Review and Herald, Vol. 93, No. 19. (4/13/1916)

Review and Herald

Apr 13, 1916

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 13, 1916

The Winter Is Past

“Lo, the winter is past, The rain is over and gone; The flowers appear on the earth; The time of the singing of birds is come, And the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land; The fig tree ripeneth her green figs, And the vines are in blossom, They give forth their fragrance.”

Praying for Those in Authority

The apostle Paul writes, “I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; for kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour: who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.” 1 Tim. 2: 1-4.

In these troublous times of earth’s history, we should follow this exhortation. But few if any of us realize the perplexing responsibilities which come to men of high position in the state, or the temptations which assail them. The destinies of their fellows are in a large measure in their hands. How much they need divine wisdom! How great the need that the Lord’s restraining hand shall be placed upon them, so that they shall be kept from doing that which would bring injury to his cause of truth in the earth.

It is well for us to remember the words of Abraham Lincoln which were addressed to a committee calling upon him to express dissatisfaction over some things he was doing. Mr. Lincoln said,—

“Gentlemen, suppose all the property you were worth was in gold, and you had put it in the hands of Blondin, to carry across the Niagara River on a rope. Would you shake the cable, or keep shouting to him, ‘Blondin, stand up a little straighter; Blondin, stoop a little more, go a little faster, lean a little more to the north, lean a little more to the south’? No; you would hold your breath as well as your tongue, and keep your hands off until he was safe over. The government is carrying an enormous weight. Untold treasures are in their hands; they are doing the best they can. Don’t badger them. Keep silence, and we will get safe across.”

This is excellent advice for us to follow, not alone in relation to the government, but in relation to the work of God. Oftentimes we see one of our brethren laboring under a great burden. We see where he makes mistakes. Our criticisms as a rule will not help him, but our prayers may bring the needed power or wisdom from above to enable him to perform his task aright. Instead of criticizing our fellows, let us cultivate a spirit of prayer in their behalf.

When Should We Talk Religion?

RELIGION is considered a tabooed subject on all ordinary occasions. Its discussion is considered as belonging to the church, or the prayer meeting, or the more particular occasions for the most part. Why should this question be thus regarded? Why should we hesitate to speak to our fellows about the one question which above all others is of greatest importance, that of eternal destiny? We spend hours talking about the weather, crops, politics, the war, but feel that it is out of place to broach questions of spiritual import.

This we believe is false modesty. Nor do we believe that our neighbors would take offense, as we sometimes fear, if we should speak to them directly of those things that concern the salvation of their souls. We inquire after the physical welfare of our friends, and why should we not as freely inquire after their spiritual health?

Debts of Warring Nations

MANY statistics have been published with reference to the European conflict, in regard to both the loss of life and the expenditure of money. These, of course, are oftentimes only approximate. Perhaps the following figures, quoted from the Wall Street Journal by the Literary Digest of April 1, 1916, may be taken as approximately correct:—

The Journal declares that the war to March 1 cost approximately $30,500,000,000, the charge for the Allied Powers being $20,000,000,000 and that for the Central Powers $10,500,000,000. “The cost of the war at the present time is at the rate of over $100,000,000 daily, or thirty-six and a half billion a year.” The national debt of Great Britain has increased from $3,485,000,000 before the war to $11,155,000,000 at the present time; that of France from $6,607,000,000 to $13,197,000,000; of Russia from $4,537,000,000 to $8,654,500,000; of Italy from $2,836,000,000 to $4,301,000,000; of Germany from $5,198,000,000 to $11,613,000,000; and of Austria-Hungary from $3,970,000,000 to $6,517,500,000. These figures include the expenditures up to March 1. Both England and Germany have been heavy lenders to their allies.

Liberty of the Press

REFERRING to the bills which have been introduced into the present Congress affecting the liberty of the press, the Baptist Commonwealth says:—

“Another and a startling evidence of aggression will be found in another column. There are two bills now before Congress which aim at the liberty of the press. The design is that the Postmaster-General shall exclude from the mails—and destroy—all publications that offend the Roman Catholic hierarchy. Judging from utterances that we find in Baptist exchanges, a lot of Baptist papers come under this ban. Rome has recently been defeated in two prosecutions connected with newspaper publications. Defeated, but not daunted, she is seeking to gain control farther back. Let there be the most earnest heed given to the appeal in the article referred to. There is need of waking up to the menace of Mormonism with its unspeakable iniquities. There is no less reason that patriots and those who love the truth should unite for the defeat of Rome in this latest attack upon American liberty.”

British Censors Stop Pictorial Postcards

The British war office has announced that from now on all pictorial post cards addressed to neutral countries will be stopped by the censors. The reason for this course, it is understood, is the fact that since the beginning of the war spies have found comparatively little difficulty in imparting important military information by clever interlineations of pictures on such cards.

Note and Comment

A Strong Appeal

It was a strong appeal for prohibition which was made to the New York legislative committee recently. A convict from the State prison, bearing the number 11,221, appeared before the committee presenting a petition which had been signed by one thousand convicts imprisoned in the penitentiaries of the State. He declared that 99 out of every 100 men in these prisons were there because of the use of strong drink, and stated that “if the prisoners themselves could vote on prohibition, the saloons would be closed in ten minutes.” The petition earnestly urged such action by the legislature as would remove the dangers of strong drink from the people of New York State.

Forgiveness of Sin

By G. B. T.

THE Lord sets himself forth in his Word as one “forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.” He delights in mercy. He assures the Israel of God that they shall not be forgotten. “I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins.” Isa. 44:22. Notice, the Lord says, “I have blotted out . . . thy transgressions.” Have you given your heart to him? Have you asked him to forgive your sins? If so, he says it is done. Thank the Lord for this.

Again he says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9. Faithful to forgive! When?—Why, when you ask him. He does not postpone forgiveness for a month, a week, a day, or an hour. Forgiveness comes when you ask. Have you truly asked? Then you are forgiven. Accept this by faith, and thank God.

But you say, “I do not feel as if my sins were forgiven.” Here is where many make a mistake. Your feelings are not the test. You are not to know your sins are forgiven by the way you feel. Your assurance of forgiveness rests on God’s immutable word, not on your changeable feelings. Blessed foundation this!

Again you say, “I have confessed the same sin over and over many times.” Well, what did you do that for? That is the result of unbelief. One true, heartfelt confession to God is all you need. When you confess, the Lord forgives and forgets. This brings peace into the heart.

The Lord has assured us of the forgiveness of sin in the strongest language possible. He seems to have exhausted the resources of human language and the stores of natural imagery, in order to convey to sinners the glorious gospel truth of forgiveness of all sin. Let us notice a few of these priceless promises:—

“Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.” Micah 7:19. This is a strong figure. Hurl, if you please, a stone into the depths of the unfathomed sea. It is gone from sight; it is beyond recovery or discovery. Mark the symbol used. It is not in the shallowness of some brook, or even a river, whose bed may change, and that which it hides be uncovered and brought to light in some time of drought. Not this, but the surging sea, the bottom of which no eye has seen. Tremendous assurance this to a burdened soul, struggling beneath a load of sin.

Again we read, “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.” Ps. 103:12. How far is the east from the west? Who can tell? Look west from the top of a lofty mountain some dark night and see the stars in the grand and unfathomable depths of space. Look east into the unmeasured abyss there, and tell us, if you can, how far the east is from the west. How far should you be able to go into these eternal regions before the end would be reached?

The mariner navigating the globe, sailing west, never finds it. West is always a point beyond. No line of measurement has yet been found to reach it. No observation of the heavens has fixed this point. And it is this figure the Lord uses to assure us of the complete separation of sin from the heart.

Here is another statement: “Thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.” Isa. 38:17. Where are the sins you have confessed and forsaken? Do you carry them? O, no; Jesus says, They are behind my back. Jesus does not see them; neither can we. Look at Jesus. There he stands between you and your sins. Truly he has “interposed himself.” Heb. 6:17, margin. He who gave himself for our sins, who paid the debt that we might be free, stands between us and our sins as a pledge of forgiveness. The question of the forgiveness of sins is indeed not a question of feeling, but of faith.

One promise more: “Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.” Heb. 8:12. Blessed forgetfulness! a priceless boon this to the sinner! “The ancients dreamed of Lethe, the river of forgetfulness, into which the soul would plunge at death. There is but one such stream — the fountain that cleanses us, blots out our sins from memory. God can forget. Blessed assurance to the sin-ridden, conscience-stung soul!”

“What more can he say than to you he hath said, Who unto the Saviour for refuge have fled?”

G. B. T.

Explaining Away the Word of the Lord

By F. M. W.

It is interesting to study the mental gymnastics and theological gyrations by which men seek to controvert the plain statements of Holy Scripture. By strange and subtle reasoning they seek to explain away the requirements of the Lord, and make it appear that the Author of the divine Book was incompetent correctly to represent his views to the creatures of his hand. Particularly is the logic which seeks to evade the claims of the Sabbath commandment of the decalogue marvelous and past understanding. These arguments devour either themselves or their fellows. We are told with all gravity that it is impossible to observe a definite seventh day on a round world; that time has been lost and we do not know which is the seventh day; that the commandment does not require a definite seventh day anyway; that the fourth commandment was abrogated at the cross, and phoenix-like, resurrected with the Lord, and incorporated into first-day observance; that as redemption is greater than creation, redemption should be commemorated by a rest day, etc.

It must be confessed, however, that in the Sabbath controversy which has raged for years, these arguments for the most part belong to a past period. Many intelligent Bible students, although Sunday keepers and representing various denominations, frankly admit that so far as the Scriptural proof is concerned the weight of evidence rests entirely on the side of the seventh-day Sabbath, and that there is no authority whatever in the Bible for the observance of the first day. It is the more surprising, therefore, to find so reputable a journal as the Watchman-Examiner, “a national Baptist paper” published in New York, reiterating some of these old-time arguments in support of first-day observance

and against the observance of the seventh day.

It seems that some of the readers of that paper in the Southwest have been disturbed by claims made by Seventh-day Adventists that the fourth commandment requires the observance of the seventh day of the week as holy time. In his issue of Feb. 10, 1916, the editor points out the error of this claim, and declares that “the whole essence of the controversy can be summed up in the following points:—”

“1. It is impossible to prove that the Sabbath as observed by the Israelites of Moses’ time was a chronological continuance of the seventh day on which God rested from the work of creation. The count was probably lost many times, if, indeed, there was any attempt to preserve it, of which there is no evidence. The fact that the fourth commandment was given through Moses indicates that a continuous use of the seventh day as a day of rest and worship was unknown or had been neglected among the Israelites.

“2. The fourth commandment does not indicate any particular day of the week to be observed as a Sabbath or day of rest. It says, ‘Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath.’ Plainly any one who works six days and rests the seventh is keeping the fourth commandment, whether he rests on Sunday or any other day of the week.

“3. When the Lord was with them on earth, the disciples and the Lord himself observed the Jewish Sabbath. After the Lord’s resurrection the disciples at once began to observe the first day of the week as a holy day of worship. All the special meetings of the early Christians were on ‘the first day of the week.’ There is evidence that, for a time at least, the Christians who were Jews continued to observe the seventh day of the week, as they did other Jewish customs. But the Gentile Christians never observed the seventh day as a day of rest even, and after a time the Jewish Christians neglected it, and soon ceased to observe it in any way.

“4. For Christians the day of the Lord’s resurrection, the first day of the week, became the one day in seven on which they obeyed the fourth commandment and ceased from labor, and to the observances enjoined by the commandment given through Moses they added the worship, service, and inspiration appropriate to the memories of the rising from the dead of their Lord and Saviour. The whole so-called Christian world has by general agreement adopted this one day out of the seven days of the week as a day of rest.

“The claim that to obey the fourth commandment one must observe the seventh day of the week in a calendar established by a heathen emperor is pure assumption. It goes beyond the word of Scripture. It assumes a chronological succession that cannot be proved. It elevates a Jewish ritual observance above the devout celebration of the most important and central fact in the Christian religion,—the resurrection of our Lord. And, if the ideas of the Seventh-day Adventists could be universally adopted, it would obscure the glory of the living Lord, and turn Christianity back, as some destructive critics desire, into a mere development of Judaism.”

A brief review of the points cited above may be of interest. We refer to them in their order:—

1. The division of time into the week has been recognized since the earliest days of antiquity. Many testimonies might be adduced in support of this statement; we append several. William Smith says, in his Bible dictionary, published by Fleming H. Revell, page 745:—

“There can be no doubt about the great antiquity of measuring time by a period of seven days. Gen. 8: 10; 29: 27. The origin of this division of time is a matter which has given birth to much speculation. Its antiquity is so great, its observance so widespread, and it occupies so important a place in sacred things, that it must probably be thrown back as far as the creation of man. The week and the Sabbath are thus as old as man himself.”

To this we might add no less an authority than the Encyclopedia Britannica:—

“The week is a period of seven days, having no reference whatever to the celestial motions,—a circumstance to which it owes its unalterable uniformity. Although it did not enter into the calendar of the Greeks, and was not introduced at Rome till after the reign of Theodosius, it has been employed from time immemorial in almost all Eastern countries; and as it forms neither an aliquot part of the year nor of the lunar month, those who reject the Mosaic recital will be at a loss, as Delambre remarks, to assign to it an origin having much semblance of probability.”—Vol. IV, p. 988, art. “Calendar,” eleventh edition.

William B. Dana says:—

“Besides proving God to be the Almighty Creator, in and through them is established a wholly artificial division of time, called a week, closing with the contrivance of a weekly Sabbath—‘made for man’—on which ‘God rested from all his work,’ and which he ‘blessed and hallowed.’

“In the light of these suggestions the assumption, we think, is irresistible that the framework in which was presented the account of the creation was a special device ingeniously designed and skilfully worked out as a vehicle for the establishment and perpetuity of these two remarkable institutions—the week and the Sabbath. They stand together. Take away either, the other falls.—‘A Day for Rest and Worship,’ pp. 57, 58.

Finally we give the testimony of a man prominent in the church which the Watchman-Examiner represents. Francis Wayland, a Baptist writer and minister, says:—

“The division of time into seven days is, moreover, very common among all ancient nations. This seems to indicate that they all received this institution from the same source, although the religious observance of it had been gradually neglected. From these facts I think we may conclude that the Sabbath was originally given to the whole hu-man

race, and that it was observed by the Hebrews previously to the giving of the law; and that, in early ages, this observance was probably universal.”—“Elements of Moral Science,” Gould & Lincoln, Boston, 1873, p. 91.

But suppose we admit for argument’s sake that the seventh day was lost in the patriarchal period. We have positive evidence that this knowledge was restored to Israel at Sinai. The threefold miracle lasting during the forty years’ wandering in the wilderness, when the Lord rained manna from heaven for the sustenance of Israel six days in the week, withholding it on the seventh day, definitely and specifically pointed out the seventh day. Food which they gathered on any other day than the sixth day would not keep overnight. On that day, however, a double portion of manna fell to make up for its cessation on the seventh day, and the extra portion which was gathered on the sixth day by a miracle of divine power was preserved fresh and sweet for use during the Sabbath. It made a difference to Israel as to which day of the week they observed as the Sabbath. Ex. 16: 14-36.

But the children of Israel were acquainted with the demands of the Lord, and had a definite knowledge of the seventh day previous to the falling of the manna; for when some of the children of Israel failed to make proper provision for Sabbath food on the sixth day, but went out to gather on the seventh day, the Lord said to Moses, “How long refuse ye to keep my commandments and my laws?” Ex. 16: 28. This rebuke certainly would not have been given had the children of Israel not possessed a previous knowledge of the Sabbath of the Lord.

And admitting further that a knowledge of the true seventh day was lost during the Babylonian captivity, the example and teaching of the Lord during his earthly ministry were sufficient to set his disciples right regarding the particular day they should observe as the Sabbath, and his teaching and example were so potent regarding Sabbath observance that after his death, in place of continuing the work of embalming his body, the disciples returned to their homes, “and rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment.” Luke 23: 56. If they rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment, they could have rested on none other than the seventh day of the week.

In addition to these considerations the great historical fact remains that the Jewish people, segregated and divided, cast out and persecuted, driven from one country to another, are a unit to this very day, as they have been through all ages of the past, in their recognition of the one day of the week set apart by the God of their fathers for holy observation.

2. Does the fourth commandment indicate the particular day of the week to be observed as the Sabbath? The editor of the Watchman-Examiner says it does not, and strange as it may seem, he quotes the command, “Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath,” to prove his claim. How dare one in the face of this plain statement of the Word of God, clearly and positively expressed, contend that God does not say what he surely does say? Read the fourth commandment, as contained in the following words, and consider whether or not God requires the observance of a particular day of the week as the Sabbath:—

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but THE SEVENTH DAY IS THE SABBATH OF THE LORD THY GOD; IN IT THOU SHALT NOT DO ANY WORK, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.” Ex. 20: 8-11.

3. The statements in paragraph number three of the above quotation would solve a question which is perplexing many minds, and would bring relief to many consciences which are now troubled over the requirements of the fourth commandment, if they were only true. But unfortunately the editor has stated that which he neither proves nor is able to prove.

It is true that the Lord, while on earth, observed the seventh day; but where is one single statement to show that “after the Lord’s resurrection the disciples at once began to observe the first day of the week,” and that “all the special meetings of the early Christians were on the first day of the week”? We challenge the proof. On the contrary, there is proof that the disciples after the resurrection continued to observe the seventh day. This day was the customary time of the apostle Paul for holding religious service, not only with Jewish but also with Gentile converts. See Acts 13: 42-44; 17: 1-13; 18: 4-11. Throughout the New Testament Scriptures no other day is spoken of as the Sabbath. The first day of the week is mentioned eight times, six in the Gospels, once in the Acts, and once in First Corinthians. In not one single instance is it called a sacred day, and no holy character is ascribed to it by any Bible writer. There is only one instance in the Sacred Record showing that a religious assembly was held on the first day of the week. That meeting began Saturday night, lasted throughout the night, and broke up Sunday morning, when Paul continued his journey to Rome, and the church people evidently returned

to their accustomed labor. See Acts 20: 1-4.

Later in the history of the church, when the purity of its teaching had become corrupted by heathen influences, the observance of the first day of the week was introduced. The historian says:—

“The festival Sunday, like all other festivals, was always only a human ordinance; and it was far from the intention of the apostles to establish a divine command in this respect,—far from them, and from the early apostolic church, to transfer the laws of the Sabbath to Sunday. Perhaps at the end of the second century a false application of this kind had begun to take place; for men appear by that time to have considered laboring on Sunday as a sin.”—Neander’s Church History, Rose’s translation, p. 186, edition 1843.

Three leading motives apparently actuated the church Fathers in substituting the observance of the first day as a rest day, for that of the seventh day of the week. These motives were, (1) Opposition to Judaism, and therefore a desire to appear as widely separated as possible from Judaistic faith and practice; (2) a desire to conform as far as possible to the customs of many of their heathen neighbors, hoping thereby to advance the gospel; (3) the innate desire of mankind to commemorate the great events of history. It is only as the church departed from the simplicity of its primitive faith and practice, and lost a knowledge of the significance of the memorials which God had placed in the church, that these motives became dominant and controlling. The Lord had already provided definite memorials commemorating the events of the passion week. If these had been cherished with the true sense of their sacredness and significance, no demand would have arisen in the church for any further memorial. Says Morer, a Church of England clergyman:—

“It is not to be denied that we borrow the name of this day from the ancient Greeks and Romans, and we allow that the old Egyptians worshiped the sun, and as a standing memorial of their veneration, dedicated this day to him. And we find, by the influence of their examples, other nations, and among them the Jews themselves, doing him homage; yet these abuses did not hinder the Fathers of the Christian church simply to repeal, or altogether lay by, the day or its name, but only to sanctify and improve both, as they did also the pagan temples polluted before with idolatrous services, and other instances wherein those good men were always tender to work any other change than what was evidently necessary, and in such things as were plainly inconsistent with the Christian religion; so that Sunday being the day on which the Gentiles solemnly adored that planet, and called it Sunday, partly from its influence on that day especially, and partly in respect to its divine body (as they conceived it), the Christians thought fit to keep the same day and the same name of it, that they

might not appear causelessly peevish, and by that means hinder the conversion of the Gentiles, and bring a greater prejudice than might be otherwise taken against the gospel.”—“Dialogues on the Lord’s Day,” pp. 22, 23.

4. Because the first day of the week has come to be generally regarded by the great professed Christian church as the Sabbath of the Lord, in no sense constitutes it the Sabbath. The general agreement of the Christian church in every age could not make it the Sabbath of the Lord. It is absolutely impossible for the Christian church individually or collectively to keep the first day of the week holy, for the simple and obvious reason that divine power has never made it holy. Only one day of the week has been made holy by the divine Word, and sanctified and set apart to the sacred use of the human family. That is the seventh day. See Gen. 2: 1-3.

Seventh-day Adventists do not claim that to obey the fourth commandment one must observe the calendar established by a heathen emperor. The weekly period of time existed centuries before the establishment of the Julian calendar, and was recognized by many nations. We must dissent from the charge that the teachings of Seventh-day Adventists “obscure the glory of the living Lord.” Our Saviour Jesus Christ was the Creator of this world in the beginning. Col. 1: 13-17; John 1: 1-3. He gave the Sabbath as a memorial of his great creative act. Gen. 2: 1-3. When man sold himself into sin, the Creator came to this world and gave his life for the redemption of the human family. The Sabbath memorial of his creation in the beginning is also the sign of the re-creation which he works in the regeneration of his children, a sign of their sanctification. Ex. 31: 13-18.

So far as the particular redemptive acts of our Lord’s ministry are concerned, he has given us memorials in the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper, instituted in memory of the broken body and of the spilled blood. See 1 Cor. 11: 23-26. Baptism by immersion serves as a memorial of the death and burial of the Lord Jesus, and of his resurrection from the dead. See Rom. 6: 1-5. We commemorate the scenes of the passion week in every baptismal occasion, in every gathering around the Lord’s table at communion service. And we marvel that the editor of a Baptist paper, who professedly recognizes in the baptismal service this commemoration of the Lord’s death, burial, and resurrection, should so far forget its significance as to seek to substitute for it the observance of a day.

No, the plain statements of the Word of God cannot be set aside. They stand as an open rebuke to the great Christian world today as, wilfully or ignorantly, it turns its back on the Sabbath of the Lord

from week to week. We may seek by sophistical reasoning in this life to explain away the commands of the Lord, but in the great day of reckoning we must stand face to face with his requirements. It is well for us to determine our attitude toward this relationship, not from the standpoint of present convenience, but from the standpoint of God’s final judgment. “He that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the Lord?” F. M. W.

Signs in the Social World

By L. L. C.

Signs of Christ’s Coming — No. 6

Signs in the Social World

One of the conditions to prevail in the last days is presented in the words of the angel who told the prophet Daniel to seal up the words of the book of his prophecy. The angel said,—

“But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.” Dan. 12: 4.

Of the discoveries of the last seventy years, the Scientific American in its seventieth anniversary number, June 5, 1915, says,—

“When the Scientific American was established [1845], . . . the telegraph and the reaper had just been born. There was no telephone, no motion picture machine, no oil-refining industry, no electric incandescent lamp, no wireless telegraph, no flying machine or airship, no typewriter, no automobile, no electric railway, no Bessemer steel, no phonograph, no passenger elevator, no steam turbine. Why continue the list any further? Much of the transformation which has marked the last seventy years has taken place within the lives of men still with us. The amazing rapidity with which industries have grown and conveniences multiplied may be attributed to the very nature of invention and research. Hardly was one discovery made when a vista to a whole series of new discoveries was opened, and each of these in turn disclosed bypaths to still newer fields. So development has progressed with the rapidity of wildfire. . . . What a period of scientific activity we have lived through! When . . . the Scientific American was started, it took three weeks to send a message from New York to Liverpool, and three months to Calcutta. . . . Only yesterday we marveled at the application of ether and chloroform to surgery, at the feat of telegraphing across the ocean without wires, at the bigness of the Panama Canal, at the opportunity of viewing the skeleton beneath the living flesh with the X rays, and the spectacle of a man flying in the air swifter than any bird. When we think that it has been our privilege not merely to see these and many other miracles and to translate them into print, so that the wonder of them and the beauty of them might strike all men, who can blame us if we contemplate our future task with a feeling almost akin to awe?”

Since the invention of the steamship and steam railway, the running to and fro has been made easy, and all forms of knowledge have been more widely disseminated. This invention has come in the providence of God to facilitate the carrying of the gospel message to the whole world in this generation. As Dr. Edward Lawrence says,—

“There was one other force which was needed to fully equip the church for its universal activity, and to draw the nations of the world together into a net, as the peoples of old had been drawn into the Greco-Roman Empire. That was the power of steam, which was to bind the lands together with bands of steel, turn the oceans into a Mediterranean, make the locomotive an emissary of God’s kingdom, and the steamer a morning star to herald the day. That invention was not ready to begin its task of annihilating space until the dawn of the nineteenth century. But it was ready in time, for not until then was the purified church itself roused to a fidelity grand enough to undertake the work for which God had been preparing this equipment. It was in 1807, while the young men at Williamstown were praying and studying about missions, that Robert Fulton was making the first trip of the ‘Clermont,’ from New York to Albany.”— Introduction to Foreign Missions, p. 20.

Christ, speaking of the conditions which will prevail in the last days, says, “As it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.” Luke 17: 26. The time before the flood was marked by pleasure seeking and wickedness. The same conditions exist now. There is a close connection between pleasure seeking and the evils of modern society. As M. Comte, the editor of Relevement Social [French], writing just before the European war broke out, said, “Unrestrained passion for pleasure is bringing a terrible train of evils into modern society.” (Quoted in Record of Christian Work, July, 1914.)

Pleasure seeking is most pronounced in the great cities, and so is crime. The pleasure seeker must have money. The obtaining of money by unlawful means is the object in a great majority of crimes. The increase of crime in New York City is very striking. We quote the following from the Washington Herald of Dec. 6, 1914:—

“Greater New York is engulfed in a crime wave of appalling proportions. Murderers can be hired like taxicabs, for the day, hour, or job. To hire a murder neatly and expeditiously done involves less risk of detection and punishment than to carry a lighted cigar into the subway. Police Commissioner Woods is responsible for the statement that there were seventy-three homicides here in September, October, and November, with 623 felonious assaults, any one of which might have resulted fatally, in the same period. Bomb throwing also is flourishing, and the police are almost powerless to check it. Between September 16 and November 26 there were nineteen bomb explosions, and only four men were arrested, three in one case and one in another. The perpetrators of the other seventeen dynamite outrages are still at large, without a clue to their identity. In the week between October 18 and 25 there were eight murders in the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn alone, with two revolver assaults, where the assassins failed to kill. And on September 23 there were four murders.”

Last summer the same paper gave a summary of convictions for crime in New York State.

“In the State of New York in 1914, 80,698 men, women, and children were convicted in courts of record and special sessions. Based on a population of 10,000,000, this is an average of one conviction to every 125 inhabitants. The total number recorded in 1913 was 68,337. Male convictions totaled 67,268, compared with 56,772 in 1913. Female convictions were 4,782, as against 4,190 reported two years ago. These figures seem to suggest that it would be worth while to discover what it was that drove so many New Yorkers to crime or misdemeanor last year.”— Washington Herald, July 28, 1915.

And New York is not the only State where crime has been increasing. As one considers the great increase in hasty and ill-assorted marriages and equally hasty divorces, together with the social evil and its hideous white slavery, one can but see the fulfilment of the words of the apostle Paul,—

“This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts.” 2 Tim. 3: 1-6.

Let us, then, recognize that we are indeed in the last days, and that while by the grace of God individuals will be brought to repentance, society as a whole cannot be permanently bettered till Christ comes to destroy sin and sinners, and to bring in everlasting righteousness.

L. L. C.

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