OUR POSITION by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Oct 17, 1906

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 32, No. 40.

OUR POSITION.

By Editor

LET it be clearly understood, the SIGNS OF THE TIMES is not in politics. It does not belong to any party whatsoever. If it criticizes a political doctrine or platform, held by any party, it does not do it to criticize that party, but to warn men against the evil principles inherent in the teaching. If it refers to or points out a condition of depravity or wickedness in connection with some political party, it does not do this as an attack upon the party but to show that political conditions in general are just what God declared they would come to be in the last days, and that we can not afford to place our trust in men, princes tho they be.

We have no fight against union men. There are principles in labor-unionism contrary to true Americanism, to the Word of God, and to the Christianity of the Bible; these we have pointed out, and shall continue so to do that our skirts may be clear in the day of God. The same thing is true as regards the great commercial combinations known as trusts.

Yet if we needed an employee or work done, and a union man should apply for that work as other men, we would neither employ him nor reject him because he was a union man. That would not enter into the matter at all. The only question with us would be, Is he the man qualified to do the work, at wages we could afford to pay?

We grant men the right, if they so desire, to organize into unions or trusts, into anti-union and anti-trust organizations. But when they demand that we shall join with them in this, contrary to our conviction or desire, we emphatically demur. If a labor union can not win men on the ground of its innate principles of benefit and helpfulness to mankind, it has no right to exist, and should be permitted to die. Coercion in fellowship is a misnomer, and the man

coerced against his will is ever a secret enemy.

We can not agree with many religionists. We do not believe, for instance, in Roman Catholicism, and are free to give our reasons why we can not. We believe it our bounden duty to do this in a Christian manner. But Roman Catholics have the same right to their belief as we to ours, and would have that right if we were a million and they were one. The rights of the human are God-given, inalienable, not dependent upon majorities or superior physical force.

We believe that in the number of those who adhere to the various systems of error, there are many honest, sincere souls, beloved and accepted of God; they are accepted not because of the errors they hold, but in spite of them. The principles of truth are dominant in character over the error. But honest or not, deceived or not, the judgment of all rests with God. It is for His people to persuade and entreat, never to coerce.

Kindly we feel toward all. Animosity, antipathy, hatred, we hold toward none. We are not infallible. We believe there are many things in His Word to learn better, many things to learn new, many experiences to be obtained through His grace; but we believe that Holy Book to be the sufficient guide in all things without the traditions of men; Jesus Christ a sufficient Saviour without other intermediaries, and the living church of Christ a sufficient fellowship without the extra human counterfeits and organizations of men. Believing thus, we find real joy in the simplicity, sweetness, and power of the blessed Gospel of His grace, and in the language of one of old we would say, “Come thou with us, and we will do thee good, for Jehovah hath spoken good concerning Israel.”