Nearing the Final Crisis by K. C. Russell; W. A. Colcord

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 21, 1909

Nearing the Final Crisis

By K. C. Russell; W. A. Colcord

The times which we have long anticipated are now upon us. Prophecy is meeting such a rapid fulfilment in these days that even those who have clearly understood it stand all but amazed as they behold the wonderful events occurring in quick succession.

Instead of the year 1909 starting out as a “Happy New Year,” great gloom and sorrow has settled like an awful pall over the inhabitants of the world in consequence of the most appalling earthquake that has occurred since the flood. This calamity adds another to the already rapidly increasing list of catastrophes that show the nearness of Christ’s coming.

Another consideration in this connection, which is of intense interest to those who honor God’s Sabbath, is the fact that those who are maintaining the spurious sabbath will charge them with being responsible for all these great calamities that are coming upon the world, because they do not observe Sunday as a day of rest. The course that will be pursued by Satan and his followers against God’s commandment-keeping people has been clearly outlined by the spirit of prophecy, in the following words:—

“In accidents and calamities by sea and by land, in great conflagrations, in fierce tornadoes and terrific hail-storms, in tempests, floods, cyclones, tidal waves, and earthquakes, in every place and in a thousand forms, Satan is exercising his power. He imparts to the air a deadly taint, and thousands perish by the pestilence. These visitations are to become more and more frequent and disastrous. Destruction will be upon both man and beast. “And then the great deceiver will persuade men that those who serve God are causing these evils. The class that have provoked the displeasure of Heaven will charge all their troubles upon those whose obedience to God’s commandments is a perpetual reproof to transgressors. It will be declared that men are offending God by the violation of the Sunday sabbath, that this sin has brought calamities which will not cease until Sunday observance shall be strictly enforced, and that those who present the claims of the fourth commandment, thus destroying reverence for Sunday, are troublers of the people, preventing their restoration to divine favor and temporal prosperity.” — “Great Controversy,” page 590.

The frequent occurrence of these awful visitations of God’s wrath should arouse those who know what these things mean to greater activity in disseminating the principles of the third angel’s message. What is needed is the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon God’s people, which will inspire them to more faithful service and to a life of self-sacrifice.

The Movements Stated in Brief

There were held in November and December of 1908, in three of the largest cities in the United States,—Chicago, Philadelphia, and Pittsburg,—three of the most significant gatherings which have convened in modern times. In Chicago, Ill., November 15-18, was held the great American Missionary Congress of Roman Catholics; in Pittsburg, Pa., December 1-3, the convention of the leading representatives of Sunday-law enforcement, for the purpose of organizing a National Lord’s Day Alliance for the United States; and in Philadelphia, December 2-8, the great Federal Council of the Protestant Churches of the United States.

These great movements are organizing so thoroughly that all those who do not yield to their demands will ultimately experience the intolerance and oppression that must inevitably attend the success of such movements. It is evident that Seventh-day Adventists, who refuse to join in these great movements, must, in the end, be regarded as a distinct, peculiar, and marked people.

The Lord’s Day Alliance for the United States

The Lord’s Day Alliance for the United States has secured the affiliation of both the Roman Catholics and the great federated labor organizations in their work of obtaining Sunday legislation. With these strong allies, it is not difficult to see what the practical results will be when once they have succeeded in districting the United States, and the work has been assigned to local Sunday Rest leagues for the rigid enforcement of the Sunday laws in the various States in the Union, as is now being done by the Lord’s Day Alliance in Canada.

Inter-Church Federation Movement

The great Federal Council of the Protestant Churches of America is organizing for as thorough and sweeping enforcement of Sunday observance by civil law as is the Lord’s Day Alliance. The intolerance and oppression that will ultimately attend this federation were clearly foreshadowed during the council in the discussion of Sunday observance, when that convention voted down a resolution according to toleration to those represented in the council who conscientiously observe the seventh day as the Sabbath—Seventh-day Baptists. The real reason toleration was denied the Seventh-day

Baptists was made plain by one of the delegates, who said that if they granted toleration to the Seventh-day Baptists, “the Seventh-day Adventists will take heart in their antagonism to many of the things which we hold sacred, in addition to their assaults upon the first day of the week as a day of rest and worship.” From this it will be seen that Seventh-day Adventists are the Mordecai in the gate to the Inter-Church Federation movement.

Surely no true Seventh-day Adventist can fail to see where this whole movement is aimed, and what the outcome must inevitably be. In view of the attitude that the Protestant churches of America are assuming toward those who conserve the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, how forcibly the following words from “Great Controversy” come home to God’s remnant people at this time:—

“As the Protestant churches reject the clear, Scriptural arguments in defense of God’s law, they will long to silence those whose faith they can not overthrow by the Bible. Though they blind their own eyes to the fact, they are now adopting a course which will lead to the persecution of those who conscientiously refuse to do what the rest of the Christian world are doing, and acknowledge the claims of the papal sabbath.”—Page 592.

The Roman Catholic Congress

Speaking of the Roman Catholic Congress recently held in Chicago, Elder Allen Moon, who attended it, says:—

“This Catholic congress was a wonderful revelation to me. If there is any doubt in the minds of the people that we are living in the last days, I am sure that this would have been dispelled could they have attended the meetings of the congress. It established beyond doubt the fact that we are in the time of the end; that the Catholic power of this world has decided again to assert itself. It is evident that the Catholic Church has fully reached the conclusion that Protestantism is a dead issue, and that the time has come for the mother church to re-establish itself upon the ruins. It was openly declared by the speakers on the platform that the Roman Catholic Church was now prepared to go forward and rebuild the mother church on the ruins of decaying Protestantism. I have not witnessed such enthusiasm in years in connection with any religious or political assembly. The leading men of the congress asserted that now the Catholic Church proposed to go forth to take possession of the world, and we have no doubt of their sincerity.”

A Catholic President

The suggestions so frequently made of late about a “Catholic president” for the United States are not a little significant. In his message to the pope, sent through Bishop Gabriels, of Ogdensburg, N. Y., just as the latter was about to set out on a pilgrimage to Rome, President Roosevelt said:—

“Tell the holy father that I send him my profound regards. I am most happy because of the good relations existing between the Vatican and this government. . . . This republic will, we may hope, stand for many centuries, and I hope there will be Catholic presidents as well as Protestant presidents.”

In his letter of Nov. 6, 1908, in reply to Mr. J. C. Martin, of Dayton, Ohio, a similar statement was made.

Archbishop Ireland, in a recent speech in St. Louis, said:—

“There are seventeen million Catholics in this country, and they are not represented in its great offices as they should be. Go to Washington, and you will find perhaps two or three Catholics in responsible positions. Wherever you go, you will not find Catholics well represented in public offices.” “There is a chance for Catholics if they are worthy. I have heard the statement that there will never be a Catholic president of the United States. This is all nonsense. When the right man is presented, the United States will choose him, and not discriminate because of his religion, but elect him because of his fitness.”

From all this we can see that the time is rapidly approaching when we shall realize the fulfilment of what the Lord has told us through the spirit of prophecy:—

“Marvelous in her shrewdness and cunning is the Romish Church. She can read what is to be. She bides her time, seeing that the Protestant churches are paying her homage in their acceptance of the false sabbath, and that they are preparing to employ the very means which she herself employed in bygone days.”

“The Christian world will learn what Romanism really is, when it is too late to escape the snare. She is silently growing into power. Her doctrines are exerting their influence in legislative halls, in the churches, and in the hearts of men. Throughout the land she is piling up her lofty and massive structures, in the secret recesses of which her former persecutions will be repeated. She is stealthily and unsuspectedly strengthening her forces to further her own ends when the time shall come for her to strike. All that she desires is vantage-ground, and this is soon to be given her. In the near future we shall see and shall feel what the purpose of the Roman element is. Whoever shall believe and obey the Word of God will thereby incur reproach and persecution.”—“Great Controversy” (edition 1885), page 397.

Sunday Legislation in Congress

The year 1908 has been a most remarkable one along the lines of religious legislation. During the first session of the Sixtieth Congress an unparalleled number of Sunday bills were introduced in Congress, and the United States Senate, for the first time in its history, passed a compulsory Sunday bill. This was made more significant by virtue of the fact that now it can be said that both branches of Congress are committed to the evil of Sunday legislation, the House having passed a similar bill on two previous occasions.

It will be remembered that the Johnston Sunday bill is now before the House of Representatives, and its passage may be forced through that body at any time. A letter has just been received by the Religious Liberty Department from a prominent congressman, who is opposed to Sunday legislation, in which he says that he has received a large number of letters from grocers in favor of the bill. It is also reported that the labor organization desire to have a hearing on this bill, that they may have opportunity to more strongly urge its passage.

Our Duty at This Time

In the face of these gigantic movements which are now in the field to abridge the rights of conscience, what shall we do to stem the rising tide of religious intolerance and oppression? Our answer to this question is that we should awaken now as never before to the importance of enlightening the millions who are being deceived by the sophistries of church-and-state and Sunday-law advocates. Among the most effective means by which this can be accomplished is the use of our religious liberty literature, public lectures, and the public press. But in order successfully to do this work, we must all unite as one grand army of soldiers in the sacrifice of both our time and means.

The Religious Liberty Department of the General Conference has been prosecuting its work by public addresses, correspondence, and the publication and circulation of a large amount of literature. During two recent religious liberty campaigns we circulated over one thousand dollars’ worth of literature. The department supplies Liberty regularly to every member of Congress, some five hundred in all, to all the colleges and universities in the United States, numbering over four hundred thirty, and to many others. To meet all those expenses we are dependent upon the one annual offering made for this department of the work.

Our funds are now exhausted, and the outlook for 1909 is that our expenses will far exceed those of the past year; hence we most earnestly urge that the offering this year be a very liberal one.

RELIGIOUS LIBERTY BUREAU, K. C. RUSSELL, Chairman, W. A. COLCORD, Secretary.