Review and Herald, Vol. 80, No. 13. (3/31/1903)

Review and Herald

Mar 31, 1903

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 31, 1903

Transcendent Love

By Charles Wesley

O Love divine, what hast Thou done! The incarnate God hath died for me! The Father's co-eternal Son Bore all my sins upon the tree! The Son of God for me hath died: My Lord, my Love, is crucified.

Behold Him, all ye that pass by, The bleeding Prince of life and peace! Come, sinners, see your Saviour die, And say, was ever grief like His? Come, feel with me His blood applied: My Lord, my Love, is crucified.

Is crucified for me and you, To bring us rebels back to God: Believe, believe the record true, We all are bought with Jesus' blood: Pardon for all flows from His side: My Lord, my Love, is crucified.

Then let us sit beneath His cross, And gladly catch the healing stream; All things for Him account but loss, And give up all our hearts to Him: Of nothing think or speak beside— My Lord, my Love, is crucified.

— Charles Wesley, 1742.

ANOTHER NEW TRACT—NOW READY

By Editor

THE above cut is a reduced facsimile of the first cover-page of this new tract. It is number 40 of the Words of Truth Series, and is the same size as the last four new tracts, numbers 36, 37, 38, 39, of this series. It contains one of Spurgeon's noted sermons on the perpetuity of the law of God, written in two parts. The first part was reproduced in full as a general article in last week's REVIEW, under the title of the tract. This week part two is given under the same title.

The tract is quoted in full in order that the readers of the REVIEW may see the soundness and the present importance of the facts that Mr. Spurgeon gives to the world relative to the abiding nature of the law of God, and that they may join us in an earnest, continued effort to place this tract in as many homes as possible. The circulation of this tract ought to reach the million mark at an early date.

While it does not mention the Sabbath as an institution, in the complete establishment of the perpetuity of the law it fixes the question of the Sabbath in the minds of all who read it, and it does it without controversy. It is, therefore, an excellent tract to use to bring the Sabbath question prominently before the people.

It is a tract that will not create prejudice, but will be welcomed and appreciated by the great majority of people, on account of the popularity of the author.

It is the best thing on the subject of the law that any of our publishing houses has ever produced. The language is simple, clear, forcible, and convincing.

ANOTHER NEW TRACT—NOW READY

The Perpetuity of the Law of God

BY THE NOTED C. H. SPURGEON

Any one reading the tract can not avoid being impressed with the conviction that the law of God is perpetual.

It contains sixteen pages, and is very attractive in appearance. The regular price is one cent per copy, or 72 cents per hundred, postpaid. A large number of these tracts is now printed, and orders for any number can be filled immediately.

Send all orders to any State Tract Society, or to the Review and Herald Publishing Company, Battle Creek, Mich., or Pacific Press Publishing Company, Oakland, Cal.

The cut below is a facsimile of the portrait of the author, printed on the second page of the tract. The name of Charles Haddon Spurgeon is a household word among members of every denomination, and his opinion is regarded as good authority in all matters pertaining to Scriptural topics. He was regarded as the greatest of English preachers.

Beginning his work as a Baptist minister in his sixteenth year, 1850, in Cambridge, England, he continued a faithful, devoted, and powerful ministry until his death in 1892. So great was this man of God that thousands of all classes flocked into his church at every service, and every sermon was published, and thousands of copies sent broadcast to various parts of the earth. His words contained in our tract on the perpetuity of the law of God will do a mighty work in the land to-day if they can be placed in the homes of the people.

Prepare the Way

By Editor

Editorial

Prepare the Way

THE only reason why the Lord has not come to this earth the second time to receive his people to himself is because the way has not been prepared for his return. Looking down to the time of his first coming, the Lord said, through the prophet Isaiah, “Prepare ye the way of the Lord;” and when the fullness of the time drew near, a messenger was raised up of whom it was said, “Thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways.” We have for many years been in the generation which will not pass away until our Lord shall come again, but the work of preparing the way is not yet completed. In fact, there seems to be the greatest danger that the very people who have been separated unto this work may lose sight of the definite work committed to them, and may become like the denominations around them—merely another name among many. In all earnestness we raise the voice of warning and entreaty. The present opportunity seems like the last call to this people. Years of precious time have passed, and the work has moved slowly. We would not belittle the results already seen, but we can not close our eyes to the facts. There is a mighty work yet to be done to prepare the way of the Lord. Our longing for his return, and our sense of loyalty to our commission, move upon us to urge this people to consecrate themselves to this one thing—to prepare the way of the Lord. This advent movement must not fail nor be turned backward. This people must not prove false to their trust. This people must do this work, and this General Conference ought to remove the weights and hindrances, and sound such a rallying call as shall arouse the people everywhere to rise up and finish the work. Faithful souls are praying that this may be done. We join in their prayer.

The Power of the Spirit

AFTER his temptation in the wilderness we are told that “Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and a fame went out concerning him through all the region round about. And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all.” All the work of Jesus was done “in the power of the Spirit.” Those who witnessed the results manifested through his labors said, “Whence hath this man these things? and, What is the wisdom that is given unto this man, and what mean such mighty works wrought by his hands?” They recognized the authority of his teaching and the power of his working, and we must recognize the source of that authority and power. It was all done “in the power of the Spirit.” This is the power which convicts of sin. This is the power which delivers from the bondage of sin. This is the power which can make the weak as David, and David as the angel of the Lord. This is the power which rendered efficient the ministry of Jesus, and of the apostles after him. This is the power, and the only power, which will make our ministry efficient in this day. Only “in the power of the Spirit” can we hope to be able to give this warning and healing message in this generation, now so far spent, and thus prepare the way of the Lord. O that this fact may be appreciated! Let us have no confidence in the flesh, or in any plans which savor of confidence in the flesh. We can well afford, if necessary, to exchange all our material facilities, all our institutions and their expensive equipments, for that fullness of the Spirit, and that experience of going out “in the power of the Spirit” which will impart a divine measure of success to this work. In this is our only hope.

“Thou canst fill me, gracious Spirit, Though I can not tell thee how; But I need thee, greatly need thee; Come, O come, and fill me now. “I am weakness, full of weakness; At thy sacred feet I bow; Blest, divine, eternal Spirit, Fill with love, and fill me now.”

The Coming King—No. 1

“O WATCHMAN on the mountain height, Proclaim the coming day; Behold the spires of golden fires Point upward far away. “O watchman, bid a sleeping church Awake, arise, and pray; The heavenly Bridegroom soon will come, And now is on his way. “Coming, yes, he’s coming, The Dayspring from on high; Coming, yes, he’s coming, The hour is drawing nigh; “Coming, yes, he’s coming, Let all the ransomed sing; The hills are bright with holy light, All hail the coming King.”

The coming King has been the theme of all the prophets. “Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days.” More than twenty centuries ago one of these prophets, these seers of God, saw down to the time when the King would be manifested, and he said, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh.” More than five centuries after this prediction was made, it was fulfilled when Jesus rode into Jerusalem that day in his triumphal entry. Then priests and Pharisees tried to hush the voices that were shouting in triumph; but the crowd took up those very words of the prophet, inspired by the moving of the Spirit that gave the prophecy, and hundreds of voices repeated, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee.” But before this triumph took place, a voice was raised in the wilderness, which said, “Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” And John the Baptist came forth with a message of the coming King. When he saw Jesus of Nazareth among the people, he pointed him out, and took up the words of the prophet Isaiah,—“Behold your God,”—but translating them into the circumstances and purposes of the coming King, he said, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”

Before the shout of triumph could be raised in the cry, “Behold, thy King cometh,” it was necessary that a message

which should say, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”

The experience that day of triumphal entry was a typical experience, real in itself, and yet pointing forward to that day of greater glory when the cry should be raised, “Behold, he cometh with the clouds,” when they will see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with great glory, and when angels and redeemed saints will join in the rejoicing; but before that cry is raised, and as a preparation for it, the same message must again be given, “Behold your God,” “Behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”

At the time when our Lord himself was upon the earth, his disciples made inquiry of him concerning the signs of his return, and he gave them that wonderful prophecy in the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew. The first section of his prophecy closes with the fourteenth verse: “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a testimony unto all the nations; and then shall the end come.” The people of that generation had heard the message of John the Baptist; they had been greatly moved by it so that all classes came to him confessing their sins, and were baptized. Although his work was to prepare the way for the coming Messiah, although he sought to do a work in the hearts of the people that would prepare them to recognize the kingdom of God as distinguished from the kingdom of earth, yet when the Messiah himself came, he was neither recognized nor received.

The people of that time cried, “Crucify him, crucify him; . . . we have no king but Cæsar.” But it was in the order of God’s providence that that whole generation should have the privilege of hearing the gospel message before they should be called to suffer in consequence of their crucifixion of the Messiah. Those who had rejected the message of John the Baptist were poorly prepared for the appearance of the Messiah, and when he came, they did not recognize him as the Messiah, but put him to death; and in putting him to death they brought their own national existence to an end. In crucifying Christ they destroyed the temple. In taking that step they put themselves as a nation beyond the reach of the gospel of grace which he came to bring, and yet it was the purpose of God that after his resurrection and ascension, messengers from God should take up the work, and should carry to all the earth the gospel of this Messiah, the gospel of Christ crucified, raised from the dead, ascended into heaven, the high priest above.

That time of the end spoken of in Matt. 24:14, marked the end of Jerusalem, and its destruction; it marked also the end of the world, and its destruction. The same sign serves for both.

The children of that day whose fathers and mothers cried, “Crucify him, crucify him,” were yet to live to a responsible age, and themselves hear the gospel message concerning the Messiah whom their fathers had crucified. This same thing is being repeated in our day. More than half a century ago there began a movement with which in the providence of God we are connected to-day. That movement was to take up anew the work of John the Baptist, and prepare the way for the coming King, and from 1831-2-3 and so on down to 1843-4 this message of the coming King went forth in fulfillment of that prophecy, and under the leadership of that angel, when a great voice was to be raised, “Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.” This message was largely refused; especially was this so after the passing of that first time when many Adventists looked for the second coming of our Lord. Then there was a very decided objection to hearing further concerning the coming King, and in that summer of 1844 there were thousands of advent believers who came out from the churches because their testimony would not be heard in the church itself. At that time the message that would prepare the way of the Lord was rejected; and in the rejection of this message there was revealed exactly the same spirit that was revealed by the professed people of God when they refused the message of John the Baptist, and followed it by the crucifixion of our Lord. In rejecting the announcement of the coming King, they crucified the message sent to them to prepare the way for his coming, but in God’s providence the children of that day whose fathers and mothers refused the message have lived until this day, that they themselves may intelligently decide whether they will follow in the steps of their fathers, or whether they will receive the message which God is sending to the world.

Now Jesus told them in that day, “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a testimony unto all the nations; and then shall the end come.” That prophecy was fulfilled in that generation. And before that generation passed, the gospel of Christ crucified, the gospel of the Messiah, had been preached in all the world for a testimony, and then came the end,—the end of that people as a nation; and then was the prophecy fulfilled which is being fulfilled again to-day, and the same words are applicable at this time. And so in this generation we may again take up these words, and standing as we do in the time of the generation that has crucified these messages, we can say, This gospel of the kingdom, this gospel of the coming King, shall be preached in all the world, in this generation, and then the coming King will be revealed.

Some Signs of the Times

By L. A. S.

The rapidity with which the way is being prepared for changes of a fundamental character in the government of the United States, is shown by events like the recent series of strike injunctions, of which the daily press has had much to say. The appeal of the capitalist side in labor controversies to the power of the federal government, and the issuing of writs of injunction against labor unions by court judges, marks the beginning of the transfer of the controversy to the realm of politics; and the end will be that labor unions will control the appointment or election of judges. The government will then be largely if not wholly controlled and made use of by opposing classes of the people for partisan ends.

The resort to federal authority was first made for the purpose of protecting property and life from violence at the hands of strikers. Now, “government by injunction” has been carried to the point where the officials of a labor union are enjoined from ordering their men to strike, and the members of a union are enjoined from employing the boycott as a means of working injury to an opponent and bringing him to their terms. This is a construction and application of federal authority which the labor unions are by no means prepared to accept.

It remains to be seen whether the Supreme Court of the United States will uphold this new application of the injunction principle, and it is believed that it will be upheld by that body. It then becomes a question how much further the doctrine can be carried. On this point The Independent (New York) remarks that, “once started in this direction, there is no middle ground short of complete restraint on the right to strike so far as the operations of a great public highway like a railroad are concerned. The necessities of the public are, in the mind of the court, a paramount consideration; but as the case stands now, the protection of the public is full of danger for the courts themselves.” As regards what may happen from the continued resort to, and extension of, the authority of the courts, The Independent quotes the following from Judge Tuley, of Chicago:—

The day may come in the not distant future when the working classes will have political control, and will appoint judges who will also issue writs of injunction in their favor. I see no reason why a writ of injunction should not as well issue against a railroad, enjoining

it from discharging an employee or from failing to pay such employees a certain fixed rate of wages.

“The labor papers,” The Independent continues, “are already murmuring, and their views are generally reflected in the following quotation from an editorial in the Scrantonian:—

“Judge Adams has carried the principle a little further than was done in the Debs case; and if this preliminary injunction is made perpetual and becomes a recognized principle in law, it is difficult to see how organized labor can hereafter enforce strikes. The remedy may then lie in the overthrow of the political power that fosters government by injunction and the tyranny of great corporations; for after all is said and done, the wage-earners have it in their power to make the government of this country and the courts thereof just what they have a mind to. Mr. Ramsey, president of the Wabash system, is therefore playing with dangerous weapons in taking such a strong stand against organized labor. He may have law on his side,—that is a point we can not argue,—but if he has, the people have the ballot, and it needs only a little more of this sort of thing to make them use it in a manner that will long be remembered.”

And this is not a mere theory as to what may be. “Already a judge of the highest court in New York has been elected mainly because the labor unions circulated broadcast the decisions favorable to them which he had rendered in a lower court. . . . Western labor unions have sent remonstrances to President Roosevelt against the promotion to a federal judgeship of a judge whose decisions have been inimical to them.”

“We may add,” says this journal in conclusion, “that hostility to the courts under our political system ends in subserviency of the courts, and that when capital and labor enter politics to control the judiciary, the judges will sink to the level of aldermen, assemblymen, and congressmen.”

When “government of the people, by the people, for the people” shall give place to government of the people by a class, and when the powers of the government shall be exercised to uphold the interests of one class of the people against another class, there will be no protection for the rights and liberties of the people, which it is the purpose of republican government to preserve. Popular government in this country will then be a thing of the past, and those who were formerly citizens will find themselves in the position of subjects. They will find themselves outside of the governing class; for, do not forget, the doctrine has already been set up and fully indorsed that the government derives its just powers from the consent of only “some of the governed.” It remains now to be determined, when this battle of class against class shall have been fought out in the political field, who “some of the governed,” whose right it is to rule the rest, are. The way will then be open for this government to act the part assigned to it in prophecy, and persecute those who refuse to receive the mark of an anti-Christian power, unhindered by any theories or principles of government to which the common citizen, merely as a citizen with natural, inalienable rights, could heretofore, under the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, appeal. Little are such scenes anticipated by the people now, but they will surely come. “We are standing upon the threshold of great and solemn events,” and these things admonish us to make haste while the day lasts; for the night cometh, in which no man can work. L. A. S.

Spiritualism and the New Theology

IN the last number of a magazine of large circulation devoted wholly to the promulgation of the latest phases of spiritualistic teaching, we find an urgent invitation to join “The Mystic Success Club.” There are “four mystic degrees” through which the members of this club are taken as the certain road to success: “First Degree, we lead you to health, strength, vigor, force, and power, and let you into some of the ancient occult and psychic secrets. The Second Degree leads you to the receptive state, where you begin to draw and attract to your aura, by psychic-mental power, the unseen powers. The Third Degree leads you to the acquirement of that blessed “something” men are pleased to call Personal Magnetism, which is a tremendous factor in all success. The Fourth Degree leads you to a realization of all your powers, and you are put on the road to grand success. . . . At the end of four months all your psychic-mental powers will have been developed to a most wonderful degree, and new doors will be open to you for success, and life will be most beautiful.” In urging readers to join this club it says: “Come, beloved, let us reach you and teach you, and fire and inspire you, and fill and thrill you with vibrations you never before knew about. . . . This is the golden opportunity of your life. If you doubt it, go into the silence, and ask the God within the soul about it.” (Italics ours.)

This is only one of the many ways in which the people are being drawn into the net of spiritualism. Under the alluring promise of “health, wealth, a long, useful, and successful career,” it leads thousands of unsuspecting people to accept the teachings and practice the principles of spiritualism. It declares that “some will develop the most perfect clairvoyant and clairaudient powers, which are always helpful to success.” And then it seems to cover the whole scheme with the cloak of Christianity by urging each one to “ask the God within the soul about it.” This seems to be the conception of God which is pleasing to those who belong to this cult, and which they have adopted in their creed.

But how much does this idea of God differ from that which is set forth by the new theology, which is now being so widely accepted? Note the following utterance by one of the leading exponents of this scientific religion: “The aspect of prayer is changing. The New Experience does not look out and up to a King upon a great white throne, nor back to a divine Man by the sea of Galilee; it looks within to the God who tabernacles with men.” (Italics ours.)

Jesus prayed, “lifting up his eyes to heaven,” and his instruction concerning prayer is, “After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father who art in heaven.” The psalmist in his prayer addressed God thus: “Thou that dwellest between the cherubim.” But this modern idea of God, which is the outcome of the scientific study of religion, really puts self in the place of God, and as a natural consequence “prayer becomes hardly distinguishable from meditation.” It really means the leaving of the true God altogether out of the account, and the giving up of one's self to that intensity of self-consciousness which opens the door to those various degrees of demoniacal possession which appear in hypnotism, clairvoyance, and spiritual mediumship.

And so-called Christendom is being prepared to fall an easy prey to this last-day snare by the current teaching concerning the existence of God. It is true that the God who dwells upon his throne in heaven has promised to dwell “with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit,” but this is far different from that teaching which removes God from his throne in heaven, takes away the idea of his personal being, and substitutes for him a “spiritual consciousness.” This is simply the modern way of putting self in the place of God, which always means to give to Satan the place which belongs to Christ.

We suggest a plan for success which has borne the test of the ages, and which does not deal in “ancient occult and psychic secrets.” Here it is: “Behold, God is mighty, and despiseth not any: . . . If they hearken and serve him, they shall spend their days in prosperity, and their years in pleasantness.” “Turn not from it [the law of God] to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest have good success whithersoever thou goest.”

The Macedonian Crisis

By L. A. S.

The Literary Digest quotes in a recent issue from a number of European journals statements designed to throw

light on the subject of the rise and development of the present Macedonian crisis. According to the London Daily News, the present situation had its beginning in disregard of the treaty of San Stefano. This treaty “handed over a considerable part of Macedonia to Bulgaria,” but “England and Lord Beaconsfield stepped in and handed her back to the Turk, who since that period has been pillaging and murdering at will.” At one time “a dramatic and powerful union between Greece and the Balkan States seemed inevitable;” but “the material ambitions of Germany and the selfish and short-sighted indifference of Russia” spoiled the plot, and “Macedonia was thrown again ‘into the sullen furnace of her afflictions.’”

The Macedonian peasants, according to the Edinburgh Review, are left to choose between rebellion and utter ruin. They are crushed under an awful burden of taxation, which is made worse by the extortion of Turkish tax collectors, who administer the system “with savage disregard for decency.” “Robbery is another cause of impoverishment. The peasant is plundered not only by professional brigands and outlaws, but by the very persons who are paid to protect him. No sooner is he out of sight of the karakol, or wayside guard station, where he has been forced to leave part of the produce which he carries to market, than he is as likely as not to fall in with some of the numerous gangs of Albanian ruffians, who, armed to the teeth, roam about the country for booty.” But “all these grievances wax pale before the terrible pest of brigandage, which has done more than anything else to bring the country to its present state of desolation.”

As explanatory of the attitude of the powers toward the Macedonian situation the London Times says:—

The deliberate purpose of Russia is to foster the disintegration of the Ottoman empire. The protectorate which she is gradually assuming over the Christian populations of Turkey is detrimental to the established rights of France, and prevents any cordial co-operation between her and her ally. Germany, bent on securing material advantages, is ready to tolerate the worst excesses of Turkish misgovernment, provided she attains her ends. Austria, paralyzed by internal dissensions, is only too thankful to see things remain as they are.

It is believed by some journals that an influence against an equitable settlement of the Macedonian ferment is being exerted by Austria. By others this is denied. But all agree that “a crucial difficulty must present itself when the spring season has advanced sufficiently to enable the revolutionary bands to arouse the Macedonian population.” Time will soon lift the veil from future scenes which may be of momentous interest to the world. L. A. S.

The Oxford Bible’s Tremendous Production

THE Caxton Magazine gives this interesting information regarding the tremendous scale which the manufacture of the Oxford Bible has now attained:—

The Bible publications of the Oxford University Press have been issued for three hundred years, and can be published in one hundred and fifty languages and dialects. Every year six hundred tons of paper are used for this purpose alone. Orders for one hundred thousand Bibles are quite common, and the supply of printed sheets is so great that an order for half a million copies can be readily filled. On an average, from thirty to forty Bibles are furnished every minute, and this number can readily be doubled. There are no fewer than one hundred and ten different editions of the Oxford Bibles in English, varying from the magnificent folio edition for pulpit use to the “brilliant” Bible, the smallest edition of the Scriptures in the world. Of the Revised Version, fourteen editions are published. More than a million copies of the revised New Testament had been ordered before the day of publication in May of 1881, and it is claimed that the workingmen of the establishment refused a bribe of some four thousand pounds to furnish a copy of the book before the day of issue. At the banquet held at the four hundredth celebration of the beginning of the art of printing in England by Caxton, Gladstone took into his hands and exhibited to those present a copy of the Bible which had been printed and bound entirely since midnight of the preceding day. The preparation of the “India paper” used by the Oxford University Press is a business secret of great value. Although frequently imitated, it has never been equaled. The largest folio Bible printed in Oxford measures twelve by nineteen inches, and no erratum has as yet been found in it. The “Brilliant Text Bible” measures 3¾ by 2⅜ inches and is ¾ of an inch thick, and bound weighs less than three ounces. In the seventeen years since the Press has been under the management of Horace Hart, the number of employees has increased from two hundred and seventy-eight to six hundred and fifty.

Heathen Idols Made in Philadelphia

It was recently discovered that an idol factory for the making of gods to be worshiped by the heathen, existed in the city of Philadelphia. The following facts with regard to this strange industry, and the extent to which “Christian” nations share in it, are given by the Chicago Record-Herald:—

Heathen idols are made in Philadelphia. This fact recently became known. It was not the idol-maker who announced the fact; it was a Korean, a native of Seoul, who has lately come to America to purchase some Yankee-made gods. The Korean’s disclosure of the purpose of his visit has thrown the Philadelphia idol factory into disrepute. Bishops and missionaries have denounced it bitterly. Nevertheless, the manufacturer, a strange, strong-willed man, does not propose to give up making idols.

For the heathen to bow down to Christian-made gods is not a new thing. Thousands of idols are turned out in Germany each year, and nearly all the outlandish little gods and fetishes that the Africans worship are the product of the enterprising English city of Birmingham. Frederic Poole, a missionary of Philadelphia, estimates that a good percentage of the world’s idols are made by Christian nations, and Dr. William P. Wilson, the head of the Philadelphia Commercial Museum, says that the idol-making trade of Germany is enormous.

The Philadelphia idol factory is a wooden building of one story. Its owner is a German, and his trade used to be toy-making. He came from Germany to Philadelphia two years ago, and he says he took up the manufacture of idols because a friend of his, a resident of India, proved to him that there was a greater demand for idols than for toys, and that there was more money in the idol than in the toy business. Most of his trade is with India, and the principal idols he makes are Buddhas and Ganesas. He recently permitted some photographs to be made in his factory on condition that his name be not revealed.

The more expensive idols, costing fifty or seventy-five dollars each, are made by hand; but cheaper ones are made by machinery, one machine being capable of turning out ten wooden idols at one time. The gods are sold in Korea, Japan, Siam, and India. “I send a good many idols to Korea,” the proprietor of the factory said to a visitor. “They buy Buddhas there. I make them little, cheap Buddhas out of wood. At the Korean temples, after prayers, each worshiper gives to the secretariat at the gate a piece of money, and receives in return a little god. It is these gods that I make. I also make gods for India.” The proprietor excused his participation in such a business on the ground that Buddhism inculcates good moral rules of conduct, and the idol served to turn the thoughts of the worshiper to these rules. It was not so bad, he said, as to send whisky and opium to the heathen; and in this statement he may have been right.

The dealings of the world’s “Christian” nations with its heathen nations furnish many an illustration of the truth of the Scripture, “The love of money is the root of all evil.”

Note and Comment

An awful illustration of the capacity of fiction for evil is afforded by a production by the German writer Goethe, now being portrayed on the stage, according to this item, which appeared recently in the Chicago Tribune:—

There seems to be a fatality about Goethe’s story, “Werther,” it being provocative of suicide. It has been pointed out by a literary statistician that since its production as a novel, the direct cause of no less than seven hundred suicides may be attributed to this melancholy idyl, now being acted with considerable success by Sarah Bernhardt at her theater. A startling example of this occurred last night, when, just as Sarah as Werther was about to fall lifeless at Charlotte’s feet, a woman, Paule de Martigny, attempted suicide by shooting.

Let it ever be our work to portray before men the saving truth of God, which leads not to despair and suicide, but to the inspiration of faith, hope, and love.

Pope Leo’s Dying Prayer

A POEM by Pope Leo, which is designated as his “dying prayer,” has recently been widely published in this country. Its theme is his approaching decease. He states that he is about to die,—

“Leo, now sets thy sun; pale is its dying ray; Black night succeeds thy day.”

He is to be laid “under the cold stones,” but his “freed soul” takes its flight “to reach the realms of light.”

How it can be that “black night” succeeds his day when at the same time he is entering into “realms of light” far surpassing earthly brightness, is not clear to us, but the discrepancy is demanded by theology, Protestant as well as Catholic. The concluding portion of the poem, however, is distinctively Catholic,—

“That I may see thy face, Heaven’s Queen, whose mother love Has brought me home above

“To thee, saved through the tangles of a perilous way, I lift my grateful lay.”

He recognizes not Jesus, but the Virgin Mary, as his guide and savior. His “dying prayer” stamps his approval, the approval of the highest Catholic authority, upon the doctrine of salvation through the Virgin Mary and the “saints.” But the Christian doctrine exalts the name of Jesus as the only name “under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”

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