THAT “LAST RESORT”

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 12, 1901

THAT “LAST RESORT”

In trying to clear themselves of the charge of using the civil and military powers of their respective countries in their missionary work, the Protestant missionaries are unanimous in their testimony that the Catholic missionaries do so. The latest statement of the case is by the author of the “Cyclopedia of Missions,” as follows:—

There is no popular conception of missionaries more absolutely mistaken than that which represents them as constantly seeking the aid of the gunboat and running to the consul or ambassador on the least provocation. That is not, and never has been, the habit of missionaries of the evangelical churches. Unfortunately, as much can not be said of the Roman Catholics. Witness the course of Bishop Anzer in securing the seizure of Kiaochou by the German government. Evangelical missionaries, whether in Asia, Africa, or the Pacific, use every other means first, and appeal to the civil and military power only as a last resort.

But if the civil and military powers are to be used at all, even “only as a last resort,” then why is not the Catholic way the better and the more consistent? Is it not the dictate of common prudence to use these powers from the beginning, and so prevent any such crisis as the last resort, rather than to pretend not to have any use for these powers at all, and so become involved in dangers and damages that make it necessary “as a last resort”? Is it not far more consistent to use these powers from the beginning, and so prevent outbreaks, than it is utterly to ignore them until an outbreak occurs, and then the powers have to be so used as to kill and imprison and to fine? Is it not far better to use these powers so as to prevent any killing, imprisoning, and fining of the people, than it is to use the powers only to kill, to imprison, and to fine?

If the civil and military powers are to be used at all, even “only as a last resort,” in any such connection, then the Catholic course is the only consistent one, as it is indeed the more humane. But the Protestants all know well enough that such a course is only that of a union of Church and State; and is only the propagation of religion by means which Christ has positively repudiated. They therefore think to save appearances by using such means “only as a last resort.” But to use it as a last resort is in principle to use it equally as a first resort: this is as certainly the union of Church and State as is the other. Yea, more than in principle, it is to use such means as a first resort; because when they know that the power is there to be used as a last resort, and know that it is their intention to use it as a last resort, they will, at the first, act in a way in which they would not act at all if it were settled that no such power were ever to be used at all as any possible resort. And so acting only brings the crisis that involves the last resort.

“My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight.”