p. 16 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 21, No. 42. (10/24/1895)

News Columns Full of Interest This Week

By Editor

OUR news columns will be found to be of more than usual interest this week. These notes are written up from the most reliable sources at hand, and this requires no little sifting.

Offerings for Foreign Missions.

By Editor

Our brethren will remember that the fourth Sabbath in October is the one set apart for donations for the support of the International Tract Society, the pioneer in the regions beyond. We hope that it will be liberally remembered. “Freely ye have received, freely give.” Could we say more than has our Lord? and would anything we could say be worth as much? He has given us freely, even given himself, and by this he has made us debtors to those who know him not. Will we recognize the obligation?

An Unmeant Confession.

We take from the Examiner (Baptist) of October 10 the following three expressions: “Ought cities to make Sunday laws? A timely sermon by Rev. William R. Huntington, D.D., rector of Grace Episcopal Church, New York. ‘Remove not the ancient landmark which thy fathers have set.’ Prov. 22:28.” Saying nothing of the misapplication of the text, the three sentences above are a frank confession to paganism and Roman Catholicism. Sunday laws originated in paganism, and were continued and fostered by the Papacy. These are the ancient fathers, and Sunday the ancient landmark. Truly it looks bad in a Baptist paper. See Matt. 23:29-32.

Next Week: Symposium on the Second Coming

By Editor

Next Week.— Next week we give our second symposium. Its general subject will be the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, in its various phases. It will be a good number to use among those who do not know how precious a truth the coming of the Lord is. Its price will be for those who wish extra copies, at the rate of $1.00 per 100.

The Gospel of Force

The Gospel of Force.—It does not sound good to the Christian heart which has heard and yielded to the love of Christ through the Gospel of persuasion. It is not the Gospel of Christ, though it masquerades in his name. It is the gospel of apostasy, conscious that Christ and truth and eternity are not on its side; hence appeal to present seen forces on the field and to the principle, “Might makes right.” We see it in the clamor so widely in evidence that the nations of earth should interfere in the affairs of Russia to compel better treatment of Nihilists; in the affairs of France, to compel relinquishment of Madagascar; in the affairs of Turkey, to compel better treatment of Armenians; in the affairs of England, to compel better treatment of the Irish; in the affairs of Spain, to compel the recognition of Cuban independence, to compel toleration of missionaries in China. All these may be good in themselves, but it is a sad thing that the Christian churches should be preaching the gospel of force to accomplish what they think ought to be. The Nation, of New York, well says, in referring to an article in Harper’s by Captain Mahan, involving these very principles:—

“With so many signs of relaxed moral fiber about us, in public and in private life, it is no time to preach the gospel of force, even when the preacher is so attractive a man and writer as Captain Mahan.”

Even the great Independent catches the same fever and calls for a crusade. In its issue of October 10 it has two poems of the same import on the first page, the second of which we quote:—

“No tomb of death shall be our quest Wherein the Lord of life may rest.

“No empty sepulcher of stone Across the world makes bitter moan,

“But Christian hearts that break and bleed For our avenging pity plead.

“O brothers, for our brothers’ sake Let the crusading spirit wake!

“O Christian England, ’tis the Christ By Moslem hands is sacrificed!

“Away, away with hollow words, Now sheathe our speech, unsheathe our swords!

“God wills; the guns of Christendom Proclaim the tyrant’s doom has come!”

All this is not the Gospel of Christ nor of the Spirit. It is not Christianity which is demanding such things. It is not Christianity which is arming the nations, building battle ships, drilling the boys and girls of our Sunday schools, all in the name of the Prince of Peace. Grant, we believe, tersely said, “War is hell.” It is. It may compel, but it will never win the nations for Christ, nor usher in the millennium of peace. It is an indication of the spirit that is fast possessing the hearts of the people of the earth, because Christ, with his Gospel of self-denial, meekness, and love, is shut out.

Sunday Closing of Saloons.

The movement for the Sunday closing of saloons is not in the interests of true temperance; it is but a step toward the universal Sunday law. Ten years ago Seventh-day Adventists published this statement:—

“Combining the temperance reform with the Sunday movement, they represent themselves as laboring to promote the highest interests of society, and those who refuse to unite with them are denounced as the enemies of temperance and reform. But the fact that a movement to establish error is connected with a work which is in itself good, is not an argument in favor of the error. We may disguise poison by mingling it with wholesome food, but we do not thereby change its nature. On the contrary, it is rendered more dangerous, as it is more likely to be taken unawares.”—Great Controversy, vol. 4, p. 404.

Just now we have a verification of this work in this city. “The Council for the Suppression of the Saloons” (on Sunday) has been assiduously laboring to obtain a Sunday-closing law in Oakland. Friends of religious liberty, while distinctly and emphatically disavowing all connection or sympathy with the saloons, have protested against the Sunday movement as inimical to religious liberty, and a first step to a union of church and state in California. For this cause one “reform” paper has been pleased to do just what is said will be done in the quotations above, and has rung the changes on “Adventists, thugs, and saloonists” in harmony with its own soul’s music. It is stated over and over again that the Sunday closing is a temperance movement, and some of our friends who do not believe in Sunday laws have thought that those opposing it were doing wrong or were compromising themselves in manfully protesting against the deceptive scheme. That those who have opposed this movement in Oakland on the ground that it is in the interests of religious legislation, of a full-fledged Sunday law, with all that means, are justified, take the following testimony from some of the men behind the Sunday-closing effort. Says the California State Sabbath Association at its meeting held in San Francisco, May 27, 1895:—

“The object of this association shall be . . . to promote religious influence by STATE LEGISLATION and by COUNTY AND MUNICIPAL ORDINANCES; to prevent ALL OPEN ACTS OF SABBATH [Sunday] DESECRATION; and to SECURE BY LAW THE OBSERVANCE OF THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK AS A DAY OF REST.”—Constitution.

“That among THE FIRST THINGS for which this association will labor will be the CLOSING OF ALL SALOONS ON THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH.”—Resolution unanimously passed.

In the report of a ministers’ meeting held in San Francisco October 7, printed in the Chronicle of the next day, Rev. N. R. Johnson, president of the State Sabbath Association, is declared to have said that “the closing of the saloons on Sunday would be a step toward bringing about the desired end,”—a state Sunday law. The “American Sabbath Union,” upon the ruins of which this present association was built, claims the credit of every Sunday-closing ordinance in the state, all of which were but steps to a full-fledged Sunday law.

So much for this movement. After that?—Well, read the history going before in the course of Rome from A.D. 321 and onward. Sunday laws are union of church and state, and union of church and state means ruin to both. Therefore we protest.

Rights of the People: Revised Civil Government Pamphlet

“Rights of the People.”—This pamphlet, of four hundred pages, elsewhere advertised, is an up-to-date revision of “Civil Government and Religion.” It is a valuable work, and one that ought to be read by every lover of liberty. It gives the present state of religious and civil liberty in America. Where does the government now stand? Where do professed churches now stand? The time to learn this is now. Our sabbath schools should have this book in connection with the lessons for the present quarter, on “Religious Liberty.” The book will help materially and greatly. It is only 40 cents, but it contains matter that can not thus be valued. See advertisement for directions.