Note and Comment

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Oct 19, 1905

Bishop Henry C. Potter, of New York, is quoted as having said in an address at the annual diocesan convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church at New York City, that it is futile to hope for a restoration of the old-time New England Sunday by means of the “blue laws.” The bishop discussed the question at considerable length before the clergy and laymen of his audience, and declared that it must be left to the individual to decide the extent to which Sunday shall be devoted to mental and physical recreation. Here is testimony that should not be overlooked by the New England Sabbath Protective League.

The extent to which the pantheistic idea of God as a Universal Presence has spread in professedly Christian countries is indicated by a statement made by Canon Hensley, of England, in discussing the nature of creeds. He said:—

The modern English Christian . . . is not conscious of any disposition toward a multiplication of gods; it may well be his case that his difficulty is to believe in a personal God at all.

What Canon Hensley says of England is equally true of America. The pleasing and seemingly religious teaching of the immanent God is a piece of satanic sophistry designed to destroy belief in a personal God. Let those who love the truth be on their guard against it.

The contrast between the instruction given in the day-school and that attempted in the Sunday-school is strongly drawn by a recent writer in these words:—

For twenty-five hours in every week our children are taught by trained instructors that the miracle has no place in nature, and then for twenty-five minutes in every week our children are taught by untrained instructors, when they see fit to come to our Sunday-schools, that the universe is based on miracle.

It would be difficult to state in fewer words so powerful an argument in favor of the general scheme of Christian education to which this denomination stands committed. The unmistakable tendency of the so-called scientific education of the present day is to undermine confidence in the reliability of the Biblical revelation.

Some plain truth about the Sabbath, although mingled with some error, is told by the Birmingham (Ala.) Ledger of recent date in the following editorial note:—

Some people insist on calling Sunday the Sabbath. They do not have any Bible authority for calling it so. God said the seventh day “is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” The commandment said, “Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath,” etc. The Bible nowhere calls the Christian Sunday the Sabbath, nor the first day of the week the Sabbath. The word is not applicable to both days. One was named and set apart by God himself as a holy day; the other was not so far as we know. It was observed by the early Christians as a day of worship, but it was not until the English Puritans became a religious sect that the day became at all to be observed as the Jews observed the Sabbath. This subject is worth a few hours’ study next Sunday.

Inasmuch as God never made the first day of the week a holy day, and never called it a holy day or the Sabbath, why should we be expected to treat it as a holy day, or regard it as the Sabbath?

Speaking of the present financial outlook, Vice-President F. A. Vanderlip, of the National City Bank of New York City, said in an address at the bankers’ convention in Washington:—

A strain is on our currency system. We know that we are threatened by great social disorders, that the edict of a labor leader might change a cloudless outlook into an uncertain one. We know there is a disregard of law in labor unions and in corporation offices alike, which is threatening our welfare. Should a stock market speculation start from the present high level of prices in the face of the extraordinary demand for capital and money, which crops and business alike are making, there might easily be temporary disaster.

The great change which has come over the political attitude of this nation within a few years past, is noted not alone by those who understand what inspired prophecy has declared of the part to be played by this great power in the drama with which time and probation are to close, but by many others of educated, unprejudiced minds. Here is the testimony of one who is in a position to speak with authority on the subject, the dean of the Yale law school, Henry Wade Rogers. In a recent address in Faneuil Hall, Boston, Dean Rogers said:—

Ever since the Civil War there has been taking place in this country a steady centralization of government, and a transformation in the political thinking of our people. The treatment accorded our new possessions is one evidence of what has been taking place in the American mind. The people of the United States have shown themselves unwilling to govern their conduct according to the basic principles upon which our institutions, State and national, were founded. The principle which Lincoln declared would be “in all coming days” a rebuke and a stumbling-block to the very harbingers of reappearing tyranny and oppression has, within forty years of Lincoln’s death, been disregarded by the party which he founded. In place of the distrust with which the fathers looked upon executive power, we find a disposition to resort to the President for relief in matters which are entirely outside his authority. An industrial dispute arises between labor and capital, and men appeal to the President, not yet as a Louis who can decree righteous judgments from a bed of justice, but as a powerful ruler.

Unconstitutional precedents are usually set up in a republic under a leader who is popular with the people, and who because of his popularity and of the trust the people repose in him, is allowed a liberty of action which would not be accorded to others. It was thus in the greatest republic of ancient times, and it is the same to-day. The history of the Roman republic is being repeated.

The continuous effort of the Church of Rome to entrench herself in power in this nation, shows a new development. A step has been taken in the direction of usurping the functions of the judicial department of the government. This is shown in the following statement printed in the Chicago Daily News of October 3:—

The Catholic child-placing bureau has been organized to watch over Catholic children who come under the jurisdiction of the juvenile court and other courts of similar powers.

The bureau will cover the State. In the juvenile court in Chicago the Rev. C. J. Quille, assistant pastor of St. Bernard’s Roman Catholic church, will represent the diocese.

The Rev. Mr. Quille and Judge Mack held a consultation to-day, and the former outlined his method of caring for the children, as suggested to him by Archbishop Quigley. During sessions of the juvenile court the Rev. Mr. Quille will occupy a seat on the bench beside Judge Mack. There he will listen to the stories told the court by children, and in the case of a Catholic boy or girl he will take the child in charge, should Judge Mack see fit to send him to an institution.

The juvenile court here mentioned is presided over by a circuit court judge, and is a court of record.

It is a new thing in American jurisprudence that a Catholic priest should be placed in a position where he is virtually an officer of a civil law court. The necessity for such an arrangement to secure the ends of justice is not apparent, but it is plainly evident that the effect of it will be to enhance the prestige of the Catholic Church. A Chicago attorney observes: “To my mind there has been no move by the local papists in the past twelve years that will have such far-reaching results as this, where a priest sits upon the bench really as a judge, though not elected.”

This move is thoroughly characteristic of the policy of craft which has marked the course of the papacy throughout its history.