THE COMING FEDERATION by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Apr 12, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 15.

THE COMING FEDERATION.

By Editor

EXTENSIVE plans are being laid, according to a press despatch of February 24, to the Washington Post, to hold a great interchurch conference on federation this autumn in Carnegie Hall, New York. Official delegates have been named by religious bodies with an aggregate membership of 20,000,000. "The conference is looked forward to by leaders in all bodies as the most important religious gathering this country has ever seen, since it will represent a co-operation of religious bodies which would have been impossible a few years ago." The object of the meeting, as set forth in the letter of its call, is political as well as religious:

We believe that the great Christian bodies in our country should stand together, and lead in the discussion of, and give an impulse to, all great movements that make for righteousness. We believe that questions like that of the saloon, marriage, and divorce, sabbath desecration, the social evil, child labor, relation of labor to capital, the bettering of the condition of the laboring classes, the moral and religious training of the young, the problem created by foreign immigration, and international arbitration—indeed, all great questions in which the voice of the churches should be heard—concern Christians of every name, and demand their united and concerted action, if the church is to lead effectively in the conquest of the world for Christ.

But, reader, the conquest of the world, or of a single heart even, for Christ, is not to be effected in that way. Federation in political matters is an evil sign, and spells spiritual declension. Thus has it ever been. The church of Jesus Christ makes only for righteousness when the whole aim is through the Gospel message to win souls to Christ.

An instance in the history of Israel of old furnishes a prophecy of the last days in Isaiah 8. God's professed people then thought that strength and stability could be secured by confederation of earthly forces. If Judah, Israel, and Syria could unite, what a promise this would be for safety, Ahaz thought. But the prophet warns:

"Associate yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces; and give ear, all ye of far countries; gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces. Take counsel together, and it shall come to naught; speak the word, and it shall not stand; for God is with us." Verses 9, 10.

And such will be the end of every unholy alliance of the church of God, or every alliance on wrong principles, or for wrong or mistaken purposes. Sabbath or Sunday legislation is wrong, and will tend only to wrong.

The prophet continues, and gives God's instructions as to what not to do, and what to do:

"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. And He shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken. Bind up the testimony, seal the law among My disciples." Verses 11-16.

Let the church of God set Him apart in the heart's holiest sanctuary; let her "fear God, and give glory to Him" (Rev. 14:6, 7); let her search out the sins, restore God's trodden-down truth, take her feet from His holy Sabbath (Isa. 58:13), and utterly reject all alliances which are not founded in the truth of His Word. Let all the churches unite, but then only in union of truth, in the union which Christ only can give, the union of the life and righteousness of God.