The American Sentinel, The Sentinel of Liberty, Vol. 15, No. 28.
The Decline of Sunday ObservancePage 1
Earlier text: The Decline of Sunday ObservancePetition to the Premier of New Zealand.
By People Suffering Religious Persecution in Rarotonga, Cook Islands. The following copy of a petition to the premier of New Zealand, by natives of Raratonga, an island of the Cook group, has been sent us by Dr. J. E. Caldwell, who is in charge of the Medical Mission established there by the Seventh-day Adventists. It is a plea for such aid as the New Zealand premier can render by his influence as a high official under the British crown, in relieving a people suffering religious persecution at the hands of other people under British authority. Since it was prepared a great and calamitous change has, if reports be true, come over the situation in the island; peace has given place to war, with its accompaniments of murder and destruction. How far this terrible change may have resulted from the persecution inflicted upon the natives, as the petition sets forth, we cannot yet say; but it is directly traceable to the recent innovation of establishing Sunday by law in the place of the seventh day, contrary to the preferences and life-long custom of the people. And most certainly also this armed resistance by the natives has been altogether contrary to the teaching and counsel of those who have stood by the natives in their adherence to seventh-day observance:— To the Rt. Hon. Richard Seddon, Premier of New Zealand: Sir:—In my possession are a few facts familiar to the people dwelling on Raratonga, to which I am ready to call your attention, in behalf of humanity, for so far as I am aware they have never been reported outside of Raratonga either in official dispatches or by newspaper correspondents. I have the honor to be a representative of the Seventh-day Adventist Mission established in the Cook Islands six years ago. I came here in response to an invitation of the Parliament of Cook Islands extended in 1893 to our society to send to this group a physician. I have no personal grievances which I care to mention to you,—no political ambition to serve,—and the religious principles which I hold in common with those of nearly every member of the society which I represent are such that I cannot take an active part in any political agitation either for or against the present administration. But Saint Peter tells us in his first general epistle that governments are instituted in the providence of God for the “punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well.” In my opinion, this government is not accomplishing that end for the natives, therefore, in order that the people generally, and our fostering government in particular, may not be in ignorance of real conditions prevailing in this dependency, and hoping that, being known, the evils may in some way be corrected, I deem it my duty to inform you that for nearly six months shocking intimidations and religious persecutions have been practiced on this island to such an extent as to make it a discredit—even a cause for shame—to the protectorate, in the eyes of those who know the facts. I will here attempt to mention only a few isolated facts as they have come to my notice. A house of worship erected by natives independent of any society, on land owned by an Ariki who was in sympathy with those who built it, was condemned by another Ariki, threatened to be burned down, and afterward had its doors nailed up by the police, as it remains at the present time, depriving its owners of its use. Six deacons and one native missionary belonging to the London Missionary Society’s church were fined for their refusal to attend the meetings of that church in its regular worship, and for meeting for worship instead in their own home district prayer meeting houses on a day different from that of the L. M. S. meetings. These services were entirely independent of the services of any rival society. That this was religious persecution may be seen from the fact that the court discriminated between the deacons and the native pastor, fining the deacons four pounds sterling each, and the native pastor five pounds, for the same offense. Between thirty and forty individuals were assembled in a group by court summons and fined one pound ten each, while a deacon in the same group was fined two pounds ten, all for a similar offense to that above described. Two mataiapos (high chiefs) were fined one pound ten each for giving sympathy and aid to a movement to build a house of worship independent of the L. M. Society’s authority, though at that time they were entirely independent of any rival society. When one of the two yielded and agreed to follow the Ariki in matters of religion, his fine was remitted. After several weeks the other one was excused from paying his fine upon his yielding to the continued demand of his high chiefs to forsake the assembly of those who continued to worship according to the long established custom of the people of the group. Three mataiapos were berated by an Ariki not their own (some say that this was without precedent among natives) under the charge of having trampled441in their Ariki, when the only particular in which they are known to have offended was in their failure to attend the religious services of the L. M. S. when invited to do so by the Ariki. More than a score of natives of all ranks were called up by their Ariki by means of the police, and harangued for more than half an hour with threats, and slanders, and false statements against members of a rival society. The threats were that if they, the auditors, there assembled by the police, did not cease to attend the regular services of the rival society mentioned, they would be prosecuted, fined, banished to Manuae or to a foreign country, or evicted from their own houses, which of course stand on tribal lands. There are four missionary societies now at work on the Cook Islands. The controversy which was the occasion of the above described persecutions was the change of the weekly rest day. In May, 1899, the local committee of the L. M. S. in meeting assembled at Tereora (so says the Karere, the local organ of that society), decided to recommend a change of their regular weekly services from the seventh to the first day of the week. This, of course, they had a right to do. The movement was not popular among the natives of the group. Probably more than 90 per cent of them objected to the change, many from conscientious scruples, for the native Bibles declare that the seventh day is the Sabbath (Exod. 20:10). Being encouraged by a law which Parliament passed at its last session (it is said that there was difficulty in persuading the members to pass it), that society effected the change named after Christmas, 1899, and since that time has held its regular services on the first day of the week instead of the seventh, as before; but for the first few weeks—until the authority of the courts could have time to produce an effect—the number attending in most villages was very small, indeed. I have never heard it charged that the natives who suffer persecution have broken any law. They have simply claimed the right—and still claim it—to rest and worship on the seventh day in harmony with their understanding of their Bibles, and their practice also for more than seventy-five years under the leadership of the same society to which all their persecutors now belong. Apparently every effort of their former teachers to persuade them that the new way is the better has only confirmed them in the belief that the change rests wholly upon human authority. A great majority of them have never enjoyed the privilege of receiving Bible instruction from the teachers of any other society. Thus it is seen that what amounts to a new religion has been brought to the island and its dogmas are being enforced by law contrary to the will of the people; and that the new religion includes both a new practice and respect for a new source of authority in the realm of religion, not before taught the natives; for until their confidence is established in some human right and power to change God’s law they cannot be easily induced to abandon that law as taught them for more than three quarters of a century, and which seems so plain to them as they read it in their native Bibles. All they ask for is relief from persecution. I have briefly stated facts as I have observed them. Should additional witnesses be desired to establish the above statements they can be furnished in abundance if the witnesses are guaranteed immunity from punishment and annoyances for testifying against their Arikis. Under the present system of land tenure the people hold their property at the pleasure of their Arikis. Many of them have told me privately in confidence that they greatly desire freedom from the serfdom they now suffer, by the introduction of English laws, that they may enjoy civil and religious liberty as it is enjoyed by the English-speaking people and Maoris of New Zealand, and this wholly without my introducing the subject or suggesting such a change. Without a guarantee of protection it would require great boldness for them to testify publicly to any facts which would compromise their Arikis. I once knew a number of them to be prosecuted for signing a petition to His Excellency the Governor of New Zealand, because their Arikis were then under an influence which did not favor the petition. At that time the sentence was suspended, and remains suspended to this day, with the warning that if they ever dare to do so again their punishment will be severe. Though the Arikis are directly responsible for these persecutions, I beg leave to say that I have much sympathy for them, thinking it probable that since they have neither literature nor a knowledge of history, they have no proper conception of the enormity of the wrongs they are doing their people, having been induced, possibly, to adopt that policy from outside influences. Hoping you may have a pleasant voyage and reach your home again with renewed strength, I have the honor, sir, to be Superintendent of Raratonga Medical Mission of Seventh-day Adventists. The Civil Sabbath and Uncivil Action
If the “civil” Sabbath were really a civil institution, it would not be the source of so much uncivil action on the part of its supporters. Sunday Baseball Unlawful in Michigan
Baseball playing on Sunday is unlawful in Michigan, according to a decision just rendered by the supreme court of that State. The case arose over a game of ball at Owosso, Mich., and the prosecutor was a Methodist clergyman. The Sunday laws are not religious at all, we are told; but for some reason it is always a clergyman that is seeking their enforcement. The facts of this case are thus stated by the Inter Ocean:— “By statute in Michigan games of baseball are forbidden on Sunday, and when a game was announced through the papers for a certain Sunday, the Methodist clergyman called up the sheriff by telephone the night before and notified him that the game was advertised to take place. The sheriff contends that he made an effort to stop the game, but nevertheless it was played. Then the clergyman published an open letter to the sheriff in two local newspapers, charging him, in severe language, with intentional neglect of duty. Thereupon the sheriff began an action for libel and recovered a verdict for $1,000—$50 damage to his office and $950 for damage to his feelings. The supreme court reversed this judgment, holding that it was the duty of the sheriff to prevent the game, and if the players persisted in proceeding with it it was his duty promptly to arrest them. The court held further that a statute forbidding ball games on Sunday is constitutional.” Sunday Saloons and Christian Inconsistency
Among the inconsistencies of professedly Christian people which furnish atheists with an opportunity to rail against Christianity and in their own eyes justify themselves, not the least is the attitude of most churches toward the restriction of Sunday traffic. The following illustration is furnished by the Freethought Magazine: “A convention of Christians recently passed the following resolution, which we clip from the Chicago Tribune:
“‘Resolved, That we give the weight of our influence to every legitimate movement which tends to abolish the sale of intoxicants on the Lord’s day, and we urge the complete closing of saloons on Sunday.’ “Now, if saloons are good things they ought to be open on all days of the week, and if they are a bad448thing they should be open on no day of the week. How would a resolution of this kind sound:
“‘Resolved, That we give the weight of our influence to every legitimate movement which tends to abolish highway robbery on the Lord’s day, and we urge that this crime be entirely prohibited on Sunday.’ And everybody knows that humanity suffers ten times more from the work of saloons than from the highway robbers.” Something Besides Anti-Semitism
In commenting upon the recent arrest and fining in North Carolina of a Seventh-day Adventist cripple for selling candy and peanuts on Sunday, the American Israelite says: “It is an acknowledged fact that these people are the best of citizens, noted for their temperance, industry and frugality. In almost every instance they have not been arrested because they were obtrusive in their Sunday labor, or in any way disturbed people who observed that day, but simply because they differ in their belief from the predominant Christian denominations. There is something besides anti-Semitism in this world.” Yea, truly there is “something besides anti-Semitism in this world,”—something radically wrong. It is the same spirit of intolerance that killed Cain, sold Joseph into bondage, crucified Christ, made millions of martyrs during the Dark Ages. And the end is not yet. Prayer at Political Conventions
“While a minister was offering public prayer at the opening of the great political convention on July 4,” says the Michigan Christian Advocate, “a strong band came marching into the hall with every instrument tooting or clanging. The worldly methods are noisy, and too often drown the contemplative moods. This is true in the case of all men. In this special instance it was a great pity that the devotional moments of skilled politicians should be at all shortened. They are all too brief already in every party.” We don’t want to discourage prayer, but if there is a place where it is utterly inappropriate that place is a political convention. There is no more reason why a political convention should be opened with prayer than that the polls should be opened by prayer. The idea that “skilled politicians” feel any true devotion at such a time, except devotion to party, is absurd. Patriotism and Christianity
“We are among those,” says the Michigan Christian Advocate, “who believe that an intelligent and enthusiastic patriotism is included in our Christian religion.” If the Advocate is correct, then the Chinese Boxers must be, if not Christians at least “not far from the kingdom,” for they are patriotic to the point of fanaticism. Patriotism is a virtue only so far as it is love of correct principles. If it means no more than love of a certain portion of territory within certain boundaries, either natural or political, it is only an animal instinct, more strongly developed in some beasts and birds than in man. If it means love of the society and institutions of one’s country, then it is a virtue only to the extent that that society and those institutions are worthy of confidence and support. Imagine intelligent patriotism in this sense, among the common people in Turkey, Italy, or Russia. It is impossible. But men may be just as truly Christian there as in the most favored lands. “Patriotism” is too often the sentiment of fools and the bulwark of tyrants. Federation of Roman Catholic Societies
By Editor
Some time since we made mention of the movement on foot for the federation of all Roman Catholic societies of this country. Recently Bishop McFaul, of Trenton, N. J., has taken occasion to urge that this be done. He says that the influence of such a union “should be felt in our State legislatures, and in the National Congress, whenever bigots attempt the invasion of our rights.” Of course in the Bishop’s view “bigots attempt the invasion of our rights” whenever any attempt is made to keep the Catholic Church from getting whatever she happens to demand. The Bishop says that the twelve million Catholics have no influence in the country proportional to their numbers, that few Catholics can get an office; while the sects are so united that if a legislature interferes with their smallest claim they besiege the legislative halls and frighten the lawmakers into submission. It is time, he says, for Catholics to “rush to the front,” and awake from their torpor. So far as the reports state, the Bishop did not distinctly state just what direction this new activity should take; but it has been suggested that one thing he had in mind was the American public school system—including the Indian schools. They are indignant that Congress should have decreed the end of appropriations for religious schools; they think it a great wrong to them. Conflicting Testimony on Political Methods
The Michigan Christian Advocate has this to say concerning the charges of political methods in the late Methodist conference in this city: “One delegate to the general conference wants to testify that there was no cause to set afloat stories of political wire pulling. He deliberately states that ‘these stories originated with persons who fail to get the recognition they think themselves entitled to. Everything was open and above board, and the efforts to secure the election of certain men were made in a perfectly fair and open way.’ Other men give an opposite report. Which shall we believe? Which is right? Believe both. Both are truthful. Both bear veracious testimony. The only difference between them is that one doesn’t know and the other does. One neither saw nor heard anything improper, the other did.” The charge that political methods were used does not necessarily mean dishonest methods. Political conventions are sometimes conducted in a perfectly “fair and open way.” The Advocate is doubtless correct: one man saw things the other did not see. He was not a wise justice who discharged a man accused of stealing a pig, because while only two witnesses testified positively that they saw the defendant steal the pig, twelve witnesses testified that they did not see him steal it. The ignorance of one man concerning a fact, however monumental that ignorance may be, cannot offset the positive knowledge of another man, however limited that knowledge may be. Sectarian Institutions and Government Aid
“Wearied by the useless waiting for assistance from the present government, the Catholics of Spain,” says the Catholic Mirror, “have demanded from the ministry permission for the foundation in Madrid out of their own means of a purely Catholic university, similar to the one at Louvain, Belgium.” And this is just what the Catholics of Spain ought to have done in the first place. No government on earth ought to give one cent in any way either to found or to maintain sectarian institutions either educational or otherwise. Cuba’s Constitutional Assembly
It is stated that an order will soon be issued for the election of members of an assembly to form a constitution for Cuba. The apportionment will be on the basis of one member for each one thousand inhabitants. The chief justice of the island, two of the insular secretaries, the civil governor of Havana, and the rector of the University of Havana will sit in the convention with the elected representatives. Filipinos Demand Expulsion of Friars
At a recent meeting of leading Filipinos to consider the question of securing a satisfactory peace, a paper was prepared stating a number of conditions which they deemed essential to that end, one of which was the expulsion of the friars. Upon this point the whole assembly were unanimous and earnest. In the comments elicited by the incident the general opinion is expressed that the friars will be left undisturbed in their possessions. Catholic Population of the United States
According to the latest official Roman Catholic census, which is said to have been “very carefully prepared,” there are in the United States 10,129,677 Catholics. Baron Curzon and Sunday Observance
The religious journals of India are said to be criticizing the viceroy, Baron Curzon, for disregard of Sunday. The Church of England papers are consistent, however, inasmuch as they criticize him even more severely for travelling on Good Friday. Civil and Religious Marriages Again.
By B.
“It is well-known,” says the Lutheran Witness, commenting upon the question of civil marriage in Cuba, “that the Roman Catholic does not recognize the validity of any marriage ceremony which has been solemnized by any one not a priest of his church. Accordingly, in countries where the Roman Catholic is the state religion, no civil marriages are permitted. This was the case, e. g., in Cuba and Porto Rico under Spanish rule. The exorbitant fees charged by the priests for performing the marriage ceremony brought about a great looseness in morals and a prevalence of concubinage. When our authorities took charge of the islands they, of course, sought for means and ways of abolishing this state of affairs. In his endeavors in this direction the governor-general of Cuba jumped to the opposite extreme by forbidding all except civil marriages.” It is denied, however, by the Catholic Standard and Times of Philadelphia, that civil marriages were not permitted in Cuba under Spanish rule. Be that as it may, however, the American governor-general certainly made a serious mistake in decreeing that all marriages should be civil. Those who for any reason prefer the religious ceremony are certainly entitled to it. From the standpoint of the state marriage is merely a civil contract. But Roman Catholics are taught from childhood that it is “one of the seven sacraments of the church.” In the eyes of a Catholic a civil magistrate might just as well assume to administer baptism as to celebrate marriage. However erroneous this view may be, there is no reason why the state should interfere with it. It is all right to require the clergyman to report all marriages to the proper civil officer and to safeguard the rights of the contracting parties by requiring them to procure a license, etc., but to require that the vows be exchanged before the magistrate, and that he alone shall have authority to declare the parties husband and wife, is an unwarranted interference in religious belief and practice. The Lutheran Witness very properly says that “the State cannot relinquish its right to superintend and guard the institution of matrimony.” Nor should the State by any means recognize only religious marriages. But we cannot agree that “if the government of our country should see fit at any time, to take away from our pastors the right to solemnize marriage and restrict it to the civil authorities, we Christians with a good conscience might content ourselves with holding a divine service in which the divine blessing is implored upon the already married couple, in accordance with the word of Paul that ‘everything is sanctified by the Word of God and by prayer.’” While we do not hold that the religious ceremony is essential, we do hold that to forbid it or even to make it secondary to a civil ceremony before a civil officer is an unwarranted abuse of civil power, an infringement of religious liberty. The American authorities in Cuba should hasten to correct the wrong they have done not only to Roman Catholics but to pious, self-respecting Protestants as well. B. The American Law Review is the leading law publication of this country. In its issue of May-June the American Law Review has an editorial that should be read by every American citizen. In this editorial the editor of the American Law Review paid an entirely deserved tribute to the character of the queen of England and concluded his remarks thus: “Many of us feel that she is in a sense our queen, and whenever she wants the American boys to fight for her honor, or even for her political rights, they will embark or cross the Canadian frontier for that purpose in such numbers as will tax British resources to arm and equip them—every one of them ‘spoiling for fight,’ and they will acquit themselves as gallantly as their Canadian cousins have done in South Africa.”445 Is it not significant that such stuff as this should appear as an editorial in the leading law publication of America? Does it not behoove the plain, everyday American to ask himself, “Whither are we drifting?”—Omaha World-Herald. A New Origin of Labor Troubles.
The editor of “Sunday Reform Leaflets” suggests a new cause of “labor troubles, strikes and riots.” Strikes are not due to injustice and oppression on the part of employers, as many have mistakenly supposed, but to the low moral state of the working men, due to the general laxity of the Sunday laws! When the labor forces come to understand this they will of course cease to strike for better wages, for the recognition of labor organizations, etc., and will strike only and always for Sunday laws that will hermetically seal everything on Sunday except the churches, prohibit the Sunday paper, and give free rein only to the Sunday preachers. NOT OPPOSED TO RELIGION.
By B.
The writer is not opposed to religion, but is most decidedly opposed to any and all attempts to force religion upon anybody; and that is the real design of Sunday legislation. Everybody ought to be religious. Everybody ought to keep the Sabbath. Everybody ought to go to church. Everybody ought to help to support the gospel. But nobody ought to be compelled to do any nor all of these things. The gospel is not force, but love. It does not drive men, but beseeches them. It does not threaten punishment, but offers pardon from a penalty already incurred. In all of which the gospel of the Son of God is very unlike the gospel of the legally enforced Sunday.
B. What Imperialism has Done for India.
(From the Letter of a Native Hindu.) “God help the people of India!” said Donald Smeaton, a member of Lord Curzon’s council, to Reuter’s agent at Bombay the other day; “Great Britain and Ireland owe a debt to the Indian peasant, a debt of millions upon millions.” We know that India annually remits to England a sum estimated between £20,000 and £30,000 for home charges, pensions, interest and the like. We know that the people of India are virtually debarred from the highest posts in India, except a very small percentage, and that £15,000,000 are annually paid to European officials employed in India and sending all their savings to Europe. We know that our ancient industries, like weaving and spinning and dyeing, have been killed by European competition, and that the land is so heavily taxed in many provinces that the peasant cannot save in good years for years of bad harvest. We know that an army is kept in India, and paid for by India sufficient for England’s imperial requirements over the best part of Asia and Africa. We know that our finances are adjusted by executive councils in India and in England, in which the people of India have no seat, and that in the taxation of India we have no voice. These are some of the burdens we bear in India, and these are some of the causes of the famines from which we periodically suffer. Will Englishmen add to them the burden of paying for British forts and armies, British establishments, and wars in various parts of Africa and Asia—from the Suez Canal to Mozambique, from the Tigris to the Malay peninsula? Will the English conscience reconcile itself to thus proceeding in a year when 90,000,000 of people are affected by the worst famine that India has ever known, and 5,000,000 are actually attending relief centers? After the famine of 1770 and the desolating wars of Warren Hastings, the great Minister Pitt brought in his Indian bill in 1784 to give us a better government. Is there no statesman in England at the present day who will give us a new India bill, moderating land tax, reducing expenditure, opening up the higher services to the people of India, and giving them some control over their finances? Is there no Englishman of this generation who will stand up for justice to India? Chapelle’s Report on the Philippines
Archbishop Chapelle announces that he has carefully studied all points of the religious question in the Philippines, and will soon make a report on the subject to the pope. His report to the Filipinos on the same matter seems already to have been made. Better Enforcement of Sunday Laws
A “better enforcement of the Sunday laws” is reported from Palmer, Mass. It is Now a State Affair.
(From the Chicago Journal.) The field secretary of the Presbyterian board of foreign missions, the Rev. Thomas Marshall, has expressed an opinion upon the Chinese situation that, if lacking the goriness and intolerance of the recent utterances of Bishop Cranston, is at least unhappy in its phraseology. “The church believes,” says Mr. Marshall, “that the government should enforce its treaty rights, and when it does we shall take advantage of the opportunity to preach the gospel.” Religion, standing amid rice fields strewn with Chinese slain, calls upon the survivors to repent ere they share a like fate. That is the picture suggested by the words of the field secretary; and it is an unpleasant picture. Just at this stage of the proceedings “enforcement of treaty rights” means shot and shell. Mr. Marshall tells us that the church is watching with approving eye the flight of the shells and the smoke of the volley-firing, ready, as soon as a silence falls upon the battlefield, to rush in and preach the gospel; or, as Mr. Marshall puts it, “to take advantage of the opportunity.” This attitude of the church militant is not even heroic; it lacks even the courage of the old crusaders, who did not wait until the heathen host had been soundly thrashed and cowed by a third party before they began their peculiar style of injecting the gospel. Another of Mr. Marshall’s sayings is that “the Chinese can not stop the work of civilization and evangelization which has stirred up the anti-foreign element of the orient.” The church at large will hardly thank Mr. Marshall for the frank confession contained in that defiant sentence. Indeed, the church at large will not thank him for anything he has said that we have quoted, any more than it thanked Bishop Cranston for his sanguinary utterances; for they reflect discredit upon the whole missionary system. This is an excellent time for the missionaries to refrain from offering advice or encouragement to the sword of the nation. What was mainly a church affair has become wholly an affair of state. A Standing Army of 75,000
It is announced that Secretary-of-War Root will call upon Congress at its next session for a standing army of not less than 75,000 men, in order to cope successfully with the situation in eastern Asia. A study of the principles that should govern the true Christian patriot, in his relation to earthly governments. 104 pages. Paper, 15 cents; cloth, 40 cents A verse-by-verse study of the book of Galatians. By DR. E. J. WAGGONER. 265 pages. Paper, 25 cents; cloth, 60 cents. Also published by the Review and Herald A book designed to assist mothers in teaching their children how to care for their bodies. By MRS. VESTA J. FARNSWORTH. 218 pages. Cloth, 75 cents Marshaling of the Nations
How the five great nations of the world—Britain, Russia, United States, Germany and France—are fulfilling prophecy. Illustrated by a special series of maps. Price, 10 cents Testimonies on Sabbath-School Work
A compilation of the writings of MRS. E. G. WHITE on Sabbath-School Work. 128 pages. Cloth, 25 cents; limp leather, 35 cents Why Are You Not a Christian
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An intensely interesting description of the present relation of capital and labor from a prophetic standpoint. By GEO. W. RINE, B. L. 32 pages. Illustrated. $2.00 per 100 An Astronomer's View of Our Father's House
An account of an imaginary journey among the heavenly bodies. By a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society. 24 pages. Illustrated. $1.50 per 100 Pacific Press Publishing Co. OAKLAND, CAL. & 39 Bond Street, New York City
18 West Fifth Street, Kansas City, Missouri A paper set for the defense of liberty, both Christian and Constitutional, and opposed to everything tending toward a union of church and state, either in name or in fact. If you are not familiar with this subject you will be surprised, not only at what is proposed, but at what has been already done in the direction of nullifying the constitutional safeguards of liberty of conscience. Single copy of the paper: One year........................................ $1.00
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A vivid presentation of the pagan festivals, rites, and usages which the author finds in the Christian churches of to-day, together with two chapters on Freemasonry, which ought to be read by every Mason who professes to be a Christian. 187 pages, paper covers. Price 25 cents. Address House nearest to you. PACIFIC PRESS PUBLISHING CO.,
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In answer to an urgent demand we have gotten out an edition of “Desire of Ages” without illustrations, in small compass, on light paper, for the convenient use of those who want to carry a copy with them when traveling. There is also a class who do not feel that they can afford to pay $3.50 for the beautiful subscription edition. To all these this plain edition will appeal. It contains all the text of the subscription edition, including General and Scriptural Indexes and Appendix, but no illustrations except the frontispiece. THE TRADE EDITION is 5½x7½ inches in size, and contains 1042 pages. Full leather, round corners, 2.00 PACIFIC PRESS PUBLISHING CO.,
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The question of this is as to what is the proper relation of the Christian patriot to his government. The true principles are, of course, to be found in the Bible, but a new booklet has just been prepared by Alonzo T. Jones, entitled “Christian Patriotism,” that plainly and forcibly points out the right position for all to assume. It is a Biblical, original, and thoroughly common sense treatise on this important subject, and is of vital interest just now. Every SENTINEL reader should have a copy. Price in Paper Covers, 15 cents PACIFIC PRESS PUBLISHING CO., Oakland, Cal. 39 Bond St., New York City.
Kansas City, Mo. Continue reading: Force Hinders the Gospel