Earlier text: ROGER WILLIAMS—AMERICA'S LUTHER. No. 2.DOCTRINE OF ETERNAL MISERY.
By Wm. Penniman
IN the examination of texts which are said to prove endless suffering, we first notice Matt. 3:12: "Whose fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge His floor, and will gather His wheat into the garner, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." The wicked are compared to chaff to represent their worthlessness, and to show that they are to be wholly destroyed. All that is meant by unquenchable fire is that the fire burns till that which it feeds upon is consumed. The great Chicago fire and many others were unquenchable. The wicked are compared to the most inflammable substances. As for instance, see Ps. 68:2; Isa. 1:31; 51:8; 17:13; Ps. 37:20; Mal. 4:3; Matt. 13:40; John 15:6; 2 Peter 2:5, 6. "Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." Matt. 25:41. It will be seen by referring to Rev. 14:10, 11 and to 20:10 that the beast and image worshipers, also the devil and his angels, receive this punishment on this earth. This passage can not better be explained than by giving an explanation of Jude 7, where the Sodomites are "set forth for an example,5suffering the vengeance of eternal fire;" "the proper interpretation of any portion of the Sacred Record will show that it is in divine harmony with the general tenor and plain facts of the whole Book." It will be seen by the careful Bible student that this principle of interpretation is the very key of success in unfolding the true meaning of the Scriptures. Therefore an apparently discrepant text must harmonize when rightly interpreted and understood with others more plain or easy to comprehend. If the great majority of texts prove unquestionably that the wicked will be destroyed, or will finally "be as tho they had not been," then certainly the very few which seem, on a careless examination, to be against the position, must harmonize, and can be made so to do. And so it is with the text in question. The eternity of torment is not mentioned, but only the eternity of fire is inferred. We read (Gen. 19:24-28): "Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven; and He overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground." "And Abraham got up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the Lord; and he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace." Certainly no one could say that these Sodomites, who are set forth for an example, are to this day in that fire. Peter bears testimony to this, all the more valuable because the chapter containing it is almost an exact parallel to the epistle of Jude. Peter says: "Turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those who should after live ungodly." 2 Peter 2:6. Have we not here, then, a perfect pattern of the future punishment of the wicked? Peter thus shows that the fire did its proper office upon the wicked cities of the plain. They were turned to ashes. Their case is an example of what God will do to all the wicked after the resurrection to condemnation, when fire shall descend out of heaven upon them, and the whole earth becomes a lake of fire. Revelation 20; 2 Peter 3; Malachi 4. In their utter destruction these cities suffer the vengeance of eternal fire; for their destruction was brief, as Jeremiah testifies: "For the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of My people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, that was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands stayed on her." Lam. 4:6. We read (Luke 17:29) that the same day that Lot went out of Sodom "it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all." But to carry out the point still further; if the Sodomites are not now in that fire, and yet suffer the vengeance of eternal fire, may not the devil and his angels, and all the wicked suffer the vengeance of "everlasting fire" and yet not remain forever in it? There is nothing said to be everlasting in the text but the fire. What may the ungodly learn from this sudden example?—That their fate will be similar if they do not forsake their sins. "And these shall go away into everlasting punishment; but the righteous into life eternal." Matt. 25:46. Here says the objector: "The word 'everlasting,' qualifying the word translated punishment, and the word 'eternal,' qualifying 'life,' are both translated from the same word in the original, kolusin aionion, punishment everlasting, or zoen aionion, life eternal, or just as correctly life everlasting." We admit this, and yet the text does not prove endless suffering. The true key to this text is the word "punishment." Everlasting suffering is not necessarily implied in everlasting punishment. The true sense would have been just the same if the text read as follows: These shall go away into everlasting death, or everlasting destruction, or everlasting extinction of being. From the punishment threatened to the wicked we can not consistently infer that they are immortal and will live forever in a lake of fire and brimstone. It is evident that punishment is inflicted for sin, and is the penalty for the violation of God's law. "The wages of sin is death." Rom. 6:23. "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." Eze. 18:4. Christ is the Lifegiver; therefore there is no immortality save through Him, as He came to bring "life and immortality to light through the Gospel." 2 Tim. 1:10. But to return to the punishment question. We will conclude this article with a brief quotation from a work entitled "The Theology of the Bible," by Oliver Spencer Halsted. We quote briefly (page 626), as follows:— Professor Hudson, formerly a preacher of orthodoxy, but who abandoned the system in a work published by him, says he has heard Presbyterian clergymen say they dared not think on eternal punishment lest they should disbelieve it. The Rev. Doctor Theodore Clapp, in his autobiography, says he had preached at New Orleans a zealous sermon for endless punishment; that after the sermon, Judge W., who, says he, was an eminent scholar, and had studied for the ministry, but relinquished his purpose because he could not find the doctrine of endless punishment and kindred dogmas, asked him to make out a list of texts in the Hebrew and Greek on which he relied for the doctrine. The doctor then gives a detailed account of his studies in search of texts to give to the judge. That he began with the Old Testament in the Hebrew; and prosecuted his study during that and the succeeding year; and yet that he was unable to find therein so much as an allusion to any suffering after death. That in the dictionary of the Hebrew language he could not discern a word signifying hell, or a place of punishment in a future state. That he could not find a single text, in any form of phraseology, which holds out threats of retribution beyond the grave. That to his utter astonishment it turned out that orthodox critics of the greatest celebrity were perfectly familiar with these facts. That he was compelled to confess to the judge that he could not produce an Hebrew text. But that now he was sanguine that the New Testament would furnish what he had sought for in Moses and the prophets. That he prosecuted his study of the Greek of the New Testament eight years. That the result was, that he could not name a portion of it, from the first verse in Matthew to the last of Revelation, which, fairly interpreted, affirms that a part of mankind will be eternally miserable. The preceding quotation is strong evidence against the doctrine of eternal misery. There is no immortality of death or of the "death that never dies." Reader, let us not fail to gain an immortality of life through the Lifegiver. “GOD’S ALL-POWERFUL WORD.”
By Stemple White
“FOR the Word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight; but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” Heb. 4:12, 13. The Word may be treated under three special divisions, to wit: Spoken, incarnate, and written; and no matter what the conditions may be, the Word is ever the same, “quick and powerful.” At creation “He spake, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast.” Ps. 33:9. “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.” Verse 6. All things in the whole universe are to-day upheld by that same word (Heb. 1:3; Col. 1:16, 17), for all power is of God (Rom. 13:1; John 19:11). In the fulness of time the Word became incarnate and dwelt among men. To the palsied man of Capernaum, who was let down through the roof, Jesus said, “Thy sins are forgiven thee.” Then the Pharisees said in their hearts, “Who can forgive sins but God only?” Jesus said unto them, “Why reason ye these things in your hearts? Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk? But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, . . . I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house. And immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went forth before them all.” Mark 2:9-12. Thus He spake, and it was. When He said, “Thy sins are forgiven thee,” the palsied man believed Him, and it was immediately so. And to show that it was so, Jesus healed the sick man instantly. And mark; these things happened while yet Jesus was incarnate. Why then doubt the word of the heavenly Advocate? “These things happened unto them for ensamples,” showing how quick and powerful is God’s Word, and how that, “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” These things were written for our admonition, “that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.” Rom. 15:4. But what are the Scriptures that we are to have comfort in?—The written Word, the inspired, God-breathed Word of Him who is the same “yesterday, to-day and forever.” And that written Word which says, “Thy sins are forgiven thee,” and also, “I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions,” is the same all-powerful Word of God. As soon as one accepts that Word, so soon does he possess the righteousness of God, which is by faith. Notice God’s word in creation. When He said, “Let there be light,” it was so—was pronounced good, but was only a means to an end. And likewise when He, by the Word of God, brought forth the whole creation (except man), and pronounced it good, yet it was all only a means to an end. But when man was fashioned into the image of God and endowed with divine life, he was pronounced very good, and the end, of which the pronounced good things were the means, is man’s happiness. Sin came, and with it the cross, which forever stands for the forgiveness and destruction of sin. The same power that, silently and unseen, lifts the water of the oceans to the heavens to continually bless man with rain, is the same power that works mighty revolutions in human hearts. ‘Tis all accomplished by the same word. O soul, have faith in that word. Thy name is engraved on the palms of the hands of Him who now is in the holiest of holies of the heavenly sanctuary pleading for fallen humanity, and saying to the heavenly Father, as cases are being brought up, “If he hath wronged Thee, or oweth Thee aught, put that on Mine account.” Philemon 18. STEMPLE WHITE. The Bible: The Best Missionary
Sir Charles Aitchison says: “The Bible is the best of all missionaries. Missionaries die; the printed Bible remains forever. It finds access through doors that are closed to the human foot. No book is more studied in India now by the native population than the Christian Bible.” ETERNAL LIFE NOW.
By Editor
SAYS a recent writer of a widely-circulated tract:— “The gift of everlasting life will not be forced upon any. On the contrary, it must be desired and sought and laid hold upon by all who would gain it. 1 Tim. 6:12, 19. It is thus a hope, rather than the real life, that God gives us now; the hope that we may ultimately attain it, because God has provided a way by which He can be just and yet be the Justifier of all truly believing and accepting Christ.” Nay, but God gives eternal life now. “Whoso eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood, hath eternal life.” John 6:54. “Those things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life.” 1 John 5:13. But, says our author, this is not actual eternal life; it is not the real life, it is a hope, it is by faith. But does not faith bring actual blessings? The impotent man at the Beautiful Gate of the temple was healed by faith; but was it not an actual, real healing? Or was it only a “hope,” an expectation. The difficulty with this writer seems to be, as with many others, that he confounds eternal life and immortality; he can not see that a thing may be actual, which is not absolute. The children of God have actual life—eternal life—now which the wicked do not possess. “If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.” “The Spirit is life, because of righteousness.” That Spirit is the “eternal Spirit.” The life of that “eternal Spirit” is “eternal life.” That life is in harmony with God's righteousness, with the holy law of Jehovah. God is eternal. The wicked are “alienated from the life of God” (Eph. 4:18), while “the life also of Jesus” is made manifest in the mortal flesh of His people (2 Cor. 4:10, 11; Gal. 2:20). “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” John 3:36. The believer has eternal life, the life of his eternal Father. In this life is power. Only by the power of this “endless life” (Heb. 7:16) can man overcome. It is that which makes the Christian a victor over sin. It is a new life, a new heart, a new spirit. It is the life of God in mortal flesh. But man holds that life by faith. As long as faith abides, the life abides. If man yields his faith, he yields the life of God. He takes himself out of the channel of its flowing, and is left dry and barren, or poisoned with the putrid streams of Satanic error. But tho man possesses everlasting life, he does not possess immortality; for immortality stands for incorruptibility, fixedness of character. When man wins that character, when the judgment finds him justified, and his Lord comes, this mortal puts on immortality; this corruptible body puts on incorruption. 1 Cor. 15:51-54. Man lives forevermore. If he lives at that time, he is changed to immortality; if he sleeps in Jesus, he is raised incorruptible. He then has eternal life absolutely. Faith is lost in sight. Man has so used eternal life by faith that God bestows it upon him forever. ONE of the prominent and striking characters of Bible symbolism is the name and city of Babylon. It is an active agent in human affairs from the Deluge to the time when Babylon, like the apocalyptic millstone, is buried in oblivion. Babylon is presented under various phases. In country and city, in cup and woman, her seductive, malign influence is symbolized in the Scriptures. There is, as in all other symbols, danger of misinterpretation. The origin of Babylon is departure from God. The motive is selfishness and pride. God is one. His plan is one. If followed by His creatures, it makes them one with Him. God's plan is diffusive. It is designed to bless all by uniting all with Him, and so make them blessings to others. Babylon's plan is to secure that we may hold. God's plan is to receive that we may give. When man was created upon the earth, God commanded him to "be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish [completely fill] the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth." Gen. 1:28. God blessed man, and designed that man should be a blessing to all His creatures. After the flood, the inhabitants of earth reduced to one family, God again commanded, "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth." Gen. 9:1. God's purpose is one and eternal. But selfish man refused, and in his refusal was the beginning of historical Babylon. Men said: "Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth." Gen. 11:4. And so men built their center of influence in material things upon earth. They did it to oppose God's plan. They did it that they might save themselves. They did it to make themselves a name. Believing in the idea, not yet coined into vox populi vox dei, they named the tower and city "Bab-il," or Bab-ilu. They inscribed that name on the bricks which they burned so thoroughly (Gen. 11:3) that they have been preserved to this generation. The meaning of this name is "the gate of God," or "the gate of heaven." It was man's selfish way of self-salvation. In God's one way was perfect harmony. In man's departure was discord and confusion. Man named his effort what he wished it would be. God, in His mercy, named that effort of man—that city and tower—what it was—what it would forever symbolize, confusion. "Therefore is the name of it called Babel [Babylon, margin, "confusion"]; because Jehovah did there confound the language of all the earth; and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth." Gen. 11:9. And yet, while this was the beginning of earthly historical Babylon, it is not its beginning. The "king of Babylon" is Satan, once Lucifer, the son of the morning, the day-star of God. In God's plan Lucifer was light. Wherever he came among God's creatures he was the Light-bringer. He was the chiefest of all God's created works. "Thus saith the Lord God; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden, the garden of God." Eze. 28:12, 13. Such he was in God's plan; but being free to choose God's unselfish way of love, or his own, he chose his own; and the day-star of God became the prince of darkness, the king of Babylon. Isaiah speaks of his utter overthrow, and its cause: "Thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! . . . How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!" And here is the reason: "For thou saidst in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars [other angels] of God; I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High." Isa. 14:4-14. This was the spirit manifest in the origination of historical Babylon. It is the spirit which dominates in every departure from God. "Hear, O Israel; the Lord our God is one Lord." Christ is one with the Father. The Gospel is one. The way is not many, but one. There is no confusion in the way. It leads straight to God. The simple-hearted and single-eyed need not err therein. "The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day." Prov. 4:18. "God is not the author of confusion." But as soon as men depart from God, as soon as they substitute another way for God's way, they cause confusion. It is as tho the general of an army should erect, upon a disorganized field, his standard as a rallying point, and another standard should be erected at some distance, and men should be told to rally around that. The result would be confusion in that army. If a king should build a road through a forest, and give directions along the way by written waymarks and by his servants, there would be no difficulty to the traveler. But if his apostate servants should cut by-paths, fill up the true way with rubbish, each advertising his own as the better way, albeit he knew not its end, confusion and disaster would result. These are fair illustrations of what God has done for men, and what men have endeavored to do in the perversion of God's way. God has erected His standard of truth, His holy Word. He lifts up the perfect Example, Jesus Christ. Men on every side have erected false standards in numerous creeds and theories and sciences "falsely so-called;" and "confusion" everywhere exists. God has cast up the highway of holiness through this world to the holy city and endless life. It crosses morasses of sin; it skirts hills of destruction; it dips deep into valleys of humiliation; it climbs hills of difficulties; it is oft thorn-bordered and rock-bestrewn; but it is a true and tried way, and every step of the distance has been pressed by the holy feet of Jesus7our Saviour. Out of this highway men have cut their by-paths to escape hills of difficulty, to shun thorn-bordered paths, to avoid the valleys of humiliation and sacrifice. They have started these by-paths; they know not where they end; yet they label them "The Gate of God" or "The Gate of Heaven," and invite the pilgrim to leave the narrow way and enter. To all those who accept is confusion. Babylon of old has passed away; but "greater Babylon" still lives, and multitudes take brief, deluded shelter under her spreading branches. Dan. 4:10, 11. Millions are lulled to slumber by her poisoned wine. Jer. 51:7. Yet God's way is the one way; there is no other. All other ways are of Babylon, however beautiful they seem. Men may call them "The Gate of God," but "God is not mocked;" He calls them confusion. "Be not deceived." A WRITER, in what claims to be a "Gospel" paper, takes nearly four long columns to point out "errors of Adventism." The first error is, "Our Adventist friends do not claim to be saved now, but teach that no one will be saved till Christ comes." There may be Adventists who do not believe themselves saved, but Adventists generally do not teach this. They know and teach that the only time to be truly saved is now. If we are not saved now, what will we do when the coming of Jesus is now? If He is not our Saviour now, will He be when the then becomes now? Praise God, He is a present Saviour from sin. Our friend is mistaken. He does not understand Adventist teaching. The "second error" is that Adventists believe and teach that the soul is mortal. Says one: "Show me one text in the Bible containing the phrase 'immortal soul.'" I can not do that, but I can show several texts that clearly teach the immortality of the soul. Before I do this I desire to call upon the "mortal-soulists" to cite me to a text in the Bible where the phrase "mortal soul" is used. Since neither phrase, "immortal soul" or "mortal soul," appears in the Bible, we can only appeal to scriptures bearing on the subject for a decision. The word mortal as applied to the soul by soul-sleepers and others, signifies subject to death. The word immortal signifies never-dying. To make this a little plainer, people who talk about souls being mortal, refer to their subjection to physical death. If we prove by the Bible that the soul is not subject to physical death, it will be clearly demonstrated to the honest-hearted that it is immortal. "To the law and to the testimony." This is simple and good. Let the Word decide it. The word "soul" in the Old Testament comes from the Hebrew word "nephesh." The Bible does not say in these words, "the nephesh is mortal;" but it says it in a way that is equally clear and positive. 1. In Gen. 1:24 we read, "Let the earth bring forth the living creature [nephesh] after his kind." But in Gen. 7:22 we learn that these living creatures (souls) died. 2. The soul of sinful man was so clearly mortal, subject to death, that in the scriptures inclosed in marks of parentheses (Lev. 21:11; Num. 6:6; 9:6, 7; Hag. 2:13) and others it is translated "dead body." In Lev. 19:28; Num. 5:2, and five other places, nephesh is rendered "dead." And in Deut. 19:11 the same word is translated "mortally." 3. Moreover we read twice, "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." Eze. 18:4, 20. "Will ye pollute Me," the Lord says to the wicked, "to save the souls alive that should not live?" Eze. 13:19. Why deceive the wicked by "promising him life," by telling him that he has an immortal soul, when he has it not? See Eze. 13:22. There is much more testimony in the same line. Again our friend is mistaken. He does not understand the Scriptures. God "only hath immortality" (1 Tim. 6:16), and He will bestow it when Christ comes, upon all those whose character is perfect in Him (1 Cor. 15:51-54). THE United States Church Army has opened “tea saloons” in New York under the plea that they will offset and counteract the influence of the whisky and beer saloon. We have mentioned this a time or two, but have not been prepared for the surprise that comes to us in the way of the support that some of the most influential temperance papers and temperance organizations are giving it. These temperance papers speak of tea as a “harmless beverage,” and say that it “builds up,” while “alcohol burns up.” A more cunning delusion could never have been planned by the enemy of all truth. Tea is a poisonous herb that is one of the greatest nerve destroyers in all the world. This is a fact that science, experience, and observation fully demonstrate. Tea, by creating an unnatural appetite for something stimulating, is a perfectly natural feeder to alcoholism. The man who constantly indulges in the use of tea, finds that tea will not always satisfy the demand for a stimulant, and thus the way is opened for wine, beer, and whisky to approach the victim with their strongest temptations. In fact, tea, coffee, and tobacco, by creating an abnormal appetite, open a door of temptation to start many a man on the road to drunkenness who otherwise would have been spared from this awful evil. Let us be careful about trying to find a “mild stimulant” that will drive alcohol away. That very stimulant enables the drink habit to fasten itself all the more securely. There is but one kind of temperance that is worthy of the name. The Bible defines it as “temperance in all things.” T. THE CURSE CAUSELESS SHALL NOT COME.
By T.
THE wise man tells us that "the curse causeless shall not come." Prov. 26:2. Then wherever we see the blight of the curse we may know that there is a reason for it. The curse is the effect; there is a cause back of it. In looking for the cause of the curse we are very apt to turn our eyes in the wrong direction. We are apt to consider ourselves innocent, and charge some one else with being the cause of the curse. It is difficult for proud, selfish humanity to come right up to the mark and say unequivocally, "I did it, I am the cause of this curse,—of this evil that we see everywhere." Instead of acknowledging our share in the general evil, we seek to place the blame on some one else. We willingly acknowledge the "perversity of humanity," but we are not so ready to say, "I am perverse; I have caused much of the curse myself." God has opened the way for every one, no matter how sinful he may have been, to come to Him and acknowledge his wrong, and He will heal him. He will not only remove from him the curse, but He will also remove the power that the curse has over him, if he will only let Him. The Prevention of Syphilis
One of the most horrible of diseases—syphilis—has come to be so frequent and wide-spread that there is soon to be held in Belgium, "The International Conference for the Prevention of Syphilis." The president of the American Medical Association, alluding to this, said that he "believed that the time has arrived when physicians, singly or when in convention assembled, should throw aside all restraint when dealing with this vital question. The minister and the priest should aid the doctor in this praiseworthy undertaking. The doctrine should be inculcated into the young of both sexes, that freedom from this awful condition should exist before the marriage relation was thought of."—New York Medical Record. It is not the transgressors alone, who suffer; the disease is both infectious and hereditary. But the best prevention is absolute purity of life in every respect, found only in Christ. WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE?
By Editor
HONEST, now, what is the difference? Wealthy men combine to increase profit, to reduce expense, to suppress competition. Their object is solely to benefit themselves. Everything else must bend to their purpose. They have no enmity against rivals, or the poor; they simply regard them as obstacles to be set aside, quietly and without suffering if they can, but ruthlessly and cruelly if they must. Employers and laborers suffer. Workingmen combine to increase wages, to shorten hours, to crush out competition. Other men as honest, who have families as dear, who are good workmen, but who can not conscientiously join a union, are shut out by persuasion, by threats, by force. They are called "scabs," just as if that affected a man's character. More than this, often lives are lost, property wrecked, other persons injured. For instance, in Cleveland, June 20, one non-union street-car man was badly injured by a brick, one was chased into the woods by a mob. "There were twenty policemen at the barns, but they were powerless to handle the mob. Fences were torn down, and the crowd broke into the barns. In the meantime the non-union men had escaped to the attic, and the rioters contented themselves with smashing a few of the cars. By that time several wagon-loads of policemen had arrived, and the mob was dispersed." One non-union motorman and one conductor were beaten into insensibility, and others were injured. "A Euclid Avenue car was attacked. Many women were on board, and shrieked with terror as stones crashed through the car windows. One woman fainted. At the corner of Wilson Avenue and Quincy Street one man was shot, and others had narrow escapes. The passengers escaped as best they could when the stones began to fly, but the conductor and motorman were struck repeatedly. Four hundred employees of the Cleveland Foundry Company struck, late this afternoon, because the company refused to discharge a man who had ridden on a big Consolidated car. The man was a foreman." And there is much more. It is the irrepressible strife waged between capital and labor, with the former almost always victor, except in revolution. But the strife is ever on carnal lines, knowing nothing of the Spirit of God. Now what is the difference in morals of each party? Our sympathies are with the poor, for poverty brings suffering; but in the methods—trust or union, injunction or strike—what is the moral difference? This is a question the Christian must face. No permanent good can come of such methods, either to rich or to poor. The only safe court of appeal is not the Supreme Court of the United States; it is not the arbitrament of strikes or injunctions or war; the only safe court is heaven, the safe advocate Christ Jesus. And He would accomplish for us more than we can ask or think if we would righteously submit our case to Him. WHAT IS TAUGHT IN A CATHOLIC SUMMER SCHOOL.
THE Roman Catholics have a "summer school" at Plattsburgh, N. Y., on Lake Champlain. Concerning that school, "Augustus" has this to say in the New York Observer (Presbyterian) of June 15:— "The outline of the study for the past month at this school is worthy of the attention of Protestants, and especially of those who think that the animosity of the Roman Church towards Protestantism has ceased to exist. The subject for the month was the Protestant Reformation. The list of books recommended to be read by students embraced seven Catholic histories and historical studies, six suggested topics for papers and discussion, and a list of questions and answers from a controversial catechism by the Rev. Stephen Keenan. The topics were: Europe before the Reformation, Cause and Success of Protestantism, Character of the Reformers, the Reformation and Tolerance, the Reformation and Civil Liberty, and the Political Situation in Europe at the time of the Reformation. This is a good series of subjects for fair and intelligent historical discussion. But the method in which they were to be handled can, perhaps, be gathered from the 'questions and answers' which follow their announcement upon the program. The first question is, 'What is Protestantism?' and the answer, 'A new religion, invented and propagated by a person called Luther.' It is then stated that no such theology, either as to faith or morals, was ever known, taught, or believed by any sect in the world until Luther's time. The 'errors' of the other sects are thus given:— "The Albigenses taught that there were two Gods and two Christs; they reprobated marriage, denied all the sacraments, as well as the resurrection of the body. The Waldenses aimed at plunder; they declared it a heinous sin for a magistrate to condemn to death for any crime; according to them it was a mortal sin to take an oath; the clergy became reprobates by holding one farthing's worth of property. In other things these deluded fanatics were Catholics; they held the sacrament, mass, transubstantiation, purgatory, etc. The Wickliffites maintained that man must sin, that God approves of sin; yet, with evident inconsistency, they declared that all power, whether of the priest or magistrate, is forfeited by the commission of one mortal sin; they concluded, that as they themselves were all free from sin, so all power belonged to them. As to the Hussites, their doctrines were those of Wickliffe, their principles were seditious and unchristian, and plunder was their object." "The catechism proceeds to outline the parentage, birth, religion, and life of Luther till his thirty-fifth year, giving his religious vows at the age of twenty-three years, 'poverty, chastity, and obedience,' all of which he is declared to have violated, by apostasy, marriage to a nun, and disobedience to ecclesiastical authority. Then come the closing questions and answers of the first week of this summer school, which are as follows:— "Q.—Was this man in reality the founder of the Protestant religion, and the first of that sect that ever appeared in the world?
"A.—Most certainly, for no minister, no congregation, no body of divines, professing Protestant doctrines, was ever heard of until this time.
"Q.—What inference do you draw from all this?
"A.—That Protestantism can not be the religion of Christ: because, if the church of Christ required reformation, a God of purity and holiness would never have chosen such an immoral character—an apostate, a wholesale vow-breaker, a sacrilegious seducer—for that purpose." "The second week enters upon Luther's motives for attacking the Catholic faith and inventing a new creed. These were pride and jealousy 'because the commission to preach Indulgence was given to the order of St. Dominic and not to his own.' Reference is then made to his nailing the ninety-five theses on the gates of the Wittenburg church, and it is taught that these false articles were cleverly refuted, that Luther repented and abased himself before the pope, and proved a hypocrite. From these and other like statements, the pupil is instructed to draw the inference, 'that a man bursting with pride, envy, jealousy, a disobedient hypocrite, was not the person to be chosen of God to reform abuses, if any such existed.' The travesty of history is then continued, and the second week concludes as follows:— "Q.—What do you conclude from such conduct?
"A.—In the first place, that Luther must have been extremely fickle to appeal to so many judges, and to abide by the decision of none. Secondly, that he knew his cause was bad and his doctrine false, since he would not submit it even to the best judges. Thirdly, that he must have been brimful of sinful pride and obstinacy, since he preferred his own single judgment to that of the whole Christian world.
"The third week deals with his 'monstrous errors,' and wresting of the Scriptures to 'give them any sense he pleased, as the Mormons, the Methodists, and the Free-Kirkmen do at the present day;' and presents this conclusion:— "Q.—What do you think of Luther's conduct?
"A.—I can discover nothing in it but the spirit of inconstancy, doubt, error, and revenge, without even the slightest mark of the Spirit of God. He seems solely actuated by the spirit of the devil." "The fourth week describes the dreadful effects of Luther's teaching; the rise of 'religious hucksters,' Calvin, Zwingli, and others; the multiplication of sects, Mormons, the Free-Kirk and the Salvation Army; the socinianism and socialism which have followed in their train; the pernicious doctrine that all Christians are truly and really priests; the abolition of the mass, which was done at the direct inspiration of the devil; and the conclusion, that 'one can hardly tell at which to be most astonished—at the open and brazen avowal of Luther, or at the awful blindness of those who follow a master, who, by his own account, received his training and instruction in the school of Satan.'" "Perhaps it might be well for some of those Protestants who are so ready to apologize for Roman Catholic invasions of Protestant rights, and so pleased with their friendly words on secular themes, to spend a week or two at the summer school at Plattsburgh, and learn a little of the real Roman Catholic teaching about Protestants and their religion. If they had ears to hear and eyes to see, they would come back convinced that, tho' Rome may change her manners in order to gain her ends and extend her influence, her hatred of Protestantism is as bitter as ever, and that the iron hand which has often tortured and tried to crush out its life is only covered with a velvet glove. What Thomas Jefferson said of the attitude of freemen half a century and more ago, is true to-day—'Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.'"