THE UNITED STATES IN PROPHECY.
By A. H. Cleaves
In another part of the work previously alluded to, the writer speaks of the Sabbath in a definite manner, saying, p. 551, “The holy Sabbath is recognized in the Constitution. Of this the President is duly informed, by express provision in Art. I., Sec. 7.” Again, on the same page: “Senator Frelinghuysen, before Congress, in 1836, said, ‘Our predecessors wisely determined, in accordance with the sentiments of at least nine-tenths of our people, that the first day of the week should be the Sabbath of our government.’ And again: ‘The framers of the Constitution, and those who for many years administered it, doubtless had in their eye the first day, the Sabbath of the Christian religion. They were legislating not for Jews, Mohammedans, infidels, pagans, atheists, but for Christians; and believing the Christian religion the only one calculated to sustain and perpetuate the government about to be formed, they adopted it as the basis of the infant Republic. This nation had a religion, and it was the Christian religion. Christianity is the religion of this country, and, as such, is recognized in the whole structure of the government, and lies at the foundation of all our civil and political institutions; in other words, Christianity, as really as Republicanism, is part and parcel of our laws.’” We quote the foregoing to show that while the writer professes a principle that rejects every usage and law, no matter how venerable in precedent or high in authority, if at war with the will of God, in practice he turns around and indorses an institution whose only sanction was the sentiment of nine-tenths of the people at its adoption, and the authority of those legislators who made it a civil law. And this one feature of a national religion (Sunday keeping) is opposed to the worship of Jews, Mohammedans, infidels, pagans, atheists, and, when made an issue, we presume to that of Seventh-day Baptists and Seventh-day Adventists. This is the reason, then, why we say we indorse the writer’s profession but condemn his practice; for like the class he represents he advocates true principles, but in their application presumptuously places an old pagan festival day in the place of God’s holy Sabbath; and that after acknowledging that “God is the Sovereign. We know his will.” On page 705, he says: “We must obey. To be found in the wrong in the midst of such distinct and sublime revelations, must be a grave offense; but to be a nation of deliberate, practical atheists must be the highest crime. If our rulers dare to defy God; if they treat his holy laws with contempt, profane his Sabbaths, blaspheme his name, become corrupt in character and in administration,—they will call down wrath upon us. If the people,—the great body of the people, who are the source of civil and political justice,—become corrupt and oppressive, we may certainly know that overwhelming disasters are before us. True, the life of liberty is indestructible; but this vitalizing, pervading, immortal power may be transferred to other people. Beyond all question, rebellion against God,—intentional, persistent, prevailing rebellion,—would overwhelm this nation in destruction.” Speaking of ancient governments and their fall, on page 320, he says: “The religion of a government will determine its character and settle the question of its duration;” and of their idolatry, “There was, moreover, an assault upon the rights and requirements of the one true God in this guilty idolatry, which must bring down his displeasure upon them, and result in their signal destruction.” And on page 705, he says: “If the plea of ignorance with regard to the will of the Sovereign could ever avail for any nation, after the marvelous revelations of God in our history, it certainly cannot avail for us.” The difference, then, between the writer and ourselves, it will be seen, lies in our views of the national character of the American people, and the part they are destined to take in the providence of God. We not only believe it possible, but absolutely certain, that not only this government, but “the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him.” By the saints of the Most High, we understand not the consecutive generations of any class of men in the flesh; but the resurrected saints of all ages, endowed with immortality, the first essential to an indestructible national or individual life; and the absence of which in the sons of flesh and blood is an impassable barrier to their citizenship in the kingdom of God; for mortality cannot inherit immortality. No; we do not discover in the short-lived citizens of this ephemeral government, the heirs of the kingdom that shall not be left to other people; neither can we disassociate the idea of an immortal nation from that of immortal citizens. We believe that a blind infatuation possesses the minds of the religious community in this country; and a most extravagant idea of its destiny in the providence of God exists in the thoughts of its citizens. And these are the most powerful elements that enter into the formation and growth of any great political enterprise. The existence of an infidel and atheistic element in society argues nothing against the establishment of a national church in this country, but rather for it; for it serves a collateral purpose, developing and forcing into action, by its opposition, the dormant powers of the religious class in society. Again, the Whitbyan notion of the world’s conversion, and a spiritual view of the fifth empire of Dan. 2:44, generally prevail in the nominal churches of the land at this time; and the conventional language in sermons and religious conversation recognizes the church as the kingdom of God. The writer we have quoted says, on page 357, speaking of Christianity: “Paganism could form no bond of union strong enough to hold the republics of Greece and Rome together; but Christianity can do for us what no other system of religion ever did, ever could do, for any people.” He says of the statesmen in the early days of the republic, “They could see that a new dispensation of government was dawning upon the race; that they were the van-guard of liberty in a new world.” “This was God, slowly bringing to the inhabitants of the earth the knowledge of the fact that he is the Sovereign of nations.” “Here it was to be demonstrated that ‘He whose right it is to reign would reign until he had put all enemies under his feet.’ The doctrine of liberty and of equal rights is wrapped up in this announcement; it is utterly inseparable from it.” Thus it will be seen that the writer, who we assume is a representative man, being a bishop in the M. E. church, not only discovers to his mind the dawn of a universal era of Christianity, but in the American nation sees the reserved agent in the providence of God for its accomplishment. We have not room to quote all the passages in his work which express his views of religion in America, and the bearing of his own church in particular on the political character of the country; but will notice some of the most positive in conclusion. On p. 30, he says: “How clear the evidence that the Infinite Mind has prepared this country for some notable progress in the history of the race, and the manifestation of his power and glory in the exercise of his own sovereignty.” On p. 212: “The life of a new nation had been long waiting for its incarnation. The birth-throes of a century announced its advent. God revealed his attendant guardian power, and exalted the new-born prince, through its baptisms of blood, to a dominion before unknown in the history of the world.” On p. 323: “And we have seen, also, that American Christianity was growing to power under at least two new conditions; first, that it was master here, and not subordinate,—empire, and not convict; that instead of asking leave of the civil power to exist, it would decide rather what else but itself should exist here.” On p. 334: “But if God be the author of the American system, then here is our grand reliance for permanence and prosperity. The life-power of the nation is indestructible.” In speaking of the qualifications for an imperishable nation, he says, on p. 319: “Such has been the ceaseless round of rise and decline, of the growth and decay of nations, that many have doubted strongly whether there is any such thing as an indestructible national life. It seems to have been largely concluded that they must follow the analogy of human bodies. We are, however, convinced that it is a grand fallacy. The right, the good, the true, must certainly be immortal. Let the law of justice have its place, let God control the organization and administration of government, let human obstructions to the plan of the Infinite disappear, and the will of God be enacted in organic and statute law, and maintained in the administration, and there is no reason why a nation should not be as orderly in its development, as vital and indestructible, as any form of life on this earth.” We agree with the writer here, but find the existence of such a state located by the Bible in the world to come; but he discovers these requisites to national immortality in the Great Republic; and, in short, his book is written to show the certainty of such a destiny for this nation. He says, on p. 511: “For our safety from the effects of all social and national crimes, we must look to God, and do the right. That we are not overwhelmed, but, on the contrary, rising in moral force before the eyes of the nations, is due to the fact that experimental Christian power is mighty in the land: and amid all the storms and perils of sin, ‘the Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.’” As to what he expects of the nation in the future we may learn on p. 708, where he says: “We are not a pagan, or Mohammedan, but a Christian power. We must now go on to perfect our system as a great system of Christian government. Our laws must be rendered just and equal. From our State and National Constitution the last vestige of oppression and infidelity must be eliminated, and God enthroned in all our forms of government and social life.” On p. 709: “Let us therefore confidently expect the gradual but certain development of Christian principles in the Republic, and believe in its future greatness as a Christian power.” Thus we have quoted briefly from a work of 710 pages, containing, besides, valuable statistics to show the moral and social condition of the people of the United States; and we feel safe in saying that it represents an element that guides the affairs of government in this country, and that will in the future bring about that state of things predicted in the prophecy of Rev. 13:11–18. The italics are ours throughout. We look, then, for an oppressive ecclesiastical form of government, which will professedly be established on the word and law of God, but which will practically be opposed to the letter and spirit of his law as revealed in the Bible, to the injury of those who “keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.” Rev. 14:12. · For if the wishes of the popular party in the churches are carried out, then, as Bishop Peck intimates, “Personal regeneration must extend until political corruption shall become improbable, unpopular, impossible; until the only way to preferment shall be that of Christian patriotism, and an honest, broad, and noble philanthropy,” by which expression we are to understand a patriotism whose field is the so-called evangelical faith of Protestantism, and which is too inferior to incite its possessors to loyalty to the law of God as contained in the ten commandments; and a philanthropy not honest, broad, and noble enough to approve those who honor that law. And the preferment spoken of we think will “cause all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand or in their foreheads; and that no man may buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.” Rev. 13:16, 17.