Review and Herald, Vol. 83, No. 3. (1/18/1906)

Review and Herald

Jan 18, 1906

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Jan 18, 1906

Our Publishing Work

The Lord gave the word: great was the company of those that published it. Psalm 68:11.

Any publication mentioned on this page may be ordered through your conference tract society or from any of our publishing houses or their branch offices. See last paragraph on this page for addresses of our publishing houses.

THE price of “Lover’s Love” was given in the REVIEW of January 4 as $1. The book is worth a dollar, but the price is only 75 cents, and the writer of that announcement was evidently thinking of the value of the book rather than the price.

AN exhaustive study of the Scriptures on the sanctuary question is to be found in “Looking unto Jesus.” In these days when the faith of some is being overthrown, it will do us good to review these subjects which constitute the pillars of our faith. Price in plain buckram cloth, 75 cents.

IN simple language, and with appropriate illustrations in color and black, the little book “Things Foretold” tells the beautiful stories of Daniel in Babylon, and makes interesting to young readers the various symbols of this wonderful prophetic book. It is dedicated “to the children, both young and old, who love to read things that are true.” Price, 50 cents.

WHAT wonderful lessons are drawn from Christ’s sermon on the mount in that most excellent book, “Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing”! The instruction is so simple and so practical, and every page so fully breathes the spirit of the Master, that one can not read it without being helped and encouraged. Read it for yourself. Loan your copy to some discouraged “shut in,” and thus bring joy and happiness to some one else. Price in cloth, 60 cents.

MANY will be pleased to know that Spanish publications can now be received from the International Publishing Association, College View, Neb., on the following subjects and at the prices mentioned: Agony of Christ in the Garden, ¼ cent; Benefits of Bible Study, ½ cent; Christ Our Righteousness, ½ cent; Coming of the Lord, ¼ cent; Captain of Our Salvation, 15 cents; Gift of God to Man, ¼ cent; Great Commandment, ¼ cent; Is the End Near? ¼ cent; Living by Faith, 1 cent; Price of Our Salvation, ¼ cent; The Temptation, ¼ cent; What Must I Do to be Saved? ½ cent. In addition to the list given above a series of The Family Bible Teacher is being printed in the Spanish language. This series of Bible readings will impart light upon a number of important truths. Those who have read it in the English know what it contains. It is also encouraging to know that this valuable series of Bible studies may now be procured in five languages; namely, English, German, Danish-Norwegian, Swedish, and Spanish. Each of these series is enclosed in a printed envelope. The English and Spanish sell at 10 cents a set, post-paid, while those of the other three languages are 20 cents a set.

THE “Bible Text Book” contains 49 Bible readings on various points of Bible truth. Several charts, a table of contents, and an index of subjects make this a most valuable compendium of Scripture topics. Pocket size, flexible cloth, 30 cents; leather, round corners, 50 cents.

“I WISH my wife could make such a dessert as that,” said a man after partaking of a dish which pleased him. Your wife and all the other wives can prepare healthful, appetizing desserts and other foods if they will use the recipes in “Friend in the Kitchen,” by Mrs. Anna L. Colcord. Price in cloth, 50 cents; in water-proof paper, 25 cents.

IF you were called upon to preside at a meeting, would you know how to do it, or what motions took precedence? Would you know what to do if an appeal was taken from the decision of the chairman? All these questions and many others are answered in “Smith’s Diagram of Parliamentary Practise.” A simple map with converging lines shows the relation of any motion to every other, and answers over 500 questions in regard to parliamentary practise. Breast-pocket size; price, 50 cents.

FOR home study of the English language, we know no better text-book than Bell’s Language Series. They are properly graded and adapted to language study from the first lesson to the college course. This series is the genuine, natural method in English, and gives an understanding of principles rather than a statement of rules. Book One, “Primary Language Lessons,” 65 cents; Book Two, “Elementary Grammar,” 65 cents; Book Three, “Complete Grammar,” 80 cents; Book Four, “Rhetoric and Higher English,” $1.25; Book Five, “Studies in English Literature,” $1.75.

WITH such a book as “Marvel of Nations” one can often interest a neighbor or a friend who would not be inclined to read a book that is wholly religious. Every one is more or less interested in, and proud of, the wonderful progress of this country, and when it is shown that the United States is a subject of prophecy, and that this government is yet to play an important part in world-history, this will likely open the way for an interested reading of this book, and later for the presentation of other points of truth. The book contains 324 pages, and the price is $1.25 in cloth, plain edges; $1.50 with gilt edges.

Orders for any publication mentioned on this page may be sent to any conference tract society or to any of the following: Review and Herald Publishing Association, Washington, D. C., and Battle Creek, Mich.; Pacific Press Publishing Company, Mountain View, Cal., also Portland, Ore., and Kansas City, Mo.; Southern Publishing Association, Nashville, Tenn., and Fort Worth, Tex.

Editorial

By Editor

Faith and Works

THERE has been much theorizing about the relation between faith and works, but the truth is stated in few words through the apostle James, who says: “As the body apart from the spirit is dead, even so faith apart from works is dead.” A faith which does not work is as dead as a body without the spirit, and a dead faith is just as valuable as a dead body. A living faith involves a course of action which is in harmony with the profession of faith. A profession of faith which is not accompanied by such a course of action is utterly vain. A man who professes to believe in the Bible as the Word of God, and then puts forth systematic and earnest efforts to prove to others that the Bible is utterly unreliable, demonstrates by his works that his alleged faith is rank unbelief. Those who loudly and repeatedly advertise their faith in the messages of the spirit of prophecy, but who persistently refuse to obey the plain instruction given through this agency, on the ground that the Testimonies are self-contradictory and unreliable, thereby give evidence that their faith is devoid of the vital element. They are keeping up the forms of faith after the substance has departed. They are juggling with words when they say that they believe the Testimonies. Those who with an honest heart follow the counsels given through the spirit of prophecy feel no necessity of declaring over and over again that they believe the Testimonies. In the fruit-bearing season it would be of little use for a crab-apple tree to exhibit the sign, “This is a peach tree.” The fruit borne is more convincing testimony than any statement which may be out of harmony with it. “Every tree is known by his own fruit.” A genuine faith is shown not only by the fact that works appear, but also by the further fact that the works are in harmony with the profession of faith. “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven.”

Abandoning Protestant Ground

So long as the early Christian church received the Word of God as the Word of God, it was full of light and power. When it began to exalt men, and to put the word of man in the place of the Word of God, its light gradually became darkness, and its power was changed into weakness. The Reformation of the sixteenth century was an attempt to restore the Word of God to its proper place as a sufficient rule of faith and practise. An extract from the history of those times will show this. We quote as follows:—

On the eighteenth of October, 1512, Luther was received licentiate in divinity, and took the following oath: “I swear to defend the evangelical truth with all my might.” On the day following Bodenstein solemnly conferred on him, in the presence of a numerous assembly, the insignia of a doctor of divinity. He was made a Biblical doctor, and not a doctor of sentences, and was thus called to devote himself to the study of the Bible, and not to that of human traditions. He then pledged himself by an oath, as he himself relates, to his well-beloved and Holy Scriptures. He promised to teach them faithfully, to teach them with purity, to study them all his life, and to defend them, both in disputation and in writing, against all false teachers so far as God should give him ability.

This solemn oath was Luther’s call to the Reformation. By imposing on his conscience the holy obligation of searching freely and proclaiming boldly the Christian truth, this oath raised the new doctor above the narrow limits to which his monastic vow would perhaps have confined him. Called by the university, by his sovereign, in the name of the imperial majesty and of the see of Rome itself, and bound before God by the most solemn oath, he became from that hour the most intrepid herald of the Word of life. On that memorable day Luther was armed champion of the Bible.

We may accordingly look upon this oath, sworn to the Holy Scriptures, as one of the causes of the revival of the church. The sole and infallible authority of the Word of God was the primary and fundamental principle of the Reformation. Every reform in detail that was afterward carried out in the doctrine, morals, or government of the church, and in its worship, was but a consequence of this first principle. In these days we can hardly imagine the sensation produced by this elementary and simple but long-neglected truth. A few men of more enlarged views than the common, alone foresaw its immense consequences. Erelong the courageous voices of all the Reformers proclaimed this mighty principle, at the sound of which Rome shall crumble into dust: “The Christians receive no other doctrines than those founded on the express words of Jesus Christ, of the apostles, and of the prophets. No man, no assembly of doctors, has a right to prescribe new ones.”—D’Aubigne’s History of the Reformation, Vol. I, chap. 7, pars. 6, 7.

Thus the Reformers appealed from tradition and the creed of the church to the authority of the Word of God, and by the power of that Word they wrought a reformation, and brought in a revival of primitive religion. This was the beginning of Protestantism. Hence came a separation from the Roman Catholic Church, because Rome makes the Word of God secondary to the traditions of the church. Here is an official statement of the Roman Catholic belief upon this subject: “Though these two divine streams [Holy Scripture and tradition] are in themselves, on account of their divine origin, of equal sacredness, still, of the two, tradition is to us more clear and safe.” Thus true Protestantism places the Bible as supreme in matters of faith and conscience, while Catholicism gives the preference to tradition.

During recent years there has been a decided tendency to abandon the true Protestant ground concerning the infallible authority of the Holy Scriptures and to lean toward the Roman Catholic position, exalting the value of traditions and creeds. Two causes have doubtless contributed to this change: the work of the higher critics, and the inability of the defenders of the Sunday sabbath to present any Biblical evidence for the observance of the first day of the week as the sabbath. The higher critics have weakened the faith of many in the reliability of the Scriptures, and the effort to justify Sunday-keeping has driven religious teachers to turn to tradition for their authority in the absence of a “Thus saith the Lord.”

A clear instance of this tendency to weaken the authority of the Holy Scriptures and to exalt tradition is found in the case of Dr. Agar Beet, an English clergyman who has rejected the doctrine of eternal torment, and the Methodist church leaders. Dr. Beet stated his position as follows:—

I have endeavored to reproduce the teaching of the New Testament about the fate of the wicked, thus appealing from the traditions of the church to the earliest Christian literature. In this research I have found abundant and decisive proof that Christ and his apostles taught that all who put faith in him and walk in his steps will enjoy endless blessedness in the presence of God; and sufficient proof that he also taught that ruin, utter and final, awaits those who disobey him.

The tradition of the church during many centuries has gone beyond this teaching by asserting that this ruin involves endless torment as bad as the intense pain caused by fire to a living body. It has also asserted the endless conscious existence, in happiness or misery, of every human soul.

This last doctrine was undoubtedly taught by Plato. So far as I know, it was never taught, at least among those with whom the early Christians came in contact, outside the influence of the school of Greek thought, of which Plato is the best-known representative. Moreover, I have quoted proof that the earliest Christian writers who spoke of the soul of man as immortal—e. g., Tertullian—attribute this teaching to Plato. I have also tried to prove that the New Testament, which speaks frequently about the intense suffering of the lost, does not justify the assertion that their sufferings will be endless. In other words, by an appeal to the earliest Christian writings, I have endeavored to purify the Christian tradition from unwarranted accretions which seriously misrepresent the teaching of Christ.

In attempting to weaken the force of Dr. Beet’s teaching, which rests upon the authority of the Word of God, the Methodist Times, the organ of Methodism in England, suggests that it is a mistake, especially in dealing with a subject of so much importance, to depend wholly upon the Scriptures, and urges that “the mind of the church” should be taken into account. It says:—

We are disposed to ask, further, whether, in endeavoring to confine himself to the text of Scripture, Dr. Beet has not taken too narrow a range. However high may be placed the authority of the group of inspired books which make up the New Testament, and which the Christian consciousness, both at and since the making of the canon, has recognized as standing by themselves, they are not the sole means of communication from God to man. The Holy Spirit has been actuating the church ever since the day of Pentecost, and guiding it into truth, and the authority which set its seal on these books as proceeding more or less directly from the apostles, has not exhausted its powers. The mind of the church remains, and has always been operative; and though it has no claim to infallibility, it can not be neglected as the revelation of Christ proceeds from age to age. It is, therefore, we submit, a mistake, especially in dealing with the deep mysteries of evil—its origin, its atonement, its end—to confine the Christian view to a balancing of the texts of the first documents of our religion.

In commenting upon this extract the Present Truth (London) well says:—

If “the mind of the church” is to interpret or displace the plain statements of Scripture, then indeed is the Bible a worthless guide, for “the mind of the church” has interpreted it in many different ways. By such a conception of the Scriptures they are deprived of their power to safeguard the church against error, and to recall it from its wanderings, since by those very wanderings, according to the Methodist Times, the Bible is to be interpreted.

To appeal to tradition as against the Bible is to abandon Protestant ground and to stand with the Roman Catholic Church. This is one of the signs of the times. It shows the tendency Romeward. It indicates that the time may not be far distant when Protestantism will “stretch her hand across the gulf to grasp the hand of the Roman power.” It becomes those who bear a message of warning against the beast and his image to hold fast to the fundamental principle of Protestantism—“the sole and infallible authority of the Word of God.” This is the hope of this advent movement.

Governmental Religion

By L. A. S.

The literature of those who are undertaking through Congress to make the United States a Christian nation, has much to say about the state as a moral person. In their scheme the idea is fundamental that the state, no less than the individual, ought to profess and practise a religion. They have in mind, of course, the religion professed by the majority of the people in this country,—Christianity. Their aim is to set up here a “Christian civil government.”

But there can not be any such thing as state or governmental Christianity. The very nature of the two things—the state and Christianity—makes any union between them impossible. There may be a state religion, it is true, but that religion can not be Christianity.

The state aims at justice, secured through force. This is the only basis for civil government. It could not be maintained on any other. But if Christianity did not mean something else than force and justice alone, what would become of the transgressor of God’s holy law? Justice would demand his death, and the force of the Almighty would be used to execute the sentence. And as “all have sinned,” the death penalty would be upon all, and the whole human race would be cut off. The Almighty would simply execute the death penalty upon the sinner just as the state executes the death penalty upon the one convicted of a capital crime.

The state does not argue with any person on the point of obedience to its laws. It does not try to persuade men. It simply makes laws and executes them. The one who violates the law is at once taken into custody, and if the violation is proved in court, he is sentenced according to the penalty provided by law. But in Christianity, “mercy rejoiceth against judgment.” Christianity stands not only for justice, but for mercy to the transgressor.

The civil law admits of delay in the execution of its penalty, but only to secure the ends of justice. Much complaint is made about the law’s delay, and it is recognized that it would be much better if a speedy execution of the penalty could be secured. There would be less encouragement given to lynching and anarchy, which are greatly against the state’s best interests. But the express purpose of Christianity is to secure delay in the execution of the penalty of the divine law, while the sinner is given opportunity to escape its execution altogether.

The rule of Christianity is that upon confession of the transgression, forgiveness must follow. “If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him. And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him.” Luke 17:3, 4. “If we confess our sins, he [God] is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9. But how long could a civil government proceed by that rule? If the state were required to forgive the murderer or the thief as often as he might repent of his crime, how long would it be before law-abiding people would be saying that something was radically wrong with the system of government? It needs no argument to show that under such a system nobody’s rights would be secure, and that anarchy would be the quick and sure result.

This is what would be if the state should attempt to practise the principles of Christianity. On the other hand, if the state should try to be Christian without practising the rules of Christianity, it would surely be unchristian. In the realm of religion, using force alone and seeking the speedy execution of judgment, as its own best interests would demand, it would necessarily work directly against Christianity, which requires judgment to give place to mercy. The civil government would at once become an engine of persecution, run by the fire of religious animosity. The history of

state religion has ever been stained with blood.

The attempt to set up a Christian government in this nation must, therefore, fail as the like attempt has failed in other nations and times, and will be ruinous to both church and state; and this should be understood by the American people. L. A. S.

The Price of Victory

By W. A. S.

At the opening of a new year in our missionary advance, we may well look back over the way we have come in 1905, and thank God and take courage. A guiding Providence pressed new workers forth into the fields, new territory was annexed, and the outposts were advanced at every point of the compass.

The world-wide ranks of believers in this third angel's message are being led forward to final victory. We see the word literally fulfilling, “Thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left.” The advance has cost consecrated treasure, representing much love and sacrifice. It has meant hardness endured as good soldiers. With our lives so spread out in the enemy's land, somewhere, always, we know workers are struggling against disease and perils to health and life. Some have had to turn back to get a fresh hold on life. And last year's missionary advance was marked by some new missionary graves, solemn reminders of the stern reality of this conflict.

First to fall in the foreign missionary ranks last year was Dr. Maude Thompson Miller, in far Honan, China. It was a soldier's message that she left us. With eternity before her she bore testimony that life itself is not too great a price to pay for the hastening forward of this work in the darkest corners of the earth.

The life was not laid down in vain, and that mound of earth in Shang-tsai Hsien will ever speak to the Chinese of the love of Jesus that brought her there to minister to them. And possibly by this time two young people from our Australasian school are already sailing for Honan, having determined to respond to Sister Miller's farewell call to our young people to press in to fill up and extend the ranks in China.

GRAVES OF D. A. ROBINSON AND F. W. BROWN, AND OF A LITTLE ORPHAN BOY, KARMATAR, INDIA

Next to fall, stricken with fevers in foreign climes, were two missionaries sent out from Germany. Brother Teschener, a nurse, had but landed in Syria, for service in Jaffa and Jerusalem, when he was called to lay down the armor. Brother Wunderlich, who went out in the second party to German East Africa, aided in erecting the new mission station of the German Union Conference, and then, stricken with death, returned to die in Germany. Thus our brethren in Europe show that in the comradeship of this service they, too, are ready to join us in giving not only means for the missionary advance, but the price that soldiers must ever be ready to pay for victory on the field of conflict.

Though for some time out of the foreign field, Sister E. D. Robinson, who died in South Lancaster, in November, had spent most of her later years in the mission fields. When she laid away her companion, Elder D. A. Robinson, in India, six years ago, she gave him from her heart for stricken India. Who could give a greater gift than that of the life of one most beloved on earth to the missionary cause?

Having made that gift, Sister Robinson could find rest only in spending the remaining strength of her life in pleading India's need. She sleeps in her old home State, Vermont, while Elder Robinson rests under a spreading mahooah, or famine tree, on the school farm at Karmatar. It is a tree whose blossom affords nourishment in time of drought or famine, when other vegetation fails. Though these two servants of God rest from their labors, their lives, given for India, will continue to bring blessing to those who hunger for the bread of life in that land of constant soul famine.

Another name which was often seen in foreign missionary reports a few years ago, that of George R. Drew, of England, must now be written on the roll of those who have finished their course. Brother Drew was the pioneer in ship mission work, and from his post of duty in the great port of Liverpool he sent the literature of this message forth by ships that sailed over every sea. He died at Woking, near London, in October, a worker with the literature to the very last.

We thank God for the testimony of lives laid down in the cause of missions. It is a part of the price of the missionary advance. We grieve for these fellow workers. We feel their loss. But the way in which they poured out the life in service nerves us to fresh endeavor, and determines us to deeper consecration.

While some are giving life and loved ones, it is only reasonable that we should consecrate our lives in service and our means to the cause of God. It will take all we have to buy the field. But it is worth the price to every soul of us to have a part in winning the victories of this advent cause.

We have thought to review the cost in lives of the year's advance in mission fields abroad only. But no less precious were the lives laid down during the year in service on the home field. Among these, Elder D. T. Bourdeau was not only one of the earliest pioneers in the message, but the pioneer missionary in

France as well. Elders C. A. Washburn and N. P. Nelson, veteran leaders in the work, and others whose labors have ended in the home land of the message, leave us the inspiration of lives true and loyal unto the death. It is one field and one service—the third angel's message to all the world.

Blessed the dead who have fallen asleep in the service and hope of this last glorious message. “Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them.” Every grave that marks the way of victory and advance along all these years of pilgrimage and conflict shall but spur us on to greater earnestness in the finishing of the work committed to us.

“For all thy saints who from their labors rest, Who thee by faith before the world confessed, Thy name, O Jesus, be forever blessed, Hallelujah!”

“Thou wast their Rock, their Fortress, and their might, Thou, Lord, their Captain in the well-fought fight, Thou, in the darkness drear, their one true Light, Hallelujah!”

“Lo, there breaks a yet more glorious day, The saints triumphant rise in bright array, The King of Glory passes on his way, Hallelujah!”

W. A. S.

Spiritualism

By L. A. S.

“If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them; thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams.” Deut. 13: 1-3.

It was not the sign or wonder set before the people, but the character of the teaching, that was to govern their course of action. The Lord had taught them the way of righteousness, and that teaching was superior to everything else. The sign or wonder given them might be exactly similar to those that had been given them by the Lord, and it might be something predicted which would come to pass, yet if it was in support of teaching that was contrary to the word of God, it was to be given no weight.

Miracles are wrought in confirmation of divine truth, and they are also wrought in support of satanic lies; the test of the true and the false comes in the nature of the teaching. “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.”

In Elijah’s day fire was brought down from heaven as evidence that Jehovah was the true God. In our own day exactly the same thing is to occur in support of exactly the opposite teaching. Rev. 13: 13. We are not to be convinced by this miracle that the power behind it is divine, and that we should make an “image to the beast.” The character of this wonder-working power is to be judged by its teaching. We are to prove the spirits which have gone out into the world, not by their ability to perform signs and wonders, but by their confession that Jesus is come in the flesh. 1 John 4: 1-3.

The essence of spiritualism does not consist in rappings, table tippings, and mysterious phenomena within a cabinet. The essential part of spiritualism is its teaching; and the essence of its teaching is the spiritualistic conception or philosophy regarding truth which dissipates the reality of divine things, confuses substance with shadow, obscures the clearness and destroys the force of Christian doctrine. Its whole purpose is to spiritualize away the meaning and the force of Christian truth. Spiritualism is a much broader deception than some of us have heretofore conceived it to be.

Only those are secure against spiritualistic deception who have received the love of the truth and have put on the whole armor of God. L. A. S.

The Slave Trade in Portuguese West Africa

In Harper's Magazine for January, the following description is given by Mr. H. W. Nevinson, of the manner in which the slave trade continues to flourish in Portuguese West Africa, in spite of the edicts of the great commerce-controlling powers, which are supposed to have swept this iniquitous practise out of existence. The slave trade in this part of Africa exists not in defiance of the law, but in evasion of it. Writing of what he saw at Benguela, Mr. Nevinson says:—

A day or two before the steamer is due to depart, a kind of ripple seems to pass over the stagnant town. Officials stir, clerks begin to crawl about with their pens, the long, low building called the tribunal opens a door or two, a window or two, and looks quite busy. Then, early one morning, the curador arrives and takes his seat in the long, low room as representing the beneficent government of Portugal. Into his presence the slaves are herded in gangs by the official agent. They are ranged up, and in accordance with the decree of Jan. 29, 1903, they are asked whether they go willingly as laborers to San Thome. No attention of any kind is paid to their answer. In most cases no answer is given. Not the slightest notice would be taken of a refusal. The legal contract for five years' labor on the island of San Thome or Principe is then drawn out, and, also in accordance with the decree, each slave receives a tin disk with his number, the initials of the agent who secured him, and, in some cases though not usually at Benguela, the name of the island to which he is destined. He also receives in a tin cylinder a copy of his register, containing the year of contract, his number and name, his birthplace, his chief's name, the agent's name, and 'observations,' of which last I have never seen any. Exactly the same ritual is observed for the women as for the men. The disks are hung round their necks, the cylinders are slung at their sides, and the natives, believing them to be some kind of fetish or 'white man's Ju-ju,' are rather pleased. All are then ranged up and marched out again, either to the compounds, where they are shut in, or straight to the pier where the lighters, which are to take them to the ship, lie tossing upon the waves.

The climax of the farce has now been reached. The deed of pitiless hypocrisy has been consummated. The requirements of legalized slavery have been satisfied. The government has 'redeemed' the slaves which its own agents have so diligently and so profitably collected. They went into the tribunal as slaves, they have come out as 'contracted laborers.' No one in heaven or on earth can see the smallest difference, but by the change of name Portugal stifles the enfeebled protests of nations like the English, and by the excuse of law she smooths her conscience and whitens over one of the blackest crimes which even Africa can show.

Note and Comment

The recent self-sacrifice of a woman to the sun-god, in Chicago, calls public attention to the fact that Baal worship is not altogether a thing of ancient history, but survives even in its ancient forms, in the midst of twentieth-century civilization. A Chicago telegram says:—

Revelations incident to the self-immolation last week of Mrs. Concetta Rizz, who was burned to death in what appears to have been an attempt to sacrifice herself to the sun, which she worshiped under the pagan name of Apollo, leaves little doubt that thousands of Chicagoans worship the sun-god, to whom they pray, and in whose honor they burn incense and pour libations. Those who have investigated say sun-worship is practised in this city by ten thousand persons, who, with rites and ceremonies of one sort or another, have revived adoration of the fiery principle for which the sun has stood as the symbol and embodiment from the remotest pagan times;

Not civilization nor scientific discovery, but Christianity, is now, as anciently, the safeguard against pagan superstition.

Police Warning to Chicago Women

AFTER a most brutal and wholly causeless murder in Chicago of a highly respected woman, who is the fifth woman murdered in that city within the last six months, Chief-of-Police Collins, of that city, has issued a notice admitting that the present police force can not be depended on to protect life, and advising all women residents to remain within doors after nightfall.

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