National Good Citizenship Movement
By G. E. Langdon
NOVEMBER 2 and 3, 1911, at the First Methodist Church of Chicago was held a meeting which has laid the foundation for the organization of a powerful compact, or federation. Representatives were there from the Christian Endeavor, Epworth League, Baptist Young People's Societies, Y. M. C. A. and Y. W. C. A., Young People's Civic League, Anti-Saloon League, Prohibition Party, National Reform Association, and the Temperance Society, an organization of the Methodist Church under Dr. C. T. Wilson, the American Civic Reform Union, and other societies. The object of this meeting is to secure the federation of all these organizations; as one speaker put it, so they can "strike one unanimous blow for home and country." The three principal points set forth in the program were surely what every one must admit is called for in this land of ours, under a united force. Their object is a world-wide movement against intemperance, impurity, and gambling. These were the principal points discussed in all their lectures; but when Dr. Wilbur F. Crafts spoke, he said that in a combined effort of all these mighty organizations against these evils, which he denominated "three snakes in the nest," it would be impossible to fail in greatly wounding them and soon destroying them altogether. He said he thought it would be just as easy to fight four snakes in the nest as three, and that wisdom would direct that instead of having so many little sticks fighting the nest, we might as well have a combined effort, that they might receive a mighty and everlasting stroke. The fourth "snake," he suggested, should be Sabbath-breaking, or the desecration of Sunday. He saw no reason why they could not at the same time fight "four snakes in the nest" as well as three. Some, he said, were opposed to this point in the movement, but he felt anxious that the Sabbath question should have a place among the others. This earnest people, who are made up from the best people and societies of the land, so far as this world is concerned, are terribly in earnest in seeking to save our country from these ruinous and disreputable vices — intemperance, gambling, and impurity; but we know that while this is a worthy object, and God is using them to help hold back this awful spirit of depravity, yet Satan would have them tack on the Sunday question, and at the same time unite their forces against the Sabbath of the Lord Jesus as "a snake in the nest" of all the corruption of earth, and associate it with the worst crimes of the land. A temporary organization was effected with Harry S. Warner as chairman; vice-chairman, the Rev. Charles D. Bulla; secretary, Miss Margaret Wintringe; treasurer, Mary F. Balcomb. The committee appointed for nomination and plans recommend that in the "National Good Citizenship Movement," five delegates11be officially appointed from each of these organizations, and others who may join them, who shall meet in Chicago February 12, for the purpose of perfecting the movement. They also recommend that the headquarters shall be at Chicago. Dr. Crafts was the first one of the committee appointed on plans. It will not be difficult for many of my readers, understanding as they do the prophecies relating to the Sabbath question and this nation, to see how this mighty federation of peoples, societies, and churches can bring about a great hardship to those who observe the true Sabbath. It is evident that with the National Reform Bureau and National Reform Association in this movement, with one of their chief objects the enforcement of Sunday upon the world, and also the American Civic Reform Union, with the Rev. A. S. Gregg superintendent, the Sunday movement will soon be incorporated therein. Article two of the constitution of this latter reads thus: "The object of this organization shall be to improve the government of the cities, expose graft, promote civic pride, civic education, Sunday observance, temperance, and better marriage and divorce regulations; prohibit the manufacture and sale of cigarets, the publication of immoral literature, and abolish gambling and immoral traffic in women, and to obtain and enforce laws in harmony with the foregoing objects." They also have an article in their by-laws establishing a bureau of information and investigation, and PROVIDING DETECTIVES for special work. While they have set their force and determination against the flagrant and appalling sins witnessed on every hand, and without doubt God is using them to hold back the beggarly elements of wickedness, yet they will classify the true Sabbath of Jehovah with all these vile and evil practises; and when those obedient to God's law say that they can not work in harmony with one point of the organization, because of their united efforts against God's Sabbath, they will classify them with those who are enemies of temperance, chastity, the peace of our land, and the advancement of God's kingdom. While the hearts of true Sabbath-keepers yearn to unite with them in helping to suppress these destructive sins, they will be compelled, no doubt, to come out from among them, and work alone, in order to uphold and maintain the true Sabbath of the Lord, which Jesus honored and sealed into His own church by the blood of the everlasting covenant.