Page:The church manual (Church of the Brethren 1916).djvu/14

Rh Col. 2:16, 17; Mark 2:27; John 20:19), and should be kept in a sacred manner by abstaining from all secular labor and sinful recreations (Isa. 58:13, 14) by the devout observance of all the means of grace, both private and public (Ps. 113:5, 6; Heb. 10:24, 25) in any way and every way that our own holiness and the honor of God and his kingdom can be promoted.

 We believe that civil government is ordained of God for the care and protection of the good and for the punishment of those who do evil (Rom. 13:1–7) and that kings and rulers should be prayed for (1 Tim. 2:2) honored and obeyed (Heb. 13:17) so far as their laws and requirements do not conflict with the will of our Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 5:29) who is Lord of lords and King of kings, and whose laws are to be obeyed by the inhabitants of both heaven and earth. Rev. 19:16. 