The Newtown bee., 1900-05-18

ployed as advocate to defend these viola tors of the law. He knew their suffering, he imbibed their sentiments, he defended their cause. Thomas Jefferson drew the "Act for Establishing Religious Free dom" which became law in December, l785. Dr Hawks, historian of the Estab- llshed Church in Virginia, says: "The establishment was finally put down, the Bsptists were the principal promoters of this work, and in truth, aided more than any other denomination in it's accomplish ment." It was Jefferson's arm which Baptists nerved to strike the blow. Near Monticello was little Baptist church which Jefferson, the father of the De- claration of Independence and of Ameri- can democracy used to attend. He is reported to have said to the Rev Andrew Tribble, it's pastor, that ''he considered 1t the only form of pure democracy that then existed in the world" This was several years before the Declaration of Independence. It was there, ia that lit- tie Baptist church, sthat Jefferson saw the germ of 8 great republic. No man who is familiar with the sstructure of 8 Baptist church can read the Declaration Of American Independence without hay ing his mind turn inatinctiYely to this type of purest democracy. Jefferson may have been nominal member of an- other church, but when he drew the act which disestablished the Church in Vir- ginia and wrote the Declaration of Ipde- pendence, he dealt the death-blow to the principle of monarchy in government and it's counterpart of prelacy in religion. The Declaration of Independence is es- sentially Baptist document, it is the in- troduction into politics of the very prin- ciples which Baptists hold in religion.
 BAPTIsTs PREDOMINANT IN RHODE
 ISLAND.
 It was not in Massachusetts, not in Connecticut, not in Virginia, it was in the colony of Rhode Island, where Bap- lists were predominant, that "the first civil government on earth which gave equal liberty of conscience" was estsb- lished. Roger William was not the first in modern Christerdom to assert liberty of conscience, for Leonard Busher, Rap- tist, had written treatise on Religious Liberty in 1914, but Roger Williams first realized the principle which Busher had dared to defend. "Here, in 8 little State," says Gervinus, the celebrated Ger man historian and critic, in his "Intro- duction to the History of the Nineteenth Century," "the fundamental principles of political and ecclesiastical liberty prac. tically prevailed, before they were even taught in the schools Of philosophy oi Europe. But not only have these ideas and these forms of government main. tained themselves here, but precisely from this little state, have they extended themselves throughout the United States. They have given laws to & continent, and formidable through their moral influence they lay at the bottom of all the demo. cratic movements which are now shak ing the nations of Europe" It was the Baptlsts of Virginia who, fearing that the federal Constitution did not sufficiently secure religious liberty, petitioned Wash. ipgton. when he became President in 1789, to use his influence properly to safeguard this sacred right. As 8 result thp frat rnonf n fhn St,,&t
 was made the next month, which de. clares. "Congress shall make no law re. specting an establishment ofsreIigion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for redress of griev. ances." Freedom of worship, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, freedom of petition.-these are the gifts of the Baptists to this nation. At every point along the line of battle between State religion, always CO., ercive and intolerant, and soul liberty, the Baptists have been victorious, and the fruits of their victory, ripened upon soil enriched by their best blood, are to day enjoyed by eighty millions of human beings, free in mind, free in conscience, free In body.
 3. am 8 Baptist because rhis church is the most exact reproduction in form and spirit of that type of church founded by Jeeus Christ and his Apostles, which exists lin the world today. Baptists claim that Jesus Christ and His Apostles knew better than any man who has since lived what sort of church was needed. They claim tbat his truth was of such a character that 1t required peculiar or ganization in which to realizs itself, as much as the human soul requires a hu- man body to dwell in this world. Bap- tists believe that the organization of a