The American Sentinel 12
June 17, 1897
“Editorial” American Sentinel 12, 24, pp. 369, 370.
GOD had said of Israel, “Lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations.” AMS June 17, 1897, page 369.1
But, contrary to his expressed will, and against his solemn protest, Israel set up a kingdom and established a State. AMS June 17, 1897, page 369.2
They did this, they plainly said, that they might be “like all the nations.” Contrary to all the Lord’s wishes, the people would “be reckoned among the nations.” AMS June 17, 1897, page 369.3
But Israel was the church, while all the nations were States. Israel, therefore, could not be like the nations without forming themselves into a State. AMS June 17, 1897, page 369.4
But Israel, being the church, could not possibly from themselves into a State without at the same time, and in the very doing of it, forming a union of Church and State. AMS June 17, 1897, page 369.5
They did form themselves into a State, and did thus unite Church and State. But as this was contrary to the Lord’s plain word and against his solemn protest, it certainly stands as the truth that any union of Church and State is against the plain word and the solemn protest of God. AMS June 17, 1897, page 369.6
Israel as “the church,” which is “the pillar and ground of the truth,” was the depository and the representative of the true religion in the world. Then when Israel formed themselves into a State, this was nothing else than a union of religion and the State. And as their forming of a State was contrary to the expressed will and the solemn protest of the Lord, it is clearly the truth that any connection between religion—and above all the true religion—and the State is positively against the expressed will and the solemn protest of God. AMS June 17, 1897, page 369.7
And as Israel, the depository and representative of the true religion, in order to form a union of religion and the State, had to reject God, it is certainly true that every other people, in forming a union of religion and the State, do, in the very doing of it, reject God. AMS June 17, 1897, page 369.8
Nothing can be plainer, therefore, than that the God of heaven and earth, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, is eternally opposed to a union of religion and the State. He will never be a party to any such transaction. AMS June 17, 1897, page 369.9
This is why he desired that “the people should dwell alone.” This is why he would have it that they should “not be reckoned among the nations.” He desired that they should abide with him, and have him their only God, their only King, their only Ruler, their only Lawgiver—their “all in all.” AMS June 17, 1897, page 369.10
God wanted not only that Israel, but that all people on the earth, should know that He is better than all other gods, that He is a better King than all other kings, that he is a better ruler than all other rulers, that he is a better Lawgiver than all other lawgivers, that his law is better than all other laws, and that his government is better than all other governments. AMS June 17, 1897, page 369.11
For this reason He would station Israel in Palestine, at the pivot of the highways of the nations; with the God of heaven as their only King, Ruler, and Lawgiver; with his law their only law, and his government their only government; the people dwelling alone and not reckoned among the nations—a holy, happy people; a glorious church. AMS June 17, 1897, page 369.12
Dwelling thus in the sight of all the nations that had forgotten God, those nations would be constantly taught the goodness of God and would be once more drawn to him. Accordingly he told them “Behold I have taught you statutes and judgments, ... that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it. Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.” AMS June 17, 1897, page 369.13
But Israel would not have it so. Israel would “be reckoned among the nations.” Israel would be “like all the nations.” And so it has been, from that day to this. God has never been allowed by his professed people to reveal Himself to the world as he really is. his church has always been too willing to “be reckoned among the nations,” too willing to be “like all the nations.” She has always been too willing to be joined to the State, to be a part of the State, to have religion a matter of State and government, “like all the nations.” And so it is with the church in all the world to-day. AMS June 17, 1897, page 369.14
“‘Like all the nations.’—The Israelites did not realize that to be in this respect unlike other nations was a special privilege and blessing. God had separated the Israelites from every other people, to make them his own peculiar treasure. But they, disregarding this high honor, eagerly desired to imitate the example of the heathen. AMS June 17, 1897, page 370.1
“And still the longing to conform to worldly customs and practices exists among the professed people of God. As they depart from the Lord they become ambitious for the gains and honors of the world. Christians are constantly seeking to imitate the practices of those who worship the god of this world. Many urge that by uniting with worldlings and conforming to their customs, they might exert a stronger influence over the ungodly. AMS June 17, 1897, page 370.2
“But all who pursue this course thereby separate from the Source of their strength. Becoming the friends of the world, they are the enemies of God. For the sake of earthly distinction they sacrifice the unspeakable honor to which God has called them, of showing forth the praises of him who hath called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. AMS June 17, 1897, page 370.3
“The days of Israel’s greatest prosperity were those in which they acknowledged Jehovah as their King—when the laws and government which he established were regarded as superior to those of all other nations.” And such will be the days of any people’s greatest prosperity. AMS June 17, 1897, page 370.4
God’s laws, just as they stand, without any re-enactment, without any adding to or diminishing from, are superior to all other laws. His government, administered by himself through the operation of his own eternal Spirit, is superior to every other government. AMS June 17, 1897, page 370.5
But how shall the people know this, who know not God, so long as his own people will not have it so? How shall the nations know this, when his own professed church will not recognize it nor have it so? AMS June 17, 1897, page 370.6
Instead of holding fast God’s laws and government as superior to those of all States and nations, the professed people of God consider that they must enter the politics and shape the policies, that they must tinker the laws and manipulate the governments, of the States and nations of the world. AMS June 17, 1897, page 370.7
Instead of magnifying God’s laws and government before all the world, as superior to the laws and governments of all the nations, and showing unswerving allegiance to them as such, the people of the professed churches of God seek to mingle heavenly citizenship with earthly citizenship; and to bring down from their superior place the laws and government of God, and mix them up with the laws and government of all the nations in an unseemly and ungodly union of religion and the State. AMS June 17, 1897, page 370.8
And thus the people of the professed churches of God, of the young people’s societies and leagues professing Christianity—of all the combined church elements of the land—are following directly in the track of the church of ancient Israel; they will not dwell alone; they will be reckoned among the nations; they will be like all the nations; they will join themselves to the State; they will form a union of religion and the State; they will reject God, that he should not reign over them. AMS June 17, 1897, page 370.9
“That Elusive Prosperity” American Sentinel 12, 24, pp. 370, 371.
AMS the weeks go by it becomes more and more evident that the prosperity promised upon the inauguration of a new political administration at the seat of national government, is endowed with the elusiveness of a phantom. President McKinley tells the people to wait and be patient, and the wisdom of patience under the pressure of trials cannot be denied; but very many of the people and among them some erstwhile staunch supporters of the administration, have arrived at the conclusion that patience, however good in the abstract, has ceased to be a virtue as regards the regime which now prevails in our State and national governments. And there are ominous signs that ere long they will be ready to resort to desperate measures to obtain the needed relief. AMS June 17, 1897, page 370.1
There come reports from Western Pennsylvania that a vast army of starving men—the underpaid operation—in mines and mills—are planning an uprising which will be marked by bloodshed and conflagration. In many other parts of the country the industrial conditions are such as to invite an imitation of their example. It is human nature to seek to find relief from the injuries it receives, in an outbreak of human passion. This will bring ruin and more misery, but not prosperity to the community which it affects. The passions of human nature are at the bottom of all the trouble to-day. AMS June 17, 1897, page 370.2
While factories are shutting down and wages are being reduced on every side, while the resources of the laborers are dwindling and the ranks of the idle and destitute are being augmented, the coal trust in advancing the price of coal, and the beef trust in advancing the price of meat. And the only reason the price of everything else that is necessary to existence is not advancing, and that we do not have to pay for air and sunlight, is that in the wisdom of the Creator the circumstances governing their probation were so ordained as to secure the most of them against manipulation by a trust. AMS June 17, 1897, page 370.3
High tariff and low tariff, bimetallism or a gold-standard, may cause industrial disturbance and depression, and the country is made to shift from one to the other; but the country can in time adjust itself to the situation which results merely from a political policy. But the happiness and prosperity of the people can never be adjusted to the greed and selfishness which seek to turn the advantages of trade to the benefit of the few, by arbitrary interference with the natural law of supply and demand. AMS June 17, 1897, page 370.4
The SENTINEL has no remedy to propose for adoption by the Government or by political parties. It would only point men to that individual remedy which consists in the cherishing of right principles for the control of the individual life, and of faith in Him whose throne is in the heavens, whose kingdom ruleth over all, and who overrules in the kingdoms of this world. It likewise would say to the people, “Be patient;” but it would say it in the language of Scripture, “Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord.” See James 5:1-8. The hope of every lover of justice and peace is the coming of the Lord. “For yet a little, and He that shall come will come, and will not tarry.” Hebrews 10:37. AMS June 17, 1897, page 371.1
“‘Anarchy’ in Monroe County, N. Y.” American Sentinel 12, 24, pp. 371, 372.
“Anarchy in Monroe County!” is the startling announcement which comes to our desk, printed in huge black letters upon a leaflet sent out from that section to “every law-abiding citizen.” With the glance which takes in this appalling revelation, we catch also a sentence in large red letters calling for a “great law-and-order mass meeting” to consider the situation! AMS June 17, 1897, page 371.1
What has happened? Has the awful lynching epidemic broken out in that place? Has somebody been blown up by dynamite? or buildings destroyed by bombs? Hastily reading the statement of the facts, we discover,—what?—That some baseball clubs have been playing ball in the city of Rochester, ON SUNDAY. That is anarchy! for the clergymen of the place are agreed that it is such—speaking not as religionists, understand, but only as citizens. AMS June 17, 1897, page 371.2
Even the editor of the Rochester Times appears to share this extraordinary view. In his paper of May 26, speaking—or assuming to speak—for the law-and-order element of that city and vicinity, he says:— AMS June 17, 1897, page 371.3
“We do not hesitate to say that so far as it goes, the playing of baseball on Sunday in Monroe County or anywhere in this State, is ANARCHY.” AMS June 17, 1897, page 371.4
The circumstances which led up to this rather remarkable situation are these. The wave of agitation for an enforced “Sabbath” observance which has been disturbing so many communities in the land, has reached the city of Rochester, and, as stated in a city paper, “some excellent people, including clergymen and Y. M. C. A. officials,” started a campaign against Sunday baseball “on the ground that it is irreligious, detrimental to morals, and against the law.” They sent a committee to the ball grounds on Sunday to secure evidence against the ball clubs; but the managers having been informed of their purpose refused to admit them, which fact was of course reported and found its way, with accompanying comments, into the columns of the press. The outcome was a call for a mass meeting of citizens in Fitzhugh Hall, on Sunday, June 6, to take measures for the suppression of “anarchy.” AMS June 17, 1897, page 371.5
The Times, of June 7, gives a report of the meeting, which was attended by two thousand people. The speakers, as was to be expected, were clergymen, who wished it understood that they spoke not as clergymen, but as citizens. They betrayed their real standpoint, however, by their frequent references to the “Sabbath” and the moral law. Some of the utterances which gave character to the occasion, as given in the report, are as follows:— AMS June 17, 1897, page 371.6
Rev. Ward D. Platt: “I know that this baseball question is properly a civil question, but in my own mind I cannot get away from the fact that I am addressing an audience that has not relegated to the moles and bats the ten commandments, and that you still have a wholesome respect for an old book that is called the Bible. Most men like to see a game of baseball under proper circumstances and on proper days, but when the owners of these league teams become abettors of violations of the law and attempt to override the best sentiments of our people, then, I am sure, the people will say that they will withdraw their support.... These highwaymen have come out and attempted to throttle the laws of our great State in order that they may fill their purses. Here is a law of the State of New York, that rests upon the enactment of a decree thousands of years old, that was consigned to the awe-stricken people that gathered around the base of Mt. Sinai, that is as old as humanity itself, and, I say, here is a law, and what is the fact that confronts us? Three saloon-keepers, owning a baseball nine, have placed themselves in open defiance of the statutes of the State.” AMS June 17, 1897, page 371.7
Rev. C. A. Merrill: “This fight against Sunday baseball is really insignificant compared with the greater issues at stake. We are battling for the sovereignty of our laws. We ask the people for patriotism. We want to show the poor man; that when a law is made it is to be enforced to the letter, and not governed by the sentiments and opinions of our public officers.” AMS June 17, 1897, page 371.8
Rev. W. R. Taylor: “Are these men who favor a more liberal Sunday aware that when they make a hole in the wall for Sunday amusements, that the employer of labor will also come in through the same hole? I have faith that when the American people learn that this Sunday rest is a national institution that they will show their teeth and claws and defy the person who dares attempt to take it away from them. And I have even hope for the baseball cranks when they learn that Sunday rest is an institution of our Government.” AMS June 17, 1897, page 371.9
Rev. C. A. Barbour: “It is no business of the executive officers what the law is, except to find out what the laws are, and then, whether they are good or bad, it is none of their business, it is their duty to see that they are enforced.” AMS June 17, 1897, page 371.10
It is evident, according to this last quotation, that Mr. Barbour would have justified Pontius Pilate in crucifying Jesus Christ; for the law of the Roman government was squarely against Christianity, and it was none of Pilate’s business to consider whether it was good or bad, but only to enforce it. So likewise was the law of the land against the martyrs who were put to death by Rome; and when the church delivered them over to the civil authorities, with a hypocritical recommendation for mercy, it was simply the duty of the latter to see that the law was enforced! AMS June 17, 1897, page 371.11
The Rev. Mr. Taylor’s statement that “Sunday rest is an institution of our Government,” betrays a surprising ignorance of the fundamental law upon which the Government rests. For that law—the Constitution—declares that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;” and no religious institution can become an institution of the Government until this part of the Constitution is repealed. AMS June 17, 1897, page 372.1
The Rev. Mr. Ward omitted to explain how Sunday rest is based, as he asserted, upon the law of ten commandments given at Mt. Sinai. That law says nothing about the first day of the week, as every candid person must admit. Why do Sunday advocates persist in citing a law which specifies the seventh day as the Sabbath, in support of the observance of the first day? But all history testifies that in nothing has the human mind exhibited greater blindness than in its theology. AMS June 17, 1897, page 372.2
Doubtless those who assembled this mass meeting for the suppression of “anarchy” were actuated by a sincere desire to better the morality of the community in which they live, and firmly believe that the enforcement of the Sunday law will contribute largely to this result. But the fallacy of this view is so apparent that a moment’s careful thought should have sufficed to reveal it. Let us note a few facts bearing on this point. AMS June 17, 1897, page 372.3
1. There is no power in human laws to make men better morally. Even the law of God cannot in itself do this. The Scriptures plainly say that it cannot. “By the law is the knowledge of sin.” Romans 3:20. The seventh chapter of Romans, from the tenth verse onward, is a graphic portrayal of the inability of the law of God to save or give any help at all to the sinner. It witnesses to his righteousness if he keeps it, and to his condemnation if he breaks it, and that is all. It furnishes him no power to do right, or to rise from the abyss of transgression. But (Romans 8:3, 4) “What the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” AMS June 17, 1897, page 372.4
It is the life of Christ—Christ living in man (Galatians 2:20) that makes him better morally, and there is nothing else that can do it. Yet in their human blindness men—and even clergymen—imagine that there is some power in human legislation to make men better, and much of the legislation which goes upon the statute books to-day is framed with that idea in view! It is the supremest folly. AMS June 17, 1897, page 372.5
No act of the legislature can put Christ into one human heart; and without Christ there can be no ascent from the low level of human nature. No man by taking hold of himself can lift himself. Humanity cannot lift itself. AMS June 17, 1897, page 372.6
.2. The whole subject of Sabbath observance is fully covered by the law of God, which specifies that the seventh day (not the first day) shall be observed as the Sabbath of the Lord. That law is binding to-day upon every individual; it stands in the authority and by the power of the God of the Universe, and there is neither occasion nor room for the “Sabbath” legislation which man presumes to put forth. AMS June 17, 1897, page 372.7
And when men—clergymen especially—talk about the duty of obeying the laws of the land, they should remember that God’s Sabbath law is binding upon every individual in the land, and that that law takes precedence in any law of the land that relates to Sabbath observance. “We ought to obey God rather than men,” said the apostles, and that is the rule of Christian life to-day. And there is no greater anarchy than that which sets at naught the law of God. AMS June 17, 1897, page 372.8
“Mob Rule vs. Civil Government” American Sentinel 12, 24, pp. 372, 373.
THE town of Urbana, in the highly civilized State of Ohio, was the scene recently of one of those tragedies with which the American public have become only too familiar, where the worst passions of human nature held sway upon the throne of judgment and justice. A negro guilty of a heinous crime, was under arrest in the jail guarded by the sheriff and a company of militia. A mob gathered about the jail, and while attempting to break in and get possession of the prisoner, the militia, by order of their captain, fired upon them, and two highly-esteemed citizens were killed. The mob, reinforced, and furious for vengeance, renewed the attack; the sheriff and militia fled, and the prisoner was dragged from his cell and killed by sheer mob violence before being hung in the manner customary to lynchers. The efforts of the sheriff and militia to repulse the mob were for days the theme of angry denunciation on the part of the citizens. AMS June 17, 1897, page 372.1
By such occurrences the participants thoroughly demonstrate their utter incapacity for self-government. The sheriff and militia were there for the express purpose of guarding the jail. They had not put themselves there, but had been put there by the citizens themselves—by the very men who came, as an angry mob, against them. They were appointed to their office for the very purpose of making the government something else than a mob—of dispensing justice in a different manner from that employed by a mob. The citizens of Urbana attacked the government they had themselves set up, and for which they were responsible, and substituted for the government the rule of the mob. And by this they demonstrated that their own self-government was a failure, or in other words, that they could not govern themselves. AMS June 17, 1897, page 372.2
This occurrence, and the many similar ones which are of almost daily occurrence, speak with no uncertain voice concerning the future of American government. When a people can no longer govern themselves, they must be governed in some other way. They must be ruled by a power outside of themselves, and this means the establishment of a monarchy. Either the people must rule themselves, or they must be ruled by a monarch, or civilization must give place to anarchy. AMS June 17, 1897, page 372.3
Following close upon this dreadful occurrence, comes another similar in kind which throws, if possible, a still more lurid light upon our national prospect. It has been said in defense of these lynchings that they are prompted by a desire to secure that justice which so frequently miscarries in the machinery of the courts. But at the town of Princess Anne, Md., on June9, a negro, who was under sentence of death by hanging, was taken from the officers by a mob while on his way to the jail, and after being kicked and beaten into insensibility, was hanged in sight of the court house. With such proceedings the securing or aimed at, in them, is the gratification of Satanic passion. The innate savagery of human nature easily breaks through the thin veneer of our “Christian” civilization. AMS June 17, 1897, page 37.1
But what is the remedy? The remedy is individual self-government,—right principles ruling in the heart. For self-government depends not upon some scheme of control exercised by each one over himself. Self-government and individualism stand or fall together. And every combination or “trust” of labor or capital stands as a menace to the continuance of self-government, by its restriction of individual freedom. AMS June 17, 1897, page 37.2
The purpose of the Creator is that every person shall govern himself; that there shall be, within him, a principle which directs and controls his whole life in harmony with the highest standard of right. If an individual has not this principle within him, it is the purpose of the Creator to supply it, through the provisions of his gospel. AMS June 17, 1897, page 37.3
Let that gospel with its subduing power over every evil passion, flourish and find free course in all the earth. It constitutes the only safeguard against the evils that threaten society and the individual to-day. AMS June 17, 1897, page 37.4