The American Sentinel 14
September 21, 1899
“Front Page” American Sentinel 14, 37, p. 577.
“WHOSOEVER will,” says Christianity; “everybody must,” says the Sunday law. AMS September 21, 1899, page 577.1
“COME unto Me,” says Jesus Christ, “and I will give you rest.” “Take my rest,” says the Sunday law, “or I will lock you up.” AMS September 21, 1899, page 577.2
“WE beseech you,” says the embassador for Christ, “Be ye reconciled to God.” “We command you,” says the religious law-maker, “be ye outwardly religious, whether you are reconciled to God or not.” AMS September 21, 1899, page 577.3
GOD’S way of national reform is to write his law in the people’s hearts. Man’s way of national reform is to write God’s name in the Constitution. Which is the better way? AMS September 21, 1899, page 577.4
OF the kingdom of God it is authoritatively stated, “The kingdom of God is within you.” It is not visible in the world, but is in the heart of the Christian believer. But of no earthly kingdom or government can it be said that it is within the heart. The sphere of the kingdom of God is distinct from that of earthly kingdoms, and the laws of the one cannot be of service to in the realm of the other. AMS September 21, 1899, page 577.5
“WHATSOEVER is not of faith, is sin.” This is scripture, and it may be assumed that every person claiming to be a Christian believes it. All such will admit, therefore, that it is better that a person should not perform a religious act at all, than to perform one without faith. “Without faith it is impossible to please Him” to whom every religious act is performed. Without faith any religious act is but a piece of sham and hypocrisy, mocking Him by whom faith has been ordained. And yet, plain as is this truth, vast multitudes of religious people in this land to-day are working diligently for the enactment and enforcement of laws to compel people to perform a religious act,—to observe Sunday; causing them perform this act without faith; compelling them to commit sin! And these people call themselves Christians, too. AMS September 21, 1899, page 577.6
“Religious Liberty in the United States and Canada” American Sentinel 14, 37, pp. 577, 578.
IN both these countries religious liberty is now on trial in the courts of law. AMS September 21, 1899, page 577.1
In the State of Georgia the question of allowing freedom in Sabbath observance will in a few days be passed upon by the Supreme Court. The case is that of a young man named Waters, a resident of Rome, who several months ago was tried and convicted in the Circuit Court for doing secular work on Sunday, he being an observer of the seventh-day Sabbath. If the Supreme Court of Georgia sustains the verdict of the lower court, Mr. Waters will have to serve six months in the chain-gang, where, according to information sent us, there is no provision for his Sabbath rest and a determination not to allow it. He must then work on the day he believes to be holy, or be disciplined as a refractory criminal. Should his case be appealed from the Supreme Court of Georgia to that of the United States, and an adverse decision rendered by that body, the cause of religious freedom throughout the nation will have received a tremendous blow. AMS September 21, 1899, page 577.2
In Canada a similar situation exists, minus the chain-gang horror. Some time ago, in Ontario, a seventh-day observer, named Sherk, was convicted under the “Lord’s Day Act,” for working on Sunday, and an appeal was taken to the Court of Appeals, under the British North-American Act guaranteeing religious liberty to British subjects. The ground of the appeal is that the Ontario “Lord’s Day Act,” is in violation of the higher law embodied in the British North-American Act. The attorney of the Lord’s Day Alliance resisted the granting of this appeal, and succeeded in having it held back in the Court of Appeals pending the decision in another case gotten up by the Alliance with the object of trying to sustain the law. We are informed that this decision will be rendered in a few days. And if the “Lord’s Day Act” is sustained by the Court of Appeals, the liberty of seventh-day observers will be seriously curtailed, in the teaching as well as the practice of their faith, throughout Canada. AMS September 21, 1899, page 577.3
It is not alone in the southern districts of United States that seventh-day observers are made the target of the attacks of opposing religions. In Michigan, the headquarters of the seventh-day Adventists, such efforts are made to stir up religious animosity against them and subject them to any form of persecution, as are represented in the following which are which was contributed recently to the Michigan Christian Advocate. Full as it is of the spirit of Ahab calling Elijah troubler of Israel, it becomes significant when indorsed by this representative Methodist journal. This Methodist writer says:— AMS September 21, 1899, page 578.1
“Most causes suffer more from thoughtlessness than any other source; if not more than from all other sources combined. AMS September 21, 1899, page 578.2
“Will you, dear readers, follow me somewhat patiently while I pass over some of the past and present plannings of a would-be set of reformers? Over fifty years ago our Saturdarian friends began an active effort to overthrow the accepted Sabbath of the Christian world, and supplant it with something else. Instead of having convictions of a great ‘truth discovered’ associated with charity for those whom they assert are in error, they commenced an attack on the Christian Sabbath with a determination to accomplish its overthrow. They have searched among the writings of all the enemies of the Christian Sabbath and all ages and lands, since the crucifixion, for arguments against Sunday-keeping. They also joined hands with every man or company of men who assist to degrade the day and rob it of its sacred character. AMS September 21, 1899, page 578.3
“They acted on the supposition that if they could overthrow the Christian Sabbath and bring it into disgrace, they could bring about a revival of Sabbath observance and supplant Sabbath-keeping with Saturdarianism. But as one studies the history of that movement, he can see that while they have been destroying the faith of the people in regard to Sunday sacredness, they have increased disregard for all days, and for the God who made them. AMS September 21, 1899, page 578.4
“It is plainly discoverable that they, more than any other class, are responsible for the Sabbath labor of to-day and for the disregard for the Sabbath that now disgraces us as an American people.... AMS September 21, 1899, page 578.5
“While churches have been growing consciousless on the question of Sabbath observance, the various classes who perform compulsory Sabbath labor, have grown in disregard for the churches, until now there is a condition among a large body of laboring people, of hatred for the churches, and disrespect for all who profess to be Christians. Instead of our Saturdarian people comprehending the real cause of the present situation, they are undertaking work, which, if accomplished, will deepen the disregard for the Sabbath and intensify among all classes of people their disregard for the churches. AMS September 21, 1899, page 578.6
“During this decade there has been a rapid trend among the laboring people to turn from and to hate and oppose the Christian churches. If we can see, as laborers and church-workers, where the chief cause of the trouble is, we can then take right bearings for the removal of the wrongs. There will then be blame attached where blame belongs most. The Saturday-keeping Christians have done all that could be done by them to have Sunday excursions, Sunday ball games, Sunday shows, Sunday saloons, anything, everything that could rob Sunday of its sacredness. In this fact lies the chief trouble. Because the people are few in number their work has been overlooked as of no influence and of no importance. But the time has come for all persons interested in Sabbath observance to study ther [sic.] work in relation to this question.... AMS September 21, 1899, page 578.7
“Is it not enough that nearly 3,000,000 men are being robbed of their Sabbath, and nearly a quarter of a million are being hurled into premature graves, and a large percentage of these into a drunkard’s graves, annually? And what for? That a few thousand Saturdarians may have the privilege to work on the Sabbath, in open violation to the law of God and the laws of this land. A form of religion that cannot exist without working on the Sabbath, even if it helps to send four or five men to a drunkard’s hell every year that no man might be protected in this liberty to pollute the Sabbath, should be regarded and understood as it really is,—the greatest enemy of labor that exists, the devil excepted. Shall not the Christian people of this land rise up and guard against such a stream of poisonous literature being put into the hands and heads of the women and youth of this country? If you love the souls of the toiling thousands were robbed of their rest, will you not manifest that love by standing firmly in the battle for a Sabbath for all the sons of toil?.... AMS September 21, 1899, page 578.8
“If the conditions are allowed to been made worse along the lines that our Saturdarian folks are moving toward, labor will be driven downward with rapidity increasing velocity, or a revolution will be provoked. Every patriotic citizen should take his stand to prevent either of the above issues from being forced upon us.” AMS September 21, 1899, page 578.9
In all this there is food for the most serious thought, and incentive to the most active efforts on the part of the friends of religious liberty. AMS September 21, 1899, page 578.10
“Discreditable Advice” American Sentinel 14, 37, p. 579.
A FAVORITE piece of advice to those who will not keep the Sabbath, to those who do keep it, is that they “obey the law of the land” and “the powers that be” and keep Sunday. This advice is of such a character, that really deserves to be analyzed. AMS September 21, 1899, page 579.1
Invariably this advice is given by those who not only believe in keeping Sunday themselves, but also in compelling all others to keep it. And their course in advising Sabbath keepers to keep Sunday only because the law says so, betrays themselves as occupying one of two positions, one of which is most discreditable to themselves, and the other is utterly discreditable to Sunday as worthy of observance at all. AMS September 21, 1899, page 579.2
In advising Sabbath-keepers to keep Sunday because the law requires it, they admit that they themselves would keep the Sabbath and not Sunday if only the law of the land required it. AMS September 21, 1899, page 579.3
If they are honest in that, then they admit that Sunday has no sacredness at all and has no claims whatever upon the conscience: that its only claim to recognition is merely human, and that the obligation to observe it is only in the merely human statute, just as the catching of oysters or the killing of game is prohibited except within certain dates. AMS September 21, 1899, page 579.4
But there is not one of those persons who believes that concerning the Sunday. Every soul of them believes that there is some religious obligation that requires the observance of Sunday: that in some way there is involved in it a duty toward God. AMS September 21, 1899, page 579.5
Then as they believe that in some way, however that way may be, there is some religious obligation, some duty toward God, involved in the observance of Sunday, when they advise Sabbath-keepers to keep Sunday “because the law requires it,” and thus admit that if the law required the observance of the Sabbath instead of Sunday they would keep the Sabbath, they know that their whole proposition is mere pretense. They know that they would not observe the Sabbath however much the law my require it; and that if the law did require it they would denounce it as oppressive, persecuting, and a violation of the rights of conscience. And in so doing they would be in the right, and they know that they would be in the right. And by that, they know that their advice to Sabbath keepers to keep Sunday because the law requires it, is oppressive, persecuting, and violative of the rights of conscience. AMS September 21, 1899, page 579.6
Moreover they know that such advice is contrary to the whole Bible which they profess to believe, and which they even quote to sustain their pretense. They know that the three Hebrews in the fiery furnace, Daniel in the den of lions, the words of Christ and his disciples, and the course of his disciples themselves, are all a divine protest against that which they advise. They know also that the whole history of religious progress in the world, which they themselves profess to honor, is a positive repudiation of the proposition which they make. AMS September 21, 1899, page 579.7
What then is their proposition, their advice, in this, but a juggling with conscience—their own as well as well as that of the others,—the playing of the trick with the Scriptures, and a deceiving of their own selves? AMS September 21, 1899, page 579.8
And what for?—Simply that they may have their own way instead of God’s way. This is made certain by the fact that when God himself has rested a certain day and appointed that day as a day of rest, they will persistently refuse God’s example and his appointment as to that day, and rest another day. Is not the resting they oppose, for they themselves rest and compel other people to rest. It is not resting a certain day that they oppose, for they themselves rest a certain day and compel others to do so. It is simply resting on the day which God has chosen and appointed, that they oppose. AMS September 21, 1899, page 579.9
Sense, then, they themselves rest, and rest on a certain day, and rest the whole day, and count it so all-important that they must compel all others to do that same thing, and yet refuse to rest on the day which the Lord appointed for rest and on which he himself rested—shows conclusively that it is an arbitrary taking of their own will and way against the will and way of God; that, in the last analysis, is the real essence of Sunday observance. AMS September 21, 1899, page 579.10
A. T. J.
“A Religious Trust” American Sentinel 14, 37, pp. 579, 580.
SUCH is the system which propagates the doctrine known as “Christian Science,” of which Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy is the leading exponent. In proof we cite the following statement by the editor of the Washington News Letter, a paper devoted to the spread of “Christian Science,” which is unquestionable authority upon the point:— AMS September 21, 1899, page 579.1
“I found surrounding the so-called Christian Science Church what we might term a religious trust, all books being copyrighted and sold at prices ranging from five to ten times their value, protected under a copyright. That, instead of religion being free, as promised and commanded by the Saviour of mankind, no one could be taught this new religion, so-called, except by the payment of $100 in money to a class teacher, besides buying all the literature at exorbitant rates.” AMS September 21, 1899, page 579.2
The grace of God is free; and the most emphatic condemnation is put by the New Testament upon any scheme for prostituting it to the purpose of financial gain. And when religion is so prostituted, that religion is not Christianity. Christianity can never be cornered into a “trust.” That will always be free as the air of heaven. AMS September 21, 1899, page 580.1
“Back Page” American Sentinel 14, 37, p. 592.
“SUNDAY laws do not compel seventh-day people to work on their Sabbath; they do not interfere all with their worship on the seventh day,” is an oft-made statement intended to justify such laws. Apparently it is true, before the seventh-day Christian gets into their toils; but when this is done, then, as a criminal, he is compelled to work on the seventh day regardless of everything; in case of refusal being subjected to the horrors of prison discipline. This justification of Sunday laws is as lame is that which it is intended to support. AMS September 21, 1899, page 592.1
CHRISTIANITY does not ask the privilege of invading any individual’s rights, and no other religion ought to have it. AMS September 21, 1899, page 592.2
TRUST in God will make you independent of the trust on earth. AMS September 21, 1899, page 592.3