p. 6 | Note and Comment

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Jun 29, 1905

Note and Comment

RECENTLY on the occasion of the swearing in of some naval recruits at Wilhelmshaven, the German emperor made a speech referring to the patriotism and soldierly qualities of the Japanese, in which he is quoted as saying that one must not draw the conclusion because of the victories of Japan over Russia—“victories of a heathen over a Christian people,—that Buddha is superior to our Lord Christ.” He ascribed Russia’s defeats to the low state of Russian Christianity. The same failure to distinguish between the nature and sphere of the kingdom of God and earthly kingdoms, which is noticeable in the emperor’s statement, is responsible for the misdirected legislation which assumes the alliance of Christianity with political power in the United States.

THE United Presbyterian of June 15 makes reference to the action of the Presbyterian General Assembly, in putting “itself on record as favorable to a campaign for a better observance of the Sabbath,” and says that “those who are opposed to the enforcement of the Sunday laws are enemies of the church, of society, and of government.” This is the sentiment which, when it becomes more general, will bring persecution upon those who adhere to the Sabbath of the Lord, and thus manifest loyalty to the government of heaven. The very fact that God’s government and the world are at enmity, so that friendship with the world is forbidden to the Christian, is ample evidence that worldly agencies can have no place in advancing the kingdom of God. Such agencies can serve the ends of civil government, but not of the Christian religion.

AGAIN the unstable equilibrium of peace in Europe has by the most narrow of margins avoided being upset, and the calamity of a great European conflict, if not that of a world-wide war, been averted. On June 14 orders were given by the French ministry of war directing all army officers and men on leave of absence to rejoin the colors immediately, and the railway train service of the country was turned over to the military authorities to facilitate the execution of the order. This was in view of the threatening attitude of the German kaiser, whose recent actions had almost convinced the French government that he was bent on forcing a war. Happily the crisis seems to have been averted, but to the Bible student the incident is a reminder that the winds of strife are ready to blow on the earth

at any time, being restrained only by the “four angels standing on the four corners of the earth,” whose mission it is to hold the winds until the servants of God on the earth shall be sealed in their foreheads.

It is reported from Rome that “the pope has issued an encyclical encouraging Catholics to participate in public affairs.” The report states that “the encyclical has created a sensation. Its object is to induce Catholics to enter public life, so that they may be a force against the threat of socialism.” The encyclical is apparently aimed at the situation in Italy more than that elsewhere, and is taken to mark the complete abandonment of the policy set up by the first “prisoner of the Vatican,” requiring Italian Catholics to refrain from voting, as a protest against the Italian occupation of Rome. There has been no rule against Catholic participation in politics elsewhere, but on the contrary, Catholics throughout the world were urged by the late Pope Leo to do all in their power to cause the constitutions of states, and legislation, “to be modeled in the principles of the true church;” and they have been everywhere active in seeking to obey the admonition.

AN interesting feature of the proceedings of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, which convened at the national capital May 10, was a resolution introduced by Rev. C. E. Smith, calling for the appointment of a committee to investigate the histories in use in the public schools of Maryland and the District of Columbia, which he charged with teaching that Roman Catholics founded Maryland as a refuge for people suffering from religious oppression, and that to Catholics was due the religious toleration offered by that colony in its early history. Mr. Smith’s resolution provided that the committee should, if they found such teaching being given in the public schools, bring the matter to the attention of the authorities in Maryland and the District, and call for such corrections as would be in harmony with historical facts. That Rome is striving earnestly to eliminate the testimony of history against herself by such means as is here referred to, having in view both the text-books in the schools and the books in the public libraries, has been shown on frequent occasions. The facts regarding the Catholic claim of having favored religious freedom in the case of the founding of Maryland, are, as every student of history knows, that Catholics in that colony were in a minority at the time the toleration act was passed, and favored its passage with a direct view to their own religious interests.