Even if the church could, by some miracle which has never yet been
vouchsafed to it, retain its purity of character while remaining the
recipient of state graft, the crippling of its influence would continue.
If it wishes to win the world to its gospel, it does ill to put the most
potent of arguments in the mouths of its enemies. Let Christians make
no mistake on this point. So long as the church continues to mulct the
taxpayers for its own profit through the exemption of its property from
taxation, it will be held by the multitude to give the lie to its own
professions; and it will drive thousands of earnest seekers for truth
away from its doors. We do not go to a thief for lessons in the higher
morality. If rejection of the Christian message means the loss
of immortal souls, their destruction lies on the heads of those
representatives of Christianity who prize a few dollars stolen from the
people at a higher rate than the privilege of coming forward with clean
hands, and being listened to with respect and in a teachable spirit
by those whose ears are now sealed against the admission of the gospel
message by their unconquerable distrust and contempt for those who come
with lessons of moral and spiritual uplift, but whose hands are tainted
by the acceptance of graft from politicians who never give without
expecting an equivalent in return. In receiving this dishonest money the
church is not only guilty of an immoral act, but is legitimately subject
to many suspicions of unworthy conduct of which it may be innocent, but
which it has debarred itself from being in a position to refute. It has
thus tied its own hands with reference to its real work of benefiting
the spiritual natures of human beings. Whether the teachings of
Christianity are true or false, the adulterous union of church and state
creates a reasonable and just bias against them, and prevents them from
having a fair hearing. Those who believe that the eternal salvation of
mankind hangs on the acceptance of these teachings are, from their own
standpoint, incurring a fearful responsibility in placing so huge a
stumbling-block in the way of inquiring minds. They have no reply, and
can only hang their heads in shame, when we outsiders sharply demand
what value a religion can have for mankind if it cannot breed common
honesty even in the institution which embodies it and which has no other
function than to spread its teachings.