Truth Beneath the Tinsel
By Editor
Glittering generalities of speech and great pomp and show, dazzle and delude many, but they should never be allowed to hide for one moment the principles of truth and justice and liberty. They will not in the judgment of God. Why be deceived by them now? In our next issue there will begin the nine articles on the proper union of religion and the State, by C. P. Bollman, as we noticed last week. There will be printed at the same time in our Home department a series of articles, intensely practical and readable articles, from David Paulson, M.D. These we have before noticed. The paper during these nine weeks will be sent to any address for 25 cents. The article in this week's paper entitled “Himself He Can Not Save,” from the pen of Pastor E. J. Waggoner, is most opportune indeed, coming, as it does, in connection with the Sunday-school lesson in which this subject is introduced. Both the teachers and students in the Sunday-schools will derive great benefit from the article, and we hope none will miss it. We trust also that the article in the editorial department entitled “Thru Ignorance,” will be helpful to the Sunday-school worker. Men often use gilding and glitter and tinsel and trappings of royalty to hide what is beneath. Many a person made to appear royal, by human art, is like a whited sepulcher. The royalty of truth and justice and love and liberty are innate. Often they are vailed; but when they do shine out, as they will when Christ appears, it will not be an outward resplendency put on to deceive, but the forthshining of their essential glory. God vails their glory now that we may choose them for their own worth and finally be glorified with them. Here is something worth thinking about, from the Sentinel of Liberty: “If you are inclined to make light of the idea that religious intolerance can come again in this free country, remember that our civilization still maintains one of the cruelest institutions that ever cursed mankind,—the rum shop. With the despairing cries of women and little children continually ringing in her ears, Civilization steadily refuses to remove the cause,—the saloon. And why is this?—It is because men love themselves better than they love their neighbors. Let self-interest demand laws that will oppress other people, and such legislation will be forthcoming speedily. The love of money and the lust for power lead men to trample human rights underfoot to-day as ruthlessly as was ever done in former times.” Righteousness is not a matter of dress or days. It is just as good in the pre-Lenten season and the post-Lenten season as it is in Lent. It is a matter of the life. The idea of a few days of mortification and a year of selfish pleasure is foreign to both the letter and spirit of the Gospel. O, that all professed Christians could know that Jesus Christ—and hence Christianity—is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever! What Next?—Many Sunday-schools are adopting “Decision day” (March 24), “a day decided on by Sunday-school workers, when special effort shall be made to bring the unsaved members of the school to a decision for Christ.” Now why not accept the day given by Inspiration: “To-day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts;” “Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation”? The appointed times of men hide ever the appointed times of God,