American Sentinel, vol. 5

March 20, 1890

“Front Page” American Sentinel 5, 12.

E. J. Waggoner

The German emperor has no small idea of his position. Nothing but his own exposition of Scripture will express it to his satisfaction. As thus set forth it is described as follows:- AMS March 20, 1890, page 89.1

I see in the people and the land intrusted to me by God, a talent which, as the Bible says, it is my duty to increase. I mean with all my strength to so trade with my talent that I will be enabled to add many another thereto. Those who help me I heartily welcome; those who oppose me I dash to pieces. AMS March 20, 1890, page 89.2

He is not the only one who holds such a view of the “talent” of government and governing. It is common to those who hold that governmental authority is of divine right. National Reformers and the American Sabbath Union in this country hold it in common with the German emperor and the Papacy in Europe. AMS March 20, 1890, page 89.3

“The Kangaroo and Other Stories” American Sentinel 5, 12.

E. J. Waggoner

In our report of the Washington City Sunday-law Convention a few weeks ago, we mentioned the reference of Rev. James Stacy, D. D., of Newman, Georgia, to the kangaroo. We could not, however, give the exact words. We have them now. AMS March 20, 1890, page 89.4

His address was written when it was delivered in the Convention, and it has since been printed in the Christian Statesman of February 20 and 27. In that of the 20th is the zoological specimen, in these words:- AMS March 20, 1890, page 89.5

The infidel cry, “Down with the Sabbath,” like the, bounding kangaroo springing from his lair, has fastened itself upon an unsuspecting people, and with unyielding pertinacity and without any evidence of satiety continues to draw its life blood. AMS March 20, 1890, page 89.6

That the reader may see how perfectly exact is Mr. Stacy’s figure we quote:- AMS March 20, 1890, page 89.7

The kangaroos are all vegetable feeders, browsing on grass and various kinds of herbage, the smaller species also eating roots. They are naturally timid, inoffensive creatures, but the larger ones when hard pressed will turn and defend themselves.-Encyclopedia Britannica. AMS March 20, 1890, page 89.8

The Sunday-law folks are as badly mixed in their zoology as they are in their Sabbath theology. And their characterization of the “infidel cry, Down with the Sabbath,” is just as wide of the mark as is their zoological idea of the kangaroo. No better description was ever given of the nature of the opposition to Sunday legislation than is given in the above true statement of the disposition of the kangaroo. Yes, sir, the kangaroo is an innocent creature if you let him alone, and so are we. AMS March 20, 1890, page 89.9

“Back Page” American Sentinel 5, 12.

E. J. Waggoner

For a living illustration of the influence of ecclesiastics in legislation, please read and inwardly digest the article by our London correspondent, page 91. AMS March 20, 1890, page 96.1

A new edition of the pamphlet “Civil Government and Religion” is now ready. It contains the new Amendment resolution and the new National Sunday bill, with discussions of them which brings the pamphlet up to date. Let it have the widest possible circulation. AMS March 20, 1890, page 96.2

There was laid on our table this week a copy of a German edition, illustrated, of the pamphlet “Civil Government and Religion.” We are glad to see it. It supplies a need that has been seriously felt for some time. We hope the friends of truth and good government will bring this to the notice of the German people as promptly and as widely as possible. 229 pages. Price, 35 cents. AMS March 20, 1890, page 96.3

Sunday evening, March 9, there was a Sunday-law meeting held in Bedford Street Methodist Episcopal Church, this city, Colonel Elliott F. Shepard was one of the speakers, and his speech was characteristic of himself and of the body of which he is president, as the following extract will show. This is all of his speech that needs to be reported:- AMS March 20, 1890, page 96.4

England and the United States are the greatest Nations in the world because they keep the fourth commandment. Germany conquered France because she was a better Sabbath-keeping Nation, and by this standard a Nation’s greatness may be judged. AMS March 20, 1890, page 96.5

At the annual meeting of the alumni and alumnae of Michigan University, resident in Washington, which was recently held at Willard’s, Representative Allen, of Michigan, made a ringing after-dinner speech. He declared that the University owed much of the marvelous progress which it has made to the fact that it has always maintained the proper distinctions between religion and the State. AMS March 20, 1890, page 96.6

This great institution of learning has kept an even course, in respect to these questions, through much adverse criticism. But, by the character of the men whom it has sent out to participate in the public councils of the States and of the Nation, it has proved most conclusively that a noble and intelligent Christianity can be developed without a distinctive theological training. It is a fact that, in these days of increasing subserviency to man-made theology, and of dangerous tendency to centralization in Church and in State, with a view to future coalition, the broadly educated men and women of such institutions as the Michigan University are needed to maintain the social, political, and moral equilibrium of national affairs. AMS March 20, 1890, page 96.7

The annual Convention of the National Reform Association is to meet in Lincoln Music Hall, Washington City, April 1, and continue three days. Rev. Jonathan Edwards is announced as one of the speakers, and he is to speak on the same subject that he did in the Convention of 1873. Hon. W. C. P. Breckinridge, who framed the Sunday bill for the District of Columbia is to preside at one of the sessions and make a speech. AMS March 20, 1890, page 96.8

Of all days in the year, the first day of April is the only one on which that Association can with perfect consistency meet. AMS March 20, 1890, page 96.9

In a speech in the United States Senate, March 5, in opposition to the Blair Educational bill, Senator Plumb, of Kansas, gave expression to an immense truth, and as important just now as it is immense, when he spoke the two following sentences:- AMS March 20, 1890, page 96.10

Whatever domain Government invades it dominates. The jurisdiction which it takes it keeps. AMS March 20, 1890, page 96.11

Let the people attach these two sentences to the Sunday Bills that are now before Congress, then carefully study the whole, and they will get a view of what the result would be if they became laws. By this too, those who favor these measures can see what they ask when they petition for the passage of such bills. AMS March 20, 1890, page 96.12

In the United States Senate March 3, Senator Spooner, of Wisconsin, very justly remarked that “the tendency of this day is too much to paternalism in government.” This is too true. The evil tendency seems to be in the very air. It crops out here and there and everywhere. It cannot be too carefully watched nor too strictly guarded against. Mr. Spooner further said that “no man can sit in Congress without being conscious of the fact that very often petitions come here for legislation on topics which are not justly the subject of legislation.” Sunday legislation is a sample of this, therefore let the petitions be rolled up by the thousands of names against such legislation. AMS March 20, 1890, page 96.13

In a Sunday-law meeting in this city, Tuesday evening, March 11, Rev. R. S. MacArthur, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church, said, as to the keeping of the Sabbath, that if he were in a Mohammedan country he could observe Friday; if in a country where Seventh-day Baptists predominated he could observe Saturday, though he would prefer Sunday; and that in this country, as Sunday is the day observed, people ought not to object when required to observe it. Yet he insisted that the Sabbath is of divine and everlasting obligation. AMS March 20, 1890, page 96.14

The same day, in the City Court, a Chinaman, about to be sworn as a witness, when asked what form of oath he would consider most binding, replied:- AMS March 20, 1890, page 96.15

Here in America I believe in the Bible, but in China I would believe in idols and my ancestors. AMS March 20, 1890, page 96.16

Dr. MacArthur’s views of moral obligation match quite well with those of that Chinaman. AMS March 20, 1890, page 96.17

The attempt to shut all places on Sunday except those which are run in the interests of religion and the Church, has led an enterprising proprietor in Boston to label his dime museum on Sunday as follows:- AMS March 20, 1890, page 96.18

Scientific Church. Grand concert and lecture on old maids and prize-fighters. Collection. 10 cents. AMS March 20, 1890, page 96.19

The genuine churches ought to be ashamed of such company as that. It may be replied that they are ashamed of it. Hardly; if they were ashamed of such company they would be ashamed to create it, as they do by the laws which they demand shall be enacted and enforced. So long as they are not ashamed to create such company, it cannot be said that they are ashamed of it after they have created it. AMS March 20, 1890, page 96.20

The Gospel in All Lands for March is one of the best numbers of that month which has ever been issued. Mexico is the subject of the “Monthly Missionary Concert,” which is especially interesting and cannot fail to increase the interest now felt in this country in Christian missions in that republic. “The Jesuit Campaign and Our Danger,” by Charles J. Little, LL.D., should be read by everybody, and the warning which it contains should be heeded. The author truthfully remarks that “the real danger lies not so much in the Jesuitism of Catholicism as in the Jesuitism of Protestantism,” by which he means the adoption by Protestants of Jesuitical practices, traditions, and methods. AMS March 20, 1890, page 96.21