The American Sentinel 9
November 15, 1894
“Editorial” American Sentinel 9, 45, p. 353.
THIS number of the SENTINEL tells of Seventh-day Adventists imprisoned in Switzerland, and in this country, for doing bodily labor on Sunday. AMS November 15, 1894, page 353.1
WHY do Seventh-day Adventists suffer imprisonment rather than keep Sunday? Why do they not obey the civil laws which require them, in common with others, to refrain from the ordinary vocations of life on the first day of the week? AMS November 15, 1894, page 353.2
THE answer to the question raised in the preceding paragraph is that Adventists regard Sunday as a rival of the Sabbath of the Lord, and to honor it would be, with them, a denial of the Lord of the Sabbath. Sabbath-keeping is not with Adventists what it is with very many people, a mere matter of convenience, a simple choice of days, but it is a question of loyalty to God. AMS November 15, 1894, page 353.3
COURTS have denied that it is a matter of conscience with Adventists to work on Sunday, and have branded their devotion to their principles as obstinacy; but so did the Roman emperors the refusal of the early Christians to offer incense to Cesar. The Christians, they argued, were not forbidden to worship Jehovah; they were only required to honor the gods of Rome. It is the same to-day with the Seventh-day Adventists: they are not forbidden, say the courts “to keep their Sabbath; they are only required not to work on Sunday.” AMS November 15, 1894, page 353.4
BUT “no man can serve two masters.” God has set forth the Sabbath as the badge of his authority; it is his ensign: “Moreover also I have them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them.” 1 To give like recognition to a rival sign would be the same as for soldiers to pay equal honors to the flag of their rightful sovereign and to that of a rebel prince; for that is just what the Sunday is, the badge of antichrist, the sign of sun worship anciently, and of papacy in modern times, and of rebellion against God and his law from the fall until the present moment. It is the “wild solar holiday of all pagan times,” and is to-day flaunted by Rome in the face of the world with the taunt that “by keeping Sunday, they acknowledge the church’s power to ordain feasts, and to command them under sin,” 2 and “the observance of Sunday by Protestants is an homage [worship] they pay, in spite of themselves, to the authority of the [Roman Catholic] Church.” 3 AMS November 15, 1894, page 353.5
ADVENTISTS can go to prison, or to death, if need be, but they cannot even seem to keep Sunday. AMS November 15, 1894, page 353.6
“Roman Catholic Saints and Miracles” American Sentinel 9, 45, pp. 353, 354.
IN our examination of the subject last week, it was shown that notwithstanding the inspired declaration that in Christ only is there salvation, because “there is none other name under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved,” 1 notwithstanding this fact, we say, it was shown that Roman Catholics all over the world are praying for temporal help and eternal salvation to myriads of dead men and dead women, whom the Scriptures declare are dead, but whom the Roman Catholic Church teaches it votaries to believe are in heaven making intercession for those who invoke them. AMS November 15, 1894, page 353.1
So true is this that in the face of the inspired testimony by the Apostle Peter, Joachim Pecci, as Pope Leo XIII., claiming to be the successor of Peter, has pronounced the apostolic benediction, the blessing of Peter, upon the shrine of St. Anne in Canada, where thousands of deluded peasants ask for healing in the name of “St. Anne;” and upon Lourdes, France, where so many more thousands ask for perfect soundness in the name of “Our Lady of Lourdes,” and where hundreds of letters are received daily addressed to “Our Lady of Lourdes,” asking her to make the writers whole. And we are certain that should the Apostle Peter come forth from his grave and enter the church of St. Anne at Beaupré, or the grotto of Lourdes, France, and while the people, encouraged by the priests, were imploring “St. Anne” and “Our Lady” to heal them, should he repeat the sermon he preached in the temple he would be arrested again, not by captains sent by Jewish priests, but by captains solicited by the priests of the pretended Peter, Pope Leo XIII. AMS November 15, 1894, page 353.2
But, says the Roman Catholic, there are miracles wrought; if they are not performed by the saints in whose name they are implored, by what power are the performed? AMS November 15, 1894, page 353.3
Miracles in themselves are to-day the infallible evidence of but one thing, and that one thing is power. The next question is, what power? Bringing down fire from heaven was once the sign of the true God. It is not the sign to-day for “the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to him to show unto his servants,” declares, in Revelation 13:12, that the time would come when a power would arise of which it is said, “He doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men.” Again, miracles in the time of the Saviour were an evidence of his Messiahship, for when the messengers came from John asking, “Art thou he that should come, or look we for another?” Jesus answered, “Go your way, and tell John what things ye have seen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached.” 2 Again Christ is referred to in the Scriptures of truth as “a man approved of God ... by miracles, and wonders, and signs.” 3 AMS November 15, 1894, page 353.4
But that miracles, and wonders, and signs are not to-day in themselves an infallible evidence of the truth of the cause in whose interests they are performed is shown from the following warning given by the Lord Jesus himself: “There shall arise false christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.” 4 Again he says in that revelation which God gave to him (Revelation 1:1), speaking of a certain power that would arise,—he “deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do.” 5 Thus it is seen that the three things, “miracles, wonders, and signs,” which were a proof that Jesus was “approved of God,” are by the same God and the same Jesus pointed out as signs of last-day antichristian powers. AMS November 15, 1894, page 353.5
But who perform these miracles, and signs, and wonders? Let the same revelation answer: “They are spirits of devils working miracles.” 6 Again the Lord by Paul warns of a falling away before the coming of the Lord, and in consequence, “the working of Satan with all power, and signs, and lying wonders.” 7 AMS November 15, 1894, page 354.1
If, then, miracles, and signs, and wonders are wrought when people invoke dead men,—instead of him whom God raised from the dead, and “who ever liveth to make intercession for us,“—they are miracles wrought by the spirit of “devils working miracles.” It is the beginning of the working of Satan with all power, and signs, and lying wonders. And this invoking dead men, instead of the living God, is itself one of the evidences of the second coming of Christ. At the time when some are waiting for the Lord, there is so remarkable a seeking unto the dead that the inspired prophet exclaims: “Should not a people seek unto their God? On behalf of the living should they seek unto the dead?” 8 AMS November 15, 1894, page 354.2
Thus it is seen that the Roman Catholic Church is honeycombed with the soul-destroying doctrines of Spiritualism, while at the same time claiming to be opposed to it. From all this it is seen that while claiming to be the true church of Christ, she is the habitation of devils. The miracles, and signs, and wonders to which she points as an evidence that she is the true church, instead of being wrought by her hundreds of thousands of dead “saints,” are wrought by devils, and are the evidences of her apostasy. AMS November 15, 1894, page 354.3
Thus it is seen how well prepared the papacy is for the fulfillment of the part which Jesus Christ declared it would act in the closing scenes of earth’s history. Here is the prophecy: “And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon [paganism], out of the mouth of the beast [Roman Catholicism], and out of the mouth of the false prophet [fallen Protestantism]. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.” 9 AMS November 15, 1894, page 354.4
“‘Twould Be Well Were It True” American Sentinel 9, 45, p. 354.
THE everywhere continued intriguing of priests and nuns in Indian school work to secure legislation at Washington, and foster opposition among the Indians to Government Indian schools and their insidious persuading of Indian parents to withhold their children from Government schools is fast reaching a point where there is no escape from the gage of battle. We have always acted on the defensive, and hesitate to take the opposite, but there seems no escape. The overwhelming evidence of our daily experience indicates that there is to be no peace. All concessions on our part for harmony’s sake are in vain. The Roman Catholic Church as such, works in unison with nobody.—The Red Man. AMS November 15, 1894, page 354.1
‘Twould be well were the concluding sentence of this paragraph from the Red Man true. But it is not. The Baltimore Lay Congress of 1889, adopted this:— AMS November 15, 1894, page 354.2
There are many Christian issues to which Catholics could come together with non-Catholics and shape civil legislation for the public weal. In spite of rebuff and injustice, and overlooking zealotry, we should seek an alliance with non-Catholics for proper Sunday observance. Without going over to the Judaic Sabbath, we can bring the mass over to the moderation of the Christian Sunday. AMS November 15, 1894, page 354.3
It would also be well if others would not work with the Catholic Church; but such is not the case. Too many so-called Protestants stand ready to coöperate with Rome so far as her interest and theirs are the same; then they cry, halt! But Rome goes right on, and they “turn white with fear and wrath” because of papal aggression in America! AMS November 15, 1894, page 354.4
“In a Maryland Jail for Conscience’ Sake” American Sentinel 9, 45, pp. 354, 355.
ROBERT R. WHALEY, a member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church at Church Hill, Queen Anne’s Co., Md., was committed to prison, Monday, Nov. 5, to serve a term of ninety days in the county jail at Centreville, for the crime of “Sabbath-breaking” and “doing bodily labor on the Lord’s day, commonly called Sunday.” AMS November 15, 1894, page 354.1
There were three cases against him. The first for working Sunday, June 3, 1894, and the other two for laboring the two succeeding Sundays. In one of the warrants the offense charged was “Sabbath-breaking,” and when Mr. Whaley was asked whether he would plead guilty or not guilty, he answered that he would plead, “not guilty” to the charge of Sabbath-breaking. Judge J. M. Robinson, the presiding judge, asked him if he worked on the day called Sunday, the first day of the week. Mr. Whaley answered that he had. To which the judge replied: “In this State they are the same. The Sabbath and Sunday are the same.” AMS November 15, 1894, page 354.2
Five witnesses were called by the State, all of whom testified to having seen Mr. Whaley hoeing in his garden, chopping and sawing wood in his back yard. All the witnesses volunteered the information that the defendant did not deny that he worked on Sunday, but admitted it and said he had the right to do it. After the prosecuting witnesses were examined the judged asked the defendant if he had any explanation to offer. AMS November 15, 1894, page 354.3
Mr. Whaley replied that he had, and in a calm dignified manner and in a tone of voice firm and impressive, he said in substance:— AMS November 15, 1894, page 354.4
I have a few words that I would like to say. This is something new to me. I was born and reared in Queen Anne’s County, and was never before the court until to-day. I have always endeavored to be a law-abiding citizen. But I am here in a matter between my Lord and myself. I would like to say to the court that I am a Seventh-day Adventist. I study my Bible, and my convictions are that the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord my God. AMS November 15, 1894, page 354.5
I was raised in the Sunday-school and I was taught the ten commandments. I was taught that the seventh day is the Sabbath, and then was taught to observe the first day in its stead. In my study of the Bible I can not find where God, the Lord Jesus, or the apostles ever changed the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day. I am conscientious in the matter and choose to stand for God and the right. I leave the case with the court. AMS November 15, 1894, page 354.6
The court room was crowded and this brief statement was listened to in marked silence. AMS November 15, 1894, page 354.7
Judge Robinson replied at some length to the effect that the law did not interfere with his rights to keep the seventh day, but only asked that he refrain from labor on Sunday, the first day of the week. He admitted that Sunday laws were enacted out of deference to the religious sentiment that regards the day as holy. He traced the present Sunday legislation back through the Church and State governments of modern Europe to Constantine’s time. He made use of every opportunity to sitmatize the Sabbath of the Lord as the “Jewish Sabbath;” and repeatedly asserted that the defendant was not conscientious in the matter of working on Sunday. Mr. Whaley remarked that he was, but the judge said he did not wish to argue the question and did not give him an opportunity to explain why he was conscientious regarding the necessity of working on Sunday. The judge spoke in a kindly manner, and repeatedly offered to suspend fines in the second and third cases “if the defendant would show a disposition to obey the law.” Of course Mr. Whaley could not compromise the matter and the judge fined him five dollars and costs in each of the three cases. At this writing the amount of the costs is not obtainable, but the amount does not affect the length of the term of imprisonment, as the time is limited by law to thirty days for each separate case. AMS November 15, 1894, page 354.8
Mr. Whaley is forty-two years old and has a wife and seven children dependent on him for support. Previous to his becoming a member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church he was a probationary member of the Methodist Church, and it is a very significant fact in this connection that four of the five prosecuting witnesses were members of the Methodist Church, and Mr. Whaley’s former brethren. AMS November 15, 1894, page 354.9
In the summer of 1893, Elders Robinson and Horton, Seventh-day Adventist ministers, came to Church Hill, a town of five hundred inhabitants, and held a series of meetings which resulted in the organization of a small church. The opposition was very bitter. Attempts were made, with partial success, to cut down the tent in which the meetings were held and at the same time the mob, with pious enthusiasm, came with tar and feathers with avowed intention of decorating Elder Horton and treating him to a free ride. AMS November 15, 1894, page 354.10
In the spring of 1894 work was commenced on a church building and Mr. Whaley, being a carpenter by trade, was engaged to build the church. Not wishing to give unnecessary offense and having work on his own premises which must be done, he refrained from working on the church on Sunday, and devoted the day to hoeing in his garden and chopping firewood as his neighbors often did, and as one of them actually did at the same time as Mr. Whaley did part of the work for which he was arrested. AMS November 15, 1894, page 354.11
The other case, that of William G. Curlitt, another Seventh-day Adventist belonging to the same church, was called, but as one of the State’s witnesses was absent the case was postponed until Wednesday. AMS November 15, 1894, page 354.12
Mr. Whaley’s wife is in perfect sympathy with her husband, and though loath to be separated from him for so long a time, yet she encouraged him to faithfulness, promising to care for the family of little ones as best she can. AMS November 15, 1894, page 354.13
“President Cleveland’s Thanksgiving Proclamation” American Sentinel 9, 45, p. 355.
THE President of the United States, following the example of every president, we believe, except Jefferson, has, in his assumed role of High Priest of the nation, the American Pontifex Maximus, as it were, has issued his proclamation, directing certain religious observances by all the people for the 29th day of the present month. This proclamation is as follows:— AMS November 15, 1894, page 355.1
The American people should gratefully render thanksgiving and praise to the Supreme Ruler of the Universe, who has watched over them with kindness and fostering care during the year that has passed. They should also, with humility and faith, supplicate the Father of all Mercies for continued blessings according to their needs, and they should, by deeds of charity, seek the favor of the Giver of every good and perfect gift. AMS November 15, 1894, page 355.2
Therefore I, Grover Cleveland, President of the United States, do hereby appoint and set apart Thursday, the twenty-ninth day of November, instant, as a day of thanksgiving and prayer, to be kept and observed by all the people of the land. AMS November 15, 1894, page 355.3
On that day let our ordinary work and business be suspended, and let us meet in our accustomed places of worship and give thanks to Almighty God for our preservation as a nation, for our immunity from disease and pestilence, for the harvests that have rewarded our husbandry, for a renewal of national prosperity, and for every advance in virtue and intelligence that has marked our growth as a people. AMS November 15, 1894, page 355.4
And with our thanksgiving let us pray that these blessings may be multiplied unto us, that our national conscience may be quickened to a better recognition of the power and goodness of God, and that in our national life we may clearer see and closer follow the path of righteousness. AMS November 15, 1894, page 355.5
And in our places of worship and praise, as well as in the happy reunions of kindred and friends, on that day let us invoke Divine approval by generously remembering the poor and needy. Surely He who has given us comfort and plenty will look upon our relief of the destitute and our ministrations of charity as the work of hearts truly grateful and as proofs of the sincerity of our thanksgiving. AMS November 15, 1894, page 355.6
Witness my hand and the seal of the United States, which I have caused to be hereto affixed. AMS November 15, 1894, page 355.7
Done at the city of Washington on the first day of November, in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and ninety-four, and of the independence of the United States the 119th. AMS November 15, 1894, page 355.8
[Seal.] GROVER CLEVELAND.
By the President: W. Q. GRESHAM, Secretary of State. AMS November 15, 1894, page 355.9
The terms of this proclamation are mandatory, but of course there being no penalty for non-observance of the prescribed religious services, the people will do as they please on the 19th instant, so far as observing the day sacred to the American stomach is concerned. But we are constrained to agree with Jefferson, who thus stated his reasons for not issuing the customary proclamation:— AMS November 15, 1894, page 355.10
I consider the Government of the United States as interdicted by the Constitution from intermeddling with religious institutions, their doctrines, discipline, or exercises.... But it is only proposed that I should recommend, not prescribe, a day of fasting and prayer. That is, that I should indirectly assume to the United States an authority over religious exercises, which the Constitution has directly precluded them from. It must be meant, too, that this recommendation is to carry some authority, and to be sanctioned by some penalty on those who disregard it; not, indeed, of fine and imprisonment, but of some degree of proscription, perhaps in public opinion. And does the change in the nature of the penalty make the recommendation less a law of conduct for those to whom it is directed? I do not believe it is for the interest of religion to invite the civil magistrate to direct its exercises, its discipline, or its doctrines; nor of the religious societies, that the General Government should be invested with the power of effecting any uniformity of time or matter among them. Fasting and prayer are religious exercises; the enjoining them, an act of discipline. Every religious society has a right to determine for itself the times for these exercises, and the objects proper for them, according to their own particular tenets; and this right can never be safer than in their own hands, where the Constitution has deposited it. AMS November 15, 1894, page 355.11
Jefferson, it will be remembered, was one of the framers of the Constitution, and probably knew its meanings as well as any man then living, and much better than any man now living. AMS November 15, 1894, page 355.12
“Back Page” American Sentinel 9, 45, p. 360.
READ on pages 354 and 356 how Adventists are imprisoned in Switzerland, and in America for refusal to keep the papal Sabbath, the “wild solar holiday of all pagan times.” Persecution of Sabbath-keepers is fast becoming world-wide. But it is only that which prophecy foretells, and Adventists have long expected; it is one of the “these things” to which our Lord referred when he said: “When these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.” Let the persecuted Adventists pray and sing praises in their prisons, even as Paul and Silas did in the Philippians jail, for though unseen by mortal eyes, He for whom they suffer, suffers with them and sustains them by his grace. It is a time to be “strong and very courageous.” AMS November 15, 1894, page 360.1
THE New York Sun thinks that if the Seventh-day Adventist farmer “of Tennessee who was arrested and imprisoned for plowing his land on a Sunday, had been able to carry his case up to the highest court, he might have gained it, on the ground that his conviction was in violation of the constitutional provision of religious freedom.” The Sun ought to know that the Supreme Court of the United States has, in effect, decided over and over again that the so-called constitutional guarantee of religious liberty in the Constitution of the United States is no guarantee at all, for it only inhibits Congress from making any “law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” The constitutional guarantee that “no person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury,” has been repeatedly held to apply only to cases arising under the laws of the United States. The principle is the same. The moral is that the Constitution of the United States contains much less ample provisions of liberty, both civil and religious, than many have supposed. AMS November 15, 1894, page 360.2
ANOTHER provision of the Constitution of the United States is that “the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it.” But the Alien Contract Labor law and the Chinese Exclusion act both suspend the writ so far as it relates to those affected by the laws referred to. Persons accused of being contract laborers or of being in the country in violation of the exclusion act, have no recourse to the courts. The decision of the Treasury Department in such cases is final. This fact illustrates the truth that no constitutional guarantee is of any value except it is sustained by public sentiment. This country is now ruled less by constitutional law than by public clamor. AMS November 15, 1894, page 360.3
AMONG our significant paragraphs is one entitled, “Cardinal Gibbons on the Basis of Unity,” which is worthy of note, not only because of the statements he makes regarding the desire among “Protestant” ministers for union, but because of his incidental admission that “the church” was corrupt in Luther’s day. The point which he endeavors to make against Luther and Calvin is easily answered. The cardinal admits that abuses and iniquity in “the church.” It is then enough to reply to his censure of the Reformers that the abuses and the iniquity were a necessary result of the system. Tetzel peddled indulgences in Germany under the authority of Leo X. AMS November 15, 1894, page 360.4