the people, by the people, and for the people. Each one governs himself, he does it for his own good and in that the good of all."*

The men of the Restoration had a simple process of glorifying the Past, the Middle Ages, they applied a glazing which they called social order, divine right, respect of elders, morality, religion; and they called it logic. These soothsayers insist upon forms composed of suppressions, bigotry, affected devotions, prejudices. These forms are phantoms which have nails of brass and teeth of iron in the smoke, and they are tenacious of life. The question may properly be asked,-Is it the fate of humanity to eternally combat phantoms in the dark?

These men, smiling, gilded, with their elbows on a velvet table, insisting on demeanor and the preservation of the Past, gloried in low tones, the sword, the stake, the scaffold; these with three hundred thousand privileged persons absorbing the whole country with its riches.

Meanwhile overwhelming difficulties appeared, piles of shadows covered the horizon. There was distress of the people, laborers without bread, prostitution of women, the fate of the child.

The people of thought and of toil beheld a hideous balance whose two scales, pauperism and paracitism, mournfully preserving their equilibrium, oscillate before them.

On the brow of this people of toil and of thought appeared wrath in crater-like crimson, the sign of a possible revolution. The government saw this and was uneasy, but counted on

*A. T. Jones, "American Sentinel of Religious Liberty."

the passive obedience of its legions of soldiers to repress all violent protests by the force of arms in the name of Public Order.

THE STORY OF RELIGIOUS LIBERTY

One day, Evadne, without knowing why she did it, mounted the little stairway and went up to the attic of the grand old mansion, looking around she saw a lot of old books, and began to look them over. Soon she found the notes which her father had made. Out of curiosity she glanced them over, as she did so, astonishment and surprise seized her. What loftiness of sentiment: wonderful revelation; facts of history of which she had never heard. She read a long while. Then daily she ascended the stairs to the attic to read. There was also a copy of the New Testament, St. James translation, from which her father had quoted much; this she eagerly read, her soul was dazzled by the beauty and simplicity of that "sweet story of old."

She suspected that she had been deceived concerning her father. She had.

In this bewilderment of her God-given faculties, overwhelmed with sorrow, amid clouds and thick darkness in the separation from her lover, she now determined to go to the root of the whole matter until she knew the truth for herself. For did not the Master say, "Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free."

Evadne read the story of how Religious Liberty was won in America.

This story is good for the people of the world in our day, and we shall set it down at this point. Lest we forget it, lest we forget it.

THE STORY

"It was in Virginia where was begun for this nation and for all mankind the contest for Religious Liberty. And from Virginia, and by the very same men by whom it was begun, it was carried into the field of national affairs, and was there established as Constitutional.

And in Virginia at its beginning, the contest had no reference whatever to the union or to the separation of church and State. It had reference only and wholly to the union or the separation of religion, specifically 'the Christian' and the State.

"Also, be it understood that when this contest was begun, it was not for the purpose of separating church and State. "It was not even for the purpose of separating religion and the State.

"It was expressly and wholly to prevent the union of 'the Christian religion' and the State.

"It was to preserve the full Religious Liberty that people of Virginia had, and which was sought to be subverted by a union of the 'Christian Religion' and the State.

"There had been in Virgina the union of church and State. But that had been swept away December, 1776.

"Thus the people of Virginia were free from all connection between church and State. They had Religious Liberty.

"Then it was that there was begun the effort to subvert this Religious Liberty by a union of the Christian religion and the State.

"And, in the triumphant defeat of that effort to subvert

Religious Liberty by a union of the 'Christian Religion' and the State, there was confirmed to the people of Virginia, and secured to the people of the whole nation, the Religious Liberty that is Christian, that is Protestant, that is American, and that is Constitutional."

THE FACTS

"In 1778, by the Episcopalians and the Methodists, petitions were presented to the General Assembly of Virginia, pleading for the levy of a general tax for the support of 'teachers of the Christian religion.'

"A bill was framed accordingly, entitled, 'A Bill Establishing a Provision for Teachers of the Christian Religion.'

"This movement was opposed by the Baptists, the Quakers and the Presbyterians; and in the General Assembly, the opposition was led by Thomas Jefferson.

"To the opposition, in 1779, Jefferson gave a rallying point by the introduction of a bill entitled, 'An Act for Establishing Religious Freedom.'

"The bill establishing a provision for teachers of the 'Christian Religion' was defeated after it had been ordered to the third reading, in 1779.

“Then Jefferson's bill, 'For Establishing Religious Freedom' was submitted to the 'whole people of Virginia for their deliberate reflection,' before the vote should be taken on it in the legislature. By this time, 1780, this whole subject was put into the background by the transcendent interests of the War for Independence.

"Yet the contest for the subversion of Religious Liberty by establishing the 'Christian Religion' was allowed to be

only secondary to the actual War for Independence. For at the first opportunity, in the fall of 1784, the subject was again forced upon the General Assembly by the former petitioners under the lead of the 'Protestant Episcopal Church.' "Their petitions were now favored by Patrick Henry, Harrison, then governor; Pendelton, Chancellor, Richard Henry Lee, and many other of the foremost men. These alleged a decay of public morals, and the remedy asked for was a general assessment.

"Patrick Henry introduced a resolution to allow the presentation of a bill in accordance with the wishes of the petitioners. Against all opposition, leave to bring in the bill was granted by forty-seven votes against thirty-two. And there was again introduced the same old, 'Bill Establishing a Provision for Teachers of the Christian Religion.'

"The opposition was the same as formerly except the Presbyterian Clergy swerved and 'accepted the measure.'

"The leader of the opposition was now James Madison, instead of Thomas Jefferson, because Jefferson was out of the country as minister to France. However, by correspondence, he continued in the contest. Washington was also of the opposition in behalf of Religious Liberty.

"Again the bill was successfully carried to the third reading. There its progress was checked and the vote prevented by a motion that the matter be postponed to the next General Assembly, and that meantime the bill be printed and distributed among the people for their deliberate consideration. This motion the more easily carried because of the fact that Jefferson's bill of 1779 was still before the people for their consideration.