Earlier text: MOUNTAINS AND VISIONS OF GODHow They Became Convinced
By Editor
[Believing it would be of interest to our readers, the editor of the Signs of the Times has asked Sabbath-keeping ministers and evangelical workers to tell in a few words the scripture or scriptures, the truths and principles, which constrained them to accept the unpopular truth of the seventh-day Sabbath. These testimonies must not exceed 500 words. Let us hear from all.] At the age of 16 years I was converted and united with the Christian (Disciple) Church. In the year 1869 I came to California, and finally united with the M. E. Church. But some traveling strangers left a tract at our house entitled, "A Hundred Bible Facts on the Sabbath," and O, how it spoiled my peace of mind! Every day I would pray to God, and ask if I might not keep the first day of the week; and one day while I was in prayer, such a feeling of peace came into my heart; and I thought it was the Lord's expression of willingness that I should keep that day. So I was happy again. But it was not the Lord that answered my prayer; for His Spirit will guide only in the way of truth. Time passed on, and Brethren Martin and Church came to Glenburn, and preached on the subject of the Sabbath. The first sermon brought the light to my mind, and I did not pray any more that I might keep the first day of the week. I was under such deep conviction that I had to come out and obey the commandment of God; but it was a cross, for I would have to be alone in so doing. However, after I had laid hold of the Sabbath, and read more and more of the glorious truths of the Bible, it grew, and still grows brighter, and brighter, altho I do stand alone. As I travel from one end of the valley to the other, to get this wonderful truth before the people in printed form, I can not thank God enough that He did not leave me to perish in my blindness. It was after reading the experience of Mrs. J. W. Collins that I was impressed to write my own. THE other day, when a horse drawing a cartful of coal got stalled on West Street, the public was promptly on hand with advice. "Put on the whip!" shouted the driver of an express wagon. "Take him by the head!" added a truckman. "If that was my hoss," said a man with a bundle of clothes under his arm, "I'd tie a cloth over his eyes. I've seen it tried a hundred times, and it makes 'em pull their best." "Don't believe it," said a man with a cane. "I've owned horses all my life, and I've had some bad ones among them. The only thing to do is to blow into his right ear." "You mean the left," said a small man with a very thin voice. "No, I don't! I mean the right ear. I've tried it often enough, I guess." A crowd of fifty people had gathered, and now the driver got down, and looked the ground over. One wheel was down in a rut. He stood looking at it, his hand on the horse's hip, and everybody around him tendering advice, when a couple of sailors came along, and one of them called out:— "Ah! mate, but here's a craft on a reef." Both seized a wheel for a lift, the driver clucked for the horse to go ahead, and away went the load as easy as you please. They were the only two of the whole crowd who had not advised the driver how to do it.—New York Sun. THE BEAUTY OF DUTY.
By James Russell Lowell
THE longer on this earth we live
And weigh the various qualities of men,
Seeing how most are fugitive
Or fitful gifts at best, or now and then
Wind-wavered copse lights, daughters of the fen—
The more we feel the high, stern-featured beauty
Of plain devotedness to duty;
Steadfast and still, nor paid with mortal praise,
But finding amplest recompense
For life's ungarlanded expense,
In work done squarely and unwasted days.
—James Russell Lowell. I WAS passing through a small town in Texas, about two years ago, before I had heard of any one's keeping Saturday as the Sabbath, excepting the Jews. I called at a house, where I was given some literature on the Sabbath question; but being much prejudiced against reading any books without Catholic authority, I refused to read it. The summer following, however, I came to Milwaukee, and, being at work in the city, I would call in occasionally at the Helping Hand Mission, now the American Mission. The Bible, under God and with the help of Brother Moody, was the cause of my conversion to the Seventh-day Adventist faith. SELF-WORSHIP AND ITS END.
MAN must worship; what and whom shall he worship? Man needs a Gospel; whose shall he believe? Here is a sample of the self-gospel taught so much now-a-days, by one of its high priestesses:— Make up your mind this very hour to do something worth while. You know what you can do, or at least what you can try to do. You need ask no advice. No one understands you as well as you understand yourself. . . . Sit down alone with yourself a little while each day and be quiet and listen to the voice within you. It will tell you the truth after a few sittings. Then look in your own soul for light. It is there, and it is the light for you to follow. Whether you are a Christian, a Jew, a pagan, a Protestant, or a Roman Catholic, does not matter so long as you follow your soul's light, nor does it matter that there are shining lighthouses in each of the other harbors. Follow the light which radiates from within. Now all of this is the absolute acceptance of the gospel of Satan,—the will-o'-the-wisp which lures to destruction—and the utter rejection of the Gospel of Christ. The Gospel of Christ never admonishes man to look to himself, but to Christ. The adversary thus deceived our first parents: "Ye shall not surely die [that is, by following your own way]; . . . your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as God, knowing good and evil." Gen. 3:4, 5. Man believed; found the knowledge of evil, and has ever since been seeking in himself the knowledge of good, and finding it not. Thus speaks one who had so sought it, and come back sorrowful from the search: "O Jehovah, I know that the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps." Jer. 10:23. "The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly corrupt: who can know it?" Jer. 17:9. And thus speaks another, who had sought diligently, and had returned broken and weary from the quest: "For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing." "They that are in the flesh can not please God." See Rom. 7:14-24; 8:8. And this is the revelation of the Master: "That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness; all these evil things come from within, and defile the man." Mark 7:20-23. That is the gospel of Satan, a false light, which flatters the human, which ministers to human lust, human depravity, human pride, and human ambition, human desire to do some great thing, and which leaves man at last in the wreck of character,—his lust as unsatisfied, unquenched burning; his pride a base humiliation; his selfish ambition a mad, jealous, envious, disappointing dream; his great thing a collapsed balloon, a bursted bubble; and the end of all, death. This is the gospel of self, that at its very best develops only selfish characters, each glorying in himself and envious of the greater fame of others. Believing, undeceived, we may accept the answers given by the prophet as to the One only who knows the heart and can properly correct it. "I, Jehovah, search the mind, I try the heart." "O Jehovah, correct me." Jer. 17:10; 10:24. And God has answered the human longing. The Gospel of God, the good tidings in Christ Jesus, comes to poor, fallen, sinful, impotent man, with this message from the Master of the mighty, this instruction from the Teacher of the taught, this clear pathway from the Prevailer over the prince of darkness, this invitation from the Interpleader: "Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else." Isa. 45:22. "Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light." Matt. 11:28-30. And knowing man's ever-constant need, knowing all the devices of the enemy to deceive, knowing the natural desire of man to exalt self, in the very closing message of the blessed Book come these words of hope: "And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And he that heareth, let him say, Come. And he that is athirst, let him come; he that will, let him take the water of life freely." Rev. 22:17. "Ye must be born from above," said the Master to the Jewish moralist. Faith must make connection with the great Fountain of life, and by its constant exercise preserve the constant interflow of life, and light, and love from Jehovah, our covenant God, revealed through Jesus Christ our Lord. O soul, why not reject forever every message which ministers of self, and receive Jesus Christ, a personal Saviour, the Way, the Truth, and the Life to every one that believes; the Wisdom, the Righteousness, the Sanctification, the Redemption to every trusting soul? "THE JEWISH SABBATH."
By Editor
THE term, reader, is not ours, neither is it new. It has been used for centuries as a term of reproach to designate the Sabbath of Jehovah our God. It is a bid for all the unreasoning prejudice against the Jews that it may be turned upon an institution of divine origin designed to be a blessing for the race. One of the last instances of its use we find in an article in the Christian Standard, entitled, "Numerous Attempts to Revive the Jewish Sabbath—All Fail." And then the editor proceeds to say that these attempts began in the days of the apostles, and have continued to the present time; but in each and all cases except the last among Seventh-day Adventists, all have been failures, and that Seventh-day Adventists "are now beginning to break up into factions, and otherwise to show signs of their best days." Now it is not our purpose to answer the mixture of fact and falsehood, of conception and misconception, in this article. But we do wish to point out the fallacy on which the whole article is based; namely, that by numbers—success from a human view-point—the merits of the Sabbath cause is to be judged. We grant, for the sake of the argument, that since the apostolic days the adherents of the seventh-day Sabbath have been few; but whenever the Gospel of God's grace was effectual in the days of the first century it produced Christian commandment-keeping followers of Jesus Christ, those willingly obedient to all of God's commandments. But from the days of the apostasy to the present, as indicated by the "more sure word of prophecy," commandment-keepers have been few, always persecuted during the Dark Ages, and always maligned and misrepresented by the nominal church. But do these facts—that they were few; that many yielded their faith under persecution, many more under the blandishments and temptations of the world; that there are few at the present time—make the truth of God of none effect? Let God be true, tho every man be false. Rom. 3:2, 3. Let us review briefly the history of God's cause and people. It started well, in fair Eden, with a pure, strong man and woman, in the image of their Creator. An enemy entered, and in a little while all of earth's children stood on the side of the enemy. Was God's cause a failure? Centuries roll by. One the wise men of the world must have called a fanatic had been preaching and prophesying for three hundred years. He was a commandment keeper, a Sabbath keeper, for he "walked with God;" and "how can two walk together, except they be agreed?" A little way from this the wicked worldlings perish in a great convulsion, and the "fanatic" who preached its coming, with seven others of his household, was saved in an ark which he built upon dry ground. How pitifully weak must Noah's cause have seemed to the great men, the men of renown—such a paltry few, while the popular church numbered thousands? Yet, reader, the unbelief of the great multitude did not make the truth of God of none effect. God was with the few.7 When the crisis of Egypt came, few comparatively of earth's millions were saved; while the multitudes of proud Pharaoh were humbled in the dust, and the flower of his army sank to destruction. And of the 600,000 of God's people who started for the promised land, only two, just two, crossed the Jordan, and entered its borders as inheritors. Did the unbelief of the many make the truth of God of none effect? God stood with the two; they "wholly followed the Lord." A few centuries later a great Sabbath-keeping prophet stands alone before a great assembly of Israel. Arrayed against him were 450 prophets of the sun-god Baal, and 400 of the prophets of Baal's counterpart, the Asherah, together with the royal house—the government. Where stood Jehovah then? True, out of that conflict God's prophet came triumphant, gloriously vindicated by Jehovah, yet in a few hours he was fleeing for his life, alone, and felt that no other soul was loyal. Yet God assures him that among the multitudes of Israel there are still 7,000 who had not bowed to Baal. They were scattered here and there in the mountains and wilderness, and even God's prophet did not know them. Doubtless the popular church in Israel, who had only made a few concessions to the world, who were only worshiping Jehovah under another term, Baal (Lord), and through one of Jehovah's creatures, the sun, would have given the scattered 7,000 a pretty poor name. Yet God was with the few. We may pass over the repetition of the same thing in the Babylonian captivity and the restoration therefrom. There were the many and the few, but God was still with the few. A few centuries later we behold the perfect Man. His very forerunner had been killed by a royal member of the popular church. The Man came, taught as man had never taught before, wrought mightier miracles than men had seen before. Great multitudes hung on His words. Thousands wished to make the Man a king. Three years pass by. Two of His chief disciples begin to seek for high position, and sow the seeds of envy and strife among all. Another very prominent man among them, the business man of the company, secretly, as he supposed, joined with the popular church for the suppression of the Master. The traditionists, the higher critics, the popular sects everywhere, seemed to triumph against this commandment-keeping, Sabbath-keeping Man. He is brought to trial, to shameless mocking, to cruel scourging, to the pitiless cross. Only one or two and a few women have even the courage to confess Him or stay by His side in the suffering. He died, while the very heavens grew black, with the awful cry still lingering in the air, "My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?" But He was not forsaken. Tho all the powers of earth and hell were against Him, tho death upon the cross were His portion, tho all His own forsook Him and fled, still God was with Him, with the Lone One, who died to magnify the law of which the Sabbath of the Lord—which men call Jewish—was a part. Did the unbelief of the multitude make the truth of God of none effect? There was a time when a few Protestants stood alone in Europe. Men call them Reformers now, and write it with a capital R; but when they were doing their work they were reproached with every name the ingenuity of wicked men in the popular church could invent. It might be well to remind our contemporary, which takes pains to tell us that it is "devoted to the restoration of primitive Christianity; its doctrine, its ordinances, and its fruits," while it equally declares that its founder is a man, Isaac Erret,—it might be well, we say, to remind it that its cause is in a hopeless minority; that the Roman Catholics, the Mohammedans, the pagans, the ritualistic churches, and the increase of ritualists and traditionists among the "evangelical" bodies, make our Disciple friends look ridiculous from a human view-point. But in this case, the Standard does not judge by numbers. Now as to the last phase of Sabbath reform, as carried forward by Seventh-day Adventists. It bears the imperfections of humanity as has every reform. Fanatics have thrust themselves in among them. Satan ever is active. It is the word of the Master and His apostles that false prophets and teachers should arise among the people. Matt. 24:24; 2 Peter 2:1. This people will have to meet the tests over which other bodies have fallen, and fall as have others or prove true to the Word of God and Christ Jesus their Lord. But if the majority should prove false, which God forbid, their unbelief will not make the truth of God, the Gospel, the law, the Sabbath of the Lord, of none effect. One more reference to the Standard's article. The editor thus closes:— It is a fact worthy of remark that in all the ages, the ranks of the Sabbatarians have never produced one single person of note in the world in any line of usefulness—not one great poet, or writer, or reformer, or evangelist, or philanthropist, or teacher, or statesman, or soldier, or patriot, or scientist, or "captain of industry," or anything else except zealous partisans who devote all their energies to their great hobby, "the Sabbath and the law."
Now the Sabbatarians may rejoice that, measured by this worldly Standard, they have not produced a "scientist" or "captain of industry," but if the long roll of the ages were called, and the loyal of God summoned, a few names of Sabbatarians might be found, such as Enoch and Noah and Abraham and Joseph and Moses and Joshua and Samuel and David and Solomon and Elijah and Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel and Daniel and John the Baptist, and John and James and Peter and Paul and Jesus of Nazareth, who is the fulness of perfection, all of whom were observers of the Sabbath of the Lord our God, called by our contemporary "the Jewish Sabbath." Here are poets, reformers, and all other classes good and noble, every one of whom was some time counted as fanatic, dreamer, babbler, insane. In God’s estimate knowing Him is more than greatness. Jer. 9:23, 24. Of the present Sabbatarians, we could not expect that their work should be judged otherwise than as their Master’s has been. Let them be content with the fact that their names and records are written in heaven, that they are loyal to God, that they must decrease that the glory of their Master may increase. Let them be content to be among "the foolish things of the world" and "the weak things of the world" and "the base things of the world, and the things that God has despised" if by so being God may be glorified in Christ Jesus. Let them be content to be a voice crying in the world’s wilderness of sin and babel of creeds, "Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make His paths straight;" Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand: "Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come, and worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters." It was to His disciples that Jesus said, “Ye are the salt of the earth.” Salt is a preservative. Were it not for the salt in the ocean, it would become stagnant, and conditions on land would be averse to human life. The Lord’s people are regarded as the salt of the earth because it is for their sake and the Gospel’s that men are spared at all in their sinfulness. This was shown in the case of Sodom, after it was condemned to overthrow. If ten righteous persons could have been found in the city, it would have been spared. This great fundamental truth is the Biblical answer to the fallacious National Reform theory that a nation is a moral person, that as a nation it sins aside from the sins of the people, and is spared because as a nation it repents, and as a nation its sins are forgiven. The truth is, the nations are spared because of the “salt” there is in them propagating the Gospel, seeking out the souls here and there that are susceptible to the truth. If national sins are separate from individual sins, and are forgiven by the Lord independent of individual sins, then why may not the nation be forgiven and saved independent of the moral condition of the individuals? Again, the forgiveness of sin means eternal salvation, if the pardoned subject endure to the end; so that, if the nation continue to do right unto the end, it would logically and justly be entitled to the endowment of immortality, without regard to the condition of the people as individuals. But what would a nation be without the individuals? The absurdity of this theory of national sin and national righteousness and national salvation is further shown in the assumption that national atonement for sin can be made with national law. According to the National Reform doctrine, the nation’s sins can be forgiven and the nation can be saved, if the government will enact such religious laws and perform such other religious acts as the “reformers” shall dictate. In other words, national salvation is by law and by works. This doctrine would have some foundation if it were recognized that the whole scheme of human nationality is secular, and therefore temporary. As such, its continuance and prosperity is dependent largely upon the justice and equity of its laws and practical policy. But when it is assumed that the nation, independent of the individuals composing the nation, is a moral person, having a conscience and moral responsibility, and commits sins just as individuals do, the absurdity is absolutely irrational. This demands an exercise of faith (or there could be no forgiveness of sin) on the part of the nation, and the National Reform theory would assume that this is possible, no matter what the people do; for they are depending upon this very thing to bring about the moral reformation of the people. The experiment of salvation by works, or by human law, was tried to the full by the Papacy, and the result was the Dark Ages. National Reform is only that experiment over again. Then the people, who composed the nations, were preserved, kept from utter destruction, by means of the “salt” that was sprinkled amongst them. Prophesying of that time, the Lord had said, “Except those days be shortened, there should no flesh be saved; but for the elect’s sake, those days shall be shortened.” And the days of persecution were shortened by the Reformation, in order that the “salt” should not all be destroyed. The tendency of the national policy of civil-law religion then was to destroy the true people of God; and if that had been accomplished, if the “salt” had all been destroyed, then verily “no flesh” could have been saved; naturally it would have all gone to decay—just as Sodom fell the very day that Lot went out, and as Jerusalem was allowed to fall as soon as the disciples of Christ fled at the signal which the Lord had previously given them. See Matt. 24:15-20. When the spirit of church-and-state union crept into the ancient church, the “salt” began to lose its savor (Matt. 5:13), and the more the church depended upon the civil government for power, the more its saltness, or preserving quality, departed from it. So we see a like result to-day, as the so-called National Reform principle leavens the church and the government: “If the salt have lost its savor [the Holy Spirit], wherewith shall it be salted?” What can take its place? What can the church do without it? If the only recognized power and representative of Christ be gone, who can be saved? for the total departure of the Spirit makes the close of human probation. And what then shall become of the futile endeavors to save nations, or society, or even an individual, by any power of civil government? What will become of Caesar’s attempts to enforce the law of God, or of any other scheme of salvation by human works? Salvation is “not by [human] might, nor by [human] power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord.” THE REPROACH OF FEET-WASHING.
By Editor
AMONG the things which a contemporary reproaches Seventh-day Adventists with is the adoption of “feet-washing and extreme vegetarian views.” As to the people themselves, we have naught to say. God, not we, is their defense. But we have just a word to say as to the two things named, and the last first. Adventists generally are not extreme vegetarians. Most of those who abstain from flesh meats eat eggs and milk, while extreme vegetarians do neither. But excellent Biblical examples are given in the food which God furnished for forty years, the manna (Exodus 16), and in the pulse and water which Daniel and his fellows fed upon, and upon which they thrived better than all others who fed upon the royal dainties (Dan. 1: 8). As to the feet-washing, we have only the words of our Lord to plead. When He had Himself performed the act, He thus instructed His disciples:— “Ye call Me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than He that sent him. If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.” John 13: 13-17. In His commission to His disciples He gave this instruction:— “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” Matt. 28: 19, 20. “If ye are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are ye.” Will you kindly define what constitutes a true Biblical marriage? Is a marriage ceremony of any real value, and is there any importance to be attached to it by true believers aside from the formality which custom demands of those who enter the state of wedlock? Would not a man and a woman who had solemnly, before the Lord, promised to accept and take each other as husband and wife, be as truly married as tho a civil ceremony had been performed by a justice, or a civil-religious ceremony by a minister of the Gospel? It is impossible to set forth anything definite as to a form of ceremony. It seems to have been regulated by local customs, with certain essentials. In the first marriage, the Creator gave to the man his wife, under what form we know not, altho we do know that there was sufficient form to clearly convey to all parties involved that a marriage had taken place, and the solemn truth was conveyed that the twain should be one flesh, and that the union was indissoluble and the relationship and duty permanent. One of the essential things in marriage seems to have been the passing of the bride from her father’s house to the house of her husband or his father. This was preceded by betrothal, and accompanied with more or less ceremony, and solemn covenant. See references to these customs in the following: Eze. 16: 8-14; Mal. 2: 14; Prov. 2: 17; Gen. 24: 57-60; Ruth 4: 9-13; Isa. 61: 10; Cant. 3: 11; Jer. 2: 32; Matt. 9: 15; 25: 1-10. These and many other scriptures indicate that ceremonies accompanied the marriage, feasts were held, friends were present, pledges were given, covenants were ratified. The right of both wife and children and the good of society demand some formalities in the marriage ceremony, and this seems to have been recognized all through Bible times. The use that is made of marriage as a symbol of the union between Christ and the individual (Rom. 7: 4; Gal. 3: 27), as well as between Christ and His kingdom (Isa. 54: 4-6; 61: 10; 62: 3-5; Rev. 21: 1, 2, 9, 10; 19: 7-9), indicates that more should be made of the marriage itself than a mere formal contract between two parties, tho the world may make too much of the ceremony and too little of the sacred union for life. The sacredness of marriage in God’s sight is also indicated by its prohibitions. While the solemn agreement between the man and woman might, as between them and God, constitute a true marriage, they owe it to posterity and the public to make it public and of public record. And the Bible demands conformity to civil law when duty to God does not contravene. Rom. 13: 1-7. In the issue of March 30, 1904, in your editorial, you make use of the expression “Bride of Christ” as the church of God. Please explain in Question Corner. How can it be that both New Jerusalem and the church can be the bride of Christ? In my opinion the expression, “The bride has not wooed the bride of Christ,” needs some correction or explanation. THE separation of church and state in France goes on with so remarkable rapidity and emphasis that the abolishment of the concordat must soon follow, and all the convention between Rome and the republic be at an end. Premier Combes dares much in this persistent progress, and yet, tho at every move it has been prophesied that 'twould be his last, he still goes on. The expulsion of the "religious" from France left him secure in his parliamentary majority, nor have other and different issues resulted in shaking the government. Now the Eastertide has been characterized by one of the most revolutionary measures, in the stripping from all the law courts the crosses, crucifixes, paintings of saints, and all religious works and emblems, and choosing Good Friday for the day of executing this order. Paintings four centuries old, and a quarter of a century old, ceiling decorations of the latest date, and of long ago,—many hundreds of ivory, silver, and gold images of Christ and crucifixes,—have been equally doomed. But there is a difference between this iconoclasm and its predecessive movements in history. Not wild and rude mobs despoil the sanctuaries—the priests in their churches will not be disturbed, only the houses of the common law will be dissevered from the church of Rome; and the religious decorations will not be destroyed, but as works of art will take their place with hundreds of others of such nature in the grand Louvre gallery. The spoils of many an altar, of many a cloister, are there already, and this is only significant as a decisive step in the turning of the church out of the courts, where it has no business,—and as a notice served upon Rome that the people must order, and not the pope or the Roman machine.—Springfield Republican. THUS THEY WEAVE IT TOGETHER.
By Editor
A CORRESPONDENT of Green Bay, Wisconsin, sends us the following striking statement, relative to the condition of things in that city:— "This city holds the distinction of re-electing one of its aldermen who is a self-confessed bribe-taker, and another one who stands with ten indictments against him by the grand jury for receiving boodle money. I thought this might make an item." It is more than an item. It is the lifting of a great curtain which lets in the light upon the chief cause of the corruption of these times. A great portion of the people are consenting to the evils that are prevalent to-day. In the notorious trial of the one-time mayor of Minneapolis and his following many of the "respectable" people of that great city would rather have seen the whole matter hushed up and the continuance of the iniquity permitted than to have the trial go on and the culprits punished. It has come to be the case that people expect a certain amount of iniquity in the officials whom they elect, a certain amount of bribe-taking and bribe-giving, a certain amount of collusion for personal ends, a certain amount of law-breaking by law-makers, that they may pile up wealth or throw money-making opportunities into the hands of men who have helped them in their election campaigns. The aldermen above referred to were put back into their old position, in spite of their known corruption, their known malfeasance in office. Who is responsible but the people? Who will be responsible for their continued depredations in office but the people who put them there, knowing what they had done and what they would continue to do? And in re-electing such men, the people condone the crimes they have committed and encourage them to the commission of others. And what is true of Green Bay is true of practically every city in the land. This brings forcibly to mind the prophecy of Micah concerning the times just prior to the second advent. He says: "The godly man is perished out of the earth, and there is none upright among men; they all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother with a net. Their hands are upon that which is evil to do it diligently; the prince asketh, and the judge is ready for a reward [bribe]; and the great man, he uttereth the evil desire of his soul; thus they weave it together." Micah 7:2, 3. This shows how the legislative and judicial systems would work iniquity in collusion, taking bribes for decisions rendered without reference to the merits of the case; passing laws for the benefit of those who are willing to pay large sums for their passage, so that they may "hunt every man his brother with a net," and exploit him for their own benefit. That is the condition which the prophet saw would be in the day of God's "visitation" (verses 4-7); and this is the condition which we find existing now. We are bound to conclude that we are nearing the time when the "visitation" of divine justice upon sin and sinners will take place. Men have lived in pleasure upon the earth and been wanton. They are doing it to-day as in no age of the past. Judges and law-makers have wrought wickedly in the past; but to-day the great legislative and judicial systems are considered the legitimate "game preserves" of a great mass of those who wear the legislative toga and the judicial ermine. Sins in the social realm there have been from ancient times; but the great social evil of to-day is a system and a science, grinding its fortunes out of the lives and souls of the innocent and depraved alike. "Shall I not visit for these things? saith Jehovah." If you were told that in a very great heathen city a majority of the inns or hotels, when required, became houses of infamy, you would probably answer that it was the legitimate fruit of fake religion. And if you were informed that in the vast crowds of immigrants that came every year to this same city, ten thousand young women are ruined, going into a life of shame, you might consider it to be horrible, and place the blame on paganism. But suppose your attention is called to the fact that this condition exists to-day in the home land, under the stars and stripes, in New York City. I think the question would inevitably arise, Can this be true? The Independent, of New York, in an editorial article published March 10, 1904, makes the following statement:— Hardened as the city dweller is to a knowledge of the prevalence of vice in all dense centers of population, we doubt if any decent American has read, without a touch of horror, Mr. Jerome's assertion that at least 2,000 of the 2,500 hotels in New York City are "open houses of prostitution." We call ourselves a Christian and a civilized people. We boast that in America the family life is at least as pure as it is elsewhere in the world. We take pride in what we are pleased to call an American reverence for womanhood, as if it were a virtue more characteristic of this nation than of others. We make relentless war upon polygamy, and keep up a persistent agitation for the enactment of uniform laws of marriage and divorce; and yet, in our chief city, a fearless official, who has devoted many of the best years of his life to an attempt to discover the actual facts about our moral condition, and to enforce the law of repression to the letter, is obliged to inform us that 2,000 hotels in this city are open houses of prostitution; and a recent investigator, whose statements are published by authority of the Charity Organization Society, tells us that at least 10,000 immigrant girls, landing at Ellis Island, are annually forced or lured into habits of harlotry. Yet it is very likely that the average American, when reading the above, will put the blame almost wholly upon foreigners and upon cities. Investigations prove that out-of-town visitors contribute largely to the support of this notorious business. These facts are not sweet nor inspiring, especially when we have lulled ourselves to sleep, thinking we are the best people in the world, and live in God's country. But facts are facts, and they must be dealt with, whether beautiful or ugly. What shall be our attitude in relation to these palpable truths? Wholesale condemnations or flashy conference resolutions are about equally futile. You remember the story of the woman taken in adultery, how Jesus got rid of her accusers by saying, "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her"? And they went out, one by one, the oldest rascals first. Our Saviour said, "Neither do I condemn thee: go thy way; from henceforth sin no more." But in most cases to-day, the door of hope is forever closed to the woman who bears the "Scarlet Letter" upon her breast. This is so, because we do not have the religion of Jesus, and know not how to forgive. Resolutions by conferences on paper are at least worth the paper they are written on, and as much more as they are "resolved" in the hearts of the people. Does any one imagine that the great religious reformation begun by Christ, and carried on by the disciples, could have been consummated by assemblies of the church passing resolutions on parchment? "Ye have wearied Jehovah with your words." In the vast conflagration of vice sweeping over this entire country, far worse than any physical fire, we stand with folded hands and pious faces, saying, "Hush! hush!" Our strongest men, and purest, do not give themselves to the study of this problem.9May God have mercy upon us, for man will not. —Rev. Carlisle Summerbell, in Herald of Gospel Liberty. Is not the terrible condition above set forth a complete fulfilment of the Scripture declaration that in the last days "evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse"? "As the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." "Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; . . . even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed." The iniquities of the antediluvians and the Sodomites are prevalent in the world to-day, and the punishments which overtook them will soon be poured out upon this offending generation.