THE CABLE BREAKS by S.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA · Nov 22, 1899

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 25, No. 47.

THE CABLE BREAKS.

By S.

THIS is a Christian nation, according to the decision of the Supreme Court, rendered some time since. Now, the business of the Christian is to preach and teach Christianity. If this were a Christian nation (which it is not), it would be its chief business to propagate Christianity. But the government, through its military representative in the Philippines, has forbidden the distribution of tracts or Bibles in those islands.

A Christian who will not allow the people an opportunity of reading the Bible or Christian literature—who will not distribute copies of God's Word, nor allow those to do it who would—has little comprehension of the great commission, to say the least. Nevertheless the government is paying the salary of a Catholic priest (appointed ostensibly to the work of a chaplain), who goes to the Philippines as the acknowledged assistant of Archbishop Chapelle in his work of reconstructing the Catholic propaganda in the Philippines.

The archbishop desired an assistant in that work in those islands who had had an experience there. He found such an one, and the government pays the passage of this assistant of the archbishop, and pays his salary besides. Surely, then, the government is interested in religious work in the islands—that particular kind, even tho it has forbidden the Bible to be distributed or evangelical work to be done; but that particular kind of religion has always been opposed to those things. The decision that this is a Christian nation was based partially upon the fact that America was discovered by Columbus, a Catholic, who was sent out by the Catholic king and queen of a Catholic country; and the government is certainly living up to Catholic Christian principles in paying Catholics to propagate their faith in the Philippines, and refusing to allow others to labor there, even at their own expense.

Verily, the nation has broken her anchor chain, and is drifting toward the maelstrom. The tendency to join civil and religious things in this country is playing sad havoc with the foundation stones of our republic. The separation of Church and State, our country's most vital principle, has been abandoned. Instead of continuing at the work of repairing and strengthening its walls, the nation has gone down into the plain of Ono to confer with Sanballat and Tobiah, while the forces of the latter are preparing to sweep over the walls and overwhelm the country.

Will the nation take heed?—We fear not; in fact, it is not so written; and it is the business of the true Christian to stand in his lot and place, performing faithfully the duties laid upon him, awake to every onslaught of the enemy, and prepared for these rapid changes that are so swiftly ushering in the great day of God. S.