April 27, 1899

“Front Page” American Sentinel 14, 17, p. 257.

ATJ

“THE revealed will of God” is a phrase often used to conceal the will of a bigot.AMS April 27, 1899, page 257.1

THE true religion wants nothing which it is in the power of the civil authority to give.AMS April 27, 1899, page 257.2

STEEL and lead are not good conductors for an endowing current of Christian benevolence.AMS April 27, 1899, page 257.3

SOCIETY cannot elevate or reform itself any more than a machine can create power to run itself.AMS April 27, 1899, page 257.4

THE truly “Christian conscience” seeks not to have men punished for their sins, but saved from them.AMS April 27, 1899, page 257.5

THE saloon may be induced to keep Sunday, but this will be very doubtful honor for the “Sabbath.”AMS April 27, 1899, page 257.6

THE doctrine of imperialism assumes the people of foreign lands to be guilty until they are proved innocent, incapable until they are proved capable.AMS April 27, 1899, page 257.7

THE Christian Church wants no help from the State any more than a steamship wants help from the ocean. For the State to get into the Church is as bad as for the ocean to get into the ship.AMS April 27, 1899, page 257.8

THE Bible in the one hand of civilization, will not induce the heathen to come near the sword in the other hand.AMS April 27, 1899, page 257.9

THE poorest conception of God and his government to be drawn from any source, is that derived from efforts made to enforce God’s law by human tribunals.AMS April 27, 1899, page 257.10

“SIX days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God,” says the law of the Creator. Where does the “civil Sabbath” come in here?AMS April 27, 1899, page 257.11

THE way to lift society out of the mire of moral degeneracy is not by piling upon it more legislation and new “reform” organizations. Society has enough of these already. What the reform cause wants is not more machinery but more steam.AMS April 27, 1899, page 257.12

“What Evangelist Moody Says on the Question” American Sentinel 14, 17, pp. 257, 258.

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EVANGELIST D. L. MOODY does not agree with the clergymen who are preaching reform by “Christian citizenship” and similar theories. We hear it said everywhere now that the great need of the church is to secure the alliance of the State. In Pittsburg, for example, a federation of the churches has secured an alliance with a great labor organization, by which achievement it is thought an important step has been taken toward the overthrow of the kingdom of evil and the setting up of righteousness in the earth, or at least in that portion of it. The system only needs to be extended to produce general righteousness in society and government, and it is proposed to extend it; for as one speaker said, “We are going to have one vast confederacy and federation;” and then “Woe to him who stands up against it.”AMS April 27, 1899, page 257.1

But Evangelist Moody takes no stock in anything of this kind. He wants to see the church get power from an altogether different source. He says so very plainly and forcibly. Listen to these words addressed to a Chicago audience by the great revivalist a few days ago:—AMS April 27, 1899, page 257.2

“Ten great sermons have been preached by the apostles,—sermons that led the way for all the gospel sermons that have come in these later days. The power of God and of the Holy Ghost was with Peter. If that power rested upon the church to-day, we could drive the rum devil from the world. Human nature has not changed in the last 1900 years. Preach a different gospel from that which was successful in the apostolic days? O, bosh!AMS April 27, 1899, page 258.1

“There will be riots and revolution all over this land if things to on another twenty-five years as they have been going. What can prevent such horrors? What can save the life of the nation? Only the strength of a quickened church, and the church can only be quickened by a visitation of power such as the old apostles knew! May we get back that old apostolic fire again.”AMS April 27, 1899, page 258.2

That is what Brother Moody says on this great question, and we think he knows what he is talking about. We think so because his words are in harmony with Scripture, and with his own experience and the history of all successful reform work since the Christian Church began.AMS April 27, 1899, page 258.3

“The New-Fangled ‘Good Samaritan’” American Sentinel 14, 17, p. 258.

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A RELIGIOUS paper of Chicago, exulting at the triumphs of goodness accomplished by the United States as “the Good Samaritan” in the war last year, says: “We have made Cuba rejoice and Porto Rico glad, and we have given the Philippines a chance to breathe.”AMS April 27, 1899, page 258.1

It is certain that from several thousand at least of the Filipinos “we” have taken away forever all “chance to breathe,” and there is not much of “the good Samaritan” about that.AMS April 27, 1899, page 258.2

Further, this religious paper says: “We have stopped extermination. We can take up our morning papers without reading a daily chapter of Cuban horrors. The Stars and Stripes are now waving where the buzzards used to swarm over the dead.” Alongside of that read the following lines from a letter written by a soldier in the Philippines, Feb. 7, 1899:—AMS April 27, 1899, page 258.3

“The natives fought with desperation. Their sharp-shooters planted themselves in trees and stayed there until they were shot down. Their trenches were just filled with the dead. But the boys have done their work well, and the insurgents are about fifteen miles out on all sides of the city, and still going. The boys are right after them, however, burning as they go. The skies at night are red with fires. The troops have been allowed to take anything they could find, and as a consequence considerable looting was done. One fellow got $600 out of a priest’s house. Many have gotten diamonds and precious stones. Of course there has been great cruelty, but these people needed a lesson. The only way to govern them is by fear. So all the burning and devastation was necessary. I hope it won’t have to go further.”AMS April 27, 1899, page 258.4

“Of course, all this has not been accomplished without great loss on our part. Last night the list of the dead had risen to fifty. Thus far about two hundred wounded have been taken to the hospitals. I tell you it is a terrible sight to see the poor boys being taken into the hospitals. It just seems criminal to sacrifice so many American lives on such a country as this is. And the United States paid $20,000,000 for the privilege. The end has not yet come, and no one knows how long it will take to subdue these people.”AMS April 27, 1899, page 258.5

“I sincerely hope that it won’t take long to educate these people, and that they will soon be convinced that to resist the superior power of the United States is worse than useless. But it is a harsh and unpleasant lesson that we are forced to teach these people. And the worst of it is they are fighting for just the same principle which actuated us in our struggle for our independence; that is the right to govern themselves and to conduct their own affairs. They look upon us as invaders, and although we are feared we are heartily hated by the inhabitants. The Filipinos die with curses on their lips and hatred in their eyes, and we are paying too great a price.”AMS April 27, 1899, page 258.6

This is the plain truth and the cold facts, just as they are written by one who is on the spot—one too whose heart revolts at it. Such things, of course, are only to be expected of the governments, states, and nations of earth; but when the churches, religious teachers, and religious papers identify themselves with all this and proclaim that in it all “we have played the Good Samaritan,” this presents a condition of things in the professed Christianity of the Unity States, that poses as the exemplary Christianity of the world, which, to the one who has a regard for real Christianity, is more disheartening than is the Philippine campaign to that honest soldier. What can such Christianity be but a part of that Babylon which is fallen, is fallen, and is making all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication?AMS April 27, 1899, page 258.7

A. T. J.

“Back Page” American Sentinel 14, 17, p. 272.

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IT cannot be too carefully borne in mind, and therefore too often repeated where it is liable to be forgotten, that in the field of morals knowledge is not power. There can be no moral reform without power; and no moral power without God.AMS April 27, 1899, page 272.1

WHAT a great problem it is to find out how the world, or society, can be reformed without starting with a reform in the individual heart! From earliest times reformers have been working on the solution of this problem, and to-day they are still at it. But the solution is still undiscovered.AMS April 27, 1899, page 272.2