For two hundred years and more Russia has been the breeding-place of a host of sects, large and small. Notwithstanding the policy of uniformity which, according to the ideal of Czar Nicholas, aims to establish “one Czar, one tongue, and one church for all the Russians,” the “Rascol,” or religious schism has prospered and grown. The history of this dissent can be understood only as the outcome of a number of peculiar social and religious factors and forces. It is the peasantry who in nearly each and every case constitute these schismatic congregations. In reality there is no middle class in Russia. Society is divided between the nobility and the peasants. The trades and businesses are recruited from the ranks of the peasants. In harmony with this state of affairs is the further fact that the organization of religious dissent has never been on the basis of doctrinal difference. The present growth of religious schisms, especially the development of the Stundist movement, can be rationally explained only when the social effect of the emancipation of the serfs is take into consideration. By this act several million servants, practically slaves, became freedmen, who, when delivered from the oppression of superiors, were also at the same time compelled to do their own thinking, provide for their own support, and manage their own affairs. Of the movements, more or less directly resulting from this social revolution, that of the Stundists is the most important. Their name points to a German origin, and the outward impetus to the organization of the communion came from the German colonists of Southern Russia, although the Stundists, to a man, are Russians. These colonists of the Southern Steppes were accustomed to hold meetings called “Stunden” or “hours” for Bible study, devotion, and prayer. To them first the name Stundists was given as a term of reproach. But these Germans were industrious and sober, and it was this material prosperity, and not their piety, that was the first and leading impulse given for the Stundist agitation among the Russian farmers. The more sober-minded recognized the necessity of a reformation in principles and morals as an absolute perquisite to success and prosperity. And in this historic origin of the movement lies the explanation of its character. The Stundists’ agitation is, to all intents and purposes, a movement aiming at a betterment of the morals and life of the Russian peasant.
It has assumed a religious phase in so far as this reformation of life must proceed from the regeneration of the heart. As a result the Stundists are a sober, industrious, honest people, and are thus distinguished from the common mass of Russian peasants. The object was originally anything rather than a rupture with the State church. It was to be a moral reformation within the Orthodox Church; but in recent years the Stundists have been compelled, chiefly by the persecution of the Czar and the Holy Synod, to break with the State church.
Testimony as to the high moral character of the Stundists can be secured from unprejudiced sources. A representative witness recently wrote: “All who know the Stundists regard them as sober, respectable, honest, industrious people, the very pick among the peasantry. They are work-loving people, do not steal, do not become intoxicated, do not lie, do not slander, and in general conduct themselves as true Christians. Their family life is unblamable. They use intoxicants only for medical purposes.” The bearing of this last sentence can be seen when it is remembered that the intemperance of the Russian peasants is beyond description. The late Archbishop of Odessa, Nicanor, a few months ago, was compelled to issue a public manifesto against the drink-devil of the Russian peasants, and, in it, called attention to the sober lives of the hated Stundists. A prominent medical journal published in St. Petersburg, lately stated that it was the habit of many Russian peasants to get drunk on Vodka, and remain so for weeks without sobering up even for an hour. “The curse of this intoxicant,” it states in conclusion, “is more terrible than the dire results of syphilis.” Against this general intemperance of the Russian peasantry the Stundist movement is a popular protest. Even the public press, notwithstanding the strict censorship, can not but praise these simple-hearted but noble people. After reporting a Stundist trial, a prominent Russian journal added: “These people who read the Scriptures and endeavor to conform to their precepts; these people who seek for the truth and are not satisfied with the formalism of religious ceremonies; these honest, sober, diligent folks who perform all their duties to the State and to society—these are held charged with being culprits! Indeed, hearing the testimony from the lips of those accused is like leaving a foul atmosphere and entering the air of the sweet-scented and aroma filled Southern Steppe.”
The Stundist movement originated in the village of Osnowa, near Kief. The exact date is not settled, but the first Stundist trial took place in 1867, and Stundist meetings were reported in 1865. The two leading men were Onistshenks and Michail Ratushiuj, both common day laborers.62
The movement has spread with wonderful rapidity. The Russian papers of 1877 reported then a membership of 300,000, and in 1881 a membership of 400,000. A careful estimate can claim fully one million adherents at present. Pastor Dalton, who has been a Protestant preacher in St. Petersburg for many years, in a work on the “Church of Russia,” just published, claims two millions for the Stundists. The Established Church has regularly appointed missionaries to work among the Stundists and bring back the “heretics” to the Mother Church. The result has been a dismal failure, and that for no other reason than that the Stundists are morally, intellectually, and religiously by far the superiors of their oppressors. These methods having failed, blind brute force is being applied at the demand of the ecclesiastical authorities. One of the clearest lessons of history is that the blood of the martyr has been the seed of the Church. The same is proving to be true in the case of the Stundists also. Reliable reports state that the movement is spreading as never before.—Christliche Welt, Leipzig, December.
DETECTIVE WISHART, of the Newark Law and Order League, has, it seems, been in very close attendance upon the saloons of that city, of late, during the hours of Saturday night and Sunday. He has communicated the result of this intimate acquaintance with their doings, in detail, to the Mayor, Chief of Police, Excise Commissioner, City Attorney, &c.
Mayor Haynes, of Newark, when interviewed by a reporter for the New York Sun, said:—
I am astonished to find that a man who comes here to the city of Newark from Pittsburg spends his time on Sunday in saloons as he has. He is not yet entitled to vote in this city. He could not have got his information in any other way except from a personal examination of the saloons. I am sorry to find that he spends his Sundays in that way instead of going to church.
The Police and Excise Boards have “placed the communication on file.”
WE are sorry that a Christian At Work should hold that Christianity is not a part of the common law of the land. Fie! Fie! Change your name or your position.—Presbyterian Journal, Philadelphia.
“Fie, fie” may carry the strength of an argument with our neighbor to the south, but not with the Christian at Work. But passing that, we have just this to say on the subject, and in the briefest manner. Christianity is part of the common law of some States, but not of the Nation, and so is not part of the common law of the land. It is part of the common law of the States of Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, but even here only in a very limited sense, as when the privileges of others are assailed, or there is a tendency to disturb the peace. On the other hand, the Supreme Court of Ohio has expressly declared that “neither Christianity nor any other system of religion is a part of the law of the State.” This decision was reaffirmed afterwards; and still later the same Court said, “If Christianity is a law of the State, like every law it must have a sanction; adequate penalties must be provided. . . . No one seriously contends for any such doctrine in this country, or I might almost say, in this age of the world.” 23 Ohio State Reports. And other States have reached like decisions. Obviously that can not pertain to the common law of the land which is expressly repudiated by a part. And when we come to the Federal Constitution we find no mention of God in it—not even in the oath. Furthermore, the eleventh article of the treaty with Tripoli contains the declaration—“As the Government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion . . . it has no enmity against Mussulmans,” etc. As we have said, we are a Christian people; we are not a Christian Nation with Christianity inwrought in its common law. So we return the Presbyterian Journal’s “fie, fie” for use elsewhere, and concluding with the Journal’s permission to retain our name and maintain our position, we wish it a very good morning.—Christian at Work.
Under the title “Rights of Sabbath-keepers,” the Iowa Workers’ Bulletin has the following:—
“Near Nortonville, Kansas, is a large colony of Seventh-day Baptists. A few months ago, the trustees of a school district near that place undertook to bond their district for the erection of a new school building; and in order to carry a bond election, set the day of election for Saturday. Thus the Seventh-day Baptists were practically disfranchised. This led to a suit, of which the Nortonville News says the following:—
“The case of S. H. Stillman et al. vs. J. H. Freeland et al. involving the legality of a bond election held in school district No. 73, in Atchison County, on Sept. 5, 1891, was on trial in the Atchison District Court this week. Two main points were involved in the case: one whether the Board has the right to call an election to be held on Saturday in a district where a majority—nearly two-thirds in this instance—observe that day as the Sabbath; and the other, whether the affirmative vote must be a majority of the electors residing in the district. Questions as to the sufficiency of the petition for an election and the notices thereof were also in the case.
“The Sabbath Recorder gives the result thus:—
“Later it was announced that the case was decided in favor of the plaintiffs, the election being declared illegal. If, therefore, this was a case in any sense designed to compel the Seventh-day people to violate the Sabbath, or lose their franchise in a matter of public interest, it was a signal failure, as it deserved to be.”
Darkest Russia publishes the following letter from Mr. Spurgeon on the persecutions in Russia:—
“MENTONE, Dec. 24th, 1891.
“Dear Sir,—I am not well; but if I had all the health and strength that could fall to the lot of man I should be quite unable to express my feelings when I read of Russian intolerance towards the Jews and Dissenters. That this conduct should be sanctioned by a Church bearing the name of Christian and Orthodox is as sad as it is strange. The genius of the religion of Jesus is love, not harshness and oppression. Surely there must be thousands of Greek churchmen to whom the persecution of other religionists must appear to be shocking. Cannot their consciences be reached? The Czar is generally injuring his own country by driving out those of God’s ancient people who have found rest in his land. No country can trample upon Israel with impunity. Jehovah is patient; but as there came a day for Pharaoh, so will there be a set time for every oppressor. In that coming day, when63Jew and Gentile will be one in our Lord, may none of us have to confess that we were cruel to each other. Yours truly,
C. H. SPURGEON.”
ON February 17 the State Senate of New York passed a bill "exempting the Brooklyn Tabernacle from taxation."
THE Woman's Christian Temperance Union is petitioning the Legislature at Albany quite persistently and industriously, in reference to the closing of the World's Fair at Chicago.
STATE SENATOR PLUNKITT has introduced a bill in the Legislature for the appropriation of money to keep open the American Museum of Natural History, in this city, on Sunday afternoons and two evenings in the week, in addition to its present hours.
THE manager of Redmond's Opera House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, who has been drawn through the courts several times for Sunday night performances, has again been arrested and found “guilty of attending an entertainment on Sunday evening.” The case is to be appealed.
A RESOLUTION has been introduced in the House of Representatives, by Mr. Otis, of Kansas, which proposes to close the World's Fair one day in seven, without making any reference to Sunday. Perhaps the framer of this resolution thought in this manner to shift the onus of discrimination in favor of a day of religious observance upon the World's Fair Commissioners.
The Church Temperance Society, the Society for Improving the Condition of the Poor, Charity Organization Society, New York Sabbath Committee, American Sabbath Union, Society for the Suppression of Crime, Society for the Suppression of vice, West End Protective League, West End Excise Reform, City Reform Club, Municipal League, and City Missions, have all banded together to defeat the excise bill now before the Legislature, and have issued a call for prompt financial aid. This is a remarkable array of organized forces. If they were honestly directed for the extirpation of the saloon and liquor evil, they would command respect; but they leave the actual issue, and rise up to tilt at a shadow and not to accomplish any reform.
The Mail and Express publishes a “special” from Chicago as follows:—
A despatch received at the World's Fair headquarters from Louisville says that unless a provision is added to the bill before the Legislature for an appropriation of $100,000 for the Kentucky exhibit at the Exposition, urging the closing of the exhibit on Sunday, and permitting liquor to be sold on the ground, money would not be voted by the various Kentucky counties. There is a strong religious element throughout the State.
There certainly must be a peculiarly strong religious element to make so determined and united a stand for Kentucky Bourbon and the Kentucky Sunday. The commissioners have already granted one-half the prayer of these exemplary Kentucky Christians and admitted their whiskey; and as the latter half of the petition is found on investigation not to be inconsistent with the first, it may yet be that that will be granted also.
NATIONAL
Religious Liberty Association
DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES.
We believe in the religion taught by Jesus Christ.
We believe in temperance, and regard the liquor traffic as a curse to society.
We believe in supporting the civil government, and submitting to its authority.
We deny the right of any civil government to legislate on religious questions.
We believe it is the right, and should be the privilege, of every man to worship according to the dictates of his own conscience.
We also believe it to be our duty to use every lawful and honorable means to prevent religious legislation by the civil government; that we and our fellow-citizens may enjoy the inestimable blessings of both religious and civil liberty.
OFFICES:
43 BOND ST., NEW YORK CITY.
1225 T ST., N. W., WASHINGTON, D. C.
28 COLLEGE PLACE, CHICAGO, ILL.
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267 WEST MAIN ST., BATTLE CREEK, MICH.
R. C. PORTER PRESIDENT.
A. F. BALLENGER SECRETARY.
Yours truly,— C. H. SPURGEON.
This earnest expression of the genius of true religion from England’s greatest preacher, just dead, is universal in its application. Why cannot the consciences of churchmen everywhere be reached, when they would persecute other religionists, or enforce upon them the acceptance or observance of their view of the requirements of religion?
At the annual convention of the American Sabbath Union held at Des Moines, Iowa, some time ago, this resolution was adopted:—
Realizing that the Sabbath was ordained for man, and that the proper observance of the day would secure to labor the one day of rest in seven, so much needed and so much prized by intelligent labor throughout the entire land; therefore, be it
Resolved, That the president of this American Sabbath Union be authorized and requested to appoint a committee of one or three whose duty it shall be to visit as far as practicable, all local State and national conventions of labor organizations, and lay before them the aims and work of this Union, extending to them the right hand of fellowship, and secure, as far as possible, their co-operation with us in the work of preserving the Christian Sabbath and all its benign influences to our Nation and the world.
To meet the intent of this resolution Hon. I. S. Coffin, of Iowa, a member of the Board of Managers of the Sabbath Union and of the Brotherhood of Trainmen of America, has been selected to confer with all the different labor organizations of the country, and secure their co-operation.
The following is the text of a joint resolution introduced in the Legislature at Albany by Senator Hunter:—
“Resolved, If Assembly concur that our representatives in Congress be and they are hereby requested to use their influence with the Commissioners of the World’s Fair, to be held in the city of Chicago, to the end that on each and every Sabbath day during the continuance thereof, it shall be closed to the public, and that as an exposition it shall be suspended until the succeeding secular day.
“Resolved, That we view with no little concern any hesitation on the part of officials having charge of this great enterprise, to provide amply against a national desecration of the Lord’s day in defiance of a command to ‘remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.’ And that we as a people may not incur the displeasure of the Supreme Ruler by encouraging their disregard of this sacred command in that respect, do earnestly urge our representative in Congress to favor no measure in further aid of such enterprise, except it be coupled with condition that the Fair be closed to visitors, and suspended as an exposition on the Sabbath day.”
The following is an editorial in the Chicago Tribune of February 2:—
The American Secular Union, of this city, is endeavoring to have the World's Fair kept open on Sunday. Seeing the saloon keepers working on that day it imagined foolishly their sympathies would be with it in its labors, and hence appealed to them for aid. Much to their surprise the saloon men said that they were heartily in accord with the movement to close the Fair Sunday, which so many clergymen have been conspicuous in advocating, because if it were open their business would suffer.
The sellers of beer and whiskey are keener sighted than those ministers who have said that the opening of the World's Fair to visitors Sunday—the machinery being still—would make that day one of riot and drunken revelry. The saloon keepers know that if visitors and citizens did not have a chance to go to the Fair the consumption of liquor would be increased enormously and that those who otherwise would look at pictures and delicate fabrics and the fine work of the jewelers would haunt the barrooms.
The preachers who want others kept away from the Fair because they do not wish to go are to be congratulated on their new allies. It is to be hoped that when they see the saloon keepers rallying to their side so enthusiastically they will begin to ask themselves whether the policy which secures them such friends must not be a mistaken one.
It has been strongly stated, by those who would secure Sunday closing, that it is not true that saloon men are in favor of it. Here is a good opportunity to find out the truth in the matter. The Tribune is a leading daily and it must have some ground for such statements when it ventures to put them in its editorial columns.
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IN view of the facts stated in the foregoing paragraph, the World makes these observations: “The sensible citizens of Keyport should see to it that the remainder of the law is enforced. They should secure the arrest of every carriage driver who is brought out to convey his employer to church. They should close the drug-stores. They should notify the doctors not to attend patients on the first day of the week. A little practical logic of that kind will quickly bring bigotry to its senses and remind it that we live in a free, secular country, in the latter part of the nineteenth century, and not in a Puritan Colony of the early seventeenth century.”
The Silver Creek, Nebraska, Times says:—
What right has the State to interfere with any man's religion, either for or against? And what right, in good sense, has the State to say on what day or days I shall work or not work? All these things belong to the individual to determine for himself alone. Let others mind their own business and keep hands off. The trouble all is in a natural itching that most people have to lord it over somebody else or to stick their nose into other people's affairs. If some people, instead of trying to reform society from the outside, would try to reform themselves from the inside, they would do better.
This is good, sound sense. All religious laws whether relating to Sunday-keeping or to some other subject, have their origin in the natural desire of the natural man to compel others to conform to his ideas. There is nothing in this world any more wicked than intolerance.
AN unanswerable argument against the National Reform theory that Christ is now this world's king, or that he can become such by political action, is found in the fact that his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom (Luke 1:32, 33); and that the subjects of the kingdom will all be immortal. Luke 20:35, 36. Man can not bring this to pass, but “the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.”
A. STATEMENT that is quite often made, and which seems to be considered of much weight, by the workers for religious legislation is that “your rights end where mine begin.” This statement has not a particle of truth in it. It is simply another form of expressing their arrogant assumption of all rights. For if your rights end where mine begin, then it is for me to decide where mine do begin, and wherever that may be, there your rights must end. The truth of the matter is that rights are perfectly equal. Your rights begin where mine begin; and end only where mine end.
“Certain clergymen of Keyport New Jersey,” says the New York World of the 16th inst., “have banded themselves together for the revival and enforcement of certain exceedingly blue laws that linger in the New Jersey statute book. They have decided to prevent the sale of newspapers on Sunday, to stop the delivery of milk and meat, to shut up the barber-shops and cigar-stores and to lay an embargo upon the running of street cars on that day. Further than this, they have decided to compel all the people of Keyport to attend church every Sunday upon pain of imprisonment in their own houses, under an old provision of law which forbids men to leave their houses on Sunday except to attend church or a funeral.”
THE fact that we live in the latter part of “the nineteenth century, and not in a Puritan Colony of the early seventeenth century,” does not prove that the Puritan spirit does not survive, or rather that it has not revived. Indeed the facts stated by the World are proof positive that intolerance still lives. Moreover the existence of laws which make such manifestations of bigotry possible, show that the Puritan spirit not only lives but that it is strongly entrenched in the conservatism of the people, and their representatives.
The suggestion of the World that “the enlightened men of New Jersey and of every other State in which intolerant and un-American Sunday laws survive should unite to secure their repeal,” is a good one; but this is more easily suggested than accomplished. There is a large and aggressive minority opposed to the repeal of Sunday laws and other religious statutes, and because of the indifference of the majority they are able to defeat all attempts to wipe out the Blue-Law inheritance which all the older States received from Colonial times. “The American State is secular,” as the World says. “It has nothing to do with religion except to protect every man in his religious liberty. It has no business to make Sunday laws,” but all this goes for naught; and not only are Sunday laws sustained, but herculean efforts are being made to secure in both State and Nation still more stringent religious laws, and a more rigid enforcement of existing laws. It is high time that the secular press ceases to pooh-pooh these efforts to enforce religious observance by civil statute. A generation has grown up who know not the meaning of liberty of conscience, nor the truth of the adage that “eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.” The people must be educated along these lines, and this is the work which THE SENTINEL is endeavoring to do.
The World of the 16th inst. remarks, editorially, that “the Minneapolis decision to permit open bars on Sunday seems to be very imperfectly understood in the East. It is in fact a war measure, an act of defense in the struggle between the Twin Cities for supremacy.” The facts are thus stated:—
Minneapolis has a large and costly hotel “plant.” So has St. Paul. The St. Paul saloons are open on Sunday, while those of Minneapolis have hitherto been closed. The observed consequence has been that the whole army of commercial travelers have regularly retreated from Minneapolis to St. Paul every Saturday night, to the enrichment of St. Paul hostelries and the financial embarrassment of those of Minneapolis. Minneapolis wants its big West Hotel to prosper by the entertainment of its due share of the commercial traveler business, and hence it has decided to offer to sojourners the inducement of open saloons.
This is the explanation, and to it the World adds this: “The change signifies nothing beyond business ‘enterprise.’” But this fact does not make matters one whit better. If the city council had come to the conclusion that it was not proper to prohibit on Sunday any business permitted on other days, there would have been hope that they would in time come to see that the “business” of making drunkards ought not to be permitted on any day. But as “the change signifies nothing but business enterprise” there is no correct principle in it. It is a significant fact that when Sunday laws interfere seriously with business, they generally “go to the wall,” but where they only interfere with the rights of conscience they are enforced and sustained.
THOSE who demand prohibition for religious reasons, because the liquor traffic is sin, and because it hinders religious work, necessarily stand committed to the suppression of everything that in their view is morally wrong, that is, everything that is in violation of the divine law; for it can not be denied that if it were the duty of the State to prohibit the liquor traffic because it is sin against God, it would be equally its duty to prohibit all sin. A good many people are beginning to see this, and the religious attitude of the Prohibition Party is likely to cause its leaders no little trouble in the near future.
