WORDS OF TRUTH | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jul 28, 1898

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 24, No. 30.

WORDS OF TRUTH.

THE Philadelphia American Banner, in its last issue (June 22, 1898) has an article entitled “Our Flag and Where It Should Not Be,” from which we take the following excerpts, which will bear careful reading:—

The other place where the flag seems sadly out of place is on a church. . . .

The flag is the symbol of civil government, and civil government is the power of FORCE. It never pleads with any man to obey its laws, but commands and demands full obedience, under penalty for violation. Its instruments are the whole machinery of the law, re-enforced, when necessary, by the army and navy. It must be supreme in its appointed sphere; for if it is not, then there is no true government. It, therefore, tolerates no rivals within its borders. The loyal citizen must ever sustain this supremacy. Civil government is of the world, worldly.

The church is symbolic of a kingdom which is not of this world—the kingdom of God,—and “God is LOVE.” Her only rule of faith and action is the Word of God. The Lord has said that He is a “jealous God.” Therefore, He, too, permits no competitors in His kingdom. Only voluntary and complete surrender of the individual is acceptable service to God. The church, also, must be supreme in her appointed sphere, which is purely spiritual, and should always be spiritually pure. The church is in the world, but not of the world, and the true child of God may be faithful and yet be a good citizen of the country. But the mere fact of his being a Christian does not make him a better citizen than a man equally law-abiding who is not a Christian.

Here, then, we see two contrary principles. Both can not be supreme in the same place at the same time, except in the individual who is enjoined to “render to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

Where both of these powers strive for supremacy on the same common ground, there is sure to be a clash, and one must subdue the other. But the church can not step on common ground with civil government without first quitting her own territory, and by that very act falls to the same level with it.

For these reasons, while it is perfectly right and proper that our flag should at all times float from such public buildings as are a part of the civil system, or from the dwelling of the humblest citizen, if he so chooses, it is, nevertheless, both improper and inconsistent for the churches to preach LOVE from their pulpits and then go out and exalt the symbol of FORCE above that of LOVE. It is the first step in a wrong direction, and when the first step is taken, the last one is likely to follow, in the natural course of things. In this case it would be a union which is an abomination both to God, to loyal citizens, and to true Christians.

There is enough Babylonish confusion now in religious matters (see Rev. 17 and 18, especially 18:2) without the churches attempting to teach that patriotism is a RELIGIOUS DUTY. Patriotic loyalty is a civil, a political duty—it is one of those things Christ commanded to render unto Cæsar, because it is his due, but not as a matter of religion. Patriotism is “love of country,” and that duty would still devolve upon every citizen even tho there were no religion or no churches in the land. . . .

A protest to be effective should not be left until the final act is consummated, for then it will be eternally too late, and religious liberty will then be a thing of the past. It matters little that this may not possibly occur in our own time, or even until the third or fourth generation thereafter—the principle is wrong, and it is the duty of those who see the issue involved to oppose it now in its incipiency.

Religious liberty is, after all, the only real liberty we possess. Taken away, the other liberties we may now enjoy will soon vanish. The seed of religious liberty which was sown by the lowly Nazarene lay dormant until it suddenly blossomed forth in the Reformation, and that seed in turn was wafted by wind and tide until it found lodgment upon the shores of the New World. Political liberty followed when the tyranny of the king became too oppressive. Upon these two pillars was firmly established our present republic, and it is easily seen that religious liberty was the first and greatest, and that it hedges about every other liberty.

Then how jealously should we guard this principle!