p. 122 | Strange Blindness

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 4, 1871

Strange Blindness.

The Baptists of New York City have lately shown great folly in accepting, virtually, a bribe from the Romanists in the form of several valuable lots on which to erect a Baptist benevolent institution. Many good men, and most of the Baptist papers outside of New York, have protested against the movement. The following, from the Examiner and Chronicle, will fairly illustrate the case:—

“One of our respected brethren wrote us early last week:

“I really hope New York Baptists are not about to abandon one of the most cherished principles of the Baptists, by accepting the grant of land from the city. We are the farthest from Rome of all Christians. If she can subsidize us, she has gained a great point. I am very sure that if the Baptist Home accepts that gift, it will never be a home of peace; for there are thousands of Baptists who will protest against it till it is cast out from us.”

“But suppose God should suddenly usher in ‘the good time coming,’ when kings are to be ‘nursing fathers,’ and queens ‘nursing mothers,’ to the triumphant and everywhere honored church. What a time we should have of it, according to what our excellent brother says, with the conscientious people, who would be shocked at the thought of receiving nourishment from such quarters. Instead of hailing it as a proof that the millennium HAD COME, and that civil governments had at last been molded by the spirit of vital Christianity, we might have long arguments to prove that, as Paul would not be nursed by Nero, or John Bunyan by the Charleses, Isaiah’s kings and queens could be nothing else than the same old ‘Cæsar’ over again; and that the less a spiritual church had to do with this sort of ‘nursing’ the better. But isn’t it just possible that Christianity is now giving us a foretaste of what is coming, when Isaiah’s ‘kings’ and ‘queens’ are to reign? And is it worth while to quarrel with the foreshadowings of the sublime consummation?”

Just think of it. The millennium coming by way of New York City officials; New York aldermen “nursing fathers,” in the true Israel of God! “Foreshadowings of the sublime consummation.” If trees are known by their fruits, the “foreshadowings” tell of a very different thing. Outside of those directly interested, there is no difficulty in seeing that the whole thing is a plot to entrap the most radical wing (so called) of Protestants, and spike the guns which are justly turned against the growing tendency toward a union of church and State. It is an artful, and thus far successful, scheme for the promotion of Romish rule in America.—Sabbath Recorder.