An Appeal from Washington, D. C.
By Editor
On the first page of this paper will be found a reproduction of a photograph of a church recently purchased in Washington for $12,000. It is too great a debt for a small congregation. That church, while in a locality, is not a local church. In a peculiar sense it belongs to every friend of religious liberty. While it will belong to, and will be controlled by, Seventh-day Adventists, in vastly broader sense than a small denomination's name would signify, it stands for a principle, which in time of crisis appeals to every soul, the principle of liberty, religious liberty. It will stand in Washington, the nation's capital, as a protest against the repeal and subversion of those principles of liberty which made this nation what it was for a hundred years, a beacon light pointing all the nations of earth the way to freedom from all religious tyranny. That church will stand in Washington as the exponent of absolute separation of Church and State, a solemn protest against all enactment of religious dogma into civil law. And it will stand for this, not because it opposes either religion or State; but for the sake of both religion and the State. It is therefore of national interest, and every lover of the principles of religious liberty, for which Roger Williams, Thomas Jefferson, and others stood so grandly, will be anxious to see it stand free from debt, a living exponent of character-building truth. It is for these reasons that we heartily endorse the appeal by the pastor of that church, J. S. Washburn, found on page 12. How many want a part in it? The SIGNS will receive and forward all funds committed to its trust.