A Word to Home Rebels by Uriah Smith

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 2, 1862

A Word to Home Rebels.

By Uriah Smith

[THE following from the N. Y. Independent, is a graphic description of the ruling spirits of the present generation, who have exercised a controlling influence in this nation. A policy shaped by such men, we might expect, as long as there is a God who rules in Heaven, would sooner or later recoil with concentrated vengeance upon the heads of its authors. U. S.]

"Business is business, and religion is religion." This is an old saying, and is very popular with men of easy consciences. It is regarded as the Gospel according to St. Shylock. In it there is included a "brief summary" of the faith and creed of that portion of the human family who call themselves "practical men." These are the men who deduce from their creed—a double code of morals—the important truth that he who does not provide for his own family—i. e., for himself—is worse than an infidel. Such provision must be made at any rate,—right or wrong,—cost what it will. These are the men who have made greater sacrifices for their principles, so-called, than any of the martyrs—not excepting John Rogers. They are the men who believe in one God—gold, and one idol—silver; and to both they pay the homage of a crazy devotee. They have feared neither guillotine, prison, nor stake. Rather than yield an iota of their faith, they have been willing to part with body and soul. Fox tells us of many godly men who did the former, but it remains for some new historian and aspirant for literary fame to give us the facts, in regard to these soul-sacrificing heroes. Our latter days of cotton and rebellion have brought these great men to the surface. They stand out in bold relief. Long ago they began their work, and they have fought a good fight. Yes, who ever fought conscience, Bible, and God more boldly? They have kept their faith—the articles of which—their holy trinity—if written out, would read as follows:

1st, We believe in making money. 2d, We believe in making money. 3d, We believe in making money.

Ask such men to aid you in any progressive movement. No, they always say, we shall lose money by it. Ask them to adopt the "higher law" of God as a rule of conduct. That won't do. It wouldn't pay. Ask them to stand up for liberty and justice. Oh no, never; that would cost them at least a hundred bales of cotton. Ask them if they don't think it best to abolish slavery. You must be a fool to propose such a question. That would disturb our amicable relations, and kill their Southern trade. Ask them to put into practice the Golden Rule, and they will say "circumstances alter cases." Ask them to do right under all circumstances and cases, and leave the result with God, and they will say, Yes—well—if—but—and think you very impertinent. These men are not all merchants—selling their principles with their tape, bobbin, and negro-cloths—oh no. They are not all manufacturers, boxing up cargoes of Yankee clocks, patent medicines, and other notions for the Dixie market—oh no. They are not all clergymen who take a south-side view of Christian duty, in order to promote the financial prosperity of their church—oh no. They are not all office-seekers, looking for a seat in Congress, with a fat salary, larded with mileage, pickings, and stealings, or to the Presidential chair with $25,000 per annum—oh no. They are not all capitalists, with large Southern investments in rice, sugar, tobacco, and cotton plantations—oh no. They are a sprinkling of all these elect tribes put together. What a vast throng they would make if the whole army were summoned from their hiding-places into one grand encampment! A "General Order" from the "King of kings" will one day bring them out, and then it will be seen how they will appear.

Who are the real authors of this infernal pro-slavery rebellion? Are they Abolitionists? No. Are they God-fearing, neighbor-loving, Gospel-spreading, self-denying "fanatics"? No; not a bit of it. They are the men who have been attempting to build this great nation upon a rotten foundation of wood, hay, and stubble. We charge our troubles upon you—merchants—who have determined to make money in violation of every principle of justice and humanity. We charge the thousand millions of money spent in this war,

to you—Heralds, Journals of Commerce, and Observers—who have not dared to build this glorious Republic upon the rock of equity and impartial liberty—liberty for every man, woman, and child made in God's image. We charge you—ministers of the Gospel and doctors of divinity—with the indirect loss of ten thousand additional millions, all gone from the hard earnings of the people, to suppress a rebellion which you, if you had been faithful, could have prevented. We mean you, reverend fathers, who have refused to teach the heavenly enactment that we should "obey God rather than man." We charge all these millions upon millions of money, all the precious blood which has drenched the earth, in defense of liberty, and all the mourning and wailing now filling thousands of households, to you, money-loving, truth-dodging, principle-evading, liberty-hating, man-oppressing newspapers, merchants, ministers, capitalists, and others, who have been willing to sacrifice real and eternal riches for a mess of pottage. We are reaping, now, the bitter fruit of such tare-seed sowing. We have lived, toiled, and trampled upon God's laws to gain a great worldly inheritance, and when gained, we have lost it all. We have been willing to sacrifice conscience for gold, and behold! we have lost the precious dust from within our very grasp. God has taken it to do, himself, the very work we have, ourselves, refused to do. We have wanted prosperity, but in securing it, we have laid the foundations of bankruptcy. We have refused to do business except on a basis of injustice, and now we are suffering the penalty. Henceforth it should be our "business" to do right, and our "religion" to seek prosperity founded upon equity. Such business and such religion, combined, will stand, and will pay, in this life, a hundredfold, and insure an eternal inheritance in the life to come.