THE KINGDOM OF GOD NOT POLITICAL.
By W. N. G.
According to the doctrine advanced by the W. C. T. U. of Alameda County, Cal., “our national life” and the “coming of Christ’s kingdom on the earth” are co-ordinate interests, the one depending upon the other. According to the Word of God, however, the setting up of the kingdom of God will break in pieces and consume every earthly nation in existence, and it will fill the whole earth and stand forever. See Daniel 2. But we could hardly expect anything but confusion when the effort is squarely made to convert the kingdom of Christ into a kingdom of this world in the face of his plain declaration that it is “not of this world.” John 18:36. About the most motley declaration of principles yet published is set forth in the following preamble and resolution:— “WHEREAS, We believe that the perpetuity of our national life depends upon obedience to the divine command, ‘to keep holy the Sabbath day,’ and recognizing, as we do, that the labor question and the temperance question go hand in hand in sustaining the vital issues of a day of rest and closing the saloon, as a necessary protection to our young people and safeguard to the community; and, “WHEREAS, The multiform evils resulting from the desecration of the sabbath in California require that a legal enactment making its observance mandatory is the ultimatum toward which the Christian churches of this State should direct their efforts; and, “WHEREAS, Public sentiment has not reached the point which demands such legislation; therefore, “Resolved, That we welcome into our midst the presence of so powerful an organization as the United Society of Christian Endeavor, which has for one of its objects the promotion of a better sentiment on this important question; and knowing that in ‘union is strength,’ we desire to co-operate with them in every effort which they are making to hasten the coming of Christ’s kingdom on the earth, which is ‘righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.’” In the first place, what has the “divine command to keep holy the Sabbath day” to do with a human command to observe a day which no competent power ever has made holy? Again, all the “multiform evils” that have resulted from the so-called “desecration” of Sunday in California, have arisen from the custom of being idle on that day; and not only is this true, but the W. C. T. U. and other organizations are desirous of extending this custom and making it obligatory upon all. Men who follow their ordinary legitimate occupations on Sunday are no more disorderly than on other days. Yet we are told in the foregoing declaration that to enforce idleness on Sunday, and consequently an excess of mischief, “is the ultimatum toward which the Christian churches of this State should direct their efforts.” With what we see of the effects of voluntary idle Sunday observance, what may we expect of “a legal enactment making its observance mandatory”? On the supposition that a legal enforcement of Sunday observance is “the ultimatum toward which the churches of this State should direct their efforts,” we are forced to the conclusion that such an “ultimatum” is a very low aim. The apostle’s ultimatum of effort, below which the church of to-day can not afford to fall, was this: “I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” Phil. 3:14. This was Paul’s aim, the goal to which he pressed forward; yet in all the record we have of his life we find no reference to working up public sentiment to the pitch of demanding a legal recognition or a religious observance of Sunday. The last item of the preamble and the resolution itself admit that one of the objects of holding the International Christian Endeavor Convention in San Francisco was the promotion of a sentiment favorable to a Sunday law. Inasmuch as the enactments of any State law is a political action, this resolution admits that the holding of said convention in California was a political movement; and such an admission is practically an avowal of the doctrine that hastening the coming of Christ’s kingdom on earth is a political work. It is practically a lowering of Christ’s righteousness, and “peace and joy in the Holy Ghost,” to the level of political wire-pulling. But it is pertinent to illustrate this idea that a Sunday law for California should be the ultimatum of church effort to the extent of calling an international convention for the promotion of sentiment to that end. According to the sentiment expressed by the Alameda County W. C. T. U., such an achievement would be an effort to hasten the coming of Christ’s kingdom. Over fifteen hundred years ago a Sunday law was enacted by a government that controlled the world. A few years later it was so far indorsed by the church which that government recognized and supported, that all dissenters were anathematized. Was the kingdom of Christ on earth hastened as a consequence?—No, the period known as the Dark Ages followed in a very short time; and many countries where Christianity had been previously recognized7as a power for good are yet in the darkness of heathenism. But we will come to our own country for an illustration. No State has been more scurrilized or berated by the churches and reform societies than Nevada, because of its legalizing of prize-fights. Yet Nevada has its Sunday law. Did the great prize-fight, which Nevada’s legislature especially invited by a special law, particularly “hasten the coming of Christ’s kingdom”? It ought to have had such an effect, rather it could not have been passed at all, if the previous Sunday enactment had been so efficacious in ushering in the coming kingdom of Christ as is claimed by our W. C. T. U. sisters and their adherents for a California Sunday law. “The ultimatum toward which the Christian churches of this State should direct their efforts” should be reached through the Word of God, guided by the “Spirit of truth,” and not through the fallible laws of political powers. The erection of human foundations on which to establish the kingdom of Christ is sheer presumption. The God of heaven will set up that kingdom in his own time and in his own way; and the legitimate aim of the churches should be to preach the Gospel of the kingdom to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, that whosoever will may come and take of the water of life freely. There is no legal compulsion in the plan of salvation, nor is there any human politics in it. W. N. G.