People's Pilot, Volume 2, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 February 1893 — PRACTICAL CHRISTIANITY. [ARTICLE]

PRACTICAL CHRISTIANITY.

The Kingdoms of the Earth Ca-i Become the Lord's By Political Actio i Only. One Sabbath evening, not long ago, I had the pleasure of listening to an able discourse based upon the following text from the book of Revelation: And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices In Heaven, saying, the kingdoms ol this world are become the kingdoms ot our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever. Taking as his subject the millennial reign of the Lord Jesus Christ, the eloquent preacher earnestly descanted upon the glories and beauties of a civilization in which the hearts of all men were filled with a supreme love of God and loving veneration for His laws, and with a love for their neighbors, equal in intensity love they bore themselves. With burning words of eloquence he pictured to his audience a state of society wherein there was no need of or use for penitentiaries and jails, lawyers or ludges; and in which sinks and slums, dens of iniquity and haunts of vice, saloons, gambling hells and gilded palaces of sin should cease to exist, because there would be none found willing to operate and carry them on and from the fact that none would have a desire to frequent or patronize them. Growing enthusiastic in his theme, he advanced the idea, no doubt a true one, that a strict compliance with the law of God would so conduce to health and vigor, and tend to longevity, as to a great extent to render unnecessary the services of physicians. In short, he pictured a state of society in which the infinite love and mercy, truth and justice, holiness and perfection, of an infinitely wise God should be manifested, so far as possible, in finite man. Profoundly impressed with the sermon, a train of burning thoughts has since that night been constantly pressing for recognition in my mind. It will be observed that, in the language of the text, it Is the “kingdoms of this world” that are to become the Lord’s This phrase emphasizes the truth that it is as governments, nations or communities that human beings are to become subject to the authority and rule of the King of kings. That is to say that kingdoms, nations, governments, will not be obliterated or destroyed, but that “some sweet day,” when the Word of God shall have done “its perfect work,” the governments of this earth will become subordinated to the government of the Ruler of rulers, and all laws and rules of government will be based upon the eternal principles of truth, justice and equity. This central idea or thought permeates and pervades every book in the Old and New Testaments. If there be those who scoff at religion and Christianity, carping critics of the Word of God, who point with pride to the evolution of humanity, it may.be well to remind them that the purest, noblest human beings and the greatest, grandest governments are but lame and feeble imitations of the perfect man and the ideal Btate written of in the Word of God, from Mount Sinai to Calvary. After from seventeen to eighteen hundred years of evolution neither men nor governments have been able to prove by living examples and practical illustration that it was possible for a human being to have imagined or originated the ideal typo of. human beings and human governments set forth in the Word of God. It must be remembered that while it is true that water cannot rise higher than its source, it is also true that water will find its own level. But, my reader, you doubtless think that this is irrelevant matter to appear in a political newspaper and wonder what lam driving at. I will tell you. All popular governments are inaugurated and sustained by and with the consent of the governed. Specially is this the case in the United States, where, theoretically at least, we have a government of, by and for the people. In the freeman’s ballot the citizen of the United States has a most potent instrumentality for good or for evil Upon the soil of the United States of America, I firmly believe, is to be fought out the battle for the supremacy of God’s word, commonly called “human rights.” Here in America it is to be decided whether man is to be accorded his God-given rights, under a government of just and righteous laws, or become a slave to organized greed and avarice under laws of corrupt selfishness. If the United States ever becomes the “kingdom of our Lord and His Christ,”.it will become so by virtue of righteous political action on the part of those who love the Lord. We have heard a great deal of late years about men voting as they shot; why not commence to vote as you pray? Is it not time that Christians apprehended the fact that they can in no wise better manifest their Christian faith than by taking their religion into politics and assisting in instituting God’s government upon earth—among men. The parable of the talents is much commented upon. There is perhaps no talent for the use of which man will be held to a more strict accountability than the God-given instrumentality—the American ballot. Is usury accursed of God and a curse to man? Destroy it with the ballot. Have usurpers appropriated the earth, God’s gift to man? Dispossess them with the ballot, remembering that as eminent authority as Blackstone has said that all laud titles are founded in force, or fraud. Are God’s children dying for air and sunshine, food and fuel; blighted by the withering curse of poverty? Abolish poverty with the ballot and establish conditions of liberty, equality and fraternity. Do not excuse yourselves with the threadbare assertion that labor’s poverty is caused by mismanagement, or that the winter’s distress is caused by the summer’s improvidence. Under the operation of the iron law of wages, labor, competing with itself for a chance to earn a living, receives for its toil only sufficient to provide a bare subsistence while at work. Besides, why should labor be frugal and provident and live coarsely, while idleness is profligate and improvident and lives in luxury? Are you afraid of being called a socialist? Print on the reverse side of your ballot:

And all thit bslieved were tcggUier, and all things common and sold their possessions* and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. Do houses of ill fame disgrace the nation and menace our civilization? Overturn with your united ballot the industrial system which a congressional committee has declared offers to thousands of our women and girls the alternative of starvation or prostitution. Is labor clothed in rags while idleness is arrayed in purple and fine linen? Look not with distrust upon the party which embodies in its platform the Apostle Paul’s words: “Let him that will not work, not eat” Is the rum power debauching and corrupting the nation? Crush it out of existence with the power of the Christian ballot, bearing iu miud that withering care and bleak despair caused by gaunt poverty and enforced idleness are the prolific causes of intemperance. In all things and at all times, take a religious In- 1 terest in politics and bear aloft the banner ol Christ in all primaries and conventions, easting a Christiajp ballot on election day. Advocate Christian principles, not religious partisanship; Christian men, not sectarians. Examine all issues in the light of the question, Is It right? Not, Will it benefit the party? There are more Christians than saloon keepers! Why then do saloon keepers become officials? Christianity has its deadly foes, but Christians have themselves to blame for allowing those foes to shape the policy of their government. Finally, remember there are but two sides to all questions. “He that is not for me is against me.” Governments must either progress toward Christ or retrogrado toward the evil one. The kingdoms of the earth will nover become the dependencies of the Prince of Peace, until Christians learn to voto-at every election and always vote as they profess to believe. Brother populist: When you have read this band it to some Christian neighbor who does not believe in mixing politics and religion. —George C. Ward, in Midland Mechanic.