The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-10-12
ON RELIGION
 AND POLITICS Armistead Brown Ad- dressed Mems sMeeting AT ORPHEUM THEATRE Held Religion and Liberty Were
 Inseparable.
 Declared There Should Not Re Union Church and State, But Religions Men Should rake an Act-
 i've Interest in Politics. 

Hon. Armistead Brown. at the Or pheum Theatre Sunday afternoon ad- dressed the Mems Meeting of the Young Mems Christian Association. MT. Brown chose for his subject Religion and Politics. An attentive audience
 MT. Brown spoke in part as fol- lows: -
 "Religion Is a comprehensive word. and the definition of 1t which l ike best is that a religion Is the life or God in the soul of man Religion should be the supreme controlling pow CT in every mans life. It should dominate his whole He eee E the whole man, mental, moral ana nhvsicaI. "In all thy ways acknowl- edge Him. and He shall direct thy maths. ]" The man who is religious on sundava and irreligious during the week. has no true vital religion at all Religion is something more than a system of morals. though the pecu- liar prafse-of the Christian religion is the Ideal consistency and perfection of the moral teachings which 1t in- cludes.
 ssReIigon is greater than the church. The church is an organized body or believers for the support and propa- gation of religion, hence the church, while a means to an end, is yet the highest and most important organized instrument or agency in the world.
 After centuries of error and con fusion and tbloodshed, Protestantisn has shown to- the world for all time that there should be no union be- tween church and state, of religion and government, because civil govern ment was established to have author ity In the realm of civil affairs. In those things which concern men as citizens of this world. and can never rightfully take cognizanee of men as cifizeng of the Heavenly Kingdom, or of the duties and relations of men to God. So long as men conduct them- selves as good citizens and do not -in- terfere with the civil rights Of others, the State has no right to interfere with their religious beliefs or prac- tices. On the other hand, Jesus when on earth never once invoked the aio of civil government in benait or tns establishment of His Gospel.
 "And the church should ask for no legislation in behalf of any tenet of faith: we concede to every man tne right to believe or not to believe. to worship or not to worship, without any interference on the part or tns civil magistrate. although we should seek to persuade as many as posslole to believe: and we protest against any ssfarf on the part of any man or or- ranization of men to enforce their re. Iiefous beliefs upon others by legal anartmant Says Dr. Phillip Schan m his book on Church and state:
 sRelieion and liberty are insepar- ahle. Religion Is voluntary, ana can not. and ought not to be, forced.
 Such liberty Is impossible on the basis of q union of church and state. Wnere me of necessity restricts or controls the other. It requires friendly sep- aration, where each power Is entire lv fndependetn in it's own sphere. The church, as such, has nothing 10 de with the state except to obey It's laws and 10 strengthen It's moral founoa' lions: the state has nothing to do With the church except to protect ner in her property and liberty; and the state m,sst be equally just to all forms oi haIleg and unbelief which do not en- danger the public safety These prin. cinles have largely been crystallizeo into fundamental law.
 The Laws Attitude.
 a0ur Sunday laws cannot be sus- tained upon religious grounds says sba Sunrene Court of Alabama in the case of Frolichstein vs. Mayor or Mo' hiie 4O Ala, 725: The legally con Strained abstinenee from certain world Iv enployments on the nrst aay ol fine week. cannot be Justified upon tnt aro{Ind that such abstinence is ehJos'' s ed nv the Christian religion. Tns T'agisIafure is under constitutional re- stricfions against compelling the op' ssrvance of a Christian, or Jewish oi snv other religious institution. De- cause 1t Is such: o,,,htt
 9Rut the Legislature is not prohiolt A from making municipal regulations s,eaause they have the sanction ais' os religious society. The legisla tion m the subject of abstaining iron -vorldly employments on the nrst da! of the week is referred to the polic' mower of the Legislature. It has IL sanctIon in the teachings of experi enee ina tthe general welfare and goo' of society require a suspension Of Ia bor and business for one day in seven ana that that day should be one uniform observance. The exercise tha mower to enforce this theory o nuhIfc good would not infringe tn constitution. wh ether the designate' day should be Christian or the Jewisl Sabbath"
 Such laws have also been uphelt upon the ground that one days res in seven conforms to nature and tn physical needs of the individual. Tha those who most need cessation iron labor would be unable to take it bu for this law; that the feverish desir to acquire wealth and the greed an avarice of capital must be restrained