September 1, 1898

“Notes” American Sentinel 13, 34, p. 533.

ATJ

CHRISTIANITY is the only true optimism.AMS September 1, 1898, page 533.1

CHRISTIANITY means the power of love; politics means the love of power.AMS September 1, 1898, page 533.2

THE Golden Rule cannot be run into the mold of legislation.AMS September 1, 1898, page 533.3

THE earth is run by politics, but Christianity is the motive power of heaven.AMS September 1, 1898, page 533.4

POLITICS is a struggle for the mastery; Christianity seeks not to rule, but to serve.AMS September 1, 1898, page 533.5

PEOPLE who claim to be saints and to own the earth may well be viewed with suspicion.AMS September 1, 1898, page 533.6

THE theory that the civil ruler is bound to execute the will of God, can become effective only by making the church the power behind the throne.AMS September 1, 1898, page 533.7

GOD never patches up a piece of his handiwork that has become marred by sin; he does it over, regenerates it, makes a new creation.AMS September 1, 1898, page 533.8

THE use of force by Christ’s servants is an argument that his kingdom is of this world. But as the argument itself is false, so those who advance it are false servants.AMS September 1, 1898, page 533.9

JESUS CHRIST never held or will hold a political office.AMS September 1, 1898, page 533.10

THE purest politics can draw no soul heavenward.AMS September 1, 1898, page 533.11

POLITICS has its source in human nature; Christianity flows from the divine nature.AMS September 1, 1898, page 533.12

IT would be just as easy to preserve Christianity by law as to preserve the Sabbath by law.AMS September 1, 1898, page 533.13

WHEN men try to set up the kingdom of God, they always reserve positions of honor in it for themselves.AMS September 1, 1898, page 533.14

IF the pathway of politics tended upward, the pathways of nations would not tend, as all have done, toward decay.AMS September 1, 1898, page 533.15

[Inset.] THE “GATEWAY OF POLITICS.” IN this day very much is expected from politics by would-be reformers of society. Indeed, from one of the leading reform movements of the age the statement has come that “the kingdom of God is to enter the realm of law through the gateway of politics;” and this states the principle upon which reform work in general is now being conducted. Through politics, men expect to usher in the millennium. But can the kingdom of God pass through such a gateway as this? Will that kingdom pass by the evil and corruption which find in politics their readiest field of action, and are as inseparable from it as they are from human nature? Assuredly not. Rather will it sweep away all these things, leaving neither politics nor political governments. A reform which is in harmony with that kingdom must be separate from politics.AMS September 1, 1898, page 533.16

“Sunday Enforcement and Good Government” American Sentinel 13, 34, p. 534.

ATJ

IN the city of Nashville, Tenn., public sentiment has been agitated of late over the question of the removal from office of the chief of police. It appeared certain that the removal would be made, and it was charged by a class of the citizens standing for certain ideas of “moral” government, that it was the work of the gamblers and Sunday tipplers. We do not mention it to discuss the conflict of the good and bad elements in the city government, but to notice a common idea of good government which came to the surface in connection with this agitation, and appeared in the Nashville Banner. In a communication to that journal, a citizen says:—AMS September 1, 1898, page 534.1

“In my opinion the time has come when the good people of this city, without severing their party ties, shall say to these law-breakers. ‘The party is bigger than the gamblers’ association and the Sunday tipplers’ association, and if they don’t like the party there is plenty of room to quit it.’AMS September 1, 1898, page 534.2

“These associations have so manipulated parties as to have an undue weight in public affairs. They must be told that they have no exclusive rights; that seeking the protection of the law in their just rights, they must obey it; that the merchant, the mechanic, the manufacturer, are not allowed to keep open shop on Sunday, and they do not in defiance of law undertake to do it; that the farmer, though his crop—his young corn and cotton—may be choked with weeds, dare not go into the field with his plow on Sunday; that even the Seventh-day Adventist, who is impelled by the strongest religious convictions to give Saturday to his devotions, is not allowed to plow his corn on Sunday, and that the saloon man is not better than they; that the gambler’s occupation is certainly not a favored calling; that betting has its penalties, which may be paid and the law satisfied, but keeping gambling houses in a city with its awful consequences on society cannot and will not be tolerated; and that this community will not quietly submit to the removal of a public officer because he develops a capacity to enforce the law.”AMS September 1, 1898, page 534.3

The idea which appears all through this quotation is that good government is to be attained by suppressing gambling and liquor selling on Sunday. The manufacturer, farmer, and seventh-day observer must observe Sunday, and the gambler and saloonist are not better than they. Hence they must be made to do likewise, and the good people of the city should see the chief of police is retained who will carry this into effect.AMS September 1, 1898, page 534.4

Instead of recognizing that gambling and liquor selling are wrong and demoralizing on all days, by their very nature, this idea of good government passes over the inherent evil of these things and lays its stress upon the desecration of Sunday. But good government can not be promoted anywhere by losing sight of the inherent evil of vicious practices. And this is certainly one tendency, and a strong one, of the agitation for the compulsory observance of Sunday. The more the attention becomes fixed upon the assume sanctity of Sunday, the more tendency is there to see in the desecration of the day a greater offense than in the vicious practice by which it is desecrated; until at length the main evil of gambling and liquor selling seems to lie not so much in the demoralizing nature of such practices as is the fact that they are conducted on Sunday.AMS September 1, 1898, page 534.5

In this way the Sunday laws tend really to strengthen the hold these evils have acquired upon public tolerance. The effort that should be directed toward their entire suppression on all days is largely expended in making them conform to the requirements of the Sunday law; and having conformed to its requirements, they by that very thing acquire a degree of respectability in the public view which otherwise would not be possible. Cannot those who desire good city government see the danger which lies in this diversion of the force of public sentiment from the evil thing itself, to its desecration of Sunday? If they cannot, it is not because the danger is not real and conspicuous.AMS September 1, 1898, page 534.6

To suppress liquor selling on Sunday only, is to tacitly assent to the traffic on other days of the week. To prohibit it by law on Sunday only, is to justify is by law on other days; and behind such a law the evil traffic can take refuge, and hold up its monster head without fear as a law-abiding institution. But do lovers of good government want such a condition of things to exist?AMS September 1, 1898, page 534.7

Let all such arouse to the danger of the movement which would oppose these evils by suppressing them on Sunday. Friends, you cannot advance in the direction of good government by way of Sunday laws. They are a deception and a snare. To secure good government an evil must be opposed because it is such in its nature, and not because it is connected with what may or may not be wrong, according to the truth or falsity of theological tenets. With such conditions civil government can have nothing to do. Whether Sunday desecration is right or wrong, is a question with which the chief of police of any city, or any other civil officer, as such, has no concern whatever. It is a question to be settled by Scripture, and the truth of Scripture can be settled for an individual only by the teaching of the Holy Spirit.AMS September 1, 1898, page 534.8

“The Moral Law and the Civil Ruler” American Sentinel 13, 34, p. 535.

ATJ

IN the August Christian Statesman, Rev. R. C. Allen treats of the “fundamental principles of civil government, specifically considered.” Among these principles, as he enumerates them, are the following:—AMS September 1, 1898, page 535.1

“9. The only right a man has is to do right.AMS September 1, 1898, page 535.2

“10. But man is a sinner and God is invisible. How will moral law be enforced for the time being?AMS September 1, 1898, page 535.3

“11. Moral force is sufficient to control moral beings; but physical force must compel immoral beings.AMS September 1, 1898, page 535.4

“12. God has instituted civil government for this end, and has clothed the civil ruler with authority to execute his moral law.AMS September 1, 1898, page 535.5

“13. God has ordained civil government to enforce his moral law among men that they shall enjoy their rights.”AMS September 1, 1898, page 535.6

This last assertion is italicized and set forth as being the “principal proposition.”AMS September 1, 1898, page 535.7

This is the true national reform theory, set forth without any attempt at disguise. Its fundamental proposition is “God ... has clothed the civil ruler with authority to execute his moral law.”AMS September 1, 1898, page 535.8

Let us suppose that this proposition is true: what follows?AMS September 1, 1898, page 535.9

If the civil ruler is true to the requirements of his office, being clothed with this authority, he will proceed to execute God’s moral law upon transgressors as they are brought before him. What then?AMS September 1, 1898, page 535.10

The transgression of the law is sin (1 John 3:4); and “the soul that sinneth it shall die.” Ezekiel 18:4, 20.AMS September 1, 1898, page 535.11

That the penalty of sin, of every kind or degree, is death, is by the testimony of Scripture too plain a fact to require argument. Adam, in the Garden of Eden, was told by his Creator that in the day that he disobeyed the command given him concerning the tree of knowledge of good and evil, he would surely die. He did disobey, and from that moment he became mortal, and started on his journey to the grave. But mightier than this—a stupendous and unimpeachable testimony to the truth that the penalty of sin is death—is the face of the death of the Son of God on the cross. This was because Adam had transgressed the moral law, and if there had been any escape from the death penalty, this infinite sacrifice could have been avoided. But there was no escape from death, and only through the death of Christ was there escape for Adam and his sinful posterity.AMS September 1, 1898, page 535.12

No sinner can enter heaven; this is a fact universally admitted. But he who is shut out of heaven will, it is declared, be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, which is the “second death.”AMS September 1, 1898, page 535.13

It being unquestionably true, then, that the penalty of sin is death, when transgressors of the moral law are brought before the civil ruler, he being commissioned of God to execute the moral law, it would simply remain for him to execute the death penalty upon every individual who should be found guilty. And as all people upon the earth are sinners, how long would it be before every man, woman and child in the land would be put to death, supposing the civil rulers to be faithful in doing their “duty”? And all this, in order that men “shall enjoy their rights!” Imagine the people of a land enjoying their rights under such a régime as this!AMS September 1, 1898, page 535.14

And being sinners themselves, it would remain finally for the civil rulers, after having put all others to death, to execute the death penalty upon themselves; and then this theory of the authority of the civil power would have been fully carried into effect! And as the result of it, there would remain not a single living soul on the earth!AMS September 1, 1898, page 535.15

Is this what the people want? Is it what those want who advocate a union of the civil power with religion? There can be no such union which would leave out the moral law of God, certainly; and being joined with the moral law, the only possible result would be the execution of the death penalty upon the people, as before stated. This is what union of the State with religion means; and that it does mean just this is as plain as A B C.AMS September 1, 1898, page 535.16

But to prevent this, to give the transgressor probation and an opportunity still to obtain the eternal life for which he was created, God at an infinite sacrifice provided the plan of salvation. He sends to man the gospel—the “glad tidings”—expressly to prevent the execution of his moral law upon him. He made an infinite sacrifice, giving his only begotten Son to die, expressly to save man from being visited with the execution of his moral law. By and law, in the great Judgment day, he will execute his moral law upon all who shall then be found transgressors, and the result to all such will be eternal death.AMS September 1, 1898, page 535.17

It is perfect clear, then, that this doctrine which declares the civil ruler to be authorized to execute the moral law of God, is squarely opposed to the gospel. It is as squarely against God and against Christ, as it Satan himself. It is the doctrine of antichrist. It means death, and not life,—death to the state, death to the church, death to everything. Let it be recognized for what it is, and carefully shunned by the American people.AMS September 1, 1898, page 535.18

“Back Page” American Sentinel 13, 34, p. 548.

ATJ

HE who is harsh in governing others, shows that he has not yet learned to govern himself.AMS September 1, 1898, page 548.1

WHEN Jesus Christ reproved his disciples for disputing as to which of them should be the greatest, he rebuked politics in his church.AMS September 1, 1898, page 548.2

IN a paper read at the Cambridge Congress of Zoology, England, Professor Haeckel said that science has now established the “absolute certainty” that man has descended through various stages of evolution from the lowest form of animal life, during a period estimated at a thousand million years.AMS September 1, 1898, page 548.3

This is what “science” says. And in saying this, this “science” says something more.AMS September 1, 1898, page 548.4

If man “descended” from the lowest forms of animal life, it was, according to the evolutionary theory, by a change so gradual as to be imperceptible at any point of its progress. The “evolution” must be still going on, the same as in the past, but nobody can see it taking place. Nobody can point to any distinct evolution in animal life that has taken place in his own lifetime, or even in the space of time that is covered by reliable history. The species of the animal world remain to-day just what they were at the time of the earliest human observations. The ape is no nearer to the human now than he was thousands of years ago.AMS September 1, 1898, page 548.5

This evolutionary process, then, being so extremely gradual, must have filled the world with forms intermediate between the lowest forms and the highest form, which is man. There ought to be a gradation from the lowest to the highest form, so perfect that it would be imperceptible at any particular point. This is what this “science” demands, and therefore what it says.AMS September 1, 1898, page 548.6

But instead of this, what is actually seen is that the animal world is divided into entirely distinct groups or species, an enormous gap lying between any two of them, for which gaps the evolutionary theory utterly fails to account. As regards man, the highest animal, this gap has been recognized by the use of the familiar phrase, “the missing link,” for which there has been so much search. As a matter of fact the “missing link” is not missing between man and the ape alone, but between the ape and lower animals, and between all the different species of animals that exist; and it is not one link merely that is missing, but an endless number of them, enough to account for the slow change from one species to another upon the evolutionary theory.AMS September 1, 1898, page 548.7

When “science” asks us to accept a theory as sound which is full of such enormous holes, we must respectfully decline. We have no use for any “absolute certainties” of this kind. We have no use for such “science.” The science we believe in says that man was created in the image of God.AMS September 1, 1898, page 548.8

If any real evidence could be had in support of the Darwinian theory, we believe it would be found by making man the starting-point of the evolution; for while there is no evidence that the ape is developing into something higher, there is a manifest tendency on the part of many men to sink to the level of the ape.AMS September 1, 1898, page 548.9

THE trouble is with the system of imperialism which the country has inaugurated, not that the Government does not mean to govern fairly and well the new trans-marine territory, but that the temptations to corruption in government which a remote province presents, are too great to be long withstood by those who will get the appointment to the office of governor. The words “There’s money in it,” tell the story of political intrigue and corruption for any matter to which they apply.AMS September 1, 1898, page 548.10