A New Standard of Morals.
By George D. Ballou
IN a recent issue of the Christian Statesman, in speaking of a certain thing that had transpired in connection with efforts to enforce the Sunday laws, the remark is made concerning the circumstances cited, that they "illustrate the guilt of those officials who fail to enforce the laws which are upheld by the wishes and convictions of so decided a majority of the community." Now I do not question the official guilt of men who are derelict in the enforcement of any laws, after having been elected to office and sworn to support those laws; nor would I question the character of a law simply because it is upheld by the majority. All good laws ought to be upheld by the majority of the people. But the above statement is subject to criticism, because it is made with reference solely to the enforcement of certain laws which rest only on a human basis. In this statement, made with reference to certain existing Sunday laws, we have an expression of the spirit that animates the National Reform Association. The Christian Statesman knows as well as the Christian at Work (and that paper acknowledges the fact) and thousands of leading minds in the Sunday cause, that there is not one scrap of even inferential evidence in the Bible for Sunday observance. Nevertheless, in the absence of all divine authority, the Christian Statesman is doing all in its power to create a strong popular sentiment in favor of strict Sunday observance. Then explicit laws enforcing the papal sabbath will be passed, which will express "the [then] wishes and convictions of a decided majority of the community." Then whoever violates these laws will be held to be guilty of a serious crime, and the officials who fail to enforce these laws will be adjudged guilty too; and the people who proclaim that there is no moral obligation inherent in these Sunday laws, and that it is an open act of rebellion against God to give allegiance to the papal sabbath, will be regarded as the greatest offenders of all. I have called Sunday the papal sabbath because it was introduced by the papacy into the so-called Christian church during the Dark Ages. If any one doubts this, let him inquire of the first Catholic priest he meets, or of any intelligent papist, and he will receive convincing proof that the Sunday-sabbath is a child of the papacy. It is not the Sabbath of the Bible, which God commanded; it is not the Christian sabbath;—there is no such sabbath mentioned in the Bible; it is not the American sabbath;—it was instituted before America was discovered; it is not the Protestant sabbath—the Protestants never made any sabbath. The Protestant Reformers accepted many doctrines and practices just as the mother church taught them, and among these was the keeping of Sunday. Martin Luther said, in his work, "Against the Celestial Prophets," concerning Carlstadt, who was advocating the keeping of the seventh day: "Indeed if Carlstadt were to write further about the Sabbath, Sunday would have to give way; and the Sabbath, that is to say, Saturday, must be kept holy."—Life of Luther in Pictures, p. 147. No; Sunday is purely the papal sabbath, and the would-be formers and establishers of a national religion in America are doing their best to get this papal institution established in our national constitution; and are endeavoring to so mould public sentiment that it will sustain this kind of legislation, and regard those who oppose so pious (?) a move (the establishment of religion by law) as the most dangerous of fanatics and criminals. But I mistake in calling this "A New Standard of Morals." It is only new in America, among professed Protestants. Papal Rome once ruled the world, and corrupted every doctrine of the Bible. She made laws to control the consciences and actions of men, which expressed the "wishes and convictions of a decided majority;" and when men chose to yield allegiance to God's word instead of her laws they were deemed guilty of the highest crime, and Rome became guilty before God of shedding the blood of millions of innocent victims, because they would not yield obedience to the wishes of the majority. Why it is that these Protestant Christians are so blind that they cannot see that they are following in the foot-prints of Rome is more than I can understand. This effort at religious legislation is based solely on the idea of forming a strong popular sentiment, and making this the foundation or standard of public morals. But this is not God's foundation. From the present progress and animus of the Sunday movement, it cannot be long before the "decided majority" will be able to express their "wishes and convictions" in laws framed to suit themselves. Then what will be done with dissenters? Already, in some States, those who fail to respect the wishes of the majority in matters where only God should govern are adjudged guilty and punished by fine and imprisonment; and what will be the penalty laid on them when the National Reformers shall have accomplished the reform(?) which they ask? The word of God has foreshadowed what it will be. See Rev. 13: 15-17. There will be a general boycott proclaimed against all but worshipers of the beast, and this will be followed by more severe penalties. Every indication shows the proximity of the time when this man-made standard of morals will be established in the United States. The decline of true godliness in the churches; the popular efforts at evangelical alliance; the growing tendency among the clergy to dabble in politics; the manifest thirst for political power on the part of the church; the recent efforts at persecution in those States which have strict Sunday laws; and the wide-spread effort to secure national Sunday legislation; all these evidences growing more manifest every month foretell with certainty what the near future will bring forth. And the Bible, too, says it is coming. Who is ready for such times as will follow the success of the National Reform movement? There is safety only in adopting God's standard of morals (Eccl. 12: 13, 14), and by his grace bringing our hearts and lives into harmony with that law which Jesus honored, so that we may be among those of whom it is said in that trying time: "Here is the patience of the saints; here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus." G. D. BALLOU.