Review and Herald, Vol. 85, No. 29. (7/16/1908)

Review and Herald

Jul 16, 1908

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 16, 1908

THE ALMIGHTY, THE ALL-MERCIFUL

By J. H. Sammis; W. W. Gilchrist

[A HYMN]

“Power belongeth unto God. Also unto Thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy.” Ps. 62: 11, 12

CHORALE

EL GOEL, L. M.

Words by the Rev. J. H. Sammis Music by W. W. Gilchrist

Strong Son of God, and kind as strong, Mercy and might to Thee belong; Thy sovereign love in grace exceeds A seraph's thought, a sinner's needs. Amen.

Thy loving-kindness shares our grief; Thy greatness stoops to our relief; How strong to compass our defence, How kindly to our penitence.

All kings shall come to kiss Thy feet, Where matchless might and mercy meet; And lisping babes shall see Thy face, Great God and Brother of our race.

Among the mighty reign alone, Thy grace the glory of Thy throne; Reign on the endless ages through, All-able and all-loving too.

O grant that we who daily prove Thy mighty grace, Incarnate Love, Enriched by what Thou dost bestow, May all Thy kingly virtues show.

The Book Department Mirror

Being a Reflection of Interesting Happenings and Notes on Our Publications. Conducted by the Book Department of the Review and Herald Publishing Association.

We have just finished printing 10,000 sets of the Religious Liberty Post-cards. The subjects are reduced facsimiles of those timely cartoons which have been appearing in Liberty. There are ten different cards in the series, and the complete set will be sent post-paid for 10 cents. Five or more sets, 6 cents a set, post-paid.

One student canvasser is reported to have taken orders for “Daniel and Revelation” to the amount of $175 in one week. In the light of this how striking the statement: “In a large degree through our publishing houses is to be accomplished the work of that other angel who comes down from heaven with great power, and who lighteneth the earth with his glory.” Is it possible that by withholding your talents from this work you are missing a part in the latter rain?

“I have my place and fill it; I know my place and keep it; do you?” says the frog in the chapter entitled, “A Morning Lecture,” in “My Garden Neighbors.” The words of a very practical talk are put into the mouth of this frog. “My Garden Neighbors” interests old and young alike, for the stories are about birds and animals that are familiar to all. The chapter entitled, “Invitations to Birds,” tells you how to attract these feathered friends and become better acquainted with them. Send for the book, and try it yourself. Price, post-paid, $1.

Different conferences are supplying their workers with the “Conference Laborers’ Record.” It is the opinion of nearly every one that this little book “just fills the bill.” Everything that is desired in a book of this kind—convenient, handy, complete, with a place for everything. Price, 50 cents, post-paid.

We still have a good supply of the “Year-Book” for 1908. Those who have not already procured one would do well to order at once. Your town library would also appreciate a copy, and it would prove a means of interesting many who could not be reached in other ways. Besides the statistics on the progress of our work, and the directories giving the name and address of all conference workers and institutions, there are new maps prepared especially for this issue. These maps give the territory of each conference and mission field, and also the location of the conference headquarters and institutions. Added to this is a statement of the fundamental principles of Seventh-day Adventists, written by the late Elder Uriah Smith. Price, 25 cents, post-paid.

“The children first”—yes, we must look out for the children; they are the ones on whom the burden will fall soon. This idea was in the mind of the one who prepared the little pamphlet, “Children’s Meetings,” No. 4. Under the title, “Hints for Leaders,” are a number of very pertinent remarks on how to conduct a children’s meeting so as to secure the best attention and do the most good. The Scripture lessons and blackboard suggestions which follow are excellent, and the leader who makes use of this little help will find the work greatly lightened. Price, 10 cents, post-paid. We have a very few copies of Nos. 2 and 3, which will be supplied at the same price. No. 1 is out of print.

Any of the publications mentioned on this page may be ordered through any State tract society, publishing house, or direct from Review and Herald Publishing Association, Takoma Park, Washington, D. C., New York City, or Battle Creek, Mich.

Evidences of Advancement

THOSE who are reading the reports from the different parts of the field as they appear from week to week in the REVIEW, will find reason for encouragement concerning the progress of the work and a basis of hopefulness for the future. There has probably never been a time in the history of this movement when every department of the work presented so many encouraging features.

As to the educational work: in almost every instance our institutions have reported a very full attendance, with a large number of conversions among the students, and an intelligent and growing interest in mission work. Some of the largest and most successful canvassers’ institutes ever held have been at our colleges and academies the present season, and there are now many student canvassers in the field, meeting with excellent success in the sale of books and periodicals.

As to the canvassing work: some of the best records ever made in the sale of our books are now being reported. Although the country has not fully recovered from the recent financial panic, and in some localities, cyclones and floods have wrought great damage, yet the faithful canvassers are being blessed in their work, and are placing the literature of this message in thousands upon thousands of homes throughout the country.

As to the medical work: in spite of the embarrassments under which this branch of the work has labored, on account of the defection of some who were prominently connected with it, yet the number of medical missionary workers is steadily increasing, and the success which has marked the history of some of our medical institutions has been most cheering. A reaction, which was almost inevitable under the circumstances, has been experienced to a greater or less degree, and there is need of earnest effort lest this phase of the truth should not be sufficiently emphasized in the hearts and homes of our people. But taking all things into consideration, there is no reason for discouragement concerning our medical work.

As to the publishing work: at the present time neither of our large publishing houses is doing commercial work, and the wide-spread revival of the canvassing interest is making such demands upon our printing facilities as to preclude the idea of taking in any other class of work. Not only so, but the last financial statements of our publishing houses were most satisfactory, showing in almost every instance a very substantial balance on the right side.

As to the religious liberty work: parallel with the increasing demand for religious legislation and for more vigorous enforcement of existing Sunday laws, has been an increasing interest on the part of our own people in this phase of work. The issue of Liberty for the first quarter of 1908 had a circulation of seventy thousand copies, the largest edition of any regular number of such a publication in the history of the denomination. The religious liberty work is now better organized, and being carried forward more efficiently, than at any previous time, and the attention of many thousands of people is being drawn to this second advent movement through the efforts to preserve for all the people freedom to worship or not to worship, in harmony with the spirit of the national Constitution.

As to missions: the willingness to sacrifice in order to send this message to other lands is a reasonably accurate indication of the interest which the people have in the message itself. Our reports show that larger donations are now being made to the mission treasury than at any previous time since we began to send workers to foreign fields. If the camp-meetings already held are a fair index of what may be expected from the whole field, all past records will be broken, and the funds much needed for strengthening the work already opened, and for entering new fields, will be supplied. The people are responding nobly to the program of the Mission Board, and to the action taken by the representative brethren in the recent Council of the General Conference Committee. Of more value even than the money is the experience which attends this consecration of means. The extract from Elder G. B. Thompson’s letter, printed in our last issue, and a report recently received from Elder R. A. Underwood, show that God is not slack in fulfilling his promise of special spiritual blessings upon those who are faithful in tithes and offerings. In last week’s REVIEW, the writers of two reports, from places far apart, mentioned that they were experiencing evidences of the latter rain; and the large number of conversions to the truth reported show that the labors of the ministers in the field are being blessed to the salvation of souls.

There is certainly “the sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry-trees,” and the Lord is going out before his people. Let every one bestir himself.

Modern Thought and the Sabbath

A PROMINENT journal which is a leading exponent of liberalism recently contained an editorial on “The Jewish Rest Day,” in which there was about as much misrepresentation and absolute denial of Scripture teaching as it would be possible to crowd into the same space. After a recommendation that the orthodox Jews should “apply to a congress of rabbis, and let them enact that for Jews Monday shall be the first day of the week, instead of the Gentile and pagan Sunday,” this article continues:—

It is curious to consider what the strict notion that God prefers Saturday to Sunday implies. It is based on the assumption that the reason given for the command in Exodus is more correct than that given in Deuteronomy. In

Exodus we are told that the reason is that God created the world in six days and rested on the seventh; but in Deuteronomy a different reason is given,—that the Hebrews toiled as servants in Egypt, and God delivered them with a strong hand; “therefore the Lord thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day.”

This kind of reasoning betrays an utter failure to recognize the difference between the primary reason given as the basis of the Sabbath commandment, and a secondary reason, given in the restatement of the commandment. The Sabbath is Jehovah’s rest day, the sign of the creative power by which the world was brought into existence in six days. So long as the fact of creation abides, and it remains true that God “rested the seventh day,” so long the Sabbath must remain a definite day.

After the deliverance of the children of Israel from the Egyptian bondage, through the working of the same creative power which brought the world into existence, the Sabbath, which was the sign of God’s power manifested in creation, was presented to them as the sign of the same power manifested in their deliverance. But the deliverance of the children of Israel from Egypt is typical in its character, an object-lesson of the believer’s deliverance from the bondage of sin. By connecting the Sabbath with this experience in the restatement of the commandment in Deuteronomy, the gospel truth is taught that the Sabbath is not only the sign of the original creation, but also of the re-creation by the same power, and of that experience of the rest in Christ which one has who has been enabled through faith to cease from works of sin. “For he that is entered into his [God’s] rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.”

It is clear, therefore, that to advocate a definite Sabbath does not involve the assumption that “the command in Exodus is more correct than that given in Deuteronomy.” Both statements are absolutely true, and taken together give the fulness of the gospel meaning of the Sabbath commandment.

The argument for the rejection of the Sabbath of the fourth commandment is based upon the conclusions of an infidel science, and upon that method of interpreting the Scriptures which enables one to follow the practise of the majority, contrary to the commandment, while professing adherence to the commandment. This is shown in the following extract from the same article:—

Further, the world was not made in six real days; and the Lord did not rest on any one day of the week; and the reason in Exodus does not give the origin of the commandment; and all the old commandment requires of the Jews, and all that the true reason of it requires of us, is to rest a seventh day, and we may appoint it as we please, remembering that our calendar of the week is utterly arbitrary, and any one may begin it for himself when he chooses, and give any name he chooses to the days. But for the convenience of the people we put the general consent into law, setting apart for rest the day we call Sunday, which is the seventh day.

These same assertions, put in their proper form, would read like this: The Bible is not true; and modern thought is a safer guide in interpreting the commandment than the whole history of the Jews; and the Lord left every man free to appoint his own Sabbath; but as human wisdom has perceived the far-reaching defect in such an arrangement, man has supplied what the Lord failed to provide—a definite sabbath day. And yet this article characterizes that interpretation of the commandment which requires the observance of a definite Sabbath day as “nonsense.”

All the wisdom of the world is foolishness with God, but some of it is foolishness even to men. “Woe unto them . . . that put darkness for light.”

Editorial

By Editor

POOR Pilgrim passed through a dangerous experience while he was in the enchanted country, and came near ending his journey there. We are in the same danger now. There is being exerted a powerful influence tending to indifference and lethargy, and a mighty effort will be required to throw it off. With the promised land almost in sight, there is needed the voice of a Caleb to say: “Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.”

The Rise and Fall of Religious Liberty in America

By C. M. S.

Conscience Outlawed in Virginia

It was in Virginia particularly that the Presbyterians learned what intolerance means. The Baptists had known for many years, practically as well as theoretically, the iniquity and cruelty of a union of religion and the state. The Presbyterians saw in Virginia, from a different view-point than ever before, how persecution looks to the one who experiences it. In Scotland the Presbyterians had conducted themselves toward dissenters very much as the Church of England had done. But in Massachusetts, where Congregationalism was established, the Presbyterians were not received with open arms; and in that, Virginia, where the Episcopal Church was established by the state, their worship was under the ban, and their ministers were subjected to many inconveniences and petty annoyances.

In Foot’s “Sketches of Virginia,” page 25, we find this statement in reference to conditions in that State: “Toleration in the forms of religion was unknown in Virginia in 1688. From the commencement of the colony, the necessity of the religious element was felt. The company knew not how to control the members composing the colony but by religion and law. They exercised a despotism in both.”

In the year 1643 the colonial assembly passed a law requiring that all non-conformists should depart from the colony “with all conveniency.” The colonial charter made withdrawal from the established church a crime equal to revolt against the government. Any person so withdrawing from the “doctrines, rites, and religion now professed and established” should be arrested and imprisoned until he should reform, or, “when the cause so requireth, that he shall with all convenient speed be sent into our realm of England, here to receive condign punishment, for his or their said offense.”

An act, passed by the Virginia Assembly in 1661-62, evidently aimed at the Quakers, as there were no Baptists in the colony at the time, reads as follows:— Whereas, Many schismatical persons, out of their averseness to the orthodox established religion, or out of the new-fangled conceits of their own heretical inventions, refuse to have their children baptized; be it therefore enacted by the authority aforesaid, that all persons that in contempt of the divine sacrament of baptism, shall refuse when they may carry their child to a lawful minister in that county to have them baptized, shall be amersed two thousand pounds of tobacco; half to the informer, half to the public.

In the year 1643 a régime of the cruelest intolerance was instituted by Governor Berkeley, who strove by whippings and brandings to make the inhabitants of that colony conform to the established church. As a result of these bitter persecutions, the Baptists and Quakers were driven from the colony, and found refuge in North Carolina. Dr. Semple, writing of the experiences of the early Quakers, declares that “the utmost degree of persecution was exercised toward them.”

Thomas Armitage, in his “History of the Baptists,” states that at this period in the history of Virginia the most dissolute among the orthodox clergy “so embittered the spirits of the baser class against the pure and godly men who went everywhere preaching the Word, that, even after the toleration act had compelled the colony to modify her laws, and they could not legally be imprisoned for preaching the gospel, mob law was let loose upon them everywhere, and they were thrust into prison for the sin of others in disturbing the public peace. Everywhere their congregations were disturbed and broken up.” Says Howe: “A snake and a hornets’ nest were thrown into their meeting, and even in one case firearms were brought to disperse them.” Taylor says that the Baptist ministers were “fined, pelted, beaten, imprisoned, poisoned, and hunted with dogs; their congregations were assaulted and dispersed; the solemn ordinance of baptism was rudely interrupted, both administrators and candidates being plunged and held beneath the water till nearly dead; they suffered mock trials, and even in courts of justice were subjected to indignities not unlike those inflicted by the infamous Jeffreys.”

About thirty Baptist ministers were imprisoned in Virginia, some of them for several times; but they improved their time and opportunities by preaching through the bars of their prison to the crowds who came to listen, and through that preaching many were brought to Christ. Upon this point Dr. Hawks gives the following testimony:—

No dissenters in Virginia experienced for a time harsher treatment than did the Baptists. They were beaten and imprisoned; and cruelty taxed its ingenuity to devise new modes of punishment and annoyance. The usual consequences followed. Persecution made friends for its victims; and the men who were not permitted to speak in public found willing auditors in the sympathizing crowds who gathered around the prisons to hear them preach from the grated windows.—“History of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Virginia.”

Dr. Semple, in his “History of Virginia Baptists,” makes an interesting comment upon the ingenuity of the establishment in finding authority for imprisoning dissenters:—

It seems by no means certain that any law in force in Virginia authorized the imprisonment of any person for preaching. The law for the preservation of peace, however, was so interpreted as to answer this purpose, and accordingly, whenever the preachers were apprehended, it was done by a peace warrant. . . . The first instance of actual imprisonment, we believe, that ever took place in Virginia was in the county of Spotsylvania. On June 4, 1768, John Waller, Lewis Craig, James Childs, etc., were seized by the sheriff, and haled before three magistrates. . . . They offered to release them if they would promise to preach no more in the county for a year and a day. This they refused, and, therefore, were sent into close jail.

Historians of the period give only a few “sample cases of imprisonment,” declaring that “there were many others besides.”

But it was not alone in the matter of the imprisonment of ministers that the established church showed how unlike Christ the professed Christian can be when he makes his religion an affair of law. Very ingenious devices were resorted to in order to make as difficult as possible the promulgation of principles or doctrines not authorized by the established church. For instance, after the passage of the act of toleration, which was designed by King William to ease the condition of dissenters, the Virginia government made illegal the holding of meetings in any buildings not designated and licensed by the authorities as places of worship. These authorities were under the control of the established church, and it can readily be surmised that the designating and licensing of these places for dissenters to hold worship was not very promptly or enthusiastically attended to. Wherever these authorities could withhold such licenses with any show of excuse whatever they did so. Upon one occasion the license for a place of worship was refused a Baptist company because there was already in that county a Presbyterian meeting-house. Even the licensed preachers among the Baptists were compelled to bear arms and attend the musters of the militia, a thing which was never required under any circumstances of the ministers of the established church. For a dissenting minister to preach in a meeting-house not designated in his license was prohibited by law, and Baptists, Quakers, and Presbyterians were forbidden to hold meetings at night.

On March 26, 1770, the Virginia Baptists petitioned the Assembly, setting forth their grievances in the above matters and asking for relief. The committee to which the petition was referred brought in the following resolution:— Resolved, That it is the opinion of this committee that so much of the said petition as prays that the ministers or preachers of the Baptist persuasion may not be compelled to bear arms or attend musters be rejected.

This was agreed to by the house.

William Fristoe, in his “History of the Ketockton Baptist Association,” says:—

The enemy, not content with ridicule and defamation, manifested their abhorrence to the Baptists in another way. By a law then in force in Virginia, all were under obligation to go to church several times in the year; the failure subjected them to fine. Little notice was taken of the omission, if members of the established church; but so soon as the “New Lights” were absent, they were presented by the grand jury, and fined according to law.

And we have seen this disposition manifest in our own day, where observers of the seventh day of the week have been haled before the courts for failure to observe Sunday as a rest day, when at the same time others who did not profess to keep the seventh day were permitted to labor on Sunday unmolested. It was only necessary for the colonial magistrates to know that the Baptists had meetings of their own to attend in order to begin at once to exercise their usurped authority upon them. If persons were absent from the established church upon principle, it was an indictable offense; if they were absent to minister to their own pleasure, it was not so serious a matter to the minions of the establishment. And just so does it prove to-day when the labor performed upon Sunday is performed by one who conscientiously rests upon another day, and just as conscientiously works on Sunday.

Thus has it been proved again and again that to establish a religion is to outlaw conscience. The established church has always and everywhere been a mill whose grists were the consciences of men and whose product, arrogance, strife, bitter persecution, hatred, and hypocrisy. The established church attempts to set itself in the very gateway of heaven, to determine who shall and who shall not enter therein, and mete out rewards and punishments according to its own standards.

We will consider next week the establishment of the one State in the union which refused to participate in the persecution of men for matters of conscience.

C. M. S.

Camp-Meeting Temperance Rallies

By K. C. Russell

A New Departure

For some time there has been a growing desire on the part of our people to make more vigorous and earnest efforts against the liquor traffic.

There is no other body of people so uncompromisingly opposed to this evil as are Seventh-day Adventists; and, too, our ideas of temperance reform involve more than simply abstaining from alcoholic liquors. While we have always believed that the saloon is a terrible curse to humanity, we have been too backward in making it known to others, for fear that, should we unite in opposing the liquor traffic with other organizations, we would be compromising the principles of truth by appearing to favor the Sunday closing of the saloon. While it is true that we should never, in opposing the liquor traffic, compromise principle, yet on the other hand, we should not be so fearful of being classed with those who are seeking Sunday legislation as never to take a positive stand on the side of that which is just and right. The devil would only be too glad to get every Seventh-day Adventist so frightened that he would never be found exerting his influence on the side of legitimate reforms. The Lord has repeatedly outlined in no uncertain way the position that Seventh-day Adventists should occupy on this great issue—the temperance reform.

In “Ministry of Healing,” page 346, we find the following:—

The honor of God, the stability of the nation, the well-being of the community, of the home, and of the individual, demand that every possible effort be made in arousing the people to the evil of intemperance. Soon we shall see the result of this terrible evil as we do not see it now. Who will put forth a determined effort to stay the work of destruction? As yet the contest has hardly begun. Let an army be formed to stop the sale of the drugged liquors that are making men mad. Let the danger from the liquor traffic be made plain, and a public sentiment be created that shall demand its prohibition. Let the drink-maddened men be given an opportunity to escape from their thraldom. Let the voice of the nation demand of its lawmakers that a stop be put to this infamous traffic.

Again, from an article by Mrs. E. G. White in the REVIEW of June 18 we take this extract:—

The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union is an organization with whose efforts for the spread of temperance principles we can heartily unite. The light has been given me that we are not to stand aloof from them; but, while there is to be no sacrifice of principle on our part, as far as possible we are to unite with them in laboring for temperance reforms. My husband and I in our labors united with these temperance workers, and we had the joy of seeing several unite with us in the observance of the true Sabbath. Among them there is a strong prejudice against us, but we shall not remove this prejudice by standing aloof. God is testing us. We are to work with them when we can, and we can assuredly do this on the question of utterly closing the saloon.

As the human agent submits his will to the will of God, the Holy Spirit will make the impressions upon the hearts of those to whom he ministers. I have been shown that we are not to shun the W. C. T. U. workers. By uniting with them in behalf of total abstinence, we do not change our position regarding the observance of the seventh day, and we can show our appreciation of their position regarding the subject of temperance. By opening the door, and inviting them to unite with us on the temperance question, we secure their help along temperance lines; and they, by uniting with us, will hear new truths which the Holy Spirit is waiting to impress upon hearts.

In this connection it may be of interest to the reader, especially to those upon whom is placed the responsibility of planning for the work at the coming camp-meetings, to learn of the plan which has recently been followed in the camp-meetings in the East,—in conducting temperance rallies. At the camp-meetings in the Greater New York, Central New England, West Pennsylvania, and Chesapeake conferences, we conducted these rallies on the last Sunday afternoon of the meeting. The first thing in arranging for such a meeting is to visit one or more of the leading Protestant ministers, who are recognized in the community as strong champions of the temperance cause, a leading W. C. T. U. speaker, and the secretary of the Y. M. C. A., and invite them to join in a temperance rally.

We found no difficulty in securing good speakers, who gave character and influence to our meetings. We also found it desirable to divide the offerings that were gathered at the meetings with the local or State W. C. T. U. or the Y. M. C. A. of the city, where our meetings were held.

After securing the services of the outside speakers, a neat and attractive program should be gotten out, and placed in the hands of the invited speakers, in order that they may distribute copies to the members of their congregations or associations.

It is fitting on such occasions to have the president of the conference act as chairman of the meeting, and one of our own ministers should make the closing address. It is not wise to have the program too lengthy. We found no difficulty in getting the pastors, who do not participate in the rally, to allow the programs to be distributed in their congregations; for they are willing to co-operate with any denomination opposing the liquor traffic. This is a most effective way to advertise the rally, and will result in securing the attendance of a class of hearers who might not otherwise attend the camp-meeting.

It has seemed a necessity in the rallies which we have thus far conducted to hold them on the last Sunday of the camp-meeting; but we believe that if arrangements could be made to conduct such a rally on the first Sunday, a better outside attendance could be secured throughout the entire meeting.

We would suggest that the last topic presented at these rallies should involve a brief but clear statement, showing that we believe in appealing to the civil law for the prohibition of the liquor traffic, not because it is immoral or unchristian; but because it invades the natural rights of the citizen by being a menace to society. Of course, we should make it plain that it is unchristian and immoral; but in opposing it on that ground, we should not appeal to the arm of the state. This will open the way to make clear the limits of civil authority without discussing the question of Sunday legislation.

It is very important that this phase of the subject should be made plain; because many who are engaged in the liquor traffic claim that it is not within the province of civil government to prohibit the liquor traffic, as, they say, it is an abridgment of their freedom, etc.

We would also suggest the advisability of providing appropriate music for the occasion.

K. C. RUSSELL.

Words of Encouragement

By I. H. Evans

ABOUT twenty-six hundred years ago the prophet Isaiah uttered these words: “They helped every one his neighbor; and every one said to his brother, Be of good courage.” This is a pattern of the unity and co-operation that should exist among God’s people. The place for unity to be manifested is not only around the Lord’s table or at the house of worship; there unity should appear, in a marked manner, but it must be manifest in other ways as well.

The financial support of God’s cause is a sure test of loyalty to God and love for his work. For a people few in number and poor in their worldly possessions, to support a cause of such magnitude as that of the third angel’s message, with all its varied institutions, is a lesson to the world of what a great truth can do in binding men together. In this union there is no compulsion. By the side of the liberal-hearted there will be the man who does nothing for God’s work. But the words of courage and confidence in the support of the work of God and in its speedy triumph are most cheering.

One president of a union conference says:—

I wish that I could give you more encouragement than I can possibly give in this letter. If there was any surplus tithe in our union conference at the present time, I certainly should go to the conferences and make a call for it; but since our union conference last spring, we have given thirteen thousand five hundred dollars of our surplus tithe to the General Conference, and we are pretty well cleaned out, but the — Conference has just given you two thousand dollars, which you will receive soon. With reference to the ten-cent-a-week plan, I can report favorably. We have talked this matter up thoroughly at the camp-meetings. Our people accepted it in every conference. At some of the camp-meetings they have pledged thousands of dollars for foreign missions. I wish we could have done much more.

Another union conference president writes:—

Be of good courage my brother. I am satisfied this union conference will raise more than ten cents a week, wherever I go, our people gladly accept of this plan, and we shall do better than you had faith to ask.

Another brother, a president of a union conference, writes:—

In the three camp-meetings thus far held in our union conference, about two hundred have been converted, and including the tithe given by the conferences, with the cash and pledges made, we have raised some thirty-four thousand dollars for the foreign work. I believe when our other meeting is past, it will not be less than fifty thousand dollars. I am sure we can raise from the other offerings not less than twenty-five thousand dollars the coming year. In other words, I believe that the — Union Conference can raise seventy-five thousand dollars for foreign work. This I hope to see accomplished. I give all praise to God for what we have already seen done.

From Europe these cheering words come to-day:—

I am very sorry to learn your treasury is so low. I would suggest that when the treasury is so low at this time of the year, you may quietly let us wait until later in the year,—three or four months if necessary,—until the money comes in again. We shall try to squeeze through the summer months while your treasury is dry. Shall do all I can for you on the ten-cent-a-week plan. Our tithe for the first quarter of 1908 is thirty-six thousand dollars, or four thousand dollars more than it was the first quarter of 1907.

The treasurer of one of our foreign union conferences writes:—

We are too poor to raise ten cents a week, but we wish to do what we can.

We will try a penny a week. That will be pretty good for these poor people who work for only a few cents a day. Send me a quantity of missionary envelopes.

Many letters of similar import are continually coming to our office, bringing not one word of complaint, but breathing only courage and hope. Surely it can be said, “They helped every one his neighbor; and every one said to his brother, Be of good courage.”

Think of the help our Northern States are sending to the Southland and to the near-by poorer conferences. One conference gave its president and two workers and a new tent to another conference, supporting them for two years. One conference furnished and supported three tent companies in other conferences, and gave one new tent. Other conferences have given as they could; and when one conference was too poor to support a worker alone, two have joined together in the support of a worker.

Truly it looks like getting ready to cross over Jordan. Why should not God’s people rejoice?

I. H. EVANS.

Note and Comment

Turning Toward Universalism

The practical result of the acceptance of the modern views about religion, is clearly perceived by those who understand what is really involved in this departure from the old standards. This was well illustrated at a recent convention of the Young People’s Union of the Universalist Church held in Washington. From one of the addresses made on that occasion we take the following extract:—

Every fair-minded student of modern history realizes that organized religion is at a crisis. . . . This crisis has been partially effected by the tremendous changes recently wrought by science. The form of religion is inextricably related to our conception of the physical universe. As a single instance, the new conception dependent upon the discovery of evolution has manifestly altered our ideas of the character of man, his destiny, and the purpose of God. Every revolution in science produces a sympathetic crisis in religion. Every expansion of knowledge calls for a corresponding growth in theology. . . . Manifestly, the theology of the future must come through those who believe revelation is continuous. Adaptability to environment is the first law of life. It applies to all forms. It is equally applicable to institutions and churches. Therefore, the church of the future will be that which can best adapt itself to the new environment. I confidently believe Universalism has within it those virtues and qualities which will enable it to remold the theology of the Christian world.

That kind of religious faith which changes with “every revolution in science,” and which is based upon scientific investigation rather than upon revelation, will find its logical outcome in Universalism; not necessarily the old-fashioned Universalism, but in that modern Universalism of “sweetness and light”—that cross-less religion which rejects both the crucifixion of Christ and the crucifixion of self. We have certainly reached a crisis in religion, and it becomes those who stand for “the faith once delivered to the saints” to bear a most powerful testimony in favor of that religion which was preached by Christ and the apostles, and which has been the hope of the church through the weary centuries of waiting for the return of her Lord.

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