MEN VERSUS SYSTEMS by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Dec 24, 1896

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 22, No. 51.

MEN VERSUS SYSTEMS.

By Editor

It is one thing to attack men, hold them up to ridicule before the public, defame them, ascribe unto them false motives, call names, etc., and quite another thing to attack erroneous doctrines and systems, the tendency of which is evil.

It is not honorable, high-minded journalism to indulge in the former; it might be not to do the latter. The former is generally the result of personal ambition, egotism, or spite; the latter is oftentimes the utterance of well-grounded and strong convictions which, to a conscientious mind, should not be withheld.

As an illustration of the former, it would not be honorable, high-minded, or Christian to attack a minister personally or a journal, because he or it did not agree with us. A man might be worthy of any amount of blame and censure, yet it is better to leave him out of the question, especially from a religious point of view; first, because it generally does no good, but rather creates prejudice and bitterness among his friends and acquaintances, and secondly, God has in religious matters reserved all judgment of the individual unto himself. To say that Peter Smith or Henry Yorke was a bad man, a sinner, an associate of harlots, would not prove us to be right or him to be wrong, so far as religious theories go.

As an illustration of the latter we may take a controversy which has been waged ever since the Reformation. Roman Catholics believe and do not hesitate to say that the various Protestant denominations are not churches of God; that their pastors and preachers are not ordained ministers of Jesus Christ; that if men are saved who belong to these "sects" it is not because of Protestantism, but in spite of it. And so far as man is concerned they have a right to thus speak; as between them and God, their judgment lies with him.

Protestants believe that the Roman Catholic Church is fundamentally wrong; that she has left her only lawful spouse, Jesus Christ, and her marriage covenant, his holy word; that her union with the governments of earth is unlawful union; that she in this has committed spiritual fornication, and therefore is a spiritual adulteress or harlot; and that God has foretold these things in the sure word of prophecy. They also believe that earnest Christian men and women exist in the Roman Catholic Church, but that they are Christians, not because of the system with which they are connected, but in spite of it. All these things they have a right to teach as truly as do Roman Catholics to teach what they believe to be truth. And these things can be taught publicly, without rancor or bitterness, at least, so it seems to us. Let the plain truth be stated; let each side of the controversy have "a free field and no favors," and let each hearer and reader be at liberty to decide for himself in the light of God and the judgment.

Let the controversy be with the principles, the system, not the men.