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Review and Herald, Vol. 79, No. 32.

PATRIARCHS AND PROPHETS

Review and Herald

Aug 12, 1902

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 12, 1902

PATRIARCHS AND PROPHETS

AN IMPORTANT BOOK FOR THIS SPECIAL TIME.

An excellent and important commentary on the principal Biblical subjects from Adam to the death of David, and especially essential in the study of the subjects composing the—

INTERNATIONAL SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSONS FOR 1902.

On account of these lessons being from July 6 through the remainder of the present year, upon some of the principal subjects in connection with the exodus and the general history of the children of Israel, and the thousands of people who will study these lessons being interested in the study of all the subjects especially treated in—

“Patriarchs and Prophets,”

the present time is unusually favorable for the placing of this important volume in the homes of the Bible-studying people of the entire country.
Of its importance, our leading workers testify. The Lake Union Conference general agent says:—
“For a number of years I have been anxious to see ‘Patriarchs and Prophets’ come to the front. The present time is favorable to the sale of this excellent book. It ought to have been in the lead all these years. In my experience in following that book with others, I find people prize it highly. It puts in their true setting those precious lessons so often overlooked in the Old Testament,—truths that are all-important at this time when men are blinded by Satan as to the real character of God, and his ways of dealing with sin and sinners.”
Published in the ENGLISH, DANISH-NORWEGIAN, SWEDISH, GERMAN, and HOLLAND languages; beautifully bound in all the popular bindings; 760 octavo pages. Prices, $2.25-$4.50.
Order of the State Tract Societies.

Coming Again

By Editor

Editorial

Coming Again

“LET not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” It is his own promise. “I will come again.” This promise will be fulfilled. He will come again. There has been a delay in his coming, but it has been the unfaithfulness of his people which is responsible for the delay. The time has come, however, that “there shall be delay no longer.” The time of the promise draws nigh. “Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately.”

Christ Revealed

THE genuine gospel is the revelation of Christ. It is received by “the revelation of Jesus Christ.” “But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.” This gospel can be preached only by those in whom Christ is revealed. “But when it pleased God . . . to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen.” When Christ, who is “the brightness of his glory,” is revealed in the believer, then is fulfilled the promise and the prophecy, “the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.” This was the experience in the days of John the Baptist, when he was giving his message, “Prepare ye the way of the Lord.” In our day when the same message is to be given anew and in its fullness, “to make ready a people prepared for the Lord,” there must be the revelation of Christ as the glory of his people. “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.” Every one who reveals Christ in his daily life is a witness to the truth of the revelation of the glory of God in sinful flesh. He is a preacher of the genuine gospel, a preacher of righteousness. His sermons will be widely read, as he himself is “the epistle of Christ,” a letter to the world “known and read of all men.” Each messenger thus becomes the incarnation of his own message, and the gospel is preached as a fact, and not as a creed.
“As rays of light from yonder sun The flowers of earth set free, So life and light and love came forth From Christ living in me.”

Forgiven Sinners

SATAN is the accuser of the brethren. He accuses them before God. He accuses them to their own consciences. He declares that we are sinners, and our safety is in never denying the fact. He urges that we are unworthy of the favor of God, and we should not seek to prove the contrary. But when he goes further, and says that there is no forgiveness for us, we should meet him with the words of pardon written in blood: “I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins.” “The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” When Satan attempts to destroy our confidence in the provision made for us by insisting that we have been such great sinners that the Lord cannot pardon us, that we have committed the unpardonable sin, we should remember that the only unpardonable sin is the sin which refuses to be pardoned, and we should rest upon the gracious words: “And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” “None are so sinful that they cannot find strength, purity, and righteousness in Jesus, who died for them. He is waiting to strip them of their garments stained and polluted with sin, and to put upon them the white robes of righteousness.” When Satan says that we are sinners, he really means that we are unforgiven sinners. When we admit that we are sinners, we must be sure to declare that we are forgiven sinners. The gates of heaven will open to forgiven sinners. Heaven will ring with the songs of forgiven sinners. To all eternity forgiven sinners will be witnesses to the wondrous love and the mighty mercy of God.
“Chief of sinners though I be, Jesus shed his blood for me.”

Only Believe

WHEN the ruler of the synagogue came to Jesus for help, his plea was, “My little daughter lieth at the point of death.” The great Physician responds to the urgent call, but while they are on the way to the house, the message came to the ruler, “Thy daughter is dead: why troublest thou the Master any further?” Then came that sublime exhortation, opening the door of hope in the very presence of death, “Be not afraid, only believe.” The ruler believed, and the daughter was restored to life. Faith brings us into fellowship with the power of the endless life, the power which conquers death. Only believe. Faith unites us with him who has overcome the world, and so “this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” Only believe. Faith appropriates the life of the indwelling Saviour, which is revealed in a life of obedience to God’s holy law. This is the obedience of faith. Only believe. Faith measures the size of the gift which we receive from the Master, when we come to him with the request for special blessing. “According to your faith be it unto you.” Only believe. Faith makes effectual to the individual the provision which God has made for the forgiveness of sin. “Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God.” Only believe. Faith preserves our standing with God. “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God.” “Thou standest by faith.” Only believe. The gift of the Spirit is received through faith. “That we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” Only believe. Through faith we enter into the relation of sonship.“For ye are all sons of God, through faith, in Christ Jesus.” Only believe. Faith is the shield with which we are able to meet the enemy. “Taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.” Only believe. Faith is the only basis of a righteous life. “Whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” Only believe. Only believe.

The Armory of Comfort

By Uriah Smith

A VERY profound lesson is brought before us in 2 Cor. 1:3, 4. The apostle clothes it in warm and genial language; but, expressed in the direct terms of plain instruction, the lesson is that God teaches Christian people to impart help and instruction to others through the experiences by which he instructs them.
His opening words in verse 3 are a fervent ascription of blessing and praise to God: “Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort.” A man gives evidence that his heart is not vanquished, when, under affliction, he can break forth, as the apostle does here, in blessing and praise to God. Three reasons are here assigned why God is worthy of blessing: (1) he is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; (2) he is the Father of mercies; (3) he is the God of all comfort. And we are to bear in mind, as we read this, that no man ever blesses God but sooner or later God blesses him. As we have often heard Brother Robert Harmon, the revered father of Mrs. E. G. White, testify in social meeting:—
“And what doth much increase the store, When I thank him, he gives me more.”
It is due to the Lord to give him thanksgiving and blessing whatever the condition we may be in. To render praises to God, removes the mind from present trouble, and lifts the heart to heavenly thoughts and considerations. God, in addition to being the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, is the Father of mercies. Indeed, all mercies are included in him. “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” Rom. 8:32.
Then Paul finally discriminates, and comes to more particulars. He continues: “Who comforteth us in all our tribulation.” “Tribulation” is from the Latin, tribulum. It means a “sledge or piece of wood, studded with pieces of flint, or iron teeth, used for thrashing out grain.” This is the experience suggested by the word “tribulation.” But God comforteth his people in whatever experience of this kind falls to their lot. He consents to come near personally and individually to comfort his people. He does this effectually, habitually, and perpetually; for he has promised to be with us to the end. “Lo,” he says, “I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” Matt. 28:20. No trial can circumvent or baffle the skill of the Lord exercised in our behalf, nor pluck those who are his out of his hand. Ought not the people of the Lord to be always happy, with such help provided, and such comfort vouchsafed?
Our part is to pass this comfort along to all who can be helped and encouraged by it. This is the apostle’s plain instruction: “That we may be able to comfort them who are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.” 2 Cor. 1:4. This is the service for which we are to be fitted. There is no limitation herein suggested. “That we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.” Christ said to his disciples, “Let not your heart be troubled.” He said that if he went away, he would come again, and receive them to himself, that where he was there they might be also. Paul says, “Wherefore comfort one another with these words.” 1 Thess. 4:18. This blessed hope is adapted to the severest trials to which any one can be subjected here. In India, a poor woman who had lost by death her two sons, felt that she could not be comforted. She said, “I had but two sons, and now they are both gone.” She was pointed to one of the missionaries who also had lost her two sons. The missionary, of course, sympathized with the poor woman in her bereavement, and pointed her to the blessed hope of which she had never heard. She, of course, felt sorrow for her own sons, and in this she could sympathize with the poor woman to whom she spoke. But she was able to say, “I shall have my sons with me again soon.” The poor Indian woman asked if that were true; and being assured that it was, she fell at her feet, and could hardly be persuaded to leave her. She was comforted. Thus the missionary comforted the poor woman with the comfort wherewith she was herself comforted of God. This we also are to do.
U. S.

Studies in the Gospel Message

THE subject of the Sabbath-school lesson for August 23 is, The Living Temple Reveals the Mystery of Godliness, and the portion of Scripture upon which it is based is Dan. 2:14-30.
“The Word became flesh.” Thus is set forth in brief statement the union which has been made between him whose “name is called The Word of God” and that flesh which “is grass.” This is the mystery which baffles the wisdom of the wise to explain, but which may be known by every one who is willing to become as a little child. “At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight. All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.”
Jesus was in himself the revelation of this mystery, this union of divinity with humanity. The prophecy foretold it. “Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.” Through this mystery of the incarnation the divine Son of God became the Son of man, and “brought human nature into a personal relation with his own divinity.” And this was not a mere temporary experience. The Son of God did not assume the flesh simply that he might act a part in it for a few brief years. He was the greater Son of David, in whom the house and the kingdom of David would be established forever. He was the Seed to whom the promises were made, and of whom it was said to Abraham, “And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” The Lamb, “as it had been slain,” which John saw “in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts,” is the same Lamb of God which John the Baptist saw among men. “The Lamb of God is represented before us as ‘in the midst of the throne’ of God. He is the great ordinance by which man and God are united and commune together. Thus men are represented as sitting in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. This is the appointed place of meeting between God and humanity.” There is “one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”
“In taking our nature, the Saviour has bound himself to humanity by a tie that is never to be broken. Through the eternal ages he is linked with us. ‘God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son.’ He gave him not only to bear our sins, and to die as our sacrifice: he gave him to the fallen race. To assure us of his immutable counsel of peace, God gave his only begotten Son to become one of the human family, forever to retain his human nature. This is the pledge that God will fulfill his word. ‘Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder.’ God has adopted human nature in the person of his Son, and has carried the same into the highest heaven. It is the‘Son of man’ who shares the throne of the universe. It is the ‘Son of man’ whose name shall be called ‘Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.’ The I AM is the Daysman between God and humanity, laying his hand upon both. He who is ‘holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners,’ is not ashamed to call us brethren. Christ glorified is our brother. Heaven is enshrined in humanity, and humanity is infolded in the bosom of Infinite Love.”
“Unto us a child is born! Ne’er has earth beheld a morn, Among all the morns of time, Half so glorious in its prime. Unto us a Son is given! He has come from God’s own heaven, Bringing with him from above Holy peace and holy love.”
In his teaching, Jesus was constantly revealing this mystery of godliness. He sought to familiarize his hearers with the fact that it was the same invisible life of God which was manifested in the various forms of vegetable growth as was manifested for salvation, and that the same mystery was found in both cases. To his disciples he said, “Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God.” And as a means of opening up this mystery to them he said: “So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground; and should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.” “The parable of the seed reveals that God is at work in nature. . . . No strength or wisdom of man can bring forth from the seed the living plant. . . . There is life in the seed, there is power in the soil; but unless an infinite power is exercised day and night, the seed will yield no returns. . . . The life which the Creator has implanted, he alone can call forth. Every seed grows, every plant develops, by the power of God.” The same secret which was revealed to Daniel “in a night vision” was revealed to his disciples by the great Teacher, the Revealer of secrets, and is revealed to us in a vision of the day, if we will look upon the waving grain with eyes anointed.
It is the work of the teacher of gospel truth to reveal this secret, this mystery of godliness. The same secret which was made known to Daniel has been made known by the union of divinity and humanity in the person of Jesus. “Now to him that is of power to establish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith.” This revealed mystery should be proclaimed as “the unsearchable riches of Christ.” Note the testimony of the apostle Paul: “Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” This is the gospel of the revelation of Jesus Christ.
When under the condemnation to death, Daniel and his companions earnestly sought from God the knowledge of this secret, that they “should not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.” It is the knowledge of this secret which saves from death; “for God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” It is the message of life only through Christ.
This is the gospel which Daniel proclaimed in Babylon. The Jews as a nation had lost the meaning of the sanctuary and its services, the great truth of the indwelling life, the experience of justification by faith, and their temple service no longer revealed to them the mystery of godliness. But Daniel and his companions knew the truth that “the Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands,” and that it is the desire of God to dwell with flesh. And so apart from the typical temple and its services, they revealed in the living temple the mystery of godliness, the gospel of the God who dwells with flesh, the reality of the doctrine of justification by faith. And thus were they saved from death in Babylon.

Drilling Our Recruits

By William A. Spicer

THE church-school movement is one of the largest factors in our missionary crusade. Next in importance to pushing forward our forces to the frontiers, is the work of training the recruits who must come in to re-enforce the ranks of the missionary army.
The educational forward movement is marked by life abounding, because it answers directly to the call of the hour. It is essentially a missionary enterprise, and wherever our teachers gather to study and counsel, one is sure to find an enthusiastic missionary spirit.
I recently spent a few days at the Berrien Springs Summer Assembly. About seventy-five teachers are in the camp, earnestly and systematically studying to learn the best methods of teaching. By the spirit prevailing, I know that the Lord is preparing blessings for many a church in the work being done at this summer school.
The world is training its recruits. The spirit of the worldly training is seen in the commercialism of the age, and the love of the self-pleasing life. Growing out of this is the intensely national spirit which is stirring the nations to military preparations such as the world has never before seen.
To meet this situation, God has given a gospel message for every nation and tongue. Nothing less than an army of workers is needed to carry the message. Our youth must be drilled at once for service; and this is the work of our teachers. The classes in the summer school at Berrien Springs are not spending their time studying theories. There is insistence that the teachers shall be well-grounded in teaching the common branches. History is studied, not as a glorification of men and of war, but as the story of God’s dealings with the nations, and as a revealing of his hand in preparing the world for the final advent message, which means everything to us. Geography is a study of the world that God loves, and every class recitation is to be a missionary exercise. Throughout all, the Word of God is to be recognized as the fountain head of learning, from whose pure depths the youth and little ones are to drink of the water of life. Working on these principles, the summer-school encampment in the woods has all the refreshing spirit of a protracted camp meeting.
God is surely preparing this people for the grandest and yet most solemn work of witnessing that ever mortals had committed to their charge. This church-school work was a necessity. The time had come when it simply must appear, and God’s hand has been very visibly displayed in bringing forth this newest department of the work. The youth of the denomination must be saved for service, and the children must be trained into Christian faith, and not into the world.
The Lord’s coming is so near at hand that we cannot wait for the young people to grow to maturity, and then learn the way of service. Even the little ones have a part to act in preparing the way of the Lord, and Christian education is to supply the necessary training.
We may well thank God that he does not allow us to settle down in sluggish content. There is always something more to struggle for, some new battle to be fought. It will cost something to save the children, but they are the most precious heritage that the church has. And God is giving us a growing band of teachers, loyally committed, heart and soul, to the work of winning the childrenfor Christ and his blessed service. Let us as parents stand by them, and help them to reach the practical and high ideals which this movement sets before us.
W. A. S.

“Psychic Experiments” and Spiritualism

By L. A. S.

WHAT progress is Spiritualism making in the land to-day, preparatory to the fulfillment of the part which, upon the authority of inspired prophecy, we know it is to act in the great closing drama of earthly history? Upon this important question much light is thrown by an article in the Chicago Tribune of August 3, contributed by an authority on the subject of psychic phenomena and experiments, Mr. Percy L. Howard. This writer affirms that such experiments in “occult art” are everywhere secretly practiced among the rich and well-to-do, and admits that they seriously menace the welfare of society.
The foundation idea of these experiments is the theory of the “duality” of the human mind, advanced some years ago by Prof. Thomas J. Hudson. According to this theory there is an “objective” and a “subjective” mind, the former being the mind which operates through the five physical senses, and the latter being a mind operating independently of these senses, and which “is most active when the objective mind is dethroned.” And this mind is “controllable by the objective mind of others.”
Of the extent and effect of this dabbling in the mysteries of occultism, Mr. Howard says:—
He [Professor Hudson] laid the foundation for a curiosity that, being allowed full vent throughout the length and breadth of the land, rapidly is bringing to us, especially in the great commercial centers, if the word of eminent physicians is to be believed, a race of men and women who not alone are losing their mental poise, but who . . . become an actual menace to society.
To-day in London and New York statistics show that fully forty per cent of the adult population are experimenting in some branch of what has been known as the “occult art.” Hypnotism, mesmerism, clairvoyance, clairaudience, second sight, spiritism, and their various phenomena, being classed under the generic head of psychology, have formed a subject too engrossing in its interest to withstand, and to-day experimental work is going on from the humble cottager with his planchette, to the woman of society versed in every technicality of this still mysterious subject.
One very common form of “experiment” in this line is “crystal gazing.” Note what is said of the extensiveness of this practice:—
To-day there are to be found in almost every house along Fifth Avenue [New York City] and in the homes of most of the upper fashionable circles some members of the family who make their daily trips to the so-called mediums, where, in the quiet of some secluded and dimly lighted room, they are permitted to see in the little sphere of crystal scenes of days that have passed, and, as some of the more ignorant believe, visions of what is to come. And in not a few cases the women of the “upper ten” practice this fascinating study themselves, and act as mediums for their friends.
Just now, says Mr. Howard, “crystal gazing has received a fresh impetus in New York, owing to the news recently received of another ‘test’ case,” in which the body of a missing London lawyer who had been murdered was located by a medium whom the victim’s wife had been induced to consult.
In the following paragraph our authority establishes an intimate connection between these occult phenomena and Christian Science:—
Once the theory of the dual mind is grasped, and one understands the great meaning of the power of suggestion, all of these so-called mysterious phenomena are easily understood, and a lightning-like glance is cast not only into the subject itself, but into the hitherto laughed-at realm of psycho-therapeutic mind healing, which as a religion flourishes under the name of Christian Science.
And in the following statement we are told how essential to an understanding of these experiments is the doctrine that man has an immortal soul, a conscious entity, capable of existing independently of the body:—
The real distinctive difference between the two minds seems to consist in the fact that the “objective” mind is merely the function of the physical brain, while the “subjective” mind is a distinct entity, possessing independent powers and functions, having a mental organization of its own, and being capable of sustaining an existence independently of the body. In other words, it is the soul.
This “subjective mind,” we are informed, is “completely under the control of suggestion,” the suggestion coming from a controlling mind without. This is the phenomenon exhibited by a trance medium. “The clairvoyant medium,” says the authority we have quoted, “may be described as the man who has the power to raise the information possessed by his ‘subjective’ mind to the threshold of his consciousness.”
All this makes clear the close connection between “psychic experiments,” which have become so common, Christian Science, which is so rapidly spreading, and Spiritualism, which professes to establish communication with the dead. The three are seen to be but different phases of one and the same thing.
The theory of the “duality of the mind”—that is, that every individual really possesses two minds, operating independently of each other—may be regarded simply as an illustration of the errors which men are ready to receive when they turn away from the teaching of the Word of truth. Having provided this theory, and having given names to the various forces and phenomena which belong to it, men talk about “thought transference,” “second sight,” and the things done by clairvoyant mediums as though these had become mere natural phenomena easily understood from the standpoint of science, when in reality they have no real knowledge about them. But having transferred them, as they think, to the realm of natural phenomena, or having “discovered” that they belong there, they think it legitimate and safe to indulge freely in the “experiments” by which this pretended knowledge of occult things is to be obtained. It is not necessary, however, to regard the premises upon which their conclusions are built as being wholly the work of imagination. There is no reason to doubt what is said of the complete subjection of the “subjective mind” to the dominance of another intelligence in the process of producing occult information. This is a condition fully in harmony with what is known from the Scriptures concerning the working of Spiritualism, and with what is observed of the fruits of this evil system. The dominating intelligence in the case is, however, quite another than that premised by these discoverers in the realm of “psychic science.”
Mr. Howard closes his description of “psychic experiments” with a paragraph on their dangerous character. The danger lies, he says, “in the fact that the ‘subjective mind’ has no power of reason by induction, and it does not require a vast sweep of the imagination to show under such a system how far moral degradation can reach. Much more is it evident, then, how dangerous it is to allow the ‘objective’ reason to be dethroned by a power when the laws under which that power operates are not understood.” Truly, it needs no “sweep of the imagination” to understand that to allow reason to be dethroned and the mind to become wholly subject to the control of another intelligence, acting upon all the suggestions of the latter as if they were the dictates of truth and reason, is a proceeding dangerous to the last degree. And if one’s reason alone would not teach him this, he would have but to note the mental and moral wrecks which such experimenting has produced, to be convinced of its truth. Our authority adds:—
The number of persons in this class is legion; and daily are the ranks being added to. The strain upon the nervous system is enormous, especially among women, whose “subjective” senses seem to be in greater proportion than those of the more animal man. The faddists have added to the ranks, and the idle woman of society has turned her attention to what at first amused, then interested, and finally baffled, and as a result we have to-day hundreds of men and women, and some children, who are playing with a force as insidious and asevil in its effects when not understood as any force yet discovered by experimental science. The “subjective” mind is paramount in the insane.
And “fully forty per cent of the adult population” in London, New York, and other large centers are, if this writer speaks the truth, playing with this insidious force, and yielding themselves to the influence and control of a power residing in occult darkness, and which leads them contrary to every precept of the Word of God. And thus is answered the query, What of the progress of Spiritualism in the world to-day?
L. A. S.

Buddhism Spreading in California and the United States

THE introduction of Buddhism into the United States, and its rapid growth even in a center of seemingly Christian influence, are facts to which attention is called in the August Missionary Review. From an editorial we quote the following:—
During a tour to the Pacific Coast in March, April, and May, a visit to San Diego, Cal., revealed the fact that there is there a fearful state of things. The beautiful place is saturated with theosophy, which has settled down on a commanding point of land overlooking the sea, and is there creating the Buddhistic center for America. They are said to have twenty million dollars on deposit. Christians seem to have concluded to shut their mouths about this horrible modern monster which has come from India to propagate its species here. The apathy of professing Christians about it is appalling; and not a few seem to regard it as a great advantage to have the head center of this Oriental abomination in the town. A very discerning friend told me that she had actually met not a few who not only do not recoil from the introduction of the worship of Buddha in this country, but openly uphold it. In Los Angeles a wealthy woman has brought a Buddhist priest from the Chicago World’s Fair and Parliament of Religions, and in her own palatial house erected a shrine to Buddha, for the worship of this heathen idol, and in her house many people gather weekly for this worship. One of the pastors says that all California is more or less saturated with this heathen cult, and this he gathers from personal observation as he travels over the land.
It is naturally surprising that in this age and this land of enlightenment and religious knowledge, an Oriental religion embodying the essence of heathenism, can take root and flourish; yet after all it is not surprising. For outside of Christianity, there is nothing but darkness, and it is not strange that he who walks in darkness should make the worst mistakes in his course. He who rejects Christianity is in a position to embrace the worst forms of error, and when this actually occurs, as it is occurring all around us, it is only what was to be expected by those who know the truth. Outside of Christianity, all paths lead finally to one place. “Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you,” is a warning which is emphasized by these things.

Christian Citizenship Gains Ground in Sunday Schools

IN the Chicago Tribune of July 20, editorial mention is made of a rapid hold which is being gained by the “Christian citizenship” idea upon the Sunday schools in this country. The following statement of facts is set before us:—
Last October there began in this city a movement which has since been absorbed into the propaganda of an international body, and now seems likely to obtain recognition in many ways which its originators did not anticipate. The First Presbyterian church of Austin had been much moved by the death of President McKinley. The pastor of the church, Dr. S. M. Johnson, in thinking the matter over, came to the conclusion that the children of the Sunday school ought to be more thoroughly instructed in the duties of Christian citizenship. Accordingly, he set aside a certain Sunday for exercises of a patriotic character. The idea was adopted almost immediately by the Cook County Sunday School Association. Last month it received similar treatment at the hands of the international Sunday school convention at Denver. “Standing for Christ and country,” the convention recommended that “the teaching of Christian citizenship be combined with that of temperance on the Sunday known as the ‘World’s Temperance Sunday.’”
The results aimed at are diverse. First, there is respect for law, and hatred for anarchy. Second, there is the discharge of the duties which citizenship implies. Third, there is love of country. The promoters of the movement put all these into the phrase “Christian citizenship,” but from what they say it is evident that their idea is triple.
The symbol adopted is a flag containing, “By This Sign Conquer,” in white on a blue field, with a red cross on a white union. With reference to the flag, Dr. Johnson has said: “The church should have a flag that will stand for religion, as the national flag stands for patriotism, and this flag should be to the church what the stars and stripes are to the country. The use of the flag in conjunction with the national flag would say to the eye that Christianity is in favor of government as against anarchy, and in favor of good government as against bad government.”
The Tribune’s added comment, that “these are lessons which the young cannot learn too soon,” shows that the movement is likely to be strongly approved by the public press. In view of such developments in our midst, is it not important that we should know ourselves and be able to tell to others what is the true Christian citizenship which God approves?

Note and Comment

The Chicago Tribune considers the increase of lynchings in this country a matter of note. It says:—
For two or three years past, lynchings have decreased materially in the South, and apparently there were grounds for the belief that law and order were gradually taking the places of lawlessness and disorder, but that section has again taken the backward step. Lynchings have been resumed, not because there has been an increase of crime, nor because any extraordinary crimes have been committed, but seemingly because the mobs engaged in lynchings prefer violence to order, and hence seized upon any pretext that offered itself, after a period of comparative quiet, to renew the system of mob murder.
The Tribune has no remedy to suggest for this lawlessness, but merely observes that the South is not the only section of the country to blame, since lynchings in the North are increasing also.
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