p. 4 | The Influence of a Great Example by C. M. S.

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

The Influence of a Great Example

By C. M. S.

PRACTICALLY the whole world is agitated at the present time upon the question of liberty. It is assuming the proportions of a popular revolt. In some countries the protest is against the oppressions of clericalism; in others it is against the exercise of despotic power on the part of the government.

The American nation was founded in the providence of God. It was to be a standing object-lesson to both nations and individuals in God's design concerning the freedom of mankind—a lesson which the common people were not slow to appreciate. Whatever it has come to be at the present time, God's design in its founding was that it should teach men the blessings of liberty, and teach it by the example which it set within its own borders. The principle enunciated in the Declaration of Independence, that none are by the mere accident of birth authorized to lord it over their fellows, is one of the principles of the gospel of Christ. The equality of men, so far as liberty and human rights are concerned, was not new in 1776, except to the officials of monarchical governments and to those who had been taught that some were created for the special service and caprice of others deemed better by birth. To these it was new, and not only new, but heretical. But it is as old as the gospel itself.

Here, then, was the opportunity of the ages; and here was the chosen instrument to make known these welcome tidings to men. Humanity had groaned through centuries because of involuntary servitude, and in the trackless wilderness of America God had planted a tree whose leaves were designed for the healing of the bruised and suffering people of this present world. They have flocked to it from all quarters of the globe, till the nations have been compelled, for the security of their own existence, to grant a measure of liberty which their inhabitants had never before experienced. On that high hill of the world sat God's last national object-lesson for the last generations of men; and the oppressed in all the world have been struggling up through the crust of imperialism and monarchy to reach the sunlight of free government in their own land, or flee to a government already founded upon the principles of the equality of men.

State after state in the New World threw off the control of mother countries in the Old, to set up for themselves here governments of the people; but they practically nullified their own act by permitting one foreign prince, the claimant of the thrones of the whole world, to dominate in their affairs, both temporal and spiritual.

Mexico finally led out in the movement to remedy this condition of affairs, and there have been ebullitions in most of the countries of Central and South America, which indicate a desire on the part of at least a portion of the people to break away from ecclesiastical domination. Venezuela and Colombia have experienced quite decided movements in that direction. Peru is struggling for religious freedom now, and in other countries a larger toleration is granted than in their past history.

The people of the Old World have not looked on disinterestedly while these movements were going on. In 1901 there was a popular revolt in Portugal against the exactions of the Jesuits. In the same year in Spain the military had to be called out to protect the lives and property of the members of the Catholic orders. In Austria and Germany about the same time the Los von Rom (Away from Rome) movement was growing to be a real threat to the Catholic powers. Mutterings and protests against oppression, both spiritual and temporal, have been heard for years from Macedonia, Poland, and Finland; and Russia herself is like a huge caldron seething over the fires of Nihilism. On December 11 came the final break between France and the Vatican, which has seemed to widen as the days went by. There has been a decided movement in Germany during the last few months against Rome's influence in the politics of that country. With France and Germany taking the position they did, it was not to be wondered at that Spain and Switzerland should begin to show a spirit of independence so far as clerical interference with the government is concerned.

Now, while the ground seems to have been gradually slipping from under her feet in the Old World, Rome has been increasing in influence and has been strengthening her entrenchments in the northern hemisphere of the New. There is no doubt whatever that America's example in the separation of church and state influenced the countries of the Old World to a great extent, and that their present actions are the direct result of that influence. But now a change has come in America herself.

In that historic document prepared by the Presbytery of Hanover, Virginia,

and addressed to the General Assembly of Virginia, in 1776, there is one statement which seems to have had in it a prophecy of our times. It reads:—

It is at least impossible for the magistrate to adjudge the right of preference among the various sects that profess the Christian faith without erecting a chair of infallibility, which would lead us back to the Church of Rome.

The whole document from which this quotation is taken was a protest against the joining of religion and the state, against religious legislation. The statement is true; but as this country has started in a career of religious legislation, we may expect to see the result there indicated. We are seeing the beginning of it now.

In 1829 these words were written by a committee of the United States Senate:—

All religious despotism commences by combination and influence; and when that influence begins to operate upon the political institutions of a country, the civil power soon bends under it; and the catastrophe of other nations furnishes an awful warning of the consequence.

Combination and influence to compel statesmen to legislate upon religious matters are being exerted now as never before in the history of this country. It is the beginning of “religious despotism.” The civil power already “bends under it,” statesmen admit it; and as surely as this is a fact, we may see our destiny in the “catastrophe of other nations.”

The following was written by a committee of the House of Representatives in 1830, when Congress was being petitioned to pass a law for a stricter observance of Sunday:—

If Congress shall, by authority of law, sanction the measure recommended, it would constitute a legislative decision of religious controversy.

That is what the Presbytery of Hanover declared would be erecting a chair of infallibility that would lead us back to the Church of Rome. In 1892 the Supreme Court of the United States declared that this is a Christian nation, and Congress has passed laws dealing with religious things. It is therefore not surprising that Rome then stepped to the front and announced that “what the church has done in the past for others, she will now do for the United States.” She has begun to do it; and America has begun the second stage of her influential career that is to result in undoing her influence for liberty, while she leads the nations back toward the fold of Rome, and fulfills the prophecy which said she would do it. C. M. S.