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Review and Herald, Vol. 80, No. 31.

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Review and Herald

Aug 4, 1903

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 4, 1903

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Fighting Against God

It seems almost incredible that puny, mortal men should ever attempt to carry on a warfare against the God of heaven. But such is the deceitfulness of sin. It seems the more incredible that those who profess to be the servants of God should be found fighting against him. But such is the deceitfulness of sin. When godliness has become a mere form, and the personal union with God has been lost, then there is no barrier against sin, and no protection against the deceptions of Satan. Then the enemy covers his plans with the form of godliness, and thus substitutes his way for the way of the Lord. Thus men become the most effective agents of Satan to work against the purposes of God, although they profess to be the soldiers of the cross. They change leaders without changing their uniform, and are thus able to confuse and to mislead those who would be on their guard against the open enemies of the truth. But the time is at hand when all this sort of work will be made manifest, and the true character of every man will be evident to all. Our only safety in this evil time is in submitting ourselves fully unto the will and purpose of God, and in walking in the light which comes to us. “The meek will he teach his way.”

The Impending Crisis

The student of the prophecies which have been fulfilled, and which are being fulfilled, can not fail to be impressed with the conviction that the crisis of the ages is just upon us. In following down the path of human history we find that all the kingdoms mentioned in the various prophecies have had their places just according to the Word, and that no more world-empires are demanded to meet the specifications of the prophecies. We find also that the annals of these kingdoms, as written by the historians, answer in every detail to the views given beforehand to the prophets. But this outline of history was not given through the prophets merely in order to give the history of the world in advance, but to make clear to God's servants when the time comes for the final overthrow of all earthly kingdoms and the setting up of the everlasting kingdom of our God. And so the interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar's dream, as given by the prophet Daniel, was not designed to reveal earthly history for its own sake, but to mark the time when all earthly history would close, and a new order of things would be ushered in. The rise and fall of earthly kingdoms are simply so many steps in the march of events until he comes whose right it is to reign, and the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. A candid study of the prophetic word and its fulfillment brings us to the solemn but certain conclusion that in this generation “shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, nor shall the sovereignty thereof be left to another people; but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.” What a thrilling assurance is this! How glorious is the prospect! But this conclusion is also fraught with considerations of the gravest character. It means that probation will soon close. It means that the eternal destiny of all will soon be decided. It means irretrievable ruin to those who reject the closing message of mercy, and who do not recognize the day of their visitation. Those who know this message should now be terribly in earnest. “Cry aloud, spare not,” is the motto for to-day. The day of wrath is just upon us, and souls are to be saved from eternal death. Be faithful.

Ancient and Modern History

WHEN the prophet Jeremiah rebuked the inhabitants of Jerusalem for their wicked ways and their persistent departure from following the counsel of the Lord concerning them, and when he brought to them the Lord's message, “I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will show them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity,” the people said, “Come, and let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.” Then came the further warning, “Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I will bring upon this city and upon all its towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it; because they have made their neck stiff, that they may not hear my words.” In due time the word of the Lord through his prophet was fulfilled to the letter. After his people had rejected his counsel until there was no remedy, then he left them to reap the fruit of their own doings. Terrible was the downfall of Jerusalem. The armies of the enemy prevailed against her walls, and her inhabitants perished miserably in the very shadow of the temple. The same prophet Jeremiah, in his Lamentations, afterward said: “Certainly this is the day that we looked for; we have found, we have seen it. Jehovah hath done that which he purposed; he hath fulfilled his word that he commanded in the days of old; he hath thrown down, and hath not pitied: and he hath caused the enemy to rejoice over thee; he hath exalted the horn of thine adversaries.” That generation perished in the Babylonish captivity because of their disregard of the warnings of the Lord through his prophet. We do not need to look very far afield to see that some of these things are being repeated in our time. Thispeople have been urged not to colonize, and not to center their interests and efforts too much in one place, and thus form a modern Jerusalem. They have been warned of the consequences of so doing. And now the threatened overturning has come, and God is speaking in judgments. Will those to whom he is thus speaking reject these terrible warnings? And shall the counsel of the Lord through the spirit of prophecy be still further despised? Shall we say of the Lord's plans that they are “suicidal”? Shall we decline to follow the Lord's counsel concerning his work in the earth on the ground that it is not in harmony with good judgment, and contrary to the views of the best business men of the world?—Nay, rather let us learn the lesson that the Lord knows better than the wisest men how to conduct his own work. Instead of smiting the prophet and refusing the words of instruction, let us repent of past neglect of the light given, and let us walk in the way of the Lord. Thus will the Lord be gracious again to his people, and prosperity will again attend the work of the message.

Editorial

By Editor

Tell It Out

THE time of the promise is drawing near. Tell it out. This generation will witness the consummation of God’s purpose for his people. Tell it out. We can now lift up our heads and rejoice, for our redemption draweth nigh. Tell it out. Soon “shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven.” Tell it out. Soon we “shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.” Tell it out. It only remains for this closing message to be given “unto every nation and tribe and tongue and people.” Tell it out.

A Surprising Announcement Concerning Battle Creek College

By Editor

We are in receipt of the “twenty-sixth annual calendar of Battle Creek College,” from which we learn that “the Board of Trustees have decided to re-open the College for regular sessions, Sept. 23, 1903.” In view of this announcement it may be proper to call attention to some facts pertaining to the recent history of this institution. This can perhaps best be done by quoting from an extended statement relating to the transfer of the property of Battle Creek College, which appeared in the REVIEW of May 26, 1903. Inasmuch as this statement was signed by three members of the Board of Trustees, A. T. Jones, J. H. Kellogg, and P. T. Magan, the same Board which now announces the re-opening of the College, it may certainly be regarded as setting forth an impartial view of the matter in question. It surely makes it clear that it was the distinct understanding on the part of the Board of Trustees, the General Conference delegation, and the people assembled that Battle Creek College was to be closed, the property sold for other purposes, and the institution was to be moved to a place more suitable for the conduct of educational work in harmony with the instruction given in the Testimonies. The statement contains the following paragraphs:—
For some time previously to the General Conference of 1901, the Testimonies had directed that the Battle Creek College should be removed from the city to a country place, and the College Board had been planning for such a change [Italics ours], and for the sale of the Battle Creek College property. After much counseling together it was agreed that the property should be bought by the International Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association for the use of the American Medical Missionary College. . . . Negotiations had proceeded thus far when the General Conference met in Battle Creek in 1901. In that General Conference the question was brought up and considered in open session before the crowded assembly in the Tabernacle. At that time—April 12—among other things on this subject Sister White said:—
“The light that has been given me is that Battle Creek has not the best influence over the students in our school. There is altogether too congested a state of things. The school, although it will mean a fewer number of students, ought to be moved out of Battle Creek. Get an extensive tract of land, and there begin the work which I entreated should be commenced before our school was established here,—to get out of the city to the place where the students would not see things to remark upon and criticize; where they would not see the wayward course of this one and that one, but would settle down to diligent study. . . . God wants the school to be taken out of Battle Creek. . . . [Italics ours.]”
“Some may be stirred about the transfer of the school from Battle Creek, but they need not be. This move is in accord with God’s design for the school before the institution was established; but man could not see how this could be done. There were many who said that the school must be in Battle Creek. Now we say that it must be somewhere else. The best thing that can be done is to dispose of the school buildings here as soon as possible. Begin at once to look for a place where the school can be conducted on right lines.”
After a brief report of the discussion in the conference concerning the sale of “Christ’s Object Lessons” for the benefit of the schools, the statement proceeds:—
At this point A. T. Jones spoke as president of the Seventh-day Adventist Educational Society, as follows:—
“You heard the word directly—and it needs no explanation and no sanction—that we should get the College out of Battle Creek, and that we should sell the buildings and grounds in Battle Creek just as soon as possible.”
He further said: “This is enough. Why should we hesitate or delay any longer? The International Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association is ready to enter into arrangements to take the property at one hundred and six thousand dollars. This will pay all the debts, and leave the College with about twenty-six thousand dollars with which to plant itself in another place. [Italics ours.] Now I ask, first, all you who are members of the Board of Trustees of the Battle Creek College who are present and are in favor of taking advantage of this arrangement, and accepting this offer, and thus moving Battle Creek College out of this city according to the instruction given [Italics ours], to please rise to your feet.” The vote was unanimous.
Then Elder Jones said to the stockholders: “Will all you who are stockholders of Battle Creek College, who are present, who are in favor of this movement, and who indorse this action of the Board, which has already been taken, please rise to your feet?” This vote was also unanimous. Then as the whole General Conference delegation was present, Elder Jones said to them: “All the General Conference delegation who approve of this transaction will please rise to their feet.” And “the vote to carry out the instruction was unanimous.”
Then in addition to all this, since there were present a large number of people of the denomination from almost all sections of the country, the question was extended to all these, so that the voice of the whole denomination, as nearly as it could ever be possible to obtain it, could be had upon the question. Elder Jones, therefore, addressed the whole assembly, and asked all those who agreed to the arrangements in view, and who indorsed the movement, also to rise to their feet. This was also unanimous: so that neither by the Board, nor by the stockholders, nor by the General Conference delegation, nor by the whole congregation, which was largely representative of the whole denomination, was there a single opposing vote, nor dissenting voice. See General Conference Bulletin, 1901, pages 213-219.
In the summer of 1901 the personal property of Battle Creek College was removed to Berrien Springs, Mich., where land had been purchased for educational purposes, and an institution was opened which was advertised as “Emmanuel Missionary College, Successor to Battle Creek College.” A legal corporation had been formed with a Board of Trustees, of which A. T. Jones was president and P. T. Magan, secretary. In the first annual calendar issued by this Board of Trustees we find the following statements in explanation of the opening of the institution:—
In 1874 Battle Creek College, the oldest educational institution under the supervision of the Seventh-day Adventist denomination, was opened at Battle Creek, Mich. . . . After a useful life of twenty-seven years, the plant, consisting of the College building and two dormitories, was sold, and is to be used by the American Medical Missionary College. . . . Realizing that the change is not a sign of death, but of life, those who have regarded Battle Creek College as their alma mater will find their interest extended to the newborn institution, and it, with its new surroundings, must lean heavily for support upon those who in times past have shown their loyalty to the cause of education.
Under the heading, “Result of Change,” the following statement is made in regard to the removal of the institution from Battle Creek:—
The fact that this training-school has left the city, that it has recognized agricultural pursuits as the foremost of all industries, and that all the teachers in Emmanuel Missionary College take an active part in the manual training, willexert a strong influence over other educational institutions, and will do much toward shaping their policy.
In the face of what was done by the Trustees of Battle Creek College in closing the work of the institution in Battle Creek, and re-establishing its work in another place in order that the principles of Christian education might have the opportunity for application, we are astonished to read in the new calendar the statement by the same Trustees that “at this time [1901] the organization of the Emmanuel Missionary College at Berrien Springs, Mich., transferred a large part of the teaching force of the school and most of the students to that new educational center.” The natural inference from this statement would be that the Trustees did not regard the change in 1901 as the closing of the College, but that simply a slight interruption in its regular work.
Furthermore, an appeal has been made to our people to donate of their means in order to pay the debt upon the Battle Creek College property so that it might be turned over for the use of the American Medical Missionary College. It has never been hinted that the Trustees of Battle Creek College proposed to re-open that institution in these same buildings under the authority of the same charter and under the direction of the same Board of Trustees, who are still in the eyes of the law the Trustees of the Seventh-day Adventist Educational Society, although the property has been sold to another corporation by action of the court, and there are no longer any shareholders who can have any voice in the conduct of the institution.
Under all these circumstances we can but regard the re-opening of Battle Creek College as an ill-advised move which will tend to confuse the minds of this people concerning the steps which have been taken under the counsel of the spirit of prophecy, and which will be likely to lead to many misunderstandings in the future.

Steering by the Landmarks

By W. A. S.

WHOSE heart was not quickened by the words in a recent REVIEW from a familiar pen, “I feel as if I must cry that aloud, ‘Homeward bound!’” The cry thrills round the world, and is echoed from every mission station. The good ship is making the port at last.
Across the wide seas the sailor steers by chart and compass. His daily reckoning shows the progress of the voyage. But when the misty headlands come in sight, and the signal beacons appear, he steers by the landmarks into the harbor, and the voyage is done. Now the signs that we are getting into the long-desired haven are multiplying all about us. We can, as it were, steer by the heavenly landmarks. There are rocks and shoals, but the Pilot is at the helm, and the beacon lights of heaven shine across the narrow way. In the words of Watts’s good old hymn, we may sing,—
“Thy winged troops, O God of hosts, Wait on thy wandering church below; Here we are sailing to thy coasts, Let angels be our convoy too.”
Convoyed by the angels, the ship will make the harbor in this our day. Let every soul abide in the ship, and take up the glad cry, “Homeward bound!” “land ahead!” W. A. S.

The Sabbath and Israel

By L. A. S.

A RECENT editorial in Our Hope, a religious weekly published at Mendota, Ill., undertakes to refute the doctrine that the Christian Sabbath is the seventh day of the week. The article is written in reply to a statement of the belief of Seventh-day Adventists, and is based largely upon the idea that the seventh-day Sabbath was not given to be observed by the Gentiles, since the Bible states that it was given to be a sign between God and the children of Israel. The editor says:—
The claim that the seventh-day Sabbath was given to man at creation, though assumed, is a mistake. It has never been proved, from Scripture, can not be proved from Scripture, and the Scriptures clearly show its mistaken character.
“And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you. Ye shall keep the Sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you; every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death. . . . Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for-ever.” Ex. 31: 12-17.
This statement is from God, and is authoritative. All other Scripture statements will harmonize with it if properly understood. There can be no mistake as to its meaning. God states that he gave the seventh-day Sabbath as a sign between himself and the children of Israel, forever. It is clearly impossible that it could be a sign between God and the Israelites if also given to all mankind. Therefore it was not given to all mankind, but to the children of Israel. This statement of Moses is confirmed by the prophet Ezekiel.
“I gave them [Israelites] my Sabbath, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them. . . . Hallow my Sabbaths: and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God.” Eze. 20: 12, 20.
Nothing can be plainer than these plain statements of the Holy Spirit that the seventh day as a sacred and holy day was peculiar to the Israelites, restricted to them, and not given to any other people. No statement of the Scriptures, elsewhere, contradicts this.
We admit that the editor of Our Hope is right in claiming that the seventh-day Sabbath was and is “peculiar to the Israelites,” and that its observance was “restricted to them.” But this fact does not in the least affect the claim that the seventh-day Sabbath is the Christian Sabbath, and binding upon all mankind to-day. Hence all the proof cited by the editor of Our Hope counts for nothing against the seventh-day Sabbath. He simply proves a point that we admit, and which is in perfect harmony with the doctrine he is seeking to disprove.
When the Jews, standing around the cross of the crucified Christ, said, “He saved others; himself he can not save,” they stated the truth, which they thought entirely disproved the claim of Christ to be the Messiah. But in reality, seen from the right point of view, the truth stated by them was a demonstration that he was indeed the Messiah. So also does the fact that the seventh-day Sabbath was peculiar to the Israelites, and designed to be so, prove that it is the Christian Sabbath.
Who are Israelites? Consider the origin of the word “Israel:” “Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.” So said the angel to Jacob after the night of wrestling. Jacob had wrestled with God, and he obtained the victory, not by his own power, but by faith. Has such an experience nothing to do with Christianity?
“To Abraham and his seed were the promises made.” “And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Gal. 3: 16, 29. “Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.” Verse 7. “For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; . . . but he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.” Rom. 2: 28, 29.
To the Gentile Christians at Rome Paul wrote: “What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for: but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded.” “And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, . . . boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee.” Rom. 11: 7, 17, 18. The whole of this chapter sets forth the fact that the unbelieving Jews were cut off from the olive tree, the true Israel, because of their unbelief; that the Gentile Christians stood not by themselves, butwere grafted on to the olive tree through faith; and that the Jews might be received back if they would turn from their unbelief. The truth is made perfectly plain that a true Israelite is a Christian, and that there is no salvation outside of the true Israel, Abraham’s seed, the children of faith.
To prove, therefore, that the seventh-day Sabbath is an institution peculiar to the Israelites proves nothing against it from a Christian standpoint. The Israelites were separated from the nations to be God’s peculiar people. God’s people in the world have always been a peculiar people, and the case is not different to-day. 1 Peter 2: 9. The Sabbath was given to be a sign between God and his peculiar people. To say that the Sabbath was not intended for mankind because it was peculiar to the Israelites is like saying that faith is not intended for mankind in general because it is peculiar to the people of God. Faith separates God’s people from the world, and Sabbath keeping is the outward sign by which a people declare that their God is the true God, the creator; but Sabbath keeping, no less than faith, is for all people who will be saved. It is an expression of faith. That God did not give the Sabbath to another nation than the Israelites, when the Israelites alone believed in him, is not strange. It would have been strange indeed if he had commanded any people to keep the Sabbath without faith. “Without faith it is impossible to please him.” Without faith, all the commands God might have given would have been of no use whatever.
The fact, then, that the seventh-day Sabbath is an institution for Israel alone does not at all prove that all mankind ought not to keep the Sabbath. All men ought to become identified with Israel, and must be so identified if they are to be saved. Heaven is a place intended only for Israel; yet it is no less true that God would have all men to be saved. No one will obtain it, however, except through faith.
Another point which the editor of Our Hope attempts to make is thus stated:—
It is true that Moses states in Gen. 2: 3 that “God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it,” or set it apart for a holy use. But this does not tell us when God did this. There is not a hint in sacred narrative of any one keeping the seventh day, of all the ancient holy patriarchs before the flood or after it, until after the exodus of Israel from Egypt and shortly before the giving of the law from Sinai. We are therefore compelled to conclude that Gen. 2: 3 is an explanatory statement of Moses, alluding to the sanctifying of the seventh day to the Israelites, especially as it is entirely probable that Moses wrote the book of Genesis after the giving of the law from Sinai, and had in mind, when writing it, the fourth commandment, in which God himself says: “In six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.”
The reason of the sanctification of the seventh day, as here stated, is that “in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is.” Yet the editor of Our Hope would have us believe that the Sabbath was not sanctified until after the Israelites left Egypt. This is equivalent to saying that God sanctified the Sabbath because he led Israel out of Egypt; but God himself says he sanctified it because he rested upon and blessed the day. God sanctified the Sabbath day as soon as the reason for sanctifying it came into existence, which was when he had rested on the seventh day and blessed it. “The Sabbath was made for man.” It was good for those to whom it was given, and would have been equally good for all men, but only those who had faith in God could keep his commandments.
In conclusion, the editor of Our Hope says that while the heathen of this day “have intuitive knowledge of right and wrong, leading them to condemn murder, theft, adultery, and other sins condemned by the decalogue,” they have no intuitive knowledge of the sanctity of the seventh day.” It is therefore a reasonable conclusion, he says, “that all mankind, before the giving of the decalogue, were morally in the same condition as are the heathen nations to-day, who have not learned of the decalogue.”
This is to suppose a government of God continuing for many centuries without law. But how can there be government without law? Who ever heard of such a government? “Sin is the transgression of the law” (1 John 3: 4), and without law there could have been no sin; yet before the law was spoken on Sinai, it had become necessary to destroy the world by a flood on account of the sins of its inhabitants. Did God give the antediluvians no law, and then destroy them because they broke the law they had not heard?
Certainly the law was given to Abraham; for of him God said: “Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.” Gen. 26: 5. To suppose that other righteous persons, from Adam down, did not have the statutes and laws of God as Abraham had them, is no less absurd than it is to suppose that God during that period of human history maintained a government on the earth without law.
When the Israelites came out of Egypt, where the ignorance that goes with slavery had long darkened their understanding, God made the Sabbath a test of their willingness to obey his laws. When some of the Israelites went out to gather manna on the Sabbath, God said to Moses: “How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws?” Ex. 16: 28. By keeping the Sabbath, they acknowledged the claims of the true God. Heathen systems of religion, such as they had become accustomed to in Egypt, contained commandments against murder, theft, adultery, false witness, etc., and without the Sabbath there would have been no distinguishing sign to mark them as worshipers of the Creator. By keeping God’s Sabbath holy unto him, they acknowledged that all their time was rightfully his, he being their Creator, and the one from whom they drew life and all things. Thus they acknowledged the sovereignty of the true God; and this is the purpose the Sabbath has served through all time, from Adam’s day down to the present. So long as it has been necessary that man should acknowledge the sovereignty of their Creator, so long have men had the commandment to keep holy the Sabbath day.
The editor of Our Hope, like all others who oppose the claims of the seventh day, has too narrow a view of the subject. He sees a few truths, but there are other truths of such importance which he does not see that his impressions are quite misleading. The broad and clear view of God’s truth to-day is to be obtained in the light of the threefold gospel message of Rev. 14: 6-12. L. A. S.

Deliverances from Death on Tanna

By W. A. S.

It is to the mission fields that we turn for some of the most signal interpositions of God's providence in the deliverance of his children from danger. God has been preparing the great field for the finishing of his work in this generation. Out among savage peoples, men and women of God have been giving their lives to missionary service. And in our day, as plainly as in ancient times, fierce men with murder in their hearts, have heard the voice of God saying, “Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm.”
In this and other articles, I wish to bring together a few examples of divine interposition and deliverance in modern times. The Saviour, who went with Joseph into Egypt, who walked with the three Hebrews in the fiery furnace, who stopped the mouths of the lions, who turned the power of the sword, and put to flight the armies of the aliens, is still mighty to save, and we have his promise, as we take up the gospel commission, “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.”

On Savage Tanna

An assembly of warriors in this island of the cannibal New Hebrides had decided that John G. Paton, the missionary, was to be slain. Mr. Paton says:—
Frenzy of excitement prevailed, and the blood-fiend seemed to override the whole assembly; when, under an impulse that surely came from the Lord of pity, one great warrior chief who had hitherto kept silent, rose, swung aloft a mighty club, and smashing it earthward, cried aloud:—
“The man that kills Missi must first kill me; the men that kill the mission teachers must first kill me and my people: for we shall stand by them, and defend them till death.”
Instantaneously, another chief thundered in with the same declaration; and the great assembly broke up in dismay.
Again, the missionary says:—
One day while toiling away at my house, the war chief and a large party of armed men surrounded the plot where I was working. They all had muskets. They watched me for some time in silence, and then every man leveled a musket straight at my head. Escape was impossible. My eyesight came and went for a few moments. I prayed to my Lord Jesus. I tried to keep on with my task, as if no one was near me. In that moment, as never before, the words came to me, “Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do,” and I knew I was safe. Retiring a little, they took up the same attitude, and seemed to be urging one another to fire the first shot. But my dear Lord restrained them once again, and they withdrew.
They came in the night to do their deadly work, but though armed with muskets, a little dog was used of God to frighten them away.
God restrained them again; and next morning the report went all round the harbor that those who tried to shoot me were “smitten weak with fear,” and that shooting would not do.
Again the story of life on Tanna tells of a baffled sorcerer who thirsted for the missionary's blood:—
For weeks thereafter, go where I would, he would suddenly appear on the path behind me, poising in his right hand that same Goliath spear. God only kept it from being thrown, and I, using every lawful precaution, had all the same to attend to my work, as if no enemy were there, leaving all other results in the hands of Jesus.
One day while Mr. Paton was seeking to escape unobserved from a savage mob, a warrior sprang from an ambush, and swinging his tomahawk, aimed a blow at his head. The missionary says:—
Avoiding it, I turned upon him, and said in a firm, bold voice, “If you dare to strike me, my Jehovah God will punish you. He is here to defend me now.” The man, trembling, looked all about to see the God who was my defender, and the tomahawk gradually lowered at his side. With my eye fixed upon him, I gradually moved backward, and God mercifully restrained him from following me.
Amidst such constant perils, Mr. Paton says:—
Without that abiding consciousness of the presence and power of my dear Lord and Saviour, nothing else in all the world could have preserved me from losing my reason and perishing miserably. His words, “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world,” became to me so real that it would not have startled me to behold him, as Stephen did, gazing down upon the scene. I felt his supporting power, as did St. Paul, when he cried, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” It is the sober truth, and it comes back to me sweetly after twenty years, that I had my nearest and dearest glimpses of the face and smile of my blessed Lord in those dread moments when musket, club, or spear was being leveled at my life. O, the bliss of living and enduring, as seeing “him who is invisible!”
By such experiences have dark places of the earth been prepared for the closing message.
W. A. S.

Has the United States Recognized the Papacy?

“Is the papacy recognized by the United States?” queries the Milwaukee Free Press. Messages from the State department to Rome, it says, raise the question of diplomatic relations between the two powers. As showing the basis of this query, it quotes the following dispatch from Washington, dated July 20:—
The recent sending of a message of inquiry, then one of condolence, by the state department to-day to Cardinal Rampolla, raised the question as to whether the United States government has not recognized the papacy as much as any of the powers that maintain diplomatic relations with it. The president's cablegram of inquiry as to the pope's condition is considered official, and not personal, inasmuch as it was sent through the department of state.
At the death of Pope Pius IX, in 1878, the secretary of state, as well as the president, refrained from any notice of the event. Solemn requiem will be held by the Rev. T. S. Lee, pastor of St. Matthew's, at ten o'clock Sunday, to which the officials of the government and the diplomatic corps will receive invitations.
John Hay, the sender of the message of condolence, is secretary of state in the United States, and Cardinal Rampolla, to whom the message was sent, is papal secretary of state. Thus the act has at least the outward significance of a recognition of the papacy. It is certain to be claimed as such by papal leaders.
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