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Jeffersonian
Vol. 13, No. 51
You Must Study This Subject, or Lose Your Inheritance
| F you were sure that a thief, of a burglar,
meant to steal your cotton or ransack your
house, you would be considered reckless if you
took no precautions against the danger to
your property.
If you had seen an assassin bushwhack sev
eral of your neighbors, and had been reliably
told that he had threatened you, also, you’d be
considered insane, if you took no measures to
protect your life.
Is there nothing that is dearer than mere
existence?
Wouldn't you rather die, and be done with
it, rather than part from your freedom—your
right to read, think, speak, and publish your
independent convictions ?
Would you be willing to live, if some other
man had you in his power, and denied you the
liberty to read and think for yourself, and to
worship your Creator in the mode which your
own mind approved?
We don’t get so very much out of life, any
way; but, certainly, it is a precious thing to
enjoy the privilege of being able to say, “I am
my own Man! I don't knuckle to any earthly
Master. I choose my own vocation, my own
home, my own creed I I kneel to none but
God.”
Nature gave mankind that glorious boon,
to start with; but usurping leaders robbed
humanity of it, again and again.
The history of the world is largely made up
of bloody struggles between these robbers and
their victims.
The human race has been cursed, from the
earliest times, by the terrible yoke of ambi-
General Funston Abolishes the Religious Liberty of the Soldiers.
AAENEIvAL FUNSTON explains his snub
of Dr. J. B. Gambrell, and his refusal to
allow evangelical services in the Army, by say
ing that the soldier’s have rights which must
be respected.
Has anybody denied that? Have the Bap
tists and other evangelicals been seeking to
rob the soldier of his rights?
Dr. Gambrell, speaking for the Baptist de
nomination, politely requested Gen. Funston
to grant him an interview, far the purpose of
discussing the conditions under 'which re
ligious services might he held among the 100,-
000 young men, assembled on the border.
Is there anything objectionable in such a re
quest ?
Did it appear to endanger any “right” be
longing to the soldiers?
Instead of receiving Dr. Gambrell—as a
gentleman in Funston’s place would have
done; —the supercilious General refused the in
terview, and instructed a subordinate officer
to tell Dr. Gambrell that he could not hold the
services. /
Thomson, Ga., Thursday, December 14, 1916
tious leaders who turned their leadership into
despotisms.
In every one of these usurpations and
tyrannies, the leader had to share his power
with an aristocracy composed of the next
highest laymen, and the priests.
It was so, in all the Seven Great Monarchies
of antiquity: it was so, in medieval Russia,
Poland, Germany. France and England.
In the Seven Great Monarchies, the op
pressed found no salvation, and the nations
passed away. The peoples perished, under the
despotisms of aristocracies, lay and ecclesias
tical.
The Roman Empire died out, from the
same causes.
But, owing to the primitive instincts and
robust vitality of the European races, the
usurping despotism of State and Church did
not endure.
Even in the Dark Ages, when Pope and
King were supreme, there was always an im
mortal spark of Independence, kept alive by
some fearless scholar, some skeptical prince,
or some Masonic secret-order.
Consequently, revolutions remedied the
fearful wrongs of Church and State; and
these revolutions cost millions of lives, in
Holland, Germany, Bohemia, France, Italy,
and England.
Before those revolutions took place, the
common man had no more rights than a peon
recently had in Mexico.
The tyrannical King and the despotic Pope
had worked hand in hand, until Christendom
re as PEONIZED.
"Why not?
On that point, little Funston squirms like a
worm on a hot shovel. His evasions and at
tempted explanations utterly fail to hide the
truth, which is, that he did not approve evan
gelical services.
He disapproves revivals; and, in his latest
effort at defense, he stumbles right into thq
very admission which proves that he arro
gated to himself a religious censorship.
He himself usurped the authority to rob the
soldier of his Constitutional right to worship
God according to the dictates of the soldier's
conscience. v *
Funston demands that the soldier 'worship
according to Funston's notions.
Where does that attitude leave the soldier?
Where does it leave the Constitution of the
United States? What becomes of religious
liberty in the Army, if the soldier is denied
the right to attend a revival or other evangeli
cal services ?
This episode needs the prompt attention of
the Commander-in-Chief. It demands the
attention of Congress.
What did the bloody revolutions do?
They gave you the freedom you now enjoy.
They gave you the right to choose your own
work, to live where you please, to sanctify
your home, to select your own political and
religious convictions; to speak your own sent
iments, and to govern yourself by your own
ballot.
From what church did your forefathers
have to wrest the liberties which they trans
mitted, to you?
FROM THE ROMAN CATHOLIC
CHURCH!
1 our country, in the largest sense, is a
Land of Promise, and an escape from the
Egyptian bondage of Popery.
Your government, in the truest sense, is a
Protest against the law and organization of
the Roman Catholic system.
If you value your inheritance of, freedom
and privilege, you must study this subject.
Our pampered corporations are producing
a Moneyed Aristocracy; and this aristocracy
of Special Privilege is. leaning, more and
more, upon Militarism and Popery.
Why does it lean upon Militarism? Be
cause the soldier is taught to blindly obey,
instead of think.
Why does it lean upon Popery ?
Because the Pope’s church teaches blind
obedience, instead of inquiry.
Hence, these two systems work fraternally
together, to enslave men, rob them of their
produce, and divide the spoils.
(continued on page five.)
The sum and substance of General Funston’s
lengthy statement in the daily papers, Sun
day, is, that the soldier must look to his regi
mental chaplain for his religion, and mush
not enjoy the freedom to look elsewhere.
He must not be preached to by anybody ex
cept the chaplain. He must, not attend reviv
als, and he must not be told that his uncon-'
verted soul is “lost.” | ;
Funston won’t allow it. Funston must
measure a man’s religion to him, as die meas
ures out the rations. Funston will see to it
that the soldier obeys the sergeant and the
captain.
Funston will march the unconverted man
to heaven, just as he marches him into camp.
Funston abrogates the Constitution of the
United States, so far as soldiers are concerned.
Funston stops the Constitution on the outer
rim of his encampment, and sternly forbids it
to come in.
Funston prescribes a soldier’s mode of wor«
ship, just as he would design a uniform.
Price, Five Gents
