The Boston Investor's Review said (July 28, 1900): "It is folly to assert that the policy of this country shall be governed by absurd maxims uttered more than a hundred years ago. The greatest evil which now confronts us is the clamor about the old Declaration of Independence, to the effect that all men ought to be free and equal. This is merely generalization of the doctrine of Voltaire and the Encyclopædists. It is a dictum absolutely lacking foundation in history, and incapable of syllogistic justification. It suited our purpose in 1776, when we were breaking away from the mother country; but it was only a bit of sublimated demagogism. Το bring forward this Declaration in the year 1900 is as gross an absurdity as ever was practised, and an insult to the intelligence of the people."

The Des Moines (Ia.) Globe, (August, 1900) put forth the following:

"For a long time thinking people who have large commercial interests have felt unsafe with our present form of government. Now is a good time to do away with our obsolete Constitution and adopt a form of government that will be logical, with expansion ideas, and will give ample protection to capital.

"A constitutional monarchy is probably the most desirable plan that we could adopt. Everything is ripe for the change. We take it that the great farming interests of our land will readily adapt themselves to the change. The farmer is a great lover of law and order, and antimonarchy is largely the expression of French revolutionary ideas suggested by hot-headed theorists.

"We believe that history and experience have proved beyond cavil that a republican form of government can not subsist beyond a certain stage; that as soon as a people become rich, strong and great, the republic droops and dies. We believe this is so of necessity and not by chance. . . . It would seem as if science teaches that men are created to follow their masters the inspired minds of history. History shows that a king must be and is found in every nation to guide its people in every great crisis. Neither is the change to be dreaded or

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looked forward to with forebodings. While we are in fact largely under the conditions of a monarchy, we have the evils without the benefit of the same." (Italics ours.)

Further testimony of the same character might be cited, but it is sufficient to say that there has been almost no opposition, either from religious or secular sources, to this sentiment. A quiet revolution has taken place. No longer are we fast to the old moorings. No longer do the rights of the individual stand safeguarded by the guarantees of the Declaration and the Constitution. The day of individualism is passing. The question whether an individual's rights are to be recognized in the government depends now upon the question whether he belongs to that portion of the governed from whose consent the just powers of government are now held to be derived; it is not a question of endowment by the Creator, but of favor from those in power. The rights of the individual conscience, it is now held, must not be set up against the collective conscience of the majority. First the church abandoned Protestant ground by calling for help from the state to enforce religious observances in disregard of the consciences of dissenters; next, the state abandoned Protestant ground in adopting the principle of government by consent merely of "some" of the governed, setting aside the rights of all others; and neither one is longer restrained by principle from union with the other. Meanwhile in the

churches a movement of the utmost importance in this connection has come to the birth and is rapidly gaining power and influence, the purpose of which is to make such a union an accomplished fact. The significance of this movement we consider in the following chapter.

WE

CHAPTER XVI

E have already described the federation movement in the Catholic Church. It will be shown in this chapter that just such a movement as will correspond to the prediction made in Revelation 13 concerning the beast with the lamblike horns, has been inaugurated in the Protestant churches of this country. The leading Protestant bodies have joined hands in a great federation more extensive and powerful than any other known in recent times; and they have done this for the avowed purpose of obtaining power, by which to influence the nation politically, control elections, and shape legislation. They have sought, and obtained, not the power of godliness, not the power which operates by spiritual agencies as described in 2 Cor. 10:4, for the casting down of the strongholds of sin; but the power of numbers, the power of votes, the power of the religious majority, exercised through legislatures and courts of law. Professing to be opposed to any union of church and state, they have nevertheless sought and obtained by this means a union of religion with the state, which in its results amounts to the same thing. Thus the Protestant churches of this land are doing the very thing which the prophecy of Revelation 13 has foretold; namely, effecting a union of religion with the state similar to that which in the early centuries of the Christian era

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brought about the development of the papacy; in other words, producing a likeness, or "image" of the "beast."

Let no one think that we wish to reflect in any way upon the character of the men engaged in this enterprise. They are men of the highest moral standing, sincerely solicitous for the welfare of the nation, and honestly trying to check and remove the evils which are rampant in society. And that their efforts will in many ways be productive of good, no one can doubt. We wish them all possible success in their work for the promotion of temperance, the elimination of war, the safeguarding of youth, etc. For these things all Christians are bound to work and pray. Why then are these good men misled into doing something which the Bible utters a solemn warning against? The reason is that they have turned aside from the counsel of God, given them in his Word, and are going about to establish righteousness and the kingdom of God in the earth, in their own way. They have slighted the prophetic portions of the Bible, by which one may know what stage of the conflict between the kingdoms of Christ and of Satan has been reached in his day, and how he can cooperate with the providence of God for the times in which he is living, and are out of touch with their divine Leader and with the plans by which he is to-day advancing his kingdom in the earth. They have a mistaken conception of the kingdom which is to come, and are looking for a kingdom mixed with earthly elements, and to be set up by earthly agencies, such as the ballot, legislation, education, etc. Under such circumstances it is not surprising that they should be working at cross-purposes with the providence of God. The mistake of failing to heed and be guided by the instruction of God's Word, is a fatal one; and the more zeal a church has when it is off the track and pursuing a wrong course, the greater will be the damage which it will do.

We are now to describe the steps by which this church federation movement has progressed to its present stage.

In November, 1905, there assembled in Carnegie Hall, New York City, a body of churchmen composed of delegates representing twenty-eight denominations, for the purpose of effecting a general union of the churches, so as to wield their combined power in the field of moral reforms. This conference took the name of "The Inter-Church Conference on Federation."

This movement originated in a meeting of Protestant ministers in New York City, in 1900, at which was organized the "National Federation of Churches." The first work of this organization was to form state and local federations throughout the country; next, at its annual session in 1902, held in Washington, D. C., a committee of correspondence was chosen, which sent to all the leading Protestant churches in the United States, an address on "The Cooperative Relationship of the Churches of Jesus Christ, in Christian Work." In this communication it was stated that "The National Federation of Churches and Christian Workers has for its object to promote the cooperation of churches of various communions through the formation of State and local federations, in order to secure united and effective effort in religious and moral movements vital to the welfare of churches and communities."

As illustrated by the actual work of these State and local federations, the object of the federation was the "concentration of effort for the removal of social evils, the cleansing of the centers of vice and corruption, and the promotion of temperance, Sabbath observance, and general morality." "The affiliation of the local churches," it was stated, "has often proved a beneficent moral force in the administration of civic affairs."

This was set forth in the communication,