The American Sentinel, Vol. 7, No. 31 (August 11, 1892) | AdventAI

Your Shelf Your Projects

In this edition

To govern their own spirit and deal righteously among themselves is a greater and a more difficult thing for the people of a nation than to take the cities of their enemy. Where a people do not deal righteously each man with his neighbor, civil conditions of internal dissension must soon arise more dangerous than foreign war. Those who sigh for justice and equity, and those who go about to do injustice and inequity can not live always together in peace. If the constitutional theory of a government upholds civil equity, and civil and religious freedom unalloyed, and the government in its statutes and judicial practice is false to its principles, either it will utterly fail, or revolution must purge it.1 paragraphs
THE first century of national existence saw that governmental error expiated in blood and fire. But parallel with it had existed another error, as fundamental and even more deeply entrenched in human prejudice, and appealing with greater subtlety to the popular mind for support. That was the fallacy of the support of religion and the enforcement of religious forms and doctrines by the civil law. This found its expression in legislative decrees maintaining previously existing laws, drawn from old English statutes enacted under Church and State rule, for the enforcement of Sunday observance, the punishment of blasphemy, etc., the public maintenance of chaplains for the army, legislative assemblies, and State institutions, the exemption of church property from taxation, and other less prominent legislation respecting religion.1 paragraphs
Thus the Constitution had distinctly forbidden to the general Government. The different States, however, were not prohibited from legislating in respect to religion, yet they inserted clauses in their respective bills of rights which mirrored, in almost every case, the spirit of the restriction put upon Congress. At the same time the States permitted the same discrepancy to exist in this regard between their bills of rights and their statute and municipal law, which some of the States had previously permitted to exist between the assertion of the right of all mankind to freedom and natural equality before the law, and the legalizing of the enslavement of the colored race.2 paragraphs
THE Government of the United States was founded upon the correct theory of complete non-interference in questions of religion; the only possible basis upon which civil equity can be maintained. The State governments tacitly accepted this for themselves but permitted sections inconsistent with it to creep into their constitutions; and laws, in direct contravention of it, to be placed and remain upon their statute books. The first great error, the physical enslavement of men was expelled from the body politic before the first century of its existence was past; the second great error, the assumption of the right to hold in bondage men’s minds, is now, in the second century of the Republic, just beginning to be openly and generally asserted. The Congress of the United States, both Houses, has traitor-1 paragraphs
THE United States has claimed to be an example to the world of the success of free institutions. The fundamental theory of the Declaration of Independence and of the Constitution of the United States is the acknowledgment of the natural rights of all mankind. To secure to its citizens the full enjoyment of these natural rights this Government was instituted.1 paragraphs
THE general Government of the United States was established upon the principle that all men are born free. The individual colonies had previously decided differently, and in statehood retained the fatal difference. This direct antagonism between the social custom of negro slavery and the civil laws upholding it in certain of the States, and the expressed principle of the possession of inalienable rights by all men equally, continued to be more and more of a disturbing element in the social system and body politic of this Nation, until the Proclamation of Emancipation was signed, and the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendments to the Constitution adopted.1 paragraphs
To have succeeded in securing the practical application of this, the only true theory of civil government, and to have placed every citizen in the possession of his absolute rights, and have protected him in their enjoyment, would have required a greater internal revolution, within the thirteen colonies, than the outward revolution which freed them from the burden of English rule.1 paragraphs
THE Puritans had felt the heavy hand of religious intolerance placed upon themselves, and had escaped from it. But this had not taught them the first principles of civil equity in religious matters,—no, not even tolerance. The colonies had felt the weight of civil oppression, and had rebelled. From their experiences they learned the correct theory of human rights. They expressed this theory in a governmental formula, but they did not fully apply it.1 paragraphs
ously joined hands with those who assail the right, both divine and constitutional, of untrammeled freedom in religious matters. The boom of the first gun fired upon Sumter sent a chill of prophetic dread through the Nation. The fifty-second Congress has fired upon the Constitution, has attacked the bulwark of constitutional religious liberty, and overthrown it. Are the citizens of the United States unaware of the onslaught, or are they all traitors? Does history raise its warning voice in vain? Does prophecy speak to heedless ears? They both speak the same words, and their speech is not uncertain. By them, that which lies at the end of this road upon which Congress has just entered is made clearer than noonday. Where is the end, and what is it that is there?W. H. M.1 paragraphs
The Gospel; What It Is, and Its Work As Opposed to the Mystery of Iniquity.[^1]A. T. Jones15 paragraphs
WHILST we assert for ourselves a freedom to embrace, to profess and to observe, the religion which we believe to be of divine origin, we can not deny an equal freedom to those whose minds have not yielded to the evidences which have convinced us.—James Madison.1 paragraphs
The Postmaster and the Adventists.C. P. B.12 paragraphs
Sunday Closing, Who Asks it, and Why?Publius3 paragraphs
Despotism of the Church.14 paragraphs
Their Own Testimony.3 paragraphs
A School of Conscience.F. W. HOWE13 paragraphs
“Religious Sentiment.”6 paragraphs
Neither Gospel Nor Temperance.A. Delos Westcott11 paragraphs
No Constitutional Authority.2 paragraphs
THE Register, Red Bank, N. J., publishes the following in reference to the Sunday law crusade now in progress at Atlantic Highlands:— “The people of Atlantic Highlands have formed a Law and Order League to put down all Sunday traffic which is in violation of the Sunday laws of the State. If the Law and Order League mean business, let them begin their work by having the officials of the Central railroad arrested for Sunday traffic. Let them arrest the captains and officers of the steamboats that ply between New York and Atlantic Highlands. Let them arrest all the travelers who use the boats and trains on Sunday, for such traveling is against the law. If they really believe in what they say, they will do this, and they won’t arrest the poor Italian fruit sellers, and barbers, and newspaper dealers, until they have made examples of the rich and powerful corporations. If they allow the rich corporations to violate the law while they seek to punish poor and uninfluential people for doing the same, they will prove themselves to be arrant humbugs, and to be without moral courage. If the Sunday Blue Laws are to be enforced, enforce them against everybody, rich and <page-break/>poor alike, the man who rides out with his team as well as the man who hires a livery rig; the man who sells railroad tickets as well as the man who sells bananas. If the Law and Order people mean to carry out the law, let them carry it out impartially and treat everybody alike.”1 paragraphs
Only an Engine of State.Robert Robinson2 paragraphs
It has not been heretofore understood that this country had a national religion, but instantly, upon the legislation by Congress which shows that to be a fact, there are found those who not only realize it but do not hesitate to say so, in so many words. The Christian Standard says: “And, indeed, that which is precious in our national heritage centers in our national religion.” That religion is the religion of which Sunday observance is the distinguishing mark, and that mark all its followers must receive. A careful study of the tenth chapter of Revelation is of much value in this connection.1 paragraphs
The Mid-Continent Magazine, for June, contains an article on "Religious Liberty," in respect to which the magazine says editorially:—2 paragraphs
It seems that the president of the American Sabbath Union is summering in Bar Harbor. A special dispatch to the World says: “The non-observance of Sunday at Bar Harbor shocks Mr. Shepard, and it is rumored that he is going to bring the old neglected Blue Laws to the front again, and have things closed up on the Lord’s day. An excursion of over fifteen hundred people was in town to-day (Sunday) from all along the Maine Central Railway, and it hurt Mr. Shepard’s feelings to see them.”1 paragraphs
The Church Bulletin, of South Chicago, has in its issues of June 24 and July 1, a very accurate statement of the facts connected with the arrest and imprisonment of Seventh-day Adventists in Tennessee, together with a sound exposition of the principles involved, and an earnest plea for civil equity, pure and undefiled.1 paragraphs
IN Keyport, N. J., a citizen’s protective association has been formed to defend the Sunday cases brought by the Sabbath Union committee in their effort to enforce the Sunday laws.1 paragraphs
THE Mayor and the ministers of Freeport, Ill., are at swords' points on the Sunday observance question. The Mayor has permitted Sunday baseball and other Sunday diversions, and the ministers are denouncing him from their pulpits.1 paragraphs
THE Christian Union says of the proposed congressional appropriation for the World's Fair:—4 paragraphs
THE propriety of Sunday bicycle riding has become a matter for the decision of the courts in Connecticut. The following special dispatch appears in the New York Sun from Bridgeport, Conn.:—5 paragraphs
The little State of New Jersey seems anxious to make for itself a reputation in the strict enforcement of Sunday laws. A dispatch from Atlantic Highlands says:—6 paragraphs
THE Washington Post under the title “District Blue Laws,” has the following:— Some of the queer old Blue Laws in the District of Columbia will soon receive a raking over in a memorial to Congress which is being prepared by Mr. Edward Ramsay. He said:—4 paragraphs
The Mankato Ledger says of the passage of the Sunday closing proviso: “It will be a fine victory for the ultra wing of the church people. Their success in this direction will only embolden them to take more active steps toward the enactment of religious legislation having for its object the recognition of Sunday and an enforced attendance by every person of a suitable age, upon Sunday worship. This to be sure is antagonistic to the principles of the Declaration of Independence, and a direct contradiction of the claim that Church and State are independent of each other in the United States. It remains to be seen if the church people who comprise only a fifth of the sixty-five millions of people that make up the population of this Nation, can control and dictate a certain line of policy to the other four-fifths of the population.”2 paragraphs
JOHN GRIFFITH, Founder of the Hankow Mission, Central China—By William Robson, of the London Missionary society. 12mo, 160 pages, fully illustrated, cloth extra, 75 cents.19 paragraphs
THIS legislative ignominy has been brought upon the Nation,—and those of its citizens who know what has been done, and they are not few, stand abashed before the world, with arms reversed and the colors of civil liberty trailing in the dust. Care will be taken that from this humiliation they shall know no release, neither as it is thrust upon them in this form nor as it will be in other shapes.5 paragraphs
It is the Chicago Directory that has authority rightfully in this matter, and this both Congress, and Commission, and Statesman all well know. But if this Directory should dare to exercise its rightful and lawful authority! But if,—and what then?3 paragraphs
THE August Arena contains the second installment of Mr. Reed’s Brief for the Plaintiff in the interesting discussion of Bacon vs. Shakespeare. Whatever may be said of the abstract merits of the case, no one can fail to be impressed with the ingenious and powerful array of evidence thus far adduced in behalf of Lord Bacon as the author of the plays. Perhaps the most startling as well as the most interesting disclosures, however, are yet to come. In the September number Mr. Reed will answer objections, not only those that have been brought forward in previous public discussions of the subject, but others advanced in his own private correspondence with scholars and literary men on both sides of the Atlantic. Other leading papers in the August Arena are by United States Senator James H. Kyle, Hon. Geo. Fred Williams, M. C., Hon. Wm. T. Ellis, M. C., Gail Hamilton, Mary A. Livermore, Louise Chandler Moulton, Helen H. Gardener, Frances E. Willard, Mrs. Gen. Lew Wallace, Frances E. Russell and the editor of the Arena. In addition to these papers, there is a brilliant symposium on Women’s Clubs in America, to which eleven leading American women contribute.1 paragraphs
THE Senate, on July 14, and the House, on July 19, adopted the following, which, on Aug. 5, received the signature of the President of the United States:—3 paragraphs
THE Congress of the United States, both Houses, supposed to be composed of the picked intellect of the country, men of broad education, trained intelligence, the choice of the statesmanlike ability of the forty-four States of the Union, have, by a large majority, adopted a measure respecting the establishment of religion.1 paragraphs
THESE men sworn to a solemn trust, to support the Constitution of the United States, have been threatened, cajoled, persuaded, into proving false to that trust and the shameful achievement is hailed by the Christian Statesman as “the greatest moral victory since emancipation.” The truth is that as emancipation gave freedom from physical enslavement to eight millions of blacks so this marks the beginning of the governmental enslavement of the consciences of sixty-five millions of all colors and races now resident in the United States, and the millions yet to come. Instead of the two things—emancipation of the colored race and the passage of religious legislation by Congress—being parallel moral measures, they are complete antitheses. The first echoed the constitutional principle of the natural freedom and equality of all men and established civil liberty; but the last contravenes the Constitution and natural right, and establishes civil inequity and religious despotism. The first removed from the Constitution its only inconsistency and did away with the shame of the Nation; the last is an irremediable blot upon the proceedings of the national Legislature, and puts disgrace upon a free people.1 paragraphs
This is the threat which this arrogant minority described by the Statesmen here as “three score thousand preachers and a thousand religious papers” holds out to Chicago, the World’s Fair management, and the calm minded and patriotic intelligence of the country which may assert its divine right of dissent from their fatal religious folly and political error:—4 paragraphs