America Drifting from Freedom
By Editor
WHILE the United States is breaking away from her republican principles there is also a marked and increased activity in the direction of departing from her principles of Protestantism she once held. The country has some five persons under arrest, and the only charge against them is that they worked on Sunday. No fault can be found with them as men. They are honest and upright in every particular. But they observe Saturday, the Bible Sabbath, and hence are placed under arrest. This is a gross breach of the Protestant principles of this country. And then, too, the clamor for still more stringent Sunday laws may still be heard. And since America is to have dependent colonies, the question of a state religion is again coming up for discussion. Thus the old controversies that men had considered dead and buried are arising again. Do not be deceived by the glamor that some are seeking to throw about these things. Look squarely at the facts. The United States is drifting. She is rapidly leaving behind her great principles of Protestant and republican freedom. Despotism, both civil and religious, will soon hurl her to ruin. And the destruction of this country marks the destruction of the world. The prophecies have foretold it, and we see the manifest evidences of their speedy fulfilment. IN speaking of those who live in the last days, the Lord says: "Men shall be lovers of their own selves . . . lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God." 2 Tim. 3: 2, 4. An illustration of the widespread demand for pleasure at the present time, the last days, is seen in the recent proposition of the mayor of Jersey City to furnish dancing space on the streets of the city for those who were compelled to stay in town during the summer months. The mayor's plan is that a block be selected here and there throughout the city, swept clean, made as smooth as a dance floor, and roped off to prevent traffic during the dance, or interference from the rougher element—all for the purpose of keeping the young people from satisfying their thirst for pleasure "in worse places." The admonition to the Christian in such times is: "Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts; for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh." James 5: 8. "From such turn away." 2 Tim. 3: 5. THE latest news which comes to us in the trust line is the combination of all the railway interests of the United States under one central management, headed by Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan, of New York. The object of this combination is to divide the field, establish uniform rates of freight, (with the exception, it is said, of the Standard Oil Company, the president of which, Mr. Rockefeller, is one of the board of management in the railway trust), cut off all county advertising and special rates, dispense with many employees, etc., etc., etc. It will be the greatest combination, involving the most capital, ever known. And it goes without saying, that it is a breeder of trouble, and that it will intensify those already existing. THE army canteen, that has been such a scandal not only to the army but to the whole country, is to be continued. The government has so decreed, and thus it must be. It is a sad thought that, despite all of the nation's boasted Christianity, still the saloon holds such a power here that men who profess better things are afraid to throw it out of the army camps. Such things as this show that there is not so much Christianity in the hearts of men as there is in their professions. Despite a century of temperance agitation, there is more drunkenness in the world today than ever before. The liquor traffickers never had such a firm hold upon things as they have now. This is a part of the evidence of the truthfulness of the inspired Word in which we are told that "evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse," and what would be the still more terrible condition now had it not been for the noble army of temperance workers who have been used of God in combating the evil? THE strike situation in Cleveland has been a serious one, necessitating the calling out of the military, 500 soldiers being under order July 22. The following, issued by the strikers' press committee, in an appeal to the public, shows that they justify force: "We believe that force can be applied in many instances, and that it is absolutely essential to the present case. Government protects life and property, but does not regard labor in any light whatever. When great aggregations of capital defy law and wipe out competition, thus minimizing the demand for labor, they must be met by an element strong enough to render their organization futile." Of course that meant more violence, which culminated in the dynamiting, on July 23, of a car loaded with people. The car was wrecked, seven persons were injured, some, it is thought, fatally. At Bridgeton, N. J. (Cumberland Glass Company), and Carterville, Ill. (Bush Coal Mine), there has been violence. THE art of photography has so advanced that photography in colors has now been successfully performed. One method, that of Prof. R. W. Wood, of the University of Wisconsin, reproduces the colors by diffraction—a new process. The first finished picture is somewhat tedious, but duplicates can be printed as easily as ordinary photographs are made, we are told. The pictures are on glass, and are not only colorless, but almost invisible when viewed in ordinary light, but when placed in a viewing apparatus, show the colors of nature with great brilliancy. This is among the remarkable discoveries which will multiply picture making. ADMIRAL DEWEY is reported to have said, in speaking of Maximilian's death: "I can not help pitying him. And yet it was right that the end should come as it did; for there must be no empire in America. There can be no other end for those who attempt to erect thrones on this side the ocean." And yet the empire is coming, in fact if not in name. Already, "Imperial America" is often spoken with admiring lips; and, too, the reign of militarism is the reign of imperialism, the reign of absolutism. Rome was called a republic long after she was an empire in fact. WHILE the Dreyfus matters are progressing in France, the French people are also being treated to a series of sensations because of the Royalist intrigues to overthrow the republic. This is, of course, another outcropping of the old struggles of the French Royalists, that have been continued, more or less, ever since the days of Napoleon Bonaparte. France rejected the Reformation, and she has had nothing but turmoil and revolution ever since, and it looks as tho things will not be any better. THE papers tell us of another young man, also a young woman, in New York City, made insane by excessive cigarette smoking, and one died from the same cause. How many are there who are one-fourth or one-half insane from the narcotic poison? And added to this list is a five-year-old drunkard—a boy who has delirium tremens from whisky given by his mother for disease. It is horrible. THE vast capital invested in railways is shown by its great buildings. The shed of New York Central Station in New York City is to be remodeled at a cost of over $500,000. ONE of the evil tendencies of the day is the preaching of our secular papers. They are more often wrong than right, and they degrade the sacred by mixing it up with the common. For instance, a New York City daily quotes James 5: 1-4, and says: "The laborer is worthy of his hire, and clergymen should advise him to go ahead and get it by fighting for it." The Lord does indeed condemn the grasping and covetous rich, but the poor and oppressed He exhorts: "Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord." IT has now been demonstrated by Mr. Ottokar Hofman, a civil engineer of Argentine, Kansas, that the human body in perfect darkness emits rays which affect a sensitive plate, operating the same as light in photography. These rays pass through various bodies, non-conductors of electricity, such as rubber and glass, acting the same upon the plate as tho these bodies did not intervene. This opens up a new field of investigation. And every discovery of this kind shows how little man knows. RABBI M. S. LEVY, of San Francisco, informs us through the Examiner that there are thirty-six Galicians in the Hawaiian Islands, imprisoned there as slaves under the contract-labor system, imprisoned indefinitely till they go back to work on the sugar plantation, or pay the debt of their steerage passage. Their work, they declare, is hard, food insufficient, and overseers cruel. Slavery is not dead. There will be bondmen when Christ comes. Rev. 6: 15. THE Catholic bishops of the Latin American States have formerly been under the primacy of Spain; now, despite Spanish protests, the pope will choose an American archbishop, and make him a cardinal over all the church in South America, Mexico, and Central America, as Cardinal Gibbons in the United States. Where he will settle, whether in Mexico, Brazil, Argentine, or Chili, no one yet knows. Of course the object is to unify all Latin America. A MEDIEVAL story comes to us from the town of Neweseilka, Galicia, that a portrait of the late Empress of Austria, who was assassinated, is oozing blood, from over the empress' heart. Pilgrims are flocking to it, and it has been placed in a shrine. The wonderful thing is that the priests do not know what it means. It is delusive. WITHIN two days, July 21, 22, Southern California experienced six distinct earthquake shocks. Los Angeles was considerably shaken, glass was broken, chimneys fell, and walls were cracked; many people were greatly frightened, and many prayed. It is a good time to trust God in calm, and then we will trust Him in calamity. MANY of the pulpits of our land have been provided materials for sermon in the death of the great agnostic, Ingersoll, which took place July 22. He died as he lived. He hoped to die in full consciousness, and have his words of confidence in his non-belief taken down; but he was spared this vain boasting. MUCH is being said about a prominent, wealthy Jewish merchant's sermon on "Jesus, the Jew." He believes that the Lord sent Jesus, as truly as He sent Moses, but that the perversion of Judaism must be laid to Paul's door. But if the merchant knew Jesus, he would know Paul also. Both preached the same Gospel. JULY 16, treaties between Japan and nearly all the great nations of earth went into effect, by which Japan is recognized as a civilized nation. Japan is the first power of the East so recognized by European governments. So the whole world is coming together, preparing for the great drama of the end. WE are told in the latest despatches from the East that the bubonic plague is spreading. July 22 it had spread from Hongkong and Mauritius to Reunion. There were, during the week ending July 20, thirty-six cases at Mauritius, of which twenty-nine proved fatal. HON. ELIHU ROOT, of New York, has accepted the position of Secretary of War in President McKinley's cabinet, in the place of Gen. Russell A. Alger, who has resigned. Mr. Root is a lawyer. A GERMAN, writing from Manila to Berlin, describes the Americans as practically hemmed in by the Filipinos, with both sides constantly fighting. YELLOW FEVER is doing its work in Cuba. Poor Cuba! she has many enemies. In the first two weeks of July twenty inches of rain fell at Manila.