p. 229 | Untitled article by S. O. LANE

Pacific Press Publishing Company · New York · July 24, 1890

FromThe American Sentinel, Vol. 5, No. 29

A Parallel.

By S. O. LANE

“WOE unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, and say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.” These words, uttered so many centuries ago, have never lost their force. They are just as applicable in our day, and there is the same spirit for them to rebuke now as was manifested then. It is very natural to see others’ faults. It is so easy to say, “If we had only been in those days or in their place, we would not have done as they did.”

The scribes and Pharisees could look back on the acts of their impious fathers and condemn their course for slaying the prophets and killing those that were sent unto them, while at the same time they were only waiting for a good opportunity to stain their hands with the blood of the Son of God.

The same spirit was shown by the Romish Church, who, while she condemned those wicked Jews for crucifying the Lord, at the same time crucified him millions of times in the person of his saints, all through the long Dark Ages.

We look with horror on the wholesale work of slaughter done by the Inquisition, while at the same time in our own Nation a large organization is formed, and its numbers are swelling every year, whose sole purpose is to do the very thing that will cause to be re-enacted the same scenes in our country as were enacted by Rome in her days of power. The adherents of this movement by styling themselves National Reformers virtually admit that they consider themselves as better than their fathers. They claim to be laboring for the good of the Nation, but like the Pharisees of old they fail to see that they are only following the same course they are so free to condemn in others.

History repeats itself; because human nature is the same in all ages, and always will be, and we can avoid making the mistakes that others have made only by firmly adhering to principle and right.

If we would honor those who established this Nation and those who have preserved it, let us remember that these noble, unselfish men bought with their blood, blessings of liberty and peace that we have no right to recklessly throw away.

Such a move as is set on foot by the National Reformers should stir up every true American to work to forever preserve the blessings of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

S. O. LANE