THE Christian Statesman, of August 10, published an article upon the progress of National Reform, in which it recounts with evident satisfaction, the conquests made by the National Reform movement since its inauguration in 1863.
“A little over thirty years ago,” says the Statesman, “a few National Reformers went about our country lecturing on the kingship of Christ. They were met with a very cool reception.” “But,” continues the Statesman, “the workers never lost heart; they continued holding their local meetings and national conventions and sending out their literature.”
The publication of the Christian Statesman was commenced in 1867. At that time the entire daily press of the country was opposed to the movement; and “the religious weeklies with rare exception,” says the Statesman, “were also hostile, or at the best utterly indifferent. It was not simply the idea of a constitutional acknowledgment of Christ as King that was regarded as so impracticable or absurd, but the idea of the kingship itself. The thought seemed to prevail on every hand, even among the members of the evangelical churches, that the truth of Christ’s kingly office was a theological doctrine with which civil government and nations had nothing to do.”
“But,” exclaims the Statesman, “what a marvelous change is witnessed to-day! The ‘Good Citizenship’ movement of the Christian Endeavor Society is only one of many indications as to the moral revolution that has taken place. Papers are springing into existence to advocate the truth that Jesus Christ is the Saviour and Governor of the nation. The Christian Statesman, once so lonely, now has plenty of company in the maintenance of this truth. And the National Reform Association is now not the only organization for the dissemination of the principles of Christian civil government. Other societies are being organized throughout our land with such avowed aims as the following, which we quote from document No. 11 of the series issued by the National Christian Citizenship League: ‘It already has auxiliaries in various States and Territories, and exists for the following purposes: 1. To reveal Jesus Christ as the Saviour of the State and nation as well as of the individual. 2. To make Christian principles operative in public affairs. 3. To unite the followers of Christ in consistent, harmonious, and aggressive action for these purposes.’”
This is, as the Statesman very properly says, taking up the very same work that the National Reform Association has been engaging in for over thirty years; and what that movement is, the Statesman then proceeds to define: It is to incorporate the fundamental principles of Christian civil government into our nation’s fundamental law. In short, National Reform means a man-made theocracy. It means men ruling in the place of God; it means an image to the papacy, for the papacy is the man of sin, sitting in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. And National Reform, whether called by that name or whether dubbed “Christian Citizenship,” is practically the same thing; it is a new papacy, an image of the power that has its seat upon the seven hills.
It is all very well enough to talk about making the law of God the fundamental rule of national life; but who is to define the law of God? As Richard M. Johnson so tersely expressed in [sic.] in 1829: “Among all the religious persecutions with which almost every page of modern history is stained, no victim ever suffered but for the violation of what government denominated the law of God.”
Persecution is inseparable from the assumption to rule in the place of God. It was for this reason, that our forefathers sought to establish in this country a purely secular government.
This principle was recognized by the Presbytery of Hanover in Virginia; when, in 1776, it addressed the Virginia House of Assembly a memorial in which occurred these words:—
It is at least impossible for the magistrate to adjudge the right of preference among the various sects that profess the Christian faith, without erecting a claim to infallibility, which would lead us back to the church of Rome.
Whoever assumes to decide a religious question for anybody else, assumes the prerogative of infallibility as truly as does the pope of Rome, and thus leads all who follow him, back to the church of Rome; and this the government must do if it shall undertake to make the law of God the fundamental law of the land. It must decide what the law of God is, and having decided what it is, it must decide what it means, as was done in the World’s Fair Sunday legislation when Congress decided that the fourth commandment now requires the observance of Sunday. National Reform means that such questions shall not only be discussed and decided in the halls of Congress, but in our courts of justice; and it is to such a regime as this that not only the Christian Statesman and the National Reform Association, but all the auxiliaries to which the Statesman has referred, are pledged. And it is such a regime as this that the SENTINEL has opposed and will ever continue to oppose.