The American Sentinel 14
October 5, 1899
“Front Page” American Sentinel 14, 39, p. 609.
THE devil is a master hand at the game politics. AMS October 5, 1899, page 609.1
THE true theory of civil government is no respecter of persons. AMS October 5, 1899, page 609.2
IT is a good deal better to look at the dark side of truth, than at the bright side of error. AMS October 5, 1899, page 609.3
IMPERIALISM takes away the enlightening torch in the hand of the goddess of Liberty, and puts in its place a dripping sword. AMS October 5, 1899, page 609.4
SINCE the “prince of this world” is Satan, to ask Jesus Christ to be this world’s king under the present order of things, is to ask him to go into partnership with the devil. AMS October 5, 1899, page 609.5
THE “powers that be” which are “ordained of God,” are not the power ordained of God to spread the gospel in the earth and turn wicked men “from the power of Satan unto God.” AMS October 5, 1899, page 609.6
WHAT is the use of trying to overthrow the demon of Sabbath desecration, by means which have proved wholly inadequate to dethrone the demon of intemperance? Only that which will cast up the latter from its seat of power in the heart, can put down the former. The true remedy for one moral evil is a remedy for all. AMS October 5, 1899, page 609.7
IF there could be such a thing as a “civil” weekly Sabbath, it would be necessarily a counterfeit of the divine institution, and would therefore be under the divine condemnation. AMS October 5, 1899, page 609.8
IT matters not what any man may do to become morally better if he does not believe the Word of God; and as belief must be wholly a voluntary act, it follows that men can not be made better than they are—society can not be saved—by any system of force. AMS October 5, 1899, page 609.9
AMS NO one can keep a command of God without faith, and Sabbath-keeping is a command of God, no one can keep the Sabbath without faith: and therefore all the resolutions that can be passed by trades unions, or legislation enacted, on the subject Sabbath observance, can not promote such observance in the least. AMS October 5, 1899, page 609.10
“Force vs. Example in Civilization” American Sentinel 14, 39, pp. 609, 610.
THE United States has started out on a career of conferring the blessings of civilization upon other peoples of the earth, by force. In not every case may it be compelled to subjugate such a people by actual war, as in the Philippines; but in every case its policy is to enforce complete submission to its sovereignty, as the first step to the realization of the promise blessings. AMS October 5, 1899, page 609.1
In changing to this policy from that heretofore pursued, the United States has exchanged the power of persuasion by example, for the power of compulsion to fear. It has declared that the latter is more potent for lifting people to a higher civilization than is the former. It has declared that people can be unwillingly lifted to this higher plane more readily than they can be willingly. It has declared that the sword is a mightier civilizer than the pen: that the whirlwind and earthquake, rather than the “still small voice,” manifest the working of Providence. AMS October 5, 1899, page 609.2
The doctrine which it has thus affirmed is not true. There is no question at all but that the influence of the United States over the world, as a republic based upon the true principles of government, and exemplifying the blessings of free government before all people, is vastly greater than any influence it can exert as a martial figure brandishing its sword before the world and declaring that its civilization must be extended in the earth by its military prowess. AMS October 5, 1899, page 610.1
Such an exhibition awakens in the onlooking world scorn and derision, hatred, and some fear, but never any feeling of increased regard for American principles of government and of desire to adopt them in other lands. AMS October 5, 1899, page 610.2
The United States has, unquestionably, during this nineteenth century, exerted a great moral influence upon the world. This is a truth which by many seems now to be forgotten or overlooked. It has continually instilled into the minds of all people the aspiration for free government. It has continually dropped into the soil of their hearts the germ of freedom which had power to grow and become a giant tree, rending asunder the institutions of despotism as the clods of earth are rent by the pushing sprout. It has thus continually worked along the line by which the greatest and most complete revolutions among earth’s peoples are brought about; for as all history shows, such revolutions come always from a force generating within the hearts of the people, rather than from a force passing upon them from without. AMS October 5, 1899, page 610.3
The United States could not indeed expect to persuade other governments of the earth—the monarchies of the Old World—to abdicate their power and voluntarily step aside in favor of republics; nor was it necessary that its influence upon the nations should take effect in that way. But it could expect to instill the love of free government into the hearts of the people of other lands, until they themselves should rise up and set aside the institutions of monarchy and the principles that had held them in subjection to a ruler, replacing them with the principle of self-rule and the institutions that are based upon it. This is a statement justified not alone by reason but by historical events. AMS October 5, 1899, page 610.4
There is in the hearts of all people a natural love of free government: a love which can be awakened and fostered, and which, nourished by a mighty influence streaming continually from the shores of the New World, would grow and in time work wonders for Old World peoples held in governmental bondage. And this would be true not only in Europe, but in the less civilized lands of Asia; in those very lands, indeed, where the United States is now seeking to impose its civilization by fire and sword. With the great Republic standing true to the principles on which it was set up, the leaven of free government would ere long have done for remote and semi-civilized lands all that the same Republic is essaying but will not be able to do by force of arms. AMS October 5, 1899, page 610.5
Other lands do not want American civilization, and least of all do they want that civilization imposed on them. American civilization, as it is in the United States, is fitted only for the United States. But the spirit and principles of free government are the same in all lands; and the structure of free government must be reared upon those principles by the people themselves. The civilization of every land should be its own. Free government in one land, cannot mean the establishment there of an alien civilization. AMS October 5, 1899, page 610.6
“The Message Must Be Given” American Sentinel 14, 39, pp. 610, 611.
IT is written in the Scriptures of truth that the things which happened in old time were for examples and are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come. Then of all times in the world’s history, now is the time in which the things written in the Scriptures are of importance to the world, and must be told to the world. AMS October 5, 1899, page 610.1
Of all the parts of the Scriptures, those parts which relate to the nations and kingdoms of the world are of the most particular interest in this time of our day. There is much scripture that touches individual experience: this is of equal value at all times and to all people. There is also much scripture that concerns national destiny: this in the case of each particular nation, in its own particular time in the past, was all-important for that time as the message of God; and being a national example is of particular interest in instruction and warning to every nation that follows. And when the world has come to the time of the end, then all these national examples cited in the Word of God stand with their lessons of instruction and admonition as a manifold message to the nations of to-day whose guilt and ruin must be the greater as they despise and reject the manifold message of the Word of God. AMS October 5, 1899, page 610.2
The history and fall of Israel, of Assyria, of Babylon, of Medo-Persia, of Grecia, and of Rome, has all been recorded in the Bible, for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world have come, and for the admonition of the nations of the earth in this time of the end. And the lessons of instruction and admonition, which are in these historical records in the Bible must be, and they will be, given definitely and distinctly to the people and the nations that are upon the earth in this time of the end. AMS October 5, 1899, page 610.3
God has put into his Word messages that concern nations, as well as messages that are to individuals. It was so in Israel, it was so in the empire of Assyria, it was so in the empire of Babylon, it was so in the empire of Persia, of Grecia, and of Rome. Some of the kings of Judah; one of the kings of Assyria; Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon; Darius the Mede; and Cyrus and Darius, and Xerxes and Artaxerxes the Persians, listened to the messages of God. The kings of Israel, and the last ones of Judah, Belshazzar the last one of Babylon, the last ones of Persia, none of the Greek empire and none of the Roman paid any attention to the messages of God to them, nor to those concerning their time. AMS October 5, 1899, page 610.4
It came about, in the order of God, that the rulers of all these nations that the truth of God in such a way as to be responsible for its rejection and for the consequences which followed to themselves and to their respective nations and empires. Belshazzar, Alexander, and Nero, are but examples in bold relief on the one side, as are Nebuchadnezzar, Darius, and Cyrus on the other, of what the Lord has ever done and is ever doing to rulers; and especially in times of crisis. But the great difficulty has ever been, and still is, that in the vast majority of instances these messages of God are passed by as nothing more than mere incidents, and many times is hardly even that. Nevertheless those rulers in so doing rejected the message of God to them, and for their day and nation; and were responsible for the consequences that might have been avoided, and which at the very least were hastened by there unheeding course. AMS October 5, 1899, page 611.1
And the United States to-day is not an exception. Evils are flooding this nation to-day, concerning which the national responsible authorities were plainly and repeatedly warned. Those authorities were told of these things at the opportune time, when by heading the message they could have cleared themselves of all responsibility for any coming evil, could have honored God, themselves, and their position, and at the very least could have stayed the tide of evil. And this must, and will, still go on. AMS October 5, 1899, page 611.2
It is true that there will be those who will say, as there have been those who have said, that that is “meddling with politics.” But it is nothing of the kind. Was Daniel meddling with politics when he gave to Nebuchadnezzar, to Belshazzar, to Darius and to Cyrus the message of God as it was in the Word of God? Was the high priest at Jerusalem meddling in politics when he gave to Alexander the Great the message of God written for that very time? Were the Christians in the Roman empire meddling in politics when they gave the message of God as in his Word, concerning the coming ruin of that empire and the planting of the ten kingdoms? Were they guilty of treason in telling to all people that the empire would certainly go to utter ruin, that the Barbarians would certainly triumph, and that every soul must seek God with all the heart to escape that certain ruin? They were so charged of course; but was it fair so to charge? Were they guilty? AMS October 5, 1899, page 611.3
No more were these men in our day meddling in politics when they presented time and again to State legislatures and governors, and to the Senate and House of Representatives in Congress, and to the President, the message of God in counsel and warning against the evils that would certainly come, upon the rejecting of the law of God and the principles of justice and human liberty. AMS October 5, 1899, page 611.4
And still this work must go on, and still it will not be in any sense meddling in politics. To hold forth, by tongue and pen, to people and rulers, the message of God as he has given it in his Word and portrayed it in the course and in the of the great empires of history, can not possibly be meddling in politics; it can not possibly be treason, nor can it truly be said that it is interfering in affairs of government with which religion has nothing to do. Not to do so, is nothing less than to see the sword, and the people be not warned. But God has set watchmen to see the sword coming, and to warn the people. And he says that if the watchmen see the sword come, and, because of a cry of “meddling in politics” or for any other “reason,” he blow not the trumpet and the people be not warned, whosoever is taken away by the sword, “his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand.” And if the watchmen be such, or stood in such an attitude, as not to see any sword coming, the result is the same to him and to the other wicked. AMS October 5, 1899, page 611.5
No, history has not occurred in vain. Neither have its vital lessons been set down in the Word of God in vain. And if in this all-important time those who know these things should hold their peace, the very stones would cry out. And if those who in this time professed to know these things, or have opportunity to know them, be yet unknowing, then shall the message and deliverance arise from another place, and these will be overwhelmed in the destruction that overtakes all them that be asleep in this startling time. AMS October 5, 1899, page 611.6
Blow the trumpet and warn the people. Tell them Thus saith the Lord God: whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear. And in so doing thou hast delivered thy soul. AMS October 5, 1899, page 611.7
A. T. J.