"IN THE VALLEY OF DECISION."
By Editor
THESE be glorious days in the capital of this country. Born to liberty from the womb of oppression and tyranny; mighty, in its childhood, for liberty, yet there have been long strides backward by this youthful nation during the last two decades. Again and again has Congress placed itself against the "new order of things" which made this government what it was—an asylum for the oppressed of all nations, the polar star of human liberty; and these backward steps have been established by executive and judicial departments. Three or four times have the same principles come before Congress and the people of Washington this year, in two Sunday bills, in sectarian appropriation of Indian funds, and now in the effort of many clergymen to introduce religious teaching in the public schools of Washington. Of the beginning of this movement and its progress, the SIGNS has already spoken. There is one hopeful sign,—the agreement which was expected by Dr. McKim, the originator of the movement, has not been manifest. Yet a convention of eighty ministers adopted resolutions favoring religious teachings in the public schools, by a vote of thirty-nine to twenty-two. On the other side, Prof. W. W. Prescott, editor of the Review and Herald, presented a remonstrance, which a Baptist minister and a leading lawyer declared unanswerable. We present both series of propositions before our readers next week, that they may judge between. The one would place again upon the world the horrible fetters of a state religion; the other stands for absolute separation of church and state, the equality of all religionists before the law. Eternal principles are in the balance in the hearts of many. The prophet of God, looking forward to this time, thus expresses it: "Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! for the day of Jehovah is near in the valley of decision." We are in that time. Characters are developing rapidly in these days. It is God's glory, or man's. It is eternal principles of truth, or the policy and expediency of time and error and destruction. To meet the perverted principles of truth, which would put man in the place of God, and dethrone Divinity, the Master sends to Washington, to America, to the world, His simple message of protest against error, His glorious uplifting truth, mighty to save. God keep the heart, and nerve the mind, and strengthen the physical man, of all who are engaged in this struggle for liberty, by whatever name called. We bid them Godspeed. We say to them, "The battle is not yours, but God's." May your burning words and ardent work melt hard hearts and win souls to God.