The American Sentinel 12
July 7, 1897
“Editorial” American Sentinel 12, 28, p. 417.
JUSTICE is above statute. AMS July 7, 1897, page 417.1
IT is the business of legislators and courts to discover law, not to make it. AMS July 7, 1897, page 417.2
THERE is slavery in every other pathway than that of the law of God. AMS July 7, 1897, page 417.3
BEING a stickler for “the law” proves nothing more than that the man may be a good Pharisee. AMS July 7, 1897, page 417.4
GOD does not care anything about governments, but He does care a great deal about men. AMS July 7, 1897, page 417.5
IT is the business of the law to protect society; of the gospel, to reform the criminal. There is no reforming power in a statute. AMS July 7, 1897, page 417.6
THERE are a great many creeds and denominations in the world, but—from a moral standpoint—only two classes of people; namely, those who believe on Jesus Christ unto salvation, and those who believe not. From God’s standpoint, this is the only different there can be between any two individuals on earth. AMS July 7, 1897, page 417.7
IT was because of envy that Cain murdered Abel, and this evil sentiment has been the actuating motive in every case of religious persecution from Cain’s time to our own. The wicked envy the happy estate of the just, which is theirs by virtue of “righteousness, and joy, and peace in the Holy Ghost.” AMS July 7, 1897, page 417.8
“IN order that every man may enjoy the religious Sunday,” said the Rev. Mr. Reed, of Haverhill, Mass., in a recent discourse, “every man must observe the civil Sunday.” Was it then an oversight on the part of the Creator that in his Sabbath commandment he makes no allusion to a civil sabbath, or provision for its observance? Sunday observance, to be sure, is not commanded by the Creator, but if it were, could not one person observe it independently of the actions of some other persons? Is our obedience to God dependent upon the uncertainty of the obedience of others around us? We think not. AMS July 7, 1897, page 417.9
“Christian Profession and Anti-Christian Practice” American Sentinel 12, 28, pp. 417, 418.
IN the United States there are multitudes of people who profess to be Christians. AMS July 7, 1897, page 417.1
The vast majority of this multitude are diligently endeavoring to secure legislation enforcing their religious views upon all the people. AMS July 7, 1897, page 417.2
They desire and require that religion shall dominate politics, shape the laws, and control the State: they want a union of religion and the State. AMS July 7, 1897, page 417.3
In truth they want a religious State; an earthly, political, kingdom of God; with “Christ reigning as King on Capitol Hill” and throughout the nation, through themselves as his representatives. AMS July 7, 1897, page 417.4
All this is seriously proposed by people who seriously profess to be Christians. AMS July 7, 1897, page 417.5
What, then, is it to be a Christian? What is Christianity anyhow? AMS July 7, 1897, page 417.6
In the Scriptures it is written that Christ left us “an example that we should follow his steps;” and that “He that saith that he keepeth His commandments ought himself also so to walk even as He walked.” AMS July 7, 1897, page 417.7
It is Christianity to follow His steps alone, to walk only as he walked. For again it is written, “As my Father sent me, even so send I you;” “As he is, so are we in this world;” and we are “in Christ’s stead.” AMS July 7, 1897, page 417.8
What steps, then, did Christ take toward the domination of the politics of his day? What steps did he ever take to gain control of the government, or to dictate in the affairs of the State?—Just none at all. Everybody knows that he never in any way gave the slightest indication of any such thing. AMS July 7, 1897, page 418.1
This, too, in spite of many solicitations of different kinds. He was not only more than once openly invited to do do [sic.]; but it was the longing expectation of the whole people to whom he came. So strongly was this implanted that they were willing to take him by force and set him at the head of the government. AMS July 7, 1897, page 418.2
Yet never by a word, a look, or any sign whatever, would he countenance any such thing. On the contrary he openly repudiated every suggestion of the kind; and withdrew himself from the people who were bent on having it so, and went away by himself alone and prayed for the people that they might have better views of himself and of his mission to the world. AMS July 7, 1897, page 418.3
Was this because politics was so pure, laws so just, and government so altogether correct, that there was no call for any readjustment, no room for any reforms? Was there at that time no need of careful watching to see that none but good men should hold office? AMS July 7, 1897, page 418.4
Were such as these the reasons why Christ had nothing to do with politics, nor with affairs of government in any way? Not by any manner of means. Corruption in politics and in office was never more rife than at that very time, and in Judea. Then as it was altogether from choice, and not at all from lack of necessity or opportunity that Jesus had nothing whatever to do with politics nor any of the affairs of the government, wherein do the churches, leagues and societies of the United States to-day follow his steps in their persistent intermeddling in these very things? And when they do not walk as he walked, wherein are they Christians? AMS July 7, 1897, page 418.5
It was his steady refusal to countenance the political aspirations of the people, which, more than anything else, caused the scribes, the Pharisees, the lawyers, the priests, and the Herodians, to reject and persecute him. These were the church-leaders of that time, and correspond to the sects, leagues, unions, and Endeavor societies of the present day. AMS July 7, 1897, page 418.6
It was to the Pharisees with the Herodians that he announced the everlasting principle of the separation of religion and the State, in the words, “Render unto Cesar the things that are Cesar’s, and unto God the things which are God’s.” And when the whole combination together had made against him the false charge that he would make himself a king, he answered them and all other combinations for all time, “My kingdom is not of this world:” “My kingdom is not from hence.” AMS July 7, 1897, page 418.7
Such was ever his word and his attitude. Such has been his will concerning his church, from the foundation of the world. He is “the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever;” and it was impossible that, when he came into the world, he should walk contrary to all the instructions that he himself had given before he came into the world. AMS July 7, 1897, page 418.8
And now to all the church combinations, leagues, unions, and endeavor societies, that are afflicting the politics, shaping the laws, and directing the government of the country, he pointedly exclaims, “Why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” AMS July 7, 1897, page 418.9
Why do you call him Lord, and then do your own will? Why do you profess to hold his Word in reverence, and then utterly disregard that which from beginning to end is one of the great vital principles of that Word? Why do you bear the name of Christ, while in this great matter you walk directly opposite to the way in which he walked? AMS July 7, 1897, page 418.10
Since the Bible, from beginning to end, treats so fully and so plainly on this subject; and since all history speaks with one continuous voice, warning all men of the essential evils that follow in the train of every step that is taken to unite religion and the State; it is difficult to understand how anybody who professes to have any respect for the Bible, or has knowledge of the A B C of history, and cares at all for mankind, can for one moment countenance any suggestion of a connection between the pulpit and politics, between church and civil government, between religion and the State. AMS July 7, 1897, page 418.11
Yet the ones who profess to be the only true believers of the Bible, and the ones who profess to be the best qualified to gather the true lessons of history—these are the very ones who are most diligently engaged in forcing upon this nation the evils of a union of religion and the State, of church and government, of the pulpit and politics. AMS July 7, 1897, page 418.12
Surely nothing can explain this contradiction between profession and practice, but worldly ambition that can never learn anything, and religious bigotry that is never content without power. AMS July 7, 1897, page 418.13
Yet though this may explain the contradiction between profession and practice on the part of those who are seeking to afflict the nation with this great evil; what suggestion can possibly be made in explanation of the indifference and unconcern on the part of the rest of the people? How is it that they can view with a listlessness almost absolute the steady grasping growth of this power that is determined to bring the whole nation under the curse of a religious despotism after the very image of that of the Dark Ages itself? AMS July 7, 1897, page 418.14
“Liberty and Law” American Sentinel 12, 28, p. 419.
LIBERTY and law are not, as very many people think, two things set over against each other, and requiring to be properly balanced to secure a successful and happy existence. People who hold to this idea show thereby that they have no true conception of either the one or the other. AMS July 7, 1897, page 419.1
God is the author of liberty; he is also the author of law. He has not made two things which antagonize each other. In the truly Christian life, liberty and law meet and dwell in perfect harmony. They lead the individual in one and the same path. AMS July 7, 1897, page 419.2
Law is opposed to license; but license is not liberty, it is a form of despotism. Individuals who commit acts of license are the slaves of their vices and passions. He who is not such a slave has no desire to do an act which the order and peace of society, or the good of any of his fellows, demands should be forbidden. In his life is manifested “love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.” And “against such there is no law.” AMS July 7, 1897, page 419.3
The pathway of perfect liberty coincides with the pathway of perfect law. Perfect liberty is the liberty of the divine life, and the divine law is an expression of the principles one life. The Christian life is the life that is actuated by these principles. The Christian life moves in the pathway of the perfect law, and finds only perfect liberty. AMS July 7, 1897, page 419.4
The law of God is the “law of liberty.” James 2:8, 12. It is because of this that the Christian finds in it his delight. “O how love I Thy law!” is the testimony; “How sweet are they words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth.” Psalm 119:97, 103. “The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More are they to be desired than gold,—yea, than much fine fold; sweeter also than honey and the honey comb. Moreover by them is thy servant warned; and in keeping of them there is great reward.” Psalm 19:9, 10. He sees in God’s law, as does every one who becomes acquainted with it, the pathway of everlasting life, and of “the glorious liberty of the sons of God.” AMS July 7, 1897, page 419.5
Man’s law is for the restraint of evil doers, that there may be peace and order in society, without which men could not engage successfully in the pursuits of life. In pursuance of the purpose of that law, the transgressor, when caught, is forcibly deprived of his liberty. Either by incarceration, or by other penalties, restraint is put upon the evil-minded person so that he is forcibly kept with the pathway of civility. The law of man take no account of the individual further than this. AMS July 7, 1897, page 419.6
We are apt to form our conceptions of God’s law from what we know of law as made and executed on this earth. It is natural and easy to do so, especially as the law of man often professes to re-enact or enforce the law of God. But all this is an egregious error. In character and purpose, the two are altogether distinct. They are different also in their methods of operation. AMS July 7, 1897, page 419.7
The law of man deals with the outward acts. It operates upon the individual only from without. God’s law, on the other hand, deals with the secret thoughts and motives of the heart. It operates upon the individual from within. “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul.” Psalm 19:7. It leads the individual not only to conduct himself civilly, but to do that which is right in all things, because such is the desire of his heart. Having that law in his heart, he has a supreme love for the right. AMS July 7, 1897, page 419.8
The law of God therefore could not be made effective thought the restraints employed by the law of man. The former leads man into perfect liberty; the latter lead him into less liberty than he already enjoys. To try to make the law of God effective through depriving a man of his liberty is to endeavor to make it operate in precisely the opposite manner from that to which it is ordained by its Author. AMS July 7, 1897, page 419.9
This is the trouble with all sabbath laws, and all other forms of religious legislation. They are contrary to the divine law in the employment of coercion to secure obedience, if in nothing else. They would compel men to offer a forced tribute to his Maker, which would only be an insult to Him. He who has the law of God in his heart has perfect liberty, and in this perfect liberty offers to God a tribute of love; and this is acceptable and well-pleasing to Him. AMS July 7, 1897, page 419.10
“God is love;” and his law is a law of love,—the love of that which is holy and pure and just. But we can attain to this only in Christ. Only in Christ can the law of God get into our hearts at all. And Christianity is the manifestation of the power and wisdom of God in putting Christ into the heart of a man for his salvation. By this the individual knows the perfect liberty, love and righteousness of Christ’s own life; for of such an one it is written, “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” Galatians 2:20. AMS July 7, 1897, page 419.11
The life of Christ is everlasting, and it is retained by faith. By faith, not by force, the law of God is made the rule of life; and faith is not of force, but of the free will of the believer. The fountain head of the Christian life is liberty, and the stream is liberty, through all its flow. AMS July 7, 1897, page 419.12
And thus it is seen that the law of God is but a delineation of the pathway of perfect liberty, which those enjoy who by faith have Christ in their hearts. AMS July 7, 1897, page 419.13
THERE are two laws in the spiritual world,—the “law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus,” and the “law of sin and death.” The one means liberty, the other slavery. AMS July 7, 1897, page 419.14
“Note” American Sentinel 12, 28, p. 419.
THERE are two laws in the spiritual world,—the “law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus,” and the “law of sin and death.” The one means liberty, the other slavery. AMS July 7, 1897, page 419.1
“Not Pessimistic” American Sentinel 12, 28, p. 420.
CHRISTIANITY is not pessimistic; it is the most optimistic of anything on earth. While it says that “in the last days perilous times shall come”, and that evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived, and that there shall be oppression and persecution of all who “will live godly in Christ Jesus,” it also points with equal and even greater emphasis to the approaching end of all the evils which fill the earth with mourning, and the establishment of the glorious and eternal kingdom of righteousness and peace. And to every individual, whatever may be his circumstances and into whatever evils he may have fallen, it brings peace and happiness now, and an assurance of eternal joy in the kingdom of God. “The mourning cometh,” is its welcome word to the waiting believer; therefore “look up, and lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh”. AMS July 7, 1897, page 420.1
The Christian religion is the sovereign remedy for “hard times”, or for any trouble by which an individual may be afflicted, whether within or without. The SENTINEL would have every one whom it can reach accept and put in practice the principles of Christianity. These represent the highest optimism of which the mind can conceive. AMS July 7, 1897, page 420.2
“The Right of Private Judgment” American Sentinel 12, 28, pp. 421, 422.
It is a favorite argument urged by Rome against the doctrines of Protestantism that Protestants adhere to the right of private judgment in the study of spiritual truth, and that this principle has caused the many divisions which exist to-day in the Protestant ranks. Rome points to these divisions, in contrast with the unity which pervades the ranks of her own adherents, as an evidence that Protestantism represents a departure from the truth and Church of God. AMS July 7, 1897, page 421.1
In this argument there is an appearance of truth, but no reality. As a matter of fact Protestantism does not lay claim to any “right of private judgment,” and it is only Protestantism which rescues an individual from the fatal fruits of this error. AMS July 7, 1897, page 421.2
The whole papal system of doctrines represents the fruits of private judgment. This judgment has been set forth before the church and the world in various forms. In one case it is the “bull” of a pope, in another the decree of a church council, in another the pronouncement of some other church “authority”; but always it is a human judgment, an emanation from a fallible and sinful source. It is the fruit of an excercise [sic.] of private judgment. AMS July 7, 1897, page 421.3
Protestantism leads men away from the fallible human teach, to that Teacher which is infallible and divine—the Holy Spirit. Protestantism does not for a moment claim that any individual ought to attempt to apprehend divine truth by the exercise of his own judgment. And it just as strenuously opposes his reception of any doctrine as spiritual truth by the exercise of any other person’s judgment; while the papacy teaches that it is all right to receive doctrine and hang upon it the eternal destinies of the soul, provided that doctrine be the pronouncement of a fallible mortal called the pope, or of a collection of fallible mortals sitting in the capacity of a church council. AMS July 7, 1897, page 421.4
But the pope, it is said, when speaking “ex cathedra,” is infallible. Who said so? Who proclaimed him to be infallible? The cardinals did so, at that memorable conclave which was assembled at Rome in 1870. But is a cardinal infallible? Were any of the cardinals of that conclave, or all of them together, infallible? And if not, was their pronouncement infallible? Out of fallibility, comes infallibility—out of the impure fountain, a pure stream! Strange phenomenon, unknown elsewhere in all the world of cause and effect! AMS July 7, 1897, page 421.5
Protestantism proclaims the Holy Spirit as the divine Teacher and Guide into all spiritual truth. It does this upon the authority of the word of God. For of the Spirit it is written: “When he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth.” John 16:13. And also: “The Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God” (1 Corinthians 2:10), and “God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit.” Ib. Therefore we are counseled, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.” James 1:5. The true Protestant goes to the Word of God for wisdom in spiritual things, and with humility and faith asks God to enlighten his understanding. And the promise of Him who cannot lie is that it shall be done. AMS July 7, 1897, page 421.6
This is not exercising his own private judgment,—far from it. He first learns from that Word that his own judgment counts for nothing in the apprehension of spiritual truths, because such truths must be spiritually discerned. He lays aside his own preconceived opinions, and opens his mind and heart to the illumination of the Holy Spirit; and that illumination is shed always upon the Word. The relation of the Spirit to the Word has been well likened to that of a locomotive to the rails upon which it runs. The Spirit speaks through the Word, and departs not from it. “He shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak.” John 16:13. He speaks not his own words, but the words of Christ. John 14:10. And all Scripture is the Word of Christ. 1 Peter 1:10, 11. AMS July 7, 1897, page 421.7
Instead of coming, then, to a fallible mortal like himself, for enlightenment in those truths which pertain to salvation, the true Protestant comes to God, who is in truth infallible, and views his Word under the illumination of the Holy Spirit, the divine Guide who cannot err. But why, then, it may be asked, are Protestants so divided in their views of scriptural truth? The answer is, that they have not taken the truly Protestant course, but have too nearly followed the principles of the papacy. They have held too much to the opinions of men, either their own opinions, or those of some others. Their very denominational names indicate this, as do the creeds upon which they stand. God’s Word is true, and his promises are sure, whatever may be the short-comings of his professed followers. And as certain as that his Word is true, so certain is it that the Holy Spirit does guide into all truth those who humbly seeek [sic.] the Lord for enlightenment. How he does this, it is not our business to inquire; nor does it matter. But he does it, as certainly as that there is any spiritual truth to be known. AMS July 7, 1897, page 421.8
The unity of the papacy, is the unity of blind submission to the spiritual guidance of a man. Christian unity is the unity of intelligent submission to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. In the former there is the exercise of human judgment, which is private judgment, on the part of him who “as God, sitteth in the temple of God”, and of his counsellors; in the latter there is the enlightenment of the individual understanding by the illumination of the Holy Shirit [sic.] upon the infallible Word. AMS July 7, 1897, page 421.9
And in the latter, also, there is spiritual growth; and only by it can spiritual growth be realized. For one cannot grow spiritually on a papal Bull, a decree of a church council, or a church creed. In short, he cannot grow on the word of man, because there is no element of growth in it. In the creeds and decrees which men have fixed there is no room for growth. Nor is it ordained that the child of God shall experience a fitful and uncertain spiritual growth by hearing an occasional pronouncement upon spiritual things by priest or pastor. He is to grow daily, hourly, if he will; and this can be realized only through the instruction of the ever-present Spirit. AMS July 7, 1897, page 422.1
“The right of private judgment” as exercised in spiritual things, is a papal principle entirely; and the more Rome inveighs against it, the more she condemns herself and justifies the Protestant principle of becoming wise unto salvation through the Word of God and the guidance of the Spirit. AMS July 7, 1897, page 422.2