The American Sentinel 14
June 8, 1899
“Notes” American Sentinel 14, 23, p. 353.
JUSTICE, whether embodied in statute or not, has always the binding force of law. AMS June 8, 1899, page 353.1
MEN can do nothing to save the Sabbath, but the Sabbath can do much to save men. AMS June 8, 1899, page 353.2
A SABBATH without religion is a Sabbath without rest; hence Sabbath rest by law is an impossibility. AMS June 8, 1899, page 353.3
REAL law being always synonymous with justice, to enforce an “unjust law” is to visit a law and enforce anarchy. AMS June 8, 1899, page 353.4
MORALITY cannot be saved by legality. Not the forms of godliness, but the power of godliness, makes an individual truly moral. AMS June 8, 1899, page 353.5
THE Sabbath must be preserved not by law, but by its own inherent life. God’s Sabbath, like all that God has made which has escaped the taint of sin, is immortal. AMS June 8, 1899, page 353.6
THE State must not be allowed to profess religion; it is not right that it should do so. If it does, it will want to join the church; and who will say that it should not if it can rightfully profess religion? But when it joins the church, there is a union of church and state, which is always an unmitigated evil therefore it is evident that in religion the state cannot do that which would be proper and right for an individual. AMS June 8, 1899, page 353.7
WHILE the state is not a moral personality like the individual, it is yet bound to do that which it was instituted to do; namely, preserve the natural rights of man. Man was created for the glory of God; the state was created for the protection man and society. Only through force can the state protect society; but only through love can men glorify God. The state cannot glorify God because it cannot love. The state represents man’s power, but God does not want man’s power. He wants man’s love, and by loving God men will work most effectually to preserve peace and uprightness in society. Love to God is the great preventive of the ills of society; and an ounce of this prevention is worth a pound and more of the state’s attempted cure. AMS June 8, 1899, page 353.8
“Self-Government a Right” American Sentinel 14, 23, pp. 356, 357.
SPEAKING of the right of people to self-government, The Outlook says that “In fact, self-government is not a right at all; it is a capacity.” “Self-government is a capacity, and the right to exercise a capacity depends upon the possession of it.” AMS June 8, 1899, page 356.1
No one, then, has a right to exercise a capacity when he has the capacity itself. Is this so? AMS June 8, 1899, page 356.2
Walking is a capacity; and so is swimming. But no one has a right to walk until he is able to walk, or even until he is able to swim. Therefore, no person has of right to go in the water to swim until he is able to swim, and no child should be allowed to stand on its feet until it is able to walk! AMS June 8, 1899, page 356.3
Such is some of the logic of imperialism. AMS June 8, 1899, page 356.4
A capacity cannot be conferred; it must be developed in the individual who is to gain it. AMS June 8, 1899, page 356.5
One person cannot confer self-government upon another; one nation cannot give self-government to another. History contains no record of such a thing. AMS June 8, 1899, page 356.6
To acquire a capacity for anything, the individual must be allowed to attempt that thing. He cannot acquire the capacity by watching some other person perform it, any more than a person can learn to swim by watching some other person swim. AMS June 8, 1899, page 356.7
A people must develop the faculty of self-government out of themselves, and as long as they are denied the right to attempt this, they are denied self-government. The conquerors may set up their own self-government over the subject people, but this will confer no new capacity upon the latter. It would benefit them about as it would benefit an ordinary person to have bequeathed to him the instrument of a great violinist. The instrument would do him no good because he had no ability to play on it. AMS June 8, 1899, page 356.8
No nation or people wants to have bequeathed to him the government of another people. Circumstances and needs vary among different peoples, and the governments are adapted to suit these varying requirements in the different countries of the earth. The United States does not want the government of Great Britain, and Great Britain does not want the government of this Republic. Norway and Sweden do not want American or British government, and neither Britain nor America wants their government. And so of all the nations, each has developed its own government, and each can exercise its own government far better than it can any other. AMS June 8, 1899, page 356.9
The United States would do well to give the principle of republican government to all countries of the earth. These principles are the best principles of government everywhere, and can be adapted to suit the conditions in all lands. But when this nation goes to another and strange land and there sets up its own government over a strange people, it is going too far either for the benefit of that people, or for its own good people. AMS June 8, 1899, page 357.1
“Back Page” American Sentinel 14, 23, p. 368.
NO HUMANE official of the civil government would be willing to enforce a law commanding the execution of a person known to be innocent; and the fact that he would refuse to perform such a deed, is evidence that every such official does weigh the law in his own mind, and approve it before he enforces its penalty. He does not enforce it simply because “it is the law.” If the principle of enforcing law because it is the law is to be followed in one case, it is to be followed in all cases, regardless of the character of the law; but no individual could do this without parting company with his humanity. The principle of such a thing is against humanity, and is therefore wrong. AMS June 8, 1899, page 368.1