Religious Liberty and Missionary News
By Editor
Our thanks are due to John F. Shaw & Co., 48 Paternoster Row, London, for the eighteenth annual report (1892) of "Mission to Lepers in India and the East." It is now stated that colonies of Mohammedans are about to emigrate to this country and settle in the South. What will they do when the "Christian" decrees of this "Christian nation" are carried out? The International Religious Liberty Association purpose to give No. 7 of the Religious Liberty Library a circulation of nearly one and one-half million of copies. Let the good work go on and the seed sowing continue. A Methodist minister in Aberdeen, Maryland, lately expressed the opinion that, the Supreme Court having declared this a Christian nation, all that Christians have to do is to ask for laws according as the majority may wish them, and the minority must suffer the consequences. The Christian at Work says there are 14,000 Christian converts in the new Hebrides Islands, and that the work of the missionaries is being undone and hindered by rum brought in by traders. Great Britain has forbidden her traders to give liquor and firearms to the natives, and France and Germany stand ready to do so when "Christian" America concurs. In speaking of the closing of the World's Fair on Sunday, the Christian Inquirer (Baptist), which believes the Fair ought to be closed, says: "We are content to rest the argument on the fourth commandment." But what has this to do with Sunday? If the managers of the Fair kept the fourth commandment, Sunday opening would be assured, and the seventh day would be observed. The Evangeliets Sendebud or Sandhedens Tidende is the name of a new religious weekly paper in the Danish language, published at Battle Creek, Mich.; or, rather, it is the transformation of a monthly into a weekly. May God bless it on its gospel mission among the Danes and Norwegians of this country. The first number is dated June 2, and is excellent in typographical appearance and matter also, we should judge from a hasty examination. Price, $1.50 per year. The Medical Missionary, No. 5 of which lies before us, is an excellent little monthly, published in the interest of missionary and benevolent work, by the S. D. A. Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association, Battle Creek, Mich., edited by J. H. Kellogg, M. D., and Mrs. E. H. Whitney. The first article, "Organized Christian Help Work," shows what can be done in this line. It is an excellent journal, and is worthy of a wide circulation. Price only 25 cents a year. Address as above. It is a great mistake to call Sunday-law people "Sabbatarians." The true Sabbatarian is he who holds to the true Sabbath of Jehovah, the seventh day; who holds that that Sabbath is a duty to be rendered to God, not to man; who recognizes that its observance must be voluntary, not coercive; who will observe the day himself, persuade others through the word if he can, but coerce them never; who has the rest of Christ in the heart, and who also finds Christ in the Sabbath, a spiritual rest and refreshing. Sunday-law people are Sundarians. The recent General Synod of the German Reformed Church resolved that it heartily approved the action of the United States Government in its effort to prevent (the opening of the World's Fair) by legal measures this violation of the law of God. It is only efforts at best to prevent violation of the law of God. Violation of God's law is sin. Sin exists not in overt act, but in the thought, the intent, the motive, and no government can control them. This resolution shows how little the real nature of God's law or its violation are understood. The Sabbath Outlook, which has done such faithful service in the Sabbath reform work, especially in original historical research, is now succeeded by the Evangel and Sabbath Outlook, weekly, at 50 cents a year. Truly the Gospel goes with the Sabbath; the Sabbath is a part of the Gospel. The Evangel truly says, as we have said in substance many times, "that no man can attain unto true Sabbath keeping who is not religious and has not the Spirit of Christ." May God bless the little sheet and keep it true to truth, and make it a thousand times more useful than its predecessor. Speaking of Sunday closing of the World's Fair, when it was thought Sunday closing was assured, the Harbinger said: "Satan never surrenders without a fight, but when the church unitedly puts its heart and hand to any work, then Satan must surrender." That is true, but Satan often finds his most active ally in that which assumes to be the church of God by virtue of its being popularly so recognized. It was so in the days of Christ, in the days of the Reformation, in the days of Puritan sway in New England, and it is again looming up in these days of Sunday-law assumption. The Illustrator, in answering a question concerning the Sabbath, says: "True, Jesus said, 'If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments,' but he said it to a Jew," and the inference is that therefore Gentiles ought not to keep his commandments. What are Christ's sayings worth to such teachers? With but two or three minor exceptions all that Christ ever said he said to Jews. Do we therefore have no part in promise or precept? Yes; the apostles were all Jews, and Jesus was a Jew, and he says, "Salvation is of the Jews." If those who cry "Jewish" every time the Sabbath is mentioned would remember how much is involved in their cry, it would stick in their throat. Where is the Gentile code of laws? At the graduating exercises of a class of twenty-three young women in New York University last month, among the subjects discussed were "Christianity and the Common Law," "The Evolution of Law," and "Perpetual Peace." "All this," says the New York World, "sounds visionary and rose-colored, for Christianity and perpetual peace seem strangely at variance with a court of law. But who can prophesy what may not be accomplished when the Portia of the future has a full and fair chance." The incident will illustrate the present drift of things. The "Christians" are coming to believe more and more that the church ought to control the State, and the statesmen of the day are more and more looking upon Christianity as a mere worldly force, the existence of which is like any other political element; that as a religion it is a little better, perhaps, than Mohammedanism; and a religion which it is well to profess as a matter of policy. What are we going to do? Our dailies' regular issues are now too large. The Sunday editions of the great dailies are equal to many of the monthlies. But the New York World recently celebrated its tenth anniversary with an issue of 100 pages, an immense amount of reading matter. The World is the great newspaper of the world. Its daily circulation is nearing the 400,000 line. But now the Examiner, the "Monarch" of the Pacific Coast, presents the world an issue of 120 pages, containing a whole history of California by counties, and much other matter. These things show big enterprise, but if matters keep on what are we going to do? One copy of the Examiner weighed one and three-fourths pounds. The Independent has the following editorial note:— The Catholic Review sarcastically says that when the good time comes which shall see all Protestant divisions harmoniously united, the "300,000,000 Catholics are not to be taken into the account, but to be deliberately left out in the cold." Oh, no! [remarks the Independent.] Long before that millennial day arises the Catholics will have become a powerful wing of united evangelical Christianity. Rather, the Protestant churches will have all become Romanized. It is not Rome that is yielding to evangelical Christianity. Her policy demands, as it always has, a certain conformity to the spirit of the age, but she never surrenders her faith; but Protestantism cannot yield or conform to the spirit of the age without surrendering her faith. So-called evangelical Christianity will soon be in fact as she is largely now in spirit a part of Rome. The London Speaker of recent date has this item: "The growing zeal for the due observance of Sunday on the continent has taken a curious form in Belgium. The post office of that country will issue a ten-centimes stamp with a small label attached, which may be torn off at pleasure, bearing the legend in French and Flemish, 'Not to be delivered on Sunday.' Collectors may be glad to learn that the stamp bears the effigy of the king, and that its color is between that of a salmon and that of a ripe gooseberry. Supporters of the movement for the better observance of the day of rest will, it is expected, henceforth post as many letters as possible on Saturdays. An opponent, however, has devised a caricature of the stamp—black, with the head of the Postmaster General—with which a counter demonstration is to be made." The following note comes to us accompanied by a copy of the most notorious infidel paper in the United States, the Truthseeker:— It is with much pleasure that we send you a package of our fresh literature and we would ask for it your careful consideration. It is the object and desire of our society to reach the hearts and homes of those who wish to read along such lines of thought as religion, health, temperance and social purity. May you not only be interested in the selections sent to-day, but seek to interest others by handing the same to them. Please accept the samples sent with the best wishes of yours faithfully. We suppress the name of the one who sent the letter. We have no need of the paper. We do not believe that it makes for either religion or morality; on the other hand, we do believe that it is against truth and righteousness and purity. But the friends of the Truthseeker have as much right, so far as man is concerned, to labor to pervert souls as have Roman Catholics, or as have Christians, to labor to convert souls. The only way to meet all religious error and baleful doctrine is by the truth of God's word. The judgment of every man belongs to God alone. BIBLE ELECTION. By M. C. Wilcox. A brief presentation of God's plan and purpose concerning man, showing that the doctrine of election, or predestination, according to the Bible, is full of comfort and instruction. It throws new light on old controversies. Bible Students' Library, No. 67; 24 pp.; price 5 cents. Address Pacific Press Pub. Co., Oakland, Cal.