The American Sentinel 1 (1886)
January 1886
"Note" The American Sentinel 1, 1 , p. 7.
DR. A. M. MILLIGAN was one of the main spokes in the National
Reform wheel. He died not long since, and, in writing of him
afterward, Mr. M. A. Gault, a secretary and one of the chief speakers
of the National Reform Party, said:–
"I heard him once remark that he was mainly indebted to his
theological professor, Dr. James R. Wilson, for his inspiration on
National Reform. I can say that I received my inspiration on that
subject from Dr. A. M. Milligan."
We think that this is just the correct statement of the scheme of
National Reform inspiration. We are satisfied that that is the exact
size of the channel along which the stream of National Reform
inspiration flows. And we are sure that the religio-political aspirations
of ambitious clerics is the highest point to which the source of
National Reform inspiration can ever be traced.
A. T. J.
February 1886
"National Reform and the Rights of Conscience" The American
Sentinel 1, 2 , pp. 11, 12.
THE avowed purpose of the National Reform Party is to secure an
Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, by which every
man will be compelled to acknowledge that God is Sovereign, that
Christ is Ruler, and that the Bible is the supreme law. Whether a man
believes it or not, is no difference, he must be compelled to
acknowledge it because they profess to believe it. The Christian
Statesman of Oct. 2, 1884, says"–
"Give all men to understand that this is a Christian nation; and
that, believing that without Christianity we perish, we must maintain
by all right means our Christian character. Inscribe this character on
our Constitution. . . Enforce upon all that come among us the laws of
Christian morality."
"Enforce," according to Webster, is "to force; to constrain; to
compel; to execute with vigor." Therefore the proposition of these
National Reformers is to force, to compel, all to keep the laws of
Christian morality. To execute with vigor upon all, the laws of
Christian morality.
And what is to be the penalty for dissent? Well, they pretend to be
so kind that they will not whip anybody for it; they pretend to be so
liberal that they will not impose a fine upon any one for it; they
pretend to be so merciful that they will not imprison any one for it; but
they are neither so kind, so liberal, nor so merciful but that they will
disfranchise every one who will not acknowledge, and submit to, the
provisions which they choose to embody in their Religious
Amendment to the Constitution.
Thus, for a religious opinion, however conscientiously held, which
may disagree with theirs, they deliberately propose to deprive men of
their birthright to the most inestimable right of earth,–that for which
thousands upon thousands have laid down their lives; that for which
our fathers pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor,–
the right to be a citizen amongst a free people, and in this instance a
citizen of the best Government or the earth. Every honor to which he
might otherwise aspire, every right to which he might otherwise be
entitled, must be swept away at one stroke because, forsooth, he
chooses to claim the right to worship God according to the dictates of
his own conscience. That this is no fancy picture that we have drawn,
that it is no fable that we have devised, in regard to what that party
proposes to do, we have abundant proof; and that in their own words.
Mr. W. J. Coleman is one of the principal exponents of the National
Reform religion. In the Christian Statesman of Nov. 1, 1883, Mr.
Coleman replied to some questions that had been put by a
correspondent who signed himself "Truth Seeker." We copy the
following"–
"What effect would the adoption of the Christian Amendment,
together with the proposed changes in the Constitution, have upon
those who deny that God is the Sovereign, Christ the Ruler, and the
Bible the law? This brings up the conscience question at once. . . .
The classes who would object are, as 'Truth Seeker' has said,
Jews, infidels, atheists, and others. These classes are perfectly
satisfied with the Constitution as it is. How would they stand toward
it, if it recognized the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ? To be
perfectly plain, I believe that the existence of a Christian
Constitution would disfranchise every logically consistent infidel."
There we have in plain words what they propose to do with
dissenters under their "Christian Constitution." But let us look into this
a little further. Notice, it is only the logically consistent dissenter that
will be disfranchised. By the same token, then, the illogically
inconsistent can all be citizens. That is, the man of honest intention,
of firm conviction, and of real principle, who values his principles
more than he does political preference, he must be disfranchised;
while the time-servers, the political hacks, the men of no convictions
and of no principle, they can all be acceptable citizens. In other
words, the honest man, if he be a dissenter, cannot be a citizen; but
every hypocrite can be a citizen. Therefore the inevitable logic of the
National Reform position is to put a premium upon hypocrisy. And
such will be the value of citizenship under their so-called Christian
Constitution.
Such a result from such proceedings is not new. The Puritan
Parliament "solemnly resolved that no person shall be employed but
such as the House shall be satisfied of his real godliness." And as the
natural consequence, the realm was filled with hypocritical piety.
Thus much merely in passing, as it is not so much our purpose in
this article to notice the logic of their position, as it is to show their
avowed purpose of outraging every principle of the rights of
conscience. Mr. Coleman is not alone in thus defining the status of
dissenters. In the Statesman of February 21, 1884, Mr. J. C. K.
Milligan, in writing upon the same subject, expressed himself thus:–
"The worst result will be to disfranchise them."
But this is not the worst result which they
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wish, nor which they intend shall be to such. Just read carefully the
following extract from an address delivered by Rev. E. B. Graham at
a National Reform Convention held at York, Neb., and reported in the
Christian Statesman of May 21, 1885:–
"We might add, in all justice, if the opponents of the Bible do not
like our Government and its Christian features, let them go to some
wild, desolate land; and in the name of the devil, and for the sake of
the devil, subdue it, and set up a Government of their own on infidel
and atheistic ideas, and then if they can stand it, stay there till they
die."
Exactly; dissenters must not only be disfranchised, they must all
be sent to the devil, and that too in some "wild and desolate land;"
and even that is not enough, but they must "stay there till they die."
And that is the National Reform idea of "justice." That is the kind of a
