p. 19 | Why Not Let Well Enough in America Alone?

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 29, 1914

Why Not Let Well Enough in America Alone?

By S. B. Horton

ABOVE the din and roar of the clashing armies of Europe the questions are being asked by pulpiteer and layman, by believer and unbeliever. Has Christianity broken down? Has our civilization proved a failure? These questions have an appropriate relationship to the times in which we live. We have reached the twentieth century of Christian civilization, and notwithstanding our boasting that we have progressed and that in the judgment of some we are living just before the millennium, we read such experiences as these:—

“If the churches throughout the world possessed the same candor as the stock exchanges, they would do what the latter have done — close their doors.”

“What a spectacle we Christians are to the non-Christian world, whom we in our self-glory call heathen!”

These two utterances fell from the lips of G. Monroe Royce, rector of the New Windsor-on-Hudson church, and were quoted in the Literary Digest of August 29. Continuing in this strain, the rector is quoted as saying, among other things: “One has a right to expect that, after nineteen hundred years of civilization calling itself Christian, the church and her ministers should have influence enough, power— downright moral and spiritual power— enough, to prevent the savage, the brute instincts of mankind dominating not only kings and other rulers, but the whole body of people composing the nations of Europe. This much we have a right to insist upon; and if the combined influence of all organized Christianity cannot bring about such a result, then it is, I think, perfectly fair to conclude that the church machinery has broken down; that it does not do what it professes to do, and is not worthy the support it is receiving.”

We believe there is a reason for this sad and calamitous condition of the churches that have been undertaking the work which would seem to be, from present results, an attempt to mold opinion and forms of godliness rather than to secure conversions by the preaching of the gospel, accentuated by the gift of the Holy Spirit. We do not charge that the churches have so labored wittingly, but we do believe that when the early church departed from the plan of gospel ministry devised by the Lord Jesus Christ and carried out by his apostles, it chose a plan of Christian endeavor devised by human ingenuity, propelled by human reasoning and laws, and adopting forms and ceremonies as a standard of Christian profession.

Nor do we assert for one moment that there was absolutely no Christianity in the churches. On the contrary, from the very beginning of Christ’s church upon earth there has always been a percentage of loyal devotion to Jesus Christ, to his gospel, and to his Word, in all the churches. And were it not for this fact, there would be very little even of the forms of Christianity extant in the world. But it must be admitted that apostasy and human devisings have had a hand in the control and management of church establishments during the nineteen centuries in question.

We have quoted the preceding, with what seems to us to be pertinent commentary, for the benefit of those organizations and movements which have for their purpose the Christianizing of the United States of America by civil law and Constitutional amendment. To prove that there is such a movement in this country at the present time, we quote from the platform of the National Reform Association: “The objects of this society shall be to maintain existing Christian features in the American government: . . . and to secure such an amendment to the Constitution of the United States as will declare the nation’s allegiance to Jesus Christ and its acceptance of the moral laws of the Christian religion, and to indicate that this is a Christian nation, and place all the Christian laws, institutions, and usages of our government on an undeniably legal basis in the fundamental law of the land.” — Article 2. If this does not spell a union of church and state, then words fail to have any meaning.

What has the union of church and state, the Christianizing of European nations now engaged in mortal combat, done for them? It must be remembered that the European nations now engaged in wanton destruction of life and property are for the most part professedly Christian nations. Austria is a Catholic Christian nation, at whose head is a ruler who was titled by the late Pope as apostolic emperor. The late Pope had communicated to the emperor a prayer that he would not stain his life and rule with blood. His prayer was of no avail, and in connection with this it is interesting to note that Pope Pius X, while on his sick bed just before his death, made this statement: “In ancient times the Pope by a word might have stayed the slaughter, but now he is impotent.” — Literary Digest, Aug. 29, 1914. Germany, Russia, and England have their state churches, and are professedly Christian nations. Each has been calling upon God to guide it through to victory.

If the union of church and state in these Christian nations has not benefited them to the extent of making war a remote contingency; and if the United States, which declares for the complete and absolute separation of church and state, appears to be the one nation in all the world prepared to mediate between the warring nations, why should America be afflicted with the strangely anomalous conditions now existing in Europe?

We sincerely believe that the National Reform Association and other kindred organizations engaged in the movement to make the United States legally a Christian nation should view the European situation with more than ordinary concern. What the National Reform Association is demanding for America most of the European nations have; but it has not prevented the greatest calamity of the age.

But can it be truly said that Christianity is a failure, predicating such conclusion upon the present situation in Europe?—Nay, verily, a thousand times no. Christianity is not a failure, and the war in Europe is not to be charged up to alleged failures of Christianity. The

conditions in Europe are the outcome of apostasy from Christianity. In the first place, pure Christianity demands the separation of church and state (Matt. 22: 15-21); Christianity demands that as individuals we should love our neighbors as ourselves (Matt. 22: 39; 7: 12); Christianity demands that the truth as it is in Jesus shall be taught the people by those commissioned to preach the gospel (2 Tim. 3: 14-17; 4: 1-4); Christianity demands that the ten-commandment law shall be respected, honored, and obeyed above all other laws (Acts 4: 19); Christianity demands that we put up the sword, and labor in those paths which make for peace and righteousness (Luke 3: 14; Matt. 26: 52; Luke 9: 56).

S. B. HORTON.