Here below are a few examples of Christians helping in the legislating of morality, without which the world would be far worse off and a place most people of a reasonable mind, would find repugnant to live.

In 1784 and 1785, William Wilberforce toured France and Switzerland with Isaac Milner. Milner, was an evangelical Christian, and as a result of Milner’s influence, Wilberforce embraced evangelicalism. Wilberforce became involved in social reform with a group of Christians from Clapham, England. This group supported overseas missions, they encouraged schools for the poor, they sought to prohibit cruelty to children and animals and to reform the penal system. Their aim was to improve morality in public life, and to that end, they printed books for the educated and made tracts for the less learned. Wilberforce and this group of friends, tried to persuade everyone to show respect for their fellow man, whatever his position; but their favorite cause was the freeing of slaves, of which Wilberforce took the lead. In 1787 the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade was established, mainly by Quaker and Anglican abolitionists, including Wilberforce and Thomas Clarkson. At Clarkson’s request, Wilberforce became the society’s chief spokesman in Parliament. In 1807, Parliament enacted legislation prohibiting the slave trade in the British Empire, but not slavery itself. In 1823 Wilberforce was a founder of the Society for the Mitigation and Gradual Abolition of Slavery. The Emancipation Bill abolishing slavery became law one month after the death of William Wilberforce in July, of 1833. ,

William Carey, a Baptist Missionary, was one of the first to campaign against the revolting practice of infanticides, and he lived to see the custom put down. He denounced the murderous abominations of the Suttee (which was the practice of the wife being burned alive on her husband’s funeral pyre, voluntarily or in voluntarily), and Carey had the satisfaction of seeing that practice abolished.

Carey was not the man to wish or to expect that Government should step out of its sphere in order to enforce Christianity upon the natives. "Do you not think, Dr. Carey," asked a Governor-General, "that it would be wrong to force the Hindus to be Christians?" "My Lord," was the reply, "the thing is impossible; we may, indeed, force men to be hypocrites, but no power on earth can force men to become Christians."

Mr. W. P. Walsh said this of William Carey: that he was too clear-headed not to see, and too honest not to say, that it was one thing to profess neutrality, and another to sanction idolatry. That it was one thing to abstain from using earthly power to propagate truth, and quite another to thwart rational and scriptural methods of diffusing it.

And that Carey was too much of a statesman, as well as too much of a missionary, not to see that in respect to some tenets of the Hindu system it would be impossible for the Government eventually to remain neutral, inasmuch as they subverted the very foundations upon which all government is based.

On July 8, 1862, Abraham Lincoln signed the Justin Morrill Anti-Bigamy Law.

It was the first basic federal legislation by the Congress of the United States that was designed "to punish and prevent the practice of polygamy in the Territories of the United States". Bigamy was punishable by a $500 fine and imprisonment not exceeding five years.

All acts passed by the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Utah "pertaining to polygamy and spiritual marriage" were annulled.

No officers were appointed to enforce the law and no funds for enforcement were allotted. From A Chronology of Federal Legislation on Polygamy, by Perry L. Porter

 1882 Edmunds act was an amendment to strengthen the Anti-Bigamy Law of 1862.

It declared polygamy a felony, with penalty on conviction of not more than five years imprisonment and / or a $500 fine.

Defined polygamous living, which it termed "unlawful cohabitation", as a misdemeanor punishable by six months imprisonment and/or a $300 fine.

The law disfranchised polygamists and declared them ineligible for public office.

Polygamists, whether in practice or merely in belief, were disqualified for jury service. All registration and elective offices in Utah Territory were declared vacant and a board of five members, known as the Utah Commission, was to be appointed by the president to assume temporarily all duties pertaining to elections.

The board would issue certificates of election to those eligible for that office and those lawfully elected. From A C L. Porter chronology of Federal Legislation on Polygamy, by Perry

John Paton in his biography had this to say: "On Tanna, the woman is the slave of man. She is kept working hard and bears all the heavier burdens while he walks by her side with musket, club, or spear. If she offends him he beats or abuses her at will. Such scenes were so common that no one thought of interfering. Even if the woman died in his hands, or immediately afterward, neighbors took little notice. And their children were so little cared for that my constant wonder was how any of them survived at all. As soon as they are able toddle about, they are practically left to care for themselves. As a result, when their parents become old they show very little affection to them, letting them starve to death or even killing them outright. The girls, with their mothers and sisters, slave in the village plantations. They maintain all the fences, bear every burden, and are knocked about by the men and boys. When the great chief Nouka became seriously ill, his people sacrificed three women for his recovery! How sad and degraded is the position of the woman where the teaching of Christ is unknown. It is the Christ of the Bible, His Spirit entering into humanity, that has lifted the woman and made her the helpmate and the friend of man, and not his toy or slave.

Leaving all consequences to the disposal of my Lord, I determined to make an unflinching stand against wife-beating and widow-strangling. I pleaded with all who were in power to unite and put down these shocking and disgraceful customs. At length ten chiefs entered into an agreement not to allow any more beating of wives or strangling of widows and to forbid all common labor on the Lord’s Day. Alas, except for purposes of war or other wickedness, the influence of the chiefs on Tanna was comparatively small. One chief boldly declared, "if we did not beat our women they would never work. They would not fear and obey us. But when we have beaten, killed and feasted on two or three, the rest are all very quiet and good for a long time to come!" Altogether, it was uphill, weary, and trying work."

John Quincy Adams sixth president of the United States, became an important antislavery voice in the Congress. Adams presented many petitions for the abolition of slavery and the slave trade in the District of Columbia and elsewhere to Congress. The Gag rule prevented discussion of slavery from 1836 to 1844, but he frequently managed to evade it by parliamentary skill. Adams again acted on his anti-slavery convictions when he helped argue the famous Amistad case before the Supreme Court of the United States.

On Monday, January 31, 1859, In Charloe, Ohio, Republican Congressman James Ashley had these words to say. "Let all remember that liberty is the birthright of the human race, that on consistent believer in that greatest and best charter of human freedom can do otherwise than acknowledge the justice of that principle which recognizes the natural right of every human being, and claims that ther are entitled to the protection of life and liberty, by every law of man’s enactment.

The Creator made all men of every race and country free, and ‘On this round earth, which God to Adam gave For freedom, there breathes no fettered slave That does not hope and long and pray to see And taste the fruit that grows on freedom’s tree.’

And while this is true, I cannot believe that the Creator intended to leave man to struggle on forever without attaining that freedom. He destines a calmer and brighter future for the struggling millions of earth. Conceived in the bosom of Everlasting Love, this principle, "that God is no respecter of persons," was sent down to us and authoritatively proclaimed to the world by the great apostle of the New Covenant, more than 1800 years ago." Mr. Ashley on December 14, 1863 introduced a bill to support an amendment to the Constitution, to abolish slavery throughout the entire United States; the 13th amendment was ratified, on December 6, 1865. Quoted from the Library Edition of the Hon. J. M. Ashley Souvenir, page 24, edited by Benjamin W. Arnett.

Are we to legislate morality? Matthew 5:13-16

Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.

Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.

Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. 

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

Salt was added to meats and different kinds of dishes, not only to give them flavor, but was also added as a preservative from putrefaction and decay; salt became the emblem of incorruptibility and permanence.

Let’s look at the miracle working power of God, when the prophet Elisha used salt:

2 Kings 2:19-22 (KJV)
19 And the men of the city said unto Elisha, Behold, I pray thee, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord seeth: but the water is naught, and the ground barren.
20 And he said, Bring me a new cruse, and put salt therein. And they brought it to him.
21 And he went forth unto the spring of the waters, and cast the salt in there, and said, Thus saith the LORD, I have healed these waters; there shall not be from thence any more death or barren land.
22 So the waters were healed unto this day, according to the saying of Elisha which he spake.

We know salt could not heal the waters; it would only make it worse. Many today say that trying to legislate, morality is not what we need to do, that it will only harm and make worse the situation.

But as God used Elisha, God will use us in a miraculous way; though it appears that what we have to offer is contrary to what is needed, it is what God calls for in an act of faith.

Exodus 15:23-26 (KJV)
23 And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter: therefore the name of it was called Marah.
24 And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink?
25 And he cried unto the LORD; and the LORD shewed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet: there he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them,
26 And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee.

Water represents the spirit; the tree represents the cross.

When the bitterness of the world contaminates the spirit of man, and it will, there is only one way to heal and that is through the cross of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.

2 Kings 4:38-41 (KJV)
38 And Elisha came again to Gilgal: and there was a dearth in the land; and the sons of the prophets were sitting before him: and he said unto his servant, Set on the great pot, and seethe pottage for the sons of the prophets.
39 And one went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine, and gathered thereof wild gourds his lap full, and came and shred them into the pot of pottage: for they knew them not.
40 So they poured out for the men to eat. And it came to pass, as they were eating of the pottage, that they cried out, and said, O thou man of God, there is death in the pot. And they could not eat thereof.
41 But he said, Then bring meal. And he cast it into the pot; and he said, Pour out for the people, that they may eat. And there was no harm in the pot.

We have to be careful of what we make use of, what we partake of. There is no doubt in my mind that the example that God used with the sons of the prophets, is what is actually going on today, with the church in the US.

First, there was spiritual-famine in the land then, and when people are hungry, they eat. They took on the worship of Baal. It looked harmless enough it but proved disgusting and deadly to the nation.

There was literal famine in the land then, there is spiritual-famine in the United States today. Today people are spiritually hungry, and they are eating of whatever they find. We must remember it is not what the world can provide, that will spiritually feed this or any other nation, but what God through His miracle working power can and will do, will feed us.

Bishop John Horne remarked, "we may see the ground of opposition; namely, the unwillingness of rebellious nature to submit to the obligations of Divine laws, which cross the interests, and lay a restraint on the desires of men. Corrupt affections are the most inveterate enemies of Christ, and their language is, Doctrines would be readily believed if they involved in them no precepts; and the Church may be tolerated in the world if she will only give up her discipline."