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Review and Herald, Vol. 81, No. 37.

Publishers’ Page

Review and Herald

Sep 15, 1904

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Sep 15, 1904

Publishers’ Page

Conducted by the Department of Circulation of the Review and Herald Publishing Company.

The Gospel Reader

THIS book might be classed as a companion volume to, but in advance of, “Gospel Primer.” In telling many of the prominent Bible history stories, the author has not only done so in an interesting and simple manner, but has so guarded the grammatical construction that one can not help but note the difference between this and the many cheap story-books.
Bound in cloth, 75 cts.; in board covers, 50 cts.

The Gospel Primer

THE object of this little book is to teach reading, and at the same time to combine lessons that will instill into the mind of the reader words and truths from the gospel.
The first part of the book is given to the alphabet, each letter of which is connected with some Bible scene. The second part of the book is given to Bible stories, written so simply that any child can understand them.
Board covers, 25 cts.; cloth covers, 50 cts.

Reed’s Word Lessons

A COMPLETE Spelling Book for use in higher primary, intermediate, and grammar grades. Designed to teach correct spelling, pronunciation, and use of such words only as are most common in current literature, and as are most likely to be misspelled, mispronounced, or misused.
A unique feature of this speller is that space is given on each page to a correct use of the words of the lesson in sentences selected from the best writers, from the Bible, etc. Thus not only the correct spelling is taught, but the proper grammatical use of the words. Price, 35 cts.

Bell’s Language Series

THIS series gives an outline study of the English language, adapted to the training of the child from the nursery until he is graduated from college. These five books are based upon the natural method, giving and illustrating principles rather than rules, and are particularly suited to home study. A complete set of grammars, such as this, covering all grammatical problems, should be a treasure to any student, not alone during his school-days, but more particularly in after-life, when to determine a grammatical construction there is no teacher to whom it can be referred, except the books that were studied at school.
This language series is composed of the following:— Book 1, Primary Language Lessons from Life, Nature, and Revelation; 227 pp., cloth .......... $.65 Book 2, Elementary Grammar, 224 pp., cloth .......... .65 Book 3, Complete Grammar, 281 pp., cloth .......... .80 Book 4, Rhetoric and Higher English, 375 pp., cloth .......... 1.25 Book 5, Studies in English Literature, 599 pp., cloth .......... 1.75

Important Histories

The Empire Series

IT is well to make statements that such and such kings and kingdoms ruled during certain periods, and that certain things took place during their reign; but do you have a history to which you can turn and prove your assertions? It is this that carries conviction with your statements. If you have not, you should have a set of the histories written by A. T. Jones.

Volume I—Empires of the Bible

This is a history of the time from the fall of Babylon to the captivity. Researches in Babylon and Egypt have brought to light many valuable historical records inscribed on stone. These records the author has connected with Bible statements, showing how they agree. Price, $1.50.

Volume II—The Great Empires of Prophecy

A history of the times from Babylon to the fall of Rome, with particular attention to the prophecies of the book of Daniel. The quotations from more than eighty standard histories bring the writings of these historians to your hand in one volume, so that you have their own language, and therefore a veritable cyclopedia of history. Price, $2.

Volume III—Ecclesiastical Empire

This book contains an account of all the principal events that have affected civil government and tended to the establishment of ecclesiastical authority, from the time of the fall of Rome to the present day. It contains a good history of the Reformation and compendium of the principles of true Christianity, the reason for our national apostasy, and a full treatise upon the union of church and state. 874 pages. Price, $2.50.

Dictionary

WHAT boy or girl will not be pleased to have a dictionary, and particularly one that is so small and convenient that it will go into a vest pocket? What boy or girl should not have a dictionary in order that their reading and writing may be executed correctly and understandingly? This is important in their education.
Our Vest Pocket Dictionary, bound in cloth, 25 cts.; in Russia leather, 50 cts.; in Morocco, 60 cts. All are indexed.

New Series of Physiologies

THESE books constitute an entirely new and graded series for the study of physiology and hygiene in the schools. The important questions of sanitation and temperance are thoroughly treated from a scientific and physiological standpoint. Both books contain a full treatise on the nature and effects of alcoholic drinks and other narcotics.
Not only are these the latest text-books published on the subject, but they will also be found very valuable for home study, as they treat the subject in a clear, practical manner.
First Book in Physiology, 174 pp., illustrated, 40 cts.
Second Book in Physiology, 291 pp., illustrated, 80 cts. No other physiologies as practical as the Kellogg series.

Geographies

THIS important study receives attention in all schools. We know of no better books to offer than Morton’s Geographies for church-school work. Published in two grades,—the Elementary, which sells for 65 cts.; and the Advanced, which sells for $1.30.

Making Home Happy

A BOOK written for the purpose of making homes happy. It illustrates how an unhappy home was made happy, and cites the manner of securing this desirable condition in every home. It pictures, in pleasing narrative form, the relations that should exist in the home, and the influences that should be guarded and cultivated. Bound in cloth, 50 cts.; in paper, 25 cts.
Order of Review and Herald, Washington, D. C.; Review and Herald, Battle Creek, Mich.; Pacific Press, Oakland, Cal.; Kansas City, Mo.; Southern Publishing Assn., Nashville, Tenn., or of your State Tract Society.

School Days Again

By Editor

The summer days are fast passing, and soon the children will be off to school again. The question of books first confronts the parent. Which books to get that are reliable, contain the best educational matter, and at the same time are not filled with present-day heterodoxy, is no small matter to decide.
We give herewith a list of books which have been in use by our church-schools and others, and which seem to give entire satisfaction.
We recommend a consideration of this list before starting the child in to study that which is to form the foundation for life's work.

An Encouraging Outlook

By Editor

Editorial

An Encouraging Outlook

Those who have the spiritual perception to recognize God’s leading and working may now perceive plain indications that divine Providence is guarding this advent movement. The assurance that there would be a resurrection of the long-dormant energies of this people, and that there would be a bestowal in large measure of divine power for the carrying forward of this work, is already beginning to be fulfilled, and renewed hope and courage are springing up in hearts which had become almost despondent. Reports of an encouraging nature are being sent in from distant fields, and the home conferences in an increasing number are recognizing and accepting their responsibility to divide their resources with the weaker conferences and mission fields. Furthermore, it is being demonstrated that this advent message is not to follow in the experience of all the other churches, and its foundation principles be perverted by the specious teachings of a false philosophy—a mere variation of the higher criticism. The fundamental truths of this message, and especially the truth of the sanctuary and its services as it has been taught in this movement for over fifty years, can not be overthrown by the reasonings of “science falsely so called.” The essential doctrines of this message will stand out with greater clearness, and their scriptural foundation will be set forth more plainly than ever as the result of this effort to introduce “a great reformation” which would consist “in giving up the doctrines which stand as the pillars of our faith, and engaging in a process of reorganization.” In all this there is ground for encouragement. “The Lord will put new, vital force into his work as human agencies obey the command to go forth and proclaim the truth. He who declared that his truth would shine forever will proclaim this truth through faithful messengers, who will give the trumpet a certain sound. The truth will be criticized, scorned, and derided; but the closer it is examined and tested, the brighter it will shine.” Those who have waited long for the consummation of their hopes may take new courage. The Lord is setting his hand to recover the remnant of his people. We have been in the time of the loud cry of this message for a good many years, and the loud cry will soon be heard. “Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord.” “Be strong and of a good courage.”

Imputed and Imparted

There is an imputed righteousness, and there is an imparted righteousness. To every one who truly believes in Jesus, the perfect character of the well-beloved Son, his perfect righteousness, is imputed just as soon as he believes, and he is saved by the grace of Christ. But in the experience of every Christian this imputed righteousness must become imparted righteousness. The character of Christ must be wrought out as the character of the believer, a righteousness which will be “witnessed by the law and the prophets.” This is the proof of the genuineness of the experience of imputed righteousness. This marks the difference between the religion of the true gospel of Christ and a mere sentimentalism,—between professing and possessing. These principles are clearly stated in the following extract: “We have no righteousness of our own with which to meet the claims of the law of God. But Christ has made a way of escape for us. He lived on earth amid trials and temptations such as we have to meet. He lived a sinless life. He died for us, and now he offers to take our sins and give us his righteousness. If you give yourself to him, and accept him as your Saviour, then, sinful as your life may have been, for his sake you are accounted righteous. Christ’s character stands in place of your character, and you are accepted before God just as if you had not sinned. More than this, Christ changes the heart; he abides in your heart by faith. You are to maintain this connection with Christ by faith and the continual surrender of your will to him; and so long as you do this, he will work in you to will and to do according to his good pleasure. So you may say, ‘The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.’ So Jesus said to his disciples, ‘It is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.’ Then with Christ working in you, you will manifest the same spirit and do the same works,—works of righteousness, obedience. . . . Our only ground of hope is in the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and in that wrought by his Spirit working in and through us.”
“My hope is built on nothing less Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness; I dare not trust the sweetest frame, But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.”

The Principle and “the Principles”

We often hear about the principles of religious liberty and the principles of healthful living, and loyalty to “the principles” is often urged and commended. We have known of atheists and scoffers who were ardent in their support of “the principles” of religious liberty, and we have heard of Unitarians and theosophists who were very punctilious in carrying out “the principles” of vegetarianism. This has led us to inquire whether “the principles” of religious liberty had anything to do with religion, and whether “the principles” of health reform had anything to do with this third angel’s message. In advocating “the principles” of religious liberty do we stand on the same platform as the atheist and the scoffer? and in promulgating “the principles” of Christian health and temperance is there any distinction between us and the Unitarian, the theosophist, and the pantheist? Canthere be any such thing as religious liberty without religion? Can there be any such thing as Christian health and temperance without Christianity?
This message includes “the principles” of religious liberty, but the atheist and the scoffer can not give this message. This message includes “the principles” of health and temperance, but the Unitarian and the theosophist and the pantheist can not give this message. There is one principle which must be the warp and the woof of “the principles” in order that they shall be an integral part of this message, and that principle is the fundamental truth of the gospel,—the doctrine of righteousness by faith, of salvation from sin through the merits and ministry of Jesus the Son of God. When we have “the principles” without this essential principle, we have simply the principles of self-exaltation and self-salvation.
Some of these things have been viewed in a false light, and the vegetarian theosophist and pantheist of India have been extolled as being further advanced in “the principles” than the meat-eating Englishman and American. We neither advocate nor practise the eating of flesh as a diet, but we still prefer “the principles” of the Christian who has not yet seen the necessity of wholly abstaining from flesh-food to “the principles” of the Unitarian, the theosophist, or the pantheist, even though he may regard the taking of animal life as murder, and the eating of flesh as an unpardonable sin. In saying this we know that there is a possibility of our being misunderstood and our position misrepresented, but we must take that risk. We regard health reform as the right arm of this message, but not as the body. We have discarded flesh as an article of diet, not as a means of salvation, but because we believe that in this way the body can be kept in a better condition to reveal to the world the salvation which comes through faith in the merits and ministry of Jesus our Saviour. The difference between these two positions is the difference between righteousness by works and righteousness by faith.
To deal justly and to love mercy are the essential requirements of true religion, and there is nothing else which can take the place of these fruits of the Spirit. To oppose Sunday laws or to abstain from eating flesh does not condone for the sin of dishonesty in word and deed. “Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts.”
There is danger of degrading “the principles” to a mere shibboleth. There is danger of substituting a so-called physical righteousness for the gospel of righteousness by faith. It may be necessary to call to mind the words of Jesus: “Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter; but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness.”

Creation Story Not a Myth

By L. A. S.

AFTER all that has been said and written by men of worldly wisdom to establish the assumption that the Bible narrative of Adam and Eve is a fable, and that the human family represents not a special act of creation, but a slow process of evolution, it is interesting to note that strong evidence to the contrary is coming to light from sources such as “the latest investigations in the fields of science, philosophy, and criticism.” These evidences are set forth by Prof. Luther T. Townsend, of Boston University, in a recent book entitled “Adam and Eve.” The author makes this reference to the pretensions of the higher critics:—
The readjustments of astronomical and geological theories during the last quarter of a century, which in every instance have been making for, rather than against, the beliefs of the primitive Christian church, and the remarkable discoveries in archeology which are affording the strongest possible defense for the credibility of the Bible, together with the fact that many of the ablest scholars are taking issue with much that is called higher criticism, ought to suggest that modesty, rather than egotism and dogmatism, is peculiarly becoming in those who are posing as leaders of modern thought and reformers in the theological world.
Professor Townsend believes that “a passage of Scripture is to be interpreted as literal unless a figurative meaning is clearly intended by the inspired writer.” Regarding the evidence that no supposition of a figurative meaning in the narrative of the creation of man is necessary or even permissible, he says:—
It can no longer be rationally questioned that the sciences of anatomy, of geology, of archeology, of philology, of ethics, and of theology unite in demolishing all theories of naturalism as to the character and condition of the earliest inhabitant of the earth of whom there is any record.
And the evolutionary hypothesis that the human race began in a savage state, and slowly worked up to its present condition, consuming in this development a hundred thousand years, more or fewer, is, in the presence of established facts, an assumption as groundless as anything one can imagine. On the other hand, a sudden emergence from the savage state to one represented by the ancient civilizations of Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, and that of many other countries is not an emergence of which history shows any evidence. Hence the theory that the human family began high up in civilized and social life, but afterward suffered a decadence, has probabilities in its favor that amount well nigh to an absolute certainty.
What may be insisted upon, therefore, is this: There is no evidence of any kind that Adam, who throughout the Bible is spoken of as an authentic person, was not the first man. There is no evidence that he did not have a perfect body and fully endowed intellect; there is no evidence that he could not give appropriate names to the animals brought before him; there is no evidence that his son Cain did not build a city; there is no evidence that his grandson Jubal did not handle the harp and organ, and there is no evidence that Jubal’s brother, Tubal-cain, and grandson of Adam, was not a worker in brass and iron.
But there is no need of stating these matters in negative terms, for all discoveries in the last twenty-five years or more are in harmony with the Bible record that the first beings on earth that wore the human form had a body just as perfect, and a brain or an intellect just as capable of working, and a language just as complete in expressing thought as those of any man now living. These are not philosophical nor theological speculations, but conclusions based upon established facts, and reached by approved scientific methods.
The days of creation week, also, he believes, were not long geological periods, but literal days. On this point he offers the following testimony:—
That the writer of the book of Genesis had in mind days of ordinary length, rather than the geological periods that had preceded and that evidently were prophetic of the six Bible days, can not be reasonably questioned. The Hebrew word yom—limited by a-rav, evening, and ba-kar, morning—is never used in the Hebrew tongue to denote any period other than an ordinary day.
This is the opinion of such well-known and distinguished Hebraists as Baumgarten, Culwer, Davidson, Hagenbach, Hedge, Keil, Kalish, Murphy, Rosenmuller, and Dr. S. H. Turner in his “Commentary on Genesis.”
Regarding the idea of creation by “spontaneous generation” and evolution, he declares that such a theory is “confronted with insurmountable difficulties;” but that “such a creation at the hands of Christ as the Bible describes is antagonized by nothing that is established in the realms of approved science and philosophy.”
There is nothing in this, of course, to strengthen the faith of the Christian in the credibility of the Word of God. His faith does not rest upon such evidences, but upon those which Christianity itself furnishes to the believer through the knowledge of God and communion with him. An intelligent belief in the gospel plan of salvation requires the acceptance of the narrative of man’s creation and the fall in Eden as a literal narrative, aside from any corroborative evidence from scientific sources. But it is interesting to observe that the present-day deductions of real science do corroborate the statements of revelation, and that the testimony of science is not necessarily against the teachings of Christianity, as many who reject it would have us believe.
L. A. S.

The Triumphs of Faith

  • (Concluded)*
In every one of these cases, which are in themselves typical of our personal experience, the triumph of faith, the victory of faith, was shown in the pathway of obedience. Abraham, when he was called, obeyed to go out. Moses obeyed, and God sent him down to Egypt to deliver his people. Moses obeyed when God gave him command concerning his appearance before Pharaoh. Moses obeyed when God gave command concerning the plagues that came upon Egypt, and the plagues came according to the word of Moses and Aaron. The children of Israel obeyed when God told them to go forward, although the Red Sea stood in the way. And Joshua as captain, and the people, obeyed when God commanded them to make their march around Jericho, and to shout, because God had given them the city. And because of this obedience of faith, the victories of faith became facts in their experience.
I would like to call attention just briefly to two other experiences, in which nothing is said about faith, but yet these show in ordinary life what the victories of faith mean; the first being the call to the disciples:— “And walking by the sea of Galilee, he saw two brethren, Simon who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishers. And he saith unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you fishers of men. And they straightway left the nets, and followed him.”
Only common fishermen by the lake; perhaps their whole possession being the boat and the nets in the boat. A man walking by the sea called to them, “Follow me,” and they left, not much, but all, and followed him. Not much to leave, we say. Truly, but they left all they had, and followed him. How were they to gain their daily bread after that, if they followed this man of Galilee? They had forsaken their employment. Shall we say they had lost their position? They gave up their position. Not much to give up, you say. But they gave up that which was to them their livelihood, and followed this man of Galilee.
And what was his promise?—Only this: Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men. But in that call, and promise to make them fishers of men, is involved his assurance that they should have his care over them. He knew that they needed daily food and clothing; he knew their temporal needs; and he knew his Father’s ability to supply them; and he called them to follow him, and they followed him.
That was a triumph of faith; that was a victory of faith; and there are many victories of faith in humble life that are never recorded, and yet they are turning-points in the lives of individuals, none the less real than was the case of the fishermen deciding the case of God’s call to obey him, when to obey him meant to leave all, and follow him.
Another case, very simple in the record:— “And he looked up, and saw the rich men that were casting their gifts into the treasury. And he saw a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites. And he said, Of a truth I say unto you, This poor widow cast in more than they all: for all these did of their superfluity cast in unto the gifts: but she of her want did cast in all the living that she had.”
A very simple thing—a poor woman coming, with others, to the treasury where gifts were deposited. The rich were there, and the rich gave much; but they had much left after they had given much. The poor widow gave little, and having given little, she had nothing left. And He who sat over against the treasury and watched them come and go, leaving their gifts, saw in the poor widow with two mites a greater gift than any of the rich cast in. Why?—Because it was that gift of faith which included all, and trusted God for the future; because, though it added little to the treasury, it took everything from the poor widow; and he who measures acts, not as men measure them, who looks rather upon the heart than upon the outward deed, saw in the gift of the poor widow a greater gift than any that the rich cast into the treasury. And the widow’s two mites have been honored ever since in the record, as the example of that humble faith in private life which takes God at his word, and believes that he is able to provide for his children.
These instances of special experiences of faith are but lessons for us. The motto of the Christian day by day must be “By faith.” By faith he must live; by faith he must work. Faith must link him with the invisible things of the heavenly kingdom. Faith must bring into his actual experience, God, and the ministry of angels,—the future as being brought into the present by that faith which is the assurance of things hoped for; and so his daily walk is in obedience to God, rather than to men; he is daily listening to the voice of God, and ordering his steps according to God’s Word, rather than according to the traditions and the convictions of men.
This must be the life of faith; but that faith must be grounded in the Word of God. Faith can not rest upon mere imagination or mere sentiment; faith must have the sure foundation of the Word of God. When God commands, faith accepts God’s command. And when faith sees God in all, and obeys God in all, and thus brings God actually into the life, the life of faith is the life of victory; the life of faith is the life of triumph, although not always in outward appearance.
Remember the case of John the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus. He who gathered throngs from the towns to hear him in the wilderness, through whose preaching conviction of sin fell upon many hearts and minds, when he saw Jesus, said, “He must increase; I must decrease.” And John was cast into prison, and he was beheaded in prison; and yet the life of John was a life of faith, and his death was the triumph of faith. In John’s death was victory. There has been no martyr to the truth of God in any age who did not die a victorious death; there has been no one who has suffered for Christ’s sake privations of any sort, inconvenience of any kind, loss of support, or loss of friends, who did not win a triumph in his apparent loss. Whoever goes through this experience gains a victory which far outweighs whatever may be lost; for the triumph of such a faith must triumph in victory throughout eternity.
In our common experiences it is not always the greatest things that present themselves to us that are the greatest tests of faith. It may sometimes be what may appear a very simple thing that comes to be the test of our faith. It may be that upon one simple thing we turn our whole Christian experience, whether or not after that time we shall live the life of faith, trusting ourselves with God and his ability to care for us.
Every day there come to us individually these tests of faith, and these opportunities for the victories of faith; and the same God has given us an inspiration (which he has given us here) that our faith may be equal to the test; and that, looking into the future with the eye of faith, and recognizing through God’s Word what he has provided for those who obey him, we may go forward in obedience to God’s commands, against all the temptations of the world, at the sacrifice, if necessary, of all riches, position, and earthly standing. Faith obeys, and the obedience of faith brings to every one the recompense of reward to which Moses looked, to which he had respect,—that recompense of reward which awaits the faithful, and to which they look with the eye of faith,—that reward soon to be given.
There are but few years that intervene now between us and the recompense of reward. And in this last generation God is gathering out a people who shallreveal in their experience the triumphs of faith, a people who will be willing to obey him at all costs, a people who will be willing to take his word as the foundation of their faith, and walk in the light of his Word, a people who will look to him, and to him only, when everything about them seems unfavorable, who will depend upon God and the power revealed through the gift of his Son Jesus Christ to save from sin, to provide temporal things, to deliver from all that man can do, and to bring safely through the experiences of this last generation to the eternal kingdom of our God.
“Believe ye that I am able to do this? They said unto him, Yea, Lord.” He said unto them, “According to your faith be it unto you.” I leave with you, as being the words of our Master, and the law of faith to the Christian, “According to your faith be it unto you.”

Note and Comment

By Editor

A GLANCE at our Current Mention column this week will give some idea of the fact that the judgments of God—wrecks, fires, tidal waves, etc.— are in the land, fulfilling the specifications of the sure word of prophecy. And the list we have given is, for lack of space, a very incomplete one.
CATHOLICS at Rome and in Great Britain are congratulating themselves on a recent act of homage to the papacy from the British government. For the first time since the loss of the pope’s temporal power in 1870, the papal flag has been saluted by a British man-of-war. The occurrence took place at the reopening of Armagh Cathedral, in Ireland, July 24. The pope was represented on the occasion by Cardinal Vannutelli, who, in making his report to the pope, said that he was accorded an enthusiastic reception, and that many honors were paid him. “The papal flag was hoisted on the steamer carrying the cardinal, and was saluted by British war-ships; while Lord Dudley, the lord lieutenant of Ireland, treated him as a prince of the blood.” The incident shows the Romeward trend of political sentiment in the leading Protestant nation of the Old World.
THE Catholic Church has much to say at this time about the divorce evil, and is calling for legislation which will greatly restrict, if not wholly curtail, the easy separations procured by married couples under the existing laws in the various States. The great frequency of divorce is truly one of the alarming evils of the times, or the evidence of such an evil, which seemingly the Catholic Church is working to correct. But it is to be remembered that from the Catholic point of view a Protestant marriage is not a valid marriage at all, and therefore that people living together in such a union are really living in adultery. A separation between such a couple would, from the Catholic point of view, be better than a continued union. The Catholic Church does not grant divorces, and the evil which she seemingly seeks to remedy lies wholly among Protestants, who, as stated, are in the Catholic view incapable of contracting a valid marriage. It is evident then that the Catholic Church has in view not the removing of a great evil by the legislation called for, but her own exaltation through the incorporation of her ideals into the law of the land.

That “Christian Nation” Decision

By L. A. S.

Justice Brewer, of the United States Supreme Court, in an address at a religious gathering recently, spoke of the Bible in comparison with the books reverenced by non-Christian peoples, and of the influence of the Bible upon national life in those countries where it is held as a sacred book. The following words from this part of his address are of interest as explaining his conception of the United States as a Christian nation, Justice Brewer being, it will be remembered, the author of the “Christian nation” decision which elicited so much comment some years ago:—
No nation has a sacred book comparable with ours. Above all the writings of Confucius, above the Koran, in the richness and loftiness and purity of its teaching is this Bible that we believe in. It is our nation’s sacred book, yet does this nation come up to the level of its teaching and mold its life in all things by the pure and lofty precepts of this Book?
I do not mean that as a nation we have a state religion, or that by secular means we support any form of Christianity. But I do mean to say that this American nation, from its first settlement at Jamestown to the present hour, is based upon and permeated by the principles of this book. The very first charters that were issued have as one of the reasons for their issue that the Christian religion might be carried into this new continent, and all through our national life, from its beginning to the present time, there has been a constant recognition of the Bible as our sacred book. So it is that we are regarded among the nations of the world as a Christian nation.
We do not, any more than any other nation, come up to the level of our ideals as expressed in this book. While other nations are Christian nations, and this Bible is their sacred book, it is true, comparing nation with nation, that those nations in which this book is free, in which its principles reach further through the great body of the people, surpass those nations in which the Bible is a closed book or only partially understood. In other words, the more this Bible enters into the national life, the grander and purer and better becomes that life.
It appears that Justice Brewer’s “Christian nation” decision, as he intended it, had reference to the nation as a body of people rather than as a government; but the trouble with it is that a good deal more is likely to be gotten out of it than he meant to put into it, by those who would use it to establish a state religion. L. A. S.

The Mob Spirit at Statesboro

THE recent series of dreadful incidents at Statesboro, Ga., furnishes evidence that the mob spirit which is now so rampant in this country is in no degree directed by reason or justice. It has been said that the delays and uncertainties of the law furnish some justification for the lynching of men guilty of atrocious crimes; but in this case the men were lynched not to insure their punishment, but merely to give vent to the lynching spirit. The prisoners had been convicted in court, and were in charge of the legal authorities and under sentence of death. It was simply a question whether legal government or anarchy should prevail in their execution; and the community, or such part of it as the mob represented, showed its preference for anarchy. Scenes of anarchy are to be characteristic of the last days.

Sunday Closing and the St. Louis Fair

THE Outlook says that “all accounts agree in regarding the fair at St. Louis as not only the largest, but in many ways the most important yet held on this continent, and one of the most important ever held in any part of the world;” yet as regards the attendance, the fair seems likely to be a pronounced failure. “For the first three months,” says the Outlook, “the attendance at the fair was only about five millions, while the attendance at the Chicago fair for the same period was over nine millions.” From all that was said by the parties responsible for Sunday closing of the St. Louis exposition, it was to be inferred that a Sunday observing fair would prove a success because of its moral character and the patronage it would receive from the church people; yet it appears that the fair is even less of a financial success than was the Chicago fair, which kept open gates on the “American sabbath.” Hereafter not as much weight is likely to be attached as formerly has been to the prophecy that an exposition will prove a failure if its gates are kept open on Sunday.
Continue reading: MRS. E. G. WHITE