Federating and Combining.
THIS is preeminently an age of federations and combines, but can it be said to be an age of any real union? We have had our combines of capital for many decades, and we have seen how these combines have crushed the small property owner. This is a matter of fact and of history, and it needs no argument nor any further statement to elucidate it. To meet these combines of capital there have been called into existence the combines of labor, and they have become strong and influential. They have reached the point where the capitalist is required to reckon with them. But has this combining and federating of labor produced industrial peace? The papers for the past few months especially have had daily accounts of the strikes that are threatened or that are in progress in the various parts of the country. The outlook is for anything but industrial peace. Within the last few weeks this paper has contained some very significant reports from some of our special correspondents in regard to the federating spirit that is also taking hold of the religious bodies of the world, and furthermore an international federation is being strongly urged by influential persons at The Hague Peace Congress. The federation, the combine, the union, seem to be the war-cries and the watchwords of the hour. The facts are everywhere apparent to show that the foregoing paragraphs set forth the conditions of this time. It is not necessary to present the evidence; all that is necessary is to call attention to it, for the evidence is to be seen on every hand in all the world. The fact that we have in the world to-day so many combines and unions, and, furthermore, that the very spirit of the age is that of federation is a significant symptom. It shows that there are conditions that many good people are trying hard to remedy, and they hope that by confederating everybody they will be able to accomplish their ends. But they do not make any provision for those that they can not persuade to join with them in their confederacy, except it be that they exterminate them. And this is what makes the outlook anything but hopeful, looking at it from the standpoint of those who are engaged in this federating business. Love to mankind, and the betterment of mankind is freely talked, but when any portion of mankind can not see its way clear to fall in with the prevailing spirit, it is immediately suggested that something should be done with such so-called offenders, which would suggest that there is more sentiment than reality to this talk of the love for mankind. There is an associating together that the word of God warns against, and it would be well to look to it that in our federations and unions we are standing on principles and foundations that God can approve, otherwise the whole scheme will, in the end, be brought to naught. The words of warning in the Bible are the following: “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. Take counsel together, and it shall come to naught; speak the word, and it shall not stand; for God is with us. “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.” Isa. 8: 9-13. The foregoing words of the prophet bring before us a time when there will be a general call to a “confederacy” among the people. And the time when this prophecy applies is made plain in the statement in verses 16 and 17. They read: “Bind up the testimony, seal the law among My disciples. And I will wait upon the Lord, that hideth His face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for Him.” God’s law and His testimony have been so disregarded in the time of this general confederating that it is necessary for the exhortation to be given to bind and seal them among the Lord’s own disciples. And, by the way, this is the only time that the word disciple occurs in the Old Testament Scriptures. Isaiah, who is called the New Testament prophet, is talking in the New Dispensation terms. Note, too, that the text directs our minds to a time when we may be looking for the Lord. But, leaving every other suggestion to the side, we know that there was never a time when the spirit of confederacy and combine was so strong as now. And it should be no difficult matter to see that selfish purposes and personal ends are at the bottom of the most of it. And the God of heaven has said to all who will receive His word that they must not fall in with the confederacy idea, neither are they to be annoyed by the fear of the people who are calling for the confederacy. We have entered days that will call for the most courageous work that the people of God have ever done in all the ages. We will have to meet great popular movements, and in doing it will run the risk of being constantly misunderstood. But the work must be done fearlessly, lovingly, and courteously. We must have no quarrel with the men we oppose, but we must rather do all in our power to save them from the results of the course that they have adopted.