The American Sentinel 13
July 21, 1898
“Notes” American Sentinel 13, 28, p. 433.
AN ounce of consecration is worth a pound of talent. AMS July 21, 1898, page 433.1
RELIGIOUS legislation puts law in the place of conscience. AMS July 21, 1898, page 433.2
NO STATE was ever known to be saved by a profession of religion. AMS July 21, 1898, page 433.3
HUMAN nature and heathenism have been in partnership since the fall. AMS July 21, 1898, page 433.4
NO MAN who appreciates liberty desires to withhold any degree of it from his neighbor. AMS July 21, 1898, page 433.5
THE peace which is needed in this world is not the kind that has to be imposed on people by force. AMS July 21, 1898, page 433.6
THE Sabbath, as God’s memorial, can no more be lost or changed by the acts of men than can the rainbow. AMS July 21, 1898, page 433.7
JESUS CHRIST is the true rest-giver; but he commands no person to receive it; he only invites men to come to him. AMS July 21, 1898, page 433.8
THE country has plenty of men who are willing to die for it; what it needs is men who are willing to live for it. AMS July 21, 1898, page 433.9
THE world’s peace is maintained by the rule of earthly powers; with the Christian, peace itself is the ruling power. AMS July 21, 1898, page 433.10
A LEGISLATURE can enact a Sabbath law with exactly the same propriety that it could set about the task of manufacturing rest for the people. AMS July 21, 1898, page 433.11
THE boy who tries to lift himself by the straps of his boots, is father to the man who thinks people can be made better by religious legislation. AMS July 21, 1898, page 433.12
THE Sabbath day is restful only to him who uses it religiously, as the Creator designed. It is God’s rest, and therefore the rest cannot be other than religious. AMS July 21, 1898, page 433.13
“Defining Sin” American Sentinel 13, 28, pp. 433, 434.
A PRESS item announces that “By invitation of their General Assembly, the United Presbyterians are to vote in their presbyteries on the question whether the use of tobacco is a sin.” AMS July 21, 1898, page 433.1
But how can the vote of the presbyteries settle the question, any more than a certain Presbyterian vote some years ago settled the question of infant damnation, of than the vote of the papal Ecumenical Council settled it that the pope is infallible? The principle of all such voting is papal and not protestant. AMS July 21, 1898, page 433.2
The Apostle Paul tells us that he discovered what was sin by means of the law. “I had not known sin, but by the law; for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.” Romans 7:7. AMS July 21, 1898, page 433.3
And the Apostle John says also: “Sin is the transgression of the law.” 1 John 3:4. AMS July 21, 1898, page 433.4
And that law demands that an individual love the Lord with all his heart, mind, and strength, and his neighbor as himself. Is this consistent with the love of tobacco? AMS July 21, 1898, page 433.5
We think not. The smoking and chewing of tobacco is an utterly useless indulgence, to say nothing of its harmful character, as established by medical testimony and the facts of observation: or of its filthiness, utterly inconsistent with sanctification of the flesh and spirit. And being utterly useless, the love of it, which all users of the weed acquire, is certainly altogether inconsistent with that love to God which demands that we devote all our energies and means to the service of God and our fellowmen. Every useless indulgence proclaims that the individual does not love God supremely, as the law requires. AMS July 21, 1898, page 433.6
Just what the law does require, in any case, must be brought to the consciousness of the individual by the Word of God, and the convicting power of the Spirit. AMS July 21, 1898, page 434.1
It is useless for any assembly of men to try to define sin. The law of God has settled every such question for all time. The principle of such a proceeding leads directly away from the law, and from its Author. AMS July 21, 1898, page 434.2
“Another Piece of Ancient Republican History Which Is Also Modern” American Sentinel 13, 28, pp. 435, 436.
THE example of the republic of Rome in becoming imperial in territory, is a point worthy of careful consideration just now in view of the career of imperialism in territory that is just now opening before the republic of the United States. This, because imperialism in territory was the open road through which the republic of Rome walked to every other sort of imperialism. AMS July 21, 1898, page 435.1
Foreign territory once acquired, must be governed and the governors must be sent from Rome. The Senate was the governing power of the provinces, and had the appointing of the governors. And the governorship was the goal of wealth. A governor could go out from Rome poor, perhaps a bankrupt, hold his province for one, two, or three years, and return with millions. AMS July 21, 1898, page 435.2
“To obtain a province was the first ambition of a Roman noble. The road to it lay through the praetorship and the consulship: these offices, therefore, became the prizes of the State, and being in the gift of the people, they were sought after by means which demoralized alike the givers and the receivers. The elections were managed by clubs and coteries; and, except on occasions of national danger or political excitement, those who spent most freely were most certain of success. AMS July 21, 1898, page 435.3
“Under these conditions the chief powers in the commonwealth necessarily centered in the rich. There was no longer an aristocracy of birth, still less of virtue.... But the door of promotion was open to all who had the golden key. The great commoners bought their way into the magistracies. From the magistracies they passed into the Senate.”—Froude. And from the Senate they passed to the governship of a province. AMS July 21, 1898, page 435.4
To obtain the first office in the line of promotion to the governship, men would exhaust every resource, and plunge into what would otherwise have been hopeless indebtedness: yet having obtained the governship, when they returned, they were fully able to pay all their debts, and still be millionaires. AMS July 21, 1898, page 435.5
The highest offices of State were open in theory to the meanest citizen: they were confined, in fact, to those who had the longest purses, or the most ready use of the tongue on popular platforms. Distinctions of birth had been exchanged for distinctions of wealth. The struggle between plebeians and patricians for equality of privilege was over, and a new division had been formed between the party of property and a party who desired a change in the structure of society.”—Froude. AMS July 21, 1898, page 435.6
Everybody can see how exactly this sketch of the political character of Rome in her republican days is paralleled already in the political character of the United States. And now this prospective imperialism in territory of the United States opens the door to be a further parallel and a further development of the imperial spirit, through provincial and colonial systems of governments. AMS July 21, 1898, page 435.7
Of course, republican Rome did not go the full length at a plunge. She began in genuine “republican simplicity.” Indeed, “the governor was bound by law to administer his office with republican honesty and frugality.” Accordingly, “Cato, when governor of Sardinia, appeared in the towns subject to him on foot and attended by a single servant who carried his coat and sacrificial ladle; and, when he returned from his Spanish governorship, he sold his war-horse beforehand, because he did not hold himself entitled to charge the State with the expenses of its transport.” AMS July 21, 1898, page 436.1
But, “The new provincial system necessitated the appointment of governors, whose position was absolutely incompatible, not only with the welfare of the provinces, but with the Roman Constitution. As the Roman community in the provinces took the place of the former rulers of the land, so the governor appeared there in the position of a king.” “But it is not practicable for any length of time to be at once republican and king. Playing the part of governors demoralized the Roman ruling class with fearful rapidity. Haughtiness and arrogance toward the provincials were so natural in the circumstances, as scarcely to form matter of reproach against the individual magistrate.”—Mommsen. AMS July 21, 1898, page 436.2
Now read the following analysis by Harper’s Weekly, of what will be the governing power in the colonial possessions, which by the present war, are being almost forced under the authority or the protectorate of the American republic:— AMS July 21, 1898, page 436.3
“There is no doubt as to the power of Congress to acquire territory. The power to declare war and the power to make treaties imply the power to acquire territory. There is no one who questions its existence. It has been declared over and over again by the Supreme Court. Neither is there any doubt as to the power of Congress to govern territory so acquired. This is expressly granted to Congress in the provision of the Constitution which authorizes the legislative branch of the Government to make needful rules and regulations respecting territories. As Justice Bradley said in ‘The Late Corporation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints vs. United States’: ‘It would be absurd to hold that the United States has power to acquire territory and no power to govern it when acquired.’ AMS July 21, 1898, page 436.4
“Nothing, then, can prevent the annexation of territory that may be acquired in war with Spain or through a treaty of peace; whether a resolution of annexation would hold is another question, which, however, is not likely to be raised. And territory once acquired, it will be governed absolutely by Congress; the President and the regular judiciary having nothing to say in the matter after the organic law establishing the territorial government, if such a law be passed, is once in operation. If, however, Congress assumes full control as a local government, it will be free to do as it will—to pass one law for one territory and another for another, or to neglect all impartially; while as to the executive and judicial authorities of these territories, they will be such men as the politicians of Congress prefer.” AMS July 21, 1898, page 436.5
Thus in this “imperial” career that opens before the republic of the United States, and which the multitude are insisting that she shall accept, the Congress of the United States will stand exactly in the attitude in which the Senate of the Roman republic stood. And with politics already in this republic, an exact parallel with that in the Roman republic, who can soberly and honestly doubt that the like results will follow here, that followed there as certainly as this republic allows herself to be drawn into this course of imperialism which now is opened? AMS July 21, 1898, page 436.6
A. T. J.