FOR PRINCIPLE'S SAKE by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Sep 1, 1898

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 24, No. 35.

FOR PRINCIPLE'S SAKE.

By Editor

How few there are who stand for principle! How many are willing to condemn those who do, and attribute to them some sordid motive, rather than to acknowledge the noble sacrifice which they make for the sake of truth, of consistency in morality and profession,—for the sake of Christ! How few know or realize what it means to sunder for the sake of Christ and loyalty to His cause the personal affections and relations, the heart ties and associations of years, which take hold of every sympathetic cord of one’s being! We respect one who thus acts, even tho we believe him to be mistaken.

These and many more thoughts crowd in upon us as we read the letter by Elizabeth Andrew and Katharine Bushnell, to the Union Signal (the W. C. T. U. organ), dated London, June 28, 1898, and appearing in the Signal of August 4. These ladies believe that the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union has really departed from its high standard, and has assumed an attitude of compromise, (1) in representing “that it is necessary to assume a different attitude toward the liquor traffic according to customs and public opinion, as prevailing in different countries;” and (2) in the “declaration that in the full light of a verbatim report of Lady Henry Somerset’s testimony before the Royal Commission on Liquor Licensing Laws you [the Union Signal, representing the W. C. T. U.] yet boldly declare your loyalty to her as a leader for the W. C. T. U., and state that you would have voted for her re-election at Toronto—at the time that she was supporting a scheme for the government management of the Indian army evil.” From these and other things these ladies conclude that the W. C. T. U. has been changing its attitude towards the liquor traffic and the social evil, from one of absolute hostility to one of compromise.

And not wishing to thus compromise with evil or countenance such compromise, these ladies tell us that they believe that their souls will be saved or lost “according to whether or not we uphold the same moral standard the world over, without regard to custom or rank; without regard to whether the multitude is with us, or we

walk alone with God in the dark.” They thus conclude:—

To-day we send our withdrawal of local membership in the W. C. T. U. Henceforth we are clear from the blood of all those who, in the organization, make compromise with iniquity. Heretofore, we have felt it a duty to sound the trumpet and warn of the approach of the enemy, as God commands the watchman to do in Eze. 33:1–9. That task is over, for the banner of “expediency” is now held aloft, and the leaders of the W. C. T. U. call on the rank and file to follow. The enemy is here. On each one individually now rests the responsibility to act. We go our way, a widely divergent one from that of the leaders of the W. C. T. U. But be it known that, like the house of David, the sword will not soon depart from the W. C. T. U. for the folly that hath this day been wrought in Israel.

ELIZABETH ANDREW, KATHARINE BUSHNELL.

London, June 28, 1898.

Those who do not know Mrs. Andrew and Miss Bushnell may sneer or blame or pity; but we know that this step cost them long agonizing nights of prayer, and we may believe the severing of many a cord of tender relationship. They have labored long and hard and valiantly in what they believed to be the work to which God has called them; they have met the organized hosts of evil at every step, and in God’s name have gained victories. But their hardest blow is to see the reform forces wavering, lines breaking, and leaders ignorantly or traitorously compromising with the foe.

But we bid these noble women, and every other person fighting the battles of God, to be not discouraged. “Put not your trust in princes.” Look to God; in Him is strength. Study His Word; receive of His Spirit; go forth in His might. We shall often be disappointed here, especially if we look to man; but in Jesus Christ we shall not be ashamed nor confounded, world without end. As to Lady Henry’s present attitude we do not know, but the W. C. T. U. can better afford to lose all the titled officials in the world who are not whole hearted than one noble soul who holds Christ and principle above compromise or expediency.