The Ubiquitous Sunday-Law Promoter
By Editor
The February number of the Monthly is exhausted. There have been calls for more than 3,000 copies which could not be filled. The March number will soon be out, and let those who wish it order early. There begins in this issue a series of five articles on "The Great Day of the Lord." We hope they will be read. The subject is a purely Biblical topic, and the writer has treated it very clearly, very simply, and very forcibly. There is a vast amount of information found in these five articles. The latest that we have heard of Mr. Taft's Cabinet, and some of these are only guesses, is, for Secretary of State, Philander C. Knox of Pennsylvania; Secretary of Treasury, Geo. M. Reynolds of Illinois; Secretary of War, Luke E. Wright of Tennessee; Attorney-General, Geo. L. Wickersham of New York; Postmaster-General, Frank H. Hitchcock of Massachusetts; Secretary of Navy, George Von L. Meyer of Massachusetts; Secretary of Interior, Richard A. Ballinger of Washington; Secretary of Agriculture, James Wilson of Iowa. There has come to hand "The World Almanac," for 1909. It is really an encyclopedia which we could ill afford to do without. It presents in its more than 700 pages a vast amount of up-to-date information, national and international. We know of no American Year Book which equals it. Bought at news-stands it costs 25 cents, by mail, 35 cents. The address is "The World," New York City. We have to record the death of another faithful laborer in the cause of present truth. Eliza J. Burnham was for many years connected with the Review and Herald Publishing house of Battle Creek, Mich., as chief proof-reader. She became more than proof-reader; she was an epitome of facts, a good counselor, an excellent English scholar. She spent several years in Australia, on the Bible Echo, in the capacity of acting as both proof-reader and editor. She was for some time connected with this office in the preparation of Mrs. White's great work, "The Desire of Ages." For several years she has been on the Southern Watchman, doing editorial work much of the time, as she was able. She fell asleep in Jesus, February 11. Her works follow her. The "Signs of the Times Monthly" for March has as its special topic, Spiritualism. It presents before the reader not only the present progress which Spiritism in various forms is making, but it gives us the Bible view of Spiritualism; just what Spiritualism means, and just what it is. That there are spirit communications, there can be no question. This is evidenced by the testimony of ages, and especially by the testimony of men of science who have, under the most exacting tests, demonstrated spirit communication. But who are these spirits, and what are they? The Signs of the Times Monthly for March will give very much information upon this question. Among the striking articles in the magazine are "Victory—Complete, Absolute, and Forever," by Mrs. E. G. White; "Satan: His Origin, Work, and Doom;" "Great Deceptions Predicted," by R. A. Underwood; "Spiritualism as Predicted by the Prophets, and the Facts of Fulfilment," by W. A. Spicer; "Spiritualism and the Progress of the War Spirit, a Striking Parallel," by the editor; "What Is Death?" by C. L. Taylor; "Ministration of Good Angels," by Max Hill; "Christ's Promised Coming," by Allen Moon; "Course of Empire," by E. J. Hibbard, a consideration of the second chapter of Daniel; Bible-Reading on the condition of the dead, by Mrs. H. W. Cottrell; an excellent health article, "The Dyspeptic," by Dr. D. H. Kress. The Ubiquitous Sunday-Law Promoter.
From Texas, Nebraska, Maine, Massachusetts, Colorado, Oregon, Idaho, our own Golden state, New York, and others, comes the news of agitation of Sunday laws. Legislatures in many states have before them Sunday bills of some sort. Nebraska, we believe, has four; New York has fourteen before its two branches. Some of these bills are so clearly religious that there can be no question about it. Oregon's, for instance, is identical with the original presented by the proponents of that measure in California, with the one exception, that it does not hide the religious phase. The California bill simply puts it the first day of the week, but the Oregon bill names it for "the Lord's day, commonly called Sunday." The one element behind all these bills is the Reform Bureau, operated by Mr. Crafts, of Washington, who is himself a National Reformer, and believes in religious legislation. Mr. Tufts, who is operating in the West, is one of his chief lieutenants. The religious idea is characteristic of all the Sunday bills. It can not be hidden. Some of them are very mild; some of them are almost negative; some of them admit of common labor performed anywhere on Sunday, unless it disturbs somebody at worship, yet under these same Sunday bills men have been prosecuted who were doing work miles away from any place of worship, on the ground that they disturbed somebody's worship and rest, and that the legislators could not be clear, in the light of past history, what such harmless-looking pleas for Sunday legislation mean. They would see in the camel's nose the whole brute beast occupying the tent and putting out the rightful institution, let it die. If a religious institution has not enough vitality to live, if it has not connection enough with the Throne of the Universe to live in the hearts of those who love it and believe it, it is not worth saving. Regarding Mr. Roosevelt's legal proceedings against the New York World, the Detroit Journal, a staunch Republican paper, says that the action of the President "has reached a station where it is time to stop laughing. . . . When personal vanity and personal power menace the freedom of the American press, the situation ceases abruptly to be amusing." The district attorney who is pressing the case is doing it on the ground that a newspaper can be criminally prosecuted for libel "in a number of distinct and independent jurisdictions." An Eastern paper has figured out how many of these distinct and independent jurisdictions the United States Government has in this country, and we are told that there are no fewer than 2,686 of them, in which editors and publishers could be prosecuted, each locality presenting a distinct charge and crime against the community in the published libel. We can not believe that there is any court in the United States that could sustain such a thing, and if it were upheld, as the Milwaukee News says, it would destroy liberty of speech and press, and bring an end to popular government. It is a good time in these days of praise of one of America's greatest and most eminent Presidents, Lincoln, to recall his closing words in his Gettysburg speech, "That government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth;" but in order that it may not perish from the earth, individual tyranny and concentration must be suppressed on the one hand, and government by the trust on the other. Government by the trust is one of the great evils which has not only been menacing this country for years, but has seized the republic in its grip. Mr. Roosevelt's action is swinging to the other extreme, and that government which persists can endure neither of them. Among the trusts working for domination now is the great religious trust; and while making the highest profession, it has ever been the wickedest of them all. Many inquiries come to us over the Sabbath question, and we would like to suggest to our readers that one of the most comprehensive and condensed publications upon this subject is "The Lord's Day the Test of the Ages, or the Sabbath from Eden to Eden in the Light of the Dispensations." In fact, we know of no other book which has attempted in the same space so much ground and yet it is placed in such a form that it is not difficult to comprehend. It notes the position of the Sabbath, its relationship to each dispensation, at both the opening and the close. It considers the various objections which are raised by the Antinomians, and traces the Sabbath through the Christian dispensation, and gives attention to the actions being taken at the present time to legalize a religious rest-day. The price is only ten cents. Address this office. One of the great prophecies in that marvelously prophetic book, the Revelation, is that of the great Threefold Message found in Rev. 14:6-12. The vast number of commentators give very little explanation; almost never do we hear any reference to them in the sermons of the great teachers; and yet their message is a part of the revelation of Jesus Christ to the children of men. A blessing is pronounced upon those who study the book and do it, but to do it we must know it. That we may help our readers to know it, a series of articles has been prepared by Prof. R. S. Owen, for many years Bible teacher in Healdsburg and Fernando colleges, and now connected with the missionary training-school at Loma Linda. A series of eight articles on this important Scripture will, we are sure, be of great interest to our readers. These will begin in two or three weeks, or perhaps at the close of the articles on the Great Day of the Lord. News comes to us that the Sunday law before the Oregon Legislature has been indefinitely postponed by the Senate, which probably means its destruction until the next session of the Legislature. It ought to have been brought before the legislative body and unanimously killed.