The American Sentinel, Vol. 7, No. 48
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HERE, then, are these churches professing378to be the churches of Christ, yet having gone away from him, their rightful Lord, and joined themselves to another; professing to minister the power of God, yet depending upon the power of man; professing to minister the gospel of Christ, they actually minister the laws of men; professing to persuade men with the message of justification by faith in Christ, they actually compel men by the condemnation of the law of men; professing to lead in the way of righteousness, uprightness and sincerity, they actually lead in the way of unrighteousness, corruption, and deceit; professing themselves to be models of Protestantism, they have actually joined hands with Romanism and follow her customs and require all to receive the sign of her authority; professing to be the example in all things good, they actually set the example in the chief things that are bad. BRIBERY is already become so common as easily to frustrate the will of the people: what, then, when these churches take the lead “bribing with a monopoly of worldly honors and emoluments,” all whom they can seduce to compliance with their arbitrary will, regardless of the will of the people whether expressed in the supreme law or in the direct voice of the people? What can be the effect of this upon the State, other than to increase in untold ratio the already too general corruption? THE churches profess that the course which they have taken is essential to the preservation of the State, and in this the salvation of the Nation. What effect, then, can such a course have, and only have? We have before shown how that it was to help her bear an overweight of worldliness and worldly influences; that she grasped the arm of the State and formed this illicit connection with worldly power. We there pointed out the utter incongruity of seeking deliverance from an evil, by a positive alliance with the chiefest source of that evil; and how the only effect this could have upon the churches would be infinitely to increase the burden which they already found themselves unable to bear alone. How can that save the Nation? By the enactment of wholesome laws, the people have been doing their best to protect themselves from the rule of the tyrannical spirit of the boycott. But how can the people protect themselves from this despotism, when the churches control the law-making power for the general community, and make the boycott in all business relations their chosen means by which to force submission to their will in the local community? What, then, can be the effect of this, other than to so cultivate the spirit of spying and treachery as to destroy mutual confidence and individual integrity; set every man's hand against his neighbor; and fill the land with deceit and violence? LAWLESSNESS is already so prevalent as almost to threaten the existence of a republican form of government: what, then, when the professed churches of Christ at one leap land themselves in the lead in this, by disregarding the supreme law, overriding the Constitution, and taking the governmental authority out of the hands of the people and into their own lawless hands? In this they have accomplished their long-announced “object” “to change that feature of our fundamental law” which declares that “governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed.” But how can this preserve the State? How can this save the Nation? What effect indeed can it possibly have other than to produce here that condition of lawlessness and confusion, yet of ecclesiastical despotism, that is always created by attempts of the Church to rule? BOTH society and the State are already cursed with the unsatiable demand for office, or position of trust, in return for political service rendered: what, then, when the professed churches of Christ make this the very chosen channel through which they would make successful their aims upon the State? What effect, then, can this have upon society and the State, other than to increase this curse even to ruinous depths? THE Church of Christ is the divinely-appointed agency to persuade men to send up their petitions to the Lord for help, and for deliverance from every burden and from every evil: what, then, when the professed churches of Christ themselves send up their petitions to men, even though the men be congressmen, and though the petitions be backed up with threats? How can that save the Nation? THE Church of Christ is the divinely-appointed agency to “persuade men” to join themselves to the Lord: what, then, when these professed churches of Christ threaten congressmen in order that they themselves may succeed in joining themselves to the Government? How can that preserve the State or save the Nation? THE Church of Christ is the divinely-appointed means through which God would call the nations to seek the Lord that they might find him and be delivered from this present evil world: what, then, when these professed churches of Christ themselves seek to the power of this present evil world, join themselves to it, and put their dependence upon it? How can that save the Nation? THAT the “evangelical” churches of the United States have taken possession of the governmental authority of the United States, is plain to every one who will candidly consider the subject. That they purpose to keep this power and use it, they have plainly and repeatedly declared. WE are inquiring what effect this course will have upon the churches, and through them upon the State? So far, we have found that the effect upon the churches has been, stating it briefly, to commit them to open apostasy from the Lord and from his gospel; to make them the chiefest law-breakers in the Nation, even the destroyers of government itself; and to form them into the grandest system of bribery that this Nation ever saw—bribery in politics, bribery in business, and bribery in amusements. And all this, that they may be confirmed in their effort to make void the law of the Most High. THE pagan superstitions, the pagan delusions, and the pagan vices, which had been brought into the Church by the apostasy, and clothed with a form of godliness, had wrought such corruption that the society of which it was a part could no longer exist. From it no more good could possibly come, and it must be swept away. “The uncontrollable progress of avarice, prodigality, voluptuousness, theater-going, intemperance, lewdness; in short, of all the heathen vices, which Christianity had come to eradicate, still carried the Roman Empire and people with rapid strides toward dissolution, and gave it at last into the hands of the rude, but simple and morally vigorous, barbarians.” “Nothing but the divine judgment of destruction upon this nominally Christian, but essentially heathen, world, could open the way for the moral regeneration of society. There must be new, fresh nations, if the Christian civilization, prepared in the old Roman Empire, was to take firm root and bear ripe fruit.”—Schaff. And onward those barbarians came, swiftly and in multitudes. For a hundred years the dark cloud had been hanging threateningly over the borders of the empire, encroaching slightly upon the west and breaking occasionally upon the east. But at the close of the fourth century the tempest burst in all its fury, and the flood was flowing ruinously. And finally, in 476, when Odoacer, king of the Heruli, became king of Italy, the last vestige of the Western Empire of Rome was gone, and was divided among the ten nations of barbarians of the North. Wherever these savages went, they carried fire and slaughter, and whenever they departed, they left desolation and ruin in their track, and carried away multitudes of captives. Thus was the proud empire of Western Rome swept from the earth; and that which Constantine and his ecclesiastical flatterers had promised one another should be the everlasting salvation of the State, proved its speedy and everlasting ruin. SUCH being the final result to the churches, of this course of evil in which they have even now gone so far; and the churches being one with the State in this course; it is inevitable that the ruin of the churches will be the ruin also of the State. Therefore it is as plain as A B C that this course upon which these churches have entered means the destruction of the State and the ruin of the Nation. What they in their apostasy and bad ambition promise shall save the Nation only proves its speedy and awful ruin. This is certain. In that case the Lord made the savage nations of the North the instruments of his judgment in sweeping away the mass of corruption which the union of Church and State had built up there. But in this case where can any such instruments be found? There are none. Civilization has encompassed the earth. Not only that, but in this case “all nations” are involved in the corruption. Where then shall the Lord find a people to execute his judgment and sweep away this mass of corruption? For the reasons given they can not be found upon the earth. A people is found, however, and here is the Lord’s description of them: Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand; a day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations. A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness: yea, and nothing shall escape them. The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run. Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble; as a strong people in battle array. Before their face the people shall be much pained: all faces shall gather blackness. They shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall like men of war; and they shall march every one on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks: neither shall one thrust another; they shall walk every one in his path: and when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded. They shall run to and fro in the city; they shall run upon the wall, they shall climb up upon the houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief. The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining: and the Lord shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executeth his word: for the day of the Lord is great and very terrible; and who can abide it? Joel 2:1-11. And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called the Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations; and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS. Rev. 19:11-16. “And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” Matt. 24:31. “And I saw as it were a sea of glass, mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God. And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvelous are thy works Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways thou king of saints.” Rev. 15:2, 3. “Come out of her my people,” and prepare to meet your Lord. A. T. J. Nor only is this evident from what has already been said, but this same thing has been worked out once in history, for the instruction of all people and nations, showing clearly enough just what the result must be. In the original apostasy, the Church succeeded in joining herself to the State, promising like this to save the State. The means then employed by Constantine and the bishops, in establishing the “Christian” religion and making that a “Christian State” were the same as now employed here, and were such as to win only hypocrites. This was bad enough in itself, yet the hypocrisy was voluntary; but when through the agency of the Sunday laws the Church then, as now, secured control of the civil power to compel all who were not church-members to act as though they were, hypocrisy was made compulsory; and everybody who was not voluntarily a church-member and a hypocrite, was compelled either to be a hypocrite, anyhow, or a rebel. And as in addition to this, all were required to change or revise their faith according as the majority in the councils changed and decreed; all moral and spiritual integrity was destroyed. Hypocrisy became a habit; dissimulation and fraud became a necessity of life; and the very moral fiber of men and society was vitiated. At the same time there is “heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven and God hath remembered her iniquities.” Rev. 18: 4, 5. Thank the Lord, there are yet some of the people of God in these churches. There are yet some Christians there. But they can not remain there much longer without becoming partakers of her sins. They can not stay there much longer and remain Christians. They can not stay there much longer without receiving of her plagues, and of the judgments of God upon her iniquities. Her judgment cometh and hasteth greatly. “Strong is the Lord God that judgeth her.” And it is written: “A mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down and shall be found no more at all.” Rev. 18: 8, 10, 21. THERE is but one thing more that they can possibly do in this direction, and even this they will do, that is, enter into alliance with Satanic power itself, by joining hands with Spiritualism. This they will do as certainly as they have done that which they have done. Then will be completely fulfilled the prophecy which now is but partly fulfilled—Rev. 18: 2, 3. We have already shown how these churches have presented themselves as “a cage of every unclean and hateful bird;” but then the whole of the verse will be fulfilled and the world will hear that cry of the angel of the Lord which comes “mightily with a strong voice saying, Babylon the great, is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.” An Anti-Christian Scheme.
By C. P. B.
THE Rev. Dr. Charles H. Parkhurst and a corps of 1,137 assistants, remarks the Sun, of this city, “are going to complete a map of this city showing the position and character of every house within the municipal limits, together with the names and social status of the occupants.” This enterprise is to be prosecuted under the auspices of the City Vigilance League, a new organization, somewhat resembling the Society for the Prevention of Crime. Dr. Parkhurst is President of the organization, and at a meeting held in Judson Memorial Hall in South Washington Square last night, he gave an outline of the policy of the League. It had been widely announced that Dr. Parkhurst on this occasion would speak “to men only;” and about 400 young men were present. On this occasion the Doctor is reported to have said:— Our immediate need is of 1,137 men of honest spirit and durable stuff, who will undertake to represent respectively each of the election districts into which this city is subdivided. It will be the responsibility of each one of these 1,137 men to make himself thoroughly conversant with all that concerns the district under his charge. The first duty of the district supervisor will be to prepare a careful and accurate chart of his district, drawn on the scale of twenty-five feet to the inch.
Dr. Parkhurst then gave an account of how the maps are to be arranged and what they are expected to show. Every building will be represented with its proportional frontage and its street number. There will be a tabulated list of the occupants of the residential portions of the districts, with their names and nationality. The tabulation will include a statement as to all houses of ill repute, pool rooms and policy shops, and gambling houses in the district. “In this connection,” added Dr. Parkhurst, with much feeling, “it is expressly urged that no district supervisor should do anything that can be construed as compromising his own moral character.” It was probably the memory of his own experience of a few months ago that led the Doctor to give this caution. It shows that Dr. Parkhurst is not wholly bad; that his beer-drinking with lewd women last summer was due to an error in judgment rather than to personal moral corruption. But having made such an error is he a safe guide for the 1,137 young men who are to work under his direction? And is this work that young men should be encouraged to undertake? Can anybody, either young or old, do such work and obey the divine injunction, “Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men. Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away.” In short, is not the whole scheme contrary to the spirit of the gospel of Christ, which exhorts us thus:— Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
The Christian might well distrust this scheme because of the considerations suggested; but there are also other counts in the indictment against it, some of which are thus presented editorially by the Sun: Parkhurst’s scheme of organizing a vigilance committee, or Vigilance League, as he calls it, proceeds on the assumption that the regular forces of law and order in New York are negligent of their duty, and that accordingly private individuals must step forward to save the town from going to the devil. It does not appear that he proposes to go so far as the famous Vigilance Committee of San Francisco, and preserve the morals of the town by the administration of lynch law. He merely wants to carry out his detective operations on a large scale and with the assistance of a great number of subordinates. His scheme is to appoint young fellows as supervisors of the public morals in each of the 1,137 election districts, and to set them to work at spying about their neighborhoods to find out whether anything wrong is going on. Of course they will discover what they are after, even if they have to get up the wickedness themselves. Their curiosity will be stimulated, and the competition among them to gain distinction as detectives will be eager. How the public will regard this new and extensive industry is another matter. Under Parkhurst’s plan every inhabitant of New York is liable to be shadowed by these impertinent young chaps. The names, residences, nationality, and political standing of the people of every district are to be obtained and tabulated as if they were suspected thieves. As a matter of course, the swarming spies will seek to magnify their detective office by keeping an eye on all the doings of the citizens to see whether they follow the line Parkhurst lays down for them. These shadowers, also, will watch the saloons and scrutinize every house and every business place for the same purpose. It is, in fine, the spying system in its worst form, volunteer and not directed by official authority. Nearly twelve hundred loathsome creatures will be educating themselves in the art of poking their noses into other people’s business. Vice and crime are bad enough, but they are not so bad as such a systematic hounding by a horde of amateur detectives as Parkhurst is planning. Only despicable young fellows would engage in the business, and the longer they pursue it the more slimy they will become. It is a contemptible scheme, an outrageous project, and the self-respect of the people should at once rise up to compel the defiled Parkhurst to devise some other and less insulting method of keeping up the notoriety which he is after. No doubt Doctor Parkhurst imagines that he is doing both God and man service, but he is in reality corrupting more than a thousand young men and is preparing an engine of espionage which he can not long control, and which is sure to be a potent factor in the utter destruction of the liberty so long and so fully enjoyed in this favored land. Christians Do Not Persecute.
By Editor
Two weeks ago we published the facts concerning the persecution of Methodists in Austria, and called attention to the fact that while Romanists are persecuting Methodists in Austria, Methodists are persecuting Adventists in Maryland and Tennessee. But while this is true, it is not true as stated by some that Christians are persecuting Christians. Christians do not persecute. This is plainly shown in the following admirable article from Present Truth, London:— Everybody who reads the account of the systematic persecution of the Methodists in Vienna must feel sympathy for the oppressed, as well as indignation at such unjustifiable proceedings. Such a course can not be excused on any just grounds. We would have it understood by all who may feel unfriendly to Christianity, and who may cite such instances of persecution as evidence against it, that there is no Christianity in it. Men who professed to be Christians have often persecuted others, but Christianity never persecuted. Christianity is from Christ, the Lamb of God; and it is as impossible for true Christianity to persecute for any cause whatever, as it would be for a lamb to devour a wolf. In so saying, we are passing no sentence upon men who in time past have engaged in persecution. God alone knows the motives that prompted them. Many of the men were doubtless sincere. But if they thought that they were acting in accordance with the principles of Christianity, they were pitiably ignorant of those principles. We can simply say that persecution is not of Christ, but is of the devil. With those who have persecuted, we have nothing to do; they are in the hands of the just Judge. It may further be said, that the evil of persecution is in no wise abated by the fact that those who are persecuted may actually hold erroneous views and practices. No man was ever persecuted who was not thought by his persecutor to be in error. To say that it is wrong to persecute those who hold the truth, but justifiable when people are in error, is to set one's self up as the judge of what is truth. That is popery. And so every one who persecutes, no matter in what degree, is to that degree a pope. It will be seen that popery has not always been and is not now confined to the Roman Catholic Church. We repeat, that it makes no difference what the religious opinions of men may be; they are not to be persecuted on any account. For his religious opinions and practices a man is answerable to God alone. No earthly tribunal, whether religious or secular, has any right to sit in judgment on people for their religion. In this matter majorities cut no figure. This question has nothing to do with the right of the majority to rule, for in matters of religion nobody has any right to rule another. Scripture authority for these statements is not wanting. Jesus said, “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.” John 12:47. “The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him.” Therefore since Christ himself declared that he did not judge any man who refused to believe his words, it is most certain that no man, nor any body of men, has that right. Whoever assumes it, thereby sets himself above the Lord. Again Jesus said to his disciples, “As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.” John 20:21. Now for what purpose did the Father send him? He himself tells: “For God sent not the Son into the world to judge the world; but that the world should be saved through him.” John 3:17. Therefore he who presumes to judge another is doing that which Christ never sent anybody to do. Of course this does not refer to the sentence of the civil magistrate concerning crimes against person or property. So much for persecution in general. When Peter, in his zeal for the Master, drew his sword and cut off the ear of one who was about to seize the Lord, Jesus rebuked him, saying, “All they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.” We may not conclude that all who perish with the sword have taken the sword, for many perish unjustly; but the Saviour's words do show that when men take the sword it is no more than might be expected that the same thing should be used on them. We are reminded of this by the fact that but a few weeks ago there was a mass-meeting held in the city of Chicago, where representative Methodist clergymen, among others, advocated the use of the boycott upon all who did not join with them in Sunday rest. It is needless to say that the boycott is one of the meanest forms of persecution. Now we do not say that this justifies the persecution of Methodists in Vienna or anywhere else; for we should380protest most earnestly against the persecution even of a Torquemada; but it suggests a few questions, which we will ask in the next paragraph. We are certain that none will more roundly denounce the persecution in Vienna than our Methodist brethren themselves. The question is, Can they do so with good grace, in view of the position taken in Chicago? which circumstance, we are sorry to say, is not an isolated one. Is that which is wrong in Austria right in America? Or, to change the form, If persecution in any form whatever, is right in America, is it not all right in Austria? Or, Is it right for Methodists to persecute and wrong for Catholics? We express no opinion in the matter, but would like to know what our friends think of the thing. Another question that is suggested by the action at Chicago, and elsewhere in America, is this: If the Methodist body were recognized by the Austrian Government, and there should be a movement on foot among the Catholics of that country to enforce the observance of Sunday, as there is by both Catholics and Protestants in America, would the Methodists join in it and aid in oppressing even to extinction, a smaller sect that did not regard Sunday as a holy day, but as an ordinary working day? By their action in America, have not our Methodist friends cut themselves off from the right to protest against the wicked persecutions in Vienna? If this bitter experience should open their eyes to the evil of persecution in every degree, it would not have been suffered in vain. The fatal error of the Methodists in Vienna was in petitioning for recognition by the State. Thereby they conceded the right of the Government to suppress them. Whatever the State grants it may take away. For any religious body to ask for recognition by the State, is to admit that without such recognition it has no right to exist; and that is, of course, to admit that the State is justified in suppressing it. The very worst thing that any State can do for religion is to “recognize” it. Christianity is in the world by the authority of the King of kings, and not by any earthly sufferance. It has nothing to ask from the State because the State has nothing to bestow upon it. It has something of inestimable value to bestow upon kings, and all in authority, as well as upon men in the humblest stations; but no man and no Government has anything that can be given to Christianity to better it. Man is less than God. “All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him as less than nothing, and vanity.” Isa. 40:17. Whoever, therefore, petitions the State for protection in the exercise of his religion, or even by any means admits the right of the State to have anything to do with religion, either in the way of protection or suppression, thereby shows, either that the religion which he professes has not the sanction of God; or else that he does not know the power of the God whom he serves; or else that he thinks the power and authority of men to be greater than that of God. Although the Methodists are not recognized in Vienna, and as a religious body they are outlawed, yet they have as good a chance as the apostles did. Indeed, they are better off. Here is a statement of the relation which Christianity sustained to the Roman State: “All the ancient religions were national and State religions, and this was especially the case with the Romans, among whom the political point of view predominated in everything, not excepting religion. The public apostasy of citizens from the State religion, and the introduction of a foreign religion, or a new one not legalized by the State (religio illicita), appeared as an act of high treason. In this light was regarded the conversion of Roman citizens or subjects to Christianity. ‘Your religion is illegal’ (non licet esse vos), was the reproach commonly cast upon Christians, without referring to the contents of their religion; to this was added the striking difference between Christianity, and all that had hitherto been dominated religion.”—Neander's Memorials of Christian Life, chapter 3. Yet, in the face of this, the early Christians proceeded to preach the gospel, without apologizing to the State, or asking any favors of it. When forbidden to preach, the apostles said to the rulers, “Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. For we can not but speak the things which we have seen and heard.” They were successful, too, in their preaching, and their success was due to their trust in God, and to their refusal to admit the right of the State to interfere in matters of religion. “Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish. Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God; which made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that therein is; which keepeth truth forever; which executeth judgment for the oppressed; which giveth food to the hungry.” Ps. 146:3–7. Organizing in Virginia.
By AMY A. NEFF
REV. MR. GEORGE, of the American Sabbath Union, so-called, visited Winchester, Va., recently in the interests of the Sunday cause. A correspondent tells the story of his failure to enthuse the town, as follows:— The meeting was held in the Presbyterian church in Winchester, Thursday, November 3, 1892. On the same evening the Lotus Glee Club gave an entertainment at the Court House Hall. Mr. George said in his remarks that he met a number on the streets who expressed a desire to be at his meeting if it had only been held on another evening from that of the glee club. It is easy to see which was appreciated more of the two—the glee club or mass-meeting. The population of Winchester is between six and eight thousand. I am sure there were not more than one hundred and twenty-five present. The resolutions say, “We, the citizens of Winchester, Va., assembled,” etc. So not over one hundred and twenty-five persons acted for a town of between six and eight thousand, and not more than two-thirds of those present voted upon the resolutions. Mr. George, Secretary of the American Sabbath Union, had been to Richmond, Va., and affected a city organization of the American Sabbath Union. His object was to affect a State organization. In this he was unsuccessful, but thinks they will soon have a State organization. In his address here Mr. George said that “God dwelt with Israel and punished them for Sabbath breaking,” and “Christian people are called to rally and preserve the holy Sabbath.” “There is on one hand the divine aspect, on the other the civil.” He also said if the World’s Fair gates were opened on Sunday that 60,000 persons would be required to work on the “Lord’s day,” in order that a few thousand might go in the Exposition. “We feel,” he said, “that this question is settled in Congress, and will be.” The resolutions adopted were as follows: Inasmuch as the sacred Scriptures clearly teach that the Sabbath is a divine institution, designed to promote the glory of God and the welfare of man in society and as individuals; and since all history teaches that God is dishonored, his laws set aside, and the best interests of man imperilled wherever the Sabbath loses its sacredness in the eyes of the people; therefore resolved: 1st. That we, citizens of Winchester, Va., assembled in mass, do most heartily approve of the action of Congress in requiring the gates of the Columbian Exposition at Chicago to be closed on the Sabbath day: 2d. That we are especially pleased to know that all of the Congressmen from Virginia voted for this measure, and urge them, in case of any effort to reconsider and reverse their action, to hold the ground they have taken without wavering; 3d. That we hereby put on record our high appreciation of the work of the American Sabbath Union in endeavoring to uphold the sacredness of the holy Sabbath and prevent the dissemination of those loose and demoralizing views on this great subject that prevail generally in continental Europe. It was my privilege to be present at this meeting, and now I can better realize the fraud and deception used by these people in accomplishing their aims and purposes. Persecution in Russia and America.
By C. P. B.
The persecution of Seventh-day Adventists in Tennessee with the avowed object of either driving them from the State or of compelling them to practically abandon their faith, gives an added interest to the details of the persecution of Stundists in Russia. As in Tennessee the Adventists are regarded as a nuisance, so in Russia the Stundists are classed with famine and cholera. In a recent article in the Congregationalist, Rev. Benjamin Labaree says:— The civilized world has been watching with painful interest the efforts of the Russian Government to rid itself of the four great pests, famine, cholera, the Jews and the “Stundists,” for if information which reaches us through public and private channels be correct, the last are counted no less a plague than the others. The hierarchy is moving to stamp them out in the same determined temper and by methods equally vigorous and ruthless.
“And yet,” says Mr. Labaree, “these persecuted people represent spiritual revival in the Russian Church which carries with it all that is dearest and noblest to the heart of evangelical Christendom. Vital piety as against dead religious formalism, spiritual intelligence as against crass ignorance and gross superstition, sobriety for inebriety, thrift for improvidence, mark the contrasts between these Russian Puritans and the mass of their neighbors, church ecclesiastics testifying thereto.”
But the Orthodox Church in Russia wants no revival of religion. A revival of genuine religion would be the death blow to priestcraft, and the utter destruction of priestly influence; hence, the persecution of the Stundists at the instigation of the Russian priests. The origin of the Stundist reformation in Russia is told thus briefly by Mr. Labaree:— About thirty-five years ago the work began in381the little village of Rohrbach, near Odessa, under the noble labors of two German pastors named Bonnekemper, father and son. The younger Bonnekemper received his religious training in America. On the death of his father he returned to Russia and took up the work already inaugurated with great energy and devotion. It was his practice to invite the Russian farm hands, in the service of the German colonists, to attend the “stunden” or “hours” for religious edification which had been instituted for his German parishioners. The name of the people, “Stundists,” is thus derived. Friendly officials warned Bonnekemper of the risk he ran in thus tampering with members of the Orthodox Church, and his labors were consequently much restricted. But a blaze was kindled that was to sweep widely through the empire. Of the persecution of the Stundists, an English gentleman says:— The persecutions they endure are incredible, so opposed are they to the improved humanities of which we boast in the nineteenth century. Families are broken up, children torn from their parents to be put under Orthodox [Russian Church] guardianship, men are hauled to jails and convict stations without a shadow of a trial, they are loaded with chains, their bodies clothed with foul prison clothes, they tramp in chains across the Caucasian snows with gangs of desperadoes of the worst type. Words fail me to express a tithe of the indignities practiced on these innocent brethren.
This gentleman styles these people “innocent,” and yet they are violators of the civil law, and are punished under the color and form of civil law, just as truly as are the Adventists in Tennessee; and in proceeding against them the authorities are only “enforcing the law.” The majority of the people of Russia are members of the Orthodox Church, and if the Stundists do not want to conform to the precepts of that religion and to the customs of the country which are so intimately related to it that they can not be separated from it, they can leave. It is thus that the Russian authorities reason, and it is thus that the authorities of Henry County, Tenn., reason concerning the Adventists. After all religious persecution and the reasons for it are not essentially different in Russia and America. Human nature is the same everywhere, and bigotry and intolerance flourish and bring forth fruit in it whether in the Old or in the New World.