PART II:

SEPARATION THROUGHOUT BIBLE

Chapter XI

The First of all the Commandments

     The first of all the commandments is:

     These two commandments exist in the very nature of any two intelligent creatures in the universe. They existed in the first two intelligent creatures that ever had a place in the universe.

     When the first intelligence was created and there was no creature but himself; he owed to God his existence and all that he was or could be - heart, soul, might, mind, and strength. It devolved upon him to render to God the tribute of all this, and to love God with all his heart, and all his soul, and all his mind, and all his strength. And this is the first of all the commandments.

     But the second commandment would have no place if there were but one intelligent creature in the universe; for then he would have no neighbor. But when the second intelligent creature was created, the first of all the commandments was first and now the second great commandment existed in the very nature and existence of these two intelligent creatures.

     Each of the two created intelligences owed to the Lord all that he was and had, and all that he could ever rightly have. Neither of them had anything that was self-derived. Each owed all to God. There was between them no ground of preference. And this was because of the honor that each owed to God; because to each, God was all in all.

     As soon as the first man was created, the first of all the commandments was there, even though there was no other creature in the universe. And as soon as the woman was created, these two great commandments were there. And there was none other commandment greater than these.

     Now, if these two great commandments had been observed by man on the earth, that is, had man never sinned, there always would have been perfect and supreme religion; and there never would have been a State. God would always have been by everyone recognized as the only Ruler, His law as the only law, His authority as the only authority. There would have been government, but only the government of God. There would have been society, but only the society of saints. But there would have been, and could have been, no State.

     The observance of these first two of all the commandments, is simply Christian loyalty, which means the absolute separation of religion and the State. And thus the principle of separation of religion and the State inheres in the very existence of intelligent creatures.

     But man did sin. And, having sinned, having departed from God, mankind did not love God with all the heart nor their neighbor as themselves. Christianity was introduced to bring man back to his original relationship, which he had lost.

     And Christ hath suffered for us, "the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God."^{52 1 Peter 3:18} The one great purpose of Christianity then, is to restore man to his original relationship to God. Its purpose is to restore him to the condition in which he can love God with all the heart, with all the soul, with all the mind, and with all the strength, and his neighbor as himself. It is to restore him to obedience to these first two of all the commandments. It is to restore him to perfect and supreme religion.

     We have seen that such a condition maintained from the beginning would have been the absolute separation of religion and the State; because, then, there never could have been any State. And now, as the one great purpose of Christianity is to restore man completely to that condition, it follows with perfect conclusiveness that Christianity in its very essence, demands the absolute separation of religion and the State in all who profess it.

     And it must not be forgotten that the complete separation of religion and the State in those who profess religion, can be maintained only by these persons themselves being separated from the State. For it is so plain as to be indisputable that if the professor of religion is himself a part of the State, then in him there is at once a union of religion and the State.

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