June 23, 1898

“Notes” American Sentinel 13, 25, pp. 385, 386.

ATJ

“BLESSED are the peacemakers.”AMS June 23, 1898, page 385.1

“IN the direction of peace,” is upward.AMS June 23, 1898, page 385.2

THE natural offspring of tradition is error.AMS June 23, 1898, page 385.3

WAR and sin will go out of the world together.AMS June 23, 1898, page 385.4

THE carnal nature is always “spoiling for a fight.”AMS June 23, 1898, page 385.5

TO know God, is the only sure way to “know thyself.”AMS June 23, 1898, page 385.6

EXPANSION is not always an indication of healthy growth.AMS June 23, 1898, page 385.7

ANY day in the year is a good day to declare your independence of the powers of evil.AMS June 23, 1898, page 385.8

IT is better to be a “pessimist” with your eyes open, than an optimist with your eyes shut.AMS June 23, 1898, page 385.9

THE world has yet to invent a protective armor that is equal to the shield of Providence.AMS June 23, 1898, page 385.10

NATIONS, like individuals, perish far more frequently from internal disorders than from causes that operate from without.AMS June 23, 1898, page 385.11

WHEN the majority cease to feel any regard for the interests of the minority, the state has become unfit for self government.AMS June 23, 1898, page 385.12

THE person who believes that “the voice of the people is the voice of God,” shows thereby that he is not familiar with the voice of God.AMS June 23, 1898, page 385.13

IT is beyond the power of legislation to broaden the “narrow way” of righteousness so as to accommodate the multitudes who are under the sway of civil authority.AMS June 23, 1898, page 385.14

AN erroneous but all too common idea of patriotism makes it a pedestal for the exaltation of self. The true patriot is willing to serve others without the hope of acquiring wealth or fame.AMS June 23, 1898, page 385.15

IT is affirmed in the Book of divine truth that there is “one God” and “one Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.”AMS June 23, 1898, page 385.16

All men may come to God through Jesus Christ; and only through him can they come to God; for “there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.”AMS June 23, 1898, page 385.17

But Jesus Christ is “the man Christ Jesus.” And being a man, he is become the representative of the human race.AMS June 23, 1898, page 385.18

Thus in the government of God, which covers all our relation to him, we have a representative, “the man Christ Jesus.” He stands before the Father’s throne as the representative of all on earth who have accepted him as their Saviour. And God views all such as complete in him.AMS June 23, 1898, page 385.19

There is, however, a doctrine in the land which proclaims that man may represent his fellowman in religion; that religious acts may and ought to be done by the Government, in which each official is the representative of the people. It is the very common doctrine that “this is a Christian nation.” The declaration means that the officials of the Government ought to act for the people in religion.AMS June 23, 1898, page 385.20

Manifestly, this idea is wholly contrary to Christianity. One person cannot have faith for another; nor can one be righteous for another. If the people are sinful they must suffer for their sins, and no righteousness on the part of any official, from the President down, could save them. Speaking of a sinful land, the Lord by the prophet Ezekiel says (Ezekiel 14:13, 14): “Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness.”AMS June 23, 1898, page 386.1

The only righteousness which can save the sinner is the righteousness of Christ, which every person may receive by the exercise of faith. No government can give righteousness to anybody. There is no righteousness in the universe but God’s righteousness, for he alone is righteous of himself; and his righteousness is the righteousness of Christ. And having God’s righteousness Christ is perfectly fitted to be man’s representative in religion; and he alone, of all beings in heaven or earth, is so fitted.AMS June 23, 1898, page 386.2

The “Christian race” must be run—the Christian life lived—looking not to the state, but “unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.” Hebrews 12:1, 2. To look to the state in any matter of religious faith or practice is to look away from Jesus and to depart from the foundation principle of Christianity.AMS June 23, 1898, page 386.3

THE state is the embodiment of power. By power it lives and moves and has its being. Take away the power and there is nothing left of the state.AMS June 23, 1898, page 386.4

States are, by their very nature, independent powers. When the state yields to another power, its own identity is lost, and it remains but a part of the conquering power so long as the authority of the latter is exercised over it.AMS June 23, 1898, page 386.5

But the state cannot be Christian without yielding to another power and thus surrendering its independence. For the first step in Christianity is submission to the will of God. The state therefore would simply lose itself in the government of God. In that government there are no states.AMS June 23, 1898, page 386.6

And it is a truth which all Christians know, that no person can become Christian without first passing through death. The Apostle Paul says that he was “alive” before being converted to Christianity, but that “when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.” Romans 7:9. And his experience is that of all Christians. Man, as he was before conversion must die, before he can become Christian.AMS June 23, 1898, page 386.7

Christianity means a new creation. All that is of earth, must have a new creation before the stamp of Christianity can appear upon it.AMS June 23, 1898, page 386.8

And this utterly debars the state. For as nothing can become Christian without first passing through death, the state would simply pass out of existence in the endeavor to acquire the stamp of Christianity.AMS June 23, 1898, page 386.9

There is no “new birth” for a state.AMS June 23, 1898, page 386.10

“The New World-Power” American Sentinel 13, 25, pp. 386, 387.

ATJ

BETWEEN Spain and the United States there exists, and there has existed for some time, a state of war. As for the actual element of war, there has been so far very little. Yet from the little that there has been, there have already sprung prospects of possibilities that are of most profound interest to every soul in the United States, whatever his view or his attitude concerning it.AMS June 23, 1898, page 386.1

As a matter of fact, the incidents of this controversy are of far more importance to the country than all the actualities put together, so far. It is these things that the AMERICAN SENTINEL is watching and studying with most absorbing interest. We are not, in these things, criticising; we are simply calling attention to important developments.AMS June 23, 1898, page 386.2

One of these, which we have pointed out, is the distinct advance made, and point gained, by the papacy in her designs with regard to the United States. More will be heard from that before the controversy shall be ended.AMS June 23, 1898, page 386.3

Another is the proposal and prospect of an alliance between Britain and the United States.AMS June 23, 1898, page 386.4

And now a third is the proposal and serious prospect of a world career to be seized and followed by the United States all on her own part. This prospect has already become so tangible as to excite the serious attention of leading and thinking men both for it and against it. The most calm and considerate view of the situation as it is, that has yet appeared, is set forth by Col. T. W. Higginson in Harper’s Bazar of June 11, under the title “A New World-Power,” the substance of which is as follows:—AMS June 23, 1898, page 386.5

“IT startles one a little to turn back to Bacon’s Essays and read there the quiet remark, made three hundred years ago (in the essay on the ‘Greatness of Kingdoms’), that the only two nations of Europe which excelled in arms were the Spaniards and Turks; though he admits ‘great declination’ as to the latter race. He little dreamed that a few hours in the bay of Manila were to reveal the existence of a wholly new power, which in his day had not even been born on the planet, and before which the Spanish race should apparently be destined to yield. It has been given to few men and to few events to construct so much of human history as was accomplished in those few hours by Admiral Dewey. Not only did it seal the downfall of one great world-power, but the arrival of another; and it will cost all the power of resistance on the part of moderate men to keep this country from following the steps of England into an imperial position on the globe. It is a curious fact that the Monroe doctrine—‘let the Western Hemisphere alone and we will let the Eastern Hemisphere alone’—was the attitude held to be radical only so long ago as the days of Cleveland and Olney. Yet those who now hold that same Monroe doctrine, and propose to abide by it, are taunted as conservatives. There have been in political history few greater and more sudden transformations of public opinion.AMS June 23, 1898, page 386.6

“When the Athenian general Themistocles was asked to touch a lute at a feast, he said that he could not play on that instrument, yet he could make a small town into a great city. No matter how large the country, the temptation to make it larger is just as strong. Rome means to us the Roman Empire, and England the British Empire. There are none now living who can personally recall the excitement provoked when Jefferson bought the vast Louisiana territory in 1803; but although it was a direct violation of all his political theories, and perhaps actually unconstitutional, it evidently swept the nation and practically annihilated the opposing party. There are many living who uttered the threat, ‘Texas and disunion;’ yet who would now be willing to forego the national possession of Texas? It would certainly be the same with the much distrusted Alaska. It is inevitable that those who have seen, again and again, these successive steps in enlargement of our territory should be tempted to raise the cry of ‘manifest destiny.’ It is inevitable as the temptation, when a man has already enlarged his farm by buying an adjoining lot on the northeast, that he should look with increased favor on the offer of another adjoining strip on the southwest, and so on indefinitely.AMS June 23, 1898, page 387.1

“Yet the farmer who yields much to such temptations is pretty sure to come to grief sooner or later, and it is the serverest test of the judgment and self-control of a nation when it knows how to stop. Practically, this nation holds Alaska by the grace of England, just as England holds Canada by the grace of this country; and perhaps this recognized interchange of hostages is a sufficient guarantee. The case is very different when we plan to go far from home and to become occupants of islands which may involve us with all the leading powers of the world. All the entanglements of the older nations become partly ours when we once set foot on their very ground. What is worse, all the safeguard of the Monroe doctrine vanishes, for there is no reason why those nations should not proceed to parcel out South America as they have Africa, the moment we depart from the traditions of Monroe. All this is to bequeath to our children a wholly different world of policy from that which their have dwelt in—a formidable result to follow from a few hours of target-practice at Manila.AMS June 23, 1898, page 387.2

There will be involved also the enormous expense and labor of keeping up an army and navy on the scale of European nations. And this, with our vast scale in the payment of pensions—an expense far exceeding that of European nations—will affect all taxation, and consequently our whole habits of living. Nothing that we can do in any foreign waters will be worth half so much to the world as to perpetuate a successful republic on this continent; and to endanger that is to forfeit our chief mission on this planet.AMS June 23, 1898, page 387.3

The only republic that ever went over this ground before was the republic of Rome. And when Rome once became imperial in territory, it was but a little while before she became both imperial and imperious in spirit, and then it was but a little while before she became imperial in government.AMS June 23, 1898, page 387.4

Anybody who is really acquainted with the course of Rome, can readily appreciate the wisdom of the following words of Harper’s Weekly of June 11, 1898:—AMS June 23, 1898, page 387.5

“The sound American believes in the genius of the republic and in virtue of its institutions. His government was founded for the benefit of the individual citizen. Its task is the most beneficient of all the tasks performed by government the world over. Its burdens rest so lightly upon its citizens that they hardly realize its existence. It makes mistakes; it is sometimes ignorant; it is often awkward; it exasperates us; it is frequently insufficient as it is: it would be always inefficient if the burdens of large military establishments and of colonial government were imposed upon its executive power. Its virtues lie very largely in this executive weakness. But awkward and mistaken, inefficient and exasperating as it often it, it has worked more lasting good in the world than all the other governments combined. It does not govern colonies. It governs no man against his will, or without his consent expressed as to the smallest detail. Its accomplishments for the human race and its virtues are the consequences of its differences from other governments. Other governments can manage colonies because they possess the machinery for ruling men against their wills, for levying taxes without the consent of those who pay them. In the elements and features of our Government, which differ from those of Europe, lie its Americanism, and those who wish to maintain the government as it was framed and as it has existed until now are the true Americans, while those who want to go abroad in distant oceans for new territory thus express their distrust in our institutions, and their longing for a return to the flesh-pots of Egypt.”AMS June 23, 1898, page 387.6

A. T. J.