\n\tModern democracy is the product of centuries of struggle. Thousands of brave men and women have laid down their lives in the cause of freedom. It is significant that it is just 100 years ago that one of America\u2019s most notable
\n\tmartyrs to freedom of the press, Elijah Lovejoy, paid the supreme sacrifice in freedom\u2019s march. Now we are facing a crisis, not only in America, but in
\n\tevery country of the world.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tIn rapid succession, nation after nation has repudiated the principles of democracy. It is said that not more than 25 percent of the world\u2019s population
\n\thave even a semblance of freedom and religious liberty. While dictators sway the nations, human liberties lie prostrate in the dust. Great Britain and the
\n\tUnited States are among the very few nations in all the world in which freedom of conscience and democracy prevail, but evil forces are at work in these
\n\tlands, threatening a flight of liberty and consequent struggle, suffering, and sacrifice as in other lands. Stanley Baldwin said: \u201cThe world has never been
\n\tless safe for democracy than it is today.\u201d The areas of liberty are rapidly shrinking. Political and religious elements are combining their forces for a
\n\tgreat social, economic, and religious reconstruction of society, when individual freedom will be sacrificed for the benefit of the collective group. The
\n\tdays of democracy seem to be ending in the twilight of a sullen darkness that is rapidly enveloping our world.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tTen countries in Europe are now under the sway of dictators. Who knows how long it will be before strong men will arise even in Anglo-Saxon countries and
\n\tset up additional dictatorships and steal the liberties of the people? The totalitarian state is the fashion of governments today. This is not new in the
\n\thistory of men. It is but a resurrection of the autocratic despotism of the pharaohs and the caesars.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tSir Herbert Samuel, the leader of the Liberal Party in the British House of Commons, asks, \u201cDid any one foresee in 1914 that 20 years later, in some of the
\n\tgreatest countries of the world, democracy would be overthrown? For two centuries political liberty has grown and spread; in two decades the advancement
\n\thas been stopped and the movement reversed.\u201d Think of it. The work of two centuries undone in two decades! This should constitute a challenge to every
\n\tlover of liberty, to every exponent of human rights, to every soul who loves his God, to everyone who would safeguard the principles of justice, fairness,
\n\tand equity, to rally to the defense of those principles, to lift the trailing standard of true freedom, and to unite in an effort to stem the tide that is
\n\tsweeping civilization from its moorings and threatening the well-being of mankind everywhere.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tWe need to restudy the whole question of human government. What is the purpose of civil government? It exists solely for the protection of human rights in
\n\tthis world. To give rights is not within the province of any civil government. Rights are God-given, not state-given! The state cannot create primary
\n\trights, such as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Its work is to protect those rights for its citizens. These are the high principles and the
\n\tfoundation of the Constitution of the United States. We surely can thank God for the blessing of good government, but we should see that nothing comes in
\n\tto rob us of that blessing.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tFreedom of religion, freedom of the press, and freedom for the individual constitute the triumvirate that has piloted America\u2019s ship of state through a
\n\tcentury and a half of revolution and reconstruction. The palladium of all civil, political, and religious rights is a free press. An enslaved press is
\n\tdoubly fatal. It not only takes away the true light, in which case we might stand still, but it sets up a false light and decoys us to our destruction.
\n\tThis is invariably the case with dictatorships. No criticism of the government is permitted. Freedom of speech and freedom of the press cease. The moment
\n\tthe dictatorship is in power, its opponents are eliminated by force as it crushes every movement and every individual it suspects. Having thus crushed all
\n\tcriticism of its actions and concealing from the people all knowledge of its failures, while trampling on the people\u2019s liberties, it magnifies its own
\n\tsuccesses, \u201cit presses into molds of its own, making the fluid opinions of the rising generation.\u201d Schoolbooks are revised. Colleges, university, and
\n\tchurches are bludgeoned into line; and every organ of propaganda . . . is made to serve its purpose.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tThe greatest glory of a freeborn people is to transmit that freedom to their children. Americans need to beware lest the torch of liberty be extinguished \n\tWilliam Gladstone, England\u2019s octogenarian premier, declared: \u201cThe American Constitution is the most wonderful work ever struck off at a given time by the \n\tThe greatest axiomatic truth on civil and religious liberty ever uttered was stated by Jesus Christ: \u201cRender therefore unto Caesar the things which are \n\tNot religious toleration, but religious liberty, is true Americanism. It is spiritual regeneration, not civic reformation that transforms the transgressor. \n\tThe Constitution of the United States, which forever separated church and state in this country, was the fruit of a long struggle for liberty and intensive \n\t\u201cWhere the air is full of freedom \n\tR. Allan Anderson spent some years in London before moving to church administration in the United States. This 1938 article from <\/em> Modern democracy is the product of centuries of struggle. Thousands of brave men and women have laid down their lives in the cause of freedom. It is significant that it is just 100 years ago that one of America\u2019s most notable martyrs to freedom of the press, Elijah Lovejoy, paid the supreme sacrifice in freedom\u2019s<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[294],"tags":[126],"class_list":["post-6222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-july-august-2013","tag-july-august-2013"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6222\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.charming-bohr.160-238-31-172.plesk.page\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\tby well-meaning, but dangerous, advocates of changes in the Constitution of their country. As an example, the National Reform Association voices in its
\n\tofficial organ, the Christian Statesman<\/em>, this anticonstitutional propaganda: \u201cWe need . . . to correct our most unfortunate attitude under the
\n\tFirst Amendment, which restrains Congress from prohibiting the free exercise of religion.\u201d Will America march backward to Puritanical tyranny through such
\n\tmeasures as this?\n<\/p>\n
\n\tbrain and purpose of man.\u201d This great nation must watch lest the priceless heritage of freedom be bartered for a mere mess of pottage. Be not deceived. The
\n\thands may be the hands of Esau, but the voice is the voice of Jacob. The two great principles that made the Constitution are civil and religious liberty.
\n\tThese two are twins\u2014Siamese twins; neither can exist without the other.\n<\/p>\nCivil and Religious Liberty<\/h2>\n
\n\tCaesar\u2019s; and unto God the things that are God\u2019s.\u201d As the champion of freedom He came \u201cto preach deliverance to the captives, and . . . to set at liberty
\n\tthem that are bruised.\u201d Yes, \u201ctrue Christianity is the companion of liberty in all its conflicts, the cradle of its infancy, the divine source of its
\n\tclaims.\u201d The principles of the Bible are the groundwork of human freedom\u2014the false, where a man is free to do what he likes; and the true, where a man is
\n\tfree to do what he ought. The Reformation of the sixteenth century sought to free men to do what they ought, and that Reformation was cradled in the
\n\tprinting press and established by no other earthly instrument. Nor can liberty perish so long as our newspapers are free. America must have an unfettered
\n\tpress.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tCompulsion and coercion in religion can make hypocrites and formalists, but it cannot make Christians. It is not the churches\u2019 concern to get men ready for
\n\tthe White House, but to get men ready for heaven.\n<\/p>\n
\n\tstudy by great minds. Its greatness lies in this, that it protects the divine right of man against the so-called right of kings and dictators; it permits
\n\tCongress to establish a court, but not a religion; to suppress an insurrection, but not a newspaper; to close a port, but not our mouths; to regulate
\n\tcommerce, but not our lives; to take a vacation, but not our property. It stands as a buffer between freedom and despotism. It is a stumbling block in the
\n\tpath of ambitious and designing men who would destroy our liberties. It protects the weak against the strong, the minority against the majority. It upholds
\n\tthe sovereignty of the individual. It ensures your freedom and mine. With the great Milton we may say, \u201cWhere liberty dwells\u2014there is my country!\u201d Let us
\n\tstand by the Constitution and honor the men whose blood-bought sacrifice has purchased this land of liberty\u2014\n<\/p>\n
\n
\n\tAnd the flag is full of Stars.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\tLiberty
\n\t
\n\t\tmagazine was a fine restatement of enduring principles of civil and religious freedom at a time in history when they were severely tested\u2014a time not
\n\t\tunlike ours.
\n\t<\/em>
\n\tEditor.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"