Your ShelfYour Projects

Review and Herald, Vol. 84, No. 50.

LOVE FINDS SERVICE

Review and Herald

Dec 12, 1907

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 12, 1907

LOVE FINDS SERVICE

By Eben E. Rexford

What shall I bring to offer at Jesus’ feet to-day, To prove how much I love Him, my debt in part to pay? All sinful and unworthy I come with empty hands, And say, “Dear Lord, Thou knowest,” and know He understands.
But wherefore empty-handed? To-day the harvest waits, And we can all be reapers upon the Lord’s estates.
Each heart will thrill with gladness, if at the day’s decline, It has a sheaf to offer, with “Master, mine is Thine.”
The heart that loves the Master some work for Him may find. It may be in the byways, and of the lowliest kind,
But He will count it worthy; and though the gift be small,
He knows the love behind it, and this is best of all.
—Eben E. Rexford.

The Fourth Number of Liberty for 1907

This number of Liberty presents in a few plain paragraphs the platform upon which Liberty stands,—Christian in belief and practise, but opposing religious legislation, maintaining that men should be left free to accept or to reject any religious belief, and that they should be protected by the civil law in their choice or refusal of any form of religion, in so far as they regard the equal rights of others.
In sixteen strong editorials it is clearly proved that the claim that religious legislation will result in persecution, is not a mere theory. The present attitude of the ministry, the ever-recurring school matter, the demand for Sunday legislation, strange experiments in legislation, dangerous precedents, examples of iniquitous legislation, making and enforcing Sabbath laws, the inconsistency of enforced religious observances, and the present tendency to make Christ’s kingdom of this world, are subverting the principles of good government and destroying genuine religious experience.

General Articles

The general articles in this number of Liberty treat upon the following interesting and important questions:—
“ROME AND THE CONSTITUTION”—The marvelous change fifteen years have made in the attitude of the Roman Catholic Church toward the government of the United States.
“CONSCIENCE FREE”—Can not be coerced. “You can forge a crowbar on an anvil, but you can not hammer out a conscience.”
“THE TRIUMPH OF ROME”—In her co-operation with Protestants in the exalting of Sunday, she is seeking to regain her lost supremacy.
“THREATENING SHADOWS”—The lamblike nature of this nation to be changed into that of the dragon,—historical and Scriptural evidence given.
“THE SPHERE OF LAW”—The object of civil law is to regulate civil conduct, but the civil law that modifies, changes, or interferes with the law of God transcends the powers conferred, and is not respected by the court of heaven.
“WHAT WERE THE PRINCIPLES FOR WHICH ROGER WILLIAMS WAS BANISHED?”—Those upon which the American republic was founded, that the power of the civil magistrate extends only to civil things, and that no man can be held responsible to his fellow men for his religious beliefs.
“THE INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON SUNDAY REST AT THE JAMESTOWN EXPOSITION”—A report of this congress, revealing the present attitude of the principal promoters of religious legislation.
“THE PAPAL THEORY OF GOVERNMENT”—A union of church and state, with the church as the superior, and commanding obedience from the state as the inferior.
“PERSONAL RIGHTS”—Does a religious law abridge these rights?
“THE PEACE CONFERENCE”—Portraying the significant and anomalous signs of the times in the general cry of peace amid almost universal preparation for war.
“THE IMPORTANCE OF THE SABBATH”—The Sabbath of the fourth commandment,—its purpose; the enforcing of its observance being the transgression of the moral law of which it is a part.
“RELIGIOUS LIBERTY”—The liberty which is heaven-born,—vouchsafed as an inalienable right to all intelligences in heaven and on earth, having for its foundation the law of self-denying love; for its Author, the God of liberty; for its demonstration, the life of Christ.
“WHY RELIGION WAS DISESTABLISHED IN VIRGINIA”—An interesting sketch of American history in which is revealed the evils of a union of church and state, and the blessing of religious liberty.
“THE SABBATH IN PURITAN NEW ENGLAND”—Giving the truth about Samuel Peters’ “blue-laws.”
“A NEW YORK JURIST ON RELIGIOUS LEGISLATION”—Extracts from an address by ex-Judge Charles R. Pratt before the New York State Sabbath Association at Elmira, N. Y.; subject, “Sunday Laws and Their Enforcement.”
“THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT”—Blessings for faithful adherence to the law of Christ. Jesus claims the most loyal devotion, even to the endurance of all manner of evil. He is king, his law above all laws.
“TEACHING ONLY WHAT GOD HAS COMMANDED”—Men are to take the law of God just as they find it. They have no right to urge as a matter of universal obligation what God has left as a matter to be decided by every man’s conscience.
“TEMPERANCE”—Sunday Closing of the Saloon; The Cause of the Moral Paralysis upon Society; Lincoln’s Temperance Pledge; England’s Drink Bill; Liquor Drinking in the United States.
Write for prices and agents’ special rates.
Order of any conference tract society, or of Review and Herald Publishing Association, Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C.

Publisher's Page

Conducted by the Department of Circulation of the Review and Herald Publishing Association

December Number of Life and Health

The December number of Life and Health is doubtless the best and most practical number that has ever been issued. It is a special Tobacco number. Any one who likes tobacco will be interested in it, and will be especially benefited by it. Those who do not use tobacco will recognize in it a timely message for this age.
Dr. D. H. Kress, superintendent of the Washington Sanitarium, presents “The Tobacco Habit and Race Degeneracy,” giving facts and figures showing the influence tobacco exerts in accomplishing this degeneracy.
Another practising physician, who has made a study of the general effects of tobacco, gives in this number a strong article on the effect of “Tobacco in the Brain and Nervous System.”
Lucy Page Gaston, superintendent of the National Anti-Cigarette League and editor of the Boy Magazine, portrays some of the “Perils of the Cigarette.”
“An Appeal to Christian Workers,” by Mrs. E. G. White, calls upon parents and teachers for a better personal example in the use of stimulants before the present and future generations.
Dr. Leadsworth, in his “Consulting Room” talks, gives an example of the effects of cigarettes upon a young man of twenty; cites the evil effects of even the fumes of tobacco upon other members of the family; proves that tobacco poison renders the majority of its victims color-blind; explains the evil effects of tobacco in the schools, and shows that the tobacco habit is an inheritance in many cases, etc.
Under the title “Reminiscences,” Mrs. Fitch, the editor of the Healthful Cookery Department, gives some examples of the effects of tobacco using that are more convincing than scientific experiments.
Mrs. Wilcox, editor of the Mothers’ Department, makes a strong appeal for “Mother Watchfulness” over boys and girls, and an earnest effort in fortifying them with a true knowledge of the evils of the tobacco habit before it is acquired.
Dr. Lauretta Kress furnishes valuable suggestions based upon personal experience in the prevention, the treatment, and cure of the tobacco habit.
The Current Mention Department is filled with convincing testimonies under the following titles: An English Physician on the Tobacco Habit, Railroads and the Cigarette, No Poison More Poisonous, Save the Cigarette Boy, Tobacco the Great Producer of Degeneracy, The Criminal Cigarette, Take No Risk, The Cigarette in London, Cigarettes and Boys, etc.
The Medical Missionary Department describes minutely the methods of preparing and smoking opium in China, and contrasts the opium habit and its deteriorating effects with that of the cigarette habit in other countries.
The Questions and Answers Department contains some good practical sense in answering questions on the use of tobacco as a preventive of apoplexy, Smoking and Consumption, Are Cigarettes Worse for Boys than Cigars Are for Men? Wine and Tobacco—Effects on the Singing Voice, etc.
The Editorial Department contains a fair and unbiased discussion of the effects of tobacco upon the human system, under the following topics: Why Are the Poison Habits So Popular? Is the Tobacco Habit Always Detrimental to Health? A Moderate View of the Tobacco Evil, From a Friend of Tobacco, Insidiousness of the Habit, Is Tobacco Injurious to Adults?
In addition to the above, this number of Life and Health gives quotations from many prominent educators, physicians, and popular journals upon the deteriorating effects of tobacco. This number of the journal will prove to be of great value to the reading public. While its cost is only ten cents a copy, its real value can not be estimated.

Under Another Name

The spirit of the papacy is self-exaltation. This is plainly indicated in the prophecies which deal with this remarkable power. Daniel declared concerning the little horn, one symbol of the papacy: “He shall speak words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High; and he shall think to change the times and the law.” The apostle Paul wrote of “the man of sin,” the general title of the headship of the papacy: “He that opposeth and exalteth himself against all that is called God or that is worshiped; so that he sitteth in the temple of God, setting himself forth as God.” In foretelling the career of the beast from the sea, the apostle John says that there was given to the beast “a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; . . . and he opened his mouth for blasphemies against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, even them that dwell in the heaven. . . . And all that dwell on the earth shall worship him, every one whose name hath not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb that hath been slain.”
These outline sketches, when brought together, make up a vivid picture of “the mystery of iniquity,” the counterfeit of Christianity, the papacy. In two of these prophecies symbols are used of whose application there can be no reasonable doubt, but in the third prophecy the language is literal, and in this last case the real spirit of the papacy is set forth in plain terms; the man of sin assumes that he is God, and attempts to take the place of God. This is the climax of self-exaltation, the attempt to dethrone God and to put self in his place. The outworking of this principle is described in the other prophecies in which blasphemies and persecutions are accompanied by false worship, while all the world wondered.
In the papacy we find the most perfect representation of the outworking of the papal principle in an organized form. It is not simply concrete iniquity, but it is the mystery of iniquity—a system mysterious and complex, the product of a superhuman intellect, a pretense of exalting and glorifying God, which casts him down from his rightful place, and treads under foot the Son of God by giving divine honors to his pretended vicegerent.
But the papacy is simply the religion of human nature. It substitutes man for God, and preaches the gospel according to man in the place of the gospel according to God. It puts the word of man, tradition, for the Word of God, and demands submission to the so-called holy father on earth, instead of to the Father in heaven. To those who know the truth it is a hideous perversion of the gospel, in which darkness is put for light and light for darkness. But in all this it is in accord with the deceitful and desperately wicked heart, which prefers the forms of godliness without the power which transforms, which loves iniquity and hates righteousness, and which seeks salvation in sin rather than salvation from sin,—that heart which is willing to talk like God, provided it is permitted to live like Satan, and which, under the guise of humility and dependence upon God, lifts itself up in rejection of God.
And, strange as it may seem, this spirit of self-exaltation is not incompatible with the works of humanitarianism and a display of philanthropy. It is a system of self-salvation, of works of self-righteousness which are made to satisfy the demand for godliness, and in this system there is a large place for that advertised humility which loves to announce itself on the street corners and in the marketplaces. While there may be, and doubtless are, many honest and self-sacrificing agents connected with this system, yet the totality of all effort is molded, manipulated, and directed to the one end of glorifying mortal man instead of the incorruptible God.
There is nothing more repugnant to the natural heart than humbly to acknowledge sin against God, and to accept the righteousness of Christ as the only hope of salvation. To do the mostrigorous penance, to give liberal donations of money, and to put forth the most wearing effort in outward works will be gladly accepted conditions of deliverance from condemnation, since they do not interfere with that independence of self which thus pays for what it receives, and becomes debtor to no one.
But there is another way, quite independent from, and apparently opposed to, the papacy, in which the same spirit of the supremacy of self is revealed. It is that false interpretation of liberty which changes it into license, the rejection of the divine plan of the interdependence of the members of the body of Christ which would attempt to join every member directly with the Head without a necessary connection with other members, that undue estimate of the value of the unit which renders unity of action impossible, and which, in effect, makes each individual a pope over the church of which he is the sole and singular member. This system of disorganization has been extolled under the name of individualism, but it is really the papacy reduced to its lowest terms—a papacy of one. It professes to make Christ the head of each person, but in actual practise it shuts out Christ from his place, and makes each person his own head, by rejecting the divine plan for the relation of all the parts of the body to one another. It rejects the papal counterfeit of the voice of God speaking in his church, the doctrine of papal infallibility, but it also rejects the genuine manifestation of the gift of the spirit of prophecy whenever the message does not harmonize with the so-called divine voice within the individual, or in other words, whenever it interferes with self-exaltation. It admits of a “formation” which does not hamper the kingship of self, but discards that “organization” which admits of only one Head to which all the members are joined in a mutual relation of dependence one upon the other.
This idea of individualism seems to commend itself to those who have found it difficult to yield their own opinions in favor of any counsel, either human or divine, as it leaves them free to follow their own plans and their own interpretations of the Scriptures, while at the same time they profess to be led wholly and directly by the Holy Spirit. This is one of the most subtle and most dangerous forms of that self-exaltation which is the very essence of the papacy. While it decries the papacy, it really puts self in the place of God—simply a different revelation of the same papal principle.
Individualism is not the legitimate successor of a divinely appointed organization. Individualism will not strengthen the ability of the church to accomplish the work of giving the last gospel message to all the world in this generation. Individualism begins in self-assertion and ends in self-destruction, and it can never be the vital principle nor the rallying cry for a great and homogeneous movement. Individualism sounds its own death-knell as a movement as soon as it secures enough adherents to make united action either possible or necessary. Individualism is the equivalent of disorganization.
“For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of the body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ. For in one Spirit were we all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free; and were all made to drink of one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; it is not therefore not of the body. And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; it is not therefore not of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? But now hath God set the members each one of them in the body, even as it pleased him. And if they were all one member, where were the body? But now they are many members, but one body.” 1 Cor. 12: 12-20, A. R. V. “For I say, through the grace that was given me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but so to think as to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to each man a measure of faith. For even as we have many members in one body, and all the members have not the same office: so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and severally members one of another.” Rom. 12: 3-5, A. R. V.

Troublous Times

By Editor

Editorial

THE dull routine of daily cares may easily absorb all our time and energy without leaving any opportunity for doing something which shall directly tend to the upbuilding of the kingdom of God in the earth. There is now an earnest call to service, and special blessings await those who respond to this call. “Go ye also into the vineyard.”
A LIFE of unselfish devotion to the work of winning souls to Christ, a life of hope in the face of untoward circumstances, a life of joy in experiences which tend to sorrow, a life of contentment among the many who are discontented with their lot,—this is a powerful testimony in favor of the reality of the religion of Jesus. “Ye are my witnesses.”

Troublous Times

IN whatever direction we look, we may see the signs of the times. We have certainly come upon troublous times, and there is no sound basis for expecting a change for the better. Genuine religion is suffering a decline in the experience of many who profess to be followers of Christ. With an increasing number there does not seem to be sufficient moral stamina to withstand the drawings of evil, and the public mind has been so constantly shocked with the revelations of betrayal of trust that it is becoming almost benumbed. Men in high position whose crooked ways are discovered take refuge in self-destruction, and thus crime is added to crime. A constantly decreasing value seems to be placed upon human life, and a murder committed apart from some specially striking circumstances commands only a passing attention. Violence is filling the land, and the daily record of evil doings fills the columns of the newspapers. And in the face of all this, many religious leaders are seeking for a remedy in a so-called civic righteousness and in legal enactments, rather than in a revival of primitive gospel religion. There is certainly the greatest demand for the preaching of the everlasting gospel in its original simplicity and power. It is time for the loud cry of the third angel’s message.

Organization and Disorganization

It is not a satisfactory argument against a proper and effective system of organization to assert that some pervert it into a means of oppression, or that some take advantage of it to exercise arbitrary authority. The same method of reasoning would prove that it was wrong to confer freedom of will upon man, inasmuch as it made rebellion possible. We do not advocate the discontinuance of food because some eat to excess merely to gratify the appetite, or because others choose to include in their bill of fare articles which are really unfit for food. Eating is a condition of life and growth.
A divine system of organization imparted directly from heaven did not prevent the children of Israel from murmuring and rebelling, and was not a sufficient safeguard against injustice and oppression on the part of some of their rulers, but this was not chargeable to the system of organization. The same administrative machinery which is intended to be employed for the advancement of truth and righteousness may be used to disseminate falsehood and to establish iniquity, but the responsibility for this does not rest upon the plan of organization, but rather upon those who prostitute the plan to serve their own unrighteous purposes.
Under the fostering care of a superintending providence a good system of organization has been developed in this advent movement. It is possible for this system to be perverted here and there, and for those who are possessed with the spirit of arbitrary authority to reveal it temporarily in the administration of their office, and thus to bring discredit upon the whole system, but this is no sound reason for discarding all organization, and leaving each individual free to follow the caprices of his own mind. The cure for any evils which may exist, even under a good system of organization, is not disorganization. Such a suggestion would be to offer a remedy which is worse than the disease. An incompetent or a piratical captain may command the rudder to be turned in such a way as to direct the ship toward the rocks, but no one would regard this as a sufficient reason for sending a ship to sea without a rudder. We need thoroughly converted men in positions of responsibility, but we do not need our organization turned into disorganization.

The Sabbath-School Report

By W. A. S.

THOSE who do not take the Sabbath School Worker miss many interesting points of information. For the benefit of such we quote the following note from the December Worker, commenting on the quarterly summary of Sabbath-school reports ending June 30, 1907:—
This summary shows the largest number of Sabbath-schools, the largest membership, the largest average attendance, the largest Home Department membership, the largest contributions, the largest amount given to missions, of any quarterly Sabbath-school report in the history of our work.
This report shows 3,395 schools, with a membership of 76,731, in addition to which there are Home Department members numbering 3,859. Out of the total contributions of $21,288 during the quarter, the schools gave to missions $17,805.
These are figures to inspire all hearts with courage. The Sabbath-schools have become one of the leading factors in sending the message to the world. While we are feasting upon the good things of the Word in the classes from Sabbath to Sabbath, it is appropriate that we should remember those who have not this truth that rejoices our hearts. W. A. S.

Partners in God’s Work

By C. M. S.

We have a remarkably keen vision for the faults of others; and when we see them, we are always strongly tempted to blazon them forth that others may see them also. We go upon the supposition that people will consider us incapable of doing the things we condemn in others. It is generally a blind; for the one who is sincerely sorry for the sinful act of another goes to that other in the spirit of Christ and seeks to turn him from his sinful course, rather than to publish the matter to the world. To him who does so publish it these words of Paul will generally find an application: “Wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest dost practise the same things.” Rom. 2: 1.
The business of the true Christian is altogether different. “When thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.” That was one of our Saviour’s last admonitions to Peter, given before the denial, but remembered and practised through the remainder of Peter’s ardent life. It is likewise our Saviour’s admonition to every other converted soul. Christian helpfulness is one of the very first of Christian duties. Christian interest in the salvation of others is one of the very first examples left us by the first disciples of Christ. Having found the Lord themselves, they hastened to bring others to him.
Of every soul saved in the kingdom of God it will be said: “They helped each other.” The true Christian is a helper, not a hinderer; he seeks to establish, not to tear down; to find the good rather than to discover the bad; to tell something helpful rather than to give wings to calumny and distrust. Stepping-stones to the eternal world are not composed of any such deeds as tongue-traffic in the faults and woes of others. We are digging our own spiritual graves when we seek to bury another under slander, envy, innuendo, fault-hatching, misrepresentation, gossip. We may imagine we are doing these things with lofty motives; we shall find some day that we were engaged in the most barren and purposeless of occupations.
The Lord tells us through Paul, “We that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each one of us please his neighbor for that which is good, unto edifying.” He also tells us through the psalmist, “The reproaches of them that reproach thee are fallen upon me.” Ps. 69: 9. If, when tempted to reproach a brother or sister, we would remember that that reproach falls upon Christ himself, we would not be so hasty in our condemnation of others. It is hardly Christian to be reproaching Christ; yet according to this scripture, Christ regards as directed against him, the reproaches, slanders, gossipings, which one professed Christian aims at another. Our duty is to strengthen the infirm one, rather than to publish his faults; to show him the right way, rather than to judge him for not walking in it. “If a man be overtaken in any trespass, ye who are spiritual, restore such a one;” and again: “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.” Gal. 6: 1, 2. It is the law of Christ, then, that we bear one another’s burdens and infirmities, rather than expose them to the gaze of others. The Christian is a strengthener, a lifter, an edifier.
Even though calumny may be directed against us, it is better to suffer the injury than to misrepresent to another the motive of the injurer. It is better for us to sit in the shadow of distrust ourselves than to cast a shadow upon the act or life of another. By encouraging one another, each has a part in the work of the other; and that is not the only partnership, for God makes himself a partner in the undertaking. Here is his promise to those who are willing to do this: “I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.” Isa. 41: 10. God is doing that every moment for those who are his.
But the lesson is not properly learned if it is not applied; and it is not properly applied unless each applies it to himself. We may think we have made the application when we have applied the lesson of Christian helpfulness to our neighbor, as showing what he ought to do; but we have not. Such is bound to be a misapplication. It is not God’s design in the giving, and it will not work out his purpose in being thus applied.
Let each ask himself the questions, Have I helped my neighbor in the work which God has given him to do? Have I helped him in the work which I myself as an under-shepherd for God, may have placed in his hands? Have I helped him in his distress and perplexity both by word of encouragement and by a strong, personal lift when his own lack of lifting power was the thing that was slowly bearing him down? Or, unable to free him from that load myself, have I pointed him to the great Burden-bearer who is able? Have I helped him when I knew he was going wrong? Doing that kind of work is being helpful for God; it is being a worker together with God.
God has commanded those who are his to “be strong.” It is their duty as well as their blessed privilege so to be. Being strong, the duty of brotherly helpfulness follows as the day the night. We must be helpful, or we can not be his. The most blessed and joy-giving occupation in this world is being helpful for God.
C. M. S.

Special Facilities

By W. A. S.

WHAT a change in the facilities for scattering the truth since the day, in 1849, when a few pioneers in the message knelt round a little pile of the first issue of the Present Truth, in that room in Middletown, Conn., and with tears asked God to bless the paper as they sent it out.
Now, somewhere in the world, our presses are running every moment of time, night and day—presses in America, Europe, Africa, India, China, Japan, the Malay Straits, Australia, South America, Mexico, West Indies, and the South Pacific islands. Every sheet of the many millions, which are falling from the presses like the leaves of autumn, is helping to swell the cry, “The hour of his judgment is come.”
This wonderful development is by no mere chance; it is the visible providence of God. But our confidence is not to be in the increased facilities; rather, we need the same consecration and devotion that possessed the pioneers when facilities were few.
There is no chance to stand in the market-place idle, saying no one hath hired us. In this country three periodical specials press into our hands the weapons for service just now.
1. The Missions number of the Signs of the Times is a unique and invaluable missions document, and a review of the progress of this message which must appeal to inquirers after truth; for people desire not only to know the doctrinal basis of a faith, but to know if it has the elements of building up a movement and uniting masses of people in fellowship and common service. This Missions number must be an awakener to many who have considered that this advent movement was confined to a limited area.
2. The special Watchman presents an all-round summary of the definite message that we have to bear. Every article vibrates with the key-note of the soon coming of Christ. Every copy placed in a home bears the third angel’s message to that home. With its color printing and make-up, it is a most artistic and inviting number.
3. The “Our Truth” special of the Youth’s Instructor reviews the basis of our hope and work in a way to interest young people. Here is an arm of service to reach after the youth, and surely our young people will make earnest use of it.
While these special facilities are placed in our hands here, in other lands our brethren are likewise scattering the literature in various tongues. When the denomination sells a million dollars’ worth of publications a year to the public, it means that the world is putting amillion dollars a year into helping us proclaim the message.
Surely God heard and answered the prayers of that little company in Connecticut fifty-eight years ago, as they sought his blessing upon the printed page. The evidence is spread through the whole earth. Should not all the thousands of companies of believers pray now just as earnestly for God to bless the literature going forth? W. A. S.

A Day of Fasting

By Arthur G. Daniells

In view of our great needs as a people, and in behalf of the Lord's cause in all parts of the world, the General Conference Committee feels impressed to call upon our people to observe the first Sabbath of the week of prayer as a day of fasting as well as a day of prayer.
From the Scriptures we learn that fasting has many times been made a part of the most sincere and heartfelt worship of the people of God. It has usually been connected with earnest supplications for deliverance from existing or approaching calamities, or for special victories in the Master's service.
On one occasion when Jesus had cast out an evil spirit which his disciples could not cast out, they asked the Master why they could not cast out the evil spirit. “Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.” Matt. 17: 14-21.
We are now facing the perils of the last days. Every danger and evil design of the enemy in these perilous times must be met. Satan has come down with great wrath, knowing that he has but a short time left.
Surely and steadily the movement in all lands to oppress the remnant church which keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus, is gaining ground.
The spirit of selfishness, worldliness, and apostasy that has well-nigh ruined the glorious cause of the Protestant Reformation would also, if possible, destroy the cause of the remnant church under the third angel's message. We are surely in the shaking time of the message. Our faith, experience, and character are being tested to show what they really are.
But notwithstanding all these perilous conditions, the Lord is carrying forward his work in the earth. Never have there been greater opportunities for effectually proclaiming the gospel to all the world than there are to-day. And the needs of God's cause are far greater than can be met with the means now being contributed by his people.
These are some of the reasons why God's people should this year devote the first Sabbath of the week of prayer to humble fasting as well as to earnest prayer. And in doing this, we should do it with the fullest confidence that there is help for us. The cause is the Lord's, and we are his servants. He will hear prayer. He will do for his fasting, praying, believing people what needs to be done for them.
Pray that we may all have wisdom and strength to meet the mighty influences at work for religious legislation. Pray for our dear young men already suffering persecution. Pray for continued financial prosperity, that we may have means to advance the cause. Pray that the spirit of liberality may take possession of all our people, so that the treasury may be supplied with the means so greatly needed now. And as we pray, let us make a full personal surrender of all to God. A. G. DANIELLS.

An Actor's View

THE Butte (Mont.) Inter-Mountain, in commenting upon some of the strong statements made at the sessions of the National Purity Congress recently held in Battle Creek, Mich., gives the following remarks of one of the delegates:—
John H. Roberts, an English delegate from the Alliance of Honor of London, attacked the stage, although himself a former actor. “Our young can not touch the modern drama without being infected,” he declared. “Most of our modern plays deal with the so-called love of two men for one woman, or two women for one man. The theater is a menace to the home; and if we don’t fight it, it will engulf the Anglo-Saxon race in a sea of lust and infamy.”
The one making these statements surely can not be accused of being prejudiced against a thing which he has had no chance to observe; and if his association with plays has, instead of minimizing, served only to emphasize, the attendant evils, unsuspecting parents should arouse to the dangers which confront the young. It is the part of wisdom not only to stay away from the theaters, but also from the cities among whose enticements to evil the theater is not the least.

A Missionary Awakening

God will leave no agency idle that can be used for the advancement of his kingdom. Wherever a consecrated hand is stretched out for seed to sow or for a sickle to help in the harvest, these will be supplied. There is a significance in the movements that are springing up in some of the evangelical churches among the lay membership. They are banding together to work for their associates who are unacquainted with Christ, and also for the support of missions and individual missionaries in foreign lands. The fact that they do not know all the truth for this time must not be taken as an indication that God can not and does not use them to reveal himself to those in darkness. Many of these workers, those at least whose hearts are fully in God's service, will yet find their way into the full light of God's last message; and many of those who have found Christ through their instrumentality will follow their example in this regard. Concerning this movement a religious exchange says:—
As never before in modern times the laymen of the Protestant churches are being stirred. Truly, this is of the Lord. The call has gone out summoning them to special activity in behalf of the coming of the kingdom. They are beginning to realize, as never before, their opportunity and their obligation. The Holy Spirit is giving them to see that, along with the preachers and pastors, they, too, have a special work to do for the world's evangelization; that Christ has commissioned them to go out into the highways and byways of this on-rushing world, as it is being swallowed up of commercialism, and persuade and compel their unsaved associates to come to Christ. If any tangible proof were needed that this impulse is of God, it is had in the spontaneity and wide-spread character of the movement.
These movements among those who have not yet learned what God's closing message is should stir us to greater activity in making it known to them and to the world at large.

Baptists and Federation

In one of our exchanges we find the published decision of the Canadian Baptists in reference to the question of federating with the other churches. That decision reads:—
The Baptists decline to unite with the churches which are at present negotiating with a view to the union, and which invited them to enter into a conference in with them. They find a “fatal impediment” in the practise of infant baptism, also in the adoption of any other mode than immersion; they desire to avoid all alliance with secular authorities; they will not identify themselves with creeds which have any tendency to establish a low human standard over conscience, and they recognize no claim to ecclesiastical succession.
It would be expected from this that the Canadian Baptists would take a stand squarely against the enforcement of a religious institution upon the people. It would be a noble act for the Canadian Baptists and all other Baptists to stand uncompromisingly for liberty of conscience when such a matter as the Canadian Sunday law is urged upon the public.

One Hundred and Fifty Thousand Dollar Fund

By Wm. Covert

For Special Work at Home and Abroad

Some Questions Relating to the $150,000 Fund

1. WHY is it that any of our people put off the day of giving to the $150,000 fund?
2. Have not the appeals been strong enough?
3. Does not the need of the cause seem eloquent enough to stir all to action?
4. Can any one with consistency ask for more time than has been given?
5. Are there not funds enough in the hands of our people to complete it?
6. Are not the institutions which are receiving the benefit of this money essential and worthy enterprises in this cause?
7. Are the little stars placed opposite the names of conferences in the printed list causing some to think that their money is not needed to swell the fund to its fulness?
8. Is the church that has not paid its full quota wholly excused from doing any more because the conference to which that church belongs has paid in its conference quota?
9. Has that member who could pay, but who has not paid his share, been morally released from all obligation in this matter because the church to which he belongs has sent in its church quota?
10. Are there not many individuals who have not paid anything on this fund, who could pay if they would make the proper effort?
11. Would it not be a proper thing for church officials to inquire of church-members and find out the reason of delinquencies?
12. Would it be proper for our people to work upon the principle of the golden rule in this matter?
13. If they should, how long would it require to complete the fund?
Will those who read these questions, and who have not paid an average amount on this fund, proceed to pay immediately? WM. COVERT.
Continue reading: The King's Business Requires Haste