Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Apr 6, 1905
Psalm XLII
By Lindley M. Stevens
(An Interpretation, with the Free Use of Psalm XXIX and Other Passages.)
In a land that is thirsty and barren,
In a land where no streams ever flow,
As a hart that is pressed by the hunter,
To thy springs, O my God, would I go.
Here my tears for my thirst must suffice me;
And no rest hath my soul night or day;
For they seek for my life to destroy it;
And where now is thy God? do they say.
When I think on these things, I am stricken
With the thought of my joy in the days
When I marched with thy saints, amid shoutings,
As we went to the house of thy praise.
But for what, O my soul, art thou sighing?
And of what is thy spirit afraid?
Hope in God, for e’en yet shall I praise him!
And no more shall my face be dismayed.
When to God, in my thought, I am turning,
Then I stand upon Lebanon’s crown,
’Twixt the land of the Hermons and Mizar
And the sea where the sun goeth down.
To the east are the springs and the fountains
Where the Jordan beginneth its flood,
Where the dew from thy hand upon Hermon
Floweth down on the mountains of God.
To the west, on the sea, is thy thunder,
On the Great Sea thy voice and thy fire;
There the flash of thy sword over Zidon;
Now the tread of thy host upon Tyre.
Nearer cometh thy voice in its glory;
And thy cedars, O Lebanon, now,
At the blast of the breath of his nostrils,
Do they bend, and they break, and they bow,
With the voice of thy waves and thy billows
’Mid the rush and the roar and the sweep,
While on me falls a torrent of blessing:
Lo, the deep calleth loud unto deep;
Lo, the hills at thy presence have melted;
Now doth Lebanon leap like a ram;
Now doth Sirion flee as a bullock;
And the Mizar doth skip like a lamb.
Now at Kadesh the wilderness trembles
At the voice of thy thunderings loud— Lo, the brightness that causeth to vanish
All the hail, and the fire, and the cloud.
Spring the hinds and their fawns from the cover;
Now their heads do the mountains upraise;
In thy temple all creatures say, Glory;
In thy light all the earth singeth praise.
Unto thee would I bring adoration,
And a gift on thine altar would lay;
But this mount were too little for burning,
Nor its beasts were sufficient to slay.
But what comes with the cool and the fragrance,
With the shade and the smell of the wood?
With the splash of the brooks and the fountains,
With thy praise in the voice of the flood?
For returneth the heat and the burning:
Where no rain ever falleth I stand:
Neither tree nor a rock giveth shadow:
Lo, the thirst, and the sun, and the sand.
As a dream when awakened from slumber,
So the vision hath vanished away:
And I say, Hath the Lord, then, forgotten?
And where now is thy God? do they say.
Though afar from the land of his blessing,
Be the vision for years or for days,
Yet I know that his mercy shall hold me;
For his help shall I offer him praise.
Still by night shall his blessing be with me,
Nor by day shall his goodness forsake;
Unto him will I sing in the darkness;
And my prayer unto him will I make.
Then for what, O my soul, art thou sighing?
And of what is thy spirit afraid?
Hope in God, for e’en yet shall I praise him;
And no more shall my face be dismayed.
—Lindley M. Stevens, in the American Friend.
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Suggestive Current History
An effort more wide-spread and determined than ever is being made in this country to reverse the policy which has distinguished the United States from all the old-world nations, and to bring about such a union of church and state as will make it possible to employ the machinery and power of the government in the teaching and the enforcement of such dogmas, whether Biblical or not, as a majority of the church leaders may agree upon. Some of those who are aiding and abetting this tendency may not fully realize what is involved in it. Others are strongly stirred by the alarming conditions to which they can not close their eyes, and as the churches and the homes are failing to provide any adequate remedy for the peril of the hour, they feel almost compelled to seek an alliance with the state, in the hope of bringing about a better condition of things. They do not seem to appreciate the fact that in doing this they are flying from ills they know to those they know not.
The recent movement to introduce religious instruction into the public schools of the city of Washington, and the discussions which have attended it, have been full of interest and suggestion to those who have some perception of the meaning of the present drift of things. It is especially significant to note how much emphasis is placed in every such discussion upon the alleged decision of the United States Supreme Court that “this is a Christian nation.” It is plainly the purpose to interpret both the Constitution and all the utterances of legislatures and courts during the past century in the light of this declaration. In this way only can any shadow of support be found for introducing the old-world program into America. And this means to substitute government by the Supreme Court for government by the people as expressed during more than a century of history.
An interesting parallel to this situation, and a warning of what the future has in store for this country if the state becomes allied with the church, is found in a recent experience in Austria. From an article in the Northwestern Christian Advocate of March 15 we learn that Rev. Felice Dardi, pastor of the Methodist Church at Trieste, Austria, who is himself an Austrian citizen,4has been officially notified that he has violated the law of the country concerning the privileges accorded to dissenters from the state religion, and his future conduct has been very definitely defined for him. Note the following extracts from the official communication:—
The XVI article of the laws of the state concedes to the followers of a religious confession not recognized by the state simply the domestic practise of their religion, if this is not contrary to the common law or to good customs. By domestic practise we must understand simply the exercise of divine worship within the circle of your own intimate acquaintances.
The Supreme Court has decided that divine worship practised by adherents of a religious confession not recognized by the state, who do not belong to the same family, is not “domestic,” in the sense of Article XVI.
In harmony with this decision of the Austrian Supreme Court this Methodist pastor, although he is an Austrian citizen, is forbidden to exercise certain privileges enumerated in eight different paragraphs, among which are the following:—
You are forbidden to assemble for religious worship persons not known to you and not already belonging to the Methodist Church.
You are forbidden to give religious instruction to any children under fourteen years of age.
Finally, you are forbidden to perform any act, either directly or indirectly, which might be in opposition to the clear interpretation of the law.
In Austria there is a union of church and state. In Austria the Roman Catholics are in a majority, and they believe in the doctrine, advocated in Washington, that “the majority have some rights which the minority are bound to respect.” But there is one feature of this whole question which is worthy of special attention: in Washington, where the Roman Catholics are in the minority, the rector of the Catholic University of America joins in the movement to introduce religious instruction into the public schools, well knowing that it will be Protestant religious instruction; but in Austria, where the Roman Catholics are in the majority, a Protestant minister is forbidden “to give religious instruction to any children under fourteen years of age.” Is there any significance in these facts?
This case in Austria and the educational troubles now existing in France, in England, and in Canada ought to be sufficient to deter thoughtful men from clamoring for, or consenting to, any partnership between the church and the state in the matter of education. The lessons of current history, as well as of all past history, are a protest against such a program.
Editorial
By Editor
"Just and True"
SOME of the experiences through which we are passing show how utterly foolish it is to place any confidence in the flesh, or to depend upon the stability of any human support. In this time of test that which appeared to be wheat often turns out to be chaff, and that which was depended upon as pure gold proves to be largely alloy. Not all those who have heard and professed the truth, but only those who have been true to their convictions and have obeyed the truth are like the wise man “who built his house upon the rock.” When, under the pressure of disappointed hopes and of the shock of the apparent betrayal of trust, we are almost tempted to cast away our confidence, it is a comfort to anticipate one strain of the song of Moses and of the Lamb, and to rest in the assurance, “Just and true are thy ways, thou King of ages.”
“When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my hope and stay,”
We must not lose confidence in Divinity when the frailty of humanity is revealed. We have had due warning: “Cursed is the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm. . . . Blessed is the man that trusteth in Jehovah.” “It is better to take refuge in Jehovah than to put confidence in princes.” In this hour of judgment every man is writing the decision in his own case, and is making it clear to angels and men whether he believes in himself or in God. The experience, not the theory, of justification by faith lays the glory of man in the dust, and the fruits of justification are seen in a life of loyalty to God and his truth. But amid all the storm and stress and wrecked hopes and shattered confidence there remains as a blessed fact the unchanged and eternal character of the ever-living God. “Just and true are thy ways, thou King of ages.” “Hope thou in God.”
Individual Experiences
EACH one has his own battle to fight, and each one knows the plague of his own heart. The trials through which each one passes are to him as severe as he can bear, and are therefore as great to him as those endured by others who are capable of bearing more. But to each one is given the assurance, whether his trials be absolutely great, or relatively small and yet great to him, “There hath no temptation taken you but such as man can bear: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation make also the way of escape, that ye may be able to endure it.” Temptations endured and victories gained in trial are the experiences which develop that strength of character which, through the working of the might of divine grace, will make one a conqueror not only over some particular manifestation of sin, but over sin itself. Thus will sin be barred out of the new earth because it had already been barred out of the hearts of those who are translated from this old earth. “All chastening seemeth for the present to be not joyous but grievous; yet afterward it yieldeth peaceable fruit unto them that have been exercised thereby, even the fruit of righteousness.” “Blessed is the man that endureth temptation; for when he hath been approved, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.” It is the hour of trial which reveals the genuineness of our Christian experience.
“Never of Providence dare to complain;
Sunshine and storm both must ripen the grain;
Tried is the gold that the purest will shine,
Crushed is the vintage that yieldeth the wine.
He who the end from beginning can tell,
Works for thy good, for he doeth all well:
This, that prepares for the mansions of rest,
Ever remember—’tis all for the best.”
Making the Papers Pay
By W. A. S.
THERE was a time when every paper started in the mission fields meant an added burden upon mission funds. But it was an excellent use of money to publish the truth in this way.
Now, however, even some of the newer fields are managing to do this work without calls for appropriations to sustain the papers. The developments in this direction are very encouraging; for it means that the literature will be scattered more widely than ever.
Porto Rico is putting out one of the newest papers. It is a Spanish monthly, in magazine form, filled with the truth, and not a dollar of appropriations has ever been called for to finance it. With no constituency whatever to begin with, and in a Catholic field, the workers printed what they could sell; and now that colporteurs have come into the ranks in Porto Rico, this little journal has a good circulation, and improves in appearance each month.
Less than two years ago the West Indian field began the issue of the Caribbean Watchman, in Port of Spain, Trinidad. It is a powerful organ of the truth, and in the annual reports for 1904 the paper shows a profit for the year of one hundred and eighty dollars.
The brethren on the Chilean coast of South America print a live Spanish journal, which has been a helping hand in the work from the start. It comes off from an old press, and its editor has most of the time been far away in the field, but it does the work effectively and well in that Catholic land, and last year it showed a net profit of one hundred and seventy-two dollars.
The Oriental Watchman, of Calcutta, is now in its seventh or eighth volume. Its circulation, at last reports, was about five thousand, reaching people with its message in all parts of the empire, from Burma and the Straits Settlements in the east to Bombay, and from Ceylon northward to Assam and the Himalayas. It has shown a good credit on the accounts for years.
Other examples might doubtless be cited in the newer mission fields, but these are sufficient to show that there is bright hope before us in the issuing of missionary periodical literature.
W. A. S.
Forsaking the Message
By L. A. S.
FROM the nature of the message which Seventh-day Adventists bear to the world it is evident that this denomination must be the last which in the order of God’s providence can arise upon the earth. Its message relates to the end of the world; it heralds the coming kingdom of Christ, and calls men to a reformation of life preparatory to that event. No message can go beyond this; for when this message shall have done its work, time itself will have reached its termination.
We are now in the time of the “restitution of all things,” and about this last message cluster all the truths of divine revelation. All the glory and the beauty of the gospel system are concentrated here. Those who will let this message do for them what God designs it to do for such as receive it, will be made perfect, fitted to stand in righteousness through the period when Christ shall have put off the mediator’s robes in the sanctuary, and is arraying himself in the garments of vengeance and kingly glory.
To what, then, can any one turn who renounces the company of those whom this last gospel message has called out from the world? How can Christians marching under the banner of this message become dissatisfied, and turn to another quarter for truth of a more satisfying nature? Can there be anything better to the Christian than the “blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ,”—that to which God’s servants in all5ages have looked forward? Can there be anything better to those who love the Lord than the assurance that they are soon to see him, soon to be made like him, soon to be taken, with all the righteous dead, to see that glorious land that is very far off,—the home of the saved, where neither sin nor death can come? Can there be anything better to those who love God and their fellow men than the assurance that the long reign of sin and evil has nearly run its course in the earth, and that soon the saints of the Most High are to take the kingdom, and possess it forever and ever? Any one who can find truth more acceptable to his mind and heart than this, by that token may know that he is not a Christian, whatever may be his profession.
Can there also be anything better calculated to quicken the believer and give him zeal in the service of God than the thought that this dark world now lying in sin must be warned of this most glorious and most solemn event, even in this generation?
And where in the system of divine truth can any doctrine be found that more exalts Christ and more fully reveals him in his true character and office than the doctrines of the creation Sabbath, of immortality through Christ alone, and of the sanctuary in heaven, which are so prominent a part of this message? He who is not charmed by the light and beauty of these truths may thereby know that he has no real love of divine revelation.
Much rather will the true Christian put up, if need be, with some things that are disagreeable, than avoid the latter by leaving the standard of this truth. Much rather will he, if necessary, overlook the conduct of his brethren who may treat him unkindly, than separate from the company that have “the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus,” and whose hope is that of his appearing. There can be no greater mistake than that made by such as leave this message to find a better system of truth and stand in a more acceptable relationship with God. L. A. S.
The “Sudan Temper”
By W. A. S.
MISSIONARIES and officials report that the climate of the Egyptian Sudan induces a peculiar irritability of disposition known as the “Sudan temper.” The fight against fever, in that burning heart of tropical Africa, so wears on the nerves that missionaries feel the need of a special measure of grace in order to keep the disposition balanced.
Workers in most tropical fields will appreciate what this new term means. In fact, who does not feel that this plague of the Sudan has broken its barriers, and that the strenuous conditions and nervous strain of modern life everywhere breed a soul malaria that must be resisted continually?
It is of this very time that the prophecy says, “The nations were angry.” It takes angry people to make angry nations; and so it is that in this time all the art of the evil one will be employed to throw impatience and irritability into the hearts of men and women.
It is here that we must throw out our first line of defense. It is a true proverb that, “We have just as much religion as we have in a time of trial.” Let the occasion of trial that tends to upset the disposition be counted as a meter for testing the measure of the grace of God we are appropriating. We do not have to yield to nervous irritability of temper. There is grace sufficient, and we must have it; for of this time also it is written that there is to be a people having the “patience of the saints.” W. A. S.
The Hopelessness of the Effort to Reform Politics
By L. A. S.
THE chimerical idea of the political ascendancy of righteousness over iniquity in this world, is one whose survival in any mind should be difficult to-day in view of the revelations of corruption in city, state, and national government, in high and respectable circles of society as well as in low, that are being made to the public. One of these revelations, made by Mr. Louis Seaber, an editor of the Philadelphia North American, in an article contributed to The Independent, describes “Philadelphia’s Machine in Action,” and tells why a recent effort to reform Philadelphia failed, and incidentally why reform efforts in all the large cities must result in failure, or at best in only temporary success.
An election was held in Philadelphia in February last, in which a determined effort was made to free the city from machine domination. “Aroused by knowledge of public plunder and the criticism of other communities,” says Mr. Seaber, “a portion of Philadelphia’s well-meaning citizenship organized for battle. Led by men eminent in financial and commercial affairs, the opponents of the machine formed a ‘Committee of Seventy,’ the primary object of which was to labor for ‘better government,’ if it required three years. They determined that ample funds should be provided; that the public careers of the official agents of the machine should be investigated that all Philadelphia might know their conduct; that a political party should be placed in the field as an evidence of good faith.”
“Meetings were held by the reformers. Machine candidates for re-election were denounced as ‘hirelings.’ The megaphone and the automobile were utilized to attract citizens to the cause. Every newspaper in the city, with one exception, was in sympathy with it. Clergymen, representing most of the churches, were assembled, and they ‘resolved.’ They denounced the partnership of the political official machine with the promoters of crime. They demanded the removal of the head of the police department, the director of public safety; they went further, and proposed the impeachment of the mayor.”
“Boss” Durham, the head of the machine, arrived from Florida a week prior to the election, “stiffened the mayor’s backbone, issued the orders which were to defeat the city party,” and “waited for results.” The Democratic party of Philadelphia has customarily been permitted by the Republican machine to nominate five city magistrates, and the reformers determined to concentrate their efforts on these minority candidates. “Boss” Durham ordered that a large machine vote be given these Democratic nominees, in order most effectually to humiliate the reform party. The result was the election of the Democratic nominees and the overwhelming defeat of the reform ticket. “The Republican machine,” says Mr. Seaber, “deliberately transferred fifty-five thousand votes to the Democratic ticket,” which number was one fourth of the total vote polled. When the result was known, “Boss” Durham remarked: “Well, it does not look at if the people of Philadelphia were dissatisfied with the administration of affairs in this city. Our lines are unbroken, and the new party hasn’t captured a single magistrate.”
Everybody can understand why it is that an army can easily overcome a mob, and the same reason will explain why the political machine so readily overcomes the people’s reform movements. The machine is an organized and thoroughly disciplined army; the people are an unorganized body. Occasionally it happens that the people’s party, by weight of numbers and a degree of preliminary organization, obtain a victory; but their organization soon disintegrates, while the machine remains a permanent army whose whole business is to win political victory; so the triumph of the reform movement is short-lived. The only way for the reform element to cope successfully with the machine would be to organize and put in the field its own machine, and follow machine methods of work; but it is in machine politics that the whole evil lies.
Christians ought to rid their minds of the chimerical idea of a coming time when the saints will be able in this world to outvote the sinners, and place righteousness in political ascendancy. So long as they hold to that idea and devote time and energy to the effort to secure its realization, so long are they wasting time, energy, and means that are needed in the cause of Christ, and neglecting the true Christian commission to save individuals—not governments—by preaching the gospel to every creature, until its message has been heard in all the world. L. A. S.
The Best Book to Sell
THE Book is the best book of all to sell in homes where it has not entered. In many fields in which we are now operating, the sale of the Bible is an important part of missionary work. The Bible Society Record not long ago courteously acknowledged the effort our Mexican workers are making to co-operate with the society. Our workers in the West Indies have long had the record of being most active in putting Bibles in the homes of the people. There lately joined us in Peru a Bible colporteur who has long been selling the Word of God in that priest-ridden land, often amidst persecution and peril to life. But what a Book that is to carry to people who have it not!
The last issue of the Bible Society's organ gives the following account of the entry of the Bible into a Guatemalan town:—
Some five years ago a man named Elias received a tract in this city, entitled “Thirty Reasons Why Rome Is Not the True Church.” He could not6read, but the tract fell into the hands of one of his brothers who could. He read it over, and doubts and fears began to possess him. At last he became so desperately in earnest that he went off into the timber, far from any human being; he fell upon his knees, and cried to the great God, pleading that, if the facts stated in the tract were true, he might know it. He communicated with his sisters, and a desire took possession of their hearts to have a Bible. They spoke to the priest of their longings. He told them that a look at a Bible would be worth a thousand dollars. They were poor; how could their desires ever be realized? Some six months later a colporteur slept one night outside of San Martin; the next morning, bright and early, he took his pack and wandered through the city, passed block after block of houses, going by many an open door, and at last, away to the opposite side from which he had entered, he knocked at the closed door of a humble shanty. The owners responded, and the colporteur asked permission to leave his packs while he went from house to house to sell the Bible. The Bible! A man selling Bibles! If a book were worth one thousand dollars to look at, what would be the price of the book itself! These were the thoughts that filled the hearts of these anxious ones. The colporteur explained that through the grace of God, the generosity of some of God's children, and the American Bible Society, they could have a copy for one dollar (at that time about twenty cents, gold). What interest! What joy! What gratitude! The Elias family now had the long-desired Bible.
Truly it is a grand work to put the first Bible into the hands of a seeker after truth. Guatemala, by the way, is as yet untouched by us, though our Central American workers are pressing toward it.
*A Rapidly Growing Evil***
IN a recent number of Public Opinion, Bishop Wm. C. Doane, the Protestant Episcopal Bishop of Albany, discusses “The Divorce Evil.” The following startling statistics and comparative statements furnish the basis for the appeal to the Christian church to “rise to its high responsibility, and say that even legal divorce from the bond of marriage will not be recognized except for the one cause which can possibly be claimed as not forbidden in Holy Scripture.” Bishop Doane says:—
In the statistics given in a report presented by the United States commissioner of labor in 1889, covering the twenty years from 1867 to 1886, the total number of divorces granted is shown to be 328,716, the number in each year steadily increasing from 9,900 in 1867 to 25,535 in 1886. The population in the meanwhile increased sixty per cent, and the divorces sixty-nine per cent. This means, of course, nearly 700,000 people divorced.
Comparatively speaking, it means more divorces in one year in America than in all Europe, Australia, and the British dominions. It means two thousand times as many divorces in the United States as in Canada, the population being only fifteen times as great. It means in some States one divorce to every eight, in one State one divorce to every six marriages; and, as a concentrated instance, it is true that three hundred divorces were granted in Chicago in a single day. This can only mean that there is wide-spread failure to recognize the sacredness of marriage, that it is beginning to be considered more or less as a contract, which, because it is entered into carelessly, can be escaped from easily at the caprice of either party to it.
A pure family life lies at the basis of the stability of human society. The destruction of the home is a long step toward shutting out the blessings of the gospel. It is one of the perils of this time.