Christ and Political Affairs
By Editor
Pastor A. W. Anderson, editor of the Australian Signs of the Times, and Pastor J. E. Fulton, president of the Australasian Union Conference, paid us a short visit on April 22. Pastor Anderson was accompanied by his wife. They are all on their way to the General Conference. The manager of this office, Mr. C. H. Jones, met Pastor I. H. Evans at the wharf in San Francisco on April 22. Pastor Evans is the superintendent of our work in the Orient, and comes fresh from the advancing cause in China. He went directly on to Washington to do some preliminary work before the General Conference, which convenes there in May. A minister in Philadelphia a short time ago chose for a text, “If Christ were a member of Wilson’s cabinet.” Most people will readily recognize the fact that the Philadelphian did not find his text in the Bible. And there are a great many others who will quickly say that if this particular minister had been a truly devoted Bible student he would have been cognizant of the fact that Christ did not mingle in the political affairs of this world, and therefore it is preposterous to suggest Him as being a member of any cabinet anywhere. It is nowhere said in the Word that God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son to teach men how to run a government. Governments are ordained of God, and are a very essential thing. But the work of Christ on this earth is that of winning men to Himself, so that He may give them eternal life. There are souls everywhere that should be aroused to their eternal needs. The minister of the gospel has the commission to do this important work; and if he studies His Bible as he should, and takes time to acquaint himself with the needs of his individual work, he will not have occasion to go out of his way to try to show the president of the United States how to carry his responsibilities, or how to act if he had the Lord Jesus in his cabinet. If ministers of the gospel were fearless and honest in preaching the grand old message of righteousness and salvation, we would have more strong men to act as rulers and lawmakers, and less of the cringing before wealth and class distinction.