Your ShelfYour Projects

Review and Herald, Vol. 79, No. 35.

Charity Exalted Above Gifts and Knowledge

Review and Herald

Sep 2, 1902

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 2, 1902

Charity Exalted Above Gifts and Knowledge

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains; and have not charity, I am nothing.
3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
4 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth,
7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
8 Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.
9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
10 But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity. 1 Corinthians 13.

Some of Our Educational Books

READ CAREFULLY WHAT IS SAID OF THEM.

The Bible Reader,

By Prof. E. A. Sutherland,
is a word builder, a primer, and a first reader. It also teaches how to read and write the Roman script, and contains the first lessons in number work. “The Bible Reader” is designed for use in the home and in the church school. The author has not only employed the most practical and natural methods of imparting instruction to the young, but draws his lessons from the flowers, trees, grass, animals, birds, fishes, insects, and the open scenes of nature, and thus the young minds are directed to the God of nature, real literature, and Bible truth.
Price, postpaid . . . . . . $0.35

Mental Arithmetic For Home and School.

By Prof. E. A. Sutherland.
It is with a feeling of much satisfaction and assurance of the appreciation on the part of mothers, teachers, and children that we call attention to this new treatise on the subject of mental arithmetic. Not because of any lack of books treating on this subject, but from the fact that this work presents it to the pupil from an entirely new, original, and practical standpoint, yet in harmony with sound arithmetical principles, and greatly simplifying them.
The book contains 87 lessons, 240 pages, including drills in addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, common and decimal fractions, giving practical examples in astronomy, botany, physiology, natural history, carpentry, masonry, farming, percentage, tables of liquid and dry measure, square measure, linear measure, avoirdupois weight, etc., covering the entire field for children.
Price, . . . . . . . . . . . . $0.65

HOME AND CHURCH SCHOOL MANUAL.

By Prof. C. C. Lewis.
Designed to aid in unifying the church-school work by furnishing a basis of organization upon which parents in the homes and teachers in the schools may build.

DESCRIPTION OF PARTS.

Part I sets forth the general principles of Christian education, and states the objects of church schools. Part II applies these principles to the home training, and shows parents how to educate their children in the home until they are old enough to enter the church school. Part III provides a course of study for church schools, recommends text-books, and tells how to teach each subject in every grade. Part IV presents a course of study for intermediate schools, and outlines the principles upon which they should be conducted. Part V contains hints and helps for teachers, based upon questions which they have asked, and drawn from the long experience of the author. Part VI solves many of the practical problems in the church-school work with which the people are everywhere dealing.
In Paper Covers, with ornamental design, 35c. In Cloth Covers, with ornamental design, 50c.

Bell’s Guide to Correct Language. A Ready Reference Book.

A treatise convenient for the use of all people in all callings and professions, and especially helpful to printers, teachers, students, and those who write for the press. It contains facts that everybody wishes to know about the correct use of the English language, and these facts are so arranged that they can be instantly found. This book is written in three parts.
Part I. PRACTICAL GRAMMAR; containing the most essential grammatical laws, illustrated with examples that reveal the correct and the incorrect use of words.
Part II. PUNCTUATION; in an entirely new and simple method, embracing illustrations, rules, and examples, so arranged that one can instantly find what he wants.
Part III. USE OF CAPITALS; though this is one of the most difficult problems in the use of the English language, the rules in this book render it as simple as possible.
Substantially bound in cloth. Size, 6x9¼ inches.
Price, postpaid . . . . . . $1.00

Bell’s Language Series.

In Five Books.
This series gives an outline study of the English language, adapted to the training of the child from the nursery till he graduates from college. These books claim the attention of practical educators everywhere. Based upon the natural method, giving and illustrating principles rather than rules, and are particularly suited to home study. This unique series consists of —
Book One, Primary Language Lessons from Life, Nature, and Revelation. 227 pages. Cloth . . . . . . $0.65
Book Two, Elementary Grammar. 224 pages. Cloth . . . . . . .65
Book Three, Complete Grammar. 281 pages. Cloth . . . . . . .80
Book Four, Rhetoric and Higher English. 375 pages. Cloth . . . . . . 1.25
Book Five, Studies in English Literature. 599 pages. Cloth . . . . . . 1.75
Order From Your State Tract Society, or
REVIEW & HERALD PUB. CO., Battle Creek, Mich.

It Is No Fable

By Editor

Editorial

It Is No Fable

THE idea of the coming of the Lord in power and great glory is not the imagination of a disordered mind nor a willfully contrived deception. “We have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received from God the Father honor and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” This voice was heard on the mount of transfiguration when the writer of this epistle was present, and saw his glory. On that occasion “Jesus was clothed with the light of heaven, as he will appear when he shall come ‘the second time without sin unto salvation.’ For he will come ‘in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.’ . . . Upon the mount the future kingdom of glory was represented in miniature.” The glory of the second coming of Christ is based upon the testimony of an eyewitness who has himself seen the glory. Those who saw this revelation saw “the kingdom of God come with power.” Our hope is resting upon a solid basis. “Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence.” Let us continue to pray, “Thy kingdom come.” Let our attitude still be that of those “looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God.”

One Thing

THERE is danger of thinking that the gospel consists of a great number of distinct principles or ideas which must be studied and mastered before one can be sure of salvation. It is well to remember the words of the Master, “One thing is needful.” The psalmist understood this when he said, “One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple.” An abiding fellowship with God is the one thing needful. To dwell in the house of the Lord means to be on familiar terms with the Lord,—in constant communion with him. This is that fellowship which means that “we dwell in him, and he in us.” This experience includes all other experiences. Not to know this experience is to miss the very essence of Christianity. This was the fatal flaw in the experience of the rich young man. “Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me.” Fellowship with God means the fellowship of his life, and his life constantly flows out in streams of blessing. With God to live means to give. The lives of those who are in real communion with him will be marked by the same characteristic. A selfish withholding of what we are able to minister to others, a sense of private ownership of those gifts and blessings which have been placed in our hands, and of which we are the stewards only, are the indications that we lack the one thing needful,—the abiding fellowship with the life which gives itself for the benefit of others. This was the real difficulty with the rich young man. The direction of his life current had always been inward,—a getting of possessions for himself. He had not experienced that change in the new creation which turns the direction of the life current outward,—a giving freely to others. This is the law of the life. “For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” This is “the simplicity that is in Christ.” Do not neglect the one thing.

Receiving the Gift

It is not sufficient for our salvation simply to know the fact that the Lord has given to us “all things that pertain unto life and godliness.” There must be an actual appropriation of the Lord’s gifts. We may consent to the fact that Jesus, the divine Son of God, has come into the world to seek and to save the lost; we may acknowledge that he is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him; we may admit that the Bible is the word of God, divinely inspired and intended to be a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path; we may affirm all this and much more, and yet utterly fail of salvation because we do not lay hold upon the heavenly gift. It does not satisfy a hungry man simply to read the bill of fare, even though it should be a very liberal one; it does not save the drowning man simply to know that a life preserver has been thrown to him; when every fiber of the being is crying out for water, it is not sufficient to stand on the bank of a sparkling stream and watch its onward flow. The hungry man must eat. The drowning man must seize the life preserver. The thirsty man must drink. So it is with spiritual things. The gospel is “the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth;” and to no others. “As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God.” The Bereans are commended as “more noble than those of Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind.” The testimony of John was, “Of his fullness have all we received.” When Peter preached on the day of Pentecost, it was those “that gladly received the word” who made up the company of three thousand converted souls. All this shows that we must actually take the gifts which God has provided for us. “What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me? I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord.” The return which is acceptable to the Lord is to take what he gives, and then call for more. Of course we shall let our requests be made known with thanksgiving, and thus with continual praise we receive the continual stream of his gifts, and this settles the whole question of salvation; for “whoso offereth the sacrifice of thanksgiving glorifieth me; and prepareth a way that I may show him the salvation of God.”
“I take salvation full and free, Through him who gave his life for me, He undertakes my all to be— I take—he undertakes.
“I take him as my holiness, My spirit’s spotless heavenly dress, I take the Lord, my righteousness— I take—he undertakes.
“I take the promised Holy Ghost, I take the power of Pentecost, To fill me to the uttermost— I take—he undertakes.
“I take him for my daily guide, Secure—whatever ill betide— Since he is ever at my side, I take—he undertakes.
“I simply take him at his word, I praise him that my prayer is heard, And claim my answer from the Lord— I take—he undertakes.

Studies in the Gospel Message

The subject of the Sabbath-school lesson for September 13 is, The Secret of Continuance.
When the Lord appeared unto Moses in the burning bush and commissioned him to bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt, he revealed himself as the I AM. “Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.” After the first refusal of Pharaoh to let Israel go, and the apparent failure of the effort of Moses to bring deliverance to that people, “God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I am JEHOVAH: and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, as God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH I was not known to them. . . . Say unto the children of Israel, I am the Lord [Jehovah], and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched-out arm, and with great judgments.” In the article in “Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible,” dealing with the Hebrew word which is translated “Jehovah” in our Authorized Version of the Bible, after stating the probable derivation of the word, the writer says: “If the etymology above given be accepted, and the name be derived from the future tense of the substantive verb, it would denote, in accordance with the general analogy of proper names of a similar form, ‘He that is,’ ‘the Being,’ whose chief attribute is eternal existence.” Thus when the Lord revealed himself as the Redeemer of his people from Egyptian bondage, he announced the name which emphasized his everlasting continuance.
Many centuries later, just before the Babylonish captivity, when the Lord revealed to the prophet Habakkuk his purpose to raise up “the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation,” and declared that “they shall come all for violence: . . . and they shall gather the captivity as the sand,” the prophet based his hope of deliverance upon this same attribute of continuance. “Art thou not from everlasting, O Lord my God, mine Holy One? we shall not die.”
When God manifested himself in the person of his Son Jesus (Jehovah-Saviour), as the Redeemer of the world from the bondage of sin, it was necessary that the people should understand that their hope of redemption from sin and of eternal life (continuance) depended upon their faith in Jesus as the revelation of the I AM in the flesh. He therefore said unto them, “If ye believe not that I AM, ye shall die in your sins.” And the miracles recorded in the book of John, like the miracles recorded in the book of Exodus, are the miracles of the I AM, the proof and the pledge of a Redeemer in the flesh who could “save his people from their sins.”
After Jesus had been raised from the dead, and had taken his seat “on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man,” the Holy Spirit moved the apostle Paul to write the epistle to the Hebrews as the interpretation of the real meaning of the sanctuary and its services. In the first chapter he sets forth the relation of sonship as being fundamental to the whole question, and in the familiar language of the Old Testament he declares the divine character and glory of the Son, in whom, as the eternal Word, God has spoken “at the end of these days.” In one of these quotations the eternal being of the Son, the Creator, is contrasted with the brief time during which all created things will endure. Let us read it: “Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of thy hands: they shall perish; but thou continuest: and they all shall wax old as doth a garment; and as a mantle shalt thou roll them up, as a garment, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail.” In the second chapter this same eternal Son is revealed as bringing many sons unto glory by identifying himself with humanity, that he might be able to deal with sin in behalf of humanity. “Wherefore in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.” “By offering himself to make intercession for the transgression of the human race, Christ executed the office of priest.” “For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people’s: for this he did once, when he offered up himself.”
Thus the eternal Son, the I AM, the Word which was God, became flesh, in order that sin might be condemned in the flesh, and “to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.” By this union of divinity and humanity in the person of Jesus, the Son of God and the Son of man, provision was made so that all transgressions of God’s holy law could be freely pardoned, and transgressors of the law could be changed into keepers of the law. Here is the statement of the Scripture: “Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.” “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” This is the gospel of the forgiveness of sin. This is the gospel of “the righteousness of Christ, which is made manifest in obedience to all the commandments of God.” How this wonderful change can be wrought constitutes “the mystery of the kingdom of God.” It is the secret of continuance.
The real law of God is his life. Jesus knew it as such. “I know that his commandment is life everlasting.” The obedience of faith is harmony with this life. Sin is the transgression of this law, a going contrary to this way of life. Obedience is the path of life, the experience of continuing. Sin is the path of death, the experience of stopping. “In the way of righteousness is life.” “Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” Righteousness is constructive. Sin is destructive. He who accepts Christ the eternal Son as his righteousness is thus brought into fellowship with the I AM, and like the Son, he continues.
God hates sin, but loves the sinner. “The wages of sin is death,” and if sin is permitted to continue, the sinner must cease to continue. God’s purpose is to put an end to sin, and in making provision for sin to be removed out of the earth he makes provision that the cleansed sinner shall continue forever. “The world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth [continueth] forever.”
The consideration of these principles makes it clear that in the setting up of the fifth kingdom so that “it shall stand forever,” the complete removal of sin out of the earth is involved, and the destruction of “him that had the power of death, that is, the devil.” That which prevents the continuance of the kingdom must be removed if the kingdom is to be established upon the basis of eternal continuance. God’s method of successfully dealing with this problem is the mystery of the gospel, the secret of continuance.
We are now prepared to see that when the God of heaven sets up his kingdom in the earth so that “it shall stand forever,” he must deal with sin not merely in the ordinary manner in the forgiveness of the individual sinner, but in the actual blotting out of sin from the universe. This means the cleansing of the sanctuary, the final work with reference to the disposal of sin. This question will be studied more fully in later lessons.
The conclusion seems to be plain that in the gift of the eternal Son, the I AM, and in the provision thus made for the forgiveness of sin by declaring “his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past,” God has revealed the secret of the continuance of his kingdom in the earth. It is the work of the preacher of the gospel “to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery,” that men may be brought into the actual experience of partaking of the divine nature and of knowing the secret of continuance not merely as a theological theory, but as the fact of the eternal life manifested in the flesh.

Open All the Storehouses

By Uriah Smith

“AND the famine was over all the face of the earth: and Joseph opened all the storehouses, and sold unto the Egyptians; and the famine waxed sore in the land of Egypt.” Gen. 41: 56.
Between Jesus and Joseph there is more than an analogy; for the latter was a type of the former; and from this we may derive instruction and comfort. Anciently in Egypt there was a famine which waxed sore in all the land. So there is a famine in all the earth to-day, not, perhaps, a literal famine of bread in every locality, but a famine, a scarcity, of that which only a greater than Joseph, namely, our Lord Jesus Christ, can supply, a famine of the word of the Lord and the truth necessary for this time. And our work is to try to save as many as possible of the children of men by leading them to turn their steps to Christ, to partake of the bounties of his grace, and make preparation for salvation in his kingdom. For we are living in a time when it is more apparent than at any previous time in the world’s history, that the world is lying in the arms of the wicked one; that wicked men and seducers are waxing worse and worse, and the love of many is growing cold. This exactly fits the sad picture of the last days. Every day’s reports of the outbreaking crimes, defalcations, frauds, dishonesty, and oppression, in the social, religious, and political worlds, are sufficient to awaken the most careless observer who is willing to see, to the fact that the days of Noah and Lot are stamping their impress upon the condition of our own times, and showing the relation we bear to the scenes which prophecy has marked out before us.
When the famine came on Egypt, according to Joseph’s interpretation of the lean kine, and the people cried to Pharaoh for bread, he “said unto all the Egyptians, Go unto Joseph; and what he saith to you, do.” Verse 55. So now the One who corresponds to the king of Egypt in Joseph’s time, the Lord our righteousness, sends us to Jesus Christ for the truth for this time, the gospel of the kingdom, which is to go to all the world as a witness and a preparation for his coming, and which is the world’s great need to-day, as the people of Egypt needed the stores of the granaries of Joseph’s day; for this gospel is “the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.” Rom. 1: 16.
The king of Egypt could be approached only through Joseph. So with Jesus: “No man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14: 6); and, “All men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father.” John 5: 23.
In all the land no other but Joseph could open the storehouses. So Jesus controls the great storehouses of God’s fullness, and we are to go to the Father through him for the supplies we need. For God “loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand.” John 3: 35.
Joseph was the fit person to open the storehouses for the people. He had planned the storehouses, and was therefore the proper one to control them. Gen. 41: 33-36. “And Pharaoh said unto his servants, Can we find such a one as this is, a man in whom the Spirit of God is?” Verse 38. Joseph carried out the storage, on a noble scale: he gathered corn “until he left numbering; for it was without number.” Verse 49. So with our Lord. He has not only made ample provision, but he has wisdom to distribute it well. “For it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell” (Col. 1: 19); “and of his fullness have all we received.”
Joseph, says the record, opened all the storehouses. For this very purpose he planned and filled them, to distribute to the people’s needs. This shows that the ample provisions of God’s grace are designed to be distributed. The storehouses were opened in an appropriate time; for the famine was upon all the face of the earth. Gen. 41: 55, 56. And Joseph kept them open while the famine lasted. This is more than fulfilled in Jesus, in whom all fullness abides. He is ever near, and may be approached daily. Every seeker will find in him a ready supply.
Joseph opened to all; he had an eye especially to Israel; but he was a father also to Pharaoh, and the preserver to many peoples.
It was a gratifying privilege to live near to such granaries. But how sad if any had died without their provisions! And how infinitely sad if any, under the free gospel invitation, let the opportunity go by unimproved. We do not read that any were sent away unsupplied. But the gospel does better than Joseph did; for food was sold only to those who wanted to buy; but the blessings of the gospel are offered to us without money and without price. But it is only our reasonable service that we surrender ourselves, our substance, our abilities, our time, our all, to the Lord, in return for the infinite blessings which he offers to us without money and without price.
“Nothing ye in exchange shall give, Leave all you have behind; Freely the gift of God receive, And peace in Jesus find.”
U. S.

Better to Be Peculiar Than Fashionable

To be called peculiar and live is better than to experience a fashionable death.

Trans-Mississippi Congress Resolutions Against Trusts

At the recent session of the Trans-Mississippi Commercial Congress at St. Paul, Minn., the following resolutions were adopted, voicing the sentiment of the congress on the evil of the great commercial combines known as the trusts:—
Whereas, The trust system has been and is a menace to our republican institutions; and,—
Whereas, If allowed to continue to form combinations in restraint of trade and the elimination of competition, the wealth of the entire country will be concentrated in the hands of a few; and,—
Whereas, The said combinations are calculated to destroy the hope and ambition of the youth of the country, it being well understood that the ambition and hope of the young men of this nation have made it great; therefore, be it—
Resolved, By this congress, that the president of the United States be respectfully urged to use all the power vested in his office to the end that the growing power and the influence of the trusts may be destroyed; and be it further—
Resolved, That if in the wisdom of the national congress the laws now on the statute books are insufficient to suppress this growing evil, other more stringent and efficient laws be speedily enacted.
In a speech at Providence, R. I., August 23, President Roosevelt expressed a purpose to act in harmony with this request, but said, however, that the conditions surrounding the problem are complicated, so much so that national legislation which will be adequate will be difficult to frame. He admitted that the complete impotency of State legislation in the matter had been demonstrated.
The problem of the trusts is the problem of the power of money to rule the people. Are the people, from the president, the supreme court, and congress, down to the lowest ranks of society, susceptible to the corrupting influence of the love of money to that degree which will lead them to set aside the principles of justice for the sake of financial gain? If they are, then no legislation, State or national, will avail anything. History is very instructive on this subject.

Note and Comment

IN a recent volume entitled “Facts and Comments,” by Herbert Spencer, who is acknowledged to be the highest living authority on agnosticism and evolution, occurs the following paragraph, among the last words of what the author says will be the last volume from his pen:—
It seems a strange and repugnant conclusion that with the cessation of consciousness at death there ceases to be any knowledge of having existed. . . . Of late years the consciousness that without origin or cause infinite space has ever existed, and must ever exist, produces in me a feeling from which I shrink.
Such testimony, from such a source, is worth considering, in contrast with the assurances of Christianity respecting the origin of all things and a future state of existence. Contrast the position of Mr. Spencer, at the conclusion of his active life, with that of the apostle Paul at the close of his life. See 2 Tim. 4: 6-8. To which of these positions is one led by everlasting truth?

Psychology and the Phenomena of Spiritualism

By Editor

The question, Can psychology explain the phenomena of Spiritualism? is one that is receiving much attention at the present time by those interested in the study of occult things. Recently we published some statements by an authority on psychical manifestations, showing the connection between these manifestations and those of Spiritualism, and the great extent to which certain classes of society are to-day “experimenting” in these mysteries, in the belief that they have to do only with powers and forces inherent in themselves. The subject is again considered in the Literary Digest of August 23, which quotes the opinion of Dr. Noble, of Elmira, N. Y., “who has been studying the phenomena of Spiritualism.” From the line of reasoning which is being followed, and the conclusions which are being reached, it is plain that the logic of belief in the inherent immortality of the soul is making itself felt, and that from this belief as a premise people are beginning to reason toward the conclusion that the dead can and do communicate with those who are yet living on the earth.
The Spiritualists’ point of view on this subject, says the Digest, “is almost invariably repudiated by the Christian church; and yet, as is pointed out by a recent writer, there is no necessary inconsistency in the doctrines of Christianity and those of Spiritualism. Granting the immortality of the spirit, it is not unreasonable to suppose that the spirit might be able to return, and establish relation with its kindred on earth.” (Italics ours.)
The Digest then quotes from Dr. Noble the following statement showing how “science” is coming to the aid of Spiritualism in its contest with Christianity:—
It was not until recent years that science turned her attention to this important subject. So antagonistic was the church to the phenomena, and so bitter her persecution of those engaged with or recognizing them, that scientific men partook of the prejudice, and joined in the oppression. With the advance and spread of education, prejudices have been cleared up, false theological barriers have been torn down, and, while there is still abroad skepticism as to psychic manifestations and prejudices based on false conceptions of the true religion, the thinking classes have been at work, and the foundation of the new science is already laid.
The only safety against this modern “science” and the logic which it employs is the repudiation of the doctrine of man’s inherent immortality. Without this, there would be no starting point from which any of the conclusions affirmed by Spiritualism could be reached. And every Christian ought to repudiate it, since it is a pagan doctrine, pure and simple.

Literary Digest on Roosevelt's Vatican Negotiations

The Literary Digest (New York) points out that the administration’s “undiplomatic” intercourse with the Vatican has been undiplomatic in name only. “Mr. Roosevelt’s positive statement that the negotiations with the Vatican are not of a diplomatic character, has been received,” the Digest says, “with disrespectful amusement. It is admitted,” it continues, “that he may call them undiplomatic so far as he and his mission are concerned, but need the pope and his cardinals be undiplomatic? European papers answer this query in the negative. Another point is that the large foreign element in the United States, not yet trained to the practical separation of church and state, will be bewildered by what Mr. Roosevelt has done.”
The Digest then gives a view of the matter from the standpoint of an impartial observer, and one well qualified to judge correctly on the point of which he speaks. It quotes from the Paris Temps. “De Tocqueville and Laboulaye,” says the Temps, “would shudder in their graves if apprised that the land of the separation of church and state had upon its own initiative rushed so near the peril of an adulterous union of the civil power and the spiritual power.” The Temps then further declares:—
In truth, the plan that Governor Taft was charged by Secretary Root to urge upon Leo XIII and Cardinal Rampolla amounts to a concordat. The United States would not have made a law for the establishment of religion, but upon pretence of purchasing the property of the religious orders, it would have paid the Vatican about ten million dollars. That would have constituted a fund for the endowment of the Philippine clergy. Moreover, the mere fact of the signature of a treaty of this sort by a representative of the federal government and the pontifical secretary of state would have conferred upon the apostolic delegate at Washington a legal standing, a sort of diplomatic recognition. He could then have negotiated directly with President Roosevelt or with his government without having recourse to the services or the officious intermediation of an American citizen like Archbishop Ireland. It will be seen thus that the United States was willing to set a price upon the concessions it asked from Rome. It is for the United States government to decide if the recall of the religious orders and the sanction of the friars’ expulsion are worth such considerable compensation as the abandonment of a secular policy, and the conclusion of a sort of concordat or treaty with the Holy See.
Certainly, when we can quote such statements as this, from such authorities, the prediction that a union of church and state will come in this country, and the belief that the government is playing into the hands of Rome, are entitled to sober consideration.

Taft Arrives in Philippines; Church Lands Sale Assured

GOVERNOR TAFT has arrived in the Philippines, where he was received with a great demonstration of welcome by both the foreign residents and the natives. In a speech the governor stated that the sale of the church lands to the government was assured, and that the money would not go to the friars, but would remain on the islands. The chief contest involved in the negotiations between the government and the Vatican is that pertaining to the schools. The Vatican is determined to retain control of the department of public instruction. The “apostolic delegate” at Manila has received secret instructions from Rome, giving precise information regarding the points to be insisted on in the remaining negotiations with Governor Taft, and the hope is expressed by the papal secretary of state that a “satisfactory solution” of the educational question will be reached.

Young King Alfonso Mocks Relic Worship at Cabadonga

By L. A. S.

A PRESS dispatch which comes from Madrid under date of August 21, reflects credit on the young Spanish king Alfonso, as a youth capable of thinking for himself, and who will not surrender his common sense at the behest of superstition and tradition. The dispatch says that Alfonso has greatly scandalized the church prelates, and is thought to be mentally unbalanced. Then follows this explanation:—
At Cabadonga the king visited the shrine, the most famous in Europe. The bishop of Cabadonga conducted his majesty toward the sacred relics. The bishop showed the king St. Peter’s toe nail and St. Paul’s hair. The king stopped him with: “Say, bishop, do you believe that nonsense?”
The scandalized bishop affirmed that he did.
“Well, I don’t,” replied Alfonso. “We have seen enough. I’m going to dinner.” L. A. S.

The Lord Will Furnish the Rest

IF you will furnish the consecration, the Lord will furnish the rest.

Earnest Desire to Serve God's Kingdom

THE first requisite to success in the service of God is an earnest desire and purpose to do something—anything within your power—that will tell for the upbuilding of his kingdom.
Continue reading: An Interesting Letter