p. 239 | RELIGIOUS by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Feb 13, 1893

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 19, No. 15.

RELIGIOUS.

By Editor

—The Pennsylvania Sabbath Association and the Philadelphia Sabbath Association have issued a call for a convention at Harrisburg, February 22.

—Revivalist C. N. Crittenton has been holding a series of meetings in San Bernardino, and the result is said to be one hundred additions to the churches of that city.

—At Lakeport, Cal., a great revival is said to be in progress, in which the Baptists, Methodists, and Presbyterians are uniting their efforts. It is claimed that about ninety conversions were the result up to the 2d inst., and the work was still progressing.

—The Baptist Ministerial Union of San Francisco spent most of its last week's session in discussing the Chinese Registration Act. Finally a memorial to Congress was adopted, protesting against the law on the ground that it is class legislation. While recognizing that some degree of exclusion is necessary, it was suggested that the Geary law is not consistent with common law in that it throws the burden of proof on the defendant.

—Last July an article in the New York Sun, written by a priest in Rome, stated that the pope believed the time had come for the scattered elements in America to be gathered into one. He saw the tendency to unite political and ecclesiastical forces, and says that what the church has done for other nations she will do for the United States. He expects through the success of the church in America to infuse new life into the old organization in Europe.

—The State religion of Germany is Lutheranism. The following item, clipped from the Lutheran Witness, would indicate that Rome is insidiously undermining the nominal faith of the empire: "In the new Reichstag building in Berlin busts of Germany's great sons are to be set up, but the bust of her greatest son, 'her bright particular star,' Martin Luther, will not be set up. The Catholics object to the bust of the 'heretic,' and the 'Protestants' meekly bow obeisance. Rome still knows what struck her in the sixteenth century and we do not blame her; but shame upon the Germans."

—The Christian Statesman, the abettor of religious persecution in the United States, says, "We ask only obedience to law." That's what Rome said when she inaugurated and maintained the Inquisition. The church did not execute heretics, she simply pointed them out to the law's executors. But, on the other hand, all we ask is obedience to law—the law of God, and all other laws that are not antagonistic to its provisions. Man owes no duty to his fellowman, or to the State, that is inconsistent with his duty to God. "We ought to obey God rather than men." Acts 5:29. Nor do we "resist" any law, good or bad. Everyone has a choice between obedience and the penalty. If the law be at variance with the law of God, we choose the penalty, just as the true disciples of Christ have always done. This is not resistance.

—An item in the Christian Statesman states that "the Boston chief of police has stopped Sunday work by photographers, most of whom in that city were found to be in the habit of breaking the law." Boston is the city whose police arrested and whose court condemned Rev. H. L. Hastings for reading the Bible on the public common. That city could not tolerate the public reading of the word of God on the common even on Sunday. Such is the element that always insists upon the enforcement of religious tenets by civil law. It is because of their rejection of the plain teaching of God's word that they feel the necessity of some other power or authority to support their dogmas. Therefore we find that because the law of God in regard to the Sabbath is rejected, the law of man is invoked to enforce the human substitute. Iniquitous hypocrisy always follows the rejection of the word of God.

—U. S. Senators Quay, of Pennsylvania, Gray, of Delaware, and Hawley, of Connecticut, have all been re-elected. These were prominent supporters of the Sunday-closing legislation enacted at the last session of Congress. Senator Quay was especially prominent as a champion of the Sunday cause, advocating the closing of the World's Fair on religious grounds. It was perfectly fitting that he should assume such a role, inasmuch as his reputation as a corrupt politician had become so notorious through charges and challenges of the press—particularly the New York World—that some very moral act on his part was essential to re-election. What more effective political dash could have been made in the strong Sunday-law State of Pennsylvania than a successful effort to open the way for religious legislation in the national Congress. Turn which way we will, we always find such streams flowing from a corrupt fountain.