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Review and Herald, Vol. 78, No. 45.

MRS. E. G. WHITE

Review and Herald

Nov 5, 1901

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 5, 1901

MRS. E. G. WHITE

By Ellen G. White

JUDGE NOT.—NO. 2.

MRS. E. G. WHITE

PEACE and righteousness and love should fill the heart of every believer in Christ. Let the leaven of truth work by its sanctifying power in your life. Truth is a working element. It leads us on to aggressive warfare, not against our brethren, but against satanic agencies. The battle in which we are called to fight is not a warfare against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Do not think that you are doing God’s work by warring against one another. This work is done to the shame of those who claim to believe the truth.
Criticise yourself as closely and severely as you know you deserve. Let your anxiety be not to find fault with your brethren, but to obtain more and still more knowledge of Christ, and to exert an influence which shall be a savor of life unto life. “Take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.”
Christ’s death and resurrection have opened before every soul an unlimited source of power from which to draw. This power will enable you to overcome the most objectionable traits in your character. God’s supply of grace is awaiting the demand of every sin-sick soul. It will heal every spiritual disease. By it hearts may be cleansed from all defilement. It is the gospel remedy for the curse of sin. It unites human beings with Christ in the performance of good works, enabling them to run in the path of obedience, representing to the world the meekness and lowliness they have learned from the Saviour.
He who is wearing Christ’s yoke has no time to judge others. His whole time is devoted to the rescue of sinners. He watches for opportunities to show that he has something worth imparting, something of the highest value, even the knowledge of God and Jesus Christ.
Christ says to His followers, “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit.” But in order to bring forth much fruit, we must be imbued with the vivifying, sanctifying power of Christ; for He says, “Without me ye can do nothing.”
Our churches have no excuse for being without faith and without power. Christ says, “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in His love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.”
We are rapidly nearing the end. Strife and war and bloodshed and wickedness of every kind are making our world as it was in the days of Noah. Shall Christians war among themselves, when their one interest should be to advance God’s kingdom?
The first chapter of 1 Corinthians contains instruction which all who are workers together with God should follow. Paul heard that there was contention among the church-members at Corinth, and he wrote to them, saying, “I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.” Those who practice this instruction will reveal in their lives the purity of Christ, and will manifest His love in their dealings with one another.
Paul says, “I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.” Instead of seeking to find fault with our brethren, let us dwell on the great love of Christ. The Saviour humbled himself to bear the reproach of men. Step by step He descended in the valley of humiliation, that He might stand at the head of humanity, a perfect pattern in human flesh for every son and daughter of Adam. “He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed.” Let those who name the name of Christ study His work. When divine inspiration comes to them, there will be repentance and confession and humiliation of soul in every church.
Listen, all who have ears to hear: “Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.”
Let the Church arise in the name of the Lord, and cast off all the works of darkness. “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.” Heed the instruction God has given regarding the cultivation of patience, kindness, and long-suffering. Bear with one another, and forgive one another. God has placed us in this world in companionship with one another. Let us walk together in love, bending our energies to the work of saving souls. As we thus serve God in holy companionship, we shall prove that we are laborers together with Him.

CONTENTMENT

By S. O. James

S. O. JAMES. (Terril, Iowa.)
It is better to be contented than to be covetous. Many do not seem to know that they are covetous, but they do know that they are not contented.
Contentment does not settle down into the do-nothing spirit. It is not the sister of Indifference. It labors incessantly to better its own condition and the condition of others.
Contentment is not tormented with an uncontrollable ambition to come into prominence, to gain notoriety, to produce a sensation, by doing some great thing. It is satisfied when God is pleased, rejoices when He is glorified, and iswilling that He should work out His own plan and purpose in His own good time.
Pray earnestly and labor faithfully for the spirit of true contentment. It is better than wealth. With godliness it is great gain.

WHICH DAY WILL YOU KEEP?

By T. S. Williams

T. S. WILLIAMS.
The time is at hand by the prophets foretold When the son of perdition, in scarlet and gold, Should cause all the people throughout all the land To accept of his mark in their forehead or hand.
His mark is “the venerable day of the sun,” In which by the people no work must be done,— A counterfeit sabbath, a well-designed fraud, Imposed on the Church ’gainst the Sabbath of God.
But God has commanded His people to rest On the day that He sanctified, hallowed, and blessed, And made it a sign and a mark to denote God’s covenant people to ages remote.
Now choose ye the day that you wish to observe, And deny not the God you desire to serve: If Baal be the God, why then Baal obey, But if ’tis Jehovah, then hallow His day.
O be not deceived, for the time is now here When all must decide where they wish to appear,— Whether ’tis with the Lord and the angels to dwell, Or with unbelievers be cast down to hell.
O sinners for whom Christ our Saviour hath died And arose, that through Him ye might be justified, Accept of His mark, and He’ll lead you aright, To mansions of glory, eternal and bright.

HOW DO WE KNOW?

By J. F. Ballenger

ELDER J. F. BALLENGER.
Professor.—Now, Elder, do you really think that there will be another persecution for conscience’ sake, and that, too, for refusing to keep the Sunday?
Elder.—If I did not, Professor, I certainly would not preach it.
Professor.—Indeed, Elder, I do not doubt your sincerity for a moment; I think you honestly believe what you preach, but may it not be true that you put a wrong interpretation upon the prophecy? It seems impossible that with the history of the Dark Ages before us, the pages of history could ever again be stained with cruel persecution.
Elder.—Indeed it does seem strange that history should repeat itself that way, but human nature is the same in all ages, and when the conditions are equal, the results will be the same.
Professor.—Yes, that is true; and I am aware that since the Reformation of the sixteenth century, persecution has raised its hydra head at times, and that, too, by those calling themselves Protestants. But we had hoped that with the advancing light upon religious liberty of the nineteenth century such a thing could never be repeated.
Elder.—As to being mistaken in regard to the interpretation of the prophecy, you will admit that if we have no infallible guide by which to apply the prophecy it would be of no more use to us than the heathen auguries. But if we can be positive that we have the right application, then there can be no doubt in regard to the results.
Professor.—That is the great question. Elder, if you can show beyond the possibility of a doubt that you are right in your application of the prophecy, then we need not be in doubt in regard to the results.
Elder.—You will agree with me that the leopard beast of Revelation 13 and 14 is a symbol of the papacy?
Professor.—Yes; I agree with you that that beast is a symbol of the Roman Catholic Church. I do not think it possible to apply it to anything else. But that the Sunday institution is the mark, or sign, of the papacy I am not so sure.
Elder.—Why are you so sure that the leopard beast is a symbol of the papacy?
Professor.—All Protestant commentators of any note that I have read apply the symbol to the papacy; but even if we had no such testimony, any one who has read the history of that Church cannot fail to see that it has fulfilled every specification of the symbol.
Elder.—Exactly; then the events that fulfill the prophecy in every particular are infallible guides to its interpretation.
Professor.—Yes; when the events described in the prophecy come to pass, it would be foolish to deny the application; but where are the events that have taken place to prove that the Sunday is a mark of the papacy?
Elder.—You were present in the tent when we read the testimony from both Catholic and Protestant historians that the governors of the Church, in connection with the emperors, transferred the rest from the seventh to the first day of the week?
Professor.—Yes. I am quite well convinced that the bishops of Rome changed the Sabbath, and I am also convinced that there is no Scriptural authority for the change.
Elder.—Then if the Catholic Church changed the Sabbath, and the Protestant world accept the change, would not that be a sign that they, the Catholics, had the power to change God’s times and the law? See Dan. 7:25, R. V.
Professor.—I suppose it would.
Elder.—But do you not know that it would?
Professor.—Yes; of course, if we acknowledge that the Church changed the Sabbath, and we accept the change, then we must acknowledge that the change itself is an evidence that they had power to make it.
Elder.—You acknowledge that they made the change. Now if you keep Sunday, do you not confess by your own conduct that Sunday-keeping is a mark of their power to make the change?
Professor.—Well, I had not looked at it just in that light before, yet I must confess that it is a pretty strong argument against us.
Elder.—Again: if the leaders of the Catholic Church confess that they made the change, and set it before all the world as a mark of their power to legislate in matters of religion, would you dare stand up and say that the Catholic leaders do not know themselves what the mark of their power is? To illustrate, suppose a man did not know what the mark or sign of the Masonic order was, and on inquiry he found that all the leaders of the fraternity declared that the square and compass was a sign of their order; would he, or any one, be so presumptuous as to contradict them, and declare that they themselves did not know what their sign was?
Professor.—O, no; of course no person would be so foolish as to do that.
Elder.—Very well; then if you admit that the Catholic Church changed the Sabbath, and you keep the day that they have substituted in place of God’s Sabbath, and by so doing you acknowledge their power to make the change, then when they set forth the change as a mark, or sign, of their power to change God’s law, how in the world can you deny their claim to the change as a mark of their power to do the very thing that you admit they did do?
Professor.—Are you sure that the Catholic leaders publish to the world the change of the Sabbath as a mark of their power to make the change?
Elder.—Listen to the answer of Cardinal Gibbons to the question asked by Mr. J. F. Snyder, of Bloomington, Ill., if the Catholic Church held the change of the Sabbath as a mark of their power to make the change, to which the Cardinal gave the following reply: “Of course the Catholic Church claims that the change was her act. It could not have been otherwise, as none in those days would have dreamed of doing anything in matters spiritual and religious without her, and the act is a mark of her ecclesiastical power and authority in religious matters.”
“Yours respectfully, “Wm. Rewday, “Sec. for the Cardinal.”
Could anything be more plain and to the point than this acknowledgment on the part of this noted Catholic official? Do you not think that the Cardinal knows what the Catholic Church holds as a mark of her power to legislate in matters of religion?
Professor.—When you men make a statement, you generally have the documents at hand to back it up; but I tell you it places Sunday-keepers in a box. If you are right (and we must admit that the evidence is very conclusive), then it means to stand up against the ire of the Beast or drink the unmixed wrath of God.
Elder.—That is just what it does mean; and when you consider the fact that more than one hundred of our people in the United States and Canada have been arrested, fined, and imprisoned, and in some instances worked in the chain-gang with common criminals, and that, too, in the face of the fact that good citizens not of our faith have testified that it was persecution pure and simple, and nothing else, it sets an infallible seal to our interpretation of the prophecy, and it ought not to take long for you and every other professed Christian to decide what to do.
Professor.—That is so, Elder. My work demands that I must bid you good-by for the present, but I wish to have another talk with you on this subject.
Elder.—All right; come over to the tent any time, and we shall be glad to give you any information we can on this question.

ARE YOU FAITHFUL IN TITHING?

By Wm. Covert

ELDER WM. COVERT.
The Scriptures clearly teach that the gospel work in the earth should be supported by a tithe of our income. The first direct reference to this subject is found in Gen. 14:20. Here Abram, a servant of the Lord, is said to have paid tithe to Melchisedec, the Lord’s priest. In the instance mentioned he gave a tenth of all the property in his possession. In the book of Hebrews Paul mentions this act of the patriarch as an example that should be imitated by Christians at the present time. He shows that as Melchisedec received tithe from the Lord’s servant then, so should Christ now receive tithe from His people. See Heb. 7:8. Here, he says, “Men . . . receive tithes; but there He [Christ] receiveth them, of whom it is witnessed that He liveth.” This is explicit instruction, calling upon God’s people to be faithful in the matter of tithing.
Moses, in the book of Leviticus, chapter 27 and verse 30, says, “All the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land, or of the fruit of the tree, is the Lord’s; it is holy unto the Lord.” This calls for the Lord’s people to pay into the Lord’s treasury one tenth of all that the fields produce and of all that grows upon the trees. Notice that the tithe is the Lord’s, and that it is holy unto the Lord. Can we appropriate that which is the Lord’s, that which is holy unto the Lord, to our individual use, and be approved of the Lord while doing so?
Our Saviour speaks directly with reference to paying tithes. The following words are used by Him: “Ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done [that is, they should have exercised judgment, mercy, and faith], and not to leave the other [paying of tithes] undone.” In this scripture Jesus actually says we should pay tithe. To keep back the tithe from the treasury of the Lord is doing what Christ forbids.
In Neh. 13:10–13 is an account of how laborers were compelled to leave the Lord’s vineyard and go to the fields to work that they might obtain temporal support. This condition of things was brought about by the failure of the people to bring in the tithe. Many to-day are doing what that people did then; that is, they are using the Lord’s tithe for selfish ends. And because they are doing this, laborers are kept out of the Lord’s vineyard. In the case cited above the Lord held the people accountable for their conduct; and as He is the same to-day that He was then, the people now are held responsible by Him for a like offense.
In 2 Chron. 31:4–10 the unfaithfulness of Israel in tithing is recorded. Also an account of their reformation is given. When they brought in the tithe, everything went well, and the people who did their duty in the matter had much larger stores left over than they had while they were robbing the Lord. Please study this reference before leaving the subject.
In a communication from Sister White, written Sept. 10, 1896, are found the following words: “Let the neglected tithes be brought in. Let the new year open upon you as honest men intheir deal with God. Let those who have withheld their tithes send them in before the year 1896 shall close, that they may be right with God, and never, never again run any risk of being cursed of God. Presidents of Conferences, do your duty. Speak not your own words, but the plain ‘Thus saith the Lord.’ Elders of churches, do your duty. Labor from house to house that the flock of God shall not be remiss in that great matter which involves such a blessing or such a curse.”
In November of the same year she again writes upon the subject of tithing, and says: “The Lord created every tree in Eden pleasant to the eyes and good for food, and He bade Adam and Eve freely enjoy His bounties. But He made one exception. Of the tree of knowledge of good and evil they were not to eat. This tree God reserved as a constant reminder of His ownership of all. Thus He gave them an opportunity to demonstrate their faithfulness and trust in Him and their perfect obedience to His requirements. . . . So it is with God’s claims upon us. He places His treasures in the hands of humanity, but requires that one tenth shall be faithfully laid aside for his work. He teaches the lesson that He requires this part to be placed in His treasury. It is to be rendered to Him as His own; it is to be sacred, and is to be used for sacred purposes, for the support of those who carry the message of salvation to all parts of the world. He reserves this portion that means may ever be flowing into His treasure-house, and that the light of truth may be carried to those who are nigh and those who are afar off. By faithfully obeying this requirement we prove that we realize that all belongs to God.
“And has not the Lord a right to demand this much of us? Did He not give us His only begotten Son because He loved us and desired to save us from death? And shall not our gratitude-offerings flow into the Lord’s treasury to be drawn therefrom to advance His kingdom in the earth? God is the owner of all our goods, and shall not gratitude to Him prompt us to make freewill offerings and thank offerings, thus acknowledging His ownership of soul, body, spirit, and property? Had God’s plan been followed, means would now be flowing into His treasury, and funds to enable the ministers to enter new fields and workers to unite with ministers to lift up the standard of truth in the dark places of the earth would be abundant. . . . Those who claim that they cannot see this to be their duty reveal to the heavenly universe, to the Church, and to the world, that they do not want to see this plainly stated requirement.”
“God lays His hand upon all man’s possessions, saying, I am the owner of the universe, and these goods are mine. The tithe you have withheld I reserved for the support of my servants in the work of opening the Scriptures to those who are in the regions of darkness, who do not understand my law. In using my reserve fund to gratify your own desires, you have robbed souls of the light which I have made provision they should receive. You have had opportunity to show loyalty to me, but you have not done so. You have robbed me, for you have stolen my reserve fund. Ye are cursed with a curse.”
Brethren and sisters, though these things were written five years ago, they describe a condition which prevails to quite an extent at this time. Many are withholding the tithe from the Lord’s treasury, and what the Lord has said with reference to robbing Him and His cause in this way is just as applicable, at the present time, to the people who are doing it as it ever was to any people in the world. If the Lord was displeased with this course in times past, He is displeased with it at the present time. If the cause was injured or crippled in times past because the tithe was withheld, it is also injured and crippled now because it is withheld by many.
Can there be any reason for this condition of things save in the unbelief of those who profess to be God’s people? If all would faithfully trust the Lord, and perform that which He has advised, there would be no loss experienced by any in rendering obedience. God’s blessings abundantly flow to all who are faithful in His work; while, on the other hand, He positively states that His disapproval is upon those who neglect these things. This is a sad condition, and should be remedied. The Lord wants to bless His people, and He does let blessings flow abundantly to all who trust Him. Very many blessings come to the unfaithful, but this is because of the Lord’s love, and not because He approves of unfaithfulness.

THE GREATER AMERICA.

By Frederic Emory

What Our Growth as a Nation Means — Commercial Absorption of the Western Hemisphere — Will It Involve Further Acquisitions of Territory? — Conditions That May Reconcile Latin America to Our Supremacy.
FREDERIC EMORY, Chief of the Bureau of Foreign Commerce, Department of State.
It is becoming more and more difficult to write in terms of soberness of the growth of the United States as a world-power. Nor is this difficulty one peculiar to ourselves. In the least friendly of foreign commentaries upon our progress, there is a tendency toward the use of superlatives which argues a similar embarrassment, even on the part of those who would naturally wish to minimize the facts. The truth is that our performance in almost every branch of material effort has been on so great a scale that the barest recital seems to savor of magniloquence. The United States is more conspicuously than ever a country of “big things,” and it is drifting steadily toward a bigness which alarms the world. Our most hostile critics no longer sneer at us as a nation of boosters. All of them admit the solidity, the aggressiveness, the crushing weight of our competition, and but few of them will deny that, springing from this industrial superiority, there are potentialities of intellectual and social influence which, in the end, may profoundly affect the whole human race.
American supremacy, in fact, is admittedly formidable not only in the realm of industry and commerce, but in the far wider realm of social progress and evolution of human thought, and it is thus formidable solely because it rests upon an industrial efficiency such as the world at large concedes has never before been seen. As Prof. W. G. Sumner remarks, in a recent article, “The Economies of Trusts,” “all the so-called ‘higher interests’ (science, education, religion, charity, reform, etc.) are dependent on wealth production;” and the United States, to-day being the largest, most economical producer of wealth, and in a greater variety of forms than any other nation, may be said to be the largest contributor to the intellectual and moral forces of the world. The quality of these influences may be disputed, but their magnitude and potency are recognized of all.
We may, therefore, preserve a reasonably decorous modesty, with no risk of serious wounds to our national self-esteem, if we rely almost wholly upon what others say of us in painting a picture of our present position in the world. Let us take but a few of the more striking expressions. The London Financial News of April 13, 1901, admits that present conditions point to the shifting of the center of not only industrial, but commercial, activity and the money-power of the world to the United States. The supremacy in commerce, says the Revue du Commerce Extérieur of Paris of May 4, 1901, “is passing from Great Britain, which held it throughout the nineteenth century, to the great American Republic.” “No competent observer can doubt,” remarks Frederic Harrison, “that in wealth, manufactures, material progress of all kinds, the United States, in a very few years, must hold the first place in the world without dispute.” In January last, Lord Rosebery pointed out to a British Chamber of Commerce that “the alertness of the Americans, their incalculable natural resources, their acuteness, their vast population,” were making them “very formidable competitors.” “The industries, trade, agriculture, railroads, and finances of the Union,” says the Hamburger Fremdenblatt, “have each and all climbed, one upon another, through and by each other, steadily upward. And to what a height have they climbed!” “Like a storm,” exclaims Dr. Alexander von Peez, in the Allgemeine Zeitung of Munich, “is the forward movement of the United States.” Thus, the best opinion in Great Britain, France, and Germany, our chief industrial rivals, is substantially in accord in assigning us the foremost place.

A UNIQUE FORM OF EXPANSION.

There is no parallel to our growth among modern nations, for the reason that the only countries which approach us in territorial expansion — Great Britain and Russia — have extended their sovereignty under wholly different conditions. Both of those countries have pursued a career of conquest and absorption of alien peoples with wide differences of race, of language, of religion, of social instincts and habits. England’s energies have been diffused all over the globe. Russia’s efforts, though restricted to territory always contiguous to her advancing frontier, have been even less assimilative. In each instance, the absorption is largely artificial, and dependent for its continuance upon the exercise of force. In the case of Russia, the force is almost wholly military; in that of England,—as in India, the Malay peninsula, Egypt, and elsewhere,—it is a mixture of military restraint and efficiency of civil administration. With theexception of its recent insular acquisitions, the United States, in extending its boundaries, has taken up vast areas which could hardly be said to be populated. The nomadic Indians retreated swiftly beneath the submerging waves of our advancing civilization, and the remnants of French and Spanish occupancy were swallowed up with scarcely a ripple. As we moved forward, we fully occupied the land, and our development was continuous, well-ordered, and thoroughly permeative. The result has been to create a nation with a clearly defined and substantially homogeneous individuality. To all intents and purposes, we are a unit in our distinctive Americanism, and it is this which gives us a large part of our power in the world.

WHAT THE GREATER AMERICA MAY MEAN.

What does this Greater America of the twentieth century mean? To what does it tend? Is it a triumph for democracy, a final and indisputable vindication of the principles upon which the republic was founded, or does it represent, as some contend, a drift toward imperialistic ideas—the concentration of power in the hands of a privileged few, and a career of conquest and aggrandizement, which will gradually corrode and finally destroy the individual liberties we have always held most dear? The answer to this question is to be found not in speculation as to what may or may not result, as indicated merely by departure from tradition. The “example of the fathers” is a safe rule to steer by only so long as we are sailing upon the waters they explored. Once launched upon seas unknown to them, we must make a new chart, retaining their soundings of familiar depths, and adding others from our own experience. The conditions we have to face are so widely different from those they dealt with that it were obviously absurd to assume that they would have acted otherwise than we are acting, or that the democracy they had in mind is necessarily hastening to its doom. On the contrary, a close analysis of the situation in which we find ourselves may reveal the fact that it is really a development of their conception of democracy, and the adaptation of it to far broader and more beneficent ends than even those of which they dreamed.
As to one thing, it seems to me, we cannot be in any doubt. Our rapid growth in industrial power has brought with it a vast increase of national influence and prestige, and a temptation such as we never felt before to play an important part in the world’s affairs. One has not to look far to see that the success of our commercial invasion of the Old World implies our ultimate domination of the New. If Europe cannot check our progress within its own territory, it cannot hope to overcome us in the still more unequal competition in the countries of the Western Hemisphere. And in the wake of industrial and trade enterprise will follow the characteristic influences which give a peculiar cast to our social and political development. The important question, not less for ourselves than for the countries upon which we shall encroach, is whether this domination shall take the form of absorption into our own political system or content itself with the indirect upbuilding of them on American lines of development, but as separate political entities, with elements of stability and progress which they can hardly hope to evolve for themselves.

INDUSTRIAL ABSORPTION PROBABLE.

The Greater America of the future, if not of to-day, means assuredly this: That the United States will be the energizing, potential force of the Latin as well as of the Anglo-Saxon countries of this hemisphere. Whether joined to us by political ties or not, Canada no less than Mexico will feel more and more sensibly as time goes on her necessary dependence upon the Union in commerce, in industry, in all the sources of wealth, and consequently in the determination of the form which her social and political evolution must take. Both Canada and Mexico already give evidence of this result. The West Indies share in the same process of transformation to a lesser degree, and Central America begins to respond to the gradual inflow of American enterprise. The process is a purely mechanical one, and for that reason it is possible to make a fairly accurate forecast. We have to deal not with theoretical or sentimental conditions, but with concrete facts, or, in other words, the automatic, machine-like expansion of our industrial forces propelled by a national energy which seems irresistible.

POLITICAL INFLUENCE FOLLOWING TRADE EXPANSION.

As our goods have swept over Europe, in spite of hostile tariffs, of national prejudices, of jealousy and alarm on the part of European manufacturers, so our enterprise and industry, when the times are ripe, will spread to the farthest confines of America. And wherever “Yankee” industry pitches, a swarm of “Yankee” ideas and impulses will be sure to settle. In time these will percolate through the most unyielding strata of race prejudices, and our interests will become so thoroughly commingled with those of our sister commonwealths that a substantial unification, over-riding differences of language, of race temperament, and even of climatic conditions, may be found to have resulted.

AFFILIATION WITH SOUTH AMERICA.

That such a condition, born of purely industrial forces, is neither fanciful nor very remote is made clear by the marked changes going on in the countries nearest to us, as the result of increasing intercourse with the United States. For example, Mexico is a much less favorable field for the spread of our influence than Canada, because of more stubborn prejudices and race antipathies, yet Mexico is rapidly drawing closer to us. At the first glance it may seem that the contrary tendency exhibits itself in South America. We have made but little progress during the past decade in trade with that continent, and since our war with Spain there have been symptoms of reawakened prejudice and anxiety among some of the South American countries as to the ultimate intentions of the “Colossus of the North,” which more than ever dwarfs their power. If even before our sudden rise to our present eminence we spoke to Europe with the voice of authority for the whole of America, and Europe hearkened, it is but natural that the South American republics should view with apprehension an increase of our ascendancy so great that we would have but to give free rein to the spirit of expansion to absorb them one by one with little risk of effective protest from any quarter. But, as has been shown in a previous article in the World’s Work, we are stationary in South America only because we choose to be so, and for the present are more profitably employed elsewhere. Whether we would ever wish to take over the South American countries as part of our political system is very doubtful, but it may be assumed that, if our present industrial expansion continues without serious check or disturbance, they will certainly become tributary to us in an economic sense, and will gradually be affiliated in their social and political institutions.
In other words, as the markets now more profitable are either curtailed to us or are fully occupied by our wares, South America will begin to offer strong inducements, and then for the first time we shall really exert ourselves to win its trade. By that time American capital will probably have embarked, as it now shows signs of doing, in ocean-carrying traffic, and the great desideratum of larger intercourse with South America, viz., direct steamship facilities fostered by liberal tariff agreements, will have been provided. As the successful competition of our goods with those now imported from Europe may be regarded as a foregone conclusion, commercial absorption is sure to follow, and commercial absorption means the gradual assimilation of the most alien of peoples to our ideas, our habits, our standards of Americanism.
(Concluded next week.)

THE UNIVERSALIST'S REFRAIN.

By E. P. B.

Pharaoh, with all his numerous hosts, Had wondrous honors given; A watery grave did them all save, When earthly ties were riven.
The guilty Sodomites, likewise, When God bade Lot retire, Although unwise, to paradise They sailed on wings of fire.
Also, the wicked Canaanites To Joshua’s sword were given; The sun stood still that he might kill, And pack them off to heaven.
God saw these wretches were too bad To own that fruitful land; He took them all, both great and small, To dwell at His right hand.
The wicked living at the flood Were punished with the rod; That night so dark they missed the ark, And went straight up to God.
The wicked man has his own plan To live out half his days, Resign his breath and go at death A heavenly song to raise.
So Judas, that unworthy wretch! Was not for crimes accursed; He, by a cord, outwent his Lord, And got to heaven first!
— E. P. B.
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