Editorial Notes by Editor

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 3, 1901

Editorial Notes.

By Editor

FOLLOWING the example set by other Southern States, the State of Virginia has signified its determination to debar the negro from the polls. A new constitution is to be submitted to the people for ratification, and it will be passed upon by whites only. The following dispatch from Richmond tells the story very plainly:—

“RICHMOND, VA., Aug. 23.—The attitude of the majority of the Constitutional Convention on negro suffrage was plainly shown in the manner in which the speeches on this question were received on the floor to-day. Mr. O’Flaherty advocated the submission of the constitution to the electorate as at present made, and was listened to attentively, but in silence.

“Captain Parks responded, and advocated an abridged electorate; he was applauded to the echo. He said: ‘When Thomas Jefferson wrote all men are created equal, he referred to the Aryan race, and never dreamed of negroes. I shall favor the submission of the constitution to an electorate created by this convention, and to that extent I shall vote to proclaim it.’

“This sentiment was received with pronounced demonstrations of approval.”

The assertion that the Declaration of Independence has no reference to other than white men has been often heard in the North of late, in support of the policy of the national government; and now it is echoed in the South in justification of negro disfranchisement. The attitude of the national government has become one which furnishes encouragement and inspiration to those who seek to turn back millions of human beings to their “previous condition of servitude,” and undo the work in behalf of humanity that was accomplished only at the cost of the most terrible and sanguinary war of modern times.

YOU will never get far toward the kingdom of God if you wait to be led there by some one else. The Christian’s only leader is Jesus Christ.

YOU are not living the truly Christian life unless the unbeliever can see in your life something desirable that he does not have.

THE great question in the Christian life is not that of how much the Lord can do for you, but of how much confidence you have in Him.

It will be very poor consolation for you, if you come short at last, to reflect that you have been just as good as certain other church-members you know, who are likewise left out of the kingdom.

THE papacy is the blossom and fruit borne upon the great taproot of human selfishness; and every selfish person, whatever his profession, is really identified with the papal system. “All that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life.”