What a Change!

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 14, 1882

No one who believes in Bible history, and recognizes the progressive nature of truth, and the unfoldings of the plan of redemption in this world, can deny that there have been times when God has sent especial light and truth among men for their spiritual advancement. Nor can they any more consistently deny—what is simply a manifestation of cause and effect—that when a person rejects the truth, and shuts his eyes to the light thus set before him, he becomes just so far the victim of error and darkness. This is inevitable; and so long as he remains in this attitude toward the advancing work and truth of God, his condition must grow continually worse and worse.

Just this, we believe, has taken place in the religious world. The great movement in reference to the doctrine of the second coming of Christ, in the years 1840–1844, we verily believe was in the order of God, and recognized by the outpouring of his Holy Spirit; and it was designed to arouse the world to the momentous fact that the second coming of Christ was at the door. The churches of our land generally rejected that truth, and shut their eyes to that light. That attitude on this question they still maintain. According to the principle stated above, spiritual darkness and religious declension must follow, and increase among them. And that such has been the case is apparent to every beholder. The contrast between the condition of the churches previous to 1840 and their condition at the present time, is indeed startling. It is to this that we wish to call attention, not for the sake of invidious comparison, but that some may perchance take warning. Who, previous to the year first mentioned, heard of such church fairs and scenes of festivity as are common now, with their grab bags, fish ponds, lottery cakes, raffling, gambling, and riotous feasting? Some see and deplore these evils, but they are powerless to stem the tide. Many ministers object, and would protest against these things, but they are overruled by a worldly membership. And now it is coming to be a common thing to connect dancing with the other features, as will be shown in our next paper, and to introduce the selling of lager beer, as stated in the extract which we give below. Beer, dancing, gambling, gluttony! what more could the most depraved worldling desire? How much further can these things go before the message of Rev. 18:4, “Come out of her, my people,” must be fulfilled? We have been led to these thoughts by the following item, which we clip from the last number of the Domestic Journal:—

“Perhaps some of our Protestant friends may derive benefit from the sentiments of Father Scully, of Cambridge. He says: “Godless schools and most church fairs are only fit to give us a race of monsters. Church fairs demoralize our girls more than do our lowest theaters; for girls armed with their church-fair book, go forth under religious and parental sanction where they please and when they please, entering even bar-rooms to solicit chances and votes. The children think of nothing but the fair. Home, church, and school are banished. To the fair they are bound to go every night; and when lager beer is sold in our churches where fairs are held, how can we train our youth to look with horror on the evils of rum?”

The “Father Scully” of the foregoing extract is, we suppose, a Catholic; but by “godless schools” he refers to Protestant schools; so we infer he refers to Protestant church fairs; for something stronger than lager beer is generally sold at fairs in the Catholic church. But with either view, the spiritual condition of the professed churches is deplorable enough, and calls upon those who are powerless to reform the evils to separate themselves therefrom.