THE “Christian statesman” of the present day is a person who is too intolerant to be a Christian, and too ignorant to be a statesman.AMS October 13, 1898, page 629.5

THE “God” which religious zealots will put into the Constitution, if their plans succeed, will be a god of their own make.AMS October 13, 1898, page 629.6

THE people who want God put in the Constitution of the United States, have lost sight of God in the constitution of all creation.AMS October 13, 1898, page 629.7

THE zealots who are striving to enact religious legislation in this land, want to blot out the Declaration of Independence, and declare the dependence of the rest of the people upon themselves.AMS October 13, 1898, page 629.8

THERE will be no harm in the schemes of the moral reform-by-law party if they will wait for the Lord to make known his will in the matter through some other channel than themselves.AMS October 13, 1898, page 629.9

MANY people who claim to be the spiritual descendants of Abraham, seem to have quite forgotten that the father of the faithful was only a stranger and pilgrim on this earth.AMS October 13, 1898, page 629.10

THERE can be reform by denying justice.AMS October 13, 1898, page 629.11

[Inset.] MAKING ROOM IN THE CONSTITUTION TO “PUT GOD INTO IT.” THE scheme to “put God in the Constitution” which is being urged upon Congress and the American people at every opportunity, means that the Constitution shall declare the will of God to be the fundamental law of the land. This would throw the question of what the will of God is, into the courts, and human interpretations of the law of God would become binding upon all citizens. And this would disfranchise and outlaw all disbelievers in the religious doctrines which might thus become established, and the persecution of religious dissenters would be revived. Congress would be no longer bound to “make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” but would be bound to do quite the contrary. Equality of citizens before the law would no longer exist, and justice would no longer be secured by the Constitution to the people.AMS October 13, 1898, page 629.12

“Imperial American and Imperial Rome” American Sentinel 13, 40, pp. 630, 631.

ATJ

ROME became imperial when the fabric of the Roman republic fell to pieces. Imperialism came not upon Rome by chance; it came never by chance upon any country. Imperial Rome came because the Roman republic fell to pieces; and the republic fell to pieces because the capacity for self-government had become lost in the Roman people.AMS October 13, 1898, page 630.1

Whenever the capacity for self-government is lost by any people, republican government is with them no longer possible, and imperialism no longer avoidable.AMS October 13, 1898, page 630.2

The last days of the Roman republic were marked by the division of society into two opposing classes,—the rich, and the poor. It was marked by the elimination of the middle class—that bodyguard of republican government, holding the balance of power between the social extremes. This class of the people being eliminated, there was nothing to check the struggle between poverty and wealth, which went on continuously. The rich obtained their riches by the most unscrupulous use of power, and the poor were held in poverty by the unscrupulous exercise of the power of wealth. And the poor became possessed of the idea that the state owed them a living, and preferred to depend for a living upon the state, rather than to make vigorous efforts to help themselves.AMS October 13, 1898, page 630.3

The political atmosphere was full of the questions to which the struggle between wealth and poverty gives rise. There was the land question: the land was passing from the hands of the people into the control of monopolists, who tilled it by gangs of slaves. Monopoly enabled the man of wealth to shut out competition, just as it does to-day; and the poor land holder, not being able to compete with the slave owner, became discontented and preferred the life of the city. The people flocked to the cities, and the transfer of their lands to the monopolists, and of themselves to the centres of wealth and political power, only made more unstable the trembling equilibrium of the government.AMS October 13, 1898, page 630.4

There was urgent need of purification in politics. The word had become the synonym of corruption. Political power meant the money to buy votes, and the voter was as ready to sell his vote as the politician was to buy it. Public offices were bought and public officials of all ranks were open to bribery. Everywhere gold outweighed justice and a feather outweighed crime.AMS October 13, 1898, page 630.5

Industry had dwindled in its meaning until it signified only the pursuit of money. This was the all-absorbing craze among all classes. The poor man sold his vote for money, and the rich man bought it in order that he might use its power to get wealth. There was a general eagerness to get rich, and to get rich without hard work. Immense fortunes were acquired at a bound by the unscrupulous use of the power of political office. The man who had bribed his way to the position of governor of a province, although he went to his new field heavily in debt came back in two or three years with a fortune which excited the envy and dazzled the judgment of his humbler fellows. The successful adventurer, no matter what his maxims and methods, became an example to be copied if possible.AMS October 13, 1898, page 630.6

Another feature that marked the decay of the republic was the development of the innate tendency of human nature to want to get something for nothing. This was a marked feature of life in the large cities. People who were without money wanted to be supported by the state. The conception of the state as a paternal entity endowed with unlimited capacity to support the people had become widespread. From the public granaries, grain was supplied to the indigent populace at a nominal price, while they were entertained at shows provided at state expense. This was the regime which the people preferred to self-support and self-government. They put their dependence upon that which, apart from the people, was nothing but a name; and of course, the fancied support soon failed. The republic was all the time sinking lower into the sea of anarchy and despotism.AMS October 13, 1898, page 630.7

Yet at this time Rome as a political division of the earth was rising to the zenith of her power. Her legions, under the leadership of renowned warriors, were sweeping all before them to the extreme limits of the known world. The prowess exhibited abroad gave no hint of the weakness that was a reality at home. But the power of the army was not the power of the republic; it was in reality the power of despotism. This the Romans finally perceived; this, in her own case, the French republic is perceiving to-day; and this the United States will perceive when this republic shall have become the great military power which it now aspires and is planning to be.AMS October 13, 1898, page 630.8

Such was Rome in the last days of the republic. And all this was because the people themselves, individually, had lost the capacity for self-government. The principle had become corrupted within them, and this individual corruption was the disease which manifested itself in upheavals in the affairs of state. And the remedies proposed and tried were only to cure the symptoms and not the disease itself; and when at last the would-be liberators of their country performed the desperate deed which removed from the Roman stage the imperial figure of Julius Cesar, the imperialism within the republic went on unchecked. New and worse symptoms of the disease speedily appeared in the place of those that had been eliminated; new Cesars far more despotic and cruel succeeded to the throne of the first.AMS October 13, 1898, page 630.9

And who that has thoughtfully and candidly observed the trend of affairs in the American Republic to-day can fail to discern the same waning of the power of self-government, the same symptoms developing, if yet less advanced, which marked the last days of the republic of Rome? Knowing these, we may be assured what in the natural course of events, will be the end.AMS October 13, 1898, page 631.1

“The Power of Christianity” American Sentinel 13, 40, p. 631.

ATJ

THE Church of Christ was not designed to be a powerless thing in the midst of the powers of earth. Of Christians it is said by the divine Word that one shall “chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight.” All Christians, at least, recognize that this statement is truth.AMS October 13, 1898, page 631.1

This is the power which God has designed for his followers here. Through them he would make his power known to the world, and to do this—to reveal himself as the Supreme One to whom all the world should look for salvation—he would endue his children with a power vastly greater than any that is known to the world. For in all the world was there never known such a thing as that one person, with any power supplied by the world, turned back a thousand of his adversaries, or that two put ten thousand to flight. But the great conflict between truth and righteousness on the one hand, and error and iniquity on the other, reveals many a scene where one man, standing in the strength of God, has discomfited a host of his enemies. Often in that conflict has the truth appeared that one individual, on the side of God, is in the majority.AMS October 13, 1898, page 631.2

And yet, notwithstanding this which God has plainly revealed to the church, and which Christians profess to believe, the church wants to express her power through politics! In politics, where at best she can only measure vote for vote with the world, and where she is hopelessly outnumbered by the world, the church would convince the world of the power of the kingdom of God! Think of it, and think how hopeless and complete must be her failure!AMS October 13, 1898, page 631.3

“Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord.” This is the way God himself has chosen to make his power known in the world by his church. And politics is the way the church has chosen! Where at the polls did one vote ever offset a thousand, or two Christian voters put ten thousand of the worldly to flight?AMS October 13, 1898, page 631.4

What the church needs to-day is not politics, but purification. Not the purification of politics, but the purification of the church, is the thing that will supply the church with power. And that purification will come, as surely as there is a God in heaven who has undertaken to save men by his power. That power must be made known among men, and it will be. And then will the church of the living God arise and the world will behold her—though but a Gideon’s band, it may be—“fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners.”AMS October 13, 1898, page 631.5

“Sophistry and Its Fruit” American Sentinel 13, 40, p. 631.

ATJ

CHURCH participation I politics has this defense from the late Cardinal Manning:—AMS October 13, 1898, page 631.1

“Why should the Holy Father touch any matter in politics at all? For the plain reason, because politics are a part of morals. Politics are morals on the widest scale.”AMS October 13, 1898, page 631.2

That is the plea by which every church and every individual professor of religion justify their participation in politics. The plea is equally good for one and all.AMS October 13, 1898, page 631.3

And this plea seems all right in itself; but its fruit is bad, and the tree is known by its fruit, and not by its appearance. The early church went into politics, and the result was, the establishment of the papacy. Had the church kept aloof from politics, no such thing as the papacy could ever have been.AMS October 13, 1898, page 631.4

And wherever the church—the papal or any other—has participated in politics, and has had the power to mold the political situation to her liking, there has been persecution and oppression to her religious opponents. There has been a likeness of the papacy, if not the thing itself. The papal church does not stand alone in history as a persecutor and oppressor of the people. That church is the mother of persection [sic.]; but she has had numerous daughters.AMS October 13, 1898, page 631.5

It is not true that “politics are morals on the widest scale.” Morals are presented on the widest scale in the law of God,—the commandments which are described by the psalmist as “exceeding broad.” Politics are the science of civil government—that government which is suited to selfish people. But the law of God is the rule of divine government—the only government in which selfishness does not appear. Where no selfishness is no other government but the divine one can be possible. And no other than this can harmonize with Christianity.AMS October 13, 1898, page 631.6

“The Church on Imperialism” American Sentinel 13, 40, pp. 636, 637.

ATJ

WHILE a few voices within the church are raised in warning against the policy which would launch the nation upon the sea of imperialism, it is evident that, in general, the church will give that policy her vigorous support. For in it the church sees—or believes that she sees—the opportunity for a rapid and easy extension of her own conquests, which, being those of Christianity, must be for the welfare of all people, and justify the means by which they are introduced.AMS October 13, 1898, page 636.1

The tendency of the church is more and more to ally herself with the state in political affairs; to see in political questions the moral questions which belong to her divinely-appointed sphere; to see, in short, as Cardinal Manning expressed it, that “politics are morals on the widest scale.” And this the church discerns all the more readily when, as in the present instance, a certain policy on the part of the state contains the promise of an important advantage for herself.AMS October 13, 1898, page 636.2

Some impressive words in support of an imperial policy by the Government were spoken on an impressive occasion on the 5th inst. in Washington, D. C. That occasion was the triennial council of the Protestant Espicopal Church of the United States. The conference included in its participants the House of Bishops, which is the chief governing body within the church, and among its lay delegates such men as Chief Justice Fuller, of the Supreme Court, J. Pierpont Morgan, the financier, and Captain A. T. Mahan, author of the famous book on the influence of naval power; numbering about five hundred persons in all.AMS October 13, 1898, page 636.3

Bishop Tuttle delivered a discourse from the text “Lengthen thy cords and strengthen thy stakes,” declaring that “in everyday experience, to hold what is got is quite as valuable a quality of well-balanced human nature as to get more to hold.” Touching the theme of national expansion, the bishop said:—AMS October 13, 1898, page 636.4

“Wide, aye—wide, the work of the church should be. Extension is in the air for us Americans now. If we fall into line at its bugle blast some may claim to our risk and harm that it is an unwonted call, an out-of-the-way call, an unfit call to such as we are. Be that as it may, the logical course of events is a force not to be counted out, and it may make the sounding of bugle calls and the rolling forward of the chariot wheels of destiny things that we cannot stop if we would.AMS October 13, 1898, page 637.1

“We who think are startled and subdued and awed at the responsibilities devolved upon the Union now.AMS October 13, 1898, page 637.2

“Now, if the things which we are looking at as citizens are wide and far and deep, how shall we bear it if the church cowers and draws back and lies down? We ought to be, we want to be, the hammer and the arm driving it, to strike hard Hawaii, Porto Rico—go forward to possess the land. The Philippines—if the flag we honor and love is to float sovereign there—go yet in there also. And if the forceful logic of events that we wot of lift the flag into prominence over other regions yet—go ye there, too, to bide and work and help and save.AMS October 13, 1898, page 637.3

“We may find China likely to be our neighbor, even in the ordinary sense of mundane locality. In the literal sense and in the catechism’s sense she has been our neighbor for years.AMS October 13, 1898, page 637.4

“Then for our own countrymen shall this church be content with any narrower aim than to be in zeal and duty and sympathy the American Church.AMS October 13, 1898, page 637.5

“Then for our own countrymen shall this church be content with any narrower aim than to be in zeal and duty and sympathy the American Church.AMS October 13, 1898, page 637.6

“We need not the fact that we are gathered in the nation’s capital to remind us how thick and fast are growing the nation’s responsibilities, which are centering here.AMS October 13, 1898, page 637.7

“The Anglo-Saxon race seems harnessed to the twofold work of giving to the world the sweets of personal liberty and the restraints of order without which liberty cannot be preserved.”AMS October 13, 1898, page 637.8

But is not the church right in supporting the policy of national expansion, that she may go to new fields under the protection of the national flag? The answer is that the power of the Church of Christ is not national power, but that of the Holy Spirit, with which the disciples were baptized at Pentecost, and by which the early church proclaimed the gospel with a power and success that have never been equaled since. The divine hand, that is over all the affairs of men, may bring opportunities for the gospel out of war and political strife, even as he has the power to compel the wrath of man to praise him. But it is not for his church to join in the strife or to depend upon any one of the contending powers. Her motto must always be “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord.”AMS October 13, 1898, page 637.9

October 6, 1898

October 20, 1898