Note and Comment

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 14, 1902

SABBATH keepers in this country have little conception of the difficulties which beset the pathway of the commandment keeper in some portions of the Old World, or of how slight a thing sets in motion the forces of persecution against our brethren there. Here is an example which we find given in the last issue of the Sentinel of Christian Liberty. It is part of a description of some recent experiences of a Seventh-day Adventist native missionary in Turkey:—

The readers of The Sentinel will remember that a seventh-day observer in Constantinople was arrested last year through the misrepresentation by the police of some portions of the REVIEW AND HERALD, received from the United States. The police court took the case and referred it to the legal court while holding our brother in prison. The legal court had the matter that had been objected to translated, and found nothing that could be construed as being against the government. The item announcing that the sultan had at last paid the money due to the United States was not considered a harmful thing, and the article headed, “The Macedonian Cry,” was found to have no reference to the modern Macedonian question. So the REVIEW AND HERALD was vindicated, and the brother released. But the general plaintiff referred the case to the higher court, claiming that the REVIEW AND HERALD contained harmful words against the government, and that our brother must be punished. After a careful investigation by the higher court he was found guiltless. So the REVIEW AND HERALD was cleared in the higher court also. Now the general plaintiff, not content with the decision, has raised the case to the supreme court. We look for the end with much interest.