The National Reform Program
By E. A. S.
It is a very plain program which the National Reform party announces as its plan for making the United States a Christian nation. The speeches made and the literature circulated at the recent convention in Allegheny, leave no one in doubt that this movement seeks the legal establishment of a definite form of religion, and has a definite policy in view with respect to dissenters from its creed. We are plainly informed that the Protestant religion, with Sunday observance as a prominent feature, is to be set up by law; that the principle of majority rule must prevail in religion as in civil affairs, and that dissenters must not be allowed to stand in opposition to the plan of the majority, but must be coerced into harmony with it, or be treated as enemies of the state. All this is plainly contrary to the republican and Protestant principles of government upon which this nation was founded, and means the overthrow of liberty of conscience, which has been regarded as immovably fixed in both popular sentiment and the fundamental law of this land. Yet there is every prospect that this revolutionary movement will succeed. Wealth, influence, and powerful organizations are to-day in alliance with it, and it is being infused with a new life. A fatal influence is upon the minds of its leaders and adherents. They do not discern whither they are going, and whither they are leading the people. What influence can lead to so complete a departure from the once firmly established and sacredly cherished ideals of American government? We answer, Spiritualism. A great wave of spiritualism is sweeping over the world. People who have lost the old-time Christian light, faith, and love are replenishing their religious storehouses with soothsayers from the East. A teaching has come in and is spreading throughout the church which envelops Christian truth in a misty haze. A spiritualistic process of reasoning is applied to the Word of God; and the law of God and the vital truths of Christianity, even the personality of God, have been spiritualized away. Messages of truth have been coming from God to the churches, but they have been rejected, and now rebellion is becoming as the sin of witchcraft. Apostate Protestantism, clasping hands with Romanism and spiritualism, will trample upon every principle of liberty which has made this nation a light to other lands, and a new haven of refuge for the world's oppressed. E. A. S.