p. 6 | Review and Herald, Vol. 86, No. 33. (8/19/1909)

Review and Herald

Aug 19, 1909

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 19, 1909

God's Thought of Us

By Lydia S. Gould

How wonderful that Thou, my Lord and King, Dost think on me; That from Thy throne, where hallelujahs ring, Thou art quick to see My smallest need, and send a full supply Of grace and help ere I have ceased my cry.

So often, when I do not lean on Thee, But feel quite strong, And confident of my sufficiency, And so go wrong, Thou thinkest on me, and in perfect love, Dost let me stumble, my weak self to prove.

Thou thought upon me ere Thou left Thy throne, On earth to die; Thou thought upon me in the garden lone, With Calvary nigh. My sins have pierced—my guilt been laid on Thee, In overwhelming mercy I go free.

Now fill my mind and heart each passing hour With thought of Thee; And let the Holy Spirit’s love and power Abide in me; Bring fruit unto Thyself from all my ways, And let me daily live unto Thy praise.

—Lydia S. Gould, in New York Observer.

The Second Number of the Protestant Magazine Now Ready

By Editor

In the year 1903, M. Urbain Gohier, of Paris, a prominent French writer, said in his book on the American people (quoted in the Literary Digest, August 22): “The Catholic question in the United States is one of extreme interest. Within a few years it will be the Catholic peril. . . . The Catholics, it is true, are a minority; but they are a minority that is homogeneous, organized, and disciplined. They form a solid block in the midst of a heap of crumbling Protestant fragments. . . . When there shall be an army of fifteen or twenty millions of Catholics, firmly united, by a tyrannical faith, trained under the régime of the confessional, blindly committed to the will of their priests, and directed by the brains of a few high Jesuits, we shall see how much of a showing there will be for American liberty.”

and other Protestant lands, and clearly shows the urgent necessity for turning on the brilliant rays of a strong, clear searchlight such as the Protestant Magazine.

FACSIMILE OF COVER PAGE. ORIGINAL PRINTED IN TWO COLORS

The twenty-five thousand copies of No. 1 are nearly all sold, leaving us only the number required for further orders and for completing further subscriptions. Ministers, tract societies, lay members, Bible workers, teachers, colporteurs, and students have vied with one another in their successful efforts to build up a large subscription list. During three consecutive months nearly ten thousand yearly subscriptions were received. Scores of agents have taken the magazine out and have sold thousands of copies.

Noteworthy Commendations

The Protestant Magazine has been kindly received by the public press in many quarters. Prominent thinkers have also expressed themselves in favor of its principles. From the letter of a well-known professor in a leading theological seminary we quote: “I believe the Protestant Magazine is in position to render a distinct service to the citizens of the North American republic.” A Baptist pastor in the State of Washington writes: “It ought to reach every man and woman in the world. I have not had such a feast of good, old-fashioned Bible doctrine for a long time. It is too bad that it can be issued only quarterly.” The June, 1909, issue of the Bible Student and Teacher (organ of the Bible League of North America) says: “The Protestant Magazine, a new anti-Romish quarterly magazine, has shown its appreciation of the present issue, as the abandonment of the fundamental doctrine of the Reformation by members and leaders in Protestant churches.” The chief representative of organized labor in America says: “I think your magazine excellent.” A New York attorney accompanies several yearly subscriptions with the words: “All [articles] were good.” Rev. John H. Kager, financial secretary of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (Baltimore, Md.), for fourteen years a missionary to Italy, and author of “Romanism in Its Home,” writes as follows: “I am fully persuaded that there is not only a place for such a magazine, but a real need for it, and that much can be accomplished if it is properly edited and managed.” A leading Lutheran pastor writes: “I will do all I can to assist you in the widening of your circulation.”

Contents of Number Two

Favorable comments are heard everywhere regarding our unique cover design. The front page contains Christ’s own definition of “The Fundamental Principle of Genuine Protestantism.” On the second page will be found “Our Theses,” a series of nine declarations of Protestant principles that have been much commented upon, and favorably. A notable sentiment on what constitutes “The Center of Protestantism,” by D. Alcock, appears on the third page of cover. On the last cover page appears a striking picture of “The Book of God,” and Cowper’s famous poem beginning with these words:— “A glory gilds the Sacred Page, Majestic like the sun; It gives a light to every age, It gives, but borrows none.”

EDITORIALS.—Ceasing to Protest, or The Failure of Protestantism—Old-Fashioned Religion—A Suggestive Reminder—The Effective Protest—Simple and Wonderful—Fulfilling Righteousness—The Gospel of War, or the Militant Attitude of the French Catholic Church—Destroying the Protestant Foundations, an array of most valuable admissions from decadent Protestantism—The Papacy in Prophecy, or Is the Pope Anti-christ? (conclusive proofs from history, needed by every Bible student)—The Readjustment of History.

CONTRIBUTED ARTICLES.—The Papacy in Politics, by J. O. Corliss, containing some valuable history—Evolution: Its Relation to Sin and Salvation, by Franklin Johnson, D. D., Professor in the University of Chicago—Is Truth Essential? by Rev. Smith Baker, D. D.—Luther at the Diet of Worms, by Eugene Lawrence, the famous historian of the papacy—The Romanizing Movement, by H. Grattan Guinness, D. D., author of “History Unveiling Prophecy”—The Limits of Christian Toleration—A False Master, by C. M. Snow—The Daniel Foreview of Romanism, by H. Grattan Guinness—The Church of Rome and Religious World-Empire, by Percy T. Magan.

NEWS NOTES AND EXTRACTS.—Fifteen separate items, from Catholic and Protestant sources, without comment, relating to Romanism and decadent Protestantism. These give some indications of “the falling away” from Bible standards, and of the declared purpose of the Roman Church to make America a Catholic country. This department is a veritable arsenal for Bible Protestants.

Price of This Magazine

Yearly subscription, 25 cents; foreign, 35 cents a year. Single copies, 10 cents; 5 to 20 copies, 5 cents each; 25 to 400 copies, 4 cents; 500 to 800 copies, 3½ cents; 1,000 or more, 3 cents.

How You May Use the Magazine

Send it for one year to your friends, to judges, lawyers, college presidents, professors and students, physicians, and other leading thinkers of your town or State.

If you are just beginning this work, send for leaflet, “How to Sell Our Magazines.” Address your tract society or the Protestant Magazine, Washington, D. C.

THE WORK — AND — THE WORKERS

By Editor

AN order for 1,000 copies of the August Life and Health has just reached us, from a new worker in Canada. We welcome the brother to our large army of agents.

THAT large edition of 130,000 copies of the Temperance number of the Youth's Instructor is nearly all gone. It is wonderful the way this beautiful magazine sells!

EVERY church librarian should be supplied with a copy of the revised edition of that excellent little book, “The Missionary Idea,” by Mrs. A. E. Ellis. Price, in stiff cloth binding, $1; paper, 50 cents, post-paid.

ONE of our agents reported orders to the amount of $63.60, as the result of 36 hours of regular work. The average amount earned per hour was about $1.75. Another agent reports 31 hours and $56 worth of orders, an average of over $1.80 an hour.

FOR the month of June, the Review and Herald shipped over twenty thousand pounds of books, and in July the weight was over thirty-two thousand pounds. This does not include the mail or express orders; it includes only the books that were sent out by freight.

THE largest single order for Liberty has just been received from Mrs. Nettie Moran, through the Western Washington Missionary Society. It calls for 3,100 copies, 3,000 of which will be sold in two of the largest cities in that State. We say “will be sold,” because that is this sister’s record.

“THE PRACTICAL GUIDE TO HEALTH” is at once a concise yet comprehensive work on anatomy, physiology, and hygiene, written in a fascinating manner, and is a valuable compendium of necessary information regarding the treatment of common diseases and the care of the sick. It may be had in cloth binding, $3; library, $4; full morocco, $5.

WHO would not greatly appreciate a member of the family who could answer thousands of practical questions, and furnish the information needed in every household emergency? Any one may have just such a friend in “Home and Health,” a health book of 589 pages, dealing with more useful subjects than any other book ever written. This practical and valuable friend may be made a member of any household for $3, cloth; $4, library; $5, full morocco.

IN a recent editorial, William Marion Reedy states that the public press is so subservient to corporation and other “interests” that the only medium left for the truth is tracts and pamphlets. It was largely through the use of tracts and pamphlets that the early pioneers of this message published a knowledge of the truth. Send for our latest list of pamphlets and tracts. Carry a supply of suitable tracts with you to distribute. A little leaflet even may be the means of saving a soul.

BROTHER G. C. HOSKIN, secretary of the Iowa Tract Society, orders 5,200 periodicals to be used in connection with their camp-meeting periodical campaign. Note the order: 1,500 copies of Life and Health, 1,500 copies of The Protestant Magazine, 500 of the Temperance number of the Youth’s Instructor, 500 of Liberty, and 1,000 copies of the REVIEW,—a total of 4,000 copies of our ten-cent magazines. We trust that other conferences will join those that have already decided to hold home missionary institutes in connection with their camp-meetings. The plan was briefly outlined on page 2, last week.

The Conditions of Salvation

By Editor

Editorial

The Conditions of Salvation

THE conditions of salvation are plainly stated in the Scriptures. Our Lord declares: “Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” In answer to the question, “What shall we do?” propounded by those “pricked in their hearts” by the words of Peter, he responds: “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sin, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” When God threw down the walls of the Philippian prison by an earthquake, releasing his representatives, the jailer “came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, and brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.” We learn, then, from these scriptures, that the conditions of salvation consist in being converted, in repenting and being baptized, in believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. These terms express in different forms one complete work. He who truly believes on Christ will repent and be baptized, and he will be converted or changed into a new creature in Christ Jesus. His faith will not be one of mere mental assent, but one which is manifest in a living experience, in the manifestation of the life and character of the Author of his salvation. There is much that passes for faith which is nothing more than feeling, an arousing of the emotional nature. Living faith, or saving faith, leads to a reformation of life. The old life of sin is buried, and the Spirit of Christ Jesus purifies the motives and controls all the purposes of the believer. Thus by the spirit and power of divine grace, through faith, is the disciple of the Master transformed into the character of heavenly citizenship.

“Armies of the Aliens” Put to Flight

By W. A. S.

In 1487 Pope Innocent VIII issued a decree, or bull of extermination, against the Vaudois people of the Piedmont valleys of Italy. Their consistent refusal to accept Romish doctrine, long back prior to the Reformation of the sixteenth century, had made them objects of papal hatred.

The Inquisition had been refused permission to set up its machinery of espionage and torture in the valleys, the people turning its agents back by force of arms. This brought the papal bull ordering total destruction.

Troops came in thousands, eighteen thousand regulars of France and Piedmont, joined by a host of plunderers and brigands who were after the spoils of the happy valley homes. Some of the accounts of deliverances that saved the people from total destruction in this first general persecution of the Vaudois, read like stories from the days of Israel.

The campaign of massacre, watched by a legate named Cattanée, in behalf of the pope, began in an attack on the valley of Angrogna. The enemy was breaking the line of the Vaudois defense, at a point behind which were the women and children and aged. Dr. Muston says:—

Seeing their defenders yield, these families threw themselves upon their knees with many tears; women, and children, and old men united together in fervently crying, “O Dio aijutaci! O Lord, help us! O my God, save us!” This cry of prayer was the only cry which broke from their hearts in their distress, and arose to heaven. But their enemies laughed at it, and seeing this company upon their knees, hastened their advance. “My fellows are coming—they are coming to give you your answer,” exclaimed one of their chiefs, surnamed “the Black of Mondovi,” because of his swarthy complexion; and immediately, joining bravado to insult, he raised the visor of his helmet, to show that he was not afraid to encounter the poor people whom he insulted. But at that moment a steel-pointed arrow, let fly by a young man of Angrogna, named Peter Revel, struck this new Goliath with such violence that it penetrated into his skull, between his eyes, and laid him dead. His troop, struck with terror, fell back in disorder; a panic seized them; the Vaudois took advantage of the moment, and impetuously rushed forward, hurling their adversaries before them, and, eagerly continuing the pursuit, swept them into the very plain, where they left them vanquished and dispersed. Then, reascending to their families so miraculously delivered, they likewise flung themselves upon their knees, and all together gave thanks to the God of armies for the victory which they had just gained.—

“History of the Waldenses,” Vol. I, pages 33, 34.

But the invaders were by no means defeated; they had only been turned back and angered. On they came the next day, fiercer than ever:—

The enemy took a different route; ascending by the bottom of the Valley of Angrogna, in order to penetrate to the Pra du Tour, whence, mounting by La Vachera, they would have been masters of the whole region. But a dense and dangerous mist, such as sometimes unexpectedly appears in the Alps, settled down upon them just at the very moment when they were entangled in the paths most full of difficulty and of peril. Ignorant of the locality, marching apprehensively, uncertain of the route which they ought to take, and not able to advance except singly, over rocks, upon the brink of precipices, they gave way before the first assault of the Vaudois, and not being able to range themselves in order of battle, they were easily defeated. The first who were repulsed fell back precipitately, overthrowing those who were next to them; the confusion spread further and further; disorder reigned everywhere; the retreat became a flight, the flight a catastrophe, for those who attempted to retrace their course slid over the humid rocks, of which the edge was concealed by the mists. Others, again, thinking to find in these sinuosities a way of escape, precipitated themselves into the chasms in which the former had already perished. Very few succeeded in making their escape, the greater part losing their way in the depths of the ravines, or on the crests of the rocks.

This decisive defeat, which is to be ascribed to the will of God rather than to the arms of the Vaudois, accomplished the deliverance of that valley, in which the troops of Cattanée never appeared again. The detachment which was destroyed in so complete and unexpected a manner, was the last which showed itself upon the banks of the Angrogna before the period of the Reformation. The captain who commanded it was called Saguet de Planghère, and the chasm into which he fell is called to this day, after the lapse of four centuries, the Toumpi de Saguet—Saguet’s hole.—Id., pages 34, 35.

“The weapons of our warfare are not carnal.” The Reformation history

shows that it was by witnessing and experiencing suffering and not by fighting that the light of truth was caused to shine. But in these experiences of deliverance we see God’s providence in keeping alive the little band of witnesses in the Piedmont valleys until the time of reformation should come. And in all the reading of God’s providences in former days, we are to remember that he is the one who delivers us in our conflicts with spiritual foes to-day. W. A. S.

Our Turbulent World

By C. M.’s.

Is it not an anomaly that at a time when the most influential pulpits in the land are echoing the cry of peace, and the walls of the Peace Palace at The Hague are rising skyward, all the great nations of the earth should be rising to their feet and unsheathing their swords?

Is it not an anomaly also that in a generation when the name Christian is more prevalent throughout the world than at any time in the previous history of the race, the peace of the world should be more universally threatened than at any time in the past?

The Scientific American of May 29 last, in an editorial discussion of Mr. A. H. Dutton’s proposal for an international police force to take the place of all the standing armies, and an international navy to take the place of all the great individual navies, says:—

Among the civilized nations to-day there are taken from industrial pursuits, during peace times, no less than four million two hundred fifty thousand able-bodied men, whose maintenance costs nearly two billion dollars annually. These many millions would be returned to peaceful occupations [if Mr. Dutton’s program were carried out], and their place would be taken by an international army of arbitration of five hundred thousand men, costing annually about one hundred fifty million dollars. To co-operate with this army there would be an international navy, in which there would be no battle-ships, consisting only of cruisers, gunboats, and transports for the moving of troops. . . . All the permanent fortifications would be abandoned, and the nations having disbanded their national armies, would depend upon their civil police for the execution of their own local laws. Each nation would agree to maintain no individual military force whatever. . . . Military training would be restricted to international schools, the manufacture of arms and munitions of war to international factories.

Although the time may not be fully ripe for the sweeping change advocated by Lieutenant Dutton, it can not be denied that the alarming growth of the cost of our present methods of maintaining the world’s peace is driving the nations into an impasse [a place with no exit], the readiest escape from which would seem to be the broad and honorable road of disarmament and armed arbitration.

The journal quoted recognizes the alarming nature of the increase in war and expenditures while still there is no war, and half commends the work of those who are definitely committed to the work of attempting to establish universal peace through a Supreme Court of the nations. Yet the same journal, in the same issue, takes the position that the only protection of one nation against another lies in the possession of superior weapons of war. Upon the question of defense against dirigible balloons, the Scientific American says:—

The Revue Militaire Suisse and other periodicals present some pertinent criticisms, coinciding with the view uniformly held by the Scientific American, that the only adequate means of defense against dirigibles lies in other dirigibles. . . . The only formidable foe of a dirigible, then, is a better dirigible.

This position is in perfect harmony with the theory upon which the nations are working. Each is seeking to get a better army, or a better navy, or a stronger explosive, or a more deadly weapon, or a tougher armor, or a quicker range-finder, or better tactics, than its neighbor possesses. As soon as one nation learns, through its secret agents, that another possesses some military contrivance superior to its own, there is anxious, feverish haste to invent or purchase a better.

Every move of the other power is studied to see whether it may not be the beginning of a sinister attack upon its interests. Suspicion among the powers has come to be well-nigh universal. Russia and England are strengthening their interests in Persia, and Germany looks upon their movements there with jealous eye. Russia covets India, and England watches every move of Russia in that direction. Russia would like to reach the open sea, either by way of the Dardanelles and the Mediterranean or through the Persian Gulf. England would not feel safe for a moment in the possession of India if Russia had a right of way to the Indian Ocean. England regards the possession of a navy that is stronger than that of any two European powers as an absolute necessity to her continued existence as an independent power, and the recent rapid strides of Germany in the building of a great navy has caused the greatest amount of uneasiness in England, and the government has sprung to the task of maintaining her “two-power standard” with desperate earnestness.

The increased activity of the Malay and Mongolian peoples and the aspirations of the East Indians toward independent nationality are causing much anxiety not in England alone, but in other European countries as well. The victory of the Japanese over the Russians has caused the East Indians to feel that the risk might not be so great in making an attempt for independence.

Sleeping China is awaking, and the nations are compelled to take notice. That nation is gradually adopting Western methods, and the wise men of the world can see the approach of a time when China will not permit herself to be dealt with as some of the powers have dealt with her in the past. The assurance of the approach of that time is causing wakeful moments in various quarters of the world.

North Africa is adding her fuel to the fire of unrest, and is helping what she can to keep the nerves of the world tense and tingling.

The new government on the Bosporus is trying to settle into place, but finds it difficult to do so without jostling its neighbors and “rocking the boat.” Turkey considers the island of Crete her territory; but the majority of the Cretans prefer to be under the sovereignty of Greece. Greece would like to annex the island. Turkey demands that Greece withdraw certain Greek officials from Crete and disavow all intention of annexation. Greece replies that the matter is in the hands of the four protecting powers, and Turkey must deal with them. The representatives of those powers are now in conference over the matter, and both powers are “advised” to keep the peace. It is an extremely delicate situation; for if Turkey should take the field while a sort of “holy war” is going on in North Africa, there is no one wise enough to foresee the results. All the “powers” have their eyes upon the Bosporus and Constantinople. Both Russia and Austria would like to control that gateway to the Mediterranean—and they are not friends. Russia, Bulgaria, and Servia will never forgive Austria for assuming sovereignty over Bosnia and Herzegovina, nor will Russia soon forget Germany’s threat of invasion made when the last-mentioned undertaking was about to be consummated.

The balance of power is so delicately adjusted, and all the powers are so well prepared for war, that they mutually fear any move by any of them. For none can tell in what move may lie the beginning of that war which they all feel must one day come. They all see the trend of events, and talk among themselves of a waiting Armageddon.

Concerning these conditions which are commanding the attention of the world, but especially the Westernizing of China, the Washington Post of July 24 says:—

We are playing with fire, for a civilized China, as we see it in Birmingham and Manchester in Europe, and Pittsburg and Chicago in America, will make strides like a giant to first place among the nations. India will fall, a ripe pear, in her lap. She will engulf Japan, and banish Russia from Siberia.

whenever her people become Westernized.

Westernize China and it will develop a warlike spirit equal to any, with the elan of France or Japan, the pluck of England or America, and the skill of Germany. Then suppose the Moslem peoples become her allies. They are Asiatic and fanatic in their hatred of Christendom. With an awakened and civilized China, who can be assured that the Moor will not again plant himself in Spain? Will a Charles Martel rise, at the stamp of a foot, to turn the crescent back from Tours?

Before we civilize China, would it not be better to wait the fulfilment of the prophecy: “And He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”

That will be time enough to Westernize China.

But China will not wait for the fulfilment of those words—which are not in any sense a prophecy of what will be, but only of what men will say. The contract just let by the capital city of China to an American firm to place two thousand five hundred telephones in that city marks an epoch in the history of that sleeping giant. China is waking, and the Moorish Islamites have already begun to declare that the Moors must retake the Alhambra and re-establish in Spain the kingdom of Abu-Abdallah. These two hereditary foes have met in northern Morocco within the past few days, and some thousands have already fallen. The strike and the revolution in Spain are making it impossible for that country to use her entire force against the Moroccan tribesmen, and this is encouraging them, and bringing thousands to their standards.

This gives but a hasty resumé of the delicate and dangerous situation which confronts the statesmen of the world at the present time. This world is like a vast dynamite magazine; and no man can tell just when the blow will be struck that will detonate the powerful explosive. That it will not be struck until the work of God is ready for it, is certain; but that it will not be long delayed, is beyond question. This is the prophecy that is now in process of fulfilment:—

“Proclaim ye this among the nations; prepare war; stir up the mighty men; let all the men of war draw near; let them come up. Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning-hooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong. Haste ye, and come, all ye nations round about, and gather yourselves together thither: cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Jehovah. Let the nations bestir themselves, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat; for there will I sit to judge all the nations round about. Put ye in the sickle; for the harvest is ripe: come, tread ye; for the wine-press is full, the vats overflow; for their wickedness is great. ‘Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! for the day of Jehovah is near in the valley of decision. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining. And Jehovah will roar from Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but Jehovah will be a refuge unto his people, and a stronghold unto the children of Israel.’ Joel 3:9-16.

What a blessed assurance is this that in such a time God will be a refuge for his people! It is the time of Jacob’s trouble, out of which God declares he will save his people. It is drawing nigh, and they are wise who make that shelter theirs while still there is opportunity. C. M.’s.

A Personal Creator

By William Warren Prescott

The first revelation of God made to us in the Scriptures presents him as the Creator: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Our worship and service are due to him as the Creator: “O come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before Jehovah our Maker.” The acknowledged superiority of Jehovah above all the false gods is based upon the fact that he is the Creator: “Great is Jehovah, and greatly to be praised: he also is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are idols; but Jehovah made the heavens.” If, therefore, it can be shown that there is no personal Creator, it follows that there is no God to whom our worship and service are due.

The Sabbath is the sign of the creative power of a personal God: “It [the Sabbath] is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever: for in six days Jehovah made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.” The Sabbath is also a sign of the same creative power exercised in renewing the soul in the image of God: “Wherefore if any man is in Christ, there is a new creation.” “Moreover also I gave them my Sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am Jehovah that sanctifieth them.” Any effort to destroy the certainty of a personal Creator is therefore indirectly an effort to weaken confidence in a personal Sanctifier, and to render void any obligation to observe the seventh-day Sabbath, the sign of a personal God as the Creator of the material universe and the Renewer of the soul.

These considerations are a sufficient explanation for the persistent endeavor in this last generation, when the message of Sabbath reform is being given, to substitute an impersonal force for a personal Creator and evolution for special creation. We are glad to note that there are some who still speak in defense of the Scriptural view of creation, although they do not yet see fully the ultimate result of the claims of evolution in their relation to the message of preparation for the advent of our Lord.

One such writer is Rev. G. L. Young, from whose vigorous article in the Bible Student and Teacher for July we quote:—

The best and wisest of them [evolutionists], however, (note that it is not said those that are the most severely logical in the application of their system!) see that evolution by itself alone is not sufficient to explain the facts that actually exist. So they frequently refer one to some ever-present superintending power that does the rest. They may not, however, refer us to a personal God. Quite frequently they ultimate in an impersonal pantheistic conception of nature—like the heathen of old—or, as Dr. Wallace puts it, “some great source of energy and guidance”—whatever he means by this expression.

Now in reality, this “great source of energy and guidance” (that some, like the Athenians of old, are thus blindly groping after) is the personal God. And this God is the One who “in the beginning created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1); who “created the great sea monsters, and every living creature that moveth wherewith the waters swarmed, after its kind, and every winged bird after its kind” (verse 21); who also “made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creepeth upon the ground after its kind” (verse 25); and who finally capped the creative climax when he “created man after his own image.” Verse 27. Notice that all were created after their kind, and all without the intervention of Darwinian, Lamarckian, or any other kind of evolution. This stupendous fact of creation—a truth too high and noble, apparently, for some minds to grasp—this is the highest truth known to man. . . .

There is no record, scientific or otherwise, that God has ever imparted life or brought into existence the varied multitudes of living forms in any way different from that revealed in the Sacred Scriptures—by act of creation. Against this creational truth there exists no valid objection; of it there is no scientific refutation. The multitudinous conflicting theories of the ages,—mythological, philosophical, and scientific,—these but serve to accentuate its superiority, its beauty, and its truth.

Instead of being made in the image of God, the evolutionist contends that man was made in the image of the beast. The words of a recent writer will illustrate this. He says:—

“It is plain that in whatever image man was made; the monkey, the dog, the cat, the bear, the mouse, and even the bird, the turtle, and the fish are made in substantially the same image.”

This might have done for philosophical but unscientific heathen whose darkened minds were incapable of anything higher and truer (cf. Rom. 1:20–28); but for those who have come to a nobler and juster apprehension of things—that there is no creation apart from a Creator—that above all, back of all, and the personal Cause of all, there stands One who inhabits eternity (see Ps. 90:2; Isa. 57:15), and apart from whom nothing was ever brought into being (see Genesis 1; Acts 17:23; Rom. 11:36)—such nobler minds are gifted with the power to understand that the phrase “special creation” is not “meaningless,”

that the process itself is not beyond “imagination,” and that man came into being by precisely such grand process. In the words of one of the ablest men of the nineteenth century—thinker, preacher, lecturer, editor, author, and infidel-fighter, the eloquent but sarcastic H. L. Hastings—we may say:—

“Of course there is no disputing about tastes; and if a man chooses to put away his history, his heritage, and his hopes as a son and creature of Almighty God, and trace his genealogy to the monkey, the mollusk, the moner, and the mud, we must respect his rights and allow him to exercise his preferences; but when he insists that we shall also trace our genealogical line through ancestral apes and patriarchal pollywogs, we respectfully decline the honor. We prefer to look higher; and as there is still a little uncertainty among scientific men on the point, we propose to give ourselves the benefit of the doubt and still look up to a Heavenly Father, instead of down to a little dot of a mud-spawned moner, as the source of our existence.” . . .

We are bold to affirm that there is no real proof, absolutely none, from any source whatsoever, that man “has been slowly developed from lowest savagery and brutehood.” And this we do not fear to say right in the face and eyes of all the infallible asseverations of “cocksure” dogmaticians of the last half century. The parrot-habit of repeating with an air of unfaltering infallibility, that evolution is a settled thing; that it is believed by practically all thinkers; and that its rejection is a sure indication of mental incompetence,—all this has doubtless had its effect as a game of bluff, but it has added not one whit to the weak-kneed position of evolutionary traditionalism.

The real issue is between evolution and special creation. The difference between these two methods of operation is the difference between self-salvation through a long and laborious effort for moral uplift as the result of developing the divine germ within, aided by the influence of external environment, and that salvation which is the gift of a personal God and received through faith in a personal Christ. The former is the gospel of heathenism, the latter is the gospel of Christianity. There ought to be no hesitancy in making the choice between the two.

W. W. P.

The Missionary's Privilege

By W. A. S.

RECENTLY we have seen words from newly appointed missionaries expressing what we all know to be their joy at getting on without things, for the love of the work. Older workers in pioneer fields know all about it.

Thus, Brother Arthur Warren, of England, appointed to Argentina, South America, to take charge of the printing-office in the suburbs of Buenos Aires, writes:—

‘There were several defects in the printing-machine [it is a primitive one], which made me think at first it would be impossible to do good work with it. But as I have earnestly sought the Lord, he has helped me to devise arrangements by which to remedy the difficulties.

This trip to South America was Brother Warren's wedding journey also, and of their setting up of a new home he adds gleefully, in a personal letter:—

We had not been accustomed to home-made furniture, but we are now in possession of quite a few household effects which once were used for the carriage of books, and we are also quite proud of some of the kitchen utensils made by ourselves.

From the African Kavirondo country, on the shores of Victoria Nyanza, Sister Carscallen writes to the workers' paper in England, of the home side of their mission station, and remarks that their furniture, except for three chairs, was made from the packing cases in which their goods and supplies were brought into the country.

Back in the home country, where cheap furnishings are readily available, these workers would of course furnish their home differently. But it is just as pleasing and profitable a thing in the home lands to study economy in household furnishings for the sake of the cause of God. These are privileges and blessings that may be shared by all.

We are not dwellers in this world, but pilgrims and campers only.

W. A. S.

Continue reading: Loyal to God's Instrumentalities