l. Opposition to religious equality was signalized by the
mobbing of an orderly assembly in Toronto. One meeting of the
opponents of the clergy reserves was broken up by these means, and a
second meeting was attacked by a mob with such violence as to
necessitate the calling out of a company of British soldiers. This
meeting was held in St. Lawrence Hall, over the city market bearing
that name. Mr. Brown was chosen to move a resolution denouncing State
endowments of religion, and did so in a speech of earnestness and
argumentative power. He compared the results of Church establishments
with those of voluntary effort in England, in Scotland, in France, and
in Canada, and denounced "State-churchism" as the author of pride,
intolerance and spiritual coldness. "When," he said, "I read the
history of the human race, and trace the dark record of wars and
carnage, of tyranny, robbery and injustice in every shape, which have
been the fruits of State-churchism in every age; when I observe the
degenerating effect which it has ever had on the purity and simplicity
of the Gospel of Christ, turning men's minds from its great truths, as
a religion of the heart, to the mere outward tinsel, to the forms and
ceremonies on which priestcraft flourishes; when I see that at all
times it has been made the instrument of the rich and powerful in
oppressing the poor and weak, I cannot but reject it utterly as in
direct hostility to the whole spirit of the Gospel, to that glorious
system which teaches men to set not their hearts on this world, and to
walk humbly before God." He held that it was utterly impossible for
the State to teach religious truth. "There is no standard for truth.
We cannot even agree on the meaning of words." Setting aside the
injustice of forcing men to pay money for the support of what they
deemed religious error, it was "most dangerous to admit that the
magistrate is to decide for God--for that is the plain meaning of the
establishment principle. Once admit that principle, and no curb can be
set upon its operation. Who shall restrict what God has appointed? And
thus the extent to which the conscience of men may be constrained, or
persecution for truth's sake may be carried, depends entirely on the
ignorance or enlightenment of the civil magistrate. There is no safety
out of the principle that religion is a matter entirely between man
and his God, and that the whole duty of the magistrate is to secure
every one in the peace