p. 15 | Note and Comment

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Jan 12, 1911

Note and Comment

“Other Foundation”

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE clearly lays another foundation than the Word of God. This of itself should teach all who believe in the Bible that the cult is not of God. It centers in one human personality, and rests upon the teaching of that person. As the Outlook says:—

The demands which Mrs. Eddy made upon her followers were, on the whole, cheerfully, even eagerly, complied with; they involved the purchase of her book, “Science and Health,” at a high price, with the issue of each new revision, the singing of hymns composed by her, the substitution of the public reading of her writings in place of a sermon, the elimination of ministers and pastors from the church organization, and the subordination of all important executive action to her personal approval. So complete was her domination of the organization that, now that she is dead, it is not clear just how the Christian Science Church can legally manage its affairs. So thoroughly did Mrs. Eddy act upon the doctrine that disease and death are nonexistent, that apparently she made no provision, and her followers looked for no provision, for the performance by any one else of the functions which she had reserved to herself.

A Military Public School

THE editor of Collier’s Weekly, in the issue of Dec. 10, 1910, declares that one of the highest duties of the American citizen is being neglected,—the duty of preparing himself for war. The editor quotes approvingly the following from Major General Leonard Wood:—

The question arises as to what we can do, through the public schools, better to prepare our people for war,—war which will be as unavoidable in the future as in the past, and which will come upon us much more suddenly, and with greater force and power. We can, through a proper use of the public schools, do a great deal; we can teach our boys and young men to shoot straight.

It is not beyond the realm of possibility that the suggestion of General Wood should be adopted. America’s larger entrance of recent years into the arena of world politics will quite naturally lead her to feel the necessity of all the equipment possible to maintain the positions she may assume with reference to questions that are absorbing the attention of the greater world powers. Other nations are training their youth in the manual of arms and the tactics of the battle-field. How natural, then, that this nation of a hundred million souls should feel that she must not permit herself to be humiliated in the face of the world by any power great or small! We may expect that national pride and the instinct of self-preservation will, ere long, lead America to take steps to fit herself adequately for war,—for that universal war which the prophet foretells.

Serving Notice on Office-Holders

THE influence of the boycott is to play an important part in the work of the image of the beast. According to the prophecy, those who fail to pay homage to the church and state power, which will be formed in the United States in the future, will be permitted neither to buy nor to sell. Rev. 13:17. That this influence is already operating in the efforts which are being made in the bringing about of a church and state union, we see growing evidence. Indeed, many so-called reformers openly teach that the men occupying positions of trust in the state who refuse to accede to their demands, should be politically boycotted. One of the latest utterances of this character is found in the words of Dr. David J. Burrell, of New York, at the recent World’s Christian Citizenship Conference in Philadelphia. According to the United Presbyterian of December 22, Dr. Burrell says:—

The American sabbath is the seal of divine franchise and the token of our covenant with God, who has made us a nation; and when the Sabbath ceases to be a day of rest, not all the people in the country will be able to restore our great republic. There are grave dangers confronting us. We have been hurrying on at an automobile speed compared with our pace of fifty years ago. I want to point out a few dangerous tendencies with reference to the disregard of the rest day. First, we will begin with the White House. I have never mumbled nor chewed up my words, and I do not intend to do so now. We want to serve notice on our public officials that functions on the sabbath must cease. They would have ceased long ago if we had sounded the trumpet in some such way. I saw a list of such functions within the last few days,—functions held in the homes of the leading public officials. It is time we let these gentlemen know how we feel about this matter. I for one will never vote for a desecrater of the sabbath.

These arguments, which will be brought to bear more and more upon our lawmakers, will prove to them a genuine test of integrity in the crisis before us, which must determine whether the man in public office will stand for the great fundamental principles of justice and equality upon which this government was founded, or whether he will pander to the lust for political office and official position, and so compromise the principles of truth. In the coming conflict no one will be able to occupy a neutral position. These are times which will test every soul, and will make apparent to all the world whether men stand for God and truth, or whether they are governed by principles of selfish interest.

The Glory of Americans

THIS glory, according to the Western Recorder of December 22, is in their freedom and their right to do their own thinking. The Recorder says:—

If Americans glory in anything, it is their freedom and their right to do their own thinking, and these rights they propose to perpetuate by a process of elimination and cancellation, and that, too, at all costs. Strangely enough, some of our preachers are trying to establish, in the religious realm, the very thing that statesmen are striving to destroy in secular life. It may be well for us to remember that “eternal vigilance is the price of liberty,” in spiritual as well as in temporal affairs.

Co-operating With God

WE need to co-operate with God in bringing about an answer to our petitions. Speaking of this question, the Sunday School Times says:—

When a prayed-for blessing, for ourselves or for others, is greatly delayed in coming, the delay is not always God’s delay. It may be caused by our own sin. A father prays earnestly for the spiritual life of his son, that he may receive Christ into his life, and live the life that is Christ’s. Time drags on, with no evidence of any response, from either God or the boy, to that prayer. Why does God so delay the blessing? the father asks; and he entirely misses the fact that it is not God, but himself, who is delaying the blessing; in that he has not yet allowed Christ to have such a complete mastery and infilling of his own life that, through him, Christ can reach his boy. Every act or word of unlove or impatience in our lives is a blocking of God’s answer to our prayers for others: in these failures we prevent Christ from testifying of himself, in our lives, to others. So his work in their lives is hindered and delayed; but it is not fair to think of the delay as from God.