National Reform in Annual Convention by C. M. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 26, 1909

National Reform in Annual Convention

By C. M. S.

The sixth annual convention of that branch of the National Reform Association known as the Christian Citizenship Institute is now in session at Winona Lake, Ind. It opened on August 9 and will close on August 20. The ablest speakers the association possesses are presenting the various phases of their work, and are setting forth as strongly as men can, and with zeal worthy of a cause more in harmony with the purpose of Christ, the various demands which that organization is making for the transformation of the nation.

Comparing the numbers in attendance at this institute and the space given to it in the local press, with those in attendance during previous sessions and the space given to its addresses in past years, the National Reform idea seems to be gaining in favor here.

The general theme of this institute is the reformation of the nation upon National Reform lines, its transformation into a theocracy, and the enthronement of Christ as its ruler. Through every address given runs that thread, not hinted at, not inferentially deduced, but plainly declared in the exact words.

The speakers protest that they do not believe in, and do not want a union of, church and state in this country; but do plainly declare in so many words that they do want a religious state, a national religion, a theocracy; and the definition given between what they do not want and what they do want in this particular is the most flimsy fabric on which a distinction was ever hung. A curtain of tissue-paper hung in a pouring rain is the only fit illustration of its texture.

Said Dr. J. S. McGaw, in a sermon delivered just before the opening of this institute:—

In the midst of our abounding prosperity, we are forgetting our early history and the God of our forefathers: The need of the hour throughout the land is an enthusiastic appreciation of our splendid nationality and the divine purpose in our existence as a nation; but above all else a nation-wide revival of our national religion. The history of the founding of our nation shows that the Bible made America, that the political creed of our forefathers was Christian, and that for one hundred fifty-six years this was the training of the forefathers on American soil for the rearing of the republic. Then came the time when the yoke of England was thrown off, and the nation drew up her fundamental law, the Constitution. While in many respects this was the grandest document ever penned by man, there was a fatal omission. Search the document and you will not find a single reference to God, the Creator of nations, to Jesus Christ, the ruler of nations, or to the divine law, the only true guide of nations. That omission has told tremendously on the religious tone of the civil life of the nation ever since. It has mightily assisted in the prevalence of the secular theory of civil government, and has made possible the existence of the legalized sins of our day.

The call of the hour is for a nation-wide revival of our national religion, that the nation may be brought to the feet of Christ in repentance, and may openly acknowledge him as her King. America must be brought to Christ. . . . America must lead the march of the nations of the world toward the kingdom of Christ.

In that extract is epitomized in a general way the teaching of the institute and the purpose of the organization that is holding it. Each speaker comes to it from a little different line of reasoning, but the purposes of all are focused upon the accomplishment of that object.

It may not be out of place, in advertising to these expressions, to remark that true Americans have no little excuse for desiring to forget certain chapters in the early history of our country, such as, for instance, the history of the New England theocracy, when those who did not believe as those in authority believed were beaten from town to town at the cart’s tail; carried miles into the wilderness, and left to the mercy of the savages or to perish by cold and hunger; and when all were compelled by fines

whippings to attend church and contribute to the support of religion; when sentence of death was pronounced upon men and women for belonging to a sect not approved by the ruling class, and their children were sold into slavery. Those are some of the features of our early history which many would be glad to forget, but which it were good for Americans to remember in order that they may be caused to think twice before adopting again a system which breeds such conditions as surely as decayed wood breeds toadstools.

The doctor emphasized the declaration that the United States has not been fulfilling God’s purpose in the foundation of the nation, because the Constitution, which limits its legal functions, does not declare the nation’s allegiance to Jesus Christ, and charges that omission with responsibility for “the legalized sins of our day.” The inference is that, were such recognition made, this nation would lead the nations of the world in a grand procession to the feet of Jesus, thus ushering in the very kingdom of the Eternal. There is no dwelling upon the actual conversion of individual hearts, the extension of missionary operations for making known the gospel to those who sit in darkness. It is the cold formalism of legal declaration, the spreading of a label over a situation that in itself contradicts what the label declares. “This is a Christian nation,” say these reformers, and every large city in the country is denying the statement in every department of its activities. “Jesus Christ is this nation’s ruler,” say the same reformers; and, by saying that, charge him with responsibility for all the corruption and injustice and oppression that is swarming in the land. No one has a right to bring such accusation against our Lord, and especially is such a declaration without excuse in view of Christ’s own declaration: “My kingdom is not of this world.”

The prayer of that organization, as expressed by Dr. McGaw, is: “That the nation may be revived, perpetuate her own life, and lead the march of the nations of the world toward the kingdom of Christ.” It is the program of this organization that this nation shall declare Christ its king, change itself into a true theocracy, take the law of God for the national code; and then, as a result of its influence in that direction, cause other nations to do the same thing. Then, when all the nations have declared Christ their King, his revealed will the code for each of them, Christ will be the king of the world by vote of the world, and Christ will have come; for, said Dr. J. M. Wylie at this convention: “I do not believe Christ will ever come personally to this earth.”

Here, then, is a deliberate purpose of a great and influential organization to bring about, by human plans and human operations and in an entirely materialistic way, the culminating event of earth’s history, and that, too, without the accompaniment of any of the great events which Inspiration has declared must take place at that time.

This plan will eliminate the personal appearance of Christ in the clouds of heaven with “all the holy angels,” gathering the jewels of redemption out of the earth while “taking vengeance” on the wicked. It will eliminate the “voice of the archangel” and “the trump of God.” It will eliminate any general resurrection of “them that sleep in the dust of the earth.” It will make impossible the fulfilment of Malachi’s prophecy of the end of the wicked, and will make unnecessary the judgment work so graphically portrayed by the revelator in Rev. 20:11-15. In fact, by that program all that Inspiration has said concerning the return of Christ and the reward of his people is rendered out of date and impossible of fulfilment.

Says the Word: “He must reign, till he hath put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be abolished is death.” 1 Cor. 15:25, 26. But by the National Reform program death must go on to the ages of ages, unabolished, ever present, always an enemy unsubdued. But that is not God’s program. “This Jesus, who was received up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye beheld him going into heaven.” Acts 1:11. “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.”

At the morning session on August 10 Dr. J. M. Wylie, of Colorado, spoke upon this topic: “The Holy Spirit’s Testimony to Christ as King.” In this address an effort was made to make it appear that the Holy Spirit was sent to the world to make the world recognize Christ as its present ruler. To these speakers the only thing that stands between this present world-condition and the actual everlasting kingdom of God is for the nations to declare officially that they recognize Christ’s rulership. Said Dr. Wylie:—

The devil’s power has been broken, and when this fact has been universally recognized, mankind will be delivered from the bondage of superstition, and will cease to employ immoral methods to secure political advantage. The opposition of secularists to the Christianizing of the state should lead God’s people to recognize the necessity of submitting our civil order to Jesus Christ that his kingdom may come on earth.

Said Dr. J. S. McGaw at the same session:—

Our political creed is Christian, and the Constitution should express it.

Now, with the nation as a political institution adopting in its fundamental law a “Christian” creed, what have we, and what can we have, but a union of church and state? And when we have that, we have just what New England had in colonial days when she wrote on the bleeding backs of many a good Christian some chapters of history that we blush to read to-day.

C. M. S.

Winona Lake, Ind.