A VOLUNTARY TRIBUTE by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Mar 20, 1893

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 19, No. 20.

A VOLUNTARY TRIBUTE.

By Editor

PERHAPS it is assuming too much to reckon Hon. James T. Ringgold, of Baltimore, among our workers, but he certainly did some good work for us when he volunteered to go to Paris, Tennessee, to defend our brethren who were indicted for Sunday labor. In that trial, which, with his skillful defense of the accused, became a mere farce, he was able to show up the decided meanness of the persecution. Mr. Ringgold was introduced to our General Conference at Battle Creek, Michigan, on the 28th ult., and made a few remarks. We give the following extract from his pertinent words:—

There are many things about your belief which I am not yet thoroughly acquainted with, and on some points as to which I have been enlightened, my mind yet remains in abeyance. It is what I do know of your belief, and what I have discovered for myself about the character and lives of the men who hold it, which has made me so earnestly desirous to learn more of the religion and to make the acquaintance of more among its followers.

I may say that the first great principle of yours with which I became acquainted struck me at once as the most marvelous tenet to be seriously maintained by a religious organization of which I had ever heard—and that was the absolute separation, not merely of other churches from the State, but of every form of religious belief, including even your own. How could I fail to be astounded? I had learned from all my study of history and philosophy, I had been taught from my boyhood, that toleration and zeal could never exist together.

Here I found you, a religious organization equaling any in fervor and devotion, and surpassing almost all in the minute application of your religious principles to every detail of your daily lives, and yet not only refraining from asking any preference over other religions at the hands of the civil power, but actually refusing to accept any such preference even when tendered to you. I say that this is something which not only astounded me at first, but which I have never ceased to contemplate with admiration and awe. Here is religion—and a Christian religion too, let us be thankful for that—giving the lie to the wisdom of the ages, in this most important matter.

I have claimed for you in the East among my friends of other denominations that you have taken up Christianity where the martyrs laid it down, and I will further add that those who have molested you for the sake of your creed have taken up persecution where it was left by Nero and his successors. Acquit me of any self-exaltation, acquit me of any vain desire to flatter you with words which do not come straight from the heart, or which have in them the slightest taint of insincerity when I say that my making acquaintance with you and your church marks an era in my life, and involves for me the learning of the most valuable lesson that I have ever mastered; and that the proudest recollection of my life will always be that of the little part which I have been able to play in your defense.

And this reminds me that I have been asked to tell about what I saw in Paris, Tennessee, during the recent trials of your brethren there. Well, I may say that the thing which impressed and astonished me most in Paris was the reflection of myself in the looking-glass. For I felt that here was a spectacle at which the ages to come will surely wonder. If I had not had the experience brought home to me, I would never have believed that in this nineteenth century it were possible for a man to be called upon to cross the street to defend his fellowman from religious persecution—and here was I, who had traveled fifteen hundred miles in this enlightened age for no other purpose.

You have heard the glad tidings of great joy from Paris, Tennessee. You know that we won the victory all along the line, but you do not know how ashamed we were to win it. The enemy was so weak, and so poorly equipped for fight, that to beat him seemed like spanking a small child. But it had to be done; for the child was a very bad one. I mean no reflection on the State's attorney. He had no case. He made all that could be made out of nothing.