A CONFESSION OF WEAKNESS.
By E. J. Dryer
THE Lord's Day Alliance, of Canada, is making a desperate struggle to secure, by law, a better observance of the Sunday. The following is the solemn warning and clarion call to battle by the Westminster, the chief organ of the Presbyterian Church of Canada:— "What does it mean? Plainly it means conflict, a more determined and costly conflict than the Christian people of Canada have ever known. The temperance question is not to be named with the Sabbath question as involving in its settlement life or death to the church and to society." "A battle for the Sabbath is upon the churches in Canada. It can not be evaded except at the cost of the church's life. The church that draws back on any pretext of pre-occupation, or out of respect to any theory of the Sabbath, or of the functions of the church, does so at its peril, and its perdition is sure. The Presbyterians and every other evangelical church must know that the fight is on, and that it is a fight to the death." An editorial in the Hamilton daily Herald of May 13, commenting on the above quotation, aptly says:— "A fight to the death. It means conflict.' But the fight must be in the political arena, and the conflict must be a secular one. If this were purely a social question, there would be nothing strange in the appeal of the Westminster. But it treats the question as a religious one—one that can be evaded only 'at the cost of the church's life.' It is 'a fight to the death' between the church and the forces of evil." "And has it come to this, that the church, in its conflict with the forces of evil, must take shelter behind the civil power, appealing to the State to save it from destruction? Alas! has the church grown so weak that it must fall unless it have the aid of the civil arm? This is not the spirit of the church in apostolic times and in the three centuries following. Then it defied all the powers of darkness, the civil power included, and triumphed." "This appeal from the chief organ of the Presbyterian Church in Canada is a confession of weakness. We think it not only evidence of a timorous spirit, but that the fear it expresses is not well founded. There is no good reason to fear that the interests of true religion will suffer from a less rigid observance of the Sabbath than the Puritanic observance which some extremists deem desirable. Let there be national liberty. But if the churches have not influence enough to induce the people to keep holy the Sabbath day, we don't think that they have a right to demand of the secular authorities that the people shall be compelled to keep it holy. 'A battle for the Sabbath is upon the churches of Canada,' says the Westminster. But has not this battle always been upon the churches? Let the churches continue the battle, using as their weapon the sword of the Spirit, and not calling upon the politicians to relieve them of their responsibility." What a comment by the secular press upon the weakness of the aggressive policy of Canadian Christianity. But the professed Christianity of Canada is not alone in its methods of aggressive warfare—in its anti-christian policy of seeking to secure obedience by force. The professed Christianity of the United States, of England, and all the so-called Christian nations have adopted the same policy. Truly it is a "confession of weakness" when all "Christendom" enters upon a united attempt to bolster up its Sunday sabbath by the aid of the civil power. Where is the manifestation of Pentecostal power in this present crusade? There is none. The Holy Ghost can not venture into such an enterprise. The armory of Heaven affords equipments for no such warfare. Such forceful methods are against the principles of the Gospel of Christ. In His commission Christ said, "Go ye into all the world and PREACH the Gospel to every creature." The Gospel of Christ is a Gospel of persuasion and not of force. "The temperance question is not to be named with the Sabbath question as involving in its settlement life or death to the church and to society." True, indeed, the temperance cause is of insignificant importance compared with the question of compulsory Sunday-sabbath observance, in the eyes of aggressive workers and supporters of the cause of popular Christianity. It has become the paramount religious question of the day,—the supposed life-and-death problem of all Christendom. All this is pointed out in the prophetic Word. Rev. 13:11-18. This religio-political worldly-policy Christianity—this gospel of force—was to become one of the mightiest Satanic forces to oppose the closing work of the Gospel of Christ. It was to be a repetition of the history of the workings which developed the Papacy, the "man of sin," the "beast" of Rev. 13:1-11. In other words, it is to be the "image to the beast." We are in the midst of the fulfilment of that prophecy. Satan is marshaling his forces to press this issue to a climax. The final message of Rev. 18:9-11, is to warn every soul to separate himself from this cause and keep the commandments of God. Its work is to call every honest soul from the support of this false Sunday-sabbath movement to obey the Sabbath of Jehovah. Reader, on which side of this controversy do you stand?