General Conference Daily Bulletin, vol. 1
November 18, 1887
VOLUME 1. - OAKLAND, CAL., - NUMBER 5
Fifth Day’s Proceedings
FORENOON
AT 9:30 a meeting of the Educational Society was called to order by Elder G. I. Butler. Elder A. T. Jones offered prayer. In absence of the regular Secretary, Elder Smith was appointed Secretary pro tem. The report for the last meeting was read. The Chairman then called for reports from colleges. Brother A. R. Henry replied that in the haste while leaving Battle Creek the reports of the Battle Creek College had by mistake been left behind. He made some remarks on the report of last year and said that the real estate and personal property had been increased, one new building being put up at a cost of nearly $20,000. The college this year had come nearer paying its own expenses than ever before. They have a full corps of teachers and nearly 300 students. GCDB November 18, 1887, page 14.1
Great improvement has been made in the manual labor department. This is especially noticed in the tent-making. A son of Brother Armstrong, the noted tent maker of Chicago, is there giving practical instruction in the trade. Some $2,000 has been invested in the printing department, and about 100 students are learning that trade. The carpentering department is also now in successful operation. GCDB November 18, 1887, page 14.2
Brother Sisley said that last year it was found necessary to make an addition to the college building at a cost of $16,000. GCDB November 18, 1887, page 14.3
This year a new boarding-house had been constructed. This building is four stories high, including the basement, where the dining-rooms are. The dining-hall is 56 x 96 feet, and could accommodate 300 persons. The college has now capacity to board and room 300 students. The cost of these new buildings is $24,000. GCDB November 18, 1887, page 14.4
One of the greatest difficulties that the college has had to wrestle with during the past year has been the manual labor department. Pupils who come for a very short time to prepare themselves to work in the cause, wish to study all they can, and do not want to learn any trade. The difficulty has been to convince them that some sort of labor is also essential to their physical welfare. But these difficulties are being overcome, and the outlook is better now than it has ever been before. The speaker urged that there was great need for another department to the college, to serve as a primary school for the training of Bible-workers to go into our city missions. GCDB November 18, 1887, page 14.5
Elder Butler made a few remarks on the value of a good education. There has been difficulty in the past in finding a suitable principal for the school, but they have been fortunate enough to obtain the services of Prof. W. W. Prescott, and now the school is on a good standing, and very gratifying results are being obtained. GCDB November 18, 1887, page 14.6
Dr. Kellogg spoke of the benefits of manual labor, from a physiological standpoint. It is absolutely necessary to health that young men who have been accustomed to labor, should have this kind of exercise while doing mental work. GCDB November 18, 1887, page 14.7
Elder Farnsworth, who has been staying at the college for some time, said that he noticed that this indisposition to take an interest in the manual labor was gradually growing less and less among the students. The domestic work had been especially useful to the students. The religious influence at the school was very good; many converts had been made in the past year among those who had no knowledge of the love of God. GCDB November 18, 1887, page 14.8
Sister White spoke at length on the benefits to be derived from manual training. Practical labor is essential to a religious and moral training, and the manual training department is the greatest blessing that this department has. We are not to expect it to be a paying business here, but the Judgment alone will reveal the good that has been done by this work. GCDB November 18, 1887, page 14.9
The Chair then appointed R. M. Kilgore, D. T. Jones, and A. J. Breed a Committee on Nominations, and W. C. Sisley, D. H. Lamson, and S. H. Lane a Committee on Resolutions, after which the meeting adjourned. GCDB November 18, 1887, page 14.10
AFTERNOON
The song, “Coventry,” was sung to open the sixth meeting of the Conference, at 3 o’clock, and Elder U. Smith offered prayer. After the reading of the minutes, the consideration of the resolutions that were under discussion when the previous meeting adjourned, was made the order of the day. The ninth resolution was then read, and Elder A. T. Jones spoke to it at length. Following is a summary of his speech:- GCDB November 18, 1887, page 14.11
I am glad that this resolution has been presented. I think it is most timely. The resolution speaks of “oppressive Sunday laws,” and that we shall “oppose the passage of all such laws.” But knowing, as we do, the spring, the nature, and the operation of Sunday laws, we know full well that there are no Sunday laws but oppressive ones. Therefore this pledges us to oppose the passage of all Sunday laws. This I believe is the position that we should occupy. We should occupy a position of firm and decided protest against the passage of all such laws. We must be Protestants indeed, protesting against every vestige of Catholic institutions. And there is great danger of our brethren being deceived on this very point. There is danger of our consenting to the passage of Sunday laws, if only we may be exempt from their penalties. But when we assent to the passage of Sunday laws, even with exemption in our favor, we tacitly admit the justice of such laws, and the right of the State to enact them. But when we do that, and then the State exercises its equal right to repeal the exemption clauses, then we find ourselves in a trap, and caught by an oppressive law which we have confessed the State had the right to enact. By consenting to Sunday laws we virtually confess that if it were only Sabbath instead of Sunday that was enforced by the law, it would be all right. GCDB November 18, 1887, page 15.1
Canright has already thrown this at us. He has said, “You oppose Sunday laws, but if they were only Sabbath laws, you would not have a word to say.” Is that true, brethren? Would we not oppose State laws enforcing the Sabbath? If not, why not? We must oppose Sunday laws on the same principle that we would oppose Sabbath laws - upon the principle that the State has no right to enact any such law, because Caesar has no right to interfere in anything that pertains to God. Christ said, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” The Sabbath is wholly of God. It is “the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” What then can Caesar - the civil power - have to do with it? Just nothing at all. That which is God’s must be rendered to God. That which is Caesar’s must be rendered to Caesar. GCDB November 18, 1887, page 15.2
Christ has made this distinction, and it must be forever recognized. We are not to render to Caesar that which is God’s, neither are we to render to God, by Caesar, that which is God’s. There is that which must be rendered to God, and with that the civil Government can have nothing at all to do - it lies between man and God alone. There is that, also, which must be rendered to Caesar - the civil Government - but it is that which is entirely civil. We owe to civil Government respectful obedience, allegiance, tribute, and all things that justly pertain to men in their relations to one another. “The powers that be are ordained of God.” This is a text that is made much of by the National Reformers. It is true. The powers that be are ordained of God. But for what are those powers ordained? Read Romans 13, and you will see that it is wholly in things that pertain to men’s relations to their fellowmen. Paul says, “Owe no man anything,” and he refers alone to the second table of the law, and gives no hint of anything in the first table. Therefore, the powers that be are not ordained to anything that pertains to the first table of the law of God. In that word, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s,” Christ made Church and State forever separate, and so must they forever remain. GCDB November 18, 1887, page 15.3
The National Reformers take the words, “The powers that be are ordained of God,” and make these powers to be so ordained in all things that pertain to God and man. But Nebuchadnezzar’s power was ordained of God, and that of his son and his grandson; then the power of Cyrus was ordained of God; the power of Sennacherib, before, was ordained of God. The power of Nebuchadnezzar was ordained of God, but when he presumed to use that power in controlling the worship of men, and compelling them to fall down before a graven image, God very soon gave him to understand that his power was not ordained to any such purposes as that. The powers that be are ordained of God, but only in things pertaining to man’s relations to his fellow-men; and whenever civil Government proposes to legislate in religious things, it sets itself against the word of God, as well as against the Constitution of the United States. GCDB November 18, 1887, page 15.4
Right here, however, they come in with the deceptive plea that it is only the civil Sunday that they want the State to establish by law, and not anything at all connected with the religious aspects of the day. This was the plea of the San Francisco Sunday-law Convention. And they actually argued there that they dared not ask the Legislature to pass a Sabbath law, because it would be thrown out at once as religious legislation, but if they should only go to the Legislature and ask for a civil Sunday law they would stand a chance of getting it. They deliberately proposed to secure a religious Sunday by asking the Legislature for a civil Sunday. The truth of the whole matter is, there is no such thing as a civil Sunday. It is wholly ecclesiastical; it is wholly a church affair. Yes, and this shows, too, that there can be no such thing as just legislation on Sunday laws by any power on earth. We know that Sunday is not commanded of God. We know, also, that Sunday does not find its spring in civil Government. We know that it springs solely from the Church of Rome. Therefore it has no obligations that pertain either to God or to Caesar. Its authority lies just between the two in the mystery of iniquity - the Church of Rome. GCDB November 18, 1887, page 15.5
He then presented evidences showing that the long list of eminent vice-presidents of the National Reform Association is only a figure-head, being used solely for the influence those names exert in securing the Association a standing that they could not attain to without. He also quoted quite extensively from the statements of the leading National Reformers, made with direct reference to ourselves, showing that they propose to allow us no rights at all under their Sunday laws; the sense of all being summed up in the statement of Dr. McAllister, “Let not that day be publicly desecrated by anyone; by officer of the Government, or by private citizen, high or low, rich or poor;” and in the words of W. J. Coleman, “These seventh-day people are assuming proportions altogether inconsistent with their importance.” GCDB November 18, 1887, page 16.1
Elder E. J. Waggoner said: The resolution calls for a committee to assist in the defense of those who may suffer persecution under oppressive Sunday laws, and to aid in opposition to such laws. This is good, and erelong that committee will find that it has plenty of work to do. But there is something for us to do before their time for work comes. It will not do to wait until the laws are formed, and then act, but we must enlighten the people. We may possibly save ourselves; but if we sit in indifference until Sunday laws have been passed, it will be too late to help many honest people who might now be warned. The oppression that is coming will drive many people from the ranks of Seventh-day Adventists, but it will also drive others in. When the disciples of Christ were fleeing from him because his cause seemed to be almost crushed out, Nicodemus came forward and espoused the cause. For years it has been preached that Church and State would be united, and oppressive Sunday laws would be made. We had no evidence of this but the prophecy. Now that we see the prophecy fulfilling, it seems as though we were satisfied, since the predictions are coming true. GCDB November 18, 1887, page 16.2
But perilous times are before us, and we want not only to be on our guard, but we want to be active in warning others. He then read the following from “Great Controversy,” Vol. 4: “Those who honor the Bible Sabbath will be denounced as enemies of law and order, as breaking down the moral restraints of society, causing anarchy and corruption, and calling down the judgments of God on the earth. Their conscientious scruples will be pronounced obstinacy, stubbornness, and contempt of authority.” This was demonstrated in the Sunday-law campaign in California five years ago. Those who would not work for the Sunday law were traduced in the vilest manner, and accused of being in league with rum shops and brothels. But we shall have to stand this again, because we cannot favor Sunday laws, no matter what the pretext. GCDB November 18, 1887, page 16.3
Reference was again made to the “Great Controversy,” where it is said that “as the crowning act in the great drama of deception, Satan himself will attempt to personate Christ,” that the people will bow before him in adoration, and that he will perform miracles, and will say that the Sabbath has been changed by divine authority, and that they who persist in keeping holy the seventh day are blaspheming his name. Already we see the fulfillment of this approaching. The National Reformers claim that the success of their movement will usher in the millennium, that it will elevate Christ to his rightful place as king of nations. When that time comes, and Satan, professing to be Christ, works miracles to deceive, and receives the homage of the people - then to speak against him, and to attribute his miracles to the power of Satan, will be said, by those who acknowledge him as Christ, to be the sin against the Holy Ghost, the unpardonable sin. For this treason against what will be called the kingdom of Christ, the penalty will be death. GCDB November 18, 1887, page 16.4
To show that this result will ensue, the speaker quoted from the Christian Statesman, where, in answer to the statement that not only infidels, but many Christians, would refuse to recognize the proposed religious Government, the reply was made that the time would yet come when Christ would say of his enemies who would not have him to rule over them, “Bring them hither and slay them before me.” GCDB November 18, 1887, page 16.5
Statements were read from Spiritualist papers, showing that Spiritualism already professes to be the coming of Christ, and that Spiritualists are looking for a great manifestation, which they call the coming of the Messiah. GCDB November 18, 1887, page 16.6
To show that when that manifestation does take place, men of all classes will bow to Satan as they should to Christ, and will obey his requirements, the speaker read the following extract from a letter from an avowed infidel who had written:- GCDB November 18, 1887, page 16.7
“Now I think I can safely say if the [National] Reform movement succeeds, and God will sign and seal his edicts so that there can be no doubts about their authority, the unbelievers will cheerfully obey them; and if Jesus will come and sit visibly on the throne where we can see him and talk to him there will be no unbelievers, and all will obey.” GCDB November 18, 1887, page 16.8
An extract was read from an editorial in the National City Record, in which Spiritualism as the work of the devil was under consideration. The editor had written: “We have not yet been allowed the privilege of witnessing a materialization of the dead; ... but whether they are the agents of the devil or not, so the spirits had the appearance of being good spirits it would matter not, we would go a long way to see the same, and forever after worship the devil.” GCDB November 18, 1887, page 17.1
Thus the question is answered as to how this National Reform Sunday movement will be able to carry against the opposition of so many infidels and Spiritualists. There will be no opposition, for Spiritualism will gather them all in. GCDB November 18, 1887, page 17.2
In reply to a question as to whether laws against Sunday saloons should not be favored, it was held that Sunday is entitled to no recognition whatever. Laws against Sunday saloons are not temperance laws, because the same votes that can shut up saloons on Sunday, can, if backed by temperance sentiment, shut them up every day. Elder D. T. Jones stated that the oppressive Sunday law in Arkansas was enacted ostensibly for the sole purpose of closing saloons; but Sabbath-keepers suffered the most bitter persecution under it; while only two men who did not keep Sunday were indicted, and one of them was acquitted, and the case against the other was dismissed. And yet hundreds of non-Sabbath-keepers worked on Sunday. No matter how mild the intentions of those who frame a law, when once it is enacted, it is out of their hands; the most malicious bigot can secure its execution. GCDB November 18, 1887, page 17.3
Elder Rees stated that while there are now no prosecutions in Tennessee, for working on Sunday, it is only because of the favor of some of the grand jury. The spirit of persecution is rife. Men had acted the spy upon him at his boarding-place when he was holding meetings, to see if they could not find him working so as to inform on him. And when they found nothing, they had tried to kill him. They hid in the woods, and followed him for a hundred yards, throwing stones at him, and then they fired a dozen shots at him with revolvers. He said that in fourteen general engagements in which he took part in the war, he never came so near being killed as he did last winter. And now it transpires that every one of those men who sought his life because he preached the seventh-day Sabbath, were church members, and their minister was at their head leading them on. GCDB November 18, 1887, page 17.4
Elder Farnsworth strongly urged all to read and study the American Sentinel, that they might be intelligent in regard to the coming conflict. GCDB November 18, 1887, page 17.5
Elder Butler said that he had been asked what position should be taken by our people when, if they continue their ordinary labor on Sunday, they will be fined or imprisoned. Should they suffer the penalty? or should they avoid it by refraining from labor, or by working secretly? This he said would soon be the question to be decided. After a little general discussion, it was voted to refer resolutions four and nine, covering the whole matter of Sunday legislation and our relation to it, to a committee of nine, who should consider the matter carefully, and make a report which should cover the whole subject. It was also voted that this committee should plan for the holding of a class on the subject of National Reform, during this session of Conference. The President appointed the following persons as said committee:- GCDB November 18, 1887, page 17.6
U. Smith, A. T. Jones, E. J. Waggoner, L. McCoy, D. T. Jones, J. M. Rees, J. N. Loughborough, E. W. Farnsworth, A. R. Henry. GCDB November 18, 1887, page 17.7
The remaining resolutions were then adopted, and the meeting adjourned to the call of the Chair. GCDB November 18, 1887, page 17.8
At 7 o’clock the matter of canvassing for denominational literature was discussed by Brethren C. Eldridge, F. E. Belden, and E. M. Morrison. GCDB November 18, 1887, page 17.9