Earlier text: Sin’s Pay-DaySACRIFICED ON THE ALTAR OF LIBERTY
By Editor
The Great Commission above Every Human Law — Men Have Not the Right to Stand between Our Faith and God — The State Should Deal with Crime, but Not with Faith
LAST week Mr. Porter gave some of the illustrious examples in the old dispensation, of those who had done brave deeds in upholding the cause of soul liberty. This article, though independent of the one of last week, is supplemental to it, and shows the high, strong ground on which Christianity stands in respect to the rights of individual independence in matters of worship. THERE never lived a purer, truer citizen of earth than Jesus Christ. Yet the fawning Pilate, a presiding judge of the great Roman state, in the trial of Christ, while protesting the innocence of the accused, signed His death-warrant, to please despotic priests and tyrannical Pharisees. This noble Man of Calvary, with full knowledge of all the hypocrisy of creed-bound priests, who were His persecutors, and the parody on justice He had met before this earthly judgment-bar, still prayed, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." O, the pity that such a citizen must be sacrificed for the sake of a creed! Creed-bound zealots and unfaithful judge must some day answer at God's judgment-bar for such crimes against individual rights. Wherever the cross of Christ is reared, it forever advocates religious freedom. In the words of Lowell: "Slavery, the earth-born Cyclops, fellest of the giant brood,
Sons of brutish Force and Darkness, who have drenched the earth with blood,
Famished in his self-made desert, blinded by our purer day,
Gropes in yet unblasted regions for his miserable prey,
Shall we guide his gory fingers where our helpless children play?
"Then to side with Truth is noble when we share her wretched crust,
Ere her cause bring fame and profit, and 'tis prosperous to be just.
Then it is the brave man chooses, while the coward stands aside,
Doubting in his abject spirit, till his Lord is crucified,
And the multitude make virtue of the faith they had denied.
"By the light of burning heretics, Christ's bleeding feet I track,
Toiling up new Calvaries ever with the cross that turns not back;
And those mounts of anguish number how each generation learned
One new word of that grand creed which in prophet-hearts hath burned
Since the first man stood God-conquered with his face to heaven upturned.
"For Humanity sweeps onward. Where to-day the martyr stands,
On the morrow crouches Judas with the silver in his hands.
Far in front the cross stands ready and the crackling fagots burn,
While the hooting mob of yesterday in silent awe return
To glean up the scattered ashes into History's golden urn." Christ's disciples were imprisoned, scourged, and maltreated by the state, because of the difference between their religious belief and that of the majority. Angels were sent to open prison doors and send those disciples forth with the gospel according to the314great commission, to every nation and every people. This commission is authoritative. It is from the King of kings and Lord of lords. By this commission the gospel has the right of way in every nation. The teacher of the gospel is authorized to teach in every nation "all things whatsoever I have commanded you." No state or nation can, therefore, rightly legislate upon any religious question. Christ, not the state, is the power of the gospel. WHY PROHIBIT MURDER AND THEFT ON SUNDAY ONLY?
The effort to suppress Sunday opening of bars and Sunday recreation is but a weak subterfuge, under cover of which Sunday may be made a day of enforced religious worship. If the business of the public house is a criminal business on Sunday, it is equally so on Monday or any other day of the week. If playing ball, attending races or theaters, or performing common labor, is criminal, it is equally so on all seven days in the week. Who would argue that theft, rape, murder, or any other crime, should be prohibited by law on Sunday only? If laws are to be enacted against such crimes, those crimes should be prohibited seven days in the week, and not merely on Sunday. The day upon which the act is committed does not affect the nature of the act. Legislation that tends toward changing the character of actions according to the day on which they are performed, is the result of religious preference for that day. CHRISTIANITY ASSERTS SOUL LIBERTY
When the Master declared, "God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth," He raised Christianity to a position far above all earthly rule, and asserted its claim to soul liberty. It was this view of soul liberty that led the great Baptist, Roger Williams, to endure banishment from England, banishment from Salem, and banishment from Sekonk. His unqualified position was that soul liberty is man's inherent right. Others sought toleration. He demanded that all men should be left free to enjoy equally their God-given rights. BOTH CATHOLICS AND PROTESTANTS AS PERSECUTORS
England, whose religion was by force Catholic under the reign of Queen Mary, was by force Protestant under Elizabeth. This exposed first Protestants and then Catholics to severe persecution, according to the religious prejudices of the reigning sovereign. Wearied with this condition of things in Europe, and seeing no hope of reformation at hand, Roger Williams fled to the New World. Here he found Massachusetts Bay Colony, controlled by a great desire to establish an orthodox state—"a state where the same theology should be preached in all the pulpits and believed at all the firesides, and where, generation after generation, her citizens could become religious and virtuous according to state law." The people seemed to be blind to the fact that the same legislative power that could establish Christianity, could as easily change its mind and establish infidelity. The French Revolution is a clear demonstration of this fact. To claim that it is right to establish the orthodox faith by law, is to sanction the establishment of infidelity, and the enthronement of the goddess of reason in France. NOT TO BE CHEAPENED BY HUMAN LAW
The Author of Christianity will never enforce His teachings by civil enactments, and He demands that all people be left free to believe or disbelieve His gospel, with no state interference. The final Judgment will decide each man's destiny according to his acceptance or rejection of the gospel of Christ. It is a question of eternal damnation, and Christ demands that it be not cheapened by making it a question of human legislation. "And if any man hear My words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. He that rejecteth Me, and receiveth not My words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day." John 12:47, 48. JUDGED BY MOTIVES OBTAINABLE ONLY BY ANGEL SECRETARIES
God is judge in the realm of religion, man in things civil. God alone punishes subjects of His moral government for transgression. He deals with sin, first by seeking to remove it by atonement and by inflicting penalties upon the finally impenitent only. Hence as Christ says, such judgment is impossible until the final Judgment-day. It must be based upon perfect records of moral conduct, including motives which are obtainable only of angel secretaries before the throne of God. Rev. 20:11, 12. For this reason Paul says, "Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come." 1 Cor. 4:5. The state deals with crime and incivility. In that realm it has freedom of judgment. Crime has to do alone with man's relation to his fellow men. The state has no right, therefore, to legislate upon the relations of man with God. The first four precepts of the divine law deal with that relation only. It is a purely religious realm. In it the state has no legitimate field of legislation. The last six precepts pertain to man's moral relations to his neighbor. As such the secret thoughts are involved. Matt. 5:21-28; Ex. 20:17. The state can not, therefore, deal with transgression of the last six precepts of the moral law. They relate to sin. The Inquisition of the Middle Ages is an example of an attempt to do so. MAY DEAL WITH CRIME AND INCIVILITY
The state may justly enact laws dealing with crime and incivility only. It has no more right to compel Buddhists in Christian lands to adopt the Christian forms of religion than Buddhists have in heathen lands to compel Christians to adopt the forms of Buddhism. The divine Lawgiver laid down the only infallible rule to safeguard the individual rights of Christian, Jew, infidel, and Confucianist alike, in the memorable statement, universally known as the "Golden Rule," of man's proper relation to his fellow men: "Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets." Matt. 7:12. R. C. P. A WORD TO OUR READERS
By Editor
We send no papers from this office to individuals without pay in advance. When persons receive copies without ordering them, they are sent by other parties, and we can give no information in regard to them. Persons thus receiving copies of the SIGNS are not indebted to the office, and will not be called upon to pay for them. Please read the papers you may receive, and hand them to your friends to read. The SIGNS wrapper bears date of last issue due on your subscription. Unless renewed in advance, paper stops with expiration date. If herewith is an order-blank, you will know you have overlooked sending renewal. You will not wish to miss a single issue. Back numbers often can not be furnished. Our authority for the doctrines we teach is the Bible. Quotations are usually from the King James Version or the American Standard Revised. MOVING PICTURE SHOWS
By G. B. T.
What They Are Doing to the Youth
The evil and degenerating tendency of the moving picture show is occasioning alarm to thoughtful minds everywhere. The scenes of vice and crime are daily pictured before the minds of tens of thousands of both old and young. A Mrs. Barclay Hazard, head of the New York branch of the National Florence Crittenden Mission for unfortunate women, writing in the Outlook, says: "Let us take, for example, the analogous case of films showing hold-ups, railway wrecks, cowboy fights, etc., the heroes of which are occasionally led even to the electric chair. But their final destination does not in the smallest degree discourage their would-be imitators among the boys of the community. Hardly a week passes that some enterprising boys are not arrested as runaways, having started out to capture and annihilate the wild Indians with the somewhat inadequate equipment of two dollars and forty cents and a rusty revolver. Did their activities end there, the amusing interest might be the one most obvious; but these same children have been known to tie younger and weaker comrades to the stake and light bonfires, which have so injured the victims that several deaths are the record of this species of entertainment."315 "Now, these boys are not necessarily either foolish and simple, as shown by the rusty revolver; nor are they inherently bloodthirsty and wicked, as might be indicated by the fire and stake. They are simply normal adventurous boys on whose minds the films made no impression except such as they chose to have made upon them. The human mind, even at a very early period of life, is intensely selective. There is much psychology in the Bible text, 'What went ye forth to see?' For what we go forth to see is what we do see; and what impression we take from pictures, from plays, from books, and even from music, is the impression that we choose to take." The seeds of crime, vice, human depravity, and various phases of the social evil are thus sown in the minds of the young, the harvest of which, when brought to full fruition, will tend to ruin many souls. And this is only one of the numberless means by which evil is sown, the harvest of which will stagger the world. SUPPRESSION OF VICIOUS LITERATURE
By G. B. T.
THE art of printing has been the means of placing the word of God in the hands of the people, and also placing the best and purest literature within the reach of all. The forces of evil, however, have not been slow to recognize its value, and to use this great invention to debauch and ruin the race. Speaking of the work of Anthony Comstock, who has for "upwards of forty years, now, been carrying on his crusade as secretary of the Society for the Suppression of Vice, and as post-office inspector invested with the specific power of preventing the use of the mails for circulating obscenity," Charles Gallaudet Trumbull sums up his work as follows: "Since he commenced, he has destroyed something over fifty tons of vile books; 28,425 pounds of stereotype plates for printing such books; 3,984,063 obscene pictures; 16,900 negatives for printing such pictures; 3,646 persons have been arrested, and of these, 2,682 have been convicted or pleaded guilty, and 2,180 have been sentenced. If the matters which have been seized were to be transported, this would require sixteen freight-cars, fifteen loaded with ten tons each, and the other nearly full. If the persons arrested were to be transported, sixty-one passenger coaches would be needed, each with a seating capacity of sixty persons, sixty cars filled, and the other nearly full." Not a tithe, perhaps, of the evil literature that has been published has been destroyed. This does not take into account, either, the tons of trashy and suggestive literature that is circulated everywhere, and which can not be suppressed. G. B. T. PUNCTUALITY is the road to both human and heavenly friendships. To meet a person who is always punctual, the feeling at once obtains that he is to be trusted. It was this estimate of men that caused General Washington once to chide a dilatory secretary. The aid was ten or more minutes late at his desk one morning, when Washington said, "You have kept me waiting on your slow movement this morning." The excuse offered by the secretary was that his watch had gone wrong during the night. "Well, then," said the general, "one of two things becomes certain,—either you must get another watch, or I must get another secretary." It is worth while for every one to acquire promptness as an important part of his business capital, lest he fail to meet the demands of life. But a failure in temporalities from lax habits, leads to failure in spiritual life; for just as surely as the shadow is the image of its product element, so civil and business manners are a true indicator of spiritual attainments. One fails entirely to be a friend of God, who is remiss in walking according to heavenly requirements.
J. O. C. A MOVEMENT in favor of Good Friday in one of our leading Western cities is very suggestive. Cards were printed and quite generally circulated which stated that "you are hereby requested not to shop or attend places of amusement between the hours of twelve and three P. M., Good Friday, April 10. Compliance with this request will be in harmony with the general Christian sentiment of our city." (Signed) "Observers of Good Friday Committee." The daily papers of that city informed us that the "movement begun by the Catholic laity finds favor with leaders of all denominations," and that the "hours of agony were to be celebrated." Things of this character are significant in that they are straws which show the way the wind is blowing. Protestantism as it was brought forth in the sixteenth century is something that is very distinct and opposite to Catholicism. Protestantism stands for the open Bible in the hands of each individual, and the individual is to be guided in his religious convictions by that Word and the influence of the divine Spirit acting upon his heart. There are some people who think that occurrences like the one mentioned in the foregoing are indications of the "liberal spirit" which has taken possession of us in this time of twentieth century intelligence. But our Catholic friends are right in saying that Protestantism as such is weakening and coming over to them. The papacy is not the thing that is changing; and when weakening Protestantism, through the Federal Council of Churches, finally joins with the papacy, we shall see another ecclesiastical despotism established. The prophecy concerning modern ecclesiastical power is that "he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed." Rev. 13: 12. Students have been agreed for centuries that the "beast" of the foregoing prophecy refers to the papal ecclesiastical despotism. By reading and studying the thirteenth and fourteenth chapters of Revelation, we see that this despotism is to be established again just before the second coming of Christ. The last gospel message that ever goes to the world is a warning against the worship of this beast and of his image, who are seeking to enforce their religious decree. The nineteenth chapter of Revelation shows that both the "beast" and his "image" are living and active at the end of time, and go to their doom together. Do not flout these things as visionary, but watch the trend of current events, and study them in connection with the prophetic Word. History is about to repeat itself in the establishing again of ecclesiasticism in all the world. THE admonition of inspiration is, "Be ye . . . imitators of God, as beloved children." Eph. 5: 1. To imitate God — who could object to it? To do precisely as God does — what more could be asked? What a splendid destiny it is, and what a life it means! It was exactly this thought God intended in giving the Sabbath. It is one phase of imitating God that none of us can afford to refrain from. What says the commandment? — It admonishes us to remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, to work six days and observe the seventh day. It tells us why we should do this, — that God worked six days, and rested upon the seventh, and then gave us a week in which we could imitate Him throughout mortal time, working the six days in which He worked, resting upon the seventh day upon which God rested. To take another day, would not be to imitate God, because it would place us at variance with Him. To imitate God, we must do exactly as He did, — work on the working-days, on which He worked; rest upon the seventh day, upon which He rested. And we will do this if we love the Lord well enough; for Jesus says, "If ye love Me, keep My commandments." Our text admonishes us to imitate God, as dear children. In other words, God is our Father, and we are to obey Him. We are to be loving children, children who know that God loves them, children who know that they love God, and know it because of their willingness to do what He says. And right here is the test. It is useless to talk of loving God when we do not the things that He says. Jesus, on one occasion, tells us that we call Him Master and Lord, and that we say well, for so He is, and that if we call Him Lord and Master, we should do as He has given us example. If we love Him, we keep His commandments, even though to do it puts us at variance with the world. And keeping the fourth commandment just as God gave it is one means of doing this very thing. Let us thank Him for anything that will cause us to imitate Him and cease imitating the world. In the record of Paul's discourse at Antioch in Pisidia, we find the statement made that "they that dwell at Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they knew Him not, nor yet the voices of the prophets which are read every Sabbath day, they have fulfilled them in condemning Him." Acts 13:27. The people of Paul's day who fulfilled that prophecy by crucifying Christ were apparently devout and earnest, but their prejudices and selfish interests kept them from seeing the real truth of the Bible that the Master was seeking to impress. MEN prize citizenship in great and prosperous and liberty-loving nations. The true patriot is always proud of his nationality. Our reading this week brings before us a citizenship that is far superior to anything that earth has to offer. It tells us that we "are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner-stone." Eph. 2: 19, 20. Wonderful fellowship! How great it is to become citizens of the great universe of God! How tireless should be our efforts to discover these great statements of truth in God's word, and to feed upon them day by day and week by week! SCHEDULE FOR THE WEEK ENDING MAY 30, 1914
Read one chapter in Deuteronomy each week-day and two on the Sabbath. Read one psalm each day. Read one chapter in Galatians or Ephesians each week-day and two on the Sabbath.