p. 16 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 39, No. 23. (6/11/1912)

Earlier text: Religious Census of the Men and Religion Forward Movement

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By Editor

Editor ................................ Milton C. Wilcox Associate Editors ................... A. O. Tait ............................................ L. A. Reed

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Sin and Crime

By Editor

Sin and Crime.—We call attention to an important little article in another column with the above title. The distinction is vital; it can not be too strongly emphasized,—sin the transgression of God's law; crime, of civil, human law. Daniel was guilty of the crime of offering worship to God, but he did not sin in so doing (Daniel 6). Three of his companions committed crime in that they did not bow down to the image that Nebuchadnezzar set up (Daniel 3), but they did not thereby sin. While men sought to punish them, God vindicated the criminality of both Daniel and his fellows. Jesus the Christ was a criminal, and died a malefactor, but He was not a sinner. The apostles were criminals, and many of them died because they were; but they were not therefore sinners. Their answers involve a mighty principle: "We ought to obey God rather than men;" "Whether it be right in the sight of God to harken unto you more than unto God, judge ye." Let not the people of California permit theological partizanship to turn conscientious conviction into a crime.

What the Founder of the Christian Religion Said

"My kingdom is not of this world: if My kingdom were of this world, then would My servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is My kingdom not from hence."

"Render to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's, and to God the things that are God's."

"And, behold, one of them which were with Jesus stretched out his hand, and drew his sword, and struck a servant of the high priest's, and smote off his ear. Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword. Thinkest thou that I can not now pray to My Father, and He shall presently give Me more than twelve legions of angels?"

"And if any man hear My words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. He that rejecteth Me, and receiveth not My words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day."

"Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets."

"And it came to pass, when the time was come that He should be received up, He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem, and sent messengers before His face: and they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for Him. And they did not receive Him, because His face was as though He would go to Jerusalem. And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt Thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did? But He turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of Man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them."

"This is the word of the Lord, . . . Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts."—Zechariah.

"Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men."—Paul.

Contained in This Issue

By Editor

Question Corner 3773 — Book of Enoch; 3774 — Melchizedek; 3775 — Matthew 12:40; 3776 — Every Creature of God Is Good; 3777 — Knowledge of the Truth, and When We Receive It; 3778 — Roosevelt and a Catholic President . . . . . . . . . . 2

Our Bible Band . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

General America and Religious Liberty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 "Look and Live" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Sin and Crime . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Jefferson's Prophecy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 California and Religious Liberty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 The Golden Rule and Religious Legislation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Rights of the Minority . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Ministers of the Gospel, Not of the Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 First Step in Intolerance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 The True Principle Stated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Religious Census of the Men and Religion Forward Movement . . . 12

Editorial The Real Object of Sunday Closing — The Equality of the Declaration — A True Stand — The Men and Religion Movement — Fined for Hauling Hay — Arizona's Noble Stand — The Initiative Amendment — Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10, 11, 16

Home and Fireside Parents — Duties and Attitude toward Their Children . . . . . . . . . . 14

Poetry Men Wanted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Arouse for Freedom! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Priests and Priests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Two Important Decisions.

The Supreme Court of California has decided that the eight-hour law for women and the local option law are both constitutional.

The Evidence of Acceptance

The one great evidence of your acceptance of God is your delight to do His will; your willingness to obey, however heavy the cross involved. This is worth more than all seemingly miraculous manifestations. The devil will counterfeit the marvelous; but he can not change a carnal heart to a spiritual, he can not make a lover of God's law.

What Is Rest to You?

Is it rest to you, reader, to lay aside all manual labor, attend church, read, idle about, eat a good dinner, and go to sleep? You meet the letter of the Sunday law. But your neighbor Smith, lean, sallow, nervous, has wrought within doors all the week at his desk. He needs, and feels he must have, a change Sunday; so he works in his garden in the morning, and goes to a park or attends a baseball game in the afternoon. This is rest, real refreshing rest to Smith. Yet a Sunday law professedly to give rest to the toiler would make Smith's resting a crime and Smith a criminal. Reader, candidly, do you want such a law?

Temperance and the Anti-Saloon League

By Editor

We do not know whether it is the liquor interests, or what is behind it; but we are receiving, from time to time, various communications against the Anti-Saloon League. We are told that it has been in existence nearly nineteen years, "bled the churches right and left for money, until their missionary efforts were crippled; and has made no accounting whatever for funds. If this is true, we are sorry, indeed. We stand for temperance and for every good thing that will help temperance on. We are sure that some of the Anti-Saloon League men are excellent men. We do not know that all are not. We wish, however, that it would be possible for workers in temperance lines to get together, to drop out of their politics all other issues save that of temperance, and hold to the one thing.

In Our Next

By Editor

THE next number of our series will be fully equal to any which has preceded it. Among its leading articles are the following:

1. America and Religious Liberty; Swing-ing into Line in the March toward Oppression. By Charles Miles Snow.

2. California and Religious Liberty; Use of the Initiative, Referendum, and Recall. By John Orr Corliss.

3. Christ's Kingdom Not of This World. By W. M. Healey.

4. Fruits of Sunday Legislation. By K. C. Russell.

5. Look Not to Self, but to Christ. By Mrs. E. G. White.

6. Children's Duties to Parents. By Mrs. Mary Alice Hare Loper.

There will be other articles of importance and in-terest, all upon vital questions, which no one can safely ignore.

Christ Alone Changes the Heart

By Editor

A Socialist paper comes to us containing an article on "Christ's Second Coming" in which the binding of Satan is said to be accomplished by the utter abolition of the profit system. By the abolition of that system "old Beelzebub will be bound so fast he will be powerless to influence mankind to commit the sins that now endanger the human race and prevent mankind from inheriting eternal life." If greed were the only passion or sin of humanity, the only manifestation of selfishness, there might be amelioration in the abolition of the profit system; but sin and selfishness are ubiquitous, and their manifestations legion, their forms protean. No human law can change the human heart or take from man his innate selfishness. Only Christ can do this.

One of the Objects

One of the Objects.—Among the objects of the "Interchurch Federation of States," as expressed in a sample by-law, are those designed "to protect the interests of the Sabbath, temperance, good citizenship." And in all this, civil legislation is to be secured. To further this, a Sabbath Observance Committee is provided to have "charge of all matters pertaining to the protection of the sabbath day and Sunday rest, and to industrial conditions as related to Sunday rest." But it is the rights and interests of men, and not institutions, which need protection. God can abundantly care for His own. Read again the utterances on our first page.

A Christian Herald of Peace

Mrs. Elmer Black, of New York, made a gift of $5,000 to a new commission on peace and arbitration of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ. The commission numbers some of the greatest men in the various churches. The object is to interest ministers in churches in the peace movement, send articles and editorials to the one thousand religious papers of the nation, and organize the eighteen million persons represented in the Federal Council into a church league of peace, etc., etc. But every Christian ought to be a herald of peace anyway.

Liberty and License

In the minds of some persons, liberty is so perverted that it means license to do anything human lust demands. This is Satan's grossest perversion of liberty. It makes man the bond-slave of sin and lust, and by sin deludes him to believe that the highest pleasure, the greatest liberty, is devoted service to the cruelest of masters. For the cruelest tyrant on earth is not so cruel as Sin and his unholy mother and paramour, Lust.

Report on San Diego Disturbances

By Editor

We gratefully acknowledge receipt of "Report of Harris Weinstock, Commissioner to Investigate the Recent Disturbances in the City of San Diego and the County of San Diego, California, to His Excellency Hiram W. Johnson, Governor of California," together with a statement by Governor Johnson. The Report seems eminently fair and impartial.

Peace Among Chinese Tongs

Not the only Chinese war has been waged in China. There has been one in America, in the West, which has dragged on for many months. About thirty Chinese have been killed. Now peace is declared between the following "tongs," or societies: Hop Sing, Suey Sing, Sen Suey Ying, and Hip Sing; and there is rejoicing among the Chinese.

Religious Moving Pictures in Churches

According to a new rule from the Vatican, religious moving pictures may be shown in Catholic churches. At such times "the host" must be removed, the women separated from the men, and the church sufficiently lighted.

Bible Versions Used in This Paper

By Editor

Our authority is the Bible, the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. When the Common ("King James" or "Authorized") Version or the American Standard Revised Version is used, the version will not generally be designated in reference. Any Bible quotation in this paper, therefore, differing from the Common Version, unless otherwise indicated, will be almost invariably from the American Standard edition of the Revised Bible, copyright 1910, by Thomas Nelson & Sons.

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