his religion recognize it as his Sab
hath of the Mosaic Institutes or of tn
ed to open his stall of business and t
cease from labor on the day of his re
ceiVed dispensation So in ever,
2 thing, Deity was done homage b,
them, and the most homage of all b.
I leaving to God the things above al
/, things which is God ?-the religion c
2 man and all its creeds and rituals ant
forms! They did not ignore God, an
say, like the fool, t5there is no God !;
: but they said because F'God is" an
$ sis a spirit" He alone, not we, can d
; with things spiritual and eternal
l His churches are his houses and hi
I. ministers are apart from the affairs c
L human government To bring on
: religion alone In the public Schools i
D to decide for a men what is true re
i ligiOn, and thatri5 impioUs, ,toWar
I God and tyrannieaI to men, Pc brini
i all religions into the schools is to max
e them not a Babel merelyS but a Pan
T demOnium; not a=confusiO ion ofteBgtle
j merely, but a confounding of all rea
9 son, teaching, preaching, and dia
: bOliZing of all hearts and cOnsciences
q The public police would soon have t
3 be called in to abate the nuisance c
1 the public schools. Sectarianism i
]. public schools, then, is not simply i'm
J, practicable and demoraIizing only
| DuJ IL HAS OCSl OIlS VI lu6 llOSL I'D
a tanic adversaries in the way of evan
s gelizing the Jewish and Pagan an
r Heathen world, by bringing them
j the "God with u.s. What more thai
i this, or what but this rather, make
the JeR remain a Jew, the Turk re
: main & Turk, the Heathen Heathen
t Pagan a Pagan-the very fact tina
4 they monopoIize all instruction, from
Q youth up to age, for one religion an,
0 exclude access 10 every truth outsid
? of the temples ana mosques and ba
: out the Eight which shineth- fron
t above" so that it cannot enter int
j the human minds subject to their con
= straint of intolerant conformity,
e The advocates Of christianity, VIII
Y are "wise as serpents and harmless a
h doves" with divine wisdom say t
4 those afar from Christ: "You will no
II permit the messengers of religion I
o 90 to you, then come-ho! all, ever.
S one of you, come to us and we Wi