WORKS WRONG!

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 21, 1901

REV. I. C. SMART, of the Congregational Church in Pittsfield, Mass., takes the Christian Endeavor Society to task as being despotic in its character and workings. He says that much is sometimes made of the interdenominational character of the society. Then he explains what that is: it is a few out of individual churches, who assume to govern the affairs of the whole denomination. He describes them as “little oligarchies, new papacies, all the more despotic, as they wave no scepters, make no laws, and disclaim all authority,” yet almost inevitably the managers of such a society exercise almost despotic authority. “Almost inevitably such an organization tends to self-consciousness, and self-consciousness in a religious body means a new sect.” Thus the whole trend of influence in the world and in the Church is toward centralization of authority—tyranny in the State, and ecclesiastical despotism in the Church. The fight on religious liberty is an ever-present issue. To treat it with indifference is to be overcome by it. Eternal vigilance is the price of all kinds of liberty. Without this, even in the best of denominations, ere they are aware the spirit and incipient practical workings of the papacy will be found creeping in.