The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-09-23

power as expressed in law somewhere; and, looking beyond all human ex- pression of it, he found it in nothing less than God Himself. That is true, of course. in its last analysis. Jesus and the apostles lived under a despot- ic form of civil government; but they nowhere railed against it. Jesus ac- quiesced in the form of government then prevailing to the extent of paying taxes, and the general trend of His teaching was that of obedience to the constituted authority planting all the while in the soil of human hearts the seed of better things.
 The apostle Peter enjoins upon the early Christians the command to honor all men," and then makes spe- cial mention of the king-"honor the king"
 Paul's specific directions are given in these words: This, too is the req son for your paying taxes; for the of ficials are Gods officers, devoting themselves to this special work. In all cases" he adds, pay what is due from you-tribute that is, taxes where taxes are due, rates where rates are due, respect where respect is due, and honor whre honor is due. Owe no man anything except brother ly love; for those who love their fel- low men have satisfied the law"
 And what are these extracts from PauPs letters but little fuller ex- pression of our Lords teachings Render, therefore, unto Caesar the things that are Caesars and unto God the things that are Gods"
 The Christian church has existed under all forms of civil government; but never without some form. It is not anarchist--in spirit or in teaching. It Is conservative and law abiding. It has been at times too ready to attach | itself to the car of state, and rulers have been too willing to use it's great l conserving power to advance and strengthen their own
 In our own country, it is free from such state entanglements and must be kept SO. A free church within a free state, is the American ideal And if 1t was an experiment which our fathers made when they set out to establish a church without bishop, and state without a king, certainly the wisdom of the experiment has been fully jus- tified by the results, though it may be remarked without causing alarm that both bishops and kings have improved in quality very much since our fathers decided to get along without either.
 Speaking now from the practical side of things, have to remark that | 1t is a common saying that while the American people are quite given to glorifying law in theory and never seem to tire of multiplying laws on their statute books, practically they are among the most lawless of civiliz- ed nations. They no sooner pass laws with great enthusiasm, then imme- diately they either ignore them or set about having them declared unconsti- tutional
 Some twenty-three states having passed railroad rate law but no soon- CT is the ink dry on the governors sig natures than litigation begins to undo those acts.
 Laws are made on almost all con- cetvable subjects; but few people ex- cept those especially interested know what they are or care to.
 Visitors from the other side who come among us are especially impress ed by this phase of American life.
 For e. g., visiting Englishman was recently asked what had seemed to him most noteworthy in this country, and replied at once, "The disregard shown for law as law"
 His American friend expressed sur-