We Can Not Do It by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA · Jul 1, 1897

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 23, No. 25.

We Can Not Do It.

By Editor

The Cuban League of the United States of America sends out an appeal to all "ministers and religious teachers of every creed throughout the land" to give "the principal service" of Sunday, July 4, "to the cause of God, liberty, and humanity as represented in the struggle of the Cuban people for independence," and to take up "a special collection" on that day "both to aid the cause of independence and to feed, clothe, and relieve the deserving men, women, and children of Cuba." Now the duty of every minister of Christ is to give every religious service to the cause of God, liberty, and humanity, not for Cubans particularly, but for all, including Cubans. It is the duty of every minister of Christ to preach the only liberty in which man can obtain true and perfect freedom, namely, freedom in Christ Jesus from all sin and sinning. While his heart sympathizes with the suffering Cubans, as well as the suffering everywhere, he can not preach the Gospel of force and of war without being false to his mission as an ambassador of Christ. He holds before man a false, or, at the best, a fleeting hope, and hides from him the only sure hope, Jesus Christ and eternal salvation. And yet many professed ministers of Christ will respond to the call of the League. But how can they so debase their own exalted mission?