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Review and Herald, Vol. 81, No. 40.

Faith and Action

Review and Herald

Oct 6, 1904

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Oct 6, 1904

Faith and Action

By Norman Macleod

*Courage, brother! do not stumble, Though thy path be dark as night; There's a star to guide the humble,— “Trust in God, and do the right.”*
*Let the road be rough and dreary, And its end far out of sight, Foot it bravely: strong or weary, “Trust in God, and do the right.”*
*Perish policy and cunning; Perish all that fears the light; Whether losing, whether winning, “Trust in God, and do the right.”*
*Trust no party, sect, or faction; Trust no leaders in the fight; But in every word and action “Trust in God, and do the right.”*
*Trust no lovely forms of passion; Fiends may look like angels bright; Trust no custom, school, or fashion; “Trust in God, and do the right.”*
*Simple rule, and safest guiding, Inward peace, and inward might, Star upon our path abiding, “Trust in God, and do the right.”*
*Some will hate thee, some will love thee, Some will flatter, some will slight; Cease from man, and look above thee; “Trust in God, and do the right.”*
—Norman Macleod.

The Third Angel's Message Series

By Editor

SIGNS OF THE TIMES

The Object

  1. To present the whole system of Truth connected with the Third Angel's Message.
  2. To encourage missionary workers with the SIGNS to follow up the interest created by each sale or visit.
  3. To prepare the way for a larger and broader campaign for the circulation not only of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES, but other Message-filled publications as well.

Description

This series will be packed full of short, pithy articles on the Third Angel's Message. Such subjects as the Soon Coming of Christ, The Sanctuary, The Sabbath, The Three Messages, The State of the Dead, Capital and Labor as a Sign of the Times, and The Judgment, will be given prominence. Different phases of each of the foregoing subjects will be treated in each number, and the titles of other phases to be treated in other papers will be given at the close of each. In this way the series will be bound together, so to speak, and the person who reads one will want to read all. A story in four sections, and excellent articles on “The Home” will appear also. An attractive cover design has been prepared by a prominent artist, which will add materially to the salable qualities of the series. There will be other appropriate illustrations throughout. A table of contents will also appear on the cover of each number.

Time For Publication

These specials will take the place of the regular weekly issues of November, and will be mailed weekly during that month. This will give a week to circulate each number, which will be ample if rapid work is done.

When to Order

The first number of the series will go to press about October 15, so order as quickly as possible.

In Sets Only

As the series is really a large special number divided into weekly sections, each reader should have the opportunity of studying each section, therefore, we expect to print an equal number of each, and all orders must be for complete sets.

Price

From one to four sets of four papers each .... 20 cents per set Five or more sets to single names and addresses 15 ” ” ” Five to twenty sets to one address ............ 12 ” ” ” Twenty-five or more sets to one address ....... 10 ” ” ”

General Conference Recognition of the Series

The following action has just been taken by the General Conference Council, at College View, Nebraska: We recommend that the periodicals to be given particular prominence (in this Fall Missionary Campaign) be “The Third Angel's Message Series of the Signs of the Times,” “The Signs Number of the Southern Watchman,” and such special issues of “Life and Health” and our foreign papers as may be announced later.
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Signs of the Times

Mountain View California

The Prophetic Chart

Editorial

The Prophetic Chart

The prophecies of God's Word serve as a chart for the pilgrim who is traveling toward the heavenly city. Through the light which comes from the prophecies the Christian is able to understand the meaning of present-day events, and to make preparation for those things which are coming upon this world. By the prophecies we know that the coming of the Lord is near, and that we are almost home. By the prophecies we are given such a setting for the gospel message that it completely meets the need of the hour, and exposes every perversion of the gospel truth. Study the prophecies. They are a mine of present truth.

The Sacrifice of Thanksgiving

The service of heart and life is the one thing which the Lord desires. The elaborate ritual or the costly gift can not take the place of personal consecration. The Lord's entreaty is, "Son, give me thine heart." True service and true worship are inseparable. "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." At the true altar of worship praise and thanksgiving are offered unto God in the name of Jesus. "Offer unto God the sacrifice of thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the Most High." "Whoso offereth the sacrifice of thanksgiving glorifieth me; and prepareth a way that I may show him the salvation of God." "Through him then let us offer up a sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of lips which make confession to his name."

Some Fundamental Principles in This Message

SEVENTY years ago, as some who are here can remember, the world was stirred with the proclamation of the soon coming of Christ. There was a power in the proclamation of this message at that time that took hold upon those who heard it. There was a strong conviction that laid very definite hold upon the minds and hearts of the people. In different countries men were raised up at the same time,—men whose attention was called to those portions of Scripture which dealt with this question of the second advent,—and they began to proclaim it in various places.
I want to review with you briefly the work of that time, and the experiences of that time as the foundation for the work that followed later; and, as, of course, I can not speak from memory, although having heard these things from those who passed through them, I will read briefly some extracts which deal with this question; but first I wish to call your attention to one fact in connection with this matter of the simultaneous proclamation of this message in various places:—
“D’Aubigne, in his History of the Reformation of the sixteenth century, presents as one indubitable proof of God’s hand in the work, the fact that men, in different countries, with no knowledge of one another, were moved upon to investigate, and came before their respective countrymen to herald the doctrine of pardon and salvation through Christ without the imposed penance and absolution of the Catholic Church.
“If this fact is an evidence of God’s hand in the Reformation in the sixteenth century, why is it not an evidence that he is in the advent movement in the nineteenth century? for at this time men in different parts of the world, without any knowledge of one another, have been moved to investigate the Scriptures, and, embracing the doctrine of the near coming of Christ, have zealously proclaimed it to their respective countrymen, until in the years 1831 to 1844 their combined efforts gave the message to the entire civilized world—literally to every nation on earth. If a heavenly stamp was given to the Reformation from the manner of its rise, we claim the same for this second advent proclamation.” Along with the evidence from the Scripture there is an evidence also in the manner of the rise of the proclamation of this truth; that is, there was something in the very way in which the movement arose, and in the very way in which it went to the world, in addition to the evidence of the truth in the Word itself, which indicated that the movement was of God.
I wish to emphasize especially the basis of that movement, and I will just read briefly again: “That which gave force to the message, and most mightily moved the people, was the proclamation of definite time. First they claimed that the end of the world would come sometime during the ‘Jewish year’ 1843, and that this year was embraced in the time between March 21, 1843, and March 21, 1844. After this time went by, in the midnight cry of the year 1844, the definite day was fixed upon for the termination of the prophetic times. This was the tenth day of the seventh ‘Jewish month,’ corresponding to Oct. 22, 1844.
“The proclamation by the Advent people was not simply the announcement made by Paul before Felix, ‘Righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come;’ nor was it the statement made by Martin Luther, after having completed the translation of the Bible, when, a short time before his death, he is reported to have said, ‘I am persuaded that the judgment is not far off; yea, that the Lord himself will not be absent above three hundred years longer;’ neither was it the statement made by Wesley, when he said he ‘thought the millennium might commence in about one hundred years.’ The Adventists claimed to bring the message symbolized in Rev. 14:6, 7, and the cry of Rev. 10:6. Such a prophecy could not be accomplished by an announcement of an event that was ‘to come’ coming ‘in three hundred years,’ or in ‘one hundred years,’ but in definite time—‘is come.’Just such a message, with just such definiteness as that demanded by the prophecies already quoted, was heralded by the Advent people to the whole world.”
This is the first thing to which I wish to direct special attention, and that is that it was a movement in which the second advent of our Lord was proclaimed to the world, and that a definite time was set for his coming. Now let us note the basis of this definite time:—
‘The basis of the time—1843—was the 2300 days of Daniel 8. It was claimed that as these days were connected with prophecies where beasts were chosen to represent kingdoms, ‘days’ must be used symbolically to represent years, according to the Lord’s interpretation of symbolic time, as given in Num. 14: 34 and Eze. 4: 5, 6; that the 70 weeks—490 days—of Daniel 9 were to be the first part of the 2300 days, and that the two periods began together. The event given in Daniel 9, which marked the beginning of the 70 weeks, was ‘the going forth of the commandment to restore and build Jerusalem.’ That commandment went forth in the seventh year of Artaxerxes Longimanus, 457 B. C., as recorded in Ezra 7. That this was the true date for the beginning of the 70 weeks was demonstrated by the fact that in just 69 weeks—483 years—from 457 B. C., in 27 A. D. Christ was baptized by John, and entered upon his ministry, saying, ‘The time is fulfilled,’ etc. The opening of the ministry of Christ 27 A. D., his crucifixion three and one-half years from that date, ‘in the midst of the [70th] week,’ the close of the special work among the Jews, 34 A. D., and the speedy conversion of Saul, the apostle to the Gentiles, proved that the 70 weeks did terminate at that date, and therefore that they began 457 B. C. They figured the matter out thus: From 2,300 take 457, and there remains 1843. And as the 457 were before Christ, we are brought for the close to 1843 A. D.’
‘Mr. N. Colver, preaching in Marlboro Street chapel, Boston, in 1842, in opposition to the Adventists, said:—
“‘If these days are years, the world will end in 1843; any schoolboy can see it; for if 490 terminated at the death of Christ, the 2300 days would terminate in 1843; and the world must end, unless it can be shown that some other event is to take place, and I do not see how that can be done.’”
I am not speaking of anything new. I am just simply calling your attention to well-known facts, and yet I am reading to you from this history because I wish to lay a foundation in the exact words, the exact statements, of those who lived in that time, and who themselves have dealt with these facts.
First, there was a world-wide movement at that time, preaching the definite truth of the second personal, visible advent of Christ. It was fixed for a definite time by the interpretation of the prophecies—those prophetic periods that have become so familiar to us—the twenty-three hundred days or years, the four hundred ninety days or years, the twelve hundred and sixty days or years,—those periods were applied definitely, and as the result of that definite application of the periods they fixed a definite time for the coming of Christ.
Now further: I thought it worth while to read a statement made by one who was engaged in this movement who wrote for publication an article from which the following extract is taken. In the Cry, that is a paper published at that time, for Oct. 3, 1844—that would be nineteen days before the time set for the Lord’s coming,—George Storrs published an article; and it gives an actual picture of the very feeling of the men who faced in a very few days that great event, the coming of the Lord:—
I take up my pen with feelings such as I never before experienced. Beyond a doubt, in my mind, the tenth day of the seventh month will witness the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ in the clouds of heaven. We are within a few days of that event. Awful moment to those who are unprepared—but glorious to those who are ready!
Now let us remember that you and I expect to come exactly to that time ourselves. We expect ourselves to come to that time when within a few days beyond a doubt we shall see our Lord coming in the clouds of heaven. This is very stirring to my mind.
“‘Behold, the Bridegroom cometh’ this year; ‘go ye out to meet him.’ We have done with the nominal churches and all the wicked, except so far as this cry may affect them. Our work is now to wake up the ‘virgins who took their lamps and went forth to meet the Bridegroom.’ Where are we now? ‘If the vision tarry, wait for it.’ Is not that our answer since last March or April?—Yes. What happened while the Bridegroom tarried?—The virgins all slumbered and slept, did they not? Christ’s words have not failed; and ‘the Scriptures can not be broken,’ and it is of no use for us to pretend that we have been awake; we have been slumbering, not on the fact of Christ’s coming, but on the time. We came into the tarrying time; we did not know ‘how long’ it would tarry, and on that point we have slumbered. Some of us have said in our sleep, ‘Don’t fix another time;’ so we slept. Now the trouble is to wake us up. Lord, help, for vain is the help of man. Speak thyself, Lord. O that the ‘Father’ may now ‘make known’ the time! . . .
How long is the tarrying time?—Half a year. How do you know?—Because our Lord says, ‘At midnight,’ while the Bridegroom tarried. The vision was for “2300 evening-mornings,” or days. An “evening,” or night, is half of one of those prophetic days, and is therefore six months. That is the whole length of the tarrying time. The present strong cry of time commenced about the middle of July, and has spread with great rapidity and power, and is attended with a demonstration of the Spirit, such as I never witnessed when the cry was “1843.” It is now literally, “Go ye out to meet him.” There is a leaving all that I never dreamed could be seen. When this cry gets hold of the heart, farmers leave their farms, with their crops. There is a strong crying with tears, and a consecration of all to God, such as I never witnessed. There is a confidence in this truth such as was never felt in the previous cry, in the same degree, and a weeping or melting glory in it that passed all understanding, except to those who have felt it.
On this present truth, I, through grace, dare venture all, and feel that to indulge in doubt about it would be to offend God and bring upon myself “swift destruction.” I am satisfied that now “whosoever shall seek to save his life,” where this cry has been fairly made, by indulging in an “if it don’t come,” or by a fear to venture out on this truth, “shall lose” his life. It requires the same faith that led Abraham to offer up Isaac, or Noah to build the ark, or Lot to leave Sodom, or the children of Israel to stand all night waiting for their departure out of Egypt, or for Daniel to go into the lions’ den, or the three Hebrews into the fiery furnace. We have fancied that we were going into the kingdom without such a test of faith, but I am satisfied we are not. This last truth brings such a test, and none will venture upon it but such as dare to be accounted fools, madmen, or anything else that antediluvians, Sodomites, a lukewarm church, or sleeping virgins are disposed to heap upon them. Once more would I cry, “Escape for thy life;” “Look not behind you;” “Remember Lot’s wife.”
Now that brings before us just a brief outline, a brief suggestion, of the truth for that time, of the attitude of those who proclaimed it, and of the unwavering faith in the truth which they proclaimed. The proclamation of definite time as a result of the application of prophetic periods, you will observe, is a fundamental thing in that message; because they fixed a definite date for the coming of the Lord, and therefore, those prophetic periods must have been fundamental in that movement.
Now that time passed, and they were disappointed in not seeing the Lord come as they had proclaimed. Now note a word further:—
The period of time from the disappointment in 1844 until the clear light respecting the sanctuary and the third angel’s message was brought out, was one of peculiar trial. Adventists who still persisted that they were right in the past movement, were indeed a “gazing-stock” to those who supposed the message to be an entire failure; and for this cause they were subjects of great reproach. This they could cheerfully endure while they held on to the Lord by faith, and shared the presence of his Holy Spirit.
I read that closing paragraph to callattention to this definite thing—that after that disappointment there were those who did not throw up their faith in the Word of God, who did not cast aside their confidence in that movement, although they were thrown, as you would of course expect, into the greatest perplexity as to where the mistake was, as evidently there must have been some mistake. Yet they were not willing to cast aside that movement. And what was the chiefest reason? It was not from a new demonstration concerning the prophetic periods. It was not from any new light concerning their position. This was the chief thing, and this I am able to tell you from the testimony of those who passed through that experience: There had come to them in the proclamation of that message of definite time, and in their faith in the preaching of that decade, such a personal experience of their own in their relation to the Lord and his salvation, that although they were confused for a time concerning the argumentative part of the message, they were not confused concerning their experience in the message. I think that is a very important thing to note.
I think it is a very important thing to know that at the time when they were confused, perplexed, when some were losing their confidence in the Word of God, and their confidence in the application of these prophetic periods, and they were all thrown for a time into a state of mental perplexity concerning the argument, such was their personal experience in the message, and it came to them with such an assurance of the forgiveness of sin and of their acceptance with the Lord, that it was sufficient to prevent them from recklessly rejecting their past experience.
There is something in that which is worthy of our consideration, that with a definite statement of truth, and definite argument concerning the application of any scripture, the interpretation of any prophetic period, there should be such a personal experience in our relation to the Lord, in the question of salvation from sin, as will have in itself a conviction, and will lay hold upon us concerning the truth. I hope you will remember that, because we are not to come up to the last hour and pass into the kingdom without a very definite and severe test of our faith.
(To be continued)

“To Every Man His Work”

By L. A. S.

The world has work for those who are blessed with ability or good fortune; but God has work for all. He has left “to every man his work.” Every individual can find in the service of the Lord steady employment. The world has a place only for the best talent; in its merciless competition the man of inferior capabilities is crowded out. The world draws its “dead line” at thirty-five years of age, beyond which an individual finds most avenues of lucrative employment closed. But the divine Employer has a place for old and young, and to each he gives also just that place for which the individual is best fitted. Each one has an appointed place, a position and a work for which he is better fitted than any one else. There is something which each one can do for the Lord that no other can do as well.
People complain that in the world they are slighted, neglected, forgotten. But God does not forget, nor overlook. “I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinketh upon me.” What a consolation to know, amid the difficulties and discouragements of this life, that we are remembered by the King of the universe, that he is ever ready to take us into his employ, to work with us and crown our feeble efforts with success, and to give us an abundant reward.
“He that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal.” Surely we can make no greater mistake than to neglect the service of God. “Go ye also into the vineyard.”
L. A. S.

An Important Distinction

By L. A. S.

In a recent number of the Union Signal, Rev. W. F. Crafts considers the question, “What business has church or state with ethics?” and takes the position that “moral questions are the supreme questions in politics.” He believes that one of the chief concerns of the civil government should be to regulate public morality; and he affirms that this view is supported by decisions of the United States supreme court.
“You can’t make men moral by law,” is “the devil’s proverb,” he says. “We can make morals by law,” he affirms, “precisely as we make health by law. . . . As removing cesspools lessens disease, removing saloons lessens vice and crime.” “Sanitary laws have increased the average life of man, and moral sanitation by law decreases the average immorality wherever it is undertaken in earnest.”
The trouble with Mr. Crafts’s argument is that it ignores the distinction between immorality and criminality. It is right to prohibit the saloon by law, not because it fosters immorality, that is, promotes disregard of the law of God, but because it is the breeder of crime. Human rights are invaded by it, human lives and property endangered by it. Most forms of vice likewise should be prohibited because they are inimical to the rights of the people. Human legislation takes account of man’s relation to his fellow beings. It has no business in the sphere of man’s relation to God.
But Mr. Crafts wants legislation prohibiting immorality. He says: “The supreme court by its decisions has left us no room to doubt that it means by ‘morals’ what Christian citizens mean, especially the suppression of intemperance, gambling, Sabbath-breaking, and impurity.” Here a purely immoral act—Sabbath-breaking—is mixed with acts which are both immoral and criminal. Mr. Crafts wants Sabbath-breaking prohibited by law, as being an immoral act. Sabbath-breaking (speaking of the true Sabbath, not the one Mr. Crafts has in mind) is immoral, but this fact constitutes no ground for making Sabbath observance a subject of legislation. If it were criminal, there would be a reason for prohibiting it, but the mere matter of the immorality of an act is something which legislatures have no business to consider.
If they have, then they should consider and prohibit all immoral actions. And this would cover every violation of the moral law. Idolatry is immoral, no less than Sabbath-breaking; hence we should have laws prohibiting idolatry. It was idolatry that turned the world away from God, and led men into the darkness and degradation of heathenism. Paul tells us in his epistle to the Romans. Idolatry is a terrible thing, and leads to the worst results, considered from a moral standpoint. How can Congress undertake to preserve the public morals, and yet omit to prohibit idolatry?
Are Mr. Crafts and those who share his views—the W. C. T. U. and other religious organizations—ready to move for the prohibition of all immorality by law? If not, why do they single out the matter of Sabbath observance, and pass over other things no less truly belonging to the domain of morality?
While these individuals are undoubtedly doing much good in their work for the suppression of vice and crime, they will, if they succeed in committing the government to the principle of legislation on purely moral questions, work harm which will more than offset all the good they have accomplished. We recognize in their work much that is high and noble, but there is a dead fly in the ointment. With all that is good, there is also the germ of the very worst evil; there is a leaven of iniquity that will surely, if not cast out, leaven the whole lump. We trust that many who are now zealous for moral reform by law will yet see and repudiate the unchristian union of religion and politics which seems ready to be consummated in this country.
L. A. S.

Note and Comment

“MORE and more it is coming to be seen,” says the Michigan Christian Herald, “that the great, serious problem before the American people is the speedy evangelization of the great centers of population.” The evils which are fostered by these great centers of population, it is evident, must either be brought under control, or the moral life of the nation will be extinguished. The outlook is a dark and perplexing one from any standpoint save that of belief in the speedy advent of earth’s heavenly King.

L. A. S

By L. A. S.

CATHOLIC papers are making considerable account of the case of a young man in Charlestown, Mass., upon whose back there appeared recently the likeness of a cross after he had suffered a stroke of lightning. From the Catholic standpoint any phenomenon from which the figure of a cross is evolved must be considered as pertaining to the miraculous. What possible significance the cross-like imprint on the young man’s body could possess, even if of supernatural origin, none of them attempt to explain. That apparently is not considered essential.
The “miraculous” appearance of pictures on walls and windows of Catholic shrines is frequently reported in the papers; but what lesson any of them is designed to teach, or whether it has any lesson at all, is treated as an unimportant question. The mere knowledge that a “miracle” has taken place serves the Catholic purpose, which is to foster in the minds of the people a superstitious belief in the claims of that church to be the sole and special channel of the power and grace of God to mankind.
There is a vast difference between such blind superstition and Christian faith. “Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” Faith emphasizes the importance of the inspired Word, the “more sure word of prophecy.” Superstition makes no account of the written Word, but puts in its place the unreliable evidence of outward appearances and signs.
The significance of the “cross” in the present case, which appeared at the spot where the lightning had burned the man’s body, may be dismissed as of a scientific nature only.

L. A. S

L. A. S

By L. A. S.

WHILE there are comparatively few people who understand the significance of the great and rapid changes that are coming over the moral aspect of the world, there are many who see that such changes are taking place, and deplore the moral decadence which they indicate. One such individual writes in the Youth’s Companion of the almost universal ignorance of the Bible on the part of the youth of this generation, a condition which, he says, has come about almost in a single generation of time. Under the title, “A Neglected Treasure,” this writer says:—
It is a distinct and serious loss to the intellectual capital of our time that so few young men and women are familiar with the phraseology of the Bible. To say nothing of the ethical and spiritual misfortune, the decline in ability to appreciate or to use Biblical allusions makes literature poorer and less classic. How wide-spread the ignorance is, few except teachers realize. Here are a few examples, collected from actual experience:—
A class of eighteen-year-old girls in a large Boston school had never heard of Lot’s wife, although they understood an allusion to Orpheus in the same connection. Another class of twenty girls were hopelessly confused as to the meaning of the words “Shekinah” and “shibboleth,” with a vague idea that they were names of Old Testament characters. A class of boys and girls made no distinction between St. John the apostle and John the Baptist, and could with difficulty be persuaded that they were actually two men. Not a member of another class could tell why Whittier called his poem on Daniel Webster “Ichabod.”
Most striking and melancholy of all, a large elective class in Harvard University, in a recent recitation, had not one student who could explain an allusion to Calvary.
The alarming feature in all these cases is that among considerable numbers of young men and women there should not be even one who has the knowledge which every schoolboy of two generations ago had. The loss of the wealth of allusion contained in the Bible is a calamity far worse than would be the loss of the Greek or Roman classics. It is like the closing of a great, beautiful region, open for centuries for the delight of humanity, and abandoned because of sheer indifference to its beauties.
Who can read such statements and not be impressed with a conviction that it is high time that parents who have any interest in the salvation of their children should see to it that they are kept out of the currents which are sweeping the youth in such vast numbers toward a Christless goal?

L. A. S

L. A. S

By L. A. S.

THE increase of crime in the large cities is a subject of current press comment in New York and Chicago. Plentiful as crime has been in these cities heretofore, there has been, it seems, a perceptible increase of it during the last few months. Some statements from the Chicago Record-Herald and the New York World are quoted by the Literary Digest, which says:—
Chicago has been attracting attention by its daily chronicle of crime, and now New York is wrought up over an epidemic of murders, robberies, and hold-ups. Mississippi also comes forward with a murder record, which, the Chicago Record-Herald says, “indicates that life is about twice as safe in southern Italy as in that State.” “The violence and indifference to violence shown by our great cities, Chicago included,” says the Record-Herald, “are symptomatic of a great and rapid change that is passing over the country. If the ‘Anglo-Saxon’ respect for law and order is leaving us, it is high time to start a revival of it.” There have been 24 murders, 68 robberies, 57 felonious assaults, and 253 burglaries in New York City within one month. Accounts of hold-ups and robberies have also become a conspicuous feature of the Chicago dailies. In Mississippi there were 260 known murders committed during the eight months ending September 1, chiefly among the lower classes and negroes. This large number of murders is said to be due to the fact that the negroes, who are receiving higher wages, have spent too much money in gambling and liquor.
“The earth was filled with violence,” is recorded of the days of Noah; and “as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.”

L. A. S

L. A. S

By L. A. S.

As quoted in a Topeka, Kan., paper, of Bishop C. C. McCabe (Methodist) “favors a modern crusade against Turkey in the interest of religious freedom,” which he thinks should be undertaken by the United States and England. He is quoted thus:—
I think that the time has come when the whole Christian world should rise and compel the Turk to grant religious liberty to the Armenians.
I would be pleased, minister as I am, if the battle-ships would steam up the Bosporus and demand of the sultan not only that he grant the indemnity asked for by the United States, but that a demand for religious liberty should be made at the same time, and if the sultan refused, he should be forced to concede it.
I think the time has come when the United States and Great Britain should unite to demand religious liberty all over the world.
The Christian world, if it is truly Christian, can not compel the Turk or any other power in such a way as the bishop suggests. The power of Christianity can not be brought to bear on any person or nation through battle-ships and armies. It can be applied only through spiritual agencies. There is great confusion on this point in the minds of many Christian people to-day. When the church forgets that the weapons of Christian warfare are not carnal, and when the Christian people in a nation lead the nation to undertake with its army and navy results that can be accomplished only by the missionary work of the church, great harm is done to the cause of Christianity in non-Christian lands and throughout the world.

L. A. S

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