General Conference Bulletin, vol. 7
Department Papers
M. C. WILCOX
THE CHURCH AND LEGISLATION
(A paper read in a Religious Liberty Department meeting.)
Shall we conduct aggressive campaigns for the repeal or modification of existing Sunday laws? GCB June 5, 1913, page 282.1
Great truths are simple, and fundamental, and divinely one. GCB June 5, 1913, page 282.2
PHOTO-Gateway, Mexican printing office
As man receives his all from God, to God man owes his all. GCB June 5, 1913, page 282.3
As the head of every man is Christ, it follows that the head of the church, composed of such men, is Christ. He is the All in all to his church; she is the representative of his fullness to the world. Of him it is said, “Who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” And through the same apostle it is said that “God gave him to be Head over all things to the church, which is his body the fulness of him that filleth all in all.” GCB June 5, 1913, page 282.4
The mission of Jesus Christ to this world is, therefore, the mission of his church. “As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.” And he, the Mighty One of God, came “to seek and to save that which was lost,” and not “to destroy men’s lives, but to save them,” “not to judge the world, but to save the world,” and to build upon the everlasting Rock-foundation his holy and eternal temple of living stones, that shall be “to the praise of the glory of his grace” in this world and in the world to come. All the capabilities, therefore, of the church, all her gifts, are to be bestowed and used “to preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,” and in him to perfect the saints, to complete the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ. GCB June 5, 1913, page 282.5
That he might fulfill his mission, there was given to our Lord the fullness of the eternal Spirit of might and power. But that Spirit came to no lazy, careless, matter-of-fact seeker; it came in response to the offering up of “prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared.” He recognized his utter helplessness and absolute dependence upon God. His own lips tell us: “The Son can do nothing himself:” “I can of mine own self do nothing;” “I do nothing of myself, but as my Father hath taught me I speak;” “The Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.” And thus he met and fulfilled his divinely appointed and divinely wrought mission. GCB June 5, 1913, page 282.6
As against to other one, the prince of darkness and malignity and craft plotted against Christ, to thwart his work for you and for me. He feared that death might cut short his unfinished task, but he sought no relief from human source or human tribunal. He sent no apostles, or legates, or ambassadors to Roman court of Jewish Sanhedrin. The invisible armies of God cared for that. When the executive agents of the devil were about to arrest or destroy, he became invisible to them, or they were spellbound by his words, for his “hour of was not yet come,” and until that time he was as safe upon the tempest-tossed Galilee as upon the peaceful slopes of Olivet. GCB June 5, 1913, page 282.7
To his church the mighty Victor of sin and death has assured the same power. “All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” GCB June 5, 1913, page 282.8
But to no lazy, careless, matter-of-fact seeking church comes the power. As the Master sought, so must his children seek; as he gave all, so must they; as he sanctified himself to save them, so must they with him, that they “may by all means save some.” In the fear of God and in his name they are to entreat, to admonish, to exhort all, “in season and out of season.” GCB June 5, 1913, page 282.9
In all the instruction given by the Great Teacher or his apostles, there is none regarding legislation lobbying, in empire, kingdom, or republic. We are to be in subjection to rules, to honor the king, to suffer for well-doing if need be; but in all this we may not compromise the truth of God. If human law contravenes the divine we must obey God rather than men. If the privilege be given us of speaking before legislators, rules, governors, kings, we may there, in the fear of God, for his glory and for the good of those men, preach righteousness, self-control, and judgment to come, under the great, dominant thought that we are there not to plead for ourselves but for righteousness, for truth, for the sake even of those who make the legal decisions which shall, on the one hand, bind and fetter the souls God desires to be free, or, on the other, take hands off from all religious questions, and leave the individual alone with his God. GCB June 5, 1913, page 282.10
Have we not said enough, nay, too much, about “our rights,” the rights which belong to us? It is true we have our rights, but the very tone of the contention oftentimes puts our plea on a selfish basis. Would it not be more effective if our own rights, our own interests, were eliminated, and the plea should be made for the sake of men before whom we plead, for the sake of the commonwealth they represent, for the sake of humanity in general, that is bound to suffer if evil principles prevail? GCB June 5, 1913, page 282.11
When we get to pleading for political measures in political ways, we shall invite suggestions purely political from the politicians; and from Christian protest and appeal against wrong we will stoop to lobbying for negative legislation, or repeal of laws; and then to the introduction of positive legislation, with all its attendant temptations to compromise Christianity in log-rolling, and other modern political methods, and thence to the “evil companionships” which “corrupt good morals.” GCB June 5, 1913, page 282.12
Seeking relief in politics is not conducive to seeking God. Even seeking God for success in politics may be expending our time and agonies (if there be such) in pleadings which God cannot grant. Expectancy in politics does not especially lead to expectancy in God. GCB June 5, 1913, page 282.13
God solemnly and strong reproved his people for taking counsel but not of him, for making a league but not of his Spirit, that sought to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to take refuge in the shadow of Egypt. Nay, more, he pronounced upon them the woe that was sure to follow, and declared that helped and helper would fall together, and that in that day the wordly staff would break and became a shaft to pierce. GCB June 5, 1913, page 282.14
We freely admit that there is a feeling of contagious exaltation in playing the game of politics. Our too worldly, patriotic souls would echo, under different governments than a theocracy, whether true or false, the slogan of “the sword of the Lord and of Gideon.” We feel to take off our hats to the battle-cry of the followers of Sobieski of Poland, “For God and King John!” as he hurled his power against the hitherto victorious Moslems. Forgetting the grievous wrongs of professed Christians, we are ready to cry, “Cross against Crescent!” and join the forces which would drive the Turk “from Belgrade to Bagdad,” or to Jerusalem, whether he wants to go there or not. We forget, in our this-world-liness, that in the mighty battles which have been won and are yet to be won. “the zeal of Jehovah of hosts must perform this.” GCB June 5, 1913, page 282.15
Granted that help has come from Syria and Egypt, and through some more modern sources, but at the best they have been but half-victories, obtained as of old by the despoliation of God’s temple of beauty, the compromise of principle and wanning faith in God and a dimming of spiritual vision. God’s church is still a long way from Zion when she is content to let a securing of good hide from her the better, or the better be a substitute for the best. GCB June 5, 1913, page 282.16
The Lord had prophesied of the return from the Babylonian captivity, and Cyrus is slow in doing what God predicted of him. Daniel, who might have sought human cooperation, betakes himself to prayer, and God’s invisible ambassadors are doubled, and the prince of Persia yields. Peter is cast into the prison of a Roman minion who has already slain a brother, and the petitions of the church to God are heard, and hands from God’s upper army open the doors and free the great apostle. GCB June 5, 1913, page 283.1
Paul and Barnabas, with backs bleeding, smarting, aching, pray and praise in the Philippian jail, and God sends an earthquake to free his servants. GCB June 5, 1913, page 283.2
Thomas R. Marshall, our honored Vice-President, recently and truly said:— GCB June 5, 1913, page 283.3
“The kingdom of God was to be in the earth and not of it. I hope soon all church organizations will make it their exclusive mission to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, and to reach the conclusion that the world is to be regenerated by regenerated men and women and not by regenerated laws and ordinances.... If there is a weakness in the church organization of today, that weakness springs from the fact that too many of the followers of the Nazarene are more interested in some particular phase of evil in civil life than they are in proclaiming the original sin of mankind and its only sure remedy—an undoubting, unqualified, and everlasting hold upon the gospel of the Galilean.... GCB June 5, 1913, page 283.4
“From my viewpoint, Jesus Christ was not a reformer in the usual and ordinary acceptation of that term. He lived when the greatest despotism that the world has ever known ruled the habitable globe. Yet the only recorded statement of anything he said with reference to the Roman Empire was, ‘Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s and unto God the things which are God’s.’ Slavery had reached the very depths of degradation, and yet his great apostle advised a runaway slave to return to his master. The Christ was not engaged in repealing bad laws nor in providing criminal punishment for the violators of good ones. GCB June 5, 1913, page 283.5
PHOTO-Aztec calendar stone—Mexico
“Jesus Christ was more than a reformer. He was a regenerator. The church is to stand as the representative of the kingdom of God on earth, and ‘except ye be born again, ye cannot enter into the kingdom.’ He brooded over Jerusalem as a hen broods over her chickens, and yet he never strove to make bad Jerusalem appear to be good Jerusalem.” GCB June 5, 1913, page 283.6
In “The Desire of Ages” I read:—“The government under which Jesus lived was corrupt and oppressive: on every hand were crying abuses,—extortion, intolerance, and grinding cruelty. Yet the Saviour attempted no civil reforms. He attacked no national abuses, nor condemned the national enemies. He did not interfere with the authority or administration of those in power. He who was our example kept aloof from earthly governments,—not because he was indifferent to the woes of men, but because the remedy did not lie in merely human and external measures. To be efficient, the cure must reach men individually, and must regenerate the heart. GCB June 5, 1913, page 283.7
“Not by the decisions of courts or councils or legislative assemblies, not by the patronage of worldly great men, is the kingdom of Christ established, but by the implanting of Christ’s nature in humanity through the work of the Holy Spirit.” GCB June 5, 1913, page 283.8
“The Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men.” His mighty, conquering hosts are invisible to unbelieving eyes, but they by God’s direction throw down the walls of Jericho, open the way through the Red Sea, march over the tops of the mulberry-trees to defeat the Philistines, or surround a single servant of God against the Assyrian hosts. Let us learn the lesson taught by our blessed Lord, My kingdom is not of this world, the forgetting of which caused one of the saddest incidents of the Reformation. The cause in Germany, under the rough, imperious, and not always agreeable Luther, leaned only on the arm of God and triumphed. That in Switzerland, under the strong, brave, tenderhearted, loyal, but mistaken Zwingle, met with a sad defeat and the death of the great reformer. Well says D’Aubigne:— GCB June 5, 1913, page 283.9
“An inconceivable infatuation had taken possession of the friends of the Bible. They had forgotten that our warfare is not carnal; and had appealed to arms and to battle. But God reigns; he punishes the churches and the people who turn aside from his ways. We have thus taken a few stones, and piled them as a monument on the battle-field of Cappel, in order to remind the church of the great lesson which this terrible catastrophe teaches. As we bid farewell to this sad scene, we inscribe on these monumental stones, on the one side, these words from God’s Book: ‘Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the Lord our God. They are brought down and fallen: but we are risen and stand upright.’ And on the other, this declaration of the head of the church, ‘My kingdom is not of this world.’ If, from the ashes of the martyrs at Cappel, a voice could be heard, it would be these very words of the Bible that these noble confessors would address, after three centuries, to the Christians of our days. That the church has no other king than Jesus Christ; that she ought not to middle with the policy of the world, derive from it her inspiration, and call for its swords, its prisons, its treasures; that she will conquer by the spiritual powers which God has deposited in her bosom, and, above all, by the reign of her adorable Head; that she must not expect upon earth thrones and mortal triumphs; but that her march is like that of her King, from the manager to the cross, and from the cross to the crown: such is the lesson that has crept into our simple and evangelical narrative.” GCB June 5, 1913, page 283.10
Then let the church protest; it is well: but let it be in the spirit of the gospel of Christ. Let her use weapons, but let those weapons be taken from the armory of heaven, the weapons spiritual. Let the church plead and entreat, but let it be for the one purpose of glorifying God and winning souls to Jesus Christ. Let the church help to write laws, but let these laws be the laws of God upon the hearts of men. Let the children of the church petition legislatures, but above all let them petition the throne of God, with strong crying and tears. Let the church use these attempts at religious legislation as opportunities to preach his gospel, his regenerating truth. GCB June 5, 1913, page 283.11
In “The Coming Crisis,” in Testimonies for the Church 5:452, we are exhorted: “Those who have access to God through Christ have important work before them. Now is the time to lay hold of the arm of our strength. The prayer of David should be the prayer of pastors and laymen: ‘It is time for thee, Lord, to work; for they have made void thy law.’ Let the servants of the Lord weep between the porch and the altar, crying, ‘Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine heritage to reproach.’ God has always wrought for his people in their greatest extremity, when there seemed the least hope that ruin could be averted. The designs of wicked men, the enemies of the church, are subject to his power and overruling providence. He can move upon the hearts of statesmen; the wrath of the turbulent and disaffected, the haters of God, his truth, and his people, can be turned aside, even as the rivers of water are turned, if he orders it thus. Prayer moves the arm of Omnipotence. He who marshals the stars in order in the heavens, whose word controls the waves of the great deep,—the same infinite Creator will work in behalf of his people if they call upon him in faith. He will restrain the forces of darkness, until the warning is given to the world, and all who will heed it are prepared for the conflict.. GCB June 5, 1913, page 283.12
It seems clear to me, therefore, that our duty lies not in seeking relief through political expedients, but in learning to use the opportunities which God’s providence presents in the proclamation of the true principles of liberty, in lifting men’s minds to the high table-lands of duty toward God and man, and in winning souls to Christ. But never should we stoop to the world level in policy, in method, in manner, in spirit. Let the hosts of evil rage. Let them challenge the truth of God. In the language of the poet we can say:— GCB June 5, 1913, page 284.1
“It is accepted,
The angry defiance,
The challenge of battle!
It is accepted,
But not with the weapons
Of war that thou wieldest.
GCB June 5, 1913, page 284.2
“Cross against corselet,
Love against hatred,
Peace-cry for war-cry!
Patience is powerful;
He that o’ercometh
Hath power o’er the nations!
GCB June 5, 1913, page 284.3
“Stronger than steel
Is the sword of the Spirit,
Swifter than arrows
The light of the truth is,
Greater than anger
Is love, and subdueth.
GCB June 5, 1913, page 284.4
“The dawn is not distant,
Nor is the night starless;
Love is eternal!
God is still God, and
His faith shall not fail us;
Christ is eternal.”
GCB June 5, 1913, page 284.5
WHAT SHALL WE DO WITH OUR GRADUATE NURSES?
(Paper read before the Medical Department meeting)
In the beginning, the writer would state that he has no way of knowing how many graduate nurses come from our sanitariums yearly, but we all know that a small army of young men and women complete their course in the several sanitariums each year, graduate, and are supposed to be ready for their life work. We believe that the number thus graduated from our several sanitarium training-schools would make an interesting item for our General Conference annual statistical report. GCB June 5, 1913, page 284.6
These young men and women, for the most part, have finished a three years’ course of training, and are ready to take up the active duties of life. What shall be done with these graduate nurses? What advice shall be given them? and into what lines of endeavor shall their services be directed? Of course in the beginning we must all recognize the fact that these young men and women at their graduation are not all the same quality and make up. They are not all possessed with the same ideals and purposes in life. There is just as much difference in a band of nurses as there is in any other band of workers. Some are strong and well physically; others have a very limited amount of physical strength. Some are brilliant in their studies and quick to acquire knowledge; others are not so brilliant, and during their training have never excelled in class work. Some are quick, active, and energetic; others are slower in their make-up, move deliberately, and are less energetic. Some are spiritual, and have been growing more spiritual through their three years of training; others at graduation really seem to have less hold upon God and less spiritual experience than they had when they entered the sanitarium, and at graduation have only an ordinary training and preparation for their future work. Other nurses seem well equipped in heart, mind, and soul, and are well prepared to go forth to the battles of life; at graduation another class seems to be standing about where they were when they began their training. At that time their ideals was to become a professional nurse, to give their life to this line of work, and receive the renumeration that goes with such a profession. At graduation they are still possessed with this idea, and seem to have nothing more before them; and quite a large number of the nurses from our sanitariums leave us to give their lives to merely professional work. GCB June 5, 1913, page 284.7
Now what shall we recommend to this graduating class? What counsel can be given them that will be of benefit to them, and also of benefit to the cause of God? First, let us state that it is the opinion of the writer that they should have counsel. When the young people from our churches go to our sanitariums and take a three years’ training it would seem as if at graduation they have some claim upon their State conference. They are our young people preparing for service, and it does seem as if it is reasonable to expect that our State conferences will follow with interest these young people while they are taking their training, and will prepared at their graduation to give them wise counsel. Right here we believe is a great fault in our State conferences, and as a result hundreds of our bright young people are drifting away into the world. Surely this cannot be as God would have it. GCB June 5, 1913, page 284.8
But what advice shall we give to the graduating class? What shall we do with our graduate nurses? With those who at graduation have impaired health perhaps the best advice we can give is, that, for the present if possible, they have a change of occupation; that they go to their homes for a considerable period of rest or change of work; that they go to the farm, and if possible build up their wasted energies and secure a good degree of strength and health before taking up the active duties of nursing. GCB June 5, 1913, page 284.9
To the graduate nurse who merely has before her the idea of being a professional nurse, what can we say? About all we can advise is this: That we keep in touch with such a one and trust that in God’s own time he will impress her heart by the Holy Spirit that she will see that there is something more to life than merely being a professional nurse. We should try with such cases to lift up before them a higher ideal. We should try in every way possible to broaden their vision and to enlarge their heart to take in, not only the physical needs of humanity, but their great need also of the religion of Jesus Christ, and the present truths for this day. What more can we do or say to the young men and women who have before them the ideal of being professional nurses? The writer knows of nothing more that can be done. GCB June 5, 1913, page 284.10
But now we come to the nurses who are graduating that have other ideals. It may be that they have not been brilliant in their studies. Possibly they have not always been as faithful in their work as they should have been, but they love God, want to make the most of their lives, and they see something beyond professional nursing. They have in their hearts a desire to be workers in the cause of Christ. They believe in the third angel’s message, and they want to do something to advance it. GCB June 5, 1913, page 284.11
Then there is the other class who have always been faithful in their work, faithful and conscientious in their studies, and during their training have been relied upon in times of emergency and test. GCB June 5, 1913, page 284.12
How can we use these two last-named classes? Of course we recognize the fact that our institutional work will always make certain demands upon our graduates. There are some nurses that will have to remain connected with our institutional work, but of course this number is relatively small as compared with the large number that graduate. GCB June 5, 1913, page 284.13
We will now mention a few ways in which we feel that the services of the graduates otherwise than those who remain in institutional work may be used to the glory of God and the advancement of his truth. GCB June 5, 1913, page 284.14
1. We believe that in every conference there could be employed to good advantage one or two graduate nurses that could go through our conferences, among our churches, and do a grand work in the homes of the people, among our sisters and young people. There is a line of work here that is needed, and is not being done. Such nurses would find a ready welcome to the homes of our people everywhere. They could instruct in simple treatments, in hygienic living, in matters of proper dress, but they should be sisters that have some years, a good balance, a large amount of discretion and carefulness. But we have such nurses, and here is an opportunity for a wide field of usefulness. Why should not our conferences, especially our large, strong organizations, send forth into our churches one or two careful, discreet nurses to labor along these lines? They might possibly make some mistakes, but so do other workers, and we have no reason to believe that a consecrated nurse will not take advice and counsel as cheerfully as other workers do. GCB June 5, 1913, page 284.15
2. Another line of work that these graduate nurses can do with the cooperation of our State conference is to open up in our large cities neat, simple treatment-rooms, where hygienic treatments could be administered to those of their sex. These treatment-rooms should be regarded as conference treatment-rooms, the nurses, in charge as conference workers, and the revenue coming from the treatments that they give should be turned to the conference. We cannot help but feel that if this line of endeavor were carefully studied and encouraged by our State conferences that many a little light might be burning throughout the field as the result of this line of work. GCB June 5, 1913, page 284.16
3. Another line of work in which our efficient, consecrated nurses could find a wide field of usefulness is our foreign work in such fields as India, China, Japan, Korea, the Philippine Islands, East and West Indies, and in South America. In many of these fields the people do not have within call the skilled physician, but disease is there in its most hideous form, and sickness and suffering abound. Is not here a wide field for the godly, well equipped nurse? The writer must confess that it has often been a wonderment to him that our foreign fields do not make stronger demands upon the home field for more of this class of workers. What is the reason that they do not? Possibly we may not understand the situation, having never visited the lands above mentioned; but it does seem as if a great number of God-fearing nurses might be used in these darker regions of earth to bring joy, light, and gladness, and also the truths of the third angel’s message, to many homes and hearts. Of course these nurses would go out under the direction of the Foreign Mission Board, and become a part of our regular organized work. GCB June 5, 1913, page 285.1
4. Should our State conferences not employ in our large cities visiting nurses?—nurses who could go among the poor, ignorant, and degraded, and bring to them the help that is so much needed? In our large cities are a class of people living, honest, but very poor, who would hail with joy the visit of a couple of God-fearing nurses. These nurses should always go two and two. Their work would be largely of a benevolent and philanthropic character. Perhaps no great financial remuneration would be realized from this line of work, but certainly it would be a grand work and a work upon which the blessing of God would be seen. “Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this, to visit the widows and the fatherless in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.” The fifty-eighth chapter of Isaiah lays before us very clearly the need of doing this work among the poor and lowly of earth. These nurses could visit the humble homes of the poorer classes, assist them in caring for the sick, instruct the mothers in a better care of their households, quietly teach them lessons of order and neatness, and at the same time shed abroad in many a home the light of the gospel of Christ. It seems as if all through this country there should be an army of faithful, discreet nurses in this line of work. Why should all the tithe of a State conference be paid to the ministers, licentiates, and Bible workers, and such an important work as this be left undone? GCB June 5, 1913, page 285.2
5. Another line of work that the graduate nurses can do is to go into our cities with our evangelists and connect with them in their tent and hall efforts. These nurses, however, when this is done, should not go out as Bible workers, but as medical missionary workers. The medical missionary work should be placed in the foreground, and, if it is rightly done, will open doors in many a home that otherwise will be closed. In the tent or hall nurses could give talks on rational treatments, right living, proper dress, and as they are invited to the homes of the people, could assist in the care of the sick, take cases of nursing, and at the same time exert an influence in favor of present truth. As questions are asked, Bible readings could be given, but this should not be their leading work. Their work would be to open the door for others possibly who would be more qualified to deal with the evangelical side of the message. Such workers, if they are well prepared during their three years’ training, and if they are thoroughly consecrated to God, may be most valuable workers in our large cities. These workers, of course, should go out as conference workers, receiving their remuneration from the treasury, and having their accounts audited the same as other workers. Here, too, we find a large field for the graduate nurse. GCB June 5, 1913, page 285.3
PHOTO-Wabash Valley Sanitarium, Lafayette, Ind.
But nothing will be done along the lines above enumerated until our State conferences arouse to the situation, and regard these young men and women as a most valuable asset to their work. At present we are getting comparatively little help from our sanitariums along the line of home conference workers. Very few are in our conferences under conference remuneration and direction. Year by year these young people are drifting away from our organized work, and in view of the fact that they are not being encouraged by our conferences, there is grave danger that many will drift to the world, and finally give up the truth. GCB June 5, 1913, page 285.4
At present the picture presented of what our graduate nurses are doing for the cause of present truth is a sad one to the writer. May the Lord give us wisdom to first know “what Israel ought to do,” and then with courage, strength, and faith, lay hold of this trained talent and utilize it for the furtherance of the blessed truth that we love. GCB June 5, 1913, page 285.5
W. B. WHITE.