MUST STAND TOGETHER by H. F. Phelps

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Feb 13, 1896

“MUST STAND TOGETHER.”

By H. F. Phelps

“Church People Could Then Control Politics, Says Rev. Morgan.”

The above are the headlines of a report of another of the series of Sunday mass-meetings which are now being carried forward in the various churches of the city of St. Paul, Minn., under the auspices of the Christian Citizenship League, as appeared in the St. Paul Daily Globe of Jan. 14, 1896. The “Rev.” Addison Moore plead for “Christian citizenship,” and revealed the real intent of the movement in the following words:—

“The vital fact of this movement is that Christ is to be made a more potent factor in the government of nations. The troubles agitating this and other countries to-day are those finding their origin in a lack of Christ in their affairs. Bring the influence of Christian citizens to bear upon lawmakers and public men of the nation, states, and municipalities, and it will not be long before Christ will be crowned King in the hearts of men, as he has already been crowned King over the angels.”

And thus do these modern reformers declare more and more clearly their intention of crowning Christ as King of the nations, even against his will. The disciples once set out to crown Christ as King, and he withdrew himself from them, and departed into a mountain alone. John 6: 15. And afterward in plain language he told them, “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18: 36), thus to convince them, and all others who, as they were, are now looking at spiritual things after a worldly manner.

The “Rev.” Mr. Morgan was the next speaker, who thought “the reason why the Sunday-closing law is not enforced is strictly a matter of politics.” As evidence that the churches might control in politics as a match against the saloons, he related that a prominent politician not long ago went to the root of the matter by saying, “When we can depend upon the church people for votes as well as we do upon the saloon-keepers, then you can have anything you want.”

And so the politician is ready to sell himself into the hands of the church party, if only he can keep his position and reap the spoils of office; and the churches are fast reaching that state of union where they can give their support to political wire pullers, if only they can elevate their man-made Sunday. And by this union she will become “the cage of every unclean and hateful bird,” all the time proposing to crown Christ as King of the nation. But when they awake from their dream, they will find that Christ is not with them, but that he has departed from them. H. F. PHELPS.