as a divine right. But is there any other basis than divine right on
which to rest a doctrine of human equality? A doctrine of human
equality by human right, is a doctrine of equality by consent. But if
a man can consent regarding his equality with another man or with
other men, he can, as has been often pointed out, consent himself into
a state of permanent inequality, inferiority and slavery, even
supposing that a basis can be found for the assumption of an original
state of equality arising from consent.

Assuming then, for the sake of argument at least, that the proposition
that all men are created equal is and was intended to be a statement
of the Reformation doctrine in its broadest and most universal form, a
clue is given for the interpretation of the propositions which follow.
If politics, as well as religion, assumes as its basis the proposition
that all men are spiritual beings in direct and permanent relationship
with God, and hence equal as regards one another, then the purpose of
both politics and religion is to preserve this equality,--politics by
compulsion and religion by persuasion. Because all men are spiritual
beings in direct relationship with a common Creator who has
established laws under which He is the final judge, which men can
ascertain and apply through revelation and reason, men are declared to
have rights. Man is thus distinguished from animals, who have no
rights because they have no capacity to know the law--a knowledge
which must inevitably precede a knowledge of the right. Politics looks
at the universal needs of all men,--those needs which each man has in
common with all humanity--and from the universal needs assumes a
universal unalienable right of each against each other and against
all, and a universal duty of each toward each other and toward all, to
supply these needs. Religion regards the supplying of these universal
needs as a duty toward God. Hence politics adopts as its second