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WHEELING INTO LINE

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 19, 1879

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 53, No. 25.

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WHEELING INTO LINE.

By R. F. COTTRELL

“With changing seasons men's opinions change.”
When the movement for the religious amendment of our national Constitution was inaugurated, the Examiner and Chronicle, the leading Baptist journal of our country, under the title, “Short Method of Conversion,” alluding to this movement, said:—
“We have wondered at the magical effects ascribed to the sacraments according to high church theology. But turning a nation of atheists to Christians by a few strokes of the pen, by a vote in Congress, and ratifying votes in three-fourths of the State Legislatures, is equally miraculous and incomprehensible.
“This agitation for a national religion, officially professed, has for its logical outcome, persecution—that, and nothing more nor less. It is a movement backward to the era of Constantine; as far below the spirituality of the New Testament as it is below the freedom of Republican America.”
Recently an article appears in the same paper, under the heading, “The Day of Rest.” After making an effort to justify the change of the day, in the ordinary manner, the writer giving unmistakable signs of a consciousness of its weakness, he concludes as follows:—
“By these and other considerations, therefore, we are justified in holding that the spirit of the fourth commandment, with all its divine sanctions and sacred privileges, applies in full force to the Christian day of rest. To preserve it from profanation, to maintain its inestimable privileges, to secure to all the sanitary, moral, family, and civic, benefits of which M. Proudhon wrote, as well as the undisturbed enjoyment of religious service on that day, is a duty which Christians owe at once to their country and their God. And in this work governments should aid, within their sphere, in the interest of public morals and the general well-being of society.”
Thus we can see that the movement for the “religious amendment” is gathering strength. The word of God will be fulfilled—the image of the beast will surely be made, and life will be given to it, with ability to speak. Brethren, let us be prepared for the “logical outcome.”
R. F. COTTRELL.