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Review and Herald, Vol. 92, No. 51.

The Better Way

Review and Herald

Oct 14, 1915

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 14, 1915

The Better Way

By Phœbe Cary

I ask not wealth, but power to take And use the things I have aright; Not years, but wisdom that shall make My life a profit and delight.
I ask not that for me the plan Of good and ill be set aside; But that the common lot of man Be nobly borne, and glorified.
I know I may not always keep My steps in places green and sweet, Nor find the pathway of the deep A place of safety for my feet; But pray, that when the tempter’s breath Shall fiercely sweep my way about, I make not shipwreck of my faith In the unbottomed sea of doubt; And that, though it be mine to know How hard the stoniest pillow seems, Good angels still may come and go About the places of my dreams.
I do not ask for love below, That friends shall never be estranged; But for the power of loving, so My heart may keep its youth unchanged.
— Phœbe Cary.

Long Distance Wireless Telephone

By L. L. C.

One of the greatest achievements of the human intellect was brought to completion last month. On the evening of September 29, Secretary Daniels announced the successful transmission of wireless telephone messages from the United States Naval Radio Station at Arlington, Va., to the similar station at Mare Island, Cal., a distance of about twenty-five hundred miles. Surely the scriptures foretelling an increase in knowledge, as a sign of the last days, are being fulfilled right before our eyes; and we are led to exclaim, with Samuel Morse, the inventor of the telegraph, in the first message sent on the line between Washington and Baltimore, “What hath God wrought!”
Yet the great distance thus covered successfully by the wireless telephone has been almost immediately nearly doubled. It was announced the next day at the offices of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, that, after the transmission of the human voice from Arlington to Mare Island, subsequent experiments had resulted in successful telephone communication between Arlington and the naval radio station at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, a distance of 4,600 miles. This is greater than the distance from New York to London, Paris, Berlin, or Rome. L. L. C.

New York Subway Collapses

By L. L. C.

NEW YORK CITY has recently suffered two subway collapses. The first, which resulted in the death of seven and the injury of eighty-five, occurred September 23, and opened up Seventh Avenue for two blocks. The explosion which caused the collapse was thought to be due to gas or free dynamite. Three days later a second accident occurred, this time in Broadway at Thirty-eighth Street. Only one person was killed and three were injured. Commissioner William Hayward, of the Public Service Commission, after entering the excavation and studying the section which had caved in, is reported to have said:—
A slide of the rock was the cause of this accident. What caused the slide of rock cannot be said without further investigation. The rock in this part of Manhattan is frequently loose in structure, and the danger of a slide is always present and cannot be entirely avoided.
While New York City has not been visited by earthquakes, as has San Francisco, the former city has her own dangers, which do not differ so much in nature from those of the city at the Golden Gate.
L. L. C.

Word From Elder Conradi

By Louis Richard Conradi

Although traveling is rather difficult, yet we managed to have our general meeting for the Dutch field, in Amsterdam, August 12-15. We were happily surprised to find our churches so well represented. On the Sabbath there were about one hundred and seventy members present. We were also pleased that such a good spirit prevailed during the meeting.
The annual report was rather encouraging. Sixty-seven persons had been received during the year; the net gain was forty-one, the membership at the close of the year, June, 1915, being 354. The tithe rose from 6,876 florins to 9,581 florins, or about $1,000 increase. The average tithe rose nearly two dollars a member. The Sabbath school gifts increased about $20, while the general gifts to missions decreased about $500. Brethren Forthuis and Meyer were ordained at this meeting.
With Brother Wibbens in charge of the field, we have now four ordained ministers in Holland, and also a good staff of other gospel workers and canvassers. There is no reason why the membership should not quickly increase, and a good self-supporting conference be developed here ere long. As Brother Klingbeil was not able to meet with us, the only visiting brethren were Elder Oblaender and I.
On our way there we visited the Peace Palace at The Hague, as I had never been there before. All the world contributed to this magnificent building. High hopes were entertained when it was erected, but how little has thus far been accomplished by it! In one large hall the walls were decorated with the photographs of all the rulers of the world, and the chairs beneath bore the coat of arms of the respective countries. But the chairs were empty, and the rulers are, to a great part, engaged in deadly strife. In the whole building not a clerk was busy fostering peace. Only a few guards were in attendance to show strangers the sights. We saw the artistic representations of human ideals that will never be realized in this world under human rule, but which will surely come to realization when the King of kings establishes his everlasting empire on the new earth. May his reign quickly come.
L. R. CONRADI.

Money Spent to Kill Men

By L. L. C.

M. RIBOT, the French minister of finance, in introducing in the Chamber of Deputies a bill appropriating $1,240,000,000 for the expenses of the last quarter of the year, is reported to have stated Russia's monthly war expense to be $360,000,000; Germany's, to be almost $500,000,000; while Great Britain's is still greater. When the Christian thinks of these enormous sums spent to continue the slaughter of men in this terrible war, he cannot but wish that the church of God had such sums for the work of saving men eternally.
L. L. C.

Floods Desolate India

By L. L. C.

In view of the terrible destruction which war is bringing on the world, other calamities are often scarcely noticed. The following brief paragraph in the Washington Herald, September 21, tells of one of these:—
Floods that have been raging in the Ganges and its confluents for three weeks have made eighty thousand persons homeless, according to official reports. Forty-six persons are known to have perished, and 1,800 homes have been swept away. That the death list was not larger is due to the fact that the water rose gradually, giving most of the inhabitants of the stricken districts an opportunity to flee.
And most of these eighty thousand persons have not yet received the good news of a Saviour who will soon bring this world of sin and sorrow to an end.
L. L. C.

The Responsibilities of Our Training Schools

By F. M. W.

RECENTLY an anxious mother inquired if we considered a certain denominational school at some distance from Washington a safe place to which to send her son. We were glad to inform her that we knew of no school in the denomination where the interests of her son, from every standpoint, would be better safeguarded, than in this particular school.
From this question we were led to consider the great responsibilities resting upon our training schools, and upon the men and women associated with them. It is a step of great moment when parents give up their children, some of tender years, and many who have never before been away from home, and entrust them to the care of these institutions. How carefully those in charge of these institutions need to guard the trust committed to them. Our training schools should see that these young men and women are returned to their homes with undimmed faith in this movement and in the great truths constituting this message. Recreant indeed is the one who would cast over these young minds one doubt regarding a single fundamental position which we hold as a denomination.
How necessary that there should be placed before our boys and girls in our institutions of learning the proper example in dress and Christian deportment. Here, as a part of their education, they should be taught that display and ostentation in worldly dress are not befitting those who are looking for the coming of the Lord, but that simplicity, propriety, and dignity should characterize their bearing in apparel as well as in general conduct. This cannot be done by precept alone. The example placed before them by teachers and instructors will have the stronger influence.
It should be constantly impressed upon the minds of the youth in our denomination that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The great tendency in the school systems of the world is toward the exaltation of intellectualism or mental training. Let us be careful that in our schools we do not unconsciously adopt these worldly standards. Our schools have no right to an existence unless their whole aim and purpose is to educate young men and women to go out as workers in connection with this movement. An education which prepares for this service must be an education not only of the mind but of the heart. Students in our schools may learn much of art, literature, and science, but if they fail to learn of God and obtain an experience in him, they are not fitted for the place which God would have them occupy in this closing work. One who in gaining a knowledge of science forgets God, secures his knowledge at a terrible cost.
We are glad we can believe that our schools are endeavoring to meet these standards and requirements. We have great confidence in our brethren and sisters who have been called to stand at the head of our several training schools. We know that upon their hearts rests a heavy burden, and that they are seeking daily for strength and wisdom to know how to mold the young lives committed to their care. For these workers we need as parents to pray. We need to hold up their hands. We need to speak to them words of faith, hope, and courage. They are endeavoring, we believe, to the best of their ability to co-operate with us as parents in the training of our children for God. May this spirit of cooperation with them fill our hearts. We need to work together for the strengthening and upbuilding of every agency in connection with the work of God.
F. M. W.

The Ingathering Campaign

By I. H. Evans

It was my privilege to meet with the Lake Union Conference Committee, September 29, in Chicago. One of the principal questions under consideration was the Harvest Ingathering campaign. All present felt that it was necessary to do more definite work than heretofore, that there might be an increase in the amount collected for missions. The entire committee seemed to be determined to make the campaign a success. The president, the secretary and treasurer, and even the union conference stenographer, had been out several days soliciting. Some of the local conference presidents also had been to the front to get an experience, that they might be prepared to lead their forces more efficiently.
The committee felt that each should have a goal toward which to work. Some strongly urged that the presidents take $100 each for their goal. The union conference president had already set his goal at $75, but agreed that $100 should be the goal for all the leaders. However, it was finally decided that the goal for presidents of union and local conferences, for physicians and business managers of the sanitariums, the president and the business manager of Emmanuel Missionary College, and all union department secretaries, should be $50; that conference secretaries and treasurers and ordained ministers should make their goal $15 each; and that the churches make their goal an amount that would average $2 for each member.
The Lake Union Conference Committee is determined to win out in this undertaking. At one time it seemed certain that they would decide on a goal of $100 each. I felt that that was too much to ask, but some got more than $100 last year. The union conference president had worked five days and collected $30, but said he would continue from time to time until he had raised his full quota.
When a band of men is as determined to reach a goal as these men are, there is no doubt that they will succeed. God meets such men on the firing line and leads them on to victory. A goal of $2 a member means light work if each person does his share. The task could be finished in two or three days if all would take hold with prayer and faith. There should be organization, and each one should have definite territory assigned to him. In rural districts this is less essential than in cities and villages.
The Lake Union Conference is rapidly coming to the front in supporting the cause of God. It is making splendid progress in all departments of work. Its leaders are determined to roll off the reproach of debt, so that it may take its place among other union conferences in supporting the great mission work abroad. They confidently expect to raisethe full twenty cents a week for 1915.
My heart was filled with joy and praise as I saw this united, God-fearing band of men studying and praying and planning to lift their conference out of debt, and to help the work in distant lands. I believe such men deserve and should have the united prayers of all their constituency. Few can appreciate the arduous task before these men. Their own service is equal and even beyond what they expect of others. Let us pray for them, putting our shoulders to the wheel, and lift with all our strength, trusting in God for help. I. H. EVANS.

Living Our Faith

By F. M. W.

THIS age, above any preceding time in the world's history, is an age of luxurious living. The luxuries of a few years ago have become, in our estimation, the necessities of today. Time and conditions have educated us to this change so gradually that we hardly realize it until we compare our conveniences at the present time with what we enjoyed ten, twenty, thirty years ago. We could not, if we would, altogether control these changes in our experience. But just as far as lies within our power we should seek to maintain, in all of our living, a spirit of simplicity.
Our fellows around us who have no expectation that the Lord is soon coming, whose hopes are centered in this life, may erect fine mansions, clothe themselves in luxurious apparel, and surround themselves with every convenience which money can procure. We cannot justly criticize them for this; but we who have been intrusted with a solemn message of warning to those whose hopes are centered in this world, should be careful not to permit this spirit of luxurious living to enter into our lives. To the extent that it does, our hopes will be centered in this life and our affections placed upon the things of this world; and to the extent that we become like the world, the power of the message which we would bear is lessened and its force parried. It is right and proper that we should have homes, but let our homes be furnished in such a manner as will say to our fellows that we believe indeed that the Lord is soon coming.
It is a duty which we owe to ourselves and to the cause which we represent, to dress with dignity and propriety. As a rule, it is a waste of money to buy cheap material for apparel; but we should seek to avoid that display in dress, that conformity to fashion for fashion's sake, which will make it appear that there is no difference between us and the world, notwithstanding our high and holy profession. It is our daily life that preaches the message more loudly than our words. The great test of one's religion is not found in his profession, but in that which he possesses. Are we commending, by lives of good works, the holy faith we profess? Are we saying to the world that we are pilgrims and strangers here, that we are looking forward to the possession of a better country? or while professing faith in the near coming of our Lord, are we actuated by the same spirit of worldliness which characterizes those who have not a hope in the Master's speedy return?
These are questions which should be considered by every reader. Let each ask himself, What is my influence in my community? I profess to have light in advance of others around me. Has the possession of this light made me better than they? Has it made me more loyal in my relationship to God? Has it made me a truer husband and father? Has it made me more honest in my business dealings? Does it lead me to set the example in my community of an earnest, devoted, God-fearing Christian? If it has done this, well and good. If the profession we make, however, has not accomplished this for us, we need to take diligent heed unto our ways and inquire into the cause. And if in our search we find we have a name to live for Christ and are yet dead, if we are hypocritical in our profession, if we are not doing the best we know in living up to the light that God has given us, may we seek for repentance and reformation of life. It is high time that those who profess faith in Christ's return manifest that faith in their practical living.
F. M. W.

The Prophecy of Daniel 7

By W. A. S.

Part 5. The Work of the “Little Horn,”

(Concluded)

3. “And Think to Change Times and Laws”

The power that was to speak great words against the Most High, and to wear out the saints of the Most High, was further—in its self-exalting opposition to God—to assume to lay hands upon times and laws,—evidently the times and the laws of the Most High; for to say that such a power would lay hands on the laws of men, changing or setting aside human legislation, would signify less than the preceding counts. This third specification states a climax in the indictment—the self-exalting, persecuting power was to lay hands upon the very law of the Most High. It is clearly the same power that the apostle Paul said would rise to dominion after his time: “And then shall be revealed the lawless one.” 2 Thess. 2:8, A. R. V.

God’s Law Unchangeable

Just as the laws of a government express its character, so the law of God is a reflection of the divine character. “The law of the Lord is perfect.” Ps. 19:7. “Wherefore the law is holy,” said the apostle, “and the commandment holy, and just, and good.” Rom. 7:12.
Jesus declared, “I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.” Ps. 40:8. And he maintained the unchangeable, enduring integrity of that law: “Verily, I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” Matt. 5:18.
But in Daniel’s prophecy the rise of this power is foretold, that was to think to change the times and the laws of the Most High.
Here, again, the evidence points straight to the Church of Rome; for it is a fact that the Papacy has laid violent hands on the law of God—upon the precept, too, that deals with sacred time—and has thought to change it.
In a volume to be seen in the British Museum, dated 1545, the following comment on Dan. 7:25 is attributed to Philipp Melanchthon, the Reformer, associate of Luther (reproduced with the old English spelling):—
He changeth the tymes and lawes that any of the sixe worke dayes commanded of God will make them unholy and idle dayes when he lyste, or of their owne holy dayes abolished make worke dayes agen, or when they changed ye Saturday into Sondaye. . . . They have changed God’s lawes and turned them into their owne tradicions to be kept above God’s precepts.—Page 119, “Exposicion of Daniel the Prophete,” Gathered out of Philipp Melanchthon, Johan Ecolampadius, &c., by George Joye, 1545.
This is exactly what the power represented by the “little horn” was to assume to do. The commandment of God is plain:—
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work. . . . For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.” Ex. 20:8-11.

A Change in Practice

But in general practice there has been a change—the first day is commonly observed instead of the seventh day, which the Lord declares he blessed and made holy. The Roman Catholic Church points exultingly to the fact that this change, so universally allowed today, has come about solely through church tradition without Scriptural authority. For instance, one Catholic writer says:—
You will tell me that Saturday was the Jewish Sabbath, but that the Christian Sabbath has been changed to Sunday. Changed! but by whom? Who has authority to change an express commandment of Almighty God? When God has spoken and said, Thou shalt keep holy the seventh day, who shalldare to say, Nay, thou mayest work and do all manner of worldly business on the seventh day; but thou shalt keep holy the first day in its stead? This is a most important question, which I know not how you can answer.
You are a Protestant, and you profess to go by the Bible and the Bible only; and yet in so important a matter as the observance of one day in seven as a holy day, you go against the plain letter of the Bible, and put another day in the place of that day which the Bible has commanded. The command to keep holy the seventh day is one of the ten commandments; you believe that the other nine are still binding; who gave you authority to tamper with the fourth? If you are consistent with your own principles, if you really follow the Bible and the Bible only, you ought to be able to produce some portion of the New Testament in which this fourth commandment is expressly altered.—“Library of Christian Doctrine: Why Don’t You Keep Holy the Sabbath Day?” page 3 (Burns and Oates, London).
Every one who studies the question must recognize the fact that there is no change authorized in Scripture. As Canon Eyton (of the Church of England) says:—
There is no word, no hint, in the New Testament about abstaining from work on Sunday.
Authorities, both Protestant and Catholic, freely acknowledge it. There has been a change in practice and teaching, and with no Scriptural authority.

What the Papacy Claims

The prophecy of Daniel 7 forewarned once all that the ecclesiastical power that was to rise upon the division of the Roman Empire would think to change the times and the laws of the Most High. And the Papacy steps forward and claims boldly that the church has power to set aside Scripture, to institute holy times, and even to change the day made holy and commanded by the Almighty as the day of rest for his people.
In a Catholic work, “An Abridgment of the Christian Doctrine,” by Dr. Tuberville, we read:—
Question.—By whom was it [the Sabbath] changed?
Answer.—By the governors of the church. . . .
Ques.—How prove you that the church hath power to command feasts and holydays?
Ans.—By the very act of changing the Sabbath into Sunday, which Protestants allow of; and therefore they fondly contradict themselves, by keeping Sunday strictly, and breaking most other feasts commanded by the same church.
Ques.—How prove you that?
Ans.—Because by keeping Sunday they acknowledge the church’s power to ordain feasts, and to command them under sin; and by not keeping the rest by her commanded, they again deny, in fact, the same power.—Page 58.
It is the doctrine taught in the standard catechisms of the Roman Church:—
Question.—Have you any other way of proving that the church has power to institute festivals of precept?
Answer.—Had she not such power, she could not have done that in which all modern religionists agree with her, —she could not have substituted the observance of Sunday the first day of the week, for the observance of Saturday the seventh day, a change for which there is no Scriptural authority.—Keenan’s “Doctrinal Catechism,” page 174.
Thus the Papacy proclaims itself the power that has thought to change the precepts of the Most High.
On every count, the Roman Church is the counterpart of the little horn of Daniel 7. Before our eyes—in the common practice of Christendom—the commandment of God regarding sacred time is made void by the traditions of men.
The prophecy indicated that there would come a call for reformation in this matter. Speaking of the warfare against the saints and the times and laws of the Most High to be waged by the little-horn power, the angel said:—
“And they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.” Dan. 7:25.
In other words, when the 1260 years should expire, we would expect, according to the prophecy, to see a breaking of the persecuting power of the Papacy over believers, a spreading abroad of the Holy Scriptures, and a work of reformation that would lift up the truths of God’s Word and call believers to keep once again the holy time and the holy law of the Most High.
The prophecy of Daniel 7 is one of God’s special messages for all men in these last days, picturing the rise and history of the Papacy, and warning all against accepting its perversions of God’s truth or recognizing its attempted change in the law of the Most High. Thank God for the “sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place.” We are to follow the Lord and obey him, not this power that has risen up in opposition to him.
The angel’s interpretation in this chapter does not leave the apostasy triumphant:—
“The judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end.”
Then the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of the Most High, “and all dominions shall serve and obey him.”
W. A. S.

“The Influence Must Be Divine”

By W. A. S.

MEDITATING on the utter depravity that he found among the Batokas, or Batongas, of the country just north of the Zambesi, and yet recalling what he had seen the grace of Christ do for one native in his first field away southward, Livingstone wrote:—
If these Batokas ever become like him, and they may, the influence that effects it must be divine.
Now our Pemba mission is among these very people. Pemba is the mission post office, seventeen miles away; but the farm is in the Monze’s district, named after the old chief Monze, whom Livingstone visited on his first journey beyond the great river.
As I watched the Sabbath school here in Batokaland,—twelve classes inside and outside the meeting house,—and saw the beaming faces of the Batoka and other young people at Bible study, and heard them singing translations of the good old songs, “What a Friend we have in Jesus,” and, “O bear me on, bear me on to Mount Zion,” etc., I thought, Truly here are wonderful transformations; and, as Livingstone wrote, “the influence that effects it must be divine.”
The grace of Christ can transform the heart. That is the lesson one gets from watching these children of the African wilds. It makes one think of the work that God longs to do in one’s own heart, and the thought comes anew,—
“His blood can make the foulest clean. His blood avails for me.”
W. A. S.

Mixed Marriages

By G. B. T.

THE Bible abounds in warnings against mixed marriages.
“Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son.” Deut. 7:3.
“Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?” 2 Cor. 6:14, 15.
“The wife is bound by the law as long as her husband liveth; but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will; only in the Lord.” 1 Cor. 7:39.
Culture and refinement are of value, but to choose as a companion for life one who is steeped in the idolatries and sins which curse the earth, is a most grievous mistake.
Rev. F. B. Meyer, after many years as a minister, and having had plenty of opportunity to observe the influence of mixed marriages, says:—
We need not be surprised at these strong and repeated prohibitions. A mixed marriage is a prolific source of misery. In the course of a considerable pastoral experience, I have never known one to result in perfect happiness. Believersin such unions, do not level their unbelieving partners up to Christ, but are themselves dragged down to infinite misery and self-reproach. “Did not Solomon king of Israel sin by these things? yet among many nations was there no king like him, who was beloved of his God, and God made him king over all Israel: nevertheless even him did outlandish women cause to sin.” Neh. 13:26.
How can there be sympathy in the deepest matters? Each feels that there is one subject on which they are not agreed; and this is a fatal barrier to perfect union. The ungodly partner despises the Christian for marrying in the teeth of principle. The Christian is disappointed because the apparent influence gained before marriage is dissipated soon after the knot is irrevocably tied. Well might Rebekah be weary of her life through those daughters of Heth.
Many a Christian girl has married an unbeliever, in the hope of saving him, and has bitterly rued her choice: she has seen her influence wane; and has learned, though too late, that the Holy Spirit will not cooperate with our efforts if they are based on distinct disobedience to one of the clearest commands of the Bible.
The above applies with special emphasis to those who believe this message and observe the Lord's Sabbath. God has ordained marriage, but let those contemplating taking upon themselves its vows, pray much.
They need the divine guidance of the Lord, lest they take a step that they will learn was a fatal and irretrievable blunder, and in their religious work find that they are weighed down by a millstone around the neck, and that their progress toward the celestial city is greatly impeded. G. B. T.

Who Are “the Fathers,” and What Is Their Authority?

By C. P. BOLLMAN

C. P. BOLLMAN
The designation “the Fathers” is applied chiefly to certain teachers who lived and wrote in the early centuries of the Christian church. Among the earlier of these teachers and writers were Ignatius, and Justin the Martyr, for that reason usually called Justin Martyr. The first of these is supposed to have lived from A. D. 30 to 107, the other from A. D. 110 to 165, so that Ignatius was probably for many years contemporary with the apostle John, while Justin Martyr is said to have received his Christian instruction from Polycarp, a disciple of John.
Of the authority of the Fathers, the “Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge,” article “Fathers of the Church,” says:—
“Protestants refuse to accept the authority of any writer out of the sacred canon as conclusive and final in matters of doctrine and discipline.”
There are several reasons for this attitude. First might be mentioned the fact that apostasy began to creep into the church even during the lifetime of the apostles. Paul refers to this in 2 Thess. 2:7. So the antiquity of a doctrine is no guaranty of its purity. Indeed, some of the earlier of the Fathers are the very ones most open to suspicion both as to their views and as pertains to the genuineness of the writings attributed to them. Of the era between the days of the apostles and the so-called conversion of Constantine, Dr. W. D. Killen says:—
“Rites and ceremonies, of which neither Paul nor Peter ever heard, crept silently into use, and then claimed the rank of divine institutions. Officers for whom the primitive disciples could have found no place, and titles which to them would have been altogether unintelligible, began to challenge attention, and to be named apostolic. It is the duty of the historian to endeavor to point out the origin and to trace the progress of these innovations. A satisfactory account of them must go far to settle more than one of our present controversies. An attempt is here made to lay bare the causes which produced these changes, and to mark the stages of the ecclesiastical revolution. When treating of the rise and growth of the hierarchy, several remarkable facts and testimonies which have escaped the notice of preceding historians are particularly noticed. “Some may, perhaps, consider that, in a work such as this, undue prominence has been given to the discussion of the question of the Ignatian epistles. Those who have carefully examined the subject will scarcely think so. If we accredit these documents, the history of the early church is thrown into a state of hopeless confusion; and men, taught and honored by the apostles themselves, have inculcated the most dangerous errors. But if their claims vanish when touched by the wand of truthful criticism, many clouds which have hitherto darkened the ecclesiastical atmosphere disappear; and the progress of corruption can be traced on scientific principles. The special attention of all interested in the Ignatian controversy is invited to the two chapters of this work in which the subject is investigated. Evidence is there produced to prove that these Ignatian letters, even as edited by the very learned and laborious Dr. Cureton, are utterly spurious, and that they should be swept away from among the genuine remains of early church literature with the besom of scorn.”—“The Ancient Church,” James Nisbet & Co., London, 1883, preface to the original edition.
Nor is Dr. Killen alone in expressing such an opinion. For example, Dr. Cureton himself states that of the fifteen “epistles of Ignatius,” “eight bear in themselves indubitable proof of being the production of a later age than that in which Ignatius lived. . . . Of the seven epistles which are acknowledged by Eusebius, we possess two Greek recensions, a shorter and a longer. . . . Scholars have for the most part agreed to accept the shorter form as representing the genuine letters of Ignatius.”—“Ante-Nicene Fathers,” Vol. I, pages 46, 47.
But some scholars, for example Dr. Killen, do not grant the genuineness of even the shorter form of the seven accepted Ignatian epistles, so that not one of them is of undoubted authorship. But this makes little difference to those who hold and teach doctrines that cannot be proved from the Scriptures themselves; they, too, often show a readiness to maintain their theories by appeal to even the most questionable evidence. This is well illustrated in the familiar excerpt from the so-called epistle of Ignatius to the Trallians, in which the writer is made to refer to Sunday, the first day of the week, as the “Lord’s Day.” The fact is that this is found only in the longer form, the one generally held by scholars to be corrupted by interpolations.
Referring to the fact that these writings even where originally genuine had become so corrupted by later additions and interpolations as to be thoroughly unreliable, the noted church historian, Neander, says: “The writings of theso-called apostolic Fathers have unhappily, for the most part, come down to us in a condition very little worthy of confidence.”—“General History of the Christian Religion and Church,” Vol. II, page 405, edition of 1886.
“We may safely say,” wrote Adam Clarke, “that there is not a truth in the most orthodox creed, that cannot be proved by their authority, nor a heresy that has disgraced the Romish Church, that may not challenge them as its abettors. In points of doctrine, their authority is nothing with me. The Word of God alone contains my creed.”—Adam Clarke’s Commentaries, New York, Phillips & Hunt, comment on Proverbs 8.
“When God’s Word,” said Luther, “is expounded, construed, and glossed by the Fathers, then, in my judgment, it is even like unto one that straineth milk through a coal sack, which must needs spoil the milk and make it black; even so likewise, God’s Word itself is sufficiently pure, clean, bright, and clear, but through the doctrines, books, and writings of the Fathers it is very surely darkened, falsified, and spoiled.”—“Table Talks,” translated by Wm. Hazlett, Lutheran Board of Publication, Philadelphia, 1868, page 228.
Similar opinions might be multiplied, but it seems unnecessary. The facts stated are known and admitted by scholars everywhere. Let us be careful, then, brethren, how we appeal to the Fathers in support of any doctrine, or even to establish a historical fact; for nothing can be proved by them that has not been previously established without them; and it is more than doubtful if their testimony strengthens anything, either fact or opinion.
Takoma Park, D. C.

Helping One Another

By W. A. S.

It is good to see through all the field the manifestation of the spirit of brotherly helpfulness in pushing on the cause of the message — one field reaching out to aid another, older and stronger institutions standing by younger ones, and brother helping brother.
The other day, in England, we were sitting in a council of the British Union Committee. Dr. C. H. Hayton, of the Watford Sanitarium, had presented the need of hospital and surgical ward facilities in that new institution.
As the problem of ways and means was being wrestled with, the proposition was made by the management of the older Caterham Sanitarium (of which Dr. A. B. Olsen is superintendent) that Caterham supply a thousand pounds (nearly $5,000) to help out Watford's need.
So the older institution helps the younger; in the spirit of the scripture, “They helped every one his neighbor; and every one said to his brother, Be of good courage.” W. A. S.
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