A Warning Unheeded

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 24, 1907

A Warning Unheeded

THE following statement from Thomas Jefferson was quoted from his notes on Virginia, in an article by Joseph E. Pierce in a recent issue of the Spartanburg Daily:—

‘In his notes on Virginia he says: ‘Besides, the spirit of the times may alter, will alter. Our rulers will become corrupt, our people careless. A single zealot may commence persecution, and better men be his victims. It can never be too often repeated, that the time for fixing every essential right on a legal basis is while our rulers are honest and ourselves united. From the conclusion of this war we shall be going down-hill. It will not then be necessary to resort every moment to the people for support. They will be forgotten, therefore, and their rights disregarded. They will forget themselves, but in the sole faculty of making money, and will never think of uniting to affect a due respect for their rights. The shackles, therefore, which shall not be knocked off at the conclusion of this war, will remain on us long, shall be made heavier and heavier till our rights shall revive or expire in a convulsion.’

‘There is not a shadow of right in the general government to intermeddle with religion. Its least interference with it would be a most flagrant usurpation.’

The truthfulness of these foregoing immortal sentiments should be heeded by all, and thus avert the persecution which must inevitably follow if they are disregarded.