Birmingham age-herald., 1895-05-11
UNTO CAESAR, UNTO GOD." i" Abstract of a Sermon by Rev.
 Dr.. Eager BEFORE THE CONVENTION
Of the Baptist Church, at Washington, Tester day-1he True Relation of Civil Gov
 ernment and Religion.


 things that are Caesars and unto God
 the things that are God s.-Matt. xxi, 21. Recall the circumstances. Two hostile
 camps are cohspiring together to com | pass the ruin of this new prophet. He
 meets them with counterforce of wis
 dom that crumbles their conspiracy to
 dust. In so doing He gives the final an ] sWer not only to question of the hour, but to a question of the ages-the great generic question lying back of 50 many
 of the specific problems of our times.
 The Trl Relation of Civil Government and
 Religion.
 Detaching the words from their con-
 nections. consider them today in the | light of history and in relation to the de- | mands of our times. Here is the clear | recognition of mans two-fold relation to | government, human and divine, and of
 a distinction between duties growing out | of this relation. Here is the sublime as- | sertion Of the separateness or independ- | ence of these two governments, and or | the duty and feasibility Of absolute and
 uncompromising loyalty alike to Caesar | and to God, to human government and | divine. Such teaching was as radically | at variance with the teaching of Moses l as with that of the philosophers. He | braism identified the two and presented
 the sole instance in history of pure the | ocracy.
 Paganism demanded at least an alli- l ance between them, Egyptians, Greeks 1 and Romans considering the one as | sort of necessary adjunct to the other. | But here is one preaching doctrine as | far removed from Hebraism as Hebra- | ism was from organism. He sees the | time had come in the development of | humanity when such union of human
 and divine rule can no longer serve the | interests of Gods kingdom or the true | progress of the race. Leopold Von | Ranke was not far wrong when he said | 1t was the Masters most revolutionary | utterance. It was the first streak of l new dawn-the sunrise gun of a great 1 new day--the ushering in of the world 1 brightest era.
 The Principle of the Text Violated. | Neither Christ nor his apostles, nor | any of his followers down to the time of | Constantine did aught to contravene or | compromise the principles He that day 1 enunciated. But you know the vicissi- l tudes through which it has passed since. l The periods that witnessed the most sig l nal violations have been summed up Tn 1 four apt, descriptive words. The first l was the period of persecution, when all l the enginery of the Roman empire was | turned against Christianity as an illicit religion. The second was the period Of l patronage when Constantine established | a royal protectorate over the church. | The third was the period of power, when | the church usurped the function Of the l state and wielded over the world an ab- | solute and despotic sway. And the | fourth was the period of policy, when the I scepter departed from the church ana 1 she was forced to secure her ends by the | willy arts of diplomacy. During all this while many of Gods true people were | hiding in dens and caves of the earth, 1 communicated, stretched upon the
 rack, burned at the stake; and at last | the very conception of spiritual king | dom had well nigh died out from the 1 minds of men.
 The Era of Separation Ushered In. But "the old order changeth, yielding | place to the new" The demonstratio4i | had been completed that the alliance or | church and state was iniquitous and | disastrous. The turning point was the | discovery of America. Divine truths and influences long obscured and suppressed
 were now to find fresh favor and wider | field in the new world. The morning | hour had come of that glad day which we enjoy, and which, we may be sure, | can never set in human bondage and | gloom. The great principle was reeog- nized by the founders of our free repup- | lie, and embodied in our organic law. | For the first time in history there was given to the world the example of great civil government deliberately relinquiSh- l ing all control over religion and securing | to all it's citizens that most sacred of rights-the right of religion and the free exercise thereof.
 The Leaven at Work in Other Lands | The influence exerted by the United | States over other countries in this re- l gard has been incalculable The forces | and ideas dominant here have been pow | erfully operative elsewhere. A new day l has dawned in the British empire. The | protestant church of Ireland has been | set free. Scotland Is asking for the ap- | plication of the same principle of relig- | ious equality. Thirty-one out of thirty four representatives of the Welsh peo-, | ple are charged to seek the disestab- | iishment of the Episcopal church in | Wales and even in the English parlia- ment the announcement has been made | that the separation of church and state, | is already an accomplished fact in the, | habitual thought of the English people. Men are behaving on every hand" says | Dr. John Clifford. "as though the formal | deed of separation were drawn and were. | only waiting for the signatures of the | respective parties thereto" The whole | question of the organization of the state | for religion is evidently entering upon a new and probably it's final phase. The, | divine right" of any church to estab-F | lishment "and endowment" has come tor | be recognized as the survival of the "di-- vine right" of kings to rule without the consent of the people-a right introduced, among English speaking people only | by distinct violation of the historical | principles of English development. A wonderful change of thought has oc- cured within the last fifty years. New | conception of the state and of religion, of Christianity and of the churches and | of their relation to one another, have come into play, and are actually remak- | ing our world. This change has been | due in no small degree. surely, to the l rediscovery in these latter days of the | teachings of Jesus concerning the king do,,, of God and the reIa tton which that