REFORM BY POLITICS

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jun 24, 1897

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 23, No. 24.

REFORM BY POLITICS.

A Bid for Power.

A CORRESPONDENT of the Christian Statesman notes a series of lectures in Butler, Pa., by Dr. Carlos Martyn, of Chicago, under the auspices of the Pennsylvania Sabbath Association. He says: "The current evils of the day were graphically portrayed—the grog-shop, the social evil, gambling, Sabbath desecration, etc. The remedy prescribed was united effort on the part of all Christian citizens. Before this can be accomplished, Christian people must be aroused from their apathy and indifference, brought to realize the danger, and, laying aside all party prejudices and affiliations, combine as Christians and patriots, for the honor of Christ and the preservation of our free institutions." This is a direct bid for a Christian political party, and this is the primary aim of the "Christian Citizenship" movement in general. The logic of the movement is, if Christians can control the government—municipal, State, and national—then church decrees and institutions can be enforced by civil law. And this they call Christian reform. But such ideas of reform never was and never can be anything else than religious persecution.