THE weapons of Christian “warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.” ^{12 Corinthians 10:4. For all other foot notes see next page.}AMS March 5, 1896, page 73.1

When the gospel commission was given, eighteen hundred years ago, to a handful of despised Jews, Rome ruled the world; and it was a capital offense to introduce into that empire any new religion.AMS March 5, 1896, page 73.2

The gospel commission challenged, therefore, the authority of the Cesars. It said: “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” ^{2Mark 16:15.} Rome said: “Whoever introduces new religions, ... shall, if belonmging to the higher rank, be banished; if to the lower, punished with death.” ^{3Neander’s “History of the Christian Religion,” Vol. I. Sec. 1, Part 1, Div. 3, par. 2.}AMS March 5, 1896, page 73.3

But Christ said, “Go;” and his followers obeyed. He organized no army to accompany them; he provided no safe-conduct bearing the seal of the empire; he simply said: “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” ^{4Matthew 28:20.} It was the word of God against the powers of earth; and that word which “is quick [living], and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword,” ^{5Hebrews 4:12.} “went forth conquering, and to conquer.” ^{6Revelation 6:2.}AMS March 5, 1896, page 73.4

As the powers of earth had persecuted the Master, so they also persecuted his servants. As foretold by the Saviour, the world hated them even as it hated him. The authority of Rome, wielding fire and sword, was repeatedly invoked against the gospel and those who proclaimed it; but its progress was irresistible. The more Rome oppressed the truth the more it spread. “The blood of the martyrs was the seed of the Church.”AMS March 5, 1896, page 73.5

At last “Christianity” ascended the throne of the Cesars and swayed the scepter of the world; but it was no longer the Christianity of Christ. His weapons “are not carnal, but mighty through God.” But now the Church relinquished “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God,” ^{7Ephesians 6:17.} and seized a material sword. She had exchanged the power of God for the power of the State, and in so doing had apostasized from Christ.AMS March 5, 1896, page 73.6

From century to century a worldly church, living in adulterous union with the kings of the earth, lending herself to their ambitions and receiving in return such power as they had to give, sank deeper and deeper into the slough to spiritual darkness; until at the close of the fifteenth century she made merchandize of the grace of God and waxed rich from the sale of indulgencies, issuing licenses to sin and granting “pardon” for money! Notwithstanding Peter’s rebuke to Simon, the sorcerer, ^{8The doctrine and the sale of indulgences were powerful incentives to evil among an ignorant people. True, according to the Church, indulgences could benefit those only who promised to amend their lives, and who kept their word. But what could be expected from a tenet invented solely with a view to the profit that might be derived from it? The venders of indulgences were naturally tempted, for the better sale of their merchandise to present their wares to the people in the most attractive and seducing aspect. The learned themselves did not fully understand the doctrine. All that the multitude saw in them was, that they permitted men to sin; and the merchants were not over eager to dissipate an error so favorable to their sale.—D’Aubigne’s “History of the Reformation,” Book I, chap. 3.} the gift of God was offered in exchange for filthy lucre.AMS March 5, 1896, page 73.7

And then came the Reformation. It was not a schism in the Roman Catholic Church; it was not a revolt against the pope of Rome; it was not primarily even an effort to attain to purity of doctrine: it was a return to the simplicity of the gospel, the acceptance of “the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe.” ^{9Acts 8:18-23.}AMS March 5, 1896, page 73.8

Martin Luther’s soul, panting after God even as the “hart panteth after the water brooks,” ^{10Romans 8:22.} failing to find him in penances, discerned him in the still small voice which whispers, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” ^{11Psalm 42:1.} That moment the Reformation began in his own heart, and the story of his experience welling up to his lips and flowing from his tongue proved to be to other thirsty souls the same gospel message given by the apostles fifteen centuries before, and the same divine power was in it.AMS March 5, 1896, page 73.9

As depicted in our illustration, the wrath of evil men was stirred, but God overruled it for his glory. The divine word was fulfilled: “Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain.” ^{12Acts 16:31.} The clenched fist might be thrust forth, but it touched not the devoted preacher of the gospel of justification by faith; the half-drawn sword clung, as it were, to the scabbard; the hand that grasped the murderous knife seemed palsied by the power of the word of God; the divine promise, “Lo, I am with you always,” was fulfilled, and all the authority of Leo X., backed up by the power of Charles V., was not sufficient to cope with the simple word of salvation spoken by Luther and his co-workers.AMS March 5, 1896, page 73.10

“Our first object,” said the Reformer, “must be to win men’s hearts; and for that purpose we must preach the gospel. To-day the word will fall into one heart, to-morrow into another, and it will operate in such a manner that each one will withdraw from the mass and abandon it. God does more by his word alone than you and I and all the world by our united strength. God lays hold upon the heart, and when the heart is taken, all is won.” ^{13Psalm 76:10.}AMS March 5, 1896, page 74.1

“I will preach, discuss, and write; but I will constrain none, for faith is a voluntary act. See what I have done! I stood up against the pope, indulgences, and papists, but without violence or tumult. I put forward God’s word; I preached and wrote—this was all I did. And yet while I was asleep, or seated familiarly at table with Amsdorff and Melancthon, ... the word that I had preached overthrew popery, so that neither prince nor emperor has done it so much harm. And yet I did nothing: the Word alone did all. If I had wished to appeal to force, the whole of Germany would perhaps have been deluged with blood. But what would have been the result? Ruin and desolation both to body and soul. I therefore kept quiet, and left the word to run through the world alone. Do you know what the devil thinks when he sees men resort to violence to propagate the gospel through the world? Seated with folded arms behind the fire of hell, Satan says, with malignant looks and frightful grin: ‘Ah! how wise these madmen are to play my game!’ But when he sees the word running and contending alone on the field of battle, then he is troubled, and his knees knock together; he shudders and faints with fear.” ^{14D’Aubigne’s “History of the Reformation,” Book IX, chap. 8.}AMS March 5, 1896, page 74.2

But having attained popularity some of the Reformers, like the bishops of the early church, forget the true source of power and fell. “The Reformation,” says D’Aubigne, “was accomplished in the name of a spiritual principle. It had proclaimed for its teacher the Word of God; for salvation, faith; for king, Jesus Christ; for arms, the Holy Ghost: and had by these very means rejected all worldly elements. Rome had been established by the law of a carnal commandment; the Reformation, by the power of an endless life.AMS March 5, 1896, page 74.3

“If there is any doctrine that distinguishes Christianity from every other religion, it is its spirituality. A heavenly life brought down to man—such is its work; thus the opposition of the spirit of the gospel to the spirit of the world, was the great fact which signalized the entrance of Christianity among the nations. But what its Founder had separated, had soon come together again; the Church had fallen into the arms of the world, and by this criminal union it had been reduced to the deplorable condition in which we find it at the era of the Reformation.AMS March 5, 1896, page 74.4

“Thus one of the greatest tasks of the sixteenth century was to restore the spiritual element to its rights. The gospel of the Reformers had nothing to do with the world and with politics. While the Roman hierarchy had become a matter of diplomacy and a court intrigue, the Reformation was destined to exercise no other influence over princes and people than that which proceeds from the gospel of peace.AMS March 5, 1896, page 74.5

“If the Reformation, having attained a certain point, became untrue to its nature, began to parley and temporize with the world, and thus ceased to follow up the spiritual principle that it had so loudly proclaimed, it was faithless to God and to itself.AMS March 5, 1896, page 74.6

“Henceforward its decline was at hand.AMS March 5, 1896, page 74.7

“It is impossible for a society to prosper if it be unfaithful to the principles it lays down. Having abandoned what constituted its life, it can find naught but death.AMS March 5, 1896, page 74.8

“It was God’s will that this great truth should be inscribed on the very threshold of the temple he was then raising in the world; and a striking contrast was to make this truth stand gloriously prominent.AMS March 5, 1896, page 74.9

“One portion of the reform was to seek the alliance of the world, and in this alliance find a destruction fill of desolation.AMS March 5, 1896, page 74.10

“Another portion, looking up to God, was haughtily to reject the arm of the flesh, and by this very act of faith secure a noble victory.AMS March 5, 1896, page 74.11

“If three centuries have gone astray, it is because they were unable to comprehend so holy and so solemn a lesson.” ^{15D’Aubigne’s “History of the Reformation,” Book XIV, chap. 1.}AMS March 5, 1896, page 74.12

It was not to be expected that, emerging from the darkness of Romanism, the Reformers would step at once into the full light of the gospel of Jesus Christ; but the world had a right to expect that they and those who should come after them would go on unto perfection.AMS March 5, 1896, page 74.13

The protest of the German princes was the declaration of independence that made possible our own American declaration of God-given, inalienable rights; and cherished and practiced as it might have been, it would have proved under God an emancipation proclamation to a world enslaved by ecclesiasticism.AMS March 5, 1896, page 74.14

But after more than three and a half centuries what do we see?—Religion and religious institutions established by law everywhere, and the papacy fast recovering her lost prestige. Nearly all of Europe has religious establishments supported by taxation. Even in France the priests are stipendiaries of the State. While in our own land the Sunday institution, the “test of all religion,” ^{16Dr. W. W. Everts (Baptist). In a State Sunday convention at Elgin, Ill., Nov. 8, 1887.} is enforced upon all by civil statute, and a powerful lobby is demanding of Congress, under threat of political boycott, the enactment of additional measures of religious legislation. Sad as is the fact, three centuries, yea, nearly four centuries, have gone astray “because they were unable to comprehend so holy and so solemn a lesson” as the gospel commission and the protest of the German princes; and because they knew not “the Scriptures, nor the power of God.” ^{17Matthew 22:29.}AMS March 5, 1896, page 74.15

“Religious Legislation” American Sentinel 11, 10, p. 74.

ATJ

RELIGIOUS legislation is always legislation against the true religion. It cannot possibly be anything else.AMS March 5, 1896, page 74.1

Religious legislation means enforced religious observances. Thus it is contrary to Christianity, which means religious observances through faith.AMS March 5, 1896, page 74.2

The scope of human legislation falls infinitely short of the scope of divine truth; and Christianity is divine truth. It is as high as the throne of God and as broad as the universe. What folly, therefore, for finite man to undertake to enforce it, in any respect, by legislation which is the expression of his own finite conceptions!AMS March 5, 1896, page 74.3

Such legislation would contract the infinite to the finite, and drag the divine down to the level of the human, instead of elevating the human to the level of the divine, as Christianity seeks to do.AMS March 5, 1896, page 74.4

What folly, also, and worse than folly, for fallen man to set his sin-stained hand to the infinitely pure and holy law of God! For Christianity is a law; even “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.” Romans 8:2. Such an act is a repetition, in aggravated form, of the folly of Uzza in trying to steady with his hand the ark of God. See 1 Chronicles 13:9, 10.AMS March 5, 1896, page 74.5

The force which directs Christianity in this world and makes it effective in the uplifting of mankind, is the holy Spirit. It alone is competent for such a work. Human agency can be properly brought into it only as a means directed and controlled by the Spirit. Whenever it is not so controlled it can only mar the work. And it is so controlled when, and only when, it is operating in perfect harmony with God’s Word. The Holy Spirit operates always by the power of God, and never by the power of the human arm.AMS March 5, 1896, page 74.6

Being thus against Christianity, religious legislation is never from God, and can never accomplish anything but evil.AMS March 5, 1896, page 74.7

“The Unstable Wall” American Sentinel 11, 10, pp. 74, 75.

ATJ

“And one built up a wall; and lo, others daubed it with untempered mortar.”AMS March 5, 1896, page 74.1

So wrote the prophet Ezekiel concerning the teachers that should presume to speak in the name of the Lord, when the Lord had not commanded it. Ezekiel 13:10.AMS March 5, 1896, page 74.2

Such a wall exists to-day in the institution of the Sunday sabbath. We have only to read the allegations put forth by its adherents in its support, to know that it is constructed with untempered mortar.AMS March 5, 1896, page 74.3

For example, we notice some allegations contained in a recent sermon by Rev. J. H. Brookes, D.D., of St. Louis, Mo., on the occasion of the seventh anniversary of the “American Sabbath Union,” and reported in the Mail and Express (N.Y.) of february 22.AMS March 5, 1896, page 74.4

In his sermon Mr. Brookes labored of course to show from the Scripture that the Sunday institution is the true Sabbath; but no such proof can be obtained without perverting Scripture, and perverted Scripture is the most dangerous form of untruth. It is the untempered mortar with which the Sunday wall is daubed.AMS March 5, 1896, page 74.5

The speaker admitted that the Sabbath was instituted at Creation, and that the fourth commandment has never been abolished, but is binding upon all men to-day. But he attempted to treat the Sabbath institution as something distinct from the seventh day!AMS March 5, 1896, page 74.6

“Observe,” he said, “it is not said, Remember the seventh day to keep it holy, but ‘Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy’; and ‘Wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day,’ not the seventh day, ‘and hallowed it.’”AMS March 5, 1896, page 74.7

Immediately before speaking this part of the fourth commandment, God had declared, “The seventh day is the Sabbath.” See Exodus 20:8-11. In view of this fact, how utterly puerile is such an “argument” as that here noticed! How utterly untempered the mortar which the speaker put into the Sunday wall!AMS March 5, 1896, page 75.1

“In the original institution,” he continued, “it is true that it is said, ‘God blessed the seventh day’ (Genesis 2:3); but the change of language when the law was given shows that the seventh day was blessed not because it was the seventh day, but because it was the Sabbath day.” Let us compare the record in Genesis with the language of the law. Turning to the second chapter of Genesis, we find these words:—AMS March 5, 1896, page 75.2

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made: and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it he had rested from all his work God created and made.” Genesis 2:1-3.AMS March 5, 1896, page 75.3

Turning now to the law, we find that the fourth commandment declares, “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work: . . for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.” Exodus 20:8-11.AMS March 5, 1896, page 75.4

In Genesis we are told that the Creator blessed and sanctified the seventh day. The fourth commandment tells us that “the seventh day is the Sabbath,” and that God “rested the seventh day; wherefore God blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.” Where is “the change of language” which authorizes the statement that the seventh day and the Sabbath day were not one and the same at the time the law was spoken on Mt. Sinai, as they were at the Creation?AMS March 5, 1896, page 75.5

In instituting the Sabbath, there was, according to the record, no blessing or santifying [sic.] done except that mentioned in Genesis 2:3, which was the blessing and sanctifying of the seventh day. When God had blessed and sanctified that day, the Sabbath institution was complete, as designed for the use and benefit of mankind. The fourth commandment refers back to this event, reaffirming that “the seventh day is the Sabbath,” and that God “blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.” And yet the Rev. Mr. Brookes calmly proceeded to say, “The fourth commandment, therefore, does not require the hallowing of the seventh day of the week”!AMS March 5, 1896, page 75.6

He then alluded to the fact that when a person journeyed around the earth, he (apparently) gained or lost a day, according to the direction of his journey, citing this as an argument against keeping the seventh day. Would he also cite it as an argument against keeping Sunday? Should we fail to keep the seventh day because the world being round, we cannot all begin or end it at the same time? The argument would be just as good for not eating, sleeping, or transacting business. As a matter of fact, no one has any difficulty in knowing exactly when the seventh day begins, or when it ends, whether he be in North America or in China. If he desires to keep that day, there is nothing at all in nature to prevent his doing so.AMS March 5, 1896, page 75.7

Mr. Brookes referred to the death penalty executed upon Sabbath-breakers under the theocracy of Moses’ time, as another reason for not keeping the seventh day. The same “reason” would apply to the keeping other commandments besides the fourth. There were penalties for worshiping false gods, dishonoring parents, murder, theft, adultery, and many other offenses, which are not in force to-day; are we therefore at liberty to disregard the commandments prohibiting such things?AMS March 5, 1896, page 75.8

The theocracy of Moses’ time has passed away, but God’s law has not passed away. The penalty for Sabbath-breaking, and for violation of any other of the commandments as well, is still death. But the execution of that penalty rests with God, and not with men. God also, and not man, is the Judge; and when the set time of his judgment arrives, that penalty will be executed upon all who are then found transgressors of his law. But now he invites all men to find pardon and eternal life through the gospel of his Son.AMS March 5, 1896, page 75.9

Man has nothing to do with the commandments of God, except to live a life of obedience to them by faith in Christ. Man’s laws, in so far as they are just, concern only the preservation of human rights, their object being to enable men to live securely in the enjoyment of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. God’s law is spiritual, and therefore entirely beyond the sphere of human authority and power. His law deals with sin; man’s law deals only with crime.AMS March 5, 1896, page 75.10

In the frequent references to “the eighth day” made in the specifications concerning the ordinances and services of the ceremonial law, as set forth in Leviticus, the Rev. Mr. Brookes affirmed that he saw “intimations” of the Sunday sabbath. What must we think of such a claim to supernatural discernment on the part of one who professes total inability to see that the fourth commandment and the first verses of the second chapter of Genesis are harmonious in declaring the seventh day to be the Sabbath?AMS March 5, 1896, page 75.11

For example, he cited the reference to the yearly “feast of tabernacles” found in Leviticus 23:39: “Also in the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when ye have gathered in the fruit of the land, ye shall keep a feast unto the Lord seven days: on the first day shall be a sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a sabbath.” “There is, then,” he said, “not only a seventh-day Sabbath but an eighth-day sabbath,” and added, “This fact seems to have been entirely overlooked by the Seventh-day Adventists and Baptists, who are flooding the country with their literature, and seeking to drag the people back to Sinai, instead of leading them up to Calvary”!AMS March 5, 1896, page 75.12

We presume no reader of the SENTINEL needs to be told that the days of the month do not necessarily synchronize in numerical order with the days of the week. The fifteenth day of the tenth month may have been any day of the week, from Sunday up to Saturday, just. as Christmas or one’s birthday, may fall on any day of the week. Consequently “the eighth day” from the fifteenth day of any month can have no special connection whatever with any day of the week. If the fifteenth day of the tenth month,—the first of the feast—was Saturday, the eighth day would also be Saturday; and it is certain that “the eighth day” of this feast fell as often on the seventh-day Sabbath as it did on Sunday, just as certain as it is that the fourth of July falls as often on the seventh day of the week as on Sunday. And it fell as often on Tuesday, Wednesday, and the other days of the week, as it did on Saturday or Sunday. The argument is just as good for a Tuesday or Wednesday sabbath, as for anything else.AMS March 5, 1896, page 75.13

Yet the Rev. Mr. Brookes gravely announced to his audience that “it is worthy of notice that in this crowning feast of the year . . there is a distinct reference to the Lord’s day, or the Christian Sabbath. ‘On the first day shall be a sabbath, and on the eighth day shall be a sabbath’ (Leviticus 23:29). There is, then, not only a seventh-day Sabbath but an eighth-day sabbath”! Truly, this “fact” of a “distinct reference” in this to the Sunday sabbath, has been “entirely overlooked by the Seventh-day Adventists and Baptists,” as well as by other people posessed [sic.] of common sense and a regard for the truth.AMS March 5, 1896, page 75.14

This was not the extent of Mr. Brookes’ daubing of the Sunday wall with untempered mortar, but it is sufficient for the purpose of this article, which is to show the reader the unstable character of this institution, even when fortified by its ablest defenders. Mr. Brookes did as well as any man could do in establishing the Sunday sabbath by the Word of God. It is an impossible task, since no such proof exists. The Word of the Lord has not spoken it.AMS March 5, 1896, page 75.15

Yet the “American Sabbath Union” whose seventh anniversary was (fittingly) commorated [sic.] by this discourse, exists for the purpose not only of persuading people to trust in this wall daubed with the untempered mortar of abortive Scriptural proof, but of compelling them to do so by the use of civil pains and penalties, whether they have any confidence in it or not!AMS March 5, 1896, page 75.16

It is worth while in conclusion, to notice what the Lord says about this wall. While the true prophets of the Lord are proclaiming his word, announcing the end of all things at hand, the hour of God’s judgment come, and the seventh-day Sabbath as a part of that eternal law by which the world will be judged, other prophets are opposing the message of warning with the cry of “Peace, peace,” saying in effect to the people that there is no need of reform. However, we will not prolong this article, but let the reader turn for himself to the thirteenth chapter of Ezekiel, and read verses 1-16.AMS March 5, 1896, page 75.17

“Sunday Laws Are Antichristian” American Sentinel 11, 10, pp. 75, 76.

ATJ

THE ground of objection to Sunday laws is much broader than can be covered by the mere necessity of guarding against the violation of human rights. Sunday laws are antichristian; and it is just as important, to say the least, that no law should be enacted which would be in opposition to the work of God, so that laws should be passed for the preservation of the rights of the people.AMS March 5, 1896, page 75.1

Of course, all invasion of human rights is contrary to the gospel; but Sunday laws strike directly against the conception of God as the Creator. They exalt another day than the day set apart by the Creator as the memorial of his power and the sign of his Godhead. Hence they represent the working of a power that stands directly opposed to God.AMS March 5, 1896, page 75.2

The Creator rested from his work of creation upon the seventh day. He blessed and sanctified that day, making it the Sabbath for mankind. He gave men his Sabbath in order that they might know, as they observed it, that their God was the Creator. They might know that their God was one in whom they could trust, being he who made the heavens and the earth by his word.AMS March 5, 1896, page 75.3

The need of mankind in this respect has certainly not lessened to-day. As men realize their inherent sinfulness and weakness, they seek for some power in which they can trust for deliverance from the chains they have vainly endeavored by their own strength to rend asunder. They realize that only a power which passes their conceptions can raise them from the depths of sinful depravity to a condition of holiness and perfection. And the Sabbath presents to them just that power which they seek. It points them to the Creator, as the One who can make them new in Christ by the power of his word, just as he made all things by that word in the beginning.AMS March 5, 1896, page 75.4

The whole power and influence of Sunday laws, however, is against the realization of this blessing. For they command the observance of the first day of the week, which God neither blessed, nor rested upon, and tend to nullify and obliterate the observance of the seventh day. They tend directly to obliterate the conception of God as the Creator and Redeemer, by exalting a day which does nothing to call the mind to the power of which creation and redemption are the manifestations, and by striking against the observance of the day divinely set apart and made the Sabbath for that very purpose.AMS March 5, 1896, page 76.1

Such laws are therefore antichristian, and destructive of the highest interests and blessings of mankind.AMS March 5, 1896, page 76.2

February 27, 1896

March 12, 1896