Review and Herald, Vol. 91, No. 36. (8/27/1914)

Review and Herald

Aug 27, 1914

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Aug 27, 1914

Questions and Answers

In this department there will be considered from time to time helpful and practical questions relating to the various phases of this message, church government, Christian doctrine, duty, experience, etc. The editors reserve the right to consider only those questions which in their judgment will prove of benefit to the readers of the REVIEW. All questions should be addressed to the editor.

20. The Details of Sabbath Observance

WE have received several questions relating to Sabbath observance. As these are closely related to one another, we present them together, and shall seek in our answer to cover the principle involved in all. The inquiries are as follows:—

Is it right to go to the post office for one's mail on the Sabbath?

Is it right to engage in the dairy business, retailing milk to customers on the Sabbath day or delivering it to a creamery, provided Sabbath work is minimized as much as possible?

Is it right to do housework on the Sabbath for those not of our faith, where one works by the week or month?

Is it right for one keeping bees to hire swarms on the Sabbath?

These questions come from conscientious brethren and sisters who are endeavoring, in the face of unfavorable conditions for gaining a livelihood, to observe the Sabbath of the Lord. We sympathize with them in their perplexities. We know how hard it is to find satisfactory solutions to all the problems which arise in one's experience. We should be very glad indeed if we possessed sufficient wisdom to give plain, unequivocal answers to these and many questions of a similar character which are oftentimes raised with reference to Sabbath observance.

The editor has convictions as to what he should do in the matter of Sabbath keeping under some of the circumstances suggested, but he questions whether it would be advisable to express those convictions in this department, for the reason that his words might be taken by some unwise but thoroughly conscientious brother and made a standard or rule by which to gauge the conduct of his associates. Then, too, what might be advisable for one to do might be unwise for another to do under the same circumstances.

It is left for every individual, in the fear of God, to seek for divine guidance with reference to the details of his Christian experience. We believe that this is true as applied to diet, dress, business dealings, Sabbath observance, and many similar questions. The Word of God enunciates principles. While in certain instances it illustrates the application of these principles, for the most part it leaves every individual, guided by the Holy Spirit, to apply these principles in his own experience.

Take for instance the Sabbath: The Scriptures of Truth give some very plain and definite instruction with reference to its observance. The Sabbath commandment as contained in Ex. 20: 8-11 requires not only that the householder himself shall refrain from labor on the seventh day, but that he shall not require labor of his son nor of his daughter, of his manservant nor of his maidservant, of his cattle, nor of the stranger that is within his gates. In giving instruction to Israel with reference to Sabbath work the Lord plainly commanded them to make all necessary preparation for the Sabbath on the sixth day of the week.

'And he said unto them, This is that which the Lord hath said, Tomorrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord: bake that which ye will bake today, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning.' Ex. 16: 23.

The sacredness of the Sabbath was safeguarded in the giving of the manna, as recorded in Exodus 16; and some who went out to gather manna on the seventh day, contrary to the Lord's instruction, merited his disapproval. Under the climatic conditions of their wilderness journeyings, shielded by the cloud of God's protection, Israel of old were required to make such arrangements for the Sabbath that it would be unnecessary to build fires on that day. And because ancient Jerusalem failed to obey the command of the Lord with respect to the transaction of business on the holy rest day, the city was destroyed and the people given into the hands of their oppressors. Compare Jer. 17: 24-27 with 2 Chron. 36: 17-21.

In contradistinction to these requirements of strict Sabbath observance the Lord taught during his earthly ministry that it was in harmony with the spirit of the Sabbath commandment to do well on the Sabbath day; that true Sabbath observance did not preclude acts of mercy and necessity; that the sick should be healed and ministered unto; that animals in distress should receive attention, etc.; Matt. 12: 1-12. Christ manifested little sympathy with the senseless traditions with which the Pharisees had hedged about the Sabbath, making it a burden in place of the joyful service which God designed it should be.

Our danger today is not the danger of the Jews in the time of Christ. We are confronted with the same temptations as menaced the people of God in the days of Jeremiah. The spirit of commercialism and money making, the cares of this life, the pleasures of the world, the love of ease and social enjoyment, constitute the chief avenues through which the enemy seeks to lead us to make no difference between the sacred and the profane. But the Lord says to us, as to Israel of old, 'Remember the Sabbath day,' not alone during its sacred hours, but throughout the entire week. We are to plan for it, to arrange our business and temporal affairs with reference to it.

Sabbath keeping means more than merely refraining from physical labor. It comprehends the rest of the spiritual as well as the physical nature. It is a memorial of God's great power in the creation of this world; it is a sign as well of the new creation which he desires to effect in every heart and life. Ex. 31: 12-17. We should welcome it as we should welcome the visit of a dear friend. We should seek to find in it the added blessing which comes with its observance.

'None of us liveth to himself.' Observers of the Sabbath of the Lord are made above all other professed Christians a spectacle to the world. Our fellows watch to see if Sabbath observance with us is a question of theory or of the heart and the life. They observe closely as to whether we operate our business on the Sabbath the same as on other days; whether we cut short its sacred hours to minister to our own temporal needs. They take note as to whether we visit stores and places of business on the Sabbath, if convenient, the same as we do at other times. They consider whether any higher standard actuates us in its observance than actuates the great majority of people who observe the first day of the week. By our lives, even more than by our words, we are giving to the world the witness that the Lord is in this movement of Sabbath reform.

We should be true to our highest convictions. If our minds are troubled over the manner in which we are observing the Sabbath,—whether it be the line of business in which we are engaged or the manner in which we carry on that business,—let us earnestly seek God in prayer for enlightenment. He is not willing to leave us to wander or to walk in darkness. By his Word, by the impressions of his Holy Spirit, by his opening providences, he will indicate the way in which we should walk. If one in traveling comes to a fork in the road and he knows that one way is safe and the other way uncertain, if he is a wise traveler he will choose the road which he knows is safe and which will at last bring him to the desired haven. Let us give God the benefit of the doubt in our mind with reference to our manner of observing his holy day.

But having determined what duty is for ourselves, let us not seek to judge others in their application of the Sabbath rule. Let us accord to them the right to study the question for themselves and to determine what God would have them do. There are peculiar circumstances existing in every home, in every community. A standard might be right for one home which should necessarily be modified for another. Methods might be applied in one community which would not meet the needs of another. We do not mean by this that the great principle of Sabbath keeping admits of variableness and turning; but every man, considering the circumstances under which he is placed and the consequences involved, must settle the details of Sabbath observance for himself.

Let us consider in this connection the divine commentary on the Sabbath commandment contained in the fifty-eighth chapter of Isaiah, verses 13, 14, which reads as follows:—

'If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.'

When the Sabbath becomes in our experience a delight; when we count it the holy of the Lord, honorable; when it becomes the full purpose of our heart to honor him in its observance, he will indeed give to us as individuals and as a people wisdom to know how we may cease from doing our own way, finding our own pleasure, and speaking our own words. In this experience we shall be able to delight ourselves in the Lord and to enter into the glorious heritage of reward which he is preparing for his covenant-keeping people. Says the Master, 'If ye love me, keep my commandments.'

The Germ From Which War Is Produced

By K. C. Russell

K. C. RUSSELL

All sorts of theories are advanced as to the real cause of the terrible war now being waged in Europe. The czar of Russia says it began because Austria attacked Servia. Emperor William of Germany says it was because Russia began mobilizing her army while appearing to bring about an adjustment of the difficulty. There is no doubt that these reasons figured to a greater or less extent in finally precipitating the war. They are, however, not fundamental in this general European war.

This war, like all others except that it is on a larger scale, is but a manifestation of the unregenerate elements that are lurking at their gloomiest in every human heart that has not been changed by the Holy Spirit. We may look aghast and exclaim that this ruler or the other is the cause of the war, because he did this, that, or the other thing, but after all our theorizing we must go back to the basic cause, the germ of war that is inherent in every human soul and is only waiting for favorable conditions to spring forth with its baneful fruits, among which are the conditions that obtain in Europe.

The inspired apostle James gives the origin of war as follows: “From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?”

Thus we see the root of all war is inbred in the very nature of men, and the only remedy that can effectually remove it is the gospel of Jesus Christ. What we see manifested in the awful war that is now on in Europe is the very spirit that is dominant in the greater number of its citizens. A nation’s character is the expression of the character of the majority of its citizens.

It must be evident to all that the movement for universal peace has signally failed as a remedy for war. Some one has told us how wars have increased since the building of the Peace Palace at The Hague, as follows: “When its construction was decided upon, the Anglo-Boer war broke out and plans were laid for the Russo-Japanese war. When the first stone was laid, the kaiser made his first voyage to Tangier, which event was the beginning of the Morocco-European complications. When the first floor was finished, Austria seized Bosnia and Herzegovina. When the second floor was finished, the Franco-German controversy arose. When the roof was put on, the Turko-Italian war began!” Think what has taken place since its completion, the terrible war in the Balkan States, the continuous wars in Mexico, and now the general European war, the outcome of which no man can foresee. From the foregoing it appears that every effort to bring about universal peace in the way it is being attempted by its advocates is a signal for another war more terrible than the preceding one. Universal peace will never become effective until the Prince of Peace shall come and do away with all war, even the very germ of it, so that throughout the eternal future the universe of God will no more be menaced by war and bloodshed.

Should the present European war be terminated soon, it ought to be a signal to all who know what these things mean, to work as they cannot while the war is on, to herald quickly the speedy coming of the Prince of Peace to every inhabitant of Europe.

Albany, N. Y.

Denying the Record of the Flood

By George McCready Price

GEORGE MC CREADY PRICE

Few are aware that until about the year 1830 many of the best geologists believed that the flood was the real cause of the chief geological changes. Such men as Granville Penn and Dr. George Young boldly defended this idea, and explained all the known facts in accordance with this view. Others, such as De la Beche, the first director general of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, and Buckland, the professor of geology at Oxford, took rather neutral ground, and believed the deluge to have been one of the great catastrophes of the past.

But with the coming of Sir Charles Lyell, the doctrine of uniformity began to prevail, and of course inevitably developed into the general evolution doctrine; for the essence of this doctrine is in this uniformity.

When uniformitarian geology began to prevail, and it was being said that there had been immense ages of time with only gradual and imperceptible changes from one to the other, the Protestant churches soon saw that here was a very direct conflict with the first chapters of Genesis. How was this to be met? At first, as we have seen, many still believed the record of the flood; but when it became almost universally taught that these long ages were a fact, and a fact that could not be commensurated or equated with the record of a universal deluge, the church people hit on the idea that possibly all these geological changes had taken place some time before the creation of our world, perhaps about the point indicated in the second verse of Genesis 1, where it speaks of the earth’s being “without form, and void.” Such men as Chalmers and Cardinal Wiseman long taught this “interval theory,” as it was sometimes called because it assigned the geological changes to the interval between the original creation of the earth (Gen. 1:1) and the creation of the present order of things as indicated in the rest of the chapter. It was also called the “restitution theory,” because it would be by a restitution of the old order of things that the present condition of the world was brought about.

A thing that very materially assisted this view, in fact the only real excuse for its ever having been propounded, was that Cuvier and all the great scientists of that time taught that all the fossils were extinct; that is, that the fossils all belonged to an older state of the world so different from our own that not a single species represented in the rocks is now alive in our modern world. Cuvier had taught a long series of catastrophes; and said that the last of these was the Bible deluge, though the one just before the Bible deluge had been much greater; and like most of the ones that went before had made an absolutely clean sweep of the whole earth, a complete tabula rasa of organic creation, so that no species survived from one of these stages of the world to the other. With this idea prevailing, one can easily see how the church could assign the chief geological changes to the supposed chaotic state immediately preceding the creation of our present world.

This view had also this splendid fact in

its favor, that it took the days of creation as literal days, such as we now see. But as it began to be evident that the fossils were not so different from the modern forms, as almost every form in our modern world was seen to have its duplicate in the rocks, this idea of Cuvier’s had to be given up, and with it all hope of maintaining the “interval” or “restitution” theory. Strange enough, however, we have a belated book appearing now and then that still teaches this view.

But what was the church to do now? So fearful of being thought ignorant or unscientific, the people of that time began to accept these long ages of the geologists, and to try to harmonize these ages with the days of creation. Thus there was invented what is called the “day-period” theory, where the days of the first chapter of Genesis were interpreted as “periods,” or ages, corresponding to the immense periods of time demanded by the geologists. I am not quite sure just who first put this idea forward; but Rev. Pye Smith, Hugh Miller, and Sir William Dawson helped to make it very popular during the middle of the nineteenth century. Gladstone undertook to defend this view in his famous debate with Huxley; but each of these two giants demolished the arguments of the other, Gladstone refuting the philosophy and agnosticism of the scientist, and Huxley pulverizing the science of the theologian. From this point onward the day-period theory gradually fell away before the rising tide of the evolution doctrine, so that very few of the modern churches attempt to show any close parallel between the days of creation and the periods of geology. The Hugh Millers and Danas and Dawsons are all dead; and their place is now taken by those who do not hesitate to call themselves “Christian evolutionists.”

With this historical outcome, we can better appreciate the very clear and convincing statement given so many years ago in “Patriarchs and Prophets:”—

“The assumption that the events of the past week required thousands upon thousands of years, strikes directly at the foundation of the fourth commandment. It represents the Creator as commanding men to observe the week of literal days in commemoration of vast, indefinite periods. It makes indefinite and obscure that which he has made very plain. It is infidelity in its most insidious and hence most dangerous form; its real character is so disguised that it is held and taught by many who profess to believe the Bible.”

In the light of modern scientific discoveries it is evident that the only safe Bible position is to say that the flood was the cause of the chief geological changes. And this position is absolutely impregnable in view of the wonderful way in which recent geological discoveries are refuting former theories long supposed to stand in the way of such an interpretation. One after another these theories of false science have broken down before more accurately ascertained facts, until now we have an absolute demonstration that there must have been a vast world catastrophe, such as the Bible calls the flood; that the ages of the geologists are wholly without foundation; and that back of this period of disorder recorded in the rocks, there must have been a real literal creation as the Bible records.

Lodi, Cal.

J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH

By John Norton Loughborough

The Second Advent Movement — No. 8

J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH

The earnestness of those giving the midnight cry is well expressed in what the wise virgins said to those who had no oil in their vessels. The spirit manifested by the Adventists in 1844 is apparent in their publications as they neared the termination of the 2300 days. We quote the following from George Storrs: “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 from Egypt, or for Daniel to go into the lions’ den, or the three Hebrews to go into the fiery furnace. We must have the same state of mind that we should have if we were to die upon that day, the same entire consecration to God, and death to the world.”

The zeal and power attending the proclamation of the midnight cry aroused the ire of their opponents who had turned to “smite their fellow servants,” and they either stirred up or sanctioned many things done by the “baser sort” to oppose the truth. All the believers were exhorted thus to labor: “Let the believers in Christ’s near coming consider themselves apostles sent forth to teach. If you have a house, invite your neighbors in and tell them what you know. Hold prayer meetings and Bible classes. Lose no opportunity of calling attention to this wondrous subject. When Christ comes, let us all be found like the faithful and wise servant who gave to each ‘his portion of meat in due season.’”

As the result of such exhortation men left their shops and fields, to scatter papers, tracts, etc., on the second advent. Some would take a whole township, and place reading matter in every house. Stockbridge Howland, of Topsham, Maine, promised to supply a whole county. He was a millwright and bridge builder by trade. With a horse and a bundle of reading matter he had gone over several townships. This was too much for the opponents, so they went to the judge and complained that Mr. Howland was “neglecting his business and leaving his family to suffer.” This was a decided untruth. The judge appointed a guardian over Brother Howland to manage his business. This guardian, however, found more business than he expected, as Brother Howland sent to him all tax collections and all who came with bills to be settled, saying to them: “Go to my guardian. I am not supposed to be competent to do business.”

Soon the county wished to have a bridge constructed over the Kennebec River—a bridge that would stand the torrent of surging waters and floating ice in the spring freshets. The commissioners of the county and the selectmen of the town concluded that Stockbridge Howland was the man to build the bridge. When they came to him with the plans and contract for the bridge, he said to them, ironically: “Gentlemen, you will have to go to my guardian. You know I am not considered competent to do business, and do you come to me to build a bridge?” The situation was too ridiculous for sensible minds. That guardianship was suddenly ended, and the men that placed it were required to come and make humble acknowledgments to Brother Howland of their folly.

As the message increased in power, efforts were made by the rabble to break up the meetings. Mobs would sometimes collect near the place of meeting, and with infernal yells and mockery seek to drown the voices of the worshippers. Of such work Brother Southard, editor of the Midnight Cry, said: “It strikingly reminded them of the gathering around the house of Lot the night before the destruction of Sodom.”

In some places efforts were made to prevent the Adventists from going to their meetings. As an illustration of this I will

mention an incident that happened in Paris, Maine. The place of meeting was near a stream, which some of the believers had to cross on a bridge. The mob would meet them on the bridge, and seek to drive them back. One day Brother J. N. Andrews, then a boy about fourteen years of age, and Brother Davis were crossing the bridge. They were met by the mob. One of the men had a large horsewhip in his hand, with which he inflicted several blows upon Brother Davis to drive him back. Brother Andrews stepped up and put his arm around Brother Davis and said to the man with the whip: “We are commanded to bear one another’s burdens. If you whip Brother Davis, you whip me too.” The man said, “It is too bad to whip a boy,” and let them pass over.

The impiety and violence of the Paris rowdies seemed to come to a climax on the tenth day of the seventh month, the day the Adventists expected the Lord to come. The Adventists were permitted to assemble in the house of Brother Stowell. As they were engaged in solemn worship, two young rowdies, clothed with long sacks, which they denominated “ascension robes,” climbed up to the ridge of the house and sang, in burlesque, advent songs, shouting at the top of their voices, “He is coming,” and claiming, “We are robed and ready.” This, however, did not hinder the worshippers from a peaceful service.

After the tenth day had passed, it began to be reported that the Adventists on that day put on ascension robes and went up on housetops to wait for the coming of the Lord; but it was not told where nor who they were. I have now been an Adventist minister for about sixty-five years, and have traveled in all the States of the Union, and have labored extensively in those States where the movement went the strongest. I have never yet been able to find any date or place where an Adventist, on that day, made any such demonstration. It all simmers down to this case in Paris, Maine; but the boys who had the robes did not happen to be Adventists.

*Lodi, Cal.

While We May

By Frances E. Willard

THE hands are such dear hands; They are so full; they turn at our demands So often; they reach out With trifles scarcely thought about, So many times they’d do So many things for me, for you— If their fond wills mistake, We may well bend, not break.

They are such fond, frail lips That speak to us. Pray, if love strips Them of discretion many times, Or if they speak too slow or quick, such crimes We may pass by; for we may see Days not far off when those small words may be Held not as slow, or quick, or out of place, but dear, Because the lips that spoke are no more here.

They are such dear, familiar feet that go Along the path with ours,— feet fast or slow, And trying to keep pace,— if they mistake Or tread upon some flower that we would take Upon our breast, or bruise some reed, Or crush poor hope until it bleed, We may be mute, Not turning quickly to impute Grave fault; for they and we Have such a little way to go,— can be Together such a little while along the way,— We will be patient while we may.

So many little faults we find, We see them, for not blind Is love. We see them; but if you and I Perhaps remember them some by and by, They will not be Faults then—grave faults—to you and me, But just odd ways,—mistakes, or even less,— Remembrances to bless.

Days change so many things,— yes, hours, We see so differently in sun and showers,— Mistaken words tonight May be cherished by tomorrow’s light. We will be patient; for we know There’s such a little way to go.

—Frances E. Willard.

A. E. PLACE

By A. E. PLACE

“Judge Not”—No. 6

A. E. PLACE

To my mind, one of the strongest lessons Christ gave on the subject of judging, is found in his dealings with the woman taken in adultery.

The scribes and Pharisees who brought the woman said to Christ, “Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou?” The Lord said unto them, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And again he stooped down and wrote on the ground. And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one. . . . When Jesus had lifted up himself, . . . he said, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.” John 8: 5-11.

The Lord may have known that some of the very men who brought this woman were in a measure responsible for her downfall; and as he wrote their sins in the sand before them, they perceived that he knew their lives and read their hearts, and they dared not remain.

He who read the hearts of those men back there can and does read the hearts of all who are ready to accuse today. And what he sees is being written before him. He also reads the heart of the accused. He read the heart of that poor fallen woman, and in her heart he read sorrow for sin, and a cry to him for power to live a pure life. And the Saviour of humanity responded to that call, and in the words, “Go, and sin no more,” he pledged her his divine help; and a soul was saved. Had he allowed “the law of Moses” to be carried out, a soul would have been lost.

Thus we see that only he who can read the heart is able or has the right to judge, but even he does not condemn the individual, but reaches out with tenderness and pity to save the sinner from his sin.

In Christ’s words to this woman there is in no sense a sanction of her sin; for he said, “Sin no more.” Had Christ condemned the sinner, we should all, before this, have been without hope; for we have all sinned.

This case is an important one in revealing the character of Christ as the world’s greatest teacher. He was the first man to put a just estimate upon the individual, and especially so upon woman. He was the first to reach forth the hand to lift woman to her rightful place among men.

In looking upon that one woman, Christ saw in her her sisters for centuries back. He saw them a disregarded, belittled, yea, even downtrodden class, regarded of little or no account as compared with men. Christ also knew that he had created man male and female. Woman was then bone of man’s bone and flesh of his flesh; they were “one flesh.” But he who had created, now stood before a marred and abused specimen of his handiwork, and the only thing he could do was to say, “Neither do I condemn thee;” neither do I condemn thy sisters. I would lift you up and place you once more by the side of men, that once more you may become their “help-meets,” and that they may love you as they love themselves.

This great Teacher opened in justice and righteousness the door to the condemned. He accorded to the afflicted and handicapped in all the walks of life the opportunity to enter the race with a good hope to win. Is not this one of the great tests of divinity? Is it not then a great test of Christianity?

Of course he was condemned. When Mary washed Christ’s feet, men high in authority said, “This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is: . . . for she is a sinner.” But he said, “Let her alone.” “She hath wrought a good work.”

Perhaps Simon and his friends did not know that Christ had already lifted this woman up seven times, and that while she knelt before him she was pouring forth her heart’s gratitude not in service only, but in pure worship. But Jesus knew it; and had he voiced the condemnation of those at meat, it would have broken her poor heart. If we condemn, may it not mean ruin to some one today, and prove our own ruin eternally? Shall we not think of the “seven times” for Mary, and then ask the question, “How many times has that same Jesus given me another chance?” How many times has he cast out, not a new devil, but the same devil from my heart? Has he not forgiven us the same sin over and over again? It may not have been the sin of the woman. The devil does not lead all people to commit adultery; but may not some other sins be just as heinous in the sight of God?

Some of the demons which possess humanity today, and possibly some in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, are: impatience, hard feelings, sarcasm, and sitting in judgment upon brethren. But let us remember that when we are truly ready to measure to others that which we desire to have measured to us, we shall find ourselves, not on the judgment seat, but at the mercy seat. We shall manifest no haste to run and tell of some one who “has a devil,” or has “done something awful;” but we shall be anxious to hasten in quietness and in love to the relief of the afflicted soul. We shall pour out our story into the ear of him who is still “touched with the feeling of our infirmities,” and to him alone; and our cry will be, “O Lord, save my brother, save my sister!”

Foreign Flashes

SOUTH AMERICA is twice the size of Europe, thrice the size of China, four times the size of India, and sixty times the size of the British Isles.

England and the United States have one preacher to every 800 souls; Japan one to 100,000; India one to 140,000; Africa one to 160,000; South America one to 227,000.

The Lord Jesus said: “And many false prophets shall arise, and shall deceive many.” There are 230,000,000 Mohammedans. Shall the crescent obscure the cross?

Of the 38,000,000 inhabitants of France, 33,000,000 are mostly freethinkers and atheists; 4,000,000 are nominal Roman Catholics, only one tenth strict; 650,000 are Protestants. There are 1,200 Sunday schools.

Britain’s temple empire is thirty times larger than England; contains 315,000,000 people, or one fifth of the population of the world; has 78 languages and 3,000 distinct castes; has 300,000,000 gods, but not God.

Of the $8,655,981 contributed by American Protestant churches for foreign missions in 1906, a little more than one quarter was given by Methodists. The Baptists gave $1,306,156, the Congregationalists $891,979, the Presbyterians $1,941,704.

There is one class of twenty-two men in the educational department of the Young Men’s Christian Association of Pittsburgh, Pa. The members represent ten nationalities—Greek, Russian, German, Italian, Austrian, Finnish, Swedish, Polish, Hungarian, and Servian.—Selected.

Forging Character

You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge one.— Found.

Remember Those That Are in Bonds

By F. M. W.

The church of Christ is likened unto the human body. If one member of the body suffers, all the other members suffer with it. To the relief of a diseased arm or foot the resources of the entire body rally. This same sympathetic relationship should exist between the members of the body of Christ. Says the apostle Paul in his letter to the Hebrews: “Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body.” The heart of the great Father is touched by every experience which befalls his children. He joys in their joys and grieves in their sorrows. The prattle and laugh of children brings delight to the heart of God. The tears and griefs of his children draw his tenderest sympathies.

This spirit should possess every member of the church. Particularly should the church of God today remember our European brethren who are now suffering adversity. Some have been forced into active military service; their lives are constantly menaced, and they are exposed to hardship and danger. Families have been broken up. Those left at home are anxious with fear for those who have gone to the front. The officers of some of our conferences and churches have been compelled to forsake their charges and join the national colors. It should be our earnest prayer that God will save his cause of truth during this trying period, and that he will safeguard the lives of his children.

As to just what our European brethren should do under these trying circumstances only they alone in prayer to God can decide. Sometimes in our egotism and foolishness we feel that we can determine beforehand just what position we would take in every emergency, but we cannot know what we shall do until we are brought to the supreme test.

It is for just such trying experiences as our brethren in Europe are now going through that the Lord gave this word of comfort:— “And when they bring you unto the synagogues, and unto magistrates, and powers, take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall answer, or what ye shall say: for the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say.” Luke 12:11, 12.

The Saviour recognized that his children would be brought many times into straight places. They would not be able to sit down and by any human logic or reasoning determine upon the course they would pursue; but in the time of their need the Holy Spirit would give the right words to say, and wisdom to make the right decision. Let us pray that God may do this for all our brethren who are just now surrounded by special dangers and difficulties. “Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body.”

F. M. W.

Continue reading: Good Words in Hard Times