IS IT FREEDOM OF THE PRESS?
By Alonzo T. Jones
A DESPATCH from Manila under date of March 26, says:— "La Patria and El Liberal, Spanish organs of the extreme Filipino party, have recently been publishing articles inimical to the military government. General Otis has suppressed the former journal for sedition, and imprisoned the editor, at the same time issuing a warning to the members of the extreme party that they should observe greater moderation." It has been the boast of this country that it allowed the most absolute freedom of speech and the press. Every one has freely talked just what he believed, and those who did not believe in the same way have had the fullest freedom to enter the arena, get as large an audience as they could, and tell as widely as possible their contrary views. But it has always been the policy of a kingdom or an empire to suppress those who spoke things contrary to the views of the reigning power. The king or emperor does the thinking and planning for the nation, and every one else is to keep still. Such actions as this of General Otis ought to enable any one to see that this country has adopted the régime of royalty, and is no longer standing by its principles of republicanism. This act in the Philippines may seem like a small thing, but no people ever had their freedom taken away from them all at once. It is by almost imperceptible degrees that freedom is taken away and the yoke of oppression and tyranny is fixed upon the necks of men. The last part of the thirteenth chapter of Revelation is a prophecy of this United States. That prophecy states that the time will come when this nation will speak "as a dragon." It will even go so far as to proclaim a decree of death against those who will not submit to the worship of the Papacy. This is a simple matter of prophecy that the Signs has kept before the world for more than a quarter of a century. We have seen evidences all along that it would soon be fulfilled in all its startling particulars, but now the actual workings of the fulfilment of it are right before our eyes as never before. The course that this nation has adopted will soon bring in a civil despotism, without which there never could be religious tyranny to any great extent. We have had Sunday laws on the statute-books of the nation for many years, but they have not been enforced to any great extent, because the freedom of the republican principles of the Constitution have so anchored the hearts of men that they could not be driven to give their consent to any form of religious intolerance. There have been a minority that would banish every person who does not believe that Sunday is the Sabbath, and who teaches that Saturday, the seventh day, is the rest day of Jehovah. But this minority have not been allowed to act out their sentiments, because of the great majority that have held to the principles of republican freedom. Yet Satan is planning with a deep-laid cunning. He will get men used to tyranny by degrees. He will touch them in points that are not so vital to them as their religion, and by gradual processes he will prepare the world for the greatest delusions and the most oppressive tyranny that have been known to all history. The events and conditions of to-day should be studied the most closely, for prophecy is fulfilling with increasing rapidity. But a very short time is allotted to the full development of the things that are now before the world, and the Lord's coming is right at hand. There is no possible mistake about this. Every one in the world should know that the second coming of Christ is even now just before us. The few moments that we have left in which to prepare for the event are much more than golden. T.