Harking Back

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D.C. · Nov 7, 1907

THERE seems to be a growing tendency in this progressive age to reach back into the past and resurrect the dead forms of intolerance which crushed out liberty in those dark days. We see frequent reports of the burning of Bibles in certain parts of the world, and the Protestant world cries out against the outrage. Recently a Kansas City clergyman is reported as saying that if he could have his way, every book in the world but the Bible would be burned. The Evening Standard, of New Bedford, Mass., likens this utterance to the declaration of Caliph Omar when destroying the great library at Alexandria: “If these writings of the Greeks agree with the Book of God, they are useless and need not be preserved; if they disagree, they are pernicious and ought to be destroyed.” Now a recent declaration by the head of the Catholic Church suggests a revival of the strictest censorship. A Philadelphia clergyman is represented as saying that if he could have his way, he would restore the rack, the stake, and the guillotine for blasphemers. All this looks to the eradication of evil or supposed evil by the “stamping out” process—a process entirely out of harmony with the gospel plan. A time will come when sin will be “stamped out,” but it will be done only when every soul has made his choice, and it will be done by God, and not by man. The National Reform idea of government is based upon the same “stamping out” theory. But it goes farther, and while “stamping

out” iniquity would “stamp in” righteousness. But this is out of harmony with the design of God—“Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.”