A WAMSHINGTON, D. C., correspondent sends us the following: “A delegation of members of the Anti-saloon League called on the President and had a conversation with him with reference to proposed religious legislation. They referred to the criticisms that had been made in the papers with reference to his Thanksgiving proclamation; and as they reported in their public meetings, the President said emphatically that this is indeed a Christian nation, and it was only a matter of time when everyone would have to come to accept the situation.” Evidently it was due to no oversight on the President’s part that his Thanksgiving proclamation for 1895 read as it did.
A WESTERN religio political journal raises the query how far a Christian can follow the divine injunction to “turn the other cheek” to the smiter before reaching the point where “forbearance ceases to be a virtue.” It mentions by way of illustration that a certain minister in an Iowa town had been active recently in securing the indictment of a druggist for violation of the prohibition law, whereupon the druggist becoming angry, undertook one day to chastise the preacher upon the street, but the latter drew a revolver and shot him, inflicting a dangerous wound. This was a “regrettable” outcome, the journal says, but it adds that “it is a stern question how long the champions of law and order may be expected to stand dumb before the insults and assaults of law-breakers and assassins.”
Was this a case of “Christian” shooting? And if the wound proved fatal—as perchance it did—was the druggist killed in a “Christian” way? This may not have been any better for him than if the shot had been fired by a highway robber, but the minister thereby avenged the “insults” offered him and perchance avoided bodily injury.
How far did Jesus Christ go in submitting without resentment to the insults and violence offered him? How long did he suffer them before striking his persecutors to the ground? It might be profitable for those who profess to do all things in His name, to consider these questions in their bearing upon this subject.