Church Federation by Mabel H. Turner

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jun 25, 1912

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 39, No. 25.

Church Federation

By Mabel H. Turner

When the Master sent His servants true With the Gospel to all lands, They went where'er was work to do, With joyful hearts and willing hands To do their Saviour's kind commands, And bring to men salvation; For unto every nation Had gone the invitation, And each and every Christian Felt the lost world's demands.

There was no time, in that early day, To divide the land for gain. “But we'll do it now,” the churches say, “And every church shall be under pain To keep to its own share of the plain, And the all-wise federation Shall assign to each church a station, And evangelize a nation, Or mete out to the world salvation, By our rule, approved and sane.

“On points of doctrine, we'll agree To drop our petty strife. If one should plead for liberty, Then use the surgeon's knife Of civil law, to take his life. Then the power and gold of the nations Shall be all the federation's, For making invocations And offering oblations For a world where sin is rite.

“Not the commandments of the Lord Shall be our doctrine true; For they would cut like a two-edged sword, And split our modern creed in two. For us, the commands of men will do. No ‘second coming,’ No ‘final summing,’ A Lord too loving To be reproving; And the modern man shall a god be too.”