Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Feb 2, 1905
The Law of God
And God spake all these words, saying,
I am Jehovah thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, nor any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them; for I Jehovah thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generation of them that hate me, and shewing loving-kindness unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.
Thou shalt not take the name of Jehovah thy God in vain; for Jehovah will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is a sabbath unto Jehovah thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days Jehovah made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore Jehovah blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long in the land which Jehovah thy God giveth thee.
Thou shalt not kill.
Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Thou shalt not steal.
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor's.
Religious Liberty Leaflets
Last week's Review contained first-page facsimiles of the four Religious Liberty leaflets. Those who read the first pages of these tracts were impressed with the clear, concise, and logical introduction of the treatise on the four important topics; but the full contents of the tracts always bring strong conviction favorable to the great principles of religious liberty.
Leaflet No. 1 bears the title of “Principles Too Little Understood.” It contains a short, practical, impressive discussion of the fundamental principles of personal, national, and religious liberty. Eight pages; price, 38 cents.
Leaflet No. 2 is an eight-page tract on “Sunday Laws; Their Origin and Nature, and Object.” Any one reading this tract will not fail to discern the true spirit of these religious enactments. This tract alone, circulated in any community where Sunday legislation is in progress, will be sufficient for the time being to prevent the enforcement of Sunday laws.
Leaflet No. 3 exposes the evil of Sabbath legislation, and reveals the true meaning of Sabbath laws. The title of this tract is “The Logic of Sabbath Legislation.” It contains eight pages; price, 38 cents per hundred.
Leaflet No. 4 is entitled “The Civil Sabbath.” It exposes the arguments that are so prevalent for the establishment of the civil sabbath in the United States. Associated with this exposition are principles of true Sabbath observance contrasted with enforced observance. Twelve pages; 55 cents per hundred.
These four tracts, together with the tract “An Appeal to Clergy,” completely settle the Sabbath question and the enforcement of Sunday observance by law.
These tracts ought to be studied in connection with the present—
Sabbath-School Lessons
on Religious Liberty and Health and Temperance. The first six lessons for the present quarter are interesting studies upon the Bible and Liberty, the Sabbath and Liberty, Sunday and Slavery, an Epoch of Freedom, the Powers that Be, and the Final Conflict.
The remaining lessons for the quarter treat upon the principles of health and health reform.
Life and Health will be excellent to study in connection with these health and temperance lessons.
The Quarterlies containing these Sabbath-school lessons retail at 5 cents a copy, and are kept by all State tract societies.
Associated with the study of the Sabbath-school lessons on health and temperance—
The Youth’s Instructor
for the year 1905 will be of practical help to the youth and children; for a series of interesting health talks is now appearing in that paper. These articles are prepared by a thoroughly qualified physician, who will show in a most entertaining way the Nature and Habits of Bacteria, or Germs; How They Are Helpful, How They Are Injurious, How to Take Advantage of Their Help, and How to Prevent Injury from Their Presence. These articles will be written in language adapted to youthful readers, and will give many interesting facts on germ life, strongly impressing the importance of a sanitary life.
Besides these health studies on germs, the Instructor will contain more instructive, interesting, and valuable matter during the year than in any previous year of its existence. Among a host of other good things there will be a series of interesting and instructive sketches on Authors and Artists, Practical Lessons on the Science of Illustrations, Thrilling Studies in Nature, A Study of the Principles of True Protestantism, Missionary Travels and Missions in the Principal Mission Fields, Young People’s Work in All of Its Phases, etc.
The Instructor for 1905 will be equal to a year in a good school for our young people, and will have a strong influence in keeping them in the love of the truth, and in molding their lives for future service in the cause.
Life and Health
By Editor
The February issue of Life and Health contains excellent practical instruction on the Significance of Pain, Its Purpose in the Organism, and How to Deal with It; suggestions to The Girl of Fourteen; principles essential to success in life, in Letters from a Physician to His Son; health principles, applied in How a Girl Cured Herself; prescriptions for Controlling a Cough Without Drugs; methods of healing followed by the Great Physician, portrayed in an illustrated article on the Healing of the Soul, by Mrs. E. G. White; interesting questions on health and disease answered carefully and plainly by Dr. G. A. Hare, superintendent of the Washington Sanitarium; startling editorials on present-day health topics, such as Consumption of Narcotics, Sense and Will-Power as a Preventive of Disease, Adulteration and Substitution of Patent Medicine. The Japanese Diet, Appropriate Foods for Stomach Disorders, Milk for Adults, Advertisements as Educators, Combinations Which Retard Digestion; Seasonable Hints for the Kitchen and Household; interesting News Notes indicating the progress being made in hygiene and sanitary success; and much other valuable matter.
The fundamental principles governing the life and health of the delicately constructed human organism are not deep, hidden mysteries, only possible to be understood and applied by the scientific experts; but they are the natural heritage of every man and woman, and are as accessible and applicable as any commodity essential to life.
The mission of Life and Health is to point out the plain, true pathway to health and happiness, and to present these principles in a manner so attractive, yet so simple and practical, that all can understand and apply them.
Agents are wanted in every community to sell Life and Health, and to solicit subscriptions. The subscription price is 50 cents a year, with the November and December issues of 1904 given as a premium as long as these editions last. In clubs of ten or more copies to one address for one year, 30 cents a copy. Copies to sell can be secured for 2½ cents a copy in orders of twenty-five or more copies. Liberal discount is given to the agent on annual subscriptions. For further information, address Life and Health, 222 North Capitol St., Washington, D. C.
Publishers’ Page
Conducted by the Department of Circulation of the Review and Herald Publishing Association
An Appeal to Clergy
ON the nineteenth of January, announcement was made in the REVIEW of the printing in tract form of “An Appeal to Clergy,” containing the Open Letter sent to the Protestant ministers of Washington, D. C., and on the twenty-sixth, orders had been received from near-by territory for 85,000, and every mail brings additional orders. By the time this issue of the REVIEW is out, the orders will doubtless amount to over 100,000.
This quick response demonstrates recognized merit, in the Open Letter matter, and a willingness on the part of the people to place it in circulation. With the orders received come words of hearty appreciation of the letter itself, and approval of printing it in tract form for general distribution.
Many say it is the best presentation of the Sabbath question they ever saw, and affirm that in the reading of it only the willingly blind can possibly fail to see the truth relative to the entire Sabbath question. The nature of this tract, and the circumstances associated with its appearance, will command the attention and respect of the general public, and it is a most opportune time to use it in proclaiming the Sabbath message to the world. Hundreds of thousands of copies should be circulated in the immediate future. No one ought to neglect giving away a large number of them. No more effectual work can be done at the present time in advancing the work than to place in circulation this timely messenger. It will be sent, post-paid, for $3.75 a thousand, or 40 cents a hundred.
Sabbath-School Worker
THE Sabbath-school is one of the greatest instrumentalities in bringing souls to Christ, and now as never before its work should be exalted. Each member in every school should feel the reviving influence of the greater power that is to attend the work of the message in this generation. The Sabbath School Worker is devoted exclusively to the Sabbath-school work and its interests, and will be of great benefit in supplying the officers, teachers, and the parents with important information from month to month, and will prove to be in every particular a great help to every person who may have access to its columns.
Single copy, one year, 35 cents. Two or more copies to one address, each 25 cents.
Where to Order Review and Herald
Order of Review & Herald, Washington, D. C.; Battle Creek, Mich.; Pacific Press, Mountain View, Cal.; Kansas City, Mo.; Southern Publishing Assn., Nashville, Tenn.; or your State Tract Society.
Editorial
By Editor
“Corban”
UNREGENERATED human nature is the same in all ages. A hypocritical profession of devotion to form or tradition in order to escape present duty is not a modern invention. How brazenly did selfishness cloak itself under the covering of liberality to God’s cause in the time of Christ! “Ye say,” said Jesus, “If a man shall say to his father or his mother, That wherewith thou mightest have been profited by me is Corban, that is to say, Given to God; ye no longer suffer him to do aught for his father or his mother.” Thus the priests “taught the people that the devotion of their property to the temple was a duty more sacred than even the support of their parents; and that however great the necessity, it was sacrilege to impart to father or mother any part of what had been thus consecrated. An undutiful child had only to pronounce the word ‘Corban’ over his property, thus devoting it to God, and he could retain it for his own use during his lifetime, and after his death it was to be appropriated to the temple service.” God calls upon his people to make offerings for the support of his work in the earth, but this call is not satisfied by relinquishing at death what has been rigidly held as long as the possessor could possibly keep it. It is then simply a choice between letting it go into the Lord’s treasury or into the hands of some one else—it must go somewhere. We do not object to bequeathing property for the benefit of God’s work, but this can not take the place of the right use of the property while the owner lives. Liberal giving during the lifetime is much better than a forced giving at death. Furthermore, “If any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.” The commandment of God is not to be made void by human inventions, and this is just as true of one commandment as of another.
Incarnated Selfishness
UNSELFISH love,—the love which gives itself freely for the benefit of others,—the love which makes it impossible for its possessor to be happy when others are unhappy without seeking to relieve their unhappiness,—the love which “seeketh not her own,”—the love which prompts to giving rather than to getting,—this is the vital principle of the gospel of Jesus Christ. “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son.” Jesus “loved me, and gave himself for me.”
In contrast with this self-sacrificing love is that overmastering selfishness which is the tap-root of sin. It contradicts all that love says and does. It takes from others to benefit itself. It seeks happiness by methods which make others unhappy. Its basis of existence is to seek its own at all hazards. Its motto is, “It is more blessed to receive than to give.” This is the vital principle of the gospel of Satan.
In this last generation, and as an impressive sign of the approaching end of the great controversy between Christ and Satan, we may naturally expect to see worked out in human affairs such exhibitions of the satanic hideousness of selfishness as have never before been revealed. In this climax of the struggle there will be as nearly as possible the incarnation of selfishness, in the widest possible contrast with the incarnation of love. It is the world-wide repetition of the tragedy of Calvary, when Love was crucified between two thieves.
It has always been the desire of the few to compel the many to contribute to their own wealth and power, but there has been that restraint put upon this desire by apparently insurmountable difficulties—providential barriers—that in the world’s history Croesus has been the proverbial rich man. All this is now changed. The awakening of the human intellect which has come during the last century as a necessary experience in the preparation for the coming of the Lord, has resulted in those inventions which have solved old problems and created new possibilities. Self-interest has been quick to seize upon the advantages thus offered, in order to accomplish what has been the impossible in other times. As a consequence there are a few men to-day in this country who are taking toll from uncounted millions, and who are piling up such personal fortunes as almost stagger the mind to contemplate. The result has been stated in a recent magazine article in the following startling pronouncement: “It is only a matter of simple mathematics to ascertain the day, and that only a few years away, when ten men will be as absolutely and completely the legal owners of the United States and all there is of value in it, as John D.4Rockefeller is the absolute legal owner of the large section of it of which he is to-day possessed.”
As a striking illustration of the concrete working out of these principles, we quote the following paragraphs introductory to a series of articles in Everybody’s Magazine, dealing with “The Greatest Trust in the World.” They contain a sermon for the thoughtful mind:—
In the free republic of the United States of America is a power greater than the government, greater than the courts or judges, greater than legislatures, superior to and independent of all authority of State or nation.
It is a greater power than in the history of men has been exercised by king, emperor, or irresponsible oligarchy. In a democracy it has established a practical empire more important than Tamburlaine’s, and ruled with a sway as certain. In a country of law, it exists and proceeds in defiance of law. In a country historically proud of its institutions, it establishes, unchecked, a condition that refutes and nullifies the significance of those institutions. We have grown familiar in this country with many phases of the mania of money getting, and the evil it may work to mankind at large; we have seen none so strange and alarming as this of which I write. Names change, details change; but when the facts of these actual conditions are laid bare, it will puzzle a thoughtful man to say wherein the rule of the great power now to be described differs in any essential from the rule of a feudal tyrant in the darkness of the Middle Ages.
Three times a day this power comes to the table of every household in America, rich or poor, great or small, known or unknown; it comes there and extorts its tribute. It crosses the ocean, and makes its presence felt in multitudes of homes that would not know how to give it a name. It controls prices and regulates traffic in a thousand markets. It changes conditions and builds up and pulls down industries; it makes men poor or rich at will; it controls or establishes or obliterates vast enterprises across the civilized circuit. Its lightest word affects men on the plains of Argentina or the by-streets of London.
Of some of the most important industries of this country it has an absolute, iron-clad, infrangible monopoly; of others it has a control that for practical purposes of profit is not less complete. It fixes at its own will the price of every pound of fresh, salted, smoked, or preserved meat prepared and sold in the United States. It fixes the price of every ham, every pound of bacon, every pound of lard, every can of prepared soup. It has an absolute monopoly of our enormous meat exports, dressed and preserved. It has an absolute monopoly of the American trade in fertilizers, hides, bristles, horn and bone products. It owns or controls or dominates every slaughter-house, except a few that have inconsiderable local or special trades. It owns steam and electric railroads, it owns the entire trolley-car service in several cities, and is acquiring the like property elsewhere. It owns factories, shops, stock-yards, mills, land and land companies, plants, warehouses, politicians, legislators, and congressmen.
It defies Wall Street and all that therein is. It terrorizes great railroad corporations long used to terrorizing others. It takes toll from big and little, it gouges millions from railroad companies, and cent pieces from obscure shippers. To-day it is compelling a lordly railroad to dismiss its general manager, to-morrow it is black-listing and ruining some little commission merchant. It is remorseless, tireless, greedy, insatiable, and it plans achievements so much greater than any so far recorded in the history of commerce that the imagination flags in trying to follow its future possibilities.
It fixes, for its own profit, the prices the farmer of the West shall receive for his cattle and hogs, and the prices the butcher of the East shall charge for his meat.
It fixes the price that the grower of California shall receive for his fruit, and the price the laborer of New York shall pay for his breakfast.
It lays hands upon the melon grower of Colorado and the cotton grower of Georgia, and compels each to share with it the scanty proceeds of his toil.
It can affect the cost of living in Aberdeen and Geneva as easily as in Chicago and New York.
It has in the last three years increased, for its own benefit, the expenses of every household in America. It controls or influences the prices of one half the food consumed by the nation. It has its share in the proceeds of more commodities of daily consumption than all other trusts, combinations, and monopolies together, and the prices of these it seeks to augment for its own profit.
It can make, within certain limits, the price of wheat, of corn, of oats, what it pleases; it will shortly be able to control the price of every loaf of bread.
Its operations have impoverished or ruined farmers and stockmen, destroyed millions of investments, caused banks to break and men to commit suicide, precipitated strikes, and annihilated industries.
So great is the terror it inspires in some quarters that citizens under the constitutional guarantees of freedom do not dare, even in the privacy of their offices or homes, to speak a word that this power would not approve of, and multimillionaires, railroad magnates, and captains of industry quail before it.
At every step of its progress it has violated national or State law, or both, and with impunity. It has been declared by federal and State courts to be an outlaw, and to have no right to exist. It has gone steadily on strengthening its hold, extending its lines, and multiplying its victims.
We are accustomed to think that the Standard Oil Company is the ultimate of monopolistic achievement; here is something compared with which the Standard Oil Company is puerile; here is something that affects a thousand lives where the Standard Oil Company affects one; here is something that promises greater fortunes and greater power than ten Standard Oil Companies. Reaching out, absorbing industry after industry, augmenting and building, by great brute strength and by insidious, intricate, hardly discoverable windings and turnings, day and night this monstrous thing grows and strengthens until its grip is at the nation’s throat.
I am quite well aware that my words may seem extravagant to the generality of readers; to those who know the history and actual operations of the American Beef Trust they will appear an understatement of galling and humiliating truths.
If the writer of this article establishes by convincing proof the truthfulness of the many counts in this terrible indictment, he may, as the editor says, “astonish the American people,” but that does not remedy the evil. The rejection of the truth of the gospel has made such a situation possible, and the remedy—well, the only remedy for a thoroughly gangrened limb is to cut it off. Evidence is increasing that the crisis of the world is just upon us.
Recognizing Opportunities
THERE are times of opportunity both for individuals and for movements. God's providence opens the way, and brings together a combination of circumstances that make it possible to accomplish results at special times which are practically impossible at other times. Such opportunities often constitute turning-points in the history of an individual or of a great work. Under the counsel and guidance of God's Spirit, his workmen will recognize such significant opportunities, and will make the most of them by concentrating means and energies upon strategic places in order to win a sweeping victory for the Lord's truth. The rule of three can not always be followed in the distribution of our forces, and it sometimes happens that a victory in one particular place means a victorious advance throughout the whole field. The discernment which perceives such a situation as this is the necessary qualification for leadership in this time when so much is at stake, and we must expect that our Leader, who makes no mistakes, will have new plans and methods for us in this the climax of the conflict. Fellowship with God, harmony with his Spirit, and unity among the brethren will open the way for successful planning and victorious campaigning throughout the whole field today. Let us recognize and use our opportunities.
No Neutral Ground
By William A. Spicer
LUTHER was “the man for his time” because he feared only God, and would have no compromise with evil. Erasmus saw the evils in Rome. He attacked them even before Luther’s eyes were opened. He wanted reform, but he was no reformer. He was a compromiser.
The time for reformation had come, and God was to set his church free from bondage to the papal system. Luther and his associates laid the ax at the root of the tree. Something definite and decisive had to be done. Somebody had to take a stand and say things. Erasmus was distressed by the stir and agitation of genuine reform. He was no partizan. He was not on either side when it came to a conflict. He was for reform, but wanted no open break with the pope. From his neutral position he urged compromise upon both sides. In 1520 he said to Campeggio: “I told Luther that if he would moderate his language, he might be a bright and shining light, and that the pope, I did not doubt would be his friend.”
But Luther knew that the honor of God and his truth called for decided action and protest. “Erasmus wants to walk on eggs without breaking their shells,” he said. Luther knew the feat was impossible. So he marched straight on. It was not that he loved strife, and Erasmus loved peace. “I have nothing to contend for with the great men of this world,” he cried out in that prayer of surrender as he went before the council at Worms. He said that he, too, would fain have his life pass in easy quietness. “But the cause is Thine . . . forsake me not.”
Because it was God’s cause, and not his own, he could not selfishly and quietly leave the field to error. The time demanded a man of action, and all time5since has been blessed because a man acted.
Erasmus loved to study and teach reform principles in a class-room atmosphere. “I am firmly resolved,” he said, “to die studying the Scriptures.” But his study did not lead him to the doing of the things that needed to be done when the hour struck for decided action. His famous motto was, “Give light, and the darkness will disappear of itself.” But when the time came that men had to line up definitely for the light and meet the ranks of darkness, his irresolution and compromising timidity of soul kept him from the battle-field which all heaven was watching.
The Lord stood by the man who stood by his cause. On the other hand, Erasmus found it impossible to maintain a neutral position in such a crisis. Not coming out squarely for the right, he temporized and compromised until his influence as scholar and teacher bore against the reform movement.
There is a striking lesson in this history for these closing days of the Reformation. The whole world is to line up on one side or the other in the great controversy. There will be but two positions—for and against God and his message for this closing hour. “He that is not with me is against me.” In meeting the daily opportunities now for manifesting loyalty to truth without compromise, we are to learn the lesson that shall make us strong to maintain unswerving devotion to the cause of Christ when the final crisis comes. Through it all, the love of Jesus must be the strength for the uncompromising, flint-like integrity of Jesus. W. A. S.
French and Russian Revolutions
Under the heading “A Startling Parallel in the Two Revolutions” the Washington Times of January 24 prints the following article concerning the situation in Russia:—
Most remarkable is the parallel between the outbreak in Russia and the French Revolution, not only in the conditions of the uprisings, but also in the physical aspects and the progress of events.
Both movements, beginning merely as protests against conditions which imposed discomforts and hunger upon the working classes, soon burst all bounds, and became political revolts.
The march of the Russian mob on the Tsarskoe-Selo and the seizure of the royal family would almost make the parallel complete.
French Revolution
Louis XVI. Heir, 4 years Old
Causes: Poverty of the people, high taxes, no voice in the government, oppression by the nobility and the church.
Makeshift parliament known as the Third Estate, organized under royal edict, but its rights curtailed.
Necker, minister of finance, looked upon to regenerate France, dismissed by the king.
Louis XVI retires with royal family to Versailles, just outside Paris.
Masses call upon Louis XVI to save them from the rapacity of the nobility, promising him safety.
Bastile stormed by frenzied mob, and destroyed. Disturbances in all parts of the country. Barricades in the streets of Paris.
Mob goes to Versailles and compels king to return to Paris.
Reign of terror. King and Marie Antoinette beheaded.
Democratic government established.
Russian Revolution
Nicholas II. Heir, 5 Months Old
Causes: Poverty of the workmen, excessive taxation, no voice in the government, oppression by the grand dukes, bureaucracy, and holy synod.
Zemstvos, representing the peasants and workmen, demand more liberty, but powers are modified by the czar.
Prince Mirsky, minister of interior, who suggested many reforms, discredited by czar, and threatens resignation.
Nicholas II retires with royal family to Tsarskoe-Selo, a few miles outside St. Petersburg.
Strikers appeal to czar to right their wrongs, assuring him that he shall not be harmed.
Vast crowds of men and women march to the Winter Palace to demand redress; troops open fire, and thousands fall; streets barricaded and terror reigns.
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Rejoicing in India
By W. A. S.
LIKE a beleaguered garrison, holding out for relief, the little band of workers in India watched long for re-enforcements. At last the relief has reached them. Brother Shaw writes of the joy their arrival has brought. Notwithstanding the personal nature of his letter, we must share it with all:—
The new workers have all arrived from America. Their cheerful, hale, and happy faces have done us all a world of good. I can not tell you, dear brother, our feelings of gratitude to God for this strong and intelligent re-enforcement to the cause of truth in India. We have waited long for these dear friends, and more than once we have looked into their faces with tears in our eyes and thanksgiving in our hearts. Already our burdens seem lighter. The faithful efforts of the Board in seeking out these workers, and the unselfish spirit, especially of the Ohio Conference in sending five such workers [Brethren Miller and Votaw and their wives, and Miss Burroway], are deeply appreciated by the laborers in India. Brethren Votaw and Little, young and lately from school, will add strength to the native work, and I do believe if such brethren can lay hold of the different languages of India, that a great work will soon be under headway among the people of India.
It is a feast to look into Brother Miller’s face, so full of health and good cheer. If I could borrow a bit of his vitality, how gladly would I postpone my trip to America, and yoke up for service. I am still young, and a few months in the invigorating North should set me up and give me new courage for better service in India.
Dr. Ingersoll also writes:—
I know it is the duty of Brother Shaw to inform you of the arrival of these new workers, etc., but I really feel so happy myself at the fact that they have come that I want to drop you a line and tell you about it.
Elder Armstrong, who went up to Calcutta from Ceylon for the India general meeting, is constrained also to report the glad news.
India was, perhaps, hardest pressed, and, thank God, relief has reached them. Yet there is many another point where news of re-enforcements would be received with a joy that words could not express. Remember these pressing needs before God, brethren, day by day, for the pressure of the closing harvest hour is on in the fields abroad, as well as here at home, and the workers in some of the great fields are such a little band.
W. A. S.
“The Valley of Decision”
SPEAKING through the prophet Joel of a time when he would “bring back the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem,” the Lord says, “I will gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat; and I will execute judgment upon them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations.” Again he says: “Let the nations bestir themselves, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat; for there will I sit to judge all the nations round about.”
The word “Jehoshaphat” means “Jehovah’s judgment,” and the reference is “to that triumphant day when King Jehoshaphat, the greatest king the nation had seen since Solomon, and the greatest champion of Jehovah, led out his people to a valley in the wilderness of Tekoah, and was there blessed with such a victory over the hordes of his enemies as was without a parallel in the national records.” The story is given in the twentieth chapter of Second Chronicles.
Another picture of this gathering of the nations is given by John the revelator: “And I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits, as it were frogs: for they are spirits of demons, working signs; which go forth unto the kings of the whole world, to gather them together unto the war of the great day of God, the Almighty. . . . And they gathered them together into the place which is called in Hebrew Har-Magedon.”6
The word “Har-Magedon” means “the hill of Megiddo,” and “the locality implied in the Hebrew term here employed is the great battle-field of the Old Testament, where the chief conflicts took place between the Israelites and the enemies of God’s people.” It was “famous for two great victories, of Barak over the Canaanites (Judges 4, 5), and Gideon over the Midianites (Judges 7); and for two great disasters, the death of Saul, in the invasion of the Philistines (1 Sam. 31:8), and the death of Josiah in the invasion of the Egyptians. 2 Kings 23:29, 30; 2 Chron. 35:22. With the first and fourth of these events Megiddo is especially connected.”
Through the prophet Joel the call is again issued: “Let the nations bestir themselves, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat; for there will I sit to judge all the nations round about. Put ye in the sickle; for the harvest is ripe: come, tread ye; for the wine-press is full, the vats overflow; for their wickedness is great.” Then comes the statement, “Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! for the day of Jehovah is near in the valley of decision.”
From the nature of the events which occurred at the places mentioned in Joel and in the parallel passage in the book of Revelation, and from the connection of both the passages of Scripture, it is plain that a prophetic picture is given of the destruction of the nations at the harvest of the earth, and “the harvest is the end of the world.” The valley of Jehoshaphat, or “Jehovah’s judgment,” is the same as “the valley of decision,” and the valley of decision is the valley of cutting off, or the valley of destruction. As expressing this thought more clearly at least two translations substitute “the valley of excision” for “the valley of decision.” In the changes which have come in the meaning of some of the words in the English language since the King James translation was made, the word “decision” does not now mean “a cutting off,” as it formerly did.
The “multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision” are therefore not those who are considering the conflicting claims of duty and pleasure or inclination, hesitating which course to take, but are the multitudes of unrepentant sinners who are cut off in the great day of the Lord. It is undoubtedly true that all on the earth at the close of probation will hear the gospel message, and will be brought to a decision which will determine their eternal destiny, and the expression “multitudes in the valley of decision” may serve as a convenient phrase in which to express this general idea, but that is not the meaning as it stands in the text. We present these facts in the interest of a correct interpretation of the Scripture.
Church and State in the Philippines
By L. A. S.
The Northwestern Christian Advocate (Methodist) raises the query whether the separation of church and state in the United States is to be overthrown by the Philippine Commission—the governing body representing the authority of the United States in the islands. The mere possibility, not to say the probability, that so great a disaster at home as the overthrow of the American principle of the separation of church and state should follow from the venture of the United States into foreign waters ostensibly to confer benefits on some inferior races abroad, is a matter of serious concern to the people of this nation. This Methodist authority evidently believes that the possibility, if not the probability, exists.
The reason for entertaining this view is that the Commission, whose acts “are, in a sense, the acts of the United States government,” has shown a disposition to pursue a course which is, says the Advocate, “a clear violation of the tradition and laws of this nation.” The latest instance of this was the proclamation of a public holiday on a leading Catholic feast-day—the day celebrated in honor of “Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception.” “Such an action by the government in this country would be impossible,” observes the Advocate, “and those responsible for it in the Philippine Islands should be called immediately to account.” Such an act represents a union of the state—and that state standing for the United States—with the church, and that church the church of Rome.
Many plausible reasons were urged upon the Commission why such a holiday should be proclaimed. It was made to appear that the day was one almost universally observed by the people, and that public sentiment demanded such an action. “Our Lady” was “the titular patroness of the Philippine Islands.” There was “special occasion,” it was said, for granting such a holiday in Manila at this particular time, and it would be “in deference to the wishes of nearly all the leading business men of the city.” What could the Commission do, therefore, from the standpoint of good policy, but issue the proclamation? Such reasoning has a strangely familiar sound to people who have heard the arguments advanced for making Sunday a legal and compulsory day of rest in the United States.
The Advocate refers to “an article from the pen of William E. Curtis, defending the act of the Commission,” by arguments the serious defect in which was “in assuming that the government must either forbid the festival or authorize it as a legal holiday. He intimates,” says the Advocate, “that to forbid it would be an interference with the liberty of the people in the matter of worship, and would cause a revolution. [How similar to the arguments that not to make Sunday a compulsory rest day would be an interference with the religious liberty of Sunday observers.] But,” continues the Advocate, “nobody asks the government to forbid it. If the members of the Catholic Church want to celebrate the festival as an act of worship, let them do it. It is a church affair. That is different from making a legal holiday of it, and closing offices, banks, and all public business, thus making the festival a government affair.”
The whole history of this nation's endeavor to establish and maintain a colonial system of government—to govern another people without their consent—shows the government becoming entangled in the web of papal diplomacy; and the whole history of Sunday legislation in this country shows the same thing. Both are leading to the overthrow of the principle of separation of church and state, and to a union of the state with Rome.