The American Sentinel 14
August 3, 1899
“Front Page” American Sentinel 14, 30, p. 465.
“LAW and order” was never conserve by Sunday idleness. AMS August 3, 1899, page 465.1
PEOPLE who fight the devil with fire, only kindle the blaze more fiercely. AMS August 3, 1899, page 465.2
INDEPENDENCE has been many times won by a people, but never once granted. AMS August 3, 1899, page 465.3
WHEN personal independence dies out among the people, national independence must quickly follow it. AMS August 3, 1899, page 465.4
CHRISTIANITY represents the only government in which there is neither minority nor majority rule. AMS August 3, 1899, page 465.5
THE subtlest of all evil doctrines is that which, plainly stated, declares that man can be his own saviour. AMS August 3, 1899, page 465.6
LOYALTY to the United States does not demand that the principles of republican government be repudiated for the sake of agreeing with the party in power. AMS August 3, 1899, page 465.7
THE fact that rights are God-given, is the ground of hope that will not be finally lost. But he who would finally preserve his rights must ally himself with the infinite Source of power in which they originated. AMS August 3, 1899, page 465.8
WHEN a people lose the love of personal liberty and independence, a despotism must inevitably result; for free government cannot possibly be kept alive where individual freedom is lost. In proportion as the people part with this, they erect a despotism over themselves. AMS August 3, 1899, page 465.9
CHRISTIANITY is founded upon individualism—the individualism of Jesus Christ; and when individualism is repudiated and set aside for the doctrine which demands the sacrifice of a few for the alleged good of the many, Christianity is denied, no matter what profession is made by the ones that do it. AMS August 3, 1899, page 465.10
“Loyalty, and Politics” American Sentinel 14, 30, pp. 465, 466.
THE Government of the United States is, or should be, a perfect republican Government. The Declaration of Independence and the national Constitution were designed to be, and are, the proper basis of a government which preserves the natural rights of the governed. Every national act ought to be in harmony with the principles which these documents embody. AMS August 3, 1899, page 465.1
The Government ought to be true to the principles on which it was founded. But under the leadership of the party in power it may, and often does, depart from those principles. When this is the case, loyalty to the government does not demand that an individual side with the party in power against the principles of the fundamental law. If the party in power repudiates the doctrine of government by consent of the governed, it is not disloyalty in an individual still to adhere to that principle, at the cost of differing with the Administration. AMS August 3, 1899, page 465.2
Loyalty to the Government is loyalty to the principles of the Government, and not loyalty to the political party. The Government is broader than any party; and the party in power may be itself disloyal to the principles for which the Government stands. AMS August 3, 1899, page 465.3
The principles of the Declaration and the Constitution—the principles of free government—are fixed and unchangeable. Our forefathers did not originate them; the Declaration and the Constitution did not give them being; they, on the contrary, gave being to those great American documents. Those principles are eternal, and since time began have been worthy the homage and fealty of mankind. Such they have been and such they will be while time endure. AMS August 3, 1899, page 466.1
Political parties, on the other hand, are constantly changing; and if loyalty to the Government meant loyalty to the party in power, it would be a very unstable thing. But true loyalty must be as fixed as are the principles to which it adheres. AMS August 3, 1899, page 466.2
In true loyalty to the Government, therefore, there is nothing distinctively political; and when we are accused of taking sides in politics by adhering to American principles of government against the policy of the party in power, the charge is without foundation. On the contrary, if we said nothing when the principles of free government were repudiated, but adhere to the party in power, to show our loyalty and avoid getting into politics, by that very thing we would get into politics beyond any mistake, and be obliged to defend our course of action on political grounds. The AMERICAN SENTINEL is not, and does not intend to be, in politics; and the only way for it to keep out of politics is to adhere firmly and plainly to those principles of justice and right government which existed before politics were ever heard of, and will exist when political parties shall pass forever. AMS August 3, 1899, page 466.3
“Right Thought On the Lord’s Day” American Sentinel 14, 30, pp. 466, 467.
THE Presbyterians hold the lead in the membership of the Christian Endeavor societies. The Interior is the Presbyterian paper published in Chicago. This paper publishes weekly lessons for the Christian Endeavorers. The lesson for them the week beginning July 23, 1899, was “Honoring the Lord’s Day.” By the term “Lord’s Day” in this lesson the Interior means Sunday. And Sunday, the calendar of this very lesson, shows to be the first day of the week. AMS August 3, 1899, page 466.1
The first instruction of the lesson is on “The Origin of the Lord’s Day.” In the first two sentences of this instruction are as follows:— AMS August 3, 1899, page 466.2
“The origin of the day is significant, and is an education in itself. The fact that God rested on the seventh day, that he hallowed it, that his example ought to be incentive, is the very beginning of right thought on the subject.” AMS August 3, 1899, page 466.3
Yes, that is the very beginning of right thought on the subject. And what has it, or what can it possibly have, to do with the first day of the week? As this lesson instruction says, God rested on the seventh day and hallowed it. But the seventh day is not the first day of the week. How much right thought is there in citing God’s resting and hollowing the seventh day, as incentive to people’s serving as a rest day the first day of the week? And when the Word of God says that God rested the seventh day, and that he hallowed it, and when the writer of that lesson knows this so well as to repeat the very expressions of the Lord’s word, then how much right thought is there in the writer’s taking what the Lord has said of the seventh day and applying it all to the first day, just as though it had all been originally said of the first day or as though the first day were the seventh day? AMS August 3, 1899, page 466.4
No; the Word of God says that he rested the seventh day; that he blessed the seventh day; and that the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; and no right thinking can ever find the first day, or any other than the seventh day, to be the rest day after the example an incentive of the Lord. AMS August 3, 1899, page 466.5
More than this: Where can there be any right thought in thinking that Sunday is the Lord’s day, or that the single expression “Lord’s day” in the Bible (Revelation 1:10) can have any reference to the first day of the week, or Sunday? The Lord calls the Sabbath “my holy day,” “the Sabbath of the Lord”: and that shows that the Sabbath is the Lord’s day. And “the seventh day is the Sabbath”; and this shows in turn that the seventh day is the Lord’s day. AMS August 3, 1899, page 466.6
To present this a little more forcibly, if need be, we set it down here in the form of promise and conclusion, thus:— AMS August 3, 1899, page 466.7
“The Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath.” Mark 2:28. AMS August 3, 1899, page 466.8
“The seventh day is the Sabbath.” Exodus 20:10. AMS August 3, 1899, page 466.9
Therefore the Son of man is Lord of the seventh day. AMS August 3, 1899, page 466.10
As surely as the Scripture is true so surely is that conclusion truth. AMS August 3, 1899, page 466.11
Then using that conclusion as a premise we can form the following:— AMS August 3, 1899, page 466.12
The Son of man is Lord of the seventh day. AMS August 3, 1899, page 466.13
The day of which he is Lord is the Lord’s day. AMS August 3, 1899, page 466.14
Therefore the seventh day is the Lord’s day. AMS August 3, 1899, page 466.15
With that conclusion again as a premise we have the following:— AMS August 3, 1899, page 466.16
The seventh day is the Lord’s day. AMS August 3, 1899, page 466.17
John says, “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day.” Revelation 1:16 [sic.]. AMS August 3, 1899, page 466.18
Therefore John was in the Spirit on the seventh day. AMS August 3, 1899, page 466.19
The premise and conclusions in these formule are all true—as true as Scripture, because they are simply the statements of Scripture in different forms. AMS August 3, 1899, page 466.20
Of course the second and third are dependent upon the first; but both premises in the first formula are positive statements of Scripture, and the conclusion is therefore strictly according to Scripture. Therefore as surely as the Scripture is true, so surely is it true that the Son of man is Lord of the seventh day; that the seventh day and that day only is the Lord’s day; and that the prophet of Patmos was “in the Spirit” on the seventh day, the Sabbath of the Lord. Whosoever therefore would keep the Lord’s day must keep the seventh day; for “the Son of man is Lord of the Sabbath,” and “the seventh day is the Sabbath.” AMS August 3, 1899, page 466.21
A. T. J.