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Religious Liberty in Danger

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 17, 1916

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 93, No. 9.

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Religious Liberty in Danger

By C. S. Longacre

CERTAINLY we are living in portentous times. The present is dark and the future looks forbidding. Great issues are before us which, if wrongly settled, will determine the fate of this world, and will bring untold misery and desolation to all its inhabitants. To God's people this should be a time of deep heart-searching and of watchfulness coupled with intense activity in the Lord's work. Our days of peace and prosperity on earth are numbered, and what is left for us to do must be done quickly.
The voice of the dragon is heard in the land, and the restraining hand which has hindered thus far, is showing signs of relaxation. Religious sentiments which have been slumbering for years are being awakened by the roar of the cannon and the din of the battle in the present world conflict. The authoritative voice of the great Babylonian church has never had a more attentive audience to speak to than the present inhabitants of the world. They are ready to receive with favor any suggestion of a change in the present order of things. And the power-seeking church is not unmindful of her hour of opportunity to place herself in the forefront. Her long-looked-for day has come at last, or at least is drawing nigh. The day of her supremacy is fast hastening on, where she will again make her boast, “I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.” But, alas! it is not the sun-clothed and star-crowned woman of the Apocalypse, but the woman seated on the “scarlet-colored beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns,”—the woman “arrayed in purple and scarlet color, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication,” and upon whose forehead was written, “MYSTERY! BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.” The woman was “drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus,” and she is to sit again on the universal throne of world ecclesiastical dominion, and make her boast of supremacy as a queen reigning over “all nations,” “and the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication . . . with her.” But, thank God, her day of triumph will be short. Her judgments shall come suddenly and unexpectedly, “in one hour” (day), and “with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all.” God himself will do this, “for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.”
But before God does this “strange act,” “the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits, and they that understand among the people shall instruct many,” “and they that be teachers [margin] shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever.” What an incentive to work for God now, and have a part in finishing his work of saving the lost out of a world wreck!
If you want to know some of the dangers which are threatening us as a people, and what you can do to assist us in doing “exploits” for God and the cause of truth and freedom, do not fail to hear the special program which has been prepared for Religious Liberty Day on the fourth Sabbath in February, as set forth in the Church Officers' Gazette.
May God help us to arouse ourselves and come up “to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty.” In this great struggle for religious freedom that the truth of God may triumph over its foes, may it not be said of us in the song of Moses and the Lamb, when the conflict is over, as it was said of an ancient people in the song of Deborah and Barak: “Curse ye Meroz, . . . curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof; because they came not to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty.”
“Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. . . . For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.” “Wherefore . . . let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.”
C. S. LONGACRE.