The editor of the New York World sees danger in the curfew ordinances that are being passed by many villages throughout the land. Following are his words:—
The trustees of several villages in this State—Warsaw being the latest example—have passed ordinances forbidding children under fifteen years of age from “being on the streets, alleys, or public places” after the hour of 9 o’clock P.M. from April to October, or after 8 o’clock the other half of the year.
It is made unlawful for parents or guardians to allow or permit children under their care to be on the streets during the prescribed hours “unless there exists a reasonable necessity therefor.” A fine “not exceeding $25” is provided for parents who violate this section.
The police are authorized to arrest and detain children found on the streets at night, but not to imprison them. Their parents are to be notified, and are liable to a fine for not thereafter keeping their children within bounds.
This is coming a good deal nearer State socialism than the “free and independent citizens of these United States” once thought they would ever get. If the authorities of a village can take the place of parental authority in restricting the liberty of children and saying what is good and what is bad for them, there are other logical steps in the same line which the adopters of these curfew ordinances have perhaps not thought of.
Doubtless some streets in some villages are bad places for children at night. But so are some homes. When will the village Solons begin to regulate the homes? Would it not be a more sensible and American idea to make the streets—which are under public control—decent and safe even for children?
There is, without doubt, danger of the government meddling with private affairs in a way it has no business to. And it all comes from the mistaken notion that the State, “if you can keep pure men in office,” can regulate everything to perfection. But if more interest was taken by parents in their children, they would not want to go on the street at night, and thus a temptation and a stumbling-block would be taken away from those who seek to regulate every detail of their neighbors’ private life.
Children should indeed be kept off the streets, but parents are the ones who should attend to this. But what is to be done for the poor children whose parents are far worse than the most degraded beasts? is a question that is not so easily solved. Warm-hearted, devoted Christians, and all real Christians are such, can find a great work to do among and for these unfortunate children, and their parents as well. They need true sympathy and proper Christian teaching more than they need curfew laws. And this teaching, in order to be effective, must be the voluntary personal work of souls whose whole lives are centered in Christ.
“Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me.” Matt. 25:40.
THE DISPENSATION OF GRACE.
By G. T. Wilson
THE dispensation of grace runs parallel with the Gospel of Christ. The Bible reveals no such thing as a dispensation of law separate from the dispensation of grace. Men have never been saved by any other means than grace, and the power of God manifest through the Gospel of Christ. “Sin is the transgression of the law;” and “all unrighteousness is sin.”
“Wherefore, the law is holy; and the commandment is holy, and righteous, and good.” Rom. 7:12 (Syriac Version). As the law is righteous and good, “by the law is the knowledge of sin.” Rom. 3:20. No attempt of the sinner to obey the law will make him righteous. The law only proves him more worthy of death, and he has not power to save himself from its penalty. Here is where the grace of God comes to the sinner’s relief. “But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ.” “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” Eph. 2:4, 5, 8–10.
Grace is the unmerited favor of God freely bestowed upon the sinner. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
“I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, The just shall live by faith.” Rom. 1:16, 17.
Sin is the violation of God’s law; grace is His unmerited favor to the transgressor; and the Gospel of Christ is the power of God that saves the believing, repenting one from sin.
“Moreover the law entered, that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound; that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid.” Rom. 5:20, 21; 6:1, 2.
These texts show why the law was spoken at Sinai; it was that sin might be made to appear to the people exceedingly sinful. Their sinful practises in Egypt had almost effaced the law of God from their hearts, and they had mixed errors with the truth until they had only faint conceptions of their duty to God and to each other. This was why Jehovah made known His moral precepts, that all Israel, yea, all the world, might know God’s will, and have no excuse for committing sin. It was for this reason that God wrote His law on the two tables of stone, and gave them to Moses, that they might be taught to the people. Ex. 24:12.
While the law showed how abundant sin was, by type and shadow God revealed the Gospel of Christ by which men were saved. Adam’s one sin brought death to all his posterity; but the abundant grace of God in Christ brings life and peace to every repentant, believing sinner, for his many transgressions. Law and grace go hand in hand. The law shuts up the sinner under its condemnation, and makes him long for a deliverer; then it is that grace reveals the Saviour, who alone can ransom him from sin. In Christ was combined both the law and the Gospel. He was the Ten Commandments in living action, for He was the truth. He was grace, a sacrifice of sweet savor to His Father, offered in the sinner’s behalf. He bore the curse of the law, that we might have the freedom of the Gospel. He tasted death, that we might enjoy the blessings of life. He became sin, that we might become righteous. He bore the penalty of our disobedience, that we might share the benefits of His obedience. So “grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” Says the psalmist, “Thy law is the truth.” Ps. 119:142, 151. Therefore, there is no separating the law, which is the truth, from grace in the Gospel of Christ. G. T. WILSON.
Avondale, Cooranbong, N. S. W.
A HIVE OF BE'S.
By Wm. Simpson
Be holy.
Be pure.
Be quiet.
Be humble.
Be joyful.
Be zealous.
Be pitiful.
Be perfect.
Be vigilant.
Be watchful.
Be peaceable.
Be obedient.
Be courteous.
Be in health.
Be circumspect.
Be ye thankful.
Be of good cheer.
Be rich in faith.
Be alive unto God.
Be tender-hearted.
Be of good courage.
Be of good comfort.
Be submissive to God.
Be fervent in spirit.
Be children in malice.
Be ye all of one mind.
Be strong in the Lord.
Be rich in good works.
Be faithful unto death.
Be ye doers of the Word.
Be dead indeed unto sin.
Be found of Him in peace.
Be ye kind one to another.
Be temperate in all things.
Be at peace among yourselves.
Be sober and watch unto prayer.
Be followers of that which is good.
Be a partaker of the divine nature.
Be established in the present truth.
Be kindly affectioned one to another.
Be content with such things as ye have.
Be patient unto the coming of the Lord.
Arranged by Wm. Simpson.
Ontario, Quebec.
Greatness and Compassion
There never was any heart truly great and generous that was not also tender and compassionate.—South.
WORKERS TOGETHER IN LIFE.
THE purpose of life, we have learned, is to serve God, to do His will, to minister to the good of others. God blesses us with His life, His Spirit, that we may minister of that Spirit to others.
While a Being of infinite knowledge and power could Himself have done all things which pertain to the salvation and good of His creatures, infinite love and wisdom would not permit it. God has therefore associated with Himself all His intelligent creatures as sharers in the great work of redemption. We rejoice most in the success of that in which we have a part. The Lord desires His people to rejoice with Him in the glorious success of redemption, and therefore He gives them a part to act, that all may truly share in “the joy of the Lord.”
Not only has He given His creature man a part in this work, but an order of spiritual beings above man are engaged in the same work. These are the holy angels, God’s messengers, or ministers, “which do His pleasure.”
The angels stand nearer to God, not because God desires it or is partial, but because sin and its consequences have separated man from his Creator. Mortal man can not endure the unvailed glory of God. Sinful man will utterly perish in its light when that glory is revealed. 2 Thess. 2: 8. Even righteous men have fallen prostrate before the glorious Redeemer as He has revealed His presence to them. Acts 26: 13–16; Rev. 1: 12–17.
But the holy angels who have never known sin nor mortality live in His presence, and are able to bear the fulness of His life and glory. So much of this rests upon them that when they have appeared to men, they have vailed their glory in human form. Gen. 18: 1, 2; 19: 1. And when God would show the fulness of His love, He vailed His divinity in the humanity of Jesus of Nazareth.
And yet these angels that excel in power and might and glory, so much so that even one who had seen the Lord bowed to worship, are not to be worshiped. They are not God or of the Godhead; they are but ministers of God, man’s coworkers in life. Said Christ’s angel to John as the apostle fell at his feet to worship, “See thou do it not; I am a fellow-servant with thee and with thy brethren that hold the testimony of Jesus.” Rev. 19: 10.
Being coworkers with man it is most reasonable to believe that not one soul will be saved by God’s great love in Jesus Christ but that angels of God have had a part in its salvation, and therefore rejoice in its triumph over evil. Not one soul will be saved over which one creature—angel or man—will rejoice alone. No one will boast of the gathered sheaves for Heaven’s garner and say, “These I have sowed and cared for and reaped; these are the results of my labor.” There will be no selfishness, no selfish boasting, in the kingdom of God. Every true worker—angel or man—will ascribe all the power and glory to the Lamb and the Father, and “sower and reaper will rejoice together” over the souls saved.
And yet there is order observed in God’s working; there is the regular channel through which His life force flows to the children of men, and by which His blessed Spirit does its work. We read: “The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Him, to show unto His servants things which must shortly come to pass; and He sent and signified it by His angel unto His servant John; who bare record of the Word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ.” Rev. 1: 1, 2. Here we have the order of divine procedure: (1) The Father; (2) Jesus Christ; (3) Christ’s angel; (4) John the apostle and prophet; (5) the church. And as respects the latter, the messages to the church are given through the ministers, or watchmen, of that church.
God in His wisdom can work and does work in other ways, because conditions of men demand it, but this is the regular way.
The glory supreme and insupportable of the Godhead is represented in the Father. 1 Tim. 6: 16. Jesus Christ has forever blended the divine with the human, and from Him flows out the Spirit of life to all His children. The angels are the mediums, the ganglia, on these great currents of God’s life to re-enforce, so to speak, these life currents. They can bear without exaltation God’s Spirit and its outshining glory, and in themselves bring the presence of God to His children, and drive back the angels of evil which seek to destroy them.
But, personally, the angels reveal themselves as helpers only to those who are by faith the children of God. God honors His human servants, and they too must be privileged to share in the labor. Thus Cornelius is assured by the angel that his alms are accepted and his prayers heard, but if he wishes instruction, let him send to Joppa and call for Simon Peter, an apostle, and Peter would tell him what to do. Saul is stricken down by the glory of God, but helping him in the way is reserved to Ananias, a disciple. The angel could have instructed the Ethiopian, but the Lord sent Philip to do this part of the work. Our Lord sends His messages of comfort and love and instruction by His angels to His church, but His church must bear them to the souls in need. She must travail in soul for the children born into the kingdom.
There is infinite wisdom in all this. The unconverted man would be led to accept the Word of the Gospel through fear if it came with the glorious appearance of an angel; but slavish service is not acceptable to God. He drives no one into His service by a display of great glory and majesty. He wishes willing service. And so He sends to man the Gospel of life by man. He reveals to man the power of Christ in man, that man may be won by the glory of goodness, and not by outward show. “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out! . . . For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things; to whom be glory forever. Amen.”
“A DAY OF THE TRUMPET AND ALARM.”
By T.
“THE great day of the Lord is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the Lord; the mighty man shall cry there bitterly. That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high towers. And I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the Lord; and their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as the dung. Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord’s wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of His jealousy; for He shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.” Zeph. 1: 14-18.
The foregoing language of the prophet Zephaniah gives a vivid picture of the condition of things when “the great day of the Lord is near,” “and hasteth greatly.” He says, “The mighty man shall cry there bitterly.” Also we are told “that day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation.” Be particular to note what this forcible and positive Word of God says. Don’t bother about what it means; look at what it says, and give the Lord of heaven and earth the credit of saying what He means.
Your teaching may have been to the contrary of what this Word of the Lord says. You may have heard the fable that the world is all to be converted, and that every one will become good before the end of time. But no such doctrine was ever built upon the foundation of the Word of the Lord. The heavenly Father has never told us any such thing, no matter how pleasing it would be to us for Him to say it. God can deal only with facts. The truth is the only thing He can tell. Sometimes it may not seem so pleasing as a cunningly-devised fable, but it is always the truth.
“The great day of the Lord” is also “a day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high towers.” You may have heard those who are saying that there are to be no wars, but a millennium of peace is to precede the advent of Christ. But pay no attention to hearsay. Study the Bible,—what is recorded in the Book. Rest assured that the Word of God is right.
“Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord’s wrath.” Men in these last days are trusting in the great fortunes that they are piling up. They can use their money to defeat justice now; it is a source of power to them for the present, but the time is just ahead when their hoarded wealth will lose its ability to deliver them.
Study closely the foregoing verses quoted from Zephaniah. Compare what this scripture so clearly says with the condition of “distress,” of the “trumpet and alarm,” that is so darkly rising all over the world to-day, and then ask yourself, “Is not the great day of the Lord near and hasting greatly?” Do not allow yourself to be deceived in this time. Look at the actual realities squarely. We are in ominous times. But if you are on the Lord’s side, the omens are of the coming day.
T.
A FOUNDATION OF PAPAL AGGRESSION.
THE Papacy is to-day, in aim, in object, in principle, just what she was in the Middle Ages. It is her own testimony that she has not changed. To admit that she has or should, would be fatal to her claim of infallibility. The Inquisition originated and was established under the sanction of the head of the Catholic Church, for the purpose of “sifting out and indicting heretics of every description.” Then—in the Middle Ages—“there was the greatest union of Church and State.” This union of Church and State made Spain what she was and is to-day. And now this unchangeable church believes there should still be “the greatest union of Church and State” in this country, with the dominant church the Roman Catholic.
And in this Roman Catholicism is perfectly consistent with her claims. Grant her premises, and we must concede her conclusion. If she is the only church of Christ, if authority is vested in her over and above the written Word, then she should be given the position she aims to obtain.
She also knows that the great dominating powers of earth are the Anglo-Saxon. Therefore she is working as never before to conquer Germany, England, and the United States. If these yield, the world will. And what vast strides she has taken in Germany and England! It seems, if possible, that she has taken longer, stronger strides in this country, where both the State and the Protestant churches have unwittingly helped forward her work.
We have not space to consider these steps at length; we therefore put them in brief, and in doing so shall borrow largely from a book which would have none too large a circulation in this land if five million copies were placed in the hands of the people.
But before we consider the attitude and aggression of the Roman Catholic Church, let us consider some matters which have opened the way for her advance and present attitude.
In the “Middle Ages there was the greatest union of Church and State. This union was the natural outcome of the beautiful marriage of civil and religious institutions.” But when this government was organized and established, it inscribed upon the reverse side of its great seal the animus of its existence, “Novus Ordo Seclorum” (“A new order of ages”). It was the beginning of a government in which there was the greatest separation of Church and State. This separation, absolute freedom in religious matters, was one of the dearest things cherished by the founders of our government.
How did Rome regard this government under that “new order”? Let one of her denominational organs reply. In the Catholic World, in the month of September, 1871, appeared a leading article, which thus referred to the Constitution of the United States:—
As it is interpreted by the liberal and sectarian journals that are doing their best to revolutionize it, and is beginning to be interpreted by no small portion of the American people, or is interpreted by the Protestant principle, so widely diffused among us, . . . we do not accept it, or hold it to be any government at all, or as capable of performing any of the proper functions of government; and if it continues to be interpreted by the revolutionary principles of Protestantism, it is sure to fail. . . . Hence it is, we so often say that if the American republic is to be sustained and preserved at all, it must be by the rejection of the principle of the Reformation, and the acceptance of the Catholic principle by the American people.—P. 736.
The true Protestant principle is absolute separation of Church and State. The Catholic principle is “the greatest union of Church and State.” While the former existed in this government, it was considered by Rome not to be “any government at all, or as capable of performing any of the proper functions of government.”
That was previous to the year 1892. Working up toward that condition of things, which laid a favorable foundation for papal aggression, the following items may be noted:—
1. The large influx of Roman Catholic population, settling mainly in our large cities. In this way the politics of the great strategic points of our country are manipulated by Roman Catholics. The Catholic vote is an element which any great party despises at its peril. The great cities of America are coming to hold the balance of power in pivotal States, and Rome controls the great cities.
2. The great daily papers of the nation, which largely mold politically public opinion, are, if not wholly controlled, at least wide open to the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church, to whose interests more space is given than to all Protestant churches combined. The Papacy has shown its wonderful shrewdness in possessing herself of these two great vantage posts—the cities and the daily press.
3. In later years undue prominence has been given to one of the co-ordinate branches of our government, namely, the judicial. It has been kept before the people continually that this is the “highest branch of the government,” “the last court of appeal,” the court of the final adjudication of all questions, thus ignoring the people, in a “government of the people, by the people, for the people.” In past decades the people were considered the court of last resort; now it is a creation of the people which is given that place; and those are denounced as traitors who presume to criticise the decisions of either the Federal or State courts. This elevation of the Supreme Court as a final tribunal for the decision of all questions is a parallel to Rome’s claim in religious matters. In her ecclesiastical system the Supreme Court of the world sits in the Vatican.
4. With this abnormal elevation of the judicial branch of our government has entered a new régime in court decisions. Formerly the courts were content to interpret and pronounce upon law according as it harmonized or not with the Federal Constitution and Bills of Rights of the several States; but in later years we seem to have entered upon an era of “judge-made law,” against which eminent men have unavailingly put forth strong protest.
5. With these things on the secular side has come a strong demand, on the part of so-called Protestant churches and reform organizations, that this government in its fundamental law should recognize God as ruler and Jesus Christ as king, not seeing that if their demand were granted it would inevitably accrue to the advantage of the Papacy. So have they worked on; their work has borne fruit, and the Papacy is reaping the benefit.
6. Feb. 29, 1892, the Federal Court rendered a decision in the Trinity Church case, which is in its effects far-reaching and revolutionary. In that decision it is declared that “this is a Christian nation.” It declares that the commission granted to Columbus by Ferdinand and Isabella, that the union of Church and State which existed in the colonial governments, under which Baptists were banished and “witches” burned, and that the Constitution of the United States, are in consonance in declaring that “this is a Christian nation,” thus interpreting the Constitution to be in harmony with laws and ordinances which had their origin in the Middle Ages, directly contrary to the intent of the founders of this government. The same year, Sunday, considered to be a Christian institution, was set forth as the sabbath by act of Congress in the famous World Fair’s legislation, and approved by the executive. These proceedings were hailed with joy by zealous professedly Protestant politico-religious reformers, who congratulated themselves that the nation was saved; but it will be seen that all these were but a well-paved pathway for the advance of the Papacy.
In our next some of the steps which she has taken will be set before our readers.
Question Corner
“Enquire and make search and ask diligently.”
NOTE.—We wish those who ask questions to take particular notice: (1) Only such questions will be answered here as we believe to be of general interest and information. (2) We can not undertake to explain from four to a dozen scriptures, as in one sentence we are often requested to do. (3) Do not ask to “explain” a certain text or passage. State clearly the point in question. (4) Give full name and address, not for publication unless desired, but as evidence of good faith, and to give us the privilege of replying by letter if deemed best. (5) Unsigned communications of any kind find the quickest way to the waste-basket. (6) It is always well to inclose stamp. (7) “Foolish and unlearned questions avoid,” also those that minister to mere curiosity. (8) Study the Scriptures yourselves.
851. When Created.
(1) WERE the sun, moon, and stars created during the six days of creation week? or did they exist before that time and were at that time made light-bearers? (2) Were there worlds with beings on them at the time of Lucifer’s rebellion, prior to this world’s creation? B. D.
1. “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Gen. 1:1); “In six days the Lord made heaven and earth” (Ex. 20:11). Would not this indicate that God created, or brought into existence, the matter, “in the beginning,” whenever that might be, but on the six days He made, formed, and finished it? Evidently, on Fourth Day, God made the sun and moon light-bearers to this earth. The Word of God reveals at least two day stars, or morning stars, namely, “Lucifer [day star], son of the morning” (Isa. 14:12, margin), and Christ, the Son of God, “the Day Star,” “the Bright and Morning Star” (2 Peter 1:19; Rev. 22:16). At the time of man’s creation Lucifer had fallen; but when “the foundations of the earth” were laid, “the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.” This points to a time previous to the work of the six days. See article on last page of the SIGNS of July 7.
2. The angels were at least in existence, and must have had a habitation. Then who were “the sons of God”?
“And there was not a man to till the ground.” Gen. 2:5. Does this mean that Adam was not yet created? or does it refer to the earth outside the garden? J. D.
Adam was not then created. You will see that Gen. 2:4 begins a detailed account of the creation, leading up to that of man. The creation of man is given in verse 7.
THAT “CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP LEAGUE.”
By W. N. G.
The organization known as the National Christian Citizenship League is becoming a prominent factor in the now popular idea of religious reform through civil law. The object of the league, as announced, is threefold: (1) To reveal Jesus Christ as the Saviour of the nation as well as of the individual. (2) To make Christian principles operative in public affairs. (3) To unite the followers of Christ in consistent, harmonious, and aggressive action, not as church-members, but as Christian citizens, for the following purposes:—
“(1) To prevent, by personal effort, the nomination and election of corrupt candidates, and the enactment of corrupt laws in city, State, and nation.
“(2) To secure fidelity on the part of officers entrusted with the execution of the laws.
“(3) To exterminate the saloon as the greatest enemy of Christ and humanity.
“(4) To preserve the Sabbath.
“(5) To purify and elevate the elective franchise.
“(6) To promote the study of social wrongs and the application of effective remedies.
“(7) In general, to seek the reign of whatsoever things are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, and of good report.”
We respectfully submit that any endeavor to “reveal Jesus Christ as the Saviour” of any earthly nation, is to reveal Him in a false light. There is no intimation in the Word of God that any earthly nation is to be saved. The Lord rules in the kingdom of men, no matter how wicked they are (Dan. 4:17), to carry out His purposes, and He will do that, not by force of human leagues, but in spite of them. There will be “nations of them which are saved” (Rev. 21:24), but they are made up of individuals redeemed to God by the blood of Christ, “out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation” (chap. 5:9). The rulers of these nations of the saved will be the twelve apostles, for so the Lord made promise: “Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of His glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” Matt. 19:28. The names of the twelve apostles will be upon the New Jerusalem, the capital of the new earth, and the names of the twelve tribes will be on the twelve gates. See Revelation 21. The redeemed will inherit the kingdom prepared for them “when the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him.” Matt. 25:31–34.
As to making “Christian principles operative in public affairs,” no human league can do that. Only the Spirit of God can make Christian principles operative, and that only in the heart submissive to His will. No one can manifest Christian principles in the life, unless those principles be imbedded in the heart. Therefore, no political league, or political machinery of any kind, can enforce such principles in “public affairs.”
Again, only the Spirit of God can “unite the followers of Christ in consistent, harmonious, and aggressive action.” To unite them “not as church-members, but as Christian citizens,” for political purposes, would be a very inconsistent union; for the Christian’s “citizenship is in heaven” (Phil. 3:20, R.V.); he is “a soldier of Christ,” whose “kingdom is not of this world.” “Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” 2 Tim. 2:3. The soldier of Christ will follow Christ, and if he follow the Captain, he will do as the Captain did, and take no part in the matter of enforcing the fidelity of officers of the law. “No man that warreth [as a soldier of Christ] entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please Him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.” Verse 4.
But in the detail of objects the one numbered 4 in the foregoing list is especially striking. “To preserve the Sabbath” is a decided assumption—just as tho anything God has sanctified would need the ingenuity of a human political league to preserve it. Why, all the creatures of the universe combined could not hurt the Sabbath. If a mad hornet were to dash against the rock of Gibraltar, which would be hurt? So when the enemies of the Lord’s Sabbath, tho they be the great majority, trample upon its sacred hours, who is hurt?—Verily, it is the Sabbath-breaker, and not the Sabbath, that is damaged. “The wages of sin is death” to the sinner, and not to the violated law or the disregarded institution. The power and dignity of Christ were in no way deteriorated by His rejection and crucifixion. Rather, He was glorified by the resurrection, and given “a name that is above every name.” So with the Sabbath of the commandment; it will continue as an eternal institution, co-existent with the new earth. See Isa. 66:22–24. So the Sabbath of the Lord needs no human league to “preserve” it. It is the Sabbath-breaker that needs to be saved, delivered from the result of his sin; and no civil law can do that. The only remedy is in the Gospel of Christ; “for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” Acts 4:12.
Any so-called sabbath that needs such a preservative must be of human origin, and therefore antagonistic to the Sabbath of the Lord. Then any league for the preservation of such a sabbath can not be “consistent” in its claim to being a “Christian” league.
The promoters of this Christian Citizenship League say, “We do not wish for a union of Church and State; nor do we seek to govern the State through the Church.” Well, if that is not what they mean, it would be difficult, from the standpoint of the title and principles of the association as outlined by themselves, to divine what they do mean. Very few professedly Christian societies have yet come out better designed to ensnare people of good intentions under cover of ostensibly good purposes. It is quite evident that this movement is being forwarded by those who are blind to the sinister results that must inevitably follow its success. It is a sugar-coated prescription (for the infection of political corruption) which inwardly contains the virus of religious tyranny. W. N. G.
IS THIS A “NEW THEOLOGY”?
By W. N. G.
The martial spirit is taking hold of the professed disciples of Christ as never before. This need not be a matter of surprise, as the prophetic Word gives us ample reason to expect such things in the last days. But somehow it is a surprise to see this spirit manifested to such a degree in the Baptist Church, whose motto for so long has been, “Thus saith the Lord.” The Baptists have been noted as an educational people; that is, they have been zealous in the line of religious education. Therefore, we are led to wonder if the proposition contained in the following despatch is the result of another feature of “new theology”:—
“Boston, July 25.—The Twelfth Baptist Church adopted the following:—
“‘Resolved, That the President be requested to institute a free military school in which to educate colored soldiers for the duties of commissioned officers, which was, on March 21, 1864, done for white soldiers, who were appointed to lead colored troops, and the men chosen for this responsible office be taken from those who have won distinction on the battle-field.
“‘Resolved, That the people assembled recognize with gratitude the courage and soldierly qualities of the blacks now in Cuba, who made the victory of Santiago a possibility. As the climate of Cuba, a menace to the white soldier, is adapted to promote the highest development of the black, it is our hope to see the Pearl of the Antilles become to America what it has never been to Spain—the home of a thrifty and happy people.
“‘Resolved, That it is our belief that the black man has been educated and trained to fulfil an important mission, not only for Cuba, but for the Spanish possessions that are to come under our control. The Cuban, for whom we went to war with Spain, when asked to do menial work, declined, claiming that he was a soldier and not a workingman. The negro, faithful to his master before emancipation came, and as a contraband in helping us to build our forts and work essential to the success of the army, was a soldier as faithful in burden-bearing as he was brave in battle, and now occupies the proud position he holds in the eyes of the world, because Christ’s rule obtains control, and “he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.”’” W. N. G.
A CAUSE OF SYMPATHY IN FRANCE FOR SPAIN.
PRESIDENT CHARLES LEWIS LOOS, of Kentucky University, discusses, in the Independent of June 30, the question of French sympathy with Spain in this present conflict. Besides the enormous French financial interests involved, and the existing jealousy felt toward this nation by European nations in common, over “the prodigious growth of the United States in territory, power, political and commercial influence,” President Loos gives the following:—
“First of all, the Catholic clergy are yet, in spite of the widespread anti-clerical spirit there, a great power in France. Protestants now number much less than one million, as against thirty million Catholics in that land. Spain is known as a Catholic nation by pre-eminence, the most intensely so among the Catholic countries of the world; while the United States is justly regarded as one of the greatest, if not the greatest, Protestant nation of the earth. It is inevitable that to the common Catholic mind of Europe, particularly of Latin Europe, the present war should appear as one of Protestantism against Catholicism: all on one side are Catholics; the overwhelming majority on the other side are Protestants. This is the light in which the Catholics of Spain and France look upon this war; and no one need be surprised at it.”
“Moreover, the body of the French clergy—and their name is legion—are intense monarchists; this is unquestioned; and the United States is the great republic of the earth, that gives example, inspiration, and direction to the republican aspirations of the nations; while Spain, on the other hand, is the embodiment, every way, of the old monarchical ideas. And then, beyond this, the French priesthood are devoted to the Bourbons, as the lawful inheritors, by ‘divine right,’ of the throne of France; and the royal house of Spain is also Bourbon. With the French clergy of the old school, who are in the large majority, Protestantism and republicanism, such as it is here, with absolute religious freedom, are both from beneath, alike awful heresies. Put the two together, and imagine how the clergy of Spain and France must regard this union.”
It will be seen by the above how large a part Catholicism is playing in this great drama.
