Surest Safeguard of National Greatness

The home, school, and church all taught Bible principles. The Bible's fruits showed clearly in thrift, intelligence, purity, and temperance. For years one might “not see a drunkard, or hear a swear word, or meet a beggar.”^{11George Bancroft, History of the United States of America, part 1, chapter 19, paragraph 25.} Bible principles are what most surely protect a nation's greatness. The feeble colonies grew into powerful states, and the world noticed the prosperity of “a church without a pope, and a state without a king.”LF 125.9

But increasing numbers of people were attracted to America by motives different from those of the Pilgrims. These were people who were looking only for worldly advantage.LF 126.1

The early colonists permitted only members of the church to vote or to hold office in the government. They accepted this measure to preserve the purity of the state. It resulted, however, in corrupting the church. Many people joined the church without a change of heart. Even in the ministry there were people who knew nothing of the renewing power of the Holy Spirit. From the days of Constantine to the present, while attempting to build up the church by the aid of the state may appear to bring the world nearer to the church, in reality it brings the church nearer to the world.LF 126.2

The Protestant churches of America, and those in Europe as well, failed to push forward in the path of reform. The majority, like the Jews in Christ's day or the Catholics in the time of Luther, were content to believe as their ancestors had believed. They kept their errors and superstitions. The Reformation gradually died out, until there was almost as great a need for reform in the Protestant churches as in the Roman Church in the time of Luther. The Protestant churches had the same reverence for human opinions and substitution of human theories for God's Word. People neglected to search the Scriptures, and so they continued to cling to doctrines that had no foundation in the Bible.LF 126.3

Pride and extravagance were encouraged under the appearance of religion, and the churches became corrupted. Traditions that would ruin millions were taking deep root. The church was upholding these traditions instead of contending earnestly for “the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.”LF 126.4

This is how the principles for which the Reformers had suffered so much were eroded.LF 126.5