Editorial April 15, 1905 Issue

Religious Freedom

Annie M. Knott

Ay, call it holy ground,
The soil where first they trod!
They have left unstained what there they found:
Freedom to worship God.
The Pilgrim Fathers, by Mrs. Hemans.

What depths of meaning lie in the words, "Freedom to worship God," and well may we ask whether this freedom has ever been realized on earth. It can readily be seen that simple liberation from the restriction of human statutes does not constitute that larger sense of liberty required to worship God "in spirit and in truth;" nevertheless, freedom to follow the dictates of conscience certainly furnishes the most favorable conditions in which to reach this consummation of human desire and effort, and to attain even to this ordinary sense of civil and religious liberty the noblest men have been willing to sacrifice all the world counts dear.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Editorial

The Pall of Ineffectiveness