THE PRESENT CRISIS

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jun 26, 1893

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 19, No. 33.

THE PRESENT CRISIS.

IN the Christian Statesman of June 10 the leading editorial is by Rev. W. J. Robinson, D.D., on "The National Reform Association." The senior editor of the Statesman is the Rev. Wilbur F. Crafts, who presumably indorses the editorial now, although a few years ago he declared to be false the charge that he was a National Reformer. He may have been honest in his denial, but others knew by the truth of God that the very principles he held concerning Sunday laws were essentially National Reform principles, and would eventually place him in that party. He has been there for two years, as great a National Reformer as any of his associates, working with unbounded zeal for a more complete union of Church and State in this country. But to the editorial in question,

Dr. Robinson declares that "a crisis is upon our nation;" that the "enemies of Christian government and Christian institutions are making their assault boldly," "aiming at a complete elimination of the Christian elements from the civil domain;" that they openly proclaim "their purpose to have a full liberty to follow their pernicious ways for gain and pleasure without the troublesome interference of moral law;" that they "deny to civil government a right to the moral domain;" and he goes on to say that these forces "are obtaining victories;" that Sabbath laws "are gradually shorn of their power;" and that "with the loss of Sabbath every safeguard to morals is lost." He gives the reason of defeat in the following:—

The truth is the Christian people of this land have prepared the way for this bold attempt to eliminate all Christian elements from our national life in permitting the nation so long to ignore in its fundamental law and in the administration of its government, the very name and authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. The inevitable logic of such omission is the gradual ignoring of all that distinctively pertains to Christ. Christian institutions cannot long be maintained where Christ is not acknowledged. And hence the need of the hour in this great struggle for all that is precious in our national life and government is the recognition and acknowledgment of the name of Christ in our national Constitution and the full enthronement of the rightful Ruler of the nation. The National Reform Association, which was organized to secure this great end, was never more needed than at this present hour.

That there is a crisis upon our nation is emphatically true. That the forces of good and evil are now waging war with an intensity never before known is a solemn fact. That the great mass of the people, largely ignorant of the principles underlying this great struggle, are ranging themselves on either side of this great controversy is a matter of divine prophecy. Says the seer of Judea: "Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision; for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision." Joel 3:14.

Regarding the dangers before us, Dr. Robinson and his fellow laborers do not overestimate them. Regarding the earnestness and sincerity of National Reformers, their works speak. But that they are sincere and earnest on the wrong side of this issue we firmly believe. That Sabbath breaking, irreverence, vice of every description, and superabounding iniquity is everywhere prevalent and increasing are matters of divine prediction as well as obvious facts. But our National Reformers instead of helping them are increasing iniquity. They are not working in Christ's way. Note the following:—

1. They claim that civil government has the right to enforce morals, by which they mean and say God's law. But "God is a spirit, or spiritual," and his "law is spiritual." (See John 4:24; Rom. 7:14.) But civil government can take account only of overt acts, while moral or spiritual matters pertain to the heart and motive. God's law is not obeyed unless it is obeyed from the heart. He who looks upon a woman to lust after her is in God's sight a transgressor of the seventh precept of his law. Matt. 5:27, 28. He who hates his brother is a murderer. 1 John 3:15. None but those whose hearts are renewed by God's Spirit can keep the law. Love alone can compel; but civil law can neither produce love nor compel obedience to the law of love. It will compel men by torture and otherwise to say that they are obedient and loyal, but it cannot make them so; it only makes slaves and hypocrites. Civil governments can compel men to be civil; it can do no more. When it attempts to enforce morality as embodied in God's law, it is worse than a failure; it produces hypocrites, mocks God, and makes a farce of his religion.

2. When government attempts to enforce morals, it must have some tribunal to say what the true standard of morals is. Shall the State decide it? or shall the church? And if so, what church? The tribunal which does this assumes to speak for God. And by what right has any human tribunal to exalt itself to God's throne? Who has delegated to humanity the power to inflict corporal punishment, the right to decide anyone's duty to God? The power which God foresaw would attempt to so speak for him, he calls "the man of sin," "the mystery of iniquity," "that Wicked." 2 Thess. 2:4-6. The principles of God's truth are ever the same. The profession of a church does not change its character; and any church or confederacy of churches, any man or set of men, any government whatsoever, which will attempt to enforce what it may call God's laws, upon the consciences of others, will become by that very act a part of the mystery of iniquity.

3. All that any set of men can enforce as Christianity is simply and only their conception of what Christianity is. They set up their own puny opinion of Christ for what Christ is. They crystallize that opinion into law, and say, "See what Christ is, what he requires of you." This is all that Rome did in her bloodiest days. It was always for God and his church, God speaking through his church to the governments of the world and to the people. But millions of "the whitest of the saints of God" have died as heretics by the hand of those who thought they were doing God service.

4. Christ's name in the Constitution would not make it Christian any more than it makes

a man Christian to call him so. Worse than this, it presents to the world all the inequalities, the injustice, the imperfections, and the iniquities of the government as of Christ. It professes his name and denies him by works. He sends out his ambassadors, his Spirit, to persuade men to submit to him and find peace, but the government which professes his name in its fundamental law seeks to compel men to do God's will. Thus did Rome and the "Christian" governments which owned her sway. They counted those who died at their hand heretics; but how did God count them?

5. That the interpretation of God's law by earthly governments would be contrary to that law is evident from the present attitude of our government on the Sabbath question. The fourth commandment of the Decalogue, which National Reformers wish enforced, does unmistakably and obviously enjoin the observance of the seventh day, and thousands of first-day observers believe this to be so, and thousands of other Christians so believe God in this respect as to obey just what he says. But the government in its self-appointed vicegerency declares that Sunday is the Sabbath; and National Reformers wish law to enforce the day still more rigidly, regardless of those who oppose, who are as conscientious as they, and who realize their accountability to God as fully, but who also hold that civil government has no power to enforce religious, spiritual, or moral obligations.

But to those very principles the government has already committed itself, and we would have no hope, judging from the history of the past, that its steps will be retraced. We know from the word of God that they will not be. But to God alone men are responsible. In the language of Lowell:—

"Though we break our fathers' promise, we have nobler duties first; The traitor to humanity is the traitor most accursed; Man is more than constitutions; better not beneath the sod Than be true to Church and State while we are doubly false to God."

God will care for his own; and though error and tyranny seem to triumph, ultimate victory rests with God.