WO TO HIM by T. | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · May 17, 1899

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 25, No. 20.

"WO TO HIM."

By T.

PENNSYLVANIA is the home and headquarters of the National Reform Association. And quite a strong movement has been started up there of late to secure the enforced observance of Sunday. The Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers, one of the strongest labor organizations in the country, has allied itself to those that are seeking to force Sunday observance upon every one, and it has resolved to prosecute every mill and factory operator and railway official who violates the Sunday law of Pennsylvania.

At a mass-meeting in Pittsburg, one speaker said:—

"This country is being formed into one vast amalgamated association. Don't be alarmed, for we are all going to join it, and have one vast confederacy and federation; but wo to him who stands up against it! Wo to him who desecrates the sabbath [Sunday]!"

This is a voice from the persecuting days of the Dark Ages. This is the same voice that has sent millions of men, women, and even little children to the cruelest and most inhuman tortures and death. This is the voice that has always stood in the road of progress and religious freedom. And this is the dragon voice that the prophecies have declared will bind men hand and foot in this "land of the free, and home of the brave;" and from here the evil will spread to all the world. All the persecuting horrors of the middle ages will be brought in, and it will be done in an incredibly short time. But when the contest reaches its heights the Master will come in person and break the cruel bondage. This is our hope, and toward that time we fix our earnest longings.

It is certainly a strange sound to be heard in this land for a man to say, "Wo to him who desecrates the Sunday." But why this "wo"?—O, there is to be a universal "confederacy," and if there chance to be those who have convictions that lead them to stand out against it, the effort will be made to crush them! The law will lay hold upon them, and, if need be, persecute them to the death. Can it be that such scenes are just before us?—Most assuredly, The prophecies clearly predict it, and we see how it is coming. These National Reformers used to be a very insignificant little company, but one organization after another is joining them, and their power and influence are swelling.

"For the Lord spake thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying, Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid. Sanctify the Lord of hosts Himself, and let Him be your fear, and let Him be your dread." Isa. 8: 11-13.