RELIGIOUS LIBERTY VS. RELIGIOUS TYRANNY.
By Elder G. A. Snyder
(Concluded.)
THE principles of civil and religious liberty as set forth in the United States Constitution, and so nobly upheld in the past, have done for the world in a certain sense what the work of Christ did. Just as the teachings of Christ drew the minds of the people away from the Pharisaical bigotry of his day toward the true principles of the gospel, so has the example of this country drawn the nations of the earth away from the principles of popish bigotry which stained the Dark Ages with the blood of the saints, toward the true principles of liberty. The total separation of Church and State in this country being in direct contrast to the union of Church and State, which is the very taproot of popery, together with the unparalleled progress of America, naturally caused the nations of earth to gradually slide out of the old papal shell into the “new order” of things, which was proving such a success in America. And just as Christ was watched by the bigots of his day, as they saw the people gradually slipping out of their grasp, so has Rome been watching with ill-concealed hatred the nation whose example was leading the nations away from the withering influences of popery. Long has she watched with eagle eye, and worked with consummate craft, to bring about a favorable opportunity to strike the death231blow to American freedom. But just as Christ eluded the grasp of the Pharisees until he was betrayed into their hands by one of his own disciples, so has this nation eluded the grasp of popery until at last, sad to say, she is fast being betrayed by the very Protestantism she has so long protected. For years the Protestant churches, in the vain hope of converting the nation, have been clamoring for Congress to pass laws concerning the observance of certain so-called Christian institutions, prominent among which is the almost universal demand for governmental recognition of the first day of the week as the “Christian sabbath.” But as soon as Congress, the legislative branch of the government, has made a law concerning the observance of Sunday, a Church institution, it is evident that to that extent the State has united with the Church. Well, not only has Congress legislated concerning the observance of Sunday in the matter of Sunday closing of the World's Fair, but the President, the executive branch of the government, signed the bill. And only a short time before, the Supreme Court, the judicial branch of the government, decided that “this is a Christian nation.” Thus all three departments of the government stand committed to the fatal blunder of sanctioning governmental support of church dogmas. “History repeats itself.” Just as the early church apostatized from the pure principles of the gospel, and played the harlot by leaning for support on the arm of civil power, thus rejecting Christ, her legitimate husband, and bringing about that state of affairs which ended in the tribunals of the Inquisition, so has the modern church apostatized from the principles of Protestantism, leaning again for support on the arm of the civil power, thus denying the power of God, and forming an exact image to the papal hierarchy. And just as sure as like causes always produce like effects, so sure will this nation reap the sad and bitter fruits of thus allowing itself to be used as a tool in the hands of an apostate church for the furtherance of her schemes. Already we have seen in Arkansas, Tennessee, Maryland, and Georgia, men who read in the fourth commandment that the seventh day is the Sabbath, thrown into prison for obeying the law of God in preference to the State laws which demand the observance of the first day of the week. Thus it turns out that the followers of that lowly Nazarene, who was persecuted and finally crucified between thieves for keeping the Sabbath according to God's ideas, are being persecuted, and in some cases worked in the chain-gang with condemned criminals, for the same reason. And all at the behest of their so-called Christian brethren, who by rejecting the light have brought upon themselves that same darkness in which the Jews were walking when Christ said, “Father, forgive them; they know not what they do.” Just as in the days of Christ, religious bigotry, by misrepresentation and threats, caused Pilate to deliver Jesus to be crucified, so has modern religious bigotry misrepresented and threatened in order to carry out their pet scheme of nationalizing religion. At one time they nearly smothered Congress with petitions purporting to represent in the aggregate fourteen million signatures. Seven million two hundred thousand of these were added on the strength of one man's (Cardinal Gibbons’) signature, and the remainder was largely made up of Sunday school children, church and lodge membership, etc. The real individual signatures were very few indeed. More recently one of their leaders presented a fifteen-million petition from the State of Pennsylvania alone, whereas the last census shows a population of only a little over five million men, women, and children in the State. Last of all they resorted to that meanest of all measures, the boycott, telling their representatives in Congress that unless they gave them what they wanted they would knife them at the polls. This had the same effect on Congress that a similar threat had on Pilate when he delivered Jesus to be crucified. So the Sunday Civil Appropriation Bill, with its Sunday proviso, went through and was signed by the President. In the days of Daniel religious tyranny poked its ugly nose into governmental affairs, and caused the king to sign a decree for which he was afterward sorry. That was bad enough, but when such a thing is done in an enlightened age, and in the face of all the evil results of such things in the past, what shall we say? “Father, forgive them; they know not what they do.” For they know not what they have done; but they have done it nevertheless; and now, when their sins are being laid bare by the same “sword of the Spirit” which Stephen and Peter used, a few are again saying, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” But the great majority are stopping their ears, and trying to throttle the advocates of truth just as they did then. Indeed, it seems that all the dark deeds of the past are to be reënacted in one awful cataclysm. Abel was the first one of the seed of the woman who shed his blood for keeping the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, and says John: “The dragon [devil] was wroth with the woman [church], and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” Rev. 12:17. And again, concerning the same remnant, he says: “Here is the patience of the saints; here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.” Yes, the final storm of religious bigotry, with all the cumulative forces of the ages, is about to burst upon our heads. But, although the same devil who inspired the mind and nerved the hand of Cain to slay his brother, still lives, and is inspiring his followers to similar deeds, yet the same God for whom Abel died, and who has always given his commandment-keeping people grace to seal their testimony with their blood, still lives also, and will finally give his faithful people the victory, for John further says: “I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire; and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and his image, . . . stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God.” Rev. 15:2. Babylon the great, the mother of harlots, is rejoiced to see her Protestant daughters coming back, and joining in the Babylonish warfare. But inasmuch as there are many individuals in these bodies who are sighing and crying for the abominations that are done in the midst thereof, God has seen fit to send the warning thus foretold by the prophet: “And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.” Rev. 18:1-3. Yes, all nations, America not excepted, have partaken of that devil-distilled mixture of Church and State, the effects of which are being seen in the same kind of drunkenness which benumbed the moral sense of the Dark Ages. Already the blighting influence of the dragonic breath is being felt, as with muffled tread and sullen roar he is thrusting his ugly head against the governmental pillars of civil and religious liberty. But among all this Babylonish discord may be heard in trumpet tones the call: “Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” Rev. 18:4. And while the great majority will doubtless rush on in their blind fury, yet many are already breaking the ranks of the enemy, tearing off their Babylonish rags, and joining the ranks of the “remnant” people, of whom it is said: “Here is the patience of the saints; here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” Rev. 14:12. These two eternal principles of truth have been transmitted through the seed of the woman to us for safe keeping. Oh, what a sacred trust! God help us never to betray it, but to stand by these principles as did Abel, Daniel, and all that chosen company of loyal souls, until we with them shall stand before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, having washed them and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. The Pharisees of old crucified the Saviour to save the nation from being destroyed by the Romans for Sabbath breaking. They reasoned that if their ideas of Sabbath observance should be superseded by Christ's ideas, it would bring God's judgments, in the shape of the Roman army, upon them to destroy the nation for having allowed their ideas of the Sabbath to be superseded by Christ's ideas. Of course they thought that their ideas were God's ideas, because they were walking in darkness, and knew not whither they were going. Thus in their very effort to save the nation from being visited by God's judgments, they brought the very judgments from which they sought to save themselves. Those self-righteous Jews, while deploring the deeds of their fathers in shedding the blood of the prophets, filled up the measure of their fathers’ iniquity by shedding the blood of Jesus. The Pharisees of to-day, while deploring the deeds of the Jews in persecuting and crucifying the Son of God, are crucifying him afresh in their relentless persecution of his followers. And strange to say it is all being done with the same object in view which the Jews had when they crucified Christ. The avowed purpose of all the combined efforts which are now being made for the purpose of upholding the “American sabbath” is to save this nation from Sabbath breaking, and thus bringing the judgments of God upon the land. But the “American sabbath,” a title which bears on its very front the unmistakable earmarks of a union of Church and State—America being the name of the government, while the Sabbath is a church institution—is not God's idea of the Sabbath at all, for God says that the seventh day is the Sabbath, and every schoolboy knows that Sunday, the American sabbath, comes on the first day of the week. And will232the “American [State] Sabbath [Church] Union” save the nation by thus enforcing their own ideas of the Sabbath as against God's ideas of the Sabbath?—No, but they will bring the very judgments which in their blind zeal they are seeking to avert. But while the dark cloud is gathering, there is not only a nation to be stirred but a world to warn of the impending doom; and just as the disciples were scattered abroad and went everywhere preaching the word, after the day of Pentecost, so will the disciples now scatter abroad, endued with that same power from on high, until the earth is lightened with the glory of the warning message. The words of the angels as Christ was taken from his disciples in a cloud, are especially applicable just now: “Why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus . . . shall so come in like manner.” No time now to gaze into heaven, but rather to fulfill the gospel commission. Mark 16:15.