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The American Sentinel

Vol. 7, No. 36

September 15, 1892

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Articles
42
Pages
8
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In this edition

  1. IN the Gospel of St. Matthew it is related, that, as Christ sat upon the Mount of Olives, his disciples came privately to him and asked what would be the signs of his second coming, and of the end of the world. When he had given them the evidences of its near approach, and assured them that the day and hour was known, and would be known, to none, not even the angels, only the Father alone,—then he counseled them to be always in readiness for that great event, and spoke to them in beautiful parables, closing his discourse with a terse description of the final examination of the righteous and the unrighteous. He said to them, that, when he should come again in all his glory with the holy angels about him, all nations would be gathered before him, and he should divide the righteous from the unrighteous, and set the one on his right hand and the other on his left. The righteous he would call “blessed of my Father,” and say to them that they should come to their inheritance,—to the kingdom that had been prepared for them since before the foundations of the world were laid. But the unrighteous he would call, “cursed,” and order them from him into the fire prepared for the devil and his angels. To the one,—the second death; to the other,—life eternal! With a directness to be understood by the simplest, he gave his reasons for making this distinction.2 paragraphs
  2. THE invitation has gone out; the multitudes have come from Europe, the East, the far East. They continue to come. Are they still welcome? If they are not still welcome, why is it that they are not? The Chinese exclusion act, and the extraordinary precautions of the Government for its enforcement, prove conclusively to the Oriental that he is no longer welcome.3 paragraphs
  3. To those to whom he gave the heritage of eternal life, he said that it was theirs because they had given him food when hungry, water to drink when athirst; had clothed him when naked and cold; visited him when sick and in prison; and, when a stranger they had received him gladly. But as for the others, when he had been hungry, they had not fed him; when he had thirsted, they had not given him drink; they had not clothed him when cold and naked; when he was in prison and sick they had not visited and comforted him; when he came a stranger among them, they had shut the door upon him.W. H. M.6 paragraphs
  4. It has always been the boast of the American citizen that this was the land of the free, and a refuge for the oppressed of all nations. The persecuted and downtrodden of the world have been encouraged to seek a haven here. The United States has made itself the apostle to the whole earth of equality before the law to all men. The people of the world have heard. They believed.1 paragraphs
  5. THE gospel of unalienable rights found many believers. The doctrine that the true purpose of government is to secure these rights to men found numerous upholders. The idea that it was from the consent of the governed that governments derived their just powers was like a vision of Paradise regained. It is not to be wondered at, that increasing millions sought to realize for themselves the blessings of this later Eden in the New World.1 paragraphs
  6. For a hundred years the United States preached these principles, and, in the cases of the immigrants who grasped the outstretched hand of brotherhood extended to them, it practiced the principles which it preached. Colonial ecclesiasticism was but a memory. Neither tolerance nor intolerance ruled, but equity and equality were the watchwords of the State. All were welcome, and equally welcome. The invitation was without reserve to all,—Come! They heard, they answered, they came.2 paragraphs
  7. THE conversion of the Nation to Christianity was accomplished through a decree of the Supreme Court. The decision, in which the Nation made its public profession of religion, also acknowledged the binding force and propriety of an alien labor law of which the purpose was to discriminate against foreign workingmen, and in favor of resident laborers. But the plea was made, that, because this was a Christian Nation, it must necessarily be contrary to its policy to exclude Christian ministerial or missionary laborers. In the very profession itself of our national religion there is found this serious anomaly. It has heretofore been the policy of this country, humane, generous, just, to discriminate against none, but gladly share with all the blessings of a free Government, and the wider opportunities for the pursuit of happiness which this country has afforded. If the religious professions, which this country has made, have been made in perfect candor and good faith, why is there this incongruity?2 paragraphs
  8. Are Sunday Laws a Civil Necessity.7 paragraphs
  9. THE PEOPLE WILL TAKE REST.14 paragraphs
  10. Some Scraps of New England History.[^1]14 paragraphs
  11. CIVIL LAW NOT NECESSARY.C. P. B.5 paragraphs
  12. The Gospel; What It Is, and Its Work As Opposed to the Mystery of Iniquity.[^1]17 paragraphs
  13. The Sabbath a Memorial.5 paragraphs
  14. Ought it to Close on Sunday?D. T. Jones24 paragraphs
  15. The American Political System.Ira D. Blanchard12 paragraphs
  16. The purposes to which Sunday laws may be, and are, put, is well shown in this item from Our Country, published at Boston:—5 paragraphs
  17. Sunday Funerals.J. L. Cupit10 paragraphs
  18. NATIONAL RELIGIOUS LIBERTY ASSOCIATION.1 paragraphs
  19. Three boys have been arrested in Pittsburg for putting up a tent and selling refreshments on Sunday. They are to be prosecuted to the “full extent of the law.”1 paragraphs
  20. The Pearl of Days reports that the American Sabbath Union has printed and sent out one hundred thousand copies of Elliott F. Shepard’s “Brief” in favor of keeping the World’s Fair closed on Sunday, which was presented at the hearings before the Congressional Committees on the World’s Fair last April.1 paragraphs
  21. The Northern Christian Advocate says that in New Orleans the Sunday law is violated, but that “The American Confederation of Labor has entered into an alliance with the Sunday Rest League to secure its enforcement, and it is believed that the opposition must give way.”2 paragraphs
  22. The Philadelphia Record has this editorial on the subject of Congress and the Sunday closing of the World's Fair:—2 paragraphs
  23. It seems that in North Carolina indulgence in gymnastic exercises is a desecration of Sunday. The pugilist James Corbett, while on his way through North Carolina to fight with John L. Sullivan at New Orleans, was so forgetful of the religious duty of complete Sunday rest required by the municipal regulations of the town of Charlotte, N. C., as to take, while stopping off there on Sunday, some modification of his customary daily physical exercise.2 paragraphs
  24. COMMISSIONER DOUGLASS, of Washington, D. C., received recently an application from a retail grocer requesting permission to keep his store open on Sundays, as his stock was perishable, and to close his store on that day would cause him great loss.3 paragraphs
  25. The Pittsburg preachers and their “Law and Order” detectives continue to make life uncomfortable for the people of Pittsburg on Sunday. The Pittsburg Dispatch notes the following incident:—4 paragraphs
  26. The Pearl of Days is not satisfied with the multiplicity of organizations now existing for the furtherance of enforced Sunday observance, but advocates the establishing of still another. It says:—.3 paragraphs
  27. “And, in the third, the supreme courts of this country have always held from the first that when the first settlers from the mother country came to America they brought the ‘common law’ with them as a vital part of their birthright of principles of government and social order. It will not be disputed that the Decalogue is a prominent plank in the Christian platform. I have often thought that an indictment might be framed under this idea.2 paragraphs
  28. SACRED CHRONOLOGY.Sylvester Bliss9 paragraphs
  29. SMITH'S9 paragraphs
  30. JUST ISSUED!F. E. Belden14 paragraphs
  31. HEALTH FOODS.19 paragraphs
  32. The Cottage Pulpit, of Nashville, Tenn., publishes this outspoken expression of noble and worthy feeling in reference to the fines and imprisonment suffered by Christian citizens of Tennessee under the State Sunday laws:—2 paragraphs
  33. This account of an interview between a Presbyterian clergyman of Stillwater, Minn., and Archbishop Ireland on the public school question is from the New York Herald:—9 paragraphs
  34. BUT why should observers of the seventh day, or of any day other than Sunday be permitted to work on Sunday only provided they disturb no one any more than observers of Sunday should be permitted to work on Saturday only provided they disturb no one? Why should any more protection be thrown around the Sunday keeper than around the man who keeps another day? And if in order for one to rest all must rest at the same time, and if it is right and just to require the seventh day observer to rest on Sunday so that he shall not disturb the Sunday keeper, why should not the Sunday keeper be required to rest on Saturday so that he shall not disturb those who observe the seventh day?1 paragraphs
  35. Two centuries ago the law of Plymouth Colony, Massachusetts, required all parents to have their children baptized. There was certainly in itself no moral wrong in putting a few drops of water on the head of an infant; and it could do the child no harm. But the Baptists refused obedience to the law because they could not conscientiously do that which the law required. They did not so understand baptism, and in their view to sprinkle infants and call it baptism, or to do it as a religious ceremony, or to acknowledge faith in it by doing it, when they had no such faith, would have been wicked. They therefore suffered fines, imprisonment, banishment, and even death rather than yield their consciences into the keeping of the State. And who will say that they did not do right? Who does not honor them for their fidelity to principle, and to God? Not one; all honor those faithful men as champions of soul-liberty. Yet, according to judicial decisions even the seemingly ample guarantee of liberty of conscience in the Constitution of Tennessee does not leave the dissenter from the prevailing religion free to disregard laws made in aid of the religion of other sects. And so in that State, as in some other States, the observers of the seventh day, though permitted to observe that day, are required to keep Sunday also, an institution which they look upon just as the Baptists did upon infant baptism. How much then is Tennessee in advance of Massachusetts two centuries ago?1 paragraphs
  36. THE Youth's Companion thinks in order to keep the school out of politics, “the only possible rule is to make the school a place of instruction in the funda-mentals of knowledge, in morality, and in religion so far as all are agreed. Schools so constituted and no others, should be supported by the public taxes.”2 paragraphs
  37. THE revivalist Mills recently visited San Francisco, and drew such crowds that no hall or other public building in the city could accommodate them. The Examiner of that city, in its issue of August 20, said:—3 paragraphs
  38. An Issue of Special Value.Editor4 paragraphs
  39. Papers Wanted.2 paragraphs
  40. MANY regard liberty of conscience as one thing and liberty to practice according to the dictates of conscience as quite another thing. But there is and can be no liberty of conscience without liberty of action. The Constitutions of most of the States of the Union contain some guarantee of liberty of conscience. The Constitution of Tennessee, for instance, provides “that no human authority can, in any case whatever, control or interfere with the rights of conscience.” This would seem to be ample provision, and yet the courts of Tennessee have so far ignored it as to practically nullify it by making it guarantee only the right to believe and practice the tenets of one’s sect, without the right to disregard laws made in aid of other sects. But this is a vital point; the conscientious Christian can not practice that which he does not believe.1 paragraphs
  41. But those who keep the seventh day ask no laws requiring others to keep it also. They are not disturbed because others are at work while they are resting. They simply ask to be let alone in the enjoyment of their natural right to work when they please and to rest when they feel tired or when their sense of duty to God moves them to rest. They ask no special legislation in their behalf, and they insist that there should be none in the interests of other religionists.1 paragraphs
  42. INSTEAD of entering a vigorous and manly protest against the persecution of Seventh-day Adventists, a Baptist paper in this city, enters upon a labored defense of Sunday laws, and incidentally remarks:—3 paragraphs