THE STIMULATION OF A LEAGUE.
By Editor
The Christian Citizen, of Chicago, for September of this year, starts out on a new campaign, especially in an endeavor to stimulate new life into the "National Christian Citizenship League," first organized in 1894. Here is the "proclamation":— "The National Christian Citizenship League, having declared a national crusade for the purification of public life, the dethronement of evil, and the enthronement of the principles of Jesus Christ in these United States, and having determined that this crusade shall not cease until, in the name of God, it has effected its solemn purpose to make of this a nation whose God is the Lord—appeals to the pure-minded, true-hearted men and women of the republic who believe with Charles Sumner that 'righteousness is preservation,' and calls for a million volunteers to enlist for the war and report at once to the national headquarters." "Its weapons are ideas, its victory means peace throughout our wide borders and good-will to all the nations of the earth. To arms! Your country needs you. What is your answer?" And here are its "purposes" and "method":— "1. To reveal Jesus Christ as the Saviour of the state and nation as well as the individual." "2. To make Christian principles operative in public affairs." "3. To unite the followers of Christ in consistent, harmonious, and aggressive action for these purposes." "METHOD.—To federate the Christian forces in every town, city, or county, with men of convictions and courage in the lead, all co-operating on state and national lines, and all striving to achieve the following ends, viz.:—" "1. To prevent, by PERSONAL EFFORT, the nomination and election of corrupt candidates and enactment of corrupt laws in city, state, and nation." "2. To secure fidelity on the part of officers interested with the execution of the laws." "3. To exterminate the saloon as the greatest enemy of Christ and humanity." "4. To preserve the Sabbath." "5. To purify and elevate the elective franchise." "6. To promote the study of the social and industrial wrongs and the application of the remedies." "7. In general, to seek the reign of whatsoever things are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, and of good repute." Elsewhere in the same paper the purpose of the Christian Citizen is thus stated:— "To inform the public mind; to inflame the public conscience." "To organize good in order to cope with organized evil." "To unify and intensify Christian effort, and to unite the friends of Jesus against his foes in civic affairs." "To furnish a basis and medium for this unified effort in establishing the reign of righteousness in national and local government." "To establish and maintain Christian principles as the center of all law and government in the state and nation." Concerning this organization the paper speaks editorially as follows:— "What! Another society? Yes, and that, for one reason, because there are now so many societies. The Christian Citizenship League might be called a society for the consolidation of reform societies. Tho it does not seek to unite societies as such, it does furnish a platform on which individual members of any and all moral and religious organizations may come together to secure one supreme end." The leaders in this "Christian" civic citizenship work are to be the pastors of churches:— "Get the pastors and their official boards in any town or section of a city to arrange a union service in one of the churches on some Sunday evening. This will do the churches good in a general way, aside from the cause that calls them together. This will be easy to do, because it is in these days so often done for one subject or another. Let the pastors each make a brief address on some theme related to the general subject of Christian Citizenship." Now all of this would be good if it were based on true principles and could be carried out. But there lies the difficulty. Read again the above "Proclamation" and "Purposes" and note the following facts:— 1. It is not in the province or power of civil government, operated by any class of men, to purify either public or private life, or dethrone evil, or enthrone the principles of Jesus Christ. Evil intrinsically9is a matter of motive and heart, as is also righteousness. Righteousness can come only through the Gospel by faith (Rom. 1:16, 17; 3:20-22), and faith is voluntary and of individual exercise. Law may compel wicked men to act as tho they were good, but it can never give them life or principle. Used for such purposes, it makes hypocrites, not Christians. 2. Jesus Christ can be revealed by the Gospel alone, and then only to those who receive it by faith. A nation can be saved only as the individuals composing it are individually saved by faith. 3. "Christian principles" are only "operative" through life, the life of God received by faith. John 3:16; 20:31. Law may seem to make them operative for a little while; but it is like the galvanizing of a corpse. It is a horrible caricature of life, but not life itself. "Christian principles" will be "operative in public affairs" only as they are carried out by such individuals who possess them by faith in Christ. 4. Law nor leagues can never unite the followers of Christ. Federation is not union. The only true Christian union is not federation by law or by creed or by articles of federation or by resolutions, but by the life of Christ received by faith. 5. So the securing of fidelity, the preservation of the Sabbath, etc., can never be secured by law, but only by the righteousness of God received by faith. The Sabbath can not be preserved by law. A forced day, let it come where it may in the week, is not God's Sabbath, which can only be preserved by the love and law of Christ in the heart. Righteousness reigns in men only by faith, never by force. We know that behind this movement are earnest, sincere men; but they are making a fearful mistake; they are ushering in a reign of hypocrisy and persecution; they are, in the eyes of men, degrading to the same level as the other religions of the world, the Christian religion, and the result will be the utter and absolute ruin of Church and State. Would that every liberty-loving voice were raised against the movement. Every true Christian voice will be. Faith in the all power of Jesus Christ will never seek power to uplift men in politics. Do We Believe in Good Government?—Most assuredly; and that civil government is best which attends to the affairs of civil government, and leaves religion in all its phases to the individual and his God. The purpose of civil government is to restrain incivility, to guard the equal rights of all, of whatever class or persuasion.