OFF TO GENERAL CONFERENCE.
By Editor
THE editor of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES, together with nearly a score of others, left for the General Conference in a special car, February 2, by the Santa Fe route. He left in charge one who has ably assisted him, especially in Our Work and Workers and Notes and News departments, since the SIGNS was changed to its present form. We have wondered how much the readers have appreciated the gleanings of wheat from many fields found in these departments, or how much labor it costs. But we know many of them do, and that the workers on the SIGNS have their fervent prayers, and we ask them for the future. General Conference begins February 17 and closes March 6. Let our readers pray for that gathering, that God may especially pour out upon it his Spirit. AN amendment to the national Constitution has been introduced in both houses of Congress, forbidding any State to form a union of Church and State (as Congress only is now forbidden to do so), and forbidding sectarian appropriations also.—Christian Statesman. As Congress and the Supreme Court have both overridden the national prohibition with reference to a union of Church and State, what would be gained by a prohibition of the States to form such a union? Or, would the States be expected to counteract the unwarranted steps already taken by the national government? WHEN men of such renown as that enjoyed by Rev. Joseph Cook can stoop to offer as a reply to appeals in behalf of the religious liberty guaranteed by the Constitution, that they lack "literary finish," it is evidence that he has been accorded an elevation in popular esteem entirely unmerited. To say that a speech is "rubbish of the worst sort" does not answer it. Such replies may satisfy bigoted prejudice, which is generally beyond the pale of true dignity; but there is no argument in derision, there is no argument in sarcasm, there is no argument in scurrility. How the mighty fall when they espouse the cause of religious intolerance! THE present number of the SIGNS is especially valuable for its religious liberty articles. An extra edition is published, in anticipation of orders that will no doubt be given by individuals and societies for distribution in their immediate neighborhoods. The articles "Two Supreme Court Decisions," "The Tribunal of the Future," "A Blow at the Freedom of the Press," and "A Christian Nation," should have an extended reading. The people are just now somewhat stirred up in regard to these things, and are consequently in a mood to read. They should by all means have the opportunity. Extra copies of this number will be furnished for $1.25 per hundred. LEAFLET No. 14 of the "Sabbath Observance Department" of the W. C. T. U., entitled "Crown of the Week," is a catechism on the Sabbath. In the entire leaflet, of forty-seven questions, every Bible text referred to or quoted save one refers to the seventh-day Sabbath. That one (Acts 20:7) is brought in to help the first day, after the teaching of the law and the prophets and Christ in reference to the only true Sabbath, the seventh day, had been referred to over and over again. But for this error the leaflet has an antidote in itself, namely, question forty-four:— "Are men's opinions or conduct [or nonsense either, we venture] to influence us when they disagree with the Scripture?
"A.—Not in the least. 'To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to his [this] word, it is because there is no light in them.' Isa. 8:20."
Let the tract be circulated, but let the people follow the word of God. IT is not necessary that the child of God should sin. Christ died that man might be kept from sin. Man should therefore make no provision for sin. Yet if man should fail, there is hope for him in Christ. "If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." We may sin again and again, yet there is pardon. Man's sin cannot exhaust God's mercy; the danger does not lie here; the real danger lies in the hardening of the heart, in the turning away from the pleadings of the Spirit of God, till all sensitiveness is destroyed, and the truth and mercy of God have no longer any power to reach the hardened heart, and the conscience is powerless to discern between good and evil. Keep the conscience tender by keeping, through faith in Christ, from sin. THERE is friction between the Unitarian students at the University of California and the College Y. M. C. A., growing out of the use of Stiles Hall, which was donated to the institution for religious and library purposes by a Mrs. Stiles. The president of the College Y. M. C. A. has this to say on the subject:— "Any student or member of the faculty of good moral character may become an associate member, be he Christian, Jew, or Mohammedan. Unitarians cannot become active members, because the International Convention of the Y. M. C. A. decided at a convention held at Portland, in 1869, that active members must belong to some evangelical church, and these were defined as believers in the Bible as the only infallible guide, and in the Trinity. I can't say anything as to their use of Stiles Hall, but I know we discussed the question as to admitting Unitarians to the Y. M. C. A., and found we could only admit them as associate members."