LESSON 9

September 1, 1888.

THE MAKING OF THE IMAGE OF THE BEAST — Concluded.

  1. IF the influence of the Protestant churches, the Prohibition party, the W. C. T. U., the Workingmen, and the Catholic Church, were heartily united in favor of one measure, could not that measure be carried, whatever it might be?
  2. Is there now any question upon which all these are united in sentiment, and upon which they are fast uniting in action? Ans. — There is.
  3. What is it? Ans. — The enforcement of Sunday-keeping by the State.
  4. Who are the sole leaders in this movement? Ans. — The leaders in the churches.
  5. To what extent are they working it? Ans. — They are “working” and lobbying almost every State Legislature in the Union, and the National Legislature also.
  6. What do they ask the State to do? Ans. — To stop all Sunday trains, abolish all Sunday papers, and stop all manner of work on Sunday.
  7. For what? Ans. - So that their “devotion may not be hindered.”
  8. What is there about the Sunday train that hinders the devotion of the church-members? Ans. — “They get a great many passengers, and so break up a great many congregations.” — Elgin, Ill., Sunday-law Convention, November, 1887. (I) “This railroad [the Chicago and Rock Island] has been running excursion trains from Des Moines to Colfax Springs on the Sabbath for some time, and ministers complain that their members go on these excursions. … We need a Sabbath [Sunday] law that will bind the government and the corporation as well as the individual.” — M. A. vault, in Christian Statesman, September 25, 1884.
  9. What is there about the Sunday newspaper that hinders their devotion? Ans. — “The laboring classes are apt to arise late on Sunday morning, read the Sunday papers, and allow the hour of worship to go by unheeded.” — Elgin Convention.
  10. What was it that hindered the devotion of the church-members in the fourth century? Ans. — Sunday games and theaters.
  11. How? Ans. — They got a great many spectators “and so broke up a great many congregations;” the church-members would go to the games and theaters, and would “let the hour of worship go by unheeded,” and so their devotion was “greatly hindered.”
  12. Who were they whose devotion was thus especially disturbed? Ans — Those “whose Christianity was the least an affair of the life and of the heart.”
  13. What then did they do? Ans. — As they had not enough conscience, nor love of right, to do what they considered to be right, they demanded that the State should take away from them all opportunity to do that which they deemed to be wrong.
  14. How is the matter worked now? Ans. — The same way precisely.
  15. Was the Papacy content with State laws stopping games and closing theaters? Ans. — No, all manner of work must be stopped.
  16. Will the image of the Papacy be content with laws stopping Sunday trains, and abolishing Sunday newspapers? Ans. — “Let a man be what he may — Jew, seventh-day observer of some other denomination, or those who do not believe in the Christian Sabbath — let the law apply to everyone, that there shall be no public desecration of the first day of the week, the Christian Sabbath, the day of rest for the nation. They may hold any other day of the week as sacred, and observe it; but that day which is the one day in seven for the nation at large, let that not be publicly desecrated by anyone, by officer in the Government, or by private citizen, high or low, rich or poor.” — Dr. McAllister, editor Christian Statesman.
  17. Why do they want to compel all people to keep Sunday? Ans. — Because “he who does not keep the Sabbath [Sunday] does not worship God.” — Elgin Convention.
  18. Then what is the purpose of all their Sunday laws? Ans. — To compel all men to worship.
  19. What is it in reality that they will compel men, by this means, to worship? Rev. 13:12.
  20. What grew out of the Sunday-law movement in the fourth century? Ans. — The beast.
  21. What will just as surely grow out of this Sunday-law movement in our day? Ans. — The image of the beast.
  22. What did the beast do? Ans. — He made war with the saints. Rev. 13:7 ; Dan. 7:21, 25.
  23. What will the image of the beast do? Rev. 13:16, 17. “Resolved, That we give our patronage to such business men, manufacturers, and laborers as observe the Sabbath [Sunday].” — Elgin Sunday-law Convention.
  24. What further will the image of the beast endeavor to do? Rev. 13:15.
  25. Is it in the minds of these National Reformers to do this? At the Lakeside National Reform Convention, 1887, a certain person said of the enforcement of Sunday-laws, “There is a law in the State of Arkansas enforcing Sunday observance upon the people, and the result has been that many good persons have not only been imprisoned, but have lost their property and even their lives.” And Dr. McAllister replied: “It is better that a few should suffer than that the whole nation should lose its Sabbath.”
  26. Under what plea did the chief priests and Pharisees justify themselves in killing the Saviour? Ans. — “It is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not.” “Then from that day forth they took counsel together for to put him to death.” John 11:50, 53.
  27. Will these in our day accomplish their purpose upon those who refuse to worship the beast and his image? Rev. 15:2.

NOTE

In the Christian Nation, December 14, 1887, Rev. W. T. McConnell, a representative National Reformer, published an “open letter” to the American Sentinel, in which he said:— “You look for trouble in this land in the future, if these principles are applied. I think it will come to you if you maintain your present position. The foolhardy fellow who persists in standing on a railroad track may well anticipate trouble when he hears the rumble of the coming train. If he shall read the signs of the times in the screaming whistle and flaming head-light, he may change his position and avoid the danger, but if he won’t be influenced by these, his most gloomy forebodings of trouble wilt be realized when the express strikes him. So you, neighbor, if, through prejudice or the enmity of unregenerate hearts, you have determined to oppose the progress of this nation in fulfilling its vocation as an instrument in the divine work of regenerating human society, may rightly expect trouble. It will be sure to come to you.”

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