Editorial Notes by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jun 11, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 31.

Editorial Notes

By Editor

WE call attention to the article on "Mexico as a Mission Field," by Elder D. T. Jones, in our Mission Field department. It is most interesting. It will be followed by another next week. We are glad that the Lord is blessing Brother Jones and his colaborers in our sister republic.

THE last of the series of articles on Christ's coming, by Elder Matthew Larsen, will be published next week. Following these will be a series of articles on the future home of the people of God, by Elder Wm. Covert. These will be independent articles, forming one connected whole.

WE regret that a mistake has been made in our camp meeting appointments. Our list has given the Madison, South Dakota, meeting as August 21-28. It should have been June, and is so corrected in this number. Otherwise the list is as we received it from the secretary of the General Conference.

WE begin next week the publication of a lecture on "Christian Education," delivered at the recent Oakland camp meeting and stenographically reported. It will be of interest to all our readers, and of especial value to all who will partake of its principles. The lecture is by Prof. W. W. Prescott.

SENATOR HOAR has carried his anti-lottery bill through the Senate. If it becomes a law, it ought to be made to be executed against church raffles, lotteries, fish ponds, and grab bags, in all its severity. These do more harm in their influence than the Louisiana Lottery. The principle is evil and only evil; but when cloaked over with religious garb is doubly evil, before God, though, of course, not before civil law. But let the law apply to all alike.

THE Sunday-closing ordinance recently rejected by the city council of Chicago directed the closing of dry goods, hardware, and grocery stores, and barber shops, but made no mention of saloons. One of the councils proposed to include in the measure the closing of saloons, theaters, and the churches. Why not? Of course the ordinance was defeated. Every such measure ought to be. If it is right to close a dry goods store by law, it is right to close the churches. Many so-called churches are doing far more harm each Sunday, from the standpoint of Bible Christianity, than are open dry goods stores. This will be admitted by Sunday-law people. Sunday laws are only evil.

THE Lord says of those who say, "Stand by thyself, come not near to me; for I am holier than thou," "These are a smoke in my nose, a fire that burneth all the day." He who is holy boasts not of his holiness. The fact that a man parades or boasts of his own goodness or excellency as compared with others is a very good reason for suspecting its quality. The same rule holds good with religious papers: For instance, one comes to our table which makes this claim: "The only paper published on the Pacific Coast which exalts the Lord Jesus as the only source of immortality, the coming Redeemer and King, the present Saviour from sin, and the gracious Master, whose commands cover every obligation under the new covenant." In other words, this, in its own opinion, is the only paper published on this coast which preaches the gospel of Christ. It has one good witness to this, namely, itself. But it has about the same grasp of Christ's commands as have some of our "orthodox" contemporaries,—the subject of life, and immortality through Christ.