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Review and Herald, Vol. 84, No. 48.

FOR ME AND THEE

Review and Herald

Nov 28, 1907

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 28, 1907

FOR ME AND THEE

By W. C. Martin

Upon a lonely hill I see One on the cruel tree, From hands and feet and wounded side There gently flows a living tide; His life is ebbing thus for thee— For me and thee.
Pressed rudely on His brow I see A crown of cruelty; Though I and thou have helped to place The piercing thorns upon His face, His prayer ascends from yonder tree For me and thee.
With bitter grief and shame I see That head bowed low for me; But also, in that saddened face, I see a sweet, forgiving grace, And deep compassion, friend, for thee— For me and thee.
O, He endured so much for thee— For me and thee, He suffered on the shameful tree; The Lord of glory died for thee— For me and thee.
—W. C. Martin.

Publisher's Page

By Editor

Conducted by the Department of Circulation of the Review and Herald Publishing Association

The December Number of Life and Health

The December number of Life and Health is doubtless the best and most practical number that has ever been issued. It is a special Tobacco number. It answers the questions, “Why has the tobacco habit become well-nigh universal?” and “Why is it that the habit which was once under the curse of kings and the ban of popes has become the solace of millions in all stations of life?” It discusses the tobacco habit in all its various phases in a rational, candid manner, and will doubtless prove to be a great blessing to the general public. Handled properly, it will be the best-selling number we have ever issued. Agents during the last month made their best records, many having averaged one hundred copies a day. The retail price of the journal is 10 cents a copy. In lots of 25 or more copies to one address, to agents, 4 cents a copy. Special rates given on orders for 500 and 1,000 copies.

Foreign Tracts

By Editor

BELOW we give a partial list of such tracts as have hitherto been unobtainable in this country, but which can now be secured of the New York Branch of the Review and Herald Office, 32 Union Square, East, New York City, N. Y.:—

Slavonian

New Testament Sabbath ..........$.02 Christ or the Roman Church ....... .01 Why not Found out Before? ........ .01

Bohemian

Bible Readings .................. .20 Scripture References ............. .04 Law and Gospel ................... .03 Full Faith ....................... .02 Blessed Hope ..................... .01 Children of Light ................ .01 Power of Forgiveness ............. .01

Portuguese

Bible,— Its Origin ............... .02 Jewish ........................... .01 Sinners’ Fate .................... .01 Which Day and Why? ............... .01 Power of Forgiveness ............. .01 Why not Found out Before? ........ .01

Bulgarian

Bible Readings ................... .15 Blessed Hope ..................... .01 End Near ......................... .01 Which Day and Why? ............... .01 Sabbath and Sunday ................ Seven Reasons .................... Prophetic Chart ..................
In addition to the preceding list, New York Branch of the Review and Herald can supply books and tracts in the German, Danish, Holland, Swedish, French, Spanish, Italian, Polish, and Servian languages.

Studies in Gospel History

THE book “Studies in Gospel History,” by Prof. M. E. Kern, was destroyed in the College View fire, but is being reprinted, and will be ready in a short time. Orders for this book may be sent now to any of the publishing houses or to State tract societies. Price, $1.

Colds: Their Cause, Prevention, and Cure

This is the time of year when this little book is especially needed. It prescribes for colds, telling what to do and what not to do to prevent a cold, and how to treat it after having been contracted. It also gives valuable instruction relative to the cause of colds, and prescribes accurately for their treatment. All are liable to need such a book during the winter months. It costs less than a doctor's visit, and will prove to be very effectual in the home.
White leatherette, neatly stamped; price, 25 cents.

The Great Second Advent Movement

By Editor

AMONG the books essential for all believers in our special message to study, is the book entitled “The Great Second Advent Movement,” which portrays the progress of the Seventh-day Adventist denomination from its beginning to the present time. This timely publication will strengthen faith and confidence in the great advent movement. Through it, all will acquire a more perfect knowledge of the dealings of God with his people and of the message they are giving, and will be better prepared to unite their efforts in advancing the message committed to this denomination. We, therefore, heartily commend the book to our REVIEW readers. Bound in plain cloth, 400 pages, $1.50.

The False Hope of a Second Probation

No. 48 of the Words of Truth Series is a tract written upon the subject of the Millennial Dawn. It clearly exposes many of the errors presented in the literature of the Millennial Dawn sect. The errors contained in this literature are set in convincing contrast to the teaching of the Bible, and the foundation doctrine of the Millennial Dawn people, a second probation during the millennial age, is shown to be unscriptural and merely a fable of the last days. Price, 2 cents a copy, post-paid.

The Reign of Righteousness

THE tract entitled “The Reign of Righteousness,” by Uriah Smith, is one of the best small publications issued. It takes up the prophecy of Isaiah, “Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness,” and gives Bible answers to the questions, “Who is this king that shall reign in righteousness?” “What will be the nature of his reign?” “When will it begin?” It also gives a full explanation of the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation, the sanctuary question, and the second coming of Christ. It is the one tract that combines the essential features of the complete message. It is an excellent publication to circulate, and will give the public a brief, yet comprehensive outline of the full message for this time. Price, 2 cents, post-paid.

Sunday Seventh-Day Examined

A PAMPHLET containing a complete refutation of the teaching of Mede, Jennings, Akers, and Fuller, who claim that Sunday is the true seventh day of the fourth commandment. The pamphlet contains 88 pages; price, 10 cents, post-paid.

German Bibles

Good German Bibles can be secured of the New York Branch of the Review and Herald Publishing Assn., 32 Union Square, East, New York City, N. Y. The prices of these Bibles range from 10 cents to $3.50. Write the Review and Herald for particulars.

Our Little Folks' Bible Nature

Revised Edition

A KINDERGARTEN book of simple graded lessons from Bible nature, beginning with the narration of the events of the week of creation and continuing these in the order given in the Scriptures in a series of graded lessons. It is a beginner's graded book on the sentence method order. Each subject is thoroughly illustrated with new drawings made especially for the book. It is also illustrated with fifteen beautiful color plates, and contains 160 pages, bound in board and cloth covers, with color designs. Besides being a book for general use in the home, it is especially adapted to church-school work. The price is 25 and 50 cents.

Kindergarten Supplies

THE Review and Herald Publishing Association is prepared to equip kindergarten class rooms with furniture and material with which to illustrate the lessons given in “Bible Object Lessons and Songs for Little Ones.” Small tables with substantial hard tops and folding legs, sufficiently large to seat eight children and a teacher, can be furnished for $3.75—freight or express extra. Little chairs for the children can also be supplied at 60 cents for the fourteen-inch, and 50 cents for the twelve-inch, with freight or express extra. Three boxes of kindergarten material can be supplied which makes teaching comparatively easy. Boxes 1 and 2 contain hard maple blocks cut into cubes, halves, quarter squares, and oblongs. Box 3 contains ten miniature sheep, 30 mounted sticks to represent men, green French tissue paper for representing water, cones, domes, and green splints for river outlines and tree building. The three boxes of material, postage or express paid, $1.75.

Where to Order Publications

Orders for any publication mentioned on this page may be sent to any conference tract society, or to Review and Herald Publishing Association, Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C.; Union Square, East, New York City; Battle Creek, Mich.
Also Pacific Press Publishing Company, Mountain View, Cal.; Portland, Ore.; Kansas City, Mo.; or Southern Publishing Association, Nashville, Tenn., and Fort Worth, Tex.

Editorial

By Editor

The great hope of the Christian is unlike any other. It has in it the germ of eternity. Worldly hopes turn earthward, and the whole earth is strewn with the crumbling fragments of human wishes realized and human glories attained. Time is the great leveler that spreads them all in the dust. But the hope of the Christian time can never efface or corrode. Human pride and human glories are like the grass that perishes; but that upon which God sets the seal of his righteousness can never pass away. The human thus stamped with the royal seal is more precious than the golden wedge of Ophir. Even gold is not imperishable; but by the divine alchemy of God's accomplished purpose the child of earth may be.

_Our Example in Choosing_

The Lord has taught us, not only in crumbling ruins of man's work, but also in his written Word, that it is only righteousness that endures. We have it in our own power to choose the enduring or the perishing. “I delight to do thy will,” was the key-note of our Saviour's triumph, and of his ability to make us triumphant as well. They who are to be his must also learn to delight in that in which he delighted. The law that found its response in his life must be written in our hearts; but that experience is possible only through the abiding presence and the continual help of him who loved us, and gave himself for us. “Without me ye can do nothing.” “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” The choice which he made we must make. “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” Then the glory and fame and riches which this earth has to offer will be nothing to us. Christ knew that any glory outside of God's purpose was a glory that could not endure, and he brushed aside the flattering temptations of Satan, the great champion of self-interests. Because of our Saviour's choice he receives again the glory which he had with the Father before the world was. It is for us to imitate his choice, that we may have that glory which brightens and widens and deepens while the ages roll on. Having made that choice, even though we should be laid away, we have the assurance that we shall be “raised in glory,” bearing “the image of the heavenly.” “The God of all grace, who called you unto his eternal glory in Christ, after that ye have suffered a little while, shall himself perfect, establish, strengthen you.” That is a glory worthy the most ardent seeking, a glory as enduring as eternity, a glory as free to the peasant as to the prince. God is holding that out to-day to his children. Let us accept it, and learn the joys of that better world.

Consecration and Prayer

By C. M. S.

He who is seeking to do the Master’s will, with a heart filled with his love, must ask himself at times the question, Is my work accomplishing anything for God? How often, at the close of some effort, it may be after some sermon, some special meeting, some attempt to give individual help, there comes a feeling of dissatisfaction with the character of the effort made. You feel that you have not properly set before your audience, your class, or some unconverted soul, Christ crucified and glorified; that you have not reached the heart; that your lips have been touched with a frosted steel instead of coals “from off the altar;” that your hearers have seen you rather than the likeness of Christ; that they have heard your words, and not the words of God; that hungry hearts have not been satisfied by what you have attempted to do.
There may be a multitude of reasons — there generally is one, a failure rightly to connect with the great Source of power. In that, of course, is involved the matter of continuous consecration. There the cause lies, though a thousand things may have brought it about. The two important things are the recognition of the lack and the finding of the remedy.
Christ bade his disciples to tarry at Jerusalem until they should be endued with power from on high. They tarried; but while they tarried, they were busy in prayer. There were others tarrying in Jerusalem, but the praying tarriers were alone endued with the power. They had consecrated themselves to his service already. So consecration and prayer made the combination which brought convicting and converting power from on high. That is the combination which will bring it now. But that consecration is a consecration that means service; and that prayer must come from the lips of those whose hearts are set on service — wherever the Master wills. That gave the power of Pentecost, and it will give power now.
If your work is fruitless and unsatisfactory, try this combination, consecration and prayer. That means the cutting loose from the attractions and ambitions of this world — not half-way, but wholly. It means the very life and all there is of one. The mind that is busy with worldly planning is not endued with the power of winning souls for Christ. The longer we continue in and of the world, the more tightly will the tendrils of our affections twine around the things of earth. We must cut loose, uproot, and reset.
That accomplished by God’s help, consecrate all unto him, and “watch unto prayer.” That will bring into the life that oneness of purpose which will enable one to say with Paul: “I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” That oneness of purpose made Paul a power in the world for God. It will do the same for every soul to-day that is willing to pay the price Paul paid — complete consecration, oneness of purpose. It is illustrated to-day in the success which men of the world make by throwing all the energies of their being into one thing. The success which they achieve, however, is only temporal, can not endure; whereas the success which comes to an individual through consecration and prayer, having in it the element of the divine, carries beyond death and the grave, and is perpetuated through eternity.
The Christian has one business set before him, the business of advancing God’s kingdom in the earth. Our talents are not too many or our lives too importantto give all into that business; and when that is done, God will crown that gift, that consecration, that concentration of purpose, with a power that will achieve mightily for him. “Forgetting those things which are behind [the things of this world], and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” There was no half-hearted service about that, and no half-hearted servant will ever accomplish the work which Paul did. The secret of the whole matter is consecration and prayer. That will make the Christian powerful for God, because only to such can God entrust his power. If we are to be forceful for God, we must consecrate our lives unreservedly to his service and be earnest and constant in prayer. C. M. S.

The Higher Critic and God's Word

By C. M. S.

WE see frequent evidence of the fact that the two chief aims of the Higher Criticism are to destroy faith in the Bible as the Word of God, and to destroy confidence in Jesus Christ as the Redeemer of mankind. Wherever public pronouncements are made by the advocates of this system of doubt, it is one or the other or both of these fundamental beliefs that are assailed.
At the twenty-fifth annual session of the Baptist Congress at Baltimore, Md., on November 12, one of the chief topics for discussion was the doctrine of the virgin birth of Jesus. From the press report we quote:—
The topic of the day—the “Virgin Birth”—was discussed under two heads: first, “What is the Basis?” and second, “Is It Essential to Christian Faith?” Rev. Dr. J. W. Phillips, of Binghamton, N. Y., strongly asserted that belief in the doctrine of the virgin birth was not essential in these times to a true Christian life, as Christ transcended his birth no matter in what manner he came into the world. Prof. John R. Slater, of Rochester, was warmly applauded when he declared that the doctrine of the virgin birth had nothing to do with the life of a Christian nor with his belief in Christ.
Other delegates spoke to the same effect. He who permits the Higher Criticism to destroy his faith in the Bible as the Word of God has no sure anchorage He has merely to set up his own judgment as to what is essential to a Christian life and discard everything else. The Higher Critic also declares that a belief in the miracles of the Bible is not essential, and he discards them. If there is anything plainly taught in the Bible, it is the virgin birth of Jesus. It is taught not only as a thing accomplished, but also as a thing to be accomplished; for we read in Isa. 7:14: “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” The Higher Critics, in order to discredit the virgin birth of Christ, must take the ground that this scripture is not the word of God, or else that Christ did not fulfil that prophecy, and it is still unfulfilled. If he takes the latter ground, he must hold that we have no Saviour yet; for he who was to be born of a virgin was to be Immanuel—God with us—and was to “save his people from their sins.” If we have just grounds for disbelieving the Biblical record concerning the birth of Christ, we have the same grounds for disbelieving that there ever was any Christ at all, or any creation at all, any fall of man or need of a Redeemer, any deliverance from Egypt with the miraculous crossing of the Red Sea and the Jordan River, any translation of Elijah, any such happening as Daniel’s deliverance from the den of lions or the three Hebrews’ deliverance from the fiery furnace, any death of Jesus on the cross or his resurrection from the tomb and ascension on high, any plan of salvation or any need of one, any revelation of God to man or any need of that—in short, nothing at all beyond the grave. And that is infidelity. Admit the premise of the Higher Critics concerning what constitutes the Word of God and concerning the birth of Jesus, and it logically follows that there is nothing but the black goal of the unbeliever at the end of the race. With “ministers of the gospel” applauding such theories in their conventions and expounding them from their pulpits, we have certainly reached the time to which our Saviour alluded when he asked, “When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” Infidelity has no need to conduct campaigns of “enlightenment” to-day. Its doctrines are being taught without expense to itself before audiences which its avowed exponents could not hope to address.
The result of this propaganda of doubt is sending men and women in three directions. Many are entering the fold of the Catholic Church; many are swelling the ranks of avowed infidelity; some few are finding their way into the truth of God for to-day. Knowing the tendency of modern teaching in this regard and the rapid increase of such teaching, it behooves those to whom God has committed his last message to be vigilant, valiant, and zealous in spreading it before the world, that those who believe God, whose hearts are loyal, may see and obey.C. M. S.

The Uplift of United Intercession

By William A. Spicer

An old chronicler tells us that when Columba’s associates were toiling at building the missionary training center at Iona, their burdens were lightened and they were strengthened at the steepest part of the pathway because there — at the hardest place — they were met by the secret prayers of the aged apostle of North Britain.
The tradition is a pretty parable of the power of earnest prayer to help bearers of burdens up the steep places. The assurance of Bible teaching that prayer does actually help forward the work of God and bring strength to fellow laborers, is a cheering one as we come to the week of prayer. United prayer may reach out and touch every department of the work, and every field, and bring courage and uplift to every bearer of burdens in the cause of God.
There are steep places in the work of laborers in the field, in the conduct of schools, publishing houses, sanitariums; let the prayers of all believers meet the toilers at the hard places. Loads will be lightened, barriers broken down, and the cause of the message will be set forward round the whole earth.
An aged apostle of the Lord Jesus, and soldier of the cross, wrote to the ancient church: “Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ’s sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me.” Rom. 15:30. And when actual and providential deliverance came to him, he recognized that the churches had been “helping together by prayer” for him.
Definitely, at this prayer season, plead for the unentered fields, and for those where but a few workers face vast areas and populations. God is hearing prayer and sending the truth before us into new lands.
Pray for laborers to go forth into highways and byways at home and abroad, and for large gifts to maintain the work that is literally breaking forth “on the right hand and on the left.”
Pray that the Spirit may turn the serious attention of the people to the tons of literature that canvassers and members have been scattering up and down the world. It is a wonderful work that is being done before our eyes. A million dollars’ worth of literature, sold in a single year, would represent a message going with a “loud cry,” if that were the only factor in the field. Now is the time for purchasers to take down these books and study them to find the light.
Even in heathen lands, such as Malaysia, China, India, it is now being demonstrated that our literature in the vernacular can be sold by native agents. This means a tremendous step forward in the evangelization of some of the greatest fields. Thousands of dollars are needed to put out the literature of the message in hundreds of these languages, in which the translated Bible is already speaking. Pray that these thousands may flow in. The time has come for it, and we may pray with all assurance that we are asking according to the will of God.
More languages and tongues than ever before among us will join in this week-of-prayer season. W. A. S.

The New Salvation

By C. M. S.

It is more than a coincidence that with the marvelous increase in the acceptance and promulgation of the “Higher Criticism” we see a wonderful increase in the spread of the doctrine of man's power to save himself. These two facts are not only in harmony with each other—they are interdependent. The latter has grown out of the former as naturally as a shoot grows out of a parent stock. The destruction of faith in the teachings of God's Word, the destruction of faith in the plan of salvation which God instituted, was bound to result in a man-made salvation. And it has come.
Schools for the propagation of this faith-destroying and soul-wrecking doctrine, or philosophy, are starting up in many places in this and other countries, the tenor of whose teaching is the sufficiency of man for the salvation of man. With the destruction of faith in God's Word, God's plan, and consequently in God himself, man has begun to look to himself, to exalt himself, to make a savior of himself, while treating as a myth or a fable the Saviour who only can save any one in the world or out of it.
That theory, or philosophy, works the work of the “man of sin” as truly as the papacy has ever done it; for it puts man in the place of God as savior, abolishes a mediator, dethrones the everlasting King, and puts the creature in the place of the Creator, by making the creature the chief being in the universe. All that is what Satan tried to do in heaven, and he is seeking now to accomplish it in the minds of men; and men and women are allowing themselves to be deceived into taking just such a disastrous position.
This “new thought,” which is as old as the rebellion in heaven, is expressed in various forms; but a prominent exponent of the idea has clothed it in such language as this:—
Man is his own savior by virtue of the divine immanence within. It is an eternal decree of life that man must evolve and work out his own destiny throughout the earth and the more interior spiritual spheres of his existence. The Christ must be generated from within in every individual soul. . . . Every living soul must be its own saving power. There will not be a single human soul saved by any power external to itself.
What that kind of salvation means it is difficult to imagine. What that kind of savior is able to do for one they do not tell us. But every one who has measured his own life by the true Pattern and realized how far short he has come of it, can determine that for himself.
It is certain that the salvation of which they speak is not the salvation which the blessed Bible brings to view.
The savior of whom they teach is not the Saviour by whose life and sacrifice man and the earth on which man walks are to be redeemed from the curse of sin. They are different entirely; and not only different, but diametrically opposed the one to the other. The inspired Word declares, “Neither is there salvation in any other.” This philosophy makes every man his own savior; and not only that, but it goes so far as to declare that there is no salvation outside of man,—no one but man who can save man,—thereby taking direct issue with God, contradicting God's pronouncement word for word.
Christ declares, “Without me ye can do nothing.” This philosophy declares that Christ can do nothing for us. These are its words: “There can not be a single human soul saved by any means external to itself.”
God's Word teaches that in him is the treasure-house of wisdom and knowledge; that in him is the fountain of life. The “New Thought” receives “the fundamental truths of life direct from the interior realms of being,” which they hold to be the “central home of all truth.” Its reception by the individual “will make him free in thought and action, and enable him to become independent of all external methods of salvation.” Certain it is that such a belief on the part of any human being will put him beyond the reach of all salvation; and that is the purpose of the arch-deceiver, who instituted it. While promising him a savior and a salvation, that philosophy robs him of both, and unfits him for the salvation which God has prepared.
These two things—the contradiction of God's Word and the building of this intellectual tower of Babel—are working in perfect accord, under the direction of one mind, for the accomplishment of one purpose. That purpose is the ruin of souls, and the directing power is the same that contradicted God's word in Eden, and inspired wicked men to build a tower of self-salvation on the plains of Shinar.
There is only one power that can save souls, and that is the power of God; only one Saviour, the One who paid the penalty of sin for the race on Calvary's cross. Any agent who comes to us with any other plan or any other savior is the agent of God's age-long enemy, who is bent upon our ruin. It will come to us in ingenious phrases, folding and infolding into each other, interweaving and intertwining, until the mind is lost in its mysterious mazes, confused and unsettled. We have no need, no business, to dally with this tempter. There is One whom we know to be truth. Cling to him. There is one sure way, straight and narrow: take that; the straight line is the shortest line, and the narrow way is the safest way. There is a vast difference between desiring to be like Christ in purity, truth, and love, and that assertion that we are Christ—Deity incarnate in our flesh. The first is the legitimate outgrowth of yielding to God, while the second is the fruit of selfishness and disobedience.
C. M. S.

Receiving Versus Giving

By I. H. Evans

SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISTS are a temperance people. They stand for temperance in its highest form. They do not simply decry the sale of liquor one day in seven and call that temperance, but they both preach and practise total abstinence from all intoxicating beverages all the time.
No temperance society ever held aloft a temperance banner of such high principles as do Seventh-day Adventists. No church organization ever required of its members such strict conformity to total abstinence as do this people.
Not only do our people abstain from all intoxicating drinks, of every nature whatsoever, but we also discard the use of tobacco in every form. Our people also discard the use of patent medicines and drugs. The world to-day is spending millions of dollars for patent medicines, in one form or another, most of which contain a large per cent of alcohol.
Seventh-day Adventists do not use tea or coffee. While the use of these articles has not been made a test of fellowship, yet it is probable that one can hardly find a Seventh-day Adventist who uses tea or coffee as a beverage.
The discarding of these harmful articles above mentioned, places Seventh-day Adventists in the front rank of those who believe and practise real temperance.
Let us consider for a moment the tremendous financial saving these temperance principles bring to our denomination. Suppose every Seventh-day Adventist in the United States averaged spending as much money annually on these harmful beverages and narcotics as the average citizen of the United States is spending, can we conceive of the enormous item of expense that would be entailed upon us as a people?
Statistical reports show that the people of the United States are annually spending for intoxicating drinks, $1,744,447,672; for tobacco, $949,500,000; confectionery, $178,000,000; soft drinks, $107,536,000; tea and coffee, $98,229,310; patent medicines, $75,476,032; ornamental jewelry, $60,500,000; drugs, $27,500,000or a total of $3,241,189,014, making an average per capita for the inhabitants of the United States, at an estimate of 85,000,000, of $38.14. That is, an average of $38.14 for every man, woman, and child living within the United States is spent annually for intoxicating drinks, tobacco, confectionery, soft drinks, tea and coffee, patent medicines, ornamental jewelry, and drugs.
All these items are discarded by Seventh-day Adventists. Were we not Seventh-day Adventists, we doubtless would spend as much as our fellow beings average in these various ways. Besides the direct expenditure for these harmful things, there is a great loss of time, and a great expense on the part of the average citizen in the matter of attending shows, horse-races, fairs, and other places of amusement and pleasure, making his annual item of expense run to considerably more than $40 per capita.
Let us say that every Seventh-day Adventist man, woman, and child saves, by belonging to this people, on the average, $40 a year. Now with a church-membership in the United States of 65,000, reckoning at the rate of $40 per capita, there would be saved annually to our people in the United States, the large sum of $2,600,000.
What proportion of this large sum is being directed to the cause of God? It certainly far surpasses the tithes of the denomination in all the world. Add to the tithe, the contributions from all the world to foreign missions, and you have a sum in tithes and offerings of about $1,300,000. This is but half the amount that annually is saved to the people professing the third angel's message, who live in the United States alone. If we should reckon that the same amount of money is raised by our people in all the world, and estimate our membership to be 100,000, we would have about $4,000,000 saved annually to this people because of the principles this message teaches the people in the lines of temperance and proper dress.
But our people in all the world are giving only about $1,300,000 for the work of the gospel in every part of the world. Thus we are saving, by the truth which comes to us, above that which our fellows save annually, about $2,700,000, after paying our tithes and making all the offerings that the people make in behalf of foreign missions and church work.
With this tremendous saving in favor of those who profess this truth, is it any wonder that even those who are not friendly to the principles which we believe and advocate, charge us with being a thrifty, economical, and prosperous people?
Are we giving as much to the gospel work from the savings which come to us through the principles taught us through the third angel's message, as we ought? The United States citizens spend an average of forty dollars per capita a year for the things mentioned above. Seventh-day Adventists in the United States average giving to the cause of God in tithes and offerings about three eighths of the means which the third angel's message has taught them to save. This certainly is not a gospel which makes the people poor. It is not a gospel which lays a tax upon those who profess its principles. It comes to us with great fundamental character-building principles, and requires of us strict adherence to right principles, to total abstinence from the use of all intoxicating liquors, narcotics, and harmful drugs and beverages of every nature whatsoever; it teaches us from the Bible, plainness in dress, and simplicity in the food we eat. Thus it brings to us great physical blessings, which our fellows are losing daily, while at the same time it multiplies unto us financial prosperity. It teaches us the economical use of our means; it gives us knowledge to choose wisely the best things for our table and wearing apparel; it educates our tastes so that we do not even desire the extravagant decoration in jewelry and outward adornment that the world strives for. Herein is also a great saving to most of those who believe this message.
Would it be a possibility for us as a people to make our tithes and gifts which we put into the cause of God equal the amount of money which we save through the influence and teachings of the third angel's message? This would nearly triple the amount we are now giving the cause of God. If it were possible for us to rise to this great privilege, what a tremendous impetus it would give to the third angel's message in all parts of the world? It would mean $4,000,000 a year for the cause of God, nearly three times as large a sum as we now give, and all of it, money saved through the blessings which this message brings to us.
I. H. EVANS.

Note and Comment

A Protest from Porto Rico

TULIO LARRINAGA, Porto Rico’s resident commissioner at Washington, expresses himself as follows concerning this government’s attitude toward that island:—
Why can not the American Congress deal with us as Spain did—give us a little measure of self-government, and increase it year by year? That would be the fair thing to do. We are almost in despair about our ever getting anything from Congress. It is eight years since the Americans took possession of our affairs, and to-day we have not as much home rule as we had under Spain.
It sounds peculiar, this plea of a Porto Rican for the liberties he enjoyed under the Spanish régime from which he was liberated by a republic. The republic is providing for the Porto Ricans a system of education far more comprehensive than Spain ever furnished, and illiteracy in Porto Rico, among the younger generation at least, will soon be the exception rather than the rule. But a republic ruling a subject people is one of the most striking paradoxes of the world, and breeds dissatisfaction in the breasts of the people so ruled, be the rule never so good.

A Bishop's Indictment

IN an article by the president of the United Society of Christian Endeavor, entitled “South America as a Mission Field,” which appeared in the November number of the Missionary Review of the World, the author quotes a letter written by the Catholic bishop of Cochabamba, Bolivia, describing conditions in his diocese. We quote the letter in order that those who are apologizing for Rome may see what a Roman bishop has found, and how it impresses him, in a country where Rome has been unhindered, for these many years. A priest had committed a serious misdemeanor and had been unfrocked. A distinguished man had interceded with the bishop to induce him to permit the priest to continue in his office. The bishop acceded to the request, but expressed his mind in the following letter concerning the priests under his charge:—
I have done all in my power to pull them out of the cesspool of ignorance and vice. . . . They are always the same—brutal, drunken, seducers of innocence, without religion and without conscience. Better would be the people without them. . . . The priests of these villages have no idea of God, nor of the religion of which they are the professed ministers. They never study. Their daily round of life is first to fill their stomachs, then the disorders of the bed, from these to the temple looking for more prey for their horrible sacrilege, then back to laziness, drunkenness, and the awful disorders of the bed again. You can not imagine the pain these things give me. I am sick and tired of it. There are exceptions, but so very few that they are not enough to mitigate the pain.
[Signed] ALFONSO, Bishop.
Concerning these conditions, President Clark says:—
It is admitted even by intelligent Catholics, that in South America the church is decadent and corrupt. The immorality of the priests is taken for granted. Priests’ sons and daughters (of course born out of wedlock) abound everywhere, and no stigma attaches to them or to their fathers and mothers. A number of South American prelates petitioned Pope Leo XIII a few years ago, on account of frequent scandals, to allow South American priests to marry, but the pope would not hear to it, and the old scandals go on and increase.
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