July 28, 1898

“Notes” American Sentinel 13, 29, p. 453.

ATJ

“THE wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.”AMS July 28, 1898, page 453.1

HUMAN nature has always believed in a political gospel.AMS July 28, 1898, page 453.2

THE devil is the inventor of the much-tried plan of driving people to do right.AMS July 28, 1898, page 453.3

HEAVEN is free to all, but you cannot get into the other place without paying for it.AMS July 28, 1898, page 453.4

THE “higher” the criticism of God’s Word, the lower is the source from which it emanates.AMS July 28, 1898, page 453.5

POLICY is the sand upon which stand the houses that will be overthrown by the coming storm.AMS July 28, 1898, page 453.6

IF by God’s perfect law the world is condemned, how then by man’s crude law can it be saved?AMS July 28, 1898, page 453.7

WHEN men turn their backs on the Bible, they naturally think that the Bible is behind the times.AMS July 28, 1898, page 453.8

IN every transgression of the divine law, we bid an eternal farewell to all that we hold most dear.AMS July 28, 1898, page 453.9

THE lightest sin is heavy enough to sink the soul; the smallest is big enough to contain Calvary.AMS July 28, 1898, page 453.10

THE devil never pastes his true likeness upon the bill boards or gives his photograph to the public.AMS July 28, 1898, page 453.11

THE pathway of righteousness is too narrow and rough to be used by the “political machine.” The broad way is the path for it.AMS July 28, 1898, page 453.12

THE armory of the Christian supplies no weapons for killing men.AMS July 28, 1898, page 453.13

THE power of God unto salvation cannot reach the soul through the channel of human law.AMS July 28, 1898, page 453.14

TO DENY self until self is dead is the hardest battle a human being can fight, and the victor attains the loftiest heights of heroism.AMS July 28, 1898, page 453.15

[Inset.] The artist has depicted it in the effort of the clergyman to drive people out of the broad path of worldliness and carnality into the narrow way of righteousness, by bringing upon them the penalty of civil law. The attempt only drives them against a perpendicular wall which no human power can enable them to scale. No human power can place an individual in the pathway of obedience to God: all laws enacted for such a purpose are utterly futile. The individual must be lifted up from the broad and downward way into the high, narrow and upward way by the power of faith. Civil law is effective only in the field of natural rights.AMS July 28, 1898, page 453.16

“God and Religious Freedom” American Sentinel 13, 29, p. 454.

ATJ

THE leading organ of “free thought” in this section, The Truth Seeker, notes with a tone of some surprise the answer in a late SENTINEL to one of its pet conundrums, “Why don’t God kill the devil?” It says the question has not been answered, and in proof of this submits several questions, and hints at others equally unanswerable in reserve. We notice those bearing directly on the point at issue:—AMS July 28, 1898, page 454.1

“Why could not God kill the devil and save the sinners?AMS July 28, 1898, page 454.2

“If God is able to deliver all persons from the devil, why does he not do it?AMS July 28, 1898, page 454.3

“If there is no need to destroy the devil, then he must be powerless; and if he is powerless, what are the Christians afraid of?AMS July 28, 1898, page 454.4

“If God can successfully contend with the devil, why do the vast majority of the race sin and go to hell—that is, if Christian theology be true?”AMS July 28, 1898, page 454.5

These questions can be answered because God believes in religious freedom. If he did not they could not be answered.AMS July 28, 1898, page 454.6

God could force all things to come to his terms: but he did not force his creatures in the past, and does not force them now, because he does not believe in a forced service.AMS July 28, 1898, page 454.7

God might have forced Lucifer to have remained obedient in his station in heaven. But what would have been the worth of such obedience? and what would Lucifer have been without a character?AMS July 28, 1898, page 454.8

Lucifer sinned and became the devil; and he led countless multitudes to rebel with him. But better was it that all this should be, than that God’s creatures should have been deprived of their free will, to prevent their sinning. And what a testimony is this to the value of individual freedom in the sight of God!AMS July 28, 1898, page 454.9

Because all have this individual freedom, many—even the great majority—choose to go contrary to the will of God. They choose not to submit themselves to him. This is the only reason why he cannot save them.AMS July 28, 1898, page 454.10

God will—and does—deliver all persons from the devil who choose to be delivered. But it is in the power of every person not to let God deliver them. The Scripture says, “Submit yourselves therefore unto God; resist the devil and he will flee from you.”AMS July 28, 1898, page 454.11

The devil is powerless with regard to any individual who chooses to let God keep him from the devil. The individual who chooses otherwise finds the devil very powerful indeed. The individual who chooses the devil’s pathway instead of the Lord’s, cannot reasonably expect that God will preserve him from harm. The individual who sins, chooses sin and its consequences; and God cannot, without being arbitrary, interfere with his choice.AMS July 28, 1898, page 454.12

The vast majority of the race sin and doom themselves to destruction because they choose to walk in that way rather than in the way of life. This constitutes no evidence that God cannot successfully contend with the devil. It proves only that God is not arbitrary in his dealings with them.AMS July 28, 1898, page 454.13

God allows the devil to live and work with all his power to destroy souls, and at the same time he saves from all the power of the devil and from the power of the world and the power of sin, every individual who comes to him through the avenue of salvation he has opened. And thus he gives to the universe a mightier testimony of his power to save than could be given were he to remove the devil by destroying him. That indeed would be a virtual confession that God could not save people while the devil lived. But that confession would be a stupendous lie.AMS July 28, 1898, page 454.14

Seemingly it is the mind of the Truth Seeker and of the class for whom it speaks, that God—admitting his existence—should have made man an automaton, having no will of his own, or without power to use it, and hence without character, capable only of acting by the choice of another’s mind, and hence without any necessity of possessing any mind of his own. In that way God could have made it impossible for man to have disobeyed him. Then there would have been no sin, and what a delightful world we would have had, to be sure!AMS July 28, 1898, page 454.15

“The Great Need” American Sentinel 13, 29, pp. 454, 455.

ATJ

THE great need of the cause of God to-day is not money; neither is it talent. The great need is of something the Lord himself cannot furnish, but which men can furnish. It is consecration.AMS July 28, 1898, page 454.1

God could rain gold down from heaven, as he once did manna. But that would not help the situation. There is as much gold in the world already as is needed, and any more would only be superfluous.AMS July 28, 1898, page 454.2

There is also talent enough; there is any amount of talent going to waste in channels that supply nothing for the real betterment of the race. Why should the Lord increase the supply of this? A wise father does not lavish money upon his son when he is squandering it.AMS July 28, 1898, page 454.3

When there is consecration enough, there will be money enough, and there will be talent enough. A call for means is really a call for consecration; and a lack of eloquence and power for the proclamation of the word, or of ability in any line of spiritual work, is also a lack of consecration.AMS July 28, 1898, page 454.4

Consecrated talent will grow, always. Growth is a law of heaven; and from the humblest beginning, where the grace of God has free course, there may be evolved the most surprising results. God made the most talented men that have ever lived by starting with nothing; he can then make talented men now out of those that are little more than nothing.AMS July 28, 1898, page 455.1

If you would see the cause advanced, “consecrate yourselves this day to the Lord.” You furnish the consecration; then God will furnish the rest.AMS July 28, 1898, page 455.2

“What Now?” American Sentinel 13, 29, p. 455.

ATJ

HAWAII has been annexed to the United States, and is now United States territory. Thus a colonial career has been opened in fact, and no doubt will be extended to the Philippines, the Ladrones, Porto Rico, and Cuba. Next a colonial policy will have to be discovered and put into operation. And of what sort shall it be?AMS July 28, 1898, page 455.1

We have pointed out how the Roman republic passed over this course, and what resulted. We have seen that Rome started with precisely the same professions as those with which the United States has now started upon its new career.AMS July 28, 1898, page 455.2

And we have seen how, from whatever cause it may have been, the Roman republic with its high pretensions of love of liberty for others became the greatest, the most absolute, and most destructive, despotism that ever was on the earth. What will this second great republic now do, upon precisely the same professions, as she proceeds upon a course like that first great republic? These are live and interesting questions just now.AMS July 28, 1898, page 455.3

What will be done with Hawaii? How will she now be governed? What will be the basis of representation?AMS July 28, 1898, page 455.4

Will Hawaii be made a State, entitled to two senators upon an equality with the State of New York or Pennsylvania? And if so, will that State government and organization be a continuation of what has been in the so-called republic of Hawaii? For everybody knows that the “republic of Hawaii” never was in any true or proper sense a republic. It never was a government of the people by the people: it was a government of the people by a clique. It is well known that those who seized the kingdom of Hawaii and set themselves up there to rule, never dared to submit to the people of Hawaii the question as to what government they would save. This clique knew that they were so hopelessly in the minority, that to submit any question truly to the people would only overwhelmingly defeat themselves. Therefore they admitted to the franchise, only such as they themselves approved, and, being already in power, confirmed themselves in power by a “popular vote”!AMS July 28, 1898, page 455.5

That is the government of Hawaii, as it was when it became United States territory. Will that style of government, that sort of a republic, be perpetuated now that Hawaii is a part of the United States? It was contrary to every principle of the Declaration of Independence of the United States. Will it now, under that Declaration, be continued as it was? It was a despotism: will it be continued so? If so, then the pose is already set for spreading a like despotism over all the other island possessions. And if so, then a revolution has already been accomplished: and the United States will no longer for the people; but a government of the people by a self-seeking few of the superior sort for this same self-seeking few of the superior sort. And it will be for these to decide who are, and who are not, “capable of self-government;” and of course all who are not, must be governed by this superior set.AMS July 28, 1898, page 455.6

Some words of Abraham Lincoln are worthy to be reprinted in this connection:—AMS July 28, 1898, page 455.7

“These arguments that are made, that the inferior race are to be treated with as much allowance as they are capable of enjoying; that as much is to be done for them as their condition will allow—what are these arguments?—They are the arguments that kings have made for enslaving the people in all ages of the world. You will find that all the argument sin favor of kingcraft were of this class; they also bestrode the necks of the people, not that they wanted to do it, but because the people, not that they wanted to do it, but because the people were better off for being ridden.”AMS July 28, 1898, page 455.8

Now, I ask in all soberness if all these things, if indulged in, if ratified, if confirmed and endorsed, if taught to our children, and repeated to them, do not tend to rub out the sentiment of liberty in the country, and to transform this government into a government of some other form?AMS July 28, 1898, page 455.9

Are we on the verge of the time when, are we crossing the line where, government of the people, by the people, for the people shall have perished entirely from the earth?AMS July 28, 1898, page 455.10

This is a time for most careful thinking.AMS July 28, 1898, page 455.11

A. T. J.

“Back Page” American Sentinel 13, 29, p. 468.

ATJ

GOD is working to-day not as a showman, doing wonders merely for people to behold, but to exalt his Word. Any “miracle” may be safely discounted which stands disconnected from that Word. His Word is mighty to convict of sin and save the soul, and it is always for this purpose that God manifests his power to-day. That is the work God is doing now. By and by this work will be finished, and then will be seen the manifestation of the power of God in a strange work upon material things. The all-important thing now is to know the power of God working in the heart by faith.AMS July 28, 1898, page 468.1