Earlier text: THE MISUSE OF POWERTHE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH IN POLITICS.
The Catholic Federation Society aims to bring together all Catholic Societies in one body for united action along certain lines. A large meeting was held in New York City Sunday evening, June 12. According to the Catholic Mirror, the following Catholic Societies were represented:— The Holy Name Society, St. Vincent de Paul Conference, Knights of Columbus, Catholic Benevolent Legion, Ancient Order of Hibernians, Archdiocesan Union, German Catholic State League, German Catholic Central Verein, Catholic Knights of America, Catholic Mutual Benevolent Association, Catholic clubs, and Catholic sodalities and clubs. Hon. Bourke Cockran, one of the chief speakers, declared the objects as follows:— The objects of the Federation can be gathered under three heads. Briefly these are: First, questions which only Catholics realize; second, questions which only Catholics can remedy, and, finally, questions which neither Catholic nor Protestant has solved. The first question comes in the form of hostility to Christian instruction, and yet the State says it is necessary for its own safety to instruct its youth in questions of morality. The cry is for non-sectarian education. There is no such thing. The school must be either Christian or anti-Christian, and if it is non-sectarian it is anti-Christian. Of course Mr. Cockran would logically work for the “Christianization” of the State. Mr. Mooney said in part:— The Catholic Church has made unparalleled progress in America, particularly in the natural sense. But the Catholic Church has not yet taken the place in the life of the nation to which she is entitled from her dowry of everlasting truth. Has the Federation any help along these lines to give? I am persuaded it has, and as such it is entitled to our full faith and support. When any question arises in politics which is likely to affect the church, the Federation—and we may say the flexible politician—will be there. THE post of honor is a private station.—Addison. A CONFESSION THAT MEANS MUCH.
In the St. Louis bribery trials that have had so much attention in the press of late a confession has just been made by one of the members of the Legislature which shows the inner workings of the political bribery combine that is controlling the legislation of that state. And who can say that Missouri is the only state thus affected? We quote from the convicted legislator’s own statement of the case:— The best reparation that I can make for the wrongs I have done is to confess fully to everything, in order that the public may realize what has been going on. Yielding to the pleadings of my wife, I have determined to do all I can to atone for my sins against the public. The people of St. Louis even now do not realize how they have been persistently plundered for years and years by the men they elected to make laws for the city. I became a member of the House of Delegates in 1897, and at once became a member of the combine of that body, which was an organization composed of nineteen delegates for the purpose of selling legislation. The first bill that came up after I had become a member of the combine was “the suburban loop bill.” The combine got $30,000 for their votes on this bill. On the Union Avenue bill we got $18,000. On the central traction bill we got $75,000. On the Third Street line bill we got $75,000. On the lighting bill we got $47,000. On the suburban bill we were to get $75,000, which is now in a deposit box in the Lincoln Trust Company, being placed there with the agreement that it should be turned over to us when the bill had been passed. While these are some of the largest bribes secured during my term of office, there were innumerable others ranging from $10,000 to a few hundred dollars for some minor privileges. The bribe prices were fixed in meetings of the combine, the procedure being for some member to get up, and move that a certain price be fixed on a certain bill. Other members would give their opinions, a vote would be taken, and the price securing the highest number of votes would be adopted. Then we would select an agent of the combine by ballot to negotiate for and receive the money. This agent would distribute the money among us. From my intimate knowledge of the dealing of this combine, and what has been going on here for the last quarter of a century, I make the positive statement that there is hardly a corporation in the city of St. Louis of $100,000 or over that has not been held for bribe money in the House of Delegates. I acted as the agent of the combine in a number of these deals. In the suburban deal I went with Kratz to Stock’s house, and was present when the agreement was made regarding the bribe of $60,000 for Kratz, which is now in a lock box in the Mississippi Valley Trust Company. I went with Kratz and Carroll to the office of a prominent broker in the lighting deal, and there $20,000 was paid by this broker to the combine, and the promise was made then that $27,500 more would be paid. AUTHENTIC information from the seat of war is as scarce as at any time since the beginning of hostilities, and the reports that are printed concerning operations there are very contradictory. The Russians now flatly deny the loss of any vessels in the engagements reported last week between the fleets at Port Arthur. The Russian Vladivostock fleet has made another sortie, and the Japanese fleet under Kamimura has been seeking during the week to engage it. The two fleets were once in contact, but the Russians are reported to have slipped away in the darkness during a rainstorm. Another engagement between the two fleets at Port Arthur is reported, but no details have been given out. Two of the forts farthest from Port Arthur in that line of defense have been taken by the Japanese, with considerable loss on both sides. In the land operations the two Japanese armies have not yet affected a combination. One report indicates that Kuropatkin is withdrawing to the north, leaving small detachments to harry the Japanese in their advance. Other reports indicate that the Japanese are retiring, evacuating some positions which they won from the Russians after severe fighting. The rainy season is now on, and will continue for about six weeks. Some predict that there will be no notable operations during this time on land. Reports from Russian sources state that the Japanese are in sore straits through lack of provisions and ammunition. At Dalin the Russians are said to have inflicted heavy losses on the Japanese, who were unable to take the positions which they assailed and lost positions which they occupied. It is felt that a decisive engagement may not be fought for several weeks yet. Corporate Watering and Armenian Relief
The unprincipled course taken by some corporations to increase their wealth-producing capacity is well illustrated in the attempted reorganization of the United States Shipbuilding Company, of New York. The upset price to be demanded at the coming foreclosure sale is to be $11,100,000, of which $7,500,000 is to be for the Bethlehem Steel Company. The promoters put the Bethlehem Company into the trust two years ago at the enormous price of $30,000,000. The lawyers representing all sides of the controversy have agreed that the true value of all shipyards in the trust is $3,600,000. The promoters put these shipyards into the trust at $41,000,000, while the price at which the promoters attempted to sell to the public was $71,000,000. The watered stock now admitted amounts to $59,900,000. Great Britain has successfully brought pressure to bear on the Turkish Government for the relief of the persecuted Armenians, according to statements in a letter written by the British Foreign Secretary to the Anglo-Armenian Association. The grand vizier has acquiesced in the British ambassador’s demands, and has telegraphed to Turkish officials in Armenia that the Armenians be protected and allowed to return to their homes. The British official there has been instructed by the ambassador to watch the effect of the grand vizier’s orders and report. The Turkish Government has also granted permission for a British officer to accompany any troops engaged in expeditions against the insurgents. A tornado swept the city of Moscow on the night of June 29, causing a great amount of damage. Forty-five persons were killed there. Two villages near Moscow, in the track of the storm, were destroyed, and the number of deaths there is said to be 150. Hailstones weighing three-quarters of a pound fell during the storm. In one grove of 250 acres only one tree was left standing. During an incendiary fire at the Russian port of Cronstadt on the night of June 29 twenty Whitehead torpedoes were destroyed. Five of these were equipped with the war heads, and exploded with terrible effect on the surrounding buildings, adding to the fire and the excitement. The torpedo works were practically destroyed. A strike of street-car employees, in Buffalo, Texas, is thus noted in a letter dated June 26: “A bitter and determined spirit exists on both sides. The cars are running, but doing little business. Transfer wagons operated by the union are driven over the same lines as the cars, and seem to do about the same amount of business.” On account of the recent terrible disaster in New York harbor, Secretary Cortelyou, of the Department of Commerce and Labor, has ordered a reinspection of all passenger-carrying vessels plying on the waters of the harbor. PATIENCE IN THE HOME.
By Mrs. L. D. Avery-Stuttle
BY MRS. L. D. AVERY-STUTTLE. Do you ever pray for patience? “O God, make me a patient mother;” “Make me a patient father;” “Lord, help me to be patient with my pupils.” “O yes,” you say; “I often pray for patience, that is one of the Christian graces, and one of the hardest to attain unto.” Did you ever pray for tribulation? “A strange thing to pray for,—I get enough of that without asking for any more,” you reply. Well, I think that is the way with most of us. But we forget that it is “tribulation” that “worketh patience.” “But trouble is the very thing that makes me impatient.” Does it? Then you are failing to gain the experience, and the blessing for which that trouble was sent. How can we be patient if we are never tried—if we never have occasion to be impatient? If everything moves along smoothly all day; if husband's wages have been raised, and baby has not been fretful; if Mary has secured a good position; if the bread and the pudding were a success, and John praised our skill at dinner, of course we were not at all tired at night, and were so sweet-tempered and smiling, that every one remarked about it. But some way, we did not feel that we deserved a bit of credit. Do you remember about Job? He was called the most patient man who ever lived. Why? Because he never had any trouble?—No; he endured the most fearful calamities one after the other of any man of which we have any record,—and he endured them patiently. “What is the use in our trying to keep up any longer?” asked his wife. “The Almighty has forsaken us. Our children are taken from us; my mother heart is wrung; our property is destroyed, and now you are smitten with these horrible boils. Come, let us curse God and die.” The faithful man rises up in holy indignation from his bed of ashes. “What! shall we curse Him who gave us all these blessings that we have enjoyed, lo these many years? Suppose they are taken from us! Who gave them? Shall we receive good from the hand of the Lord, and shall we not receive evil also? Tho He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.” “Yes,” says Mrs. Fearman, “I am sure I could be patient under affliction. Last summer we buried our only child, and in the autumn my husband lost his property. It was hard to endure, but God gave grace. But, I tell you, when the neighbors began to look down on us because we had lost so much money that we could not afford the accustomed luxuries; when Mrs. B. refused to recognize me at church, and I saw Susie Rich actually sneer as I went past,—then I must confess, I lost my patience. I tell you it's hard to be laughed at.” Well, I know it is; I think I know by experience; if I do not, Job did. “Job? I had not thought of such a thing in connection with that grand old hero,” you say. Ah, his sublimity of character shone forth in its greatest beauty in the midst of the contempt and scorn of—not the rich and mighty who were his one-time companions, but he was actually spit upon by those who were the recipients of his bounty in the days of his prosperity. They hastened—not to do him honor—but to show him the grossest disrespect which it is possible to manifest,—to spit in the face of the sick and wretched man as he lay groveling in misery upon the ground. “Take, my brethren, the prophets, . . . for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience.” But the grace of patience comprises more than this. It is a far-reaching and all-embracing virtue. We can not always be sure that a man is patient because he is able to endure ill treatment from his neighbors,—not always. Wait until you see him at home,—or rather until he thinks you do not see him. Wait until his wife crosses his track, or the children try his temper by their childish pranks. Some men are proverbially kind, and even generous and thoughtful toward every one but their wives. I know a dear little woman who would be very happy if her husband would be one-half as careful of her feelings as he is of his neighbor's. Neither can you tell for certain whether a woman has acquired the beautiful grace of patience because her name is on the church book, or because she is first and foremost in the Dorcas Society. These are good indications certainly, but if you want to be sure about it, watch her in her home life. Ah, it is the conduct at home that counts. Who among us are willing to be watched from morning until night at home, while we are about the duties of the day; while we are sweeping and dusting and washing and ironing and tending baby and waiting upon a peevish invalid? How do we speak to the careless, slipshod servant girl? Were the tones of our voice modulated with kindness and patience this morning, when we asked her how it happened that the potatoes were always undone, the milk allowed to sour, and the bread to burn? Are we sure no impatient word escapes our lips when we get so weary? when our tired feet ache with climbing up and down the cellar stairs, and our arms and shoulders become almost numb with weariness in bearing burdens that seem too heavy for us,—burdens that must be borne by somebody. Are we quite willing that all our impatient words and tones should be faithfully noted? Willing or unwilling, the watch is set. We are a spectacle to men and to angels. But how are we going to endure so many things, even if they are small, and endure them patiently? Indeed the little trials seem sometimes most heavy to bear. This morning I hurried across the road on an errand, to the home of my neighbor, a beautiful Christian woman. I was almost too tired to undertake even so trifling an errand, and, as I went, I said in my heart: “I do not seem fitted for these things; these petty duties weary me so! breakfast, dinner, supper,—a monotonous round of duties, an endless chain in which every link is the same,”—and I wondered if any one else ever felt just as I had. “I am so tired this morning,” I said to her; “now it seems to me that you never have these feelings,—a kind of hungering after something different and better. You seem so calm and sweet and patient. O, my dear, tell me your secret.” “Ah, I must confess to having the very same trouble,” she said, with a suggestion of tears in her expressive eyes. “Only this morning when some extra work came, I tell you, my dear, I felt sort of overwhelmed. It is not so every day, but sometimes.” Ah, so we are all alike. “He fashioneth their hearts alike.” “There hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man.” I tell you there is nothing which will so effectively keep weary, overworked, struggling humanity from impatience, as perfect trust and submission to Him who apportions all our cares. Some one has said that the divine recipe for curing impatience, is found in I Thess. 5:16-18. “Rejoice evermore; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks.” “Evermore” does not mean part of the time, when everything goes well. We must cultivate a happy disposition. God knows it is so hard to do this sometimes, and He is anxious to help us bear these burdens which, unless we allow Him to do so, will crush out our spiritual life as surely as our temporal. Then shall we not begin to put a double guard upon ourselves, lest we frown when we ought to smile, and lest a spirit of impatience come over us? I tell you, if we are impatient before the children, they become infected by the same spirit. It is surprising to see how the little faces reflect the smiles or the frowns. “But when I am half sick,” you protest. O, it is so hard to keep patient where one is just about half sick. If one is sick in bed,—real sick,—the case is different. I have a dear friend who has not walked across the house in years. She is not without actual pain a moment, yet the smile upon her lips is a constant benediction; and the amount of real unselfish Christian help work she does is enough to shame many another whose privileges are much greater. Constantly on the outlook for opportunities to do others good, an impatient word never escapes her. Now then; shall we not settle comfortably down to the belief that He who has created us knows just the number of trials we need to develop the beautiful virtue of patience within us? and shall we not be happy and content in knowing that He will not forget us nor leave us to battle alone, but that He will “perfect that which concerneth me?” WHY JOHNNY DIDN'T SMOKE.
By Annie Preston
We were walking up and down the long platform of the railway station at New London one bright, spring morning, and enjoyed the fresh breeze that blew in from the Sound, while we waited for the Vermont Central train to take us on the northward. There were other strollers besides ourselves, and we particularly noticed a handsome young man for his scrupulous neatness, his quiet demeanor, and his firm, erect carriage. Presently he was accosted by a half dozen jolly young fellows, who were surprised and delighted at meeting him there. They plied him with hasty, cordial, boyish questions: “Where have you been?” “What have you been doing?” “How are you getting on?” We dropped down on a settee near by, amused at the merry, lively chat. Presently some one offered the young man a cigar. “Thank you, no,” he said. “I have given up smoking.” And then he added, laughing a little, and showing a set of very white teeth: “The fact is, when I reached home there seemed no place for me to smoke, and I was under the necessity of giving up the habit.” “Well, you see, I was glad enough to get home again, and after supper I went into the library, and laid down on the sofa in front of the open fire, and, lighting a cigar, prepared for a smoke. Pretty soon ma came in. Not my own mother; she died when I was a little thing; but this one, ever since my father married her, has made a pretty and pleasant home for me. As she walked along, I heard the soft rustle of her dress, and then I heard her sniff, sniff, and presently she said: ‘I fancied I smelled smoke.’ I held up my cigar, and confessed I had been smoking a little, off and on, for some time.” “O, is that so?” she said gently. “Well, Johnny, I don't know that it is surprising, but please do not let me see you smoking on the street, or when we12are out anywhere. I don't think I could bear that.” And I said: “Certainly not, ma. You can depend on me.” But I threw my cigar in the fire, having lost my enjoyment of it somehow, altho she did not scold. “Pretty soon my father came in, and he said, directly: ‘Ma tells me you have learned to smoke, my boy. Well, I suppose I ought to be surprised that you didn’t learn sooner, but don’t let me see you smoking around the house.’ And I said, ‘Certainly not, sir,’ and was glad he had taken it so pleasantly.” “Before the evening was half over, my Uncle Tom, who is my father’s partner in business, strolled over for a little chat, and as he took a seat, and looked me over in a way he has, as if he were taking account of stock, ma said, in her soft voice: ‘Johnny has a new accomplishment since he went away. He has learned to smoke.’” “Dear me! is that so?” exclaimed Uncle Tom. “Well, why boys will persist in burning up their hard earnings is a mystery to me; but you won’t let me see you smoking around the factory, I hope. I shouldn’t enjoy seeing my nephew and bookkeeper and prospective partner about the works with a pipe or a cigar in his mouth.” “Uncle Tom is a great go-to-meeting man. One evening he asked me to go with him, and as I had no excuse to offer, I went. There was a collection, and Uncle Tom said to me: ‘I used to use tobacco and beer, but since I left it off, I have put what money I save in that way in the Lord’s work, and it gives me more pleasure than I ever got from smoke or drink.’” “‘I will do that, too, sir,’ I said, ‘I will follow so excellent an example for a year, and then if I am no poorer, I will keep it up as long as I live.’ So I began saving my dimes. I had to go to church to put them in the box, of course, and in that way I became interested in the religion I heard preached, and concluded that I needed it as much as any one. So, boys, I am a Christian, and a church member, and I feel as if I had been getting on quite a little.” “I like your speaking out, and telling us about it,” said the jolliest young fellow of them all. “It gives me faith to believe that you have got hold of something worth having.” “All aboard for the North!” shouted Conductor Doane. And the next minute we were moving rapidly away, leaving the group still talking. Mrs. Annie Preston, in Onward. ONE THING AND ANOTHER.
By Daniel W. Sumner
It is one thing to pose as a Christian,
And have a good place with the flock;
'Tis another to stand strong for Jesus
Firmly builded secure on the Rock. It is one thing to talk of the Bible,
Telling others what Jesus has said;
'Tis another to stand by its precepts,
And feast on the life-giving bread. It is one thing to live in fine houses,
And have all that heart can conceive;
'Tis another to give to the needy,
And their sufferings and sorrows relieve. It is one thing to look for the Saviour,
With heart full of yearning desire;
Quite another to seek our own pleasure,
And heap up our earth-treasures higher. O cease from the strife of self-serving;
Learn to love and serve Jesus the King;
Then one day you may join in the anthems
That will make heaven's wide arches ring. APENDICITIS AND THE RIDING HABIT.
Dr. Thomas W. Lauterborn, of Morristown, N. J. is authority for the statement that walking is a sure preventive of appendicitis. Dr. Lauterborn says: “When a man is active on his feet, when he is doing considerable walking, there is no danger of his having appendicitis, for the reason that the abdominal and intestinal muscles are kept continually active, and so are in good working order all the while. The jolting given to a man's interior economy when he walks causes the muscles of the abdomen, and the intestines to continually contract to offset the jar of his step, and thus they are all always in perfect condition. When the contractible function of intestinal organs is operative, the entrance to the appendix is always closed, hence the individual has no fear of appendicitis. On the other hand when a man begins to take to the trolley-car, the steam-car, and to the carriage in making his daily trips, he loses all that jolting which is necessary as a tonic to the muscular walls of his abdomen and intestines. So when we see a man begin to get flabby and pot-bellied, we immediately say that there is a good subject for appendicitis.” Commenting upon the Morristown physician's statement, the Des Moines Register and Leader says: “There are certainly ample statistics and deductions to support Dr. Lauterborn's theory. Appendicitis has increased to an alarming extent within the past decade. It has become almost a ‘fad,’ if disease and suffering can ever said to be a fad. Hundreds of operations are performed for appendicitis to-day where one was a rarity a score of years ago. It may simply be an interesting coincidence, but appendicitis and the trolley-cars have been companions in development throughout the careers of both. Dr. Lauterborn does not maintain that appendicitis is anything like that form of nervousness that's induced by the electric current through the car trolley, concerning which expert neurologists have been worrying the public in recent years. He does not lean toward the microbe theory. If horse-cars had ever reached that stage of progress where they were as fast as a man on foot, appendicitis would have resulted just as it has in the electric-car age. It's the riding, not the electricity.” In support of his theory, Dr. Lauterborn says that appendicitis flourishes in the cities, while it is comparatively unknown in the country, and the Register and Leader adds: “Men ride to work, ride home in the evening, sit in an office, sit at home; in a few years they are operated upon for appendicitis. Men walk the plowed fields, the country roads, and the cow paths; they are healthy, happy, and ignorant of appendicitis. It is only when they retire from the farm, are introduced to the trolley-car, and the automobile that they emulate their city-bred cousins, and are operated upon. There is no nation on the earth more healthy than the English. Walking is a national pastime with them. Appendicitis is virtually an American disease. There is no nation which sends its city men, day after day, with such monotonous regularity, on trolley or steam-cars, to and from work, as the American.” “Lucretia Borgia.” By Ferdinand Gregorovius, author of “A History of the City of Rome in the Middle Ages.” Translated from the Third German Edition, by John Leslie Garner. Illustrated. 378 pp. Price, $2.25. D. Appleton and Company, New York. The object of this work is to set down a faithful, authentic account of the life and times of Lucretia, the noted and beautiful woman of the infamous Borgia family. The author has had access not alone to the basic accounts on which other histories have been founded, but he has collected much new material which appears in modern history for the first time. He presents no flattering defense of Lucretia Borgia. Her early life was that of a light-hearted, frivolous girl, no better and no worse than those of the circle in which she moved. She was in her girlhood years wholly in the hands of her monster father, Pope Alexander VI. Her whole early life was surrounded by an atmosphere thick with unparalleled corruption and crime of every sort in public and private life, among those in exalted position in church and state. She and all her brothers and sisters were “natural” children (born out of wedlock) of a “prince of the church,” afterward Alexander VI., whose adulterous conduct continued during his reign as pope. Her own brother Cæsar was a monster of vice and cruelty. Yet all this wickedness was covered with a cloak of sacerdotalism, and at the very heart of a religion that was more pagan than paganism. In such an atmosphere Lucretia was reared. Her first betrothal was broken by her father; her first marriage was annulled; and her second husband, only seventeen years old (she at the time was eighteen), was cruelly murdered, presumably by her monster brother Cæsar. Nourished under such influences, the wonder is that Lucretia was not worse than she was. After becoming the duchess of Ferrara, however, where her life was independent of Rome, she seems to have been all that could be expected; and her later years were devoted to her family and to noble deeds of charity and benevolence. This volume, consisting of two books, throws a strong, clear light on the papal church of that time, and the influence of that period upon subsequent times. “Holding the Ropes: Missionary Methods for Workers at Home.” By Belle M. Brain. Cloth, 12mo., 224 pp. Price, $1.00, net. Funk & Wagnalls Company, New York and London. Miss Brain is well-known as an indefatigable worker in heroic endeavor to sustain interest in missions among Christians at home. The title to the book comes from the following incident: “We saw there was a gold mine in India,” said Andrew Fuller, in 1793, after listening to the stirring words of John Thomas, who had been pleading for India, “but it seemed almost as deep as the center of the earth. ‘Who will venture to explore it?’ we asked. ‘I will go down,’ responded William Carey, ‘but, remember, that you must hold the ropes.’” Miss Brain’s book is full of most excellent suggestions in making missionary meetings very helpful in interesting individuals, in the training of children, in arousing church and school. She has given to all home missionary workers, or would-be workers, a hopeful, inspiring volume. “A Life of Napoleon Bonaparte, with a Sketch of Josephine, Empress of the French.” Illustrated from the collection of Napoleon engravings made by the late Hon. G. G. Hubbard, and now owned by the Congressional Library, Washington, D. C., supplemented by pictures from the best French collections. By Ida M. Tarbell. 486 pp. Price, $2.50. McClure, Phillips & Co., New York. Miss Tarbell’s genius and painstaking labor has given us an authentic and faithful life of Napoleon. The first appearance of this biography appeared in McClure’s Magazine, Volumes III and IV. It was then published in book form. The present edition includes a sketch of Josephine’s life, the first in English, presenting her, not a saint, but as she was—a frail, selfish woman—who lost her power over Napoleon in later years by the seed sown in the earlier years of her married life. “The proud, selfish ambition of Napoleon was laid in his training as a child. If rightly reared, his powers of mind might have been used for good; but his mother had little time for her children’s training,” and his father gave them no attention.” How different might have been the career of this remarkable man! Instead of the death of thousands sacrificed to his unbounded ambitions, he might have been the helper of millions. His checkered and contradictory career has been well recorded by Miss Tarbell. “Historical Studies.” By John Richard Green, author of “History of the English People.” 366 pp. Macmillan & Co., London and New York. This volume is a series of essays, historical sketches, and reviews, on various periods of English history, gathered from various sources, mostly from the Saturday Review, by Alice Stopford Green. The largest space is given to the Norman Conquest. The volume will be of interest, especially to the close students of English history. The price, we believe, is $1.00. “How a Little Girl Went to Africa.” By Leona Mildred Bicknell, the girl who went. With an introduction by Eliza H. Morton, author of “Morton’s Geographies.” Illustrated from photographs. 172 pp. Neatly bound in red cloth with appropriate decorations. Price, post-paid, $1.00. Lee and Shepard, Boston. This little book tells in a simple, childish way the story of a child’s two years’ experience in travel. It is straightforward and interesting. It is well printed and well bound. The book can also be obtained from Review & Herald, Washington, D. C., or Pacific Press, Oakland, Cal. “The Federation of Religions.” By Rev. Hiram Vrooman, president of “The Federation of Religions.” 138 pp. The Nunc Licet Press, Philadelphia and London. The object of this little book, and the organization it presents, is to bring into active co-operation as many persons as possible from any and every religion, “who are truly open-minded and loyal to truth.” The author aims in this book to set forth scientific and philosophic methods, by which this can be accomplished and the truth be learned; and he thus expresses his “guiding principle:” “To give to facts of phenomena the invariable preference over all historical claims and precedents.” But this nullifies the Scriptures, although the author admits that the Bible is the external instrumentality for shedding light upon the microcosm of mind, “but the basic facts must be found in the microcosm, or in the realm of personal experience.” Of course this sets aside the Bible and the law of God; for thus being made secondary, it will be interpreted in the light of “personal experience.” This leaves the soul but one witness, one standard—himself, his changeable experience. It sets aside the twofold Bible witness, God’s Word first, always first, and present phenomena witnessing to the truth of that Word and confirming its life-giving power. If the same effort were put forth in humble, Christian faith, in advancing the cause of Christ, that is put forth in “federating” religions, and studying “comparative theology,” it would have vastly greater and infinitely more favorable results. “Socialism: the Nation of Fatherless Children.” By David Goldstein. Paper covers, 374 pages; price, 50 cents. The Union News League, Boston. The author was for several years a Socialist, but broke from them because he believed that the success of Socialism would mean “the destruction of those institutions which promote and sustain civilization, namely, the church, the state, and the monogamic family.” But Mr. Goldstein thinks that the fight centers around the Catholic Church, and if that church should fall “all religions, sects, and cults would collapse in its ruins.” If Socialism were atheistic, as he declares it is, and he ought to know, and impracticable, as the future will prove its most beautiful theories to be politically among a selfish race of men, there would still be little to choose between that and Roman Catholicism. In the end, according to the “sure word of prophecy,” Socialism will be found with the Catholic Church, as will all “man-made religions,”—all of them listed against the Word of God. That organization will then go down, but God’s Word and all who trust therein will stand. Burlington Treatment Rooms.
The Burlington treatment parlors have made arrangements to have Dr. Ball (formerly with the N. E. Sanitarium) make regular visits to its patients each week, thus affording, with our present facilities, all the requisites of a small sanitarium at home. We are thoroughly equipped with all the necessary apparatus to do effective work, and with our increased help feel free to call the attention of the Vermont people once more to our work here in Burlington. Those desiring information as to prices, rooms, railroad connections, etc., address the manager, H. F. Litchfield, 308 N. Main Street, Burlington, Vt. Telephone, 358-11. Medical communications sent to Dr. C. F. Ball, 80 Crescent Street, Rutland, Vt. Telephone 52-4. Strong, healthy Adventist ladies and gentlemen, to take the nurses’ course, and soon prepare themselves for usefulness. Write for particulars. QUEEN CITY SANITARIUM,
Kalamazoo, Mich.