ALL religious legislation is an effort to compel the carnal mind to act like the spiritual mind; in other words, to do an impossibility.AMS August 19, 1897, page 513.2

RIGHTS are independent of citizenship. The foreigner who becomes a naturalized citizen of the United States, neither loses nor gains any natural rights by the process.AMS August 19, 1897, page 513.3

THE power of the State, exercised through the policeman’s club, may soften the head, but it never softens the heart. The gospel, on the other hand, works by softening the heart.AMS August 19, 1897, page 513.4

THERE is much more honor given to the Deity in writing his name with a capital initial, than in trying to compel people to act in conformity with the religious ideas of some person or sect.AMS August 19, 1897, page 513.5

A “GOVERNMENT of the people, by the people,” whether by the majority or a small part of the people, cannot be a government of God. Any attempt to make it such can be nothing else than an effort to exalt man into the place of God. God governs by spiritual agencies alone. His rule in the kingdoms of men is only that of “an overruling providence.”AMS August 19, 1897, page 513.6

“YOU are a good man; but we have a law, and the law must be obeyed.” If this is a valid ground now for sending an individual to jail for working on Sunday, why was it not a valid ground for putting to death Him who taught a religion contrary to the law of the Roman State in the days of Pontius Pilate?AMS August 19, 1897, page 513.7

ONE very important question now before the American people, whether they are aware of it or not, is that of whether there shall be set up in this Government a State or national “conscience.” Such a thing, of course, could not exist in peace with the individual conscience, and the latter would be forced to surrender or involve its possessor in persecution. Every Sunday law sets up a State conscience in the matter of the observance of the Sabbath.AMS August 19, 1897, page 513.8

“God the Teacher In the Sciences” American Sentinel 12, 33, pp. 513-515.

ATJ

THE mistake that men make in thinking that the other sciences are not to be found in the Bible, is second only to the mistake that they make in thinking that the Bible itself is not scientific, and that Salvation is not science.AMS August 19, 1897, page 513.1

God is the Author of all true science, and to all who will have God for their teacher He will give knowledge of the other sciences as well as of the science of Salvation. He has done this before, and the fact is recorded that all may know that he will do it always for all who will have him for their teacher.AMS August 19, 1897, page 513.2

Solomon was but a youth—about eighteen—when he became king of Israel. Yet with God for his teacher, in a short time he became the greatest scientist that ever lived either in ancient or in modern times.AMS August 19, 1897, page 513.3

He knew thoroughly the whole range of Botany “from the cedar that is in Lebanon to thy hyssop that springeth out of the wall.” HE knew just as thoroughly, zoölogy and ornithology and entomology and ichthyology. For he spoke not only of trees from the mighty cedar of Lebanon to the tiny hyssop, but “also of beasts, and birds, and creeping things, and fishes.”AMS August 19, 1897, page 513.4

Solomon was better acquainted with all these sciences together than any other man has ever been acquainted with any one of them. Yet this was not the complete range of his scientific attainments: for he was just as well acquainted with meteorology and others as with any of the ones named. Nor did he hold this knowledge in any exclusive spirit. He taught it freely to the people: and to all people, too, for they came to him from all nations to hear his instruction in science and philosophy. Thus a thousand years before Christ, hundreds of years before the so-called and boasted wise men of Greece had ever breathed, there was in Israel an understanding of science that has never been attained in any nation since.AMS August 19, 1897, page 514.1

Nor did this knowledge pass away with Solomon. Four hundred years afterward, when the first captives were taken from Jerusalem to Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar had a selection made of certain youth from among the Jews to be taught in the learning of the Chaldeans. These youth were selected upon both their mental and physical standing. They were chosen by a strict examination. The requirements, in the examination which they must pass, were that they should have “no blemish” but should be “well favored, and skillful in all wisdom and cunning in knowledge, and understanding science, and such as had ability in them.”AMS August 19, 1897, page 514.2

It is well known that at that time Babylon itself stood high in scientific attainment; and was qualified to conduct an examination in science. And it is a fact that there were found even among the youth of the Jews those who were able successfully to pass such an examination. The fact that the Jewish youth understood these things, demonstrates that the sciences were understood and taught in Israel: and shows that the scientific instruction established by Solomon had remained among the people of Israel and was still taught in their families and in their schools.AMS August 19, 1897, page 514.3

Among these Jewish youth selected to be taught in the Chaldean learning, were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Daniel was about eighteen. At Babylon they were put under the Chaldean instructors to be taught. They remained in the Chaldean school three years. At the end of that time there was an examination held. The result was that of all who were in school, none were found as learned as these four youth.AMS August 19, 1897, page 514.4

Nor was it only the other students in the school that were surpassed in knowledge by these four. They outstripped all the men in the empire. For “in all matters of wisdom and understanding that the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm.”AMS August 19, 1897, page 514.5

No man can teach what he does not know. No man can teach ten times more than he knows. This testimony therefore shows that Daniel and his three brethren knew ten times more than did the men who were over them as instructors. It must be borne in mind that Babylon is held even at this day, to have been then well versed in a number of the recognized sciences. All these things were certainly taught in that school where were these four young Jews. Yet when examination came these four were found to be ten times better versed in all these things than were all the professed wise men in all the realm, and that is certainly ten times better than were their own Chaldean teachers.AMS August 19, 1897, page 514.6

Well then, since no man can teach ten times more than he knows or understands, the question is, How did these youth learn what the examination demonstrated that they knew? Whence came to them this knowledge that was so far beyond that of all the wise ones of Babylon, including their own teachers?—Here is the answer: “As for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom.”AMS August 19, 1897, page 514.7

God was their teacher. This is why they learned so much more than all the teachers knew who were placed over them as instructors. God was Solomon’s teacher, and this is why he too had understanding in philosophy and science beyond all that the rest of the world knew or that it has ever known since. These examples are sufficient to make it plain that God is a capable instructor in the recognized sciences as well as in religion. Yea, more than this: these examples make it perfectly plain that God is a better teacher in all true philosophy and in all true science, than is any man or all men together. This idea that true science can be taught without God, or that heathen infidels and atheists are better able to discover it than God is to teach it, is a most pernicious error.AMS August 19, 1897, page 514.8

These examples are given in Holy Writ to teach all men that God is as ready and willing to be their teacher in all these things as he was to be the teacher of Solomon and the four brethren in Babylon. God will teach people to-day as truly and as fully as he did those in that day. All that is needed is the faith and devotion in people to-day, such as was in those of that time. There is no respect of persons with God. God favored Solomon and Daniel and his brethren, no more than he is ready to favor every soul every day. Let men, youth and children, to-day choose God for their teacher in all things, as did Solomon and the four in Babylon, and they will find him to be to-day the all-efficient teacher that he was then in all philosophy and all science—we say not “as well as in religion,” because the religion, the Salvation of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ, is both philosophy and science.AMS August 19, 1897, page 514.9

But people do not believe, even many professed Christians do not believe, that the religion of Christ is philosophy; they do not believe that the Salvation of God is science. They do not believe that even the recognized sciences are known to the Lord or that, if known to him, he cares to teach anything concerning them. They do not believe that the Bible is science, nor do they believe that the Bible knows anything of the recognized sciences. They do not believe that God will teach these things to men. Therefore they go to the heathen, to infidels and atheists, to learn all that and think that such men are wondrous wise, and that they themselves are wise, in following the “science” of such teachers, that is without God, that leads away from God and from faith in his word, his wisdom and his power.AMS August 19, 1897, page 514.10

A good illustration of this is found in the fact that Harper’s “Haydn’s Dictionary of Dates,” the standard work on the dates of important events, says that the sun dial was invented by Anaximander, who lived about 530 B.C., when there stands in the Bible that is in everybody’s house the plain circumstantial mention of “the sun dial of Ahaz” which shows that the sun dial was in use in Jerusalem two hundred years before Anaximander ever breathed. Thus it is expected that the people shall give to Anaximander credit for the invention of a thing that the Bible shows was in daily use two hundred years before he lived. If that was indeed a thing so new in Greece that Anaximander could claim it as an original invention, then the belated science of the Greeks may sincerely be deplored. But as for us we must be pardoned for not believing that Anaximander was the original inventor of a thing that we know was in use two hundred years before he was born. There are in the Bible more interesting facts and truths than many people think.AMS August 19, 1897, page 515.1

Oh that those who profess to believe the Lord would believe him indeed! Oh that they would believe that he is what he is! Oh that with a whole heart they would choose him, for all that he is to the children of men, that they might find him to be the great, wise, and blessed teacher that he is to all who will choose him for their teacher in all things. “Behold, God exalteth by his power: who teacheth like him?”AMS August 19, 1897, page 515.2

“Human Law Cannot Deal with Sin” American Sentinel 12, 33, p. 515.

ATJ

GOD’S law fixes the penalty for Sabbath desecration, and what right has any man or any government to change that penalty? “Sin is the transgression of the law”; and “the soul that sinneth, it shall die.” Thus says the Word of God, and that Word is truth, and must stand. Nothing short of the death penalty for Sabbath desecration, therefore, can be just. No other penalty than this was inflicted for it, when God inflicted the penalty upon the transgressor. If the Government therefore is to deal with Sabbath desecration, it cannot properly prescribe anything else than the death penalty for every instance of transgression.AMS August 19, 1897, page 515.1

The Lord, however, makes a further provision for the transgressor. He provides that the sinner who repents and exercises faith in Jesus Christ, shall be pardoned. Can the State also make this provision? Can it say to the transgressor, Repent, and you shall be pardoned? That is a just provision, certainly, for it is made by the Lord himself. But the law of the State can contain no such provision, for it would amount to a total nullification of the law itself.AMS August 19, 1897, page 515.2

It is plain, therefore, that human law cannot undertake to enforce the law of God, or to deal with anything as a transgression against God. It cannot enforce morality or punish immorality. It can, properly, undertake only to restrain men from the commission of such deeds as interfere with people in the exercise of their natural right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Upon this ground the law prohibits stealing and murder, and not because these acts transgress the law of God or are of immoral character. The proper aim of human law is to provide all persons the opportunity, so far as human power can secure it, of enjoying the life which the Creator has given them, and the opportunities this life affords for the pursuit and realization of happiness, without molestation from their fellow-beings.AMS August 19, 1897, page 515.3

But this does not afford the law any just ground for undertaking to prohibit the desecration of the Sabbath.AMS August 19, 1897, page 515.4

“Note” American Sentinel 12, 33, p. 515.

ATJ

THE doctrine that an individual is morally bound to obey every requirement of the Government as being an act of God, depends for support upon the idea that God and not man made the governments of the earth. To expose the folly and wickedness of this idea it is only necessary to ask if the United States Government and the Turkish government were made by one and the same being. What God makes, is perfect; but where is there a perfect government on the face of the earth? The imperfections of all human governments stamp them as the work of finite man.AMS August 19, 1897, page 515.1

“Note” American Sentinel 12, 33, p. 515.

ATJ

HOW far short the best human government falls in practice, of the ideal set up in the theory upon which it is built, may be seen from the miscarriage of the principle of majority rule in our own country, as set forth in another column. When the United States is spoken of as “this free Government,” the speaker probably has in mind the theory of popular government, with the principles of liberty which it incorporates. In practice, there is very little room for the exercise of individual choice in the filling of public offices and the enactment of State and national laws. The choice in such matters lies with the political “boss” and his henchmen who control the party, and the man of wealth whose gold can support a campaign and purchase legislation. So that, however the pious citizen may aim to cast his vote for the glory of God, he finds himself obliged in reality to follow the lead of some politician to whom very likely the words of Scripture would apply that “God is not in all his thoughts.” In theory, the Government is “of the people, by the people, and for the people”; in practice, as seen to-day, it is “of the people” but not by or for them. This is not the fault of the theory; it does not argue any lack of wisdom on the part of those who made this an independent Government. It is only the natural selfishness of the unregenerate heart manifesting itself in popular government, through the opportunities which present-day conditions have put within its reach. Selfishness seems to have quite as full opportunity given it to do its baneful work under a popular government, as it has under a monarchy.AMS August 19, 1897, page 515.2

August 12, 1897

September 2, 1897