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Review and Herald, Vol. 85, No. 8.

The Significance of Suffering

Review and Herald

Feb 20, 1908

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 20, 1908

The Significance of Suffering

MEN learn to do their noblest, think their deepest, and enjoy their richest by a preparation of suffering.
Suffering, says Samuel Smiles, is doubtless as divinely appointed as joy, while it is much more influential as a discipline of character.
Probably no man ever suffered intensely and long without feeling that in some way he was getting good out of it, being made better, purer, braver, sweeter, more tender, sympathetic, and loyal.
Suffering shows us ourselves, how weak we are, how frail our hold on life, how dependent we are on others, and how necessary it is to live circumspectly.
Suffering lifts us near to God, and we get a better view of Him. We learn how great He is, and how small we are. We see His mercy in our past, because we have suffered so little, and we feel His love in our present, that our suffering is no greater than it is, and that we are becoming wiser by it.
Suffering prepares the way for more perfect joy. It makes us more appreciative. Little pleasures seem greater. Any pleasure at all is a boon to us. We learn our lesson, and become more adept students.
— From “Sunshine All the Year.”

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Testimonies for the Church

By Mrs. E. G. White
EVERY Sabbath-school worker should possess a full set of the “Testimonies for the Church.” A thorough study of these Testimonies would qualify the teacher better than any other book he could possibly secure aside from the Bible. Every Sabbath-school teacher should have the benefit of the counsel given in the Testimonies.
The full set of the Testimonies contains eight volumes of from 300 to 700 pages each. Volume I contains a brief sketch of the early life of the writer of the Testimonies, together with Testimonies Nos. 1-14, 724 pages. Volume II contains Testimonies Nos. 15-20, 712 pages. Vol. III contains Testimonies Nos. 21-25, 594 pages. Volume IV contains Testimonies Nos. 26-30, 679 pages. Volume V contains Testimonies Nos. 31-33, 770 pages. Volume VI contains No. 34, 499 pages. Volume VII contains No. 35, 308 pages. Volume VIII contains No. 36, 350 pages.

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The Youth's Instructor

THE Youth's Instructor is an illustrated weekly paper of sixteen pages, devoted to educating and encouraging the youth in a high conception of life. While its contents are always lively and entertaining, it is free from the cheap, exciting stories so common in journals designed for the youth. It strengthens the understanding, supplies the mind with proper information, invigorates the moral nature, increases reverence and devotion, and stimulates a love for God and humanity.
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The Sabbath School Worker

A SIXTEEN-PAGE monthly journal devoted exclusively to imparting practical instruction on the various phases of Sabbath-school work, and offering valuable suggestions on organization, teaching, class, general, and missionary exercises, with helps on current Sabbath-school lessons for the senior, intermediate, primary, and kindergarten department, also hints for Sabbath-school officers, teachers, parents, and pupils.
The Worker is edited by competent Sabbath-school workers, and its contributors are among the most experienced in all educational lines. It can, therefore, be relied upon as the Sabbath-school officer's counsel, the teacher's teacher, and the member's guide.
Single copy, 35 cents a year. Two or more copies, one address, 25 cents each.

Bible Object Lessons and Songs for Little Ones

THIS excellent Sabbath-school kindergarten book is made up of beautiful object-lessons on the life of Christ, nicely illustrated. It contains 52 lessons, one for each Sabbath in the year, and suggestions accompanying each lesson; 39 songs and hymns written for the lessons; 36 full-page pictures, 6 x 8 half-tones, and colored plates; 52 pen drawings, showing how to use the illustrative material; and 160 pages of matter, beautifully printed.
The book is designed for use in the Sabbath-school year after year, one copy for each teacher in the youngest division of the primary department.
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Kindergarten Supplies

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Early Writings

By Mrs. E. G. White
Every Sabbath-school worker ought to read and study the book entitled “Early Writings.” It contains a compilation and reprint of the first published Testimonies of the author, with foot-notes giving dates and explanations. The present edition is a reprint of the old book published in 1851 under the title of “Experiences and Views,” with no change of the original idea or sentiment.
Although many of the subjects treated in this book have been enlarged upon and brought out in other books by the author, they seem to be especially appreciated in condensed form as given in the present edition of “Early Writings.” This book sparkles with the plain third angel’s message, and brings to the reader a store of information and instruction that will be especially helpful to every Sabbath-school worker.
Bound in plain cloth, 75 cents; thin edition, pamphlet form, 35 cents; thin edition, limp leather binding, $1.25.

The Desire of Ages

By Mrs. E. G. White
EVERY Sabbath-school worker should be a constant reader of “Desire of Ages.” It contains material that will establish a foundation upon which every teacher should build. It sets forth the grand truth that in Christ the love of the Father is revealed,—that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself. The great truths that cluster about this one great truth are set forth by the author in such a simple, impressive manner that the teacher can grasp them, and be able to transfer them, through his teaching, to his pupils. It will serve as a fountain of spiritual truths from which the teacher may constantly draw and be refreshed himself, enabling him to bring refreshing to his class. We commend this book to every Sabbath-school worker.
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Christ in Song

(Being Revised and Enlarged)

THIS book is designed expressly for Sabbath-school and gospel meetings. It contains one of the best collections of hymns and tunes for Sabbath-school services, embracing nearly all the old favorites, and many of the new ones. It stands first among sacred song collections, and has more than twice as many hymns and songs as are found in the average Sabbath-school song-book.

An Abridged Edition

containing 128 pages of choice selections for tent-meetings and gospel services is also in preparation.
Announcement of date of publication of both editions will be made later.

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Revelation, leather ....... $3.00 Revelation, cloth ........ 1.50 Steps to Christ ......... .50 Ministry of Angels ...... .35 Ministry of Health ....... .05 Lord's Sabbath ........... .04 Winning of Margaret .... .02 We Would See Jesus .... .02 Second Coming of Christ .02 God's Word .............. .02 Seven Reasons ........... .02 Two Laws ............... .01 Blessed Hope ............ .01 Lost and Found .......... .01 World Clock ............ .01
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Editorial

By Editor

The Voice of Judgments

We have no sympathy with that tendency, the next thing to superstition, to interpret every occurrence and to anathematize all those who do not accept such interpretations. We believe in an overruling providence and in God's guiding hand in the affairs of life, but we can not always accept the credentials of the self-appointed interpreters of these providences who are watching for opportunities to make God responsible for their own vagaries. Nevertheless there are times when God speaks to the world by such manifestations as ought to command the attention of all who have eyes to see and ears to hear.
When San Francisco was torn and rent by the earthquake and swept by the tornado of flame, there were many who felt that these were the voices of God rebuking heaven-daring sin, and some of the dwellers in the ill-fated city thought that the end of the world had come. As soon, however, as the men of affairs had recovered from the stunning effects of the visitation, the spirit of commercialism gained the control, and the calamity was minimized in every possible way, in order to avoid disastrous results to a great center of commerce. This policy has been followed until the present time, and superhuman efforts have been put forth to remove the reminders of the great catastrophe, and to build a new San Francisco which should surpass the old city. To-day more lofty structures pierce the sky than were to be found in the city on the morning of April 18, 1906—the day of disaster. They tell of man's refusal to acknowledge the warning voice of God.
Attention has been directed to this matter in an emphatic way by a remarkable poem, written by Joaquin Miller, the “aged singer of the Sierras,” which appeared in the January number of The Circle. The spirit and message of this stirring production may be understood to some degree by the following extracts:—
“How beauteous her lifted brow! How heartfelt her harmonious song! How strong her heart, how more than strong She stands rewrought, refashioned now! Her concrete bastions, knit with steel, Sing symphonies in stately forms, Make harmonies that mock at storms, Make music that you can but feel. And yet, and yet what ropes of sand, What wisps of straw in God's right hand— And yet, my risen city, yet Your prophets must not now forget.”
The poet then sets forth in forceful strain the wrongs done to the Mexicans, the Chinese, and the Japanese, whose—
“. . . sober, sane life put to shame Your noisome, drunken penal band That howled in Labor's sacred name, Nor wrought, nor even lifted hand, Save but to stone and mock and moil Their betters who but asked to toil.”
As to whether God was dealing with men in vindication of justice and righteousness, this poem speaks in no uncertain way:—
“And say you God saw not, cared not? Nay, better say there is no God, Or that he slept, or quite forgot The lowly ways the heathen trod, What time he begged to toil for bread, With hollow cheek and bended head. “I call one witness, only one, In proof that God is God, and just: Yon high-heaved dome, débris and dust, With torn lips lifted to the sun, In desolation still, lords all— The rent and ruined City Hall. And there throbbed San Francisco's heart, And there her madness held high mart— Sold justice, sold black shame, sold hell. And here, right here, God's high hand fell, Fell hardest, hottest, first and worst— Yon huge high Hall, the most accurst!”
The poet closes his indictment of man and his vindication of God's dealing thus:—
“He knew the right, loved right afore— But loved his yellow metal more! And so the seven-headed beast, And lo, the last Belshazzar's feast.”
The voice of the poet sounds like that of the old prophets pointing out the meaning of dire occurrences, and urging a recognition of God and his message. Will there be any response? Judgments which do not lead to repentance usually harden the heart and open the way for greater manifestations of the divine displeasure, and this principle applies in other places as well as in San Francisco.

“The Most High Ruleth”

MEN may refuse to retain God in their knowledge. They may explain the clearest manifestations of his overruling power as shown in fire and flood, in storm and disaster, by referring all these things to natural causes, and so may continue in their daring provocation of the wrath of God. Nevertheless, “the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men,” and when the limit of divine forbearance has been reached, he will bring to naught the hopes and the plans of the ungodly. We are drawing near this dread time, and of this he is giving abundant warning in his present method of dealing with men.
When men refuse to listen to his messages of instruction sent through his recognized messengers until there is no further hope of reaching them through this means, then God changes his method and appeals to them in other ways, but in that fact of change is great significance. This principle has long been recognized by those who are able to discern the ways of God. An illustration of this is found in “A Discourse on Earthquakes, as Supernatural and Premonitory Signs to a Nation,” by Robert Fleming, printed in London in 1793. From this discourse we make these extracts:—
Yea, may not yet some more strange and immediate appearance to this generation be expected, when such a visible tendency now is to sacrifice to natural causes whatever hath the greatest evidence to bring near an affecting sense of the Deity unto men's consciences; and to account it a small thing to arraign and subject the greatest of his works to the comprehension of their dark and limited reason; and that their wisdom hath such a dominion and influence on future events, as they can give law to providence, and even lay wagers on what the next day is to bring forth? O! may not some unusual application be yet more than expected, to let men know they are under the dominion of that God who can in a moment break the most promising means and measures taken by human counsel by one touch of his hand? . . .But that which may most direct our eyes to see an immediate appearance of God herein, and a casualty above nature was, as is acknowledged by all, when such a prodigious height of impiety and wickedness seemed to have filled up its full measure, and no ordinary means could reclaim; so as the holy God upon the honor of his justice and government was thus interested to put so astonishing a mark of his severity and wrath on the same, and make known what one day and hour may at last bring forth on a city and country after a long forbearance, when it is least expected or feared. . . .
And when there is so little faith now on the earth, with respect to any threatenings of the Word, is it strange though there be some unusual demonstrations of God in the way of sense, to speak to the world by a monitory voice?
If what occurred more than a century ago was sufficient to call forth such expressions as these from a watchman on the walls of Zion, what ought to be expected to-day in view of the shocking disasters which follow so closely one upon another? And yet where one warning voice is lifted, there are many to explain these untoward happenings and to quiet the minds of the people. For such a course as this some will have a terrible account to render.
In view of the approaching crisis in the government of God, instruction was given to this people through the spirit of prophecy in 1895 as follows:—
There will soon be a sudden change in God's dealings. The world in its perversity is being visited by casualties,—by floods, storms, fires, earthquakes, famines, wars, and bloodshed. The Lord is slow to anger, and great in power; yet he will not at all acquit the wicked. ‘The Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.’ O that men might understand the patience and long-suffering of God! He is putting under restraint his own attributes. His omnipotent power is under the control of Omnipotence. O that men would understand that God refuses to be wearied out with the world's perversity, and still holds out the hope of forgiveness even to the most undeserving! But his forbearance will not always continue. Who is prepared for the sudden change that will take place in God's dealing with sinful men? Who will be prepared to escape the punishment that will certainly fall upon transgressors?
After the stroke which fell upon San Francisco the following instruction was given through the same instrumentality:—
Ought men to be surprised over a sudden and unexpected change in the dealings of the Supreme Ruler with the inhabitants of a fallen world? Ought they to be surprised when punishment follows transgression and increasing crime? Ought they to be surprised that God should bring destruction and death upon those whose ill-gotten gains have been obtained through deception and fraud? Notwithstanding the fact that increasing light regarding God's requirements has been shining on their pathway many have refused to recognize Jehovah's supreme rulership, and have chosen to remain under the black banner of the originator of all rebellion against the government of heaven. . . . God allows men a period of probation; but there is a point beyond which divine patience is exhausted, and the judgments of God are sure to follow. . . . God is now withholding further vengeance, in order that a faithful work may be done by his ministers. Let there be proclaimed, with no uncertain sound, the message: ‘Watch; . . . for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.’ In every place is to be heard the voice of the faithful sentinel of truth. God is now calling upon his servants to engage in this closing work of warning the world.
The lessons of the present hour are plain. In the oft-repeated disasters God is proclaiming his own sovereignty and calling sinners to repentance, and at the same time he is calling upon his representatives to proclaim the final message to the world. The change in God's method of dealing with men is another and a marked evidence of the shortness of probationary time, a sure indication that the Ruler of the universe will soon vindicate his right in the earth, and a summons to faithful service. For the sake of our own souls, and for the sake of those yet under the dominion of the great rebel, we should arouse to unflagging devotion to the work of God in the earth. Soon it will be too late.

One Reason for Hastening On

By W. A. S.

NEARLY the whole wide tropical belt is a zone of unhealthful conditions. Here and there are points of refuge, providentially let down into the midst of fever-breeding areas. But those who are to la'bor among the vast populations of the tropics must do their work in a climate not favorable. Round the entire region of the most populous belt, the conditions are hard upon the health of the native peoples, and for the European are doubly unfavorable.
But through all the history of missions the triumphs of the gospel have been pushed forward notwithstanding natural conditions. And the missionaries in Africa or India, or any part of the tropics, take the conditions as a matter of course, and say little of the wear and tear of resisting heat or malaria, and conditions that a thousand years of heredity in northern climes have by no means fitted them to endure without a continual struggle.
This region is, however, the darkest and most needy, and therefore one of the grandest fields for missionary service. All the workers feel the same about this. Their hearts hold them to the work even when their bodily strength weakens.
The only thing to do is to hurry the work on to the end. It is like an army attacking a line of entrenchments. Here are regiments that must hold a fire-swept zone, where some must surely fall. The quicker the whole advance moves forward, the less the loss upon the field.
We must hasten on with the work across these darkest portions of the earth. With a stronger staff, more frequent relief can be given to workers who are hard pressed, and who have no opportunity to recuperate without a sacrifice of the interests of the work. Such a sacrifice the laborer hopes to avoid by holding on. This is the end to be prayed about, and worked to unceasingly.
W. A. S.

“A Noteworthy Memorial”

By C. M. S.

The above heading is the title of an editorial in the New York Times of February 3, which we quote entire:—
A memorial to Congress of the Seventh-day Adventists, printed in the Congressional Record of January 29, is a document of interesting literary, religious, and political significance. It is an adroit argument against the passage of certain bills providing for a stricter observance of Sunday in the District of Columbia. It is rich in its citations of historical precedent, clear and strong in its argument against the union of church and state, and apt in its quotations of authorities from Neander to Bancroft.
Of course, the sole purpose of the memorial is to discredit the observance of Sunday as a day set apart for worship and prayer. The Seventh-day Adventists remember the Sabbath and keep it holy on Saturday. But if we are to permit ourselves to look for a motive, and judge of it, we must bear in mind that the sole purpose of the framers of the bills objected to was to forbid all work and recreation on Sunday in defiance of the desire of many millions of their fellow citizens.
Of the one hundred thousand Adventists in this country nearly two thirds belong to the seventh-day branch. They are reputed to be strong in their faith. Perhaps if their numbers in this country equaled the 11,000,000 of one denomination, or the 7,000,000 of another, they would be less fearful of the union of church and state. Their present position is interesting, and their memorial is a noteworthy document.
While we are glad to know that this memorial has received such favorable consideration, we can not refrain from pointing out the two grave misapprehensions contained in the second paragraph of the quotation. The writer of the above has not discovered the motive either of those who drew up the memorial or of those who have caused the Sunday bills to be introduced. It is not “the sole purpose of the memorial” to “discredit the observance of Sunday as a day set apart for worship and prayer.” Neither is it the sole purpose of the framers of the Sunday bills simply to cause the cessation of labor on Sunday. The memorial speaks for itself and tells exactly what its purpose is. The headingof at least one of the Sunday bills printed on page 21 of our last issue, shows what their purpose is, and the campaign carried on in the District in behalf of those bills, and the language used in many of the speeches made, leave no question as to the motive of the framers. The purpose of the memorial is to safeguard freedom of conscience in this country, and enable the people to see the terrible consequences of the threatened union of church and state. The purpose of those who have caused the Sunday bills to be introduced is to protect, promulgate, and enforce a religious ordinance by the power of the civil law, thus uniting religion and the state. The accomplishment of their purpose would put an end to liberty of conscience in America, and spell disaster for both church and state. Against such a calamity to both these organizations the memorialists do and ever will protest.
In the Washington Post of February 11 favorable editorial mention is made of the same memorial. The editorial reads:—
In the interest of religious liberty, in respect for an alert conscience, Congress ought to grant the petition of the Christian sect known as the Seventh-day Adventists, asking that those of that faith may be legally authorized to keep Saturday as their Sabbath day in the District of Columbia. Nobody but the most churlish bigot can object. The Christian religion is much a matter of faith, and it is the belief of the Adventists that Saturday is the true Sabbath.
While this paper is a Christian in walk and talk, it is not a sectarian, but we are free to say that there is much in the creed, if it be a creed, of the Adventist that appeals to the mind and heart.
It is commanded that we keep the Sabbath day. There is a difference of opinion as to which day of the week is the Sabbath. Nearly all Christians accept Sunday as the Sabbath; but great numbers of our citizens, notably the Jews, believe that Saturday is the proper day, and among them the Adventists.
It is an act of despotism, a flat defiance of the First Amendment to the federal Constitution, and a truckling to fanaticism, to prescribe any particular day that the citizen shall keep as the Sabbath. It is the legitimate offspring of the demoniac zealot that sets up the torture chamber to vindicate the Lamb of God and hasten his reign on earth of peace and good will to men.
In at least one of the States the largest liberty is left to the citizen as to the day he may choose for his Sabbath. It may be any one of the seven; but if he “works on Sunday,” he has committed a misdemeanor, unless he can show to the authorities that he has observed as the Sabbath some other day of the week.
As for the Adventists—no other sect can show a better citizenship. They are industrious, frugal, and peaceable. If all other men were no more prone to evil than they, the grand jury would have little to do, and courts, civil as well as criminal, could take a vacation of at least six days in the week, and have little to do the seventh.
Their petition is reasonable, and we do not see how any one can object to it.
We are glad to know that the Post looks thus favorably upon this memorial, and we express here our thanks for its public and kindly expression of opinion with reference to our position as outlined in the document in question. The position defined in this memorial, however, and by that we mean the position taken by this people, is broader than has been recognized by either of the above-named journals. The memorial asks for more than the recognition of the rights of Seventh-day Adventists or Jews to keep the Sabbath of Jehovah and labor upon the other six days of the week. It asks for freedom of conscience for every man; it asks that in this country the separation of church and state be a fact as well as a theory; that the state refuse to pass any laws dealing with the enforcement of religious ordinances; that the proper sphere of the church be not entered by the civil government, and that the proper sphere of the civil government be not interfered with by the church. It shows how ruin both to the state and to the church has always followed in the wake of the union of these two organizations; and while it pleads for the present and the future, it also warns by the lessons of the past. In this age it is difficult for men to recognize an unselfish motive; but we believe that this memorial was inspired by such a motive. Not for Adventists do we plead, but for men, for the rights of mankind, for the rights of our enemies as well as our own rights, and not for these alone or chiefly; but rather that religion may not be sullied by an unholy alliance with the state, and that the government may not be debased by the political aspirations of a power-loving church. C. M. S.

One Master Mind

By W. A. S.

FROM all parts of the world we hear of revival of effort to secure the enforcement of the Sunday institution by law. In the most unexpected ways and places the issue springs up. Elder F. W. Spies, of Brazil, writes:—
We should be doing more here in Rio de Janeiro. There is now a very stringent Sunday bill before Congress. Thus the enemies of all liberty are at work, and we are not able to enlighten the people as to the meaning of these things. I am too much away from the city to do what should be done. We have had Sunday laws for years, but this last bill, I am told, is brought into Congress by a Presbyterian, and is a very strict one. We ought to make an effort corresponding to the importance of the situation.
Thus in Brazil, a land of Catholicism of the most superstitious kind, and a land of consequent unbelief and irreligion elements are found to put through religious legislation in behalf of the Sunday. One master mind is at work in all the earth, hastening on the final crisis. Twenty-five years ago we had few signs of such movements. Now they are before us continually, and the prophetic word is being fulfilled in this also.
W. A. S.

Under One Head

A NOTABLE meeting was held in New York City on February 10. It was a gathering of about twenty-five members of the Anglican, or Episcopal, Church at which was formed what is known as the Anglo-Roman Union. This union was formed for the purpose of promoting the corporate union of the Anglicans with the Roman Church, and was presided over by the “Rev. Father Paul James Francis, general of the Society for the Atonement.” The chairman of the convention, after its close, made the following statement as to the purpose of the movement:—This is not a plot to get a few Anglicans into the Roman fold, but is an organization to accomplish the union of the Anglican Church as a whole with the Church of Rome. It differs from the so-called “quadrilateral plan” offered by the Lambeth convention of 1888, in that it recognizes the primacy of the see of St. Peter. This does not mean, however, that we acknowledge the supremacy of the holy see, nor the doctrine of papal infallibility. We have no particular method by which to accomplish the union. We shall simply follow the dictates of the Holy Spirit.
The constitution adopted by this Anglo-Roman Union states the objects of the organization to be “the maintenance and defense of Catholic principles and the forwarding of corporate reunion of the Anglicans with the apostolic see, the basis being the belief in the Roman primacy.” It will be remembered that shortly before the death of Mr. Gladstone, a strong effort was made to have the Vatican recognize the legitimacy of the claims of the Anglican clergy to apostolic succession, hoping thereby to bring about a union of the two organizations. The pope refused to recognize these claims as legitimate; but there is every reason to believe that the Vatican will do all in its power to encourage the present move, as it is a long step toward complete submission to all the claims of the papacy. It is significant that the definite organization of such a movement should take place in the United States. It is what might logically be expected that a movement for the unification of Christendom under the headship of the pope should be organized by that church which stands closest to the Roman Church. We need not expect to see all Anglicans favoring this movement. Some are already speaking out strongly against it; but there has long been a silent, indefinite trend in that direction. It is crystallizing now, and it will not stop with the Anglicans. Upon this point the Word is definite.

Note and Comment

_Unrest Among the Nations_

THERE are numerous rumors of war in the air at the present time, and they are restricted to no one portion of the earth. Some persist in the belief that the United States and Japan will soon be engaged in a gigantic struggle, and that it is certain to occur before the completion of the Panama Canal. Others profess to see a conflict approaching between Japan and China. British statesmen are contemplating the possibility of trouble in India as a result of the growing sedition in that country. British officers of the auxiliary forces are instructed to report upon the possibilities for immediate mobilization, and general officers have been ordered to keep themselves in readiness at all times for telegraphic orders. It is stated that plans have been perfected for throwing the entire regular army into India at the shortest possible notice. France is engaged at the present time in a real war in Morocco; Turkey is threatening Persia; and Russia, having promised to guarantee the integrity of Persia’s boundaries, is accumulating a considerable force in the vicinity of Persia’s border. Russia is also massing a strong force on the northern border of China. Wars and rumors of wars—these are the divinely revealed characteristics of the days in which we live. They are trebly designated; first, as the days of “wars and rumors of wars;” second, as the days of the cry of “peace and safety;” and third, as the days of the increase of knowledge. There is no mistaking the time—it is the “time of the end.”

Freakish Suicides

The Chicago Tribune, which gives a yearly record of crimes of various classes committed in the United States, in commenting on the continued increase of suicides in this country, says:—
The Tribune has commented recently upon the increasing number of suicides in this country and upon certain aspects of self-murder as related to other crimes. No suggestion, however, has yet been made from any source of any way to decrease this number. The pulpit has inveighed against it, but the pulpit seems to be powerless. In some States the courts have administered severe penalties in cases where suicide has been attempted, but it does not reduce the number. The Salvation Army has been making an earnest effort to restrain suicides, but thus far with little effect. It seems to be a hopeless undertaking.
The Tribune declares that one of the most hopeless features of the situation is the absurd causes which lead persons to commit self-murder. This is specially noticeable in the young. The reasons given for many of these child suicides are trivial and ridiculous in the extreme. The cause must lie in the lack of proper training of the young and in the steadily increasing lack of moral fiber in the race. There is no antidote for the malady like the pure gospel. Neither legislation, education, nor philosophy can stem the rising tide of self-destruction.

What Is Papal Infallibility?

GEO. F. FLYNN, a Catholic clergyman of Springfield, Mass., in a recent address gave the following explanation of papal infallibility:—
What do we mean by infallibility? Infallibility is neither impeccability nor inspiration. No Catholic claims that the pope is inspired. No Catholic who understands his religion claims that the pope is exempted from the sins common to humanity. Infallibility has nothing whatever to do with the personal moral character of the pope. There is absolutely no connection between the two ideas, of impeccability, which means immunity from sin, and infallibility, or freedom from error in teaching the church the doctrines of Christ. We do not claim that the pope is infallible in this capacity as a private teacher, neither does the inerribility of the popes extend to the natural sciences, such as astronomy and geology, unless where error is presented under the false name of science and arrays itself against revealed truth. It does not concern itself about political questions, and does not in any way trespass upon civil authority. It is, in a word, restricted to faith and morals.
The pope, therefore, is infallible only when the following conditions obtain: First, when he speaks ex cathedra, that is, as supreme teacher of the universal church—he is not infallible as a private teacher, bishop, or ruler; second, when he defines a doctrine as an absolutely final decision; third, when he treats of faith or morals; and, fourth, when he clearly manifests his intention to bind the universal church. Thus we see that infallibility merely implies a divine assistance whereby the official teaching of the pope is, under certain conditions, guaranteed from error. Infallibility is not a quality inherent in any person, but an assistance attached to an office, and its operation is not the discovery of new truths, but the guardianship of old ones.
Concerning this definition of “the infallibility of the pope” the Northwestern Christian Advocate says:—
That is, it is the office, and the office alone, that, in the Roman Catholic Church, is infallible. The wisest man in the Roman Catholic Church can not be infallible, but the most ignorant and the most vicious man in the church would become infallible the moment he should be elected pope. The pope is not inspired of God; he may lead a dissolute and unholy life, and violate all the commandments which would separate him from God, but despite such a character he would receive, by the decision of a simple majority of the votes of cardinals, infallible wisdom in declaring the will of God. The church will revolt, in course of time, from such an assumption, though it will doubtless continue to recognize the supreme authority of the pope.
There is no movement of any consequence now on foot that would indicate the fulfilment of the last sentence in the above quotation. The Advocate properly sets forth the absurdity of the papal infallibility claim; but the Word of God and trend of modern events both indicate the growing power of the Roman hierarchy until that time when the deluded nations and peoples that have recognized her spiritual sovereignty and have worshiped at her shrine shall turn upon her to rend and destroy. Rev. 17: 16-18.
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