Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jan 29, 1894
Light Shining Out of Darkness
"Behold, I come quickly; and My reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work shall be." Rev. 22:12.
"AND God said, Let there be light; and there was light;" or, more graphically, as translated by Young, "And God saith, Let light be; and light is." God spake and it was. Before all was dark, but the light of God shined the darkness away.
FROM this narrative of creation God would have us learn gracious lessons of hope. Darkness is a symbol of sin and death, and is everywhere so represented in the word of God. Light is the symbol of righteousness and life. "The whole world lieth in wickedness," or in darkness. In sinful man of himself there is no light. In the sinful heart the chaos of darkness reigns. "The god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not."
BUT God in his mercy causes his light to shine. The same power and goodness which cleft the chaotic darkness of creation in that morning of earth's history, shines into our heart. Says an apostle: "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." God gives us light through the Creator of the worlds; for all things were made by Christ, "and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men." "That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world."
ALL the light which the world has comes from Christ. All the truth which enlightens heathendom is light from Christ. Every good deed and motive, every just and righteous thought, come from Christ. God is light; God is the only source of light; "and in him is no darkness at all." But God is only revealed to us through Christ; for "no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him." The only light to us, therefore, is Christ Jesus. Whatever reveals good is light from him. Every longing for a better life, every desire of freedom from sin, every truly penitential sigh or tear, every pure affection, each and all are from Christ.
Now ALL light comes to us that we may be saved thereby. God "hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." The glory of God is his character, as has so often been shown in these columns. (See Ex. 33:18, 19; 34:6, 7.) Christ came to reveal that character to all, not to condemn the world, but to save the world, to put upon all that will believe the same glory, the same light, the same character. (See John 1:12; Rom. 1:16; 3:22.) To those, then, to whom that light shines—and it shines to all—who will open their heart to receive the light, it will shine more. To those who follow its feeble ray, it will lead to ever-increasing light, till the Great Source of eternal day is reached. For "the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day."
BUT not only this, he who receives but one ray of light from God—and everyone who comes into the world does—and accepts and cherishes that light as from God, is accepted of him; for it is not the amount of light that comes to us which saves us, but the way we treat that light. Of two men in darkness he who follows the dimmest taper to the path of safety, is as surely saved as he who follows the brilliant electric light, though the responsibility of the latter is greater. So he who accepts every ray of light as "from the Father of lights," for the sake of that Father, is in the way of salvation. That ray leads to the great Central Source. And God, "who is not far from every one of us," knows the longing of every heart for more light, and just how we use the light already shining.
HE who walks in the light keeps his face toward the light. When he turns from it, he walks in his own shadow and stumbles. So he who turns from the light of God will stumble in the darkness of self and sin. On the other hand, he who keeps his eyes fixed on Jesus Christ, beholding the light and glory which shine from him, will find his whole being becoming irradiated, the darkness of sin being shined away, and his character growing more and more like that of the Lord Jesus Christ. "We all, with open face beholding as in a glass [God's word] the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." Blessed, then, be the light of God. It shines for all; it shines for everyone. We need but to look that we may see it. We need but to open our hearts, and it will shine in, and shine the darkness away. Then "awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light." "Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee." Let the darkness thicken into gross darkness, God is light; and "to the upright in heart there ariseth light in the darkness."
PROTESTANTISM FOUND WANTING.
By Editor
SOME weeks ago we stated that there were in the jail at Centreville, Md., three men, who were in durance vile for the crime of doing 'bodily labor on the Lord's day, commonly called Sunday.' One was convicted for plowing in his field, one for setting out tomato plants, and one for cutting sprouts, chopping wood at his own door, and digging in his garden. All are poor men. The first has a family of eleven children, the youngest of which is but three months old. The second was convicted solely on the testimony of his son, who was constable, and who purposely went to catch his father at work, in order that he might prosecute him. The work of each and all was out of hearing of any church, and no one testified as to having his devotion disturbed by it, either in private or public. These facts have in various ways been set before the public more or less fully.
Another thing worthy of note is that the law under which these prosecutions were carried on is diametrically opposed to the Bill of Rights of Maryland, which declares that 'all persons are equally entitled to protection in their religious liberty; wherefore no person ought, by any law, to be molested in his person or estate on account of his religious persuasion or profession, or his religious practice.'
The above facts were stated in a small tract, which the Religious Liberty Association has circulated quite freely in Maryland, a copy of which came to the notice of an editorial writer of the Catholic Mirror, the official organ of the Roman Catholic Church in America. This is made known to us by an article in the Mirror of January 13, signed 'SENEX.' The writer states that he made inquiry and found the men in jail, as stated by the publication.
After quoting from the pamphlet the facts of the case, the writer says:—
That the statute books should be disgraced at this day by the existence of an enactment one hundred and seventy years old, framed in a spirit of intensified intolerance and persecution, and by no means obsolete, as the above quotation verifies, is well calculated to challenge the practical credulity of the citizens of the United States; but that such a state194of things should exist in Catholic Maryland, the cradle of civil and religious liberty, more than a century after the revolution had broken the fetters which had held captive for over seventy years the Catholics of Maryland, transcends the comprehension of ordinary men.
He then goes on to speak of how the Catholics of Maryland opened their doors to the oppressed of all nations, pledging to all protection, without exception; how Protestants settled in Maryland, coming from other colonies where they were persecuted, became the majority, and then turned and persecuted Catholics, by enacting the blue laws of Maryland, of which the present Sunday law is part and parcel. The Revolution intervened, the persecution ceased, and it was supposed that the Bill of Rights had superseded all previous persecuting laws. If it had not been for the revolution, our writer concludes, the Protestants of Maryland would still be following 'the congenial occupation' of persecuting the minority; and, that this conclusion is just, there is cited in proof the case of the three Sabbath keepers in Centreville jail, in the following words, which Protestants would do well to ponder, not only for consistency's sake, and the sake of religious liberty, but for their own soul's sake:—
That no Catholic had any part in this wanton persecution cannot be for a moment supposed; yet we feel it a duty to call public attention to this exhibition of venomous intolerance, worthy the palmiest days of the Established Church in Maryland, when for three-fourths of a century she returned with the blackest ingratitude, in the form of penal laws, the hospitable welcome accorded her by her Catholic fellow-subjects. The act we refer to was in direct violation of the Maryland Bill of Rights, which guarantees protection to the citizen against any law existing, or attempted to be enacted, that would interfere with the religious liberty of the citizen. A penal law, which is evidently rendered obsolete by the fundamental law of Maryland, viz., the Bill of Rights, is resurrected from deserved oblivion, and made the instrument of depriving of their liberty honest and industrious citizens, who, in good faith, accepting the teachings of their Bible, find no warrant whatsoever therein for keeping the first day of the week holy, but keep the Saturday, as enjoined by the Bible, and are forthwith made the victims of persecution for an error of fact on their part or on the part of their persecutors. If these men can show that they are thoroughly sustained in their views (and there is no doubt of the fact), what can be thought of the criminality of the representatives of the majority in the premises? That they are radically wrong, their common teacher, the Bible, being the witness, is absolutely true, for the common teacher of both parties has never once hinted from Genesis to Revelation of any day for the worship of God save Saturday; hence their action in depriving of their liberty Christian men, who, from their own standpoint, were consistently and conscientiously engaged in giving homage to God on the day appointed by himself, is a deed of despotism and savage criminality unauthorized by divine and human law. It recalls to the minds of Marylanders the intolerant course pursued by the Church of England for three-quarters of a century towards Catholics, whilst our modern Protestant bigots resurrected from its grave, where it lay buried for a century, an odious enactment of the penal code, for the purpose of punishing conscientious and consistent Protestants for correctly interpreting their common teacher, the Bible.
The above is true, and every intelligent and unprejudiced Bible student will acknowledge it. There is 'no warrant whatever therein [in the Bible] for keeping the first day of the week holy.' The Bible does warrant the keeping of the seventh day. Those men in jail 'can show that they are thoroughly sustained in their views,' 'and there is no doubt of the fact.' Now 'what can be thought of the criminality of the representatives [those who enforce this Sunday law] of the majority [Protestants], in the premises?' Reader, what do you think of it? But this is not all. The article continues:—
But the rule is that the minority must submit to the pains and penalties inflicted on Catholics in Maryland one hundred and seventy years ago, for exercising their right to worship God according to the dictates of their conscience, without interfering with any rights of their fellow-citizens. What has become of our boasted enjoyment of civil and religious liberty, when in one of the States of the Union, one of the oldest, and proudest of her record, Christian men to-day are incarcerated for worshiping God according to the dictates of their conscience, through an enactment [the Maryland Sunday law] which is a disgrace at any time to the human race?
The Mirror then refers to the present agitation over the recent Catholic circulars concerning public school moneys, a word concerning which may not be amiss. A short time ago circular letters were sent out by Catholics setting forth the constant claim which they have made for their share of the public school moneys in carrying on their own schools, taught by their own teachers. Bills have been introduced in the New York and Maryland Legislatures for the purpose of granting the Catholic claim under certain restrictions. These things have called out a storm of opposition from the Protestant press and pulpit. Great meetings have been held to protest against the granting of the Roman Catholic claim, ostensibly in the interest of 'religious liberty.' Meetings of this kind were held in Maryland by the Protestant clergy during the very time those men were lying in jail. The Mirror thus refers to one of these meetings:—
Synchronously with the above facts—a parody on our civilization and boasted enjoyment of 'religious liberty'—a number of preachers of the different Protestant sects 'made the welkin ring' with blatant and inflammable oratory—not in vindication of these sufferers for civil and religious liberty at their very doors—but because they pretended to have apprehensions that the public-school system was likely to be endangered by the application of Catholics for a quota of the public-school funds derivable from the taxes, which they pay, in common with all citizens, into the treasury.
THE RELIGIOUS LIBERTY TEST.
And then the article asks if Protestants have really done this in the interests of 'religious liberty,' or was it after all simply because they had the power. It then gives a simple test. If it be for the sake of religious liberty, why not protest against the persecution of these Christians in prison?
Was this 'tempest in a teapot' gotten up in the interests of civil and religious liberty? or was it not rather an additional proof of the tyranny of majorities? We shall put the question to the test forthwith. We now appeal most respectfully to those indignant clerics, but with special reference to the soi-disant Bishop of Maryland, who, on this recent occasion, so chivalrously threw himself into the breach, and who repeated, with so much vim, his Quixotic attack on the Roman windmill, to rush without delay to the rescue of the poor victims in Centreville jail, and, inasmuch as his predecessors in the Episcopal ministry in Maryland had enacted the iniquitous law that holds them 'in durance vile,' to take, in the name of 'religious liberty'—a very much abused and distorted phrase—immediate action for their prompt deliverance. This will be recognized and accepted as a proof of his sincerity. He knows well that these men are suffering for conscience' sake.
THE PROTESTANT AND DENOMINATIONAL TEST.
But the writer goes still farther. He not only brings the test on their own plea of so-called 'religious liberty,' and shows they are wanting, but he brings the test on a Protestant and denominational basis by quoting from the Thirty-nine Articles of the Episcopal Church, in the following:—
They [the Sabbath keepers in jail] are his [the Protestant Episcopal bishop's] coreligionists—staunch Protestants—true Biblicals, who have suffered more for their belief than any Protestant living in Maryland to-day. Their interpretation of their teacher, the Bible, on the Sabbath question varies from that of Protestants generally. The bishop of Maryland will find in the sixth article of religion the following rule: 'Holy Scripture containeth everything necessary to salvation, so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man,' etc. Will the bishop of Maryland note just here that the keeping of Sunday 'is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby'? Will he also kindly recognize the following words of the twentieth article: 'And yet it is not lawful for the church to ordain anything contrary to God's word written'? The bishop's church has ordained and still ordains the keeping of Sunday, 'contrary to God's word written,' because God's written word unequivocally calls for the keeping of Saturday alone.
Therefore, by the test of true religious liberty, by the Protestant test of the Bible and the Bible alone, as indicated by one creed, which may be taken as the substance of many others, Protestantism is being and has been tried and found wanting. What have Protestants to say to this arraignment for cowardly, wicked Sunday persecution? Read what the New York Observer says, as recorded last week. Note what has and is being done in Tennessee, Maryland, and Georgia. Is it not time for God to say, 'Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues'? There are yet Protestants in the churches, but are the churches Protestant? We shall have more to say concerning this hereafter.
Signs of Christ’s Coming
Christ Is Coming.—He has said so in his word. He has told us that there would be signs of his coming. Line after line of prophecy has he given in his word, and the very last predictions are in process of fulfillment. He told us that there would be signs of his coming in the physical, social, political, and religious worlds, and they are all before us. The creation groans for her coming King. Old earth quakes under the burden of the curse. Wild storms sweep over her surface and pestilence follows plague. In the social world the long-talked-of brotherhood of man is as far distant as ever. The rich are growing richer; the poor are growing poorer; and the gulf which separates them grows ever broader. Thousands of schemes are proposed and thousands are rejected by everyone but their projectors. Oftentimes the poor are their own worst enemies in the combinations they form, and the intemperate and prodigal lives they live. On the other hand, with thousands of sufferers for the necessities of life under the very shadow of the mansion of the rich, the Dives of the nineteenth century piles up his colossal fortunes into the hundreds of millions. It cannot go on much longer. In the political world thrones are trembling in the balance, governments slumber on hidden mines of dynamite, nations are living in hourly expectation of great calamities, and their hearts are failing them for fear of those things coming on the earth. Socialism, Nihilism, and Anarchism hold the nations in dread, and uneasy rest the heads of195rulers of republics as well as those of kingdoms. The religious world is no better. The professed church has broken truce with God, that she may unite with the world. The great historic religions are uniting with apostate Christianity against Christ and his truth. The beast of the deadly wound is reviving, his image increases in distinctness, and God's great message of warning is sounding out to the world to turn from the worship of the beast and his image, to the worship of God and obedience to his law. All these things and many more tell us—what?—That Christ the King is coming.
Coming, Lord of earth and heaven!
King! to whom all power is given,
Judge! at whose all-searching bar
All must stand just what they are.
Reader, are you ready?
THE "INDEPENDENT" HAS SPOKEN.
By Editor
Last week we laid before our readers just what the New York Observer had to say of the prosecution and persecution of Sabbath keepers. The Independent has also spoken. In its issue of January 4 it has the following note:—
"The Signs of the Times, a Seventh-day Adventist paper, wants to know what we think of the fact that three men should now be lying in jail in the commonwealth of Maryland for 'doing bodily labor on Sunday' in obedience to the dictates of their own conscience and their religious faith—one of them having been discovered plowing in his own field, a second setting out tomato plants in his own garden, and the third chopping wood at his own door. We answer that if it be true, as our contemporary tells us, that these were men who conscientiously observed the seventh day as their Sabbath, and who, in doing this work, disturbed nobody else, and were discovered at it only by persons spying out for the purpose of inquisition, then it is an outrageous injustice, an offense against freedom of worship, and ought not to be allowed by the laws of a reputable State."
The Independent has been noted in the past for its love of fairness and justice. But those who read the signs of the times aright, and have carefully observed its course for some years, can readily perceive that its utterances have not been so outspoken against the rapidly increasing evidences of the union of Church and State as formerly. But from the influence it wields the above little note is worthy of consideration.
"If," says our esteemed contemporary, "it be true . . . that these were men who conscientiously observed the seventh-day as their Sabbath, and who in doing this work disturbed nobody else, and [if they] were discovered at it only by persons spying out for the purpose of inquisition,"—if all these things were so,—"then it is an outrageous injustice, an offense against freedom of worship, and ought not to be allowed by the laws of any reputable State." But if the Independent had only taken the pains to ascertain the truth of these things, involving such important and far-reaching principles, as it has to find out certain rumors concerning Roman Catholicism, it would have known that the above statements were true. For proof apart from our statements, which the Independent seems to think are unworthy of credence, we refer to the organ of Cardinal Gibbons and the Roman Catholic Church, the Catholic Mirror, of January 13, from which we have liberally quoted elsewhere, testimony which our contemporary has shown itself willing to accept in the past. These things being true they are indeed "outrageous," and so far so good. We are glad that this great "Protestant" journal can say thus much.
But even though these men had not "conscientiously observed the seventh day," is it not still "outrageous injustice"? What earthly tribunal has the RIGHT to make inquisition as to their conscience? What RIGHT have Sunday keepers religiously, morally, or civilly to compel those who observe the seventh day to refrain from labor on the first day? What RIGHT has any civil authority to arrest men who are performing any work on Sunday which is legitimate on any other day? Civil government may make of Sunday a legal holiday, but it has no right to go one iota beyond that. The only reason why labor is forbidden on that day is in deference to the religious ideas of those who may happen to be in a majority; but what more RIGHT have Sunday keepers to demand that all shall observe Sunday than Sabbath keepers have to demand that all shall observe the seventh day? What more RIGHT have Sunday keepers to sit in judgment on the "conscientiousness" of seventh-day observers than have seventh-day or no-day observers to sit in judgment on the "conscientiousness" of Sunday keepers? True, seventh-day observers may be in the minority, but how do, or how can, preponderance of numbers affect the right or wrong of the question? Are these Sunday-law prosecutions just? Are they generous? Are they Christian?
BOLDER AND STILL BOLDER.
By Editor
THE "Christian nation" decision of the Supreme Court, and the Sunday legislation of Congress in connection with the World's Fair, have greatly emboldened the advocates of a national law. This, of course, was to be expected. For years we have been sounding the alarm, and telling the people just what was coming, and all the time the masses have been glancing at the Constitution and saying, "Impossible, impossible." Will they ever awake to a sense of the tyranny that menaces the country, blandly approaching in the name of Christianity and reverence for the law of God?—Yes, they will wake up—when it is too late. Some are waking up now; but the masses sleep on, soothed by the seductive drugs of "Sabbath reform," "workingman's rest," "Christian nation," etc. The votaries of this so-called reform, which is simply Church and State in disguise, have become emboldened by past success in frightening Congress into Sunday legislation through unadulterated misrepresentation. They have found the average Congressman's weak spot (fear of being deserted by the church vote) and propose to work upon that line. In fact, they have been counting upon that score for a long time, and the World's Fair legislation demonstrated beyond a doubt that such a game would win.
We have before noticed the fact that the editor of the Christian Statesman, National Reform organ, had resigned his position for the purpose of establishing a "bureau" in Washington, D. C., whose object should be to lobby with Congress in the interest of religious reform projects. We now call attention to some characteristic utterances by Rev. H. H. George, secretary of the American Sabbath Union. At the sixth annual convention of the Iowa Sabbath Rest Association, held at Marshalltown, in December last, Mr. George delivered an address on "Sabbath Reform," from a published report of which we take the following:—
We are living in stirring times. We must cry aloud, and put our shoulder to the wheel. We propose to stop this Sunday desecration. The Sunday trains are dependent upon the Sunday mail for support. Stop the trains, and that will stop the Sunday newspapers. All denominations of any note are now united in this movement,—Catholic and all,—and we have succeeded in getting the coöperation of all labor unions, temperance associations, and other societies, political and ecclesiastical, to unite in one solid move on the present Congress, to force them to pass a national Sunday law. We are prepared to make Congress understand that this is a Christian nation. We would be a set of fools to give up the battle now after gaining the victory over Congress in the World's Fair movement. We must have a sabbath day as we want it. We have got to get out on the streets and cry, "Yet forty days and we shall have law." Those who will not be persuaded to keep the sabbath [Sunday] can be informed that they will be compelled to do so.
It is a greater sin to violate the fourth commandment than any other one of the Decalogue. It is as much greater than the sixth or eighth as the commandment itself is greater. There are only four words in "Thou shalt not kill," while there are ninety-five words in the Sabbath commandment, hence to break the Sabbath is ninety-one times greater.
The States have Sunday laws, but this is not enough. We are going to have a national law, and I think I am sure we shall have it before the first session of this Congress is closed. Measures are now effected to besiege Congress with representative men from every organized body in the land, and they will not dare refuse us.
The church should use the power of Congress to control the sins of the nation, and if she does not do so, blood will be on her garments. The laboring man's cry for a rest day is powerless alone. They wait for the church to move out, when all will fall in line.
W. N. G.
ROMAN CATHOLIC FRUIT.
RELIGIOUSLY, Mexico is a monument of Catholicism. Rome has had full sway there for centuries. The following dispatch tells its own story, and a like superstitious pall hangs over all the Central and South American States, and everywhere else where Catholicism is unobstructed:—
CITY OF MEXICO, January 12.—A great religious uprising is threatened at Lecheria, and already $70,000 worth of property has been destroyed. An Indian working in the Haciende de Lecheria found a maguey leaf had been worm-eaten until it contained a tracing which, to the Indian, appeared to be a reproduction of the Virgin of Guadalupe.
Filled with devout joy, he prostrated himself before the plant to worship the picture. Then he hastened to the master of the hacienda to tell him of the great mark of favor bestowed upon him from heaven.
The master, Señor H. Pimental, came, and looked at it contemptuously, remarking that any worm could eat out as good a picture as that. He then snapped it with his cane and left. The Indian was infuriated.
That night the hacienda and 1,000 bales of cotton were burned, and the incendiarism has been traced to the Indian. The other Indians were aroused over the indignity and have all assembled and are holding a great feast. A petition has been sent to the cathedral in this city asking that a prelate be sent to examine the picture.
And Satolli says, "What Rome has done for other countries, she will do for the United States."