Review and Herald, Vol. 85, No. 46. (11/12/1908)

Review and Herald

Nov 12, 1908

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 12, 1908

Life's Promise

By Phœbe Carey

O, if this living soul, that many a time Above the low things of the earth doth climb Up to the mountain-top of faith sublime—     If she could only stay     In that high place alway,     And hear, in reverence bowed,     God's voice behind the cloud;

Or if, descending to the earth again, Its lesson in the heart might still remain; If we could keep the vision clear and plain,     Nor let one jot escape,     So that we still might shape     Our lives to deeds sublime     By that exalted time;

Ah! what a world were ours to journey     through! What deeds of love and mercy we should do, Making our lives so beautiful and true     That in our face would shine     The light of love divine,     Showing that we had stood     Upon the mount of God.

— Phœbe Carey.

MISSIONARY VOLUNTEER READING

COURSE.—No. 2

First Book “GREAT CONTROVERSY,” by Mrs. E. G. White. One of the most important books which we publish. It contains the principles which are at the foundation of our whole movement, and a study of this work will be worth far more to young people than the simple educational value of a well-conducted course of reading.

Marble .......... $2.75 Library ............ $3.75 Morocco .......... $4.75

Second Book “DAYBREAK IN THE DARK CONTINENT,” by Wilson Naylor. One of the most interesting volumes ever written about the work of missions in the great continent of Africa. The author has rare ability as a writer, and a good grasp of the facts concerning the work that has been done to bring the light of the gospel to heathen races. “Daybreak in the Dark Continent” will furnish an excellent sequel to “Great Controversy,” the former dwelling on the message which is to be given to the world, the latter presenting the great needs of a heathen people still largely in darkness and superstition.

Paper ............ $ .40 Cloth ............... $ .50

The Speaker’s Manual of Pronunciation

By Mrs. Fannie Dickerson Chase

WE have just received our supply of this valuable little book. It is an excellent work on pronunciation, compiled by one who is well qualified to edit such a book. The correct pronunciation of two thousand English words usually mispronounced, is given, and it contains much practical information concerning the proper use of the English language. The book is designed primarily for those engaged in public effort of any kind, but is equally valuable to one who writes or speaks, whether public speaker, teacher, or student.

Price ............................$ .50

Talks To My Students

By Professor Frederick Griggs

“TALKS TO MY STUDENTS” is a book of high ideals, but thoroughly practical. It is pre-eminently a book for young people,— one that will inspire those who read it to greater diligence in character-building. The language is not the formal style of a theorist, but is brimful of actual experiences. The substance of each chapter was delivered to a chapel filled with bright young men and women in a series of morning talks by Professor Griggs. The students of South Lancaster Academy, who heard those stirring words, need no introduction to this book; to the others we commend it as suggestive and helpful.

Price, post-paid ................$ .50

REVIEW AND HERALD PUBLISHING ASSN.

New York City WASHINGTON, D. C. Battle Creek, Mich.

Mob Rule and a Monarchy

ONE of our exchanges prints a stirring editorial upon the significance of the recent outbreak in Springfield, Ill., when a mob took possession of the city, committing arson and murder, and defying the efforts of a large company of the State militia to restore order. As reference is made in the editorial to the famous prophecy by Lord Macaulay, we first quote his words:—

Your republic will be as fearfully plundered and laid waste by the barbarians in the twentieth century as the Roman empire was in the fifth, with this difference, that the Huns and Vandals who ravaged the Roman empire came from without, and that your Huns and Vandals will have been engendered out within your own country and by your own institutions.

From the editorial comment we take these paragraphs:—

When a nation of eighty million people are sleeping with somnolent complacency while the Huns and Vandals that will destroy them unless they wake up are being bred in their midst, what is the first thing to be done?

The lesson of the Springfield riot lies deeper than the negro question. That was a mere incident. The fact that stands boldly forth as a national warning is the fact that in every city there lurks an element of its citizenship ready to do murder, to burn, kill, and destroy, whenever the inciting cause occurs, whatever that cause may be.

Every city that houses its people in slums and tenements is maintaining a breeding-place for a citizenship as irresponsible, as heartlessly cruel, as inhumanly brutal, as the Springfield mob. In every city the danger increases in proportion to its population. The population of Springfield is 38,900, and 3,000 militia were not enough to prevent the crimes that were committed. The population of New York is 4,113,000. How many soldiers will it require to protect life and property there when the mob once gets going?

The repeated instances of the outbreak of the mob spirit throughout this country have moved another writer to make the following comment:—

The rapid growth of this spirit of lawlessness means that ere long we shall have such a change in the form of government in this country as will be able to deal with such lawlessness with a strong hand. The present form of government—“government of the people, by the people, for the people”—was suited to the class of people who founded this nation, but it is not suited to the class of people who can not govern themselves. People who can not govern themselves must be governed by monarchical power, and to that we are evidently fast coming in this land. We are in the last days of the American republic. For a historical parallel, read the history of the Roman republic in the days of Julius Cæsar.

We have long maintained that this general situation was foreshadowed in the prophecies, and have sought to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom as the only power able to deliver from the impending evils. When the message for this generation has been carried to all the world, offering to those who will accept it personal victory from the prevailing iniquity, then the end will be brought to the reign of lawlessness in the earth, and the Prince of Peace will take the throne. Then will be fulfilled the closing part of the dream of Nebuchadnezzar: “Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon its feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them in pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken in pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing-floor; and the wind carried them away, so that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.” The spirit of destruction will bring complete destruction of all things, itself included, and peace and quiet will then prevail in the everlasting kingdom.

Un-American Methodism

THE aggressive campaign against the election of Speaker Joseph G. Cannon to Congress and to the speakership carried on by the Methodist Episcopal Church, through its board of bishops and its great temperance organization, has attracted considerable attention and called forth much comment, but the papers are somewhat divided in their view of the question. Thus the Springfield Republican says:—

The action of the bishops, or the church which they are authorized to represent, in entering politics as an organized ecclesiastical force, seems to be open to grave criticism.

In the opinion of Harper's Weekly it is “inexpedient for a church to be in politics as an organization.”

From these expressions of opinion a writer in Zion's Herald (Methodist) dissents, and in his defense of the action of the church he argues:—

Does history, as some fancy, contain a warning against such entering of a church into politics?—Not the slightest! Only note what the church in this instance is doing, and what she is not. She is not seeking any favors for Methodism. She is not asking for legislation because Methodists desire it. She is not attacking Mr. Cannon because he is un-Methodistic, but because he is un-American and hostile to liberties dear to every citizen. And they do this, not because they are Methodists, but because they are Christian men and American citizens. If the Methodist Episcopal Church helps toward such action, all the more praise to the church. But let no one obscure the matter by calling it a sectarian movement. It is a movement of enlightened citizenship.

Let no one be deceived by this juggling with terms. The members of the Methodist Church are American citizens, but they subordinate their citizenship to their Methodism when they call to their

aid the power of their church organization in order to accomplish their purpose. In this particular instance they are not seeking favors for Methodism; but when the precedent is once established that the church as an ecclesiastical organization can rightfully enter the political field, and use its power as a church in the election or the defeat of a candidate for office, it will be but a short step to the use of this same power for the advancement of denominational interests. He who does not find in the history of the fourth and fifth centuries a warning against the entrance of the church into politics has read that history in vain.

Editorial

By Editor

The ministry of Christ is not a ministry of judgment, but of reconciliation. For that reason he says: “The Son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost.” Again: “God sent not the Son into the world to judge the world; but that the world should be saved through him.” The same truth is expressed in these words: “All things are of God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and gave unto us the ministry of reconciliation; to wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not reckoning unto them their trespasses, and having committed unto us the word of reconciliation. We are ambassadors therefore on behalf of Christ, as though God were entreating by us; we beseech you on behalf of Christ, be ye reconciled to God.”

The Rise and Fall of Religious Liberty in America

By C. M. S.

Shaping the Backward Course

It may not be amiss, in considering the trend of the retrogression in this country toward the principles of colonial days and of papal domination, to set forth some of the principles enunciated by those chiefly responsible for that movement. The purpose declared in the portion of the National Reform constitution quoted last week is the sufficient inspiration of all the un-American and anti-christian sentiments expressed in the extracts given below.

Prof. C. A. Blanchard, an earnest advocate of those principles of retrogression mistakenly named by their exponents “National Reform principles,” puts the aspirations of that organization into the following terse language:—

Constitutional laws punish for false money, weights, and measure. So Congress must establish a standard of religion, or admit anything called religion.

Now, according to the basic principles of this government, Congress has nothing to do with religion. That is left to the churches and to the individual; and that is where it should be left, as our divine Master himself teaches in his wonderful answer to those who sought to embroil him with the authorities of the church or the state: “Render to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” Against the very thing which Professor Blanchard proposes, the first amendment to the Constitution of the United States guards the people. To set up a standard of religion for the nation is to establish a national religion. Says the Constitution: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” It would have to do both in order to do what Professor Blanchard and the National Reformers propose. But against their declared program stand the declaration of our Lord and the first amendment to the national Constitution. To accomplish such a design in the face of such prohibitions as these is not only a stupendous undertaking, but is a manifestation of disloyalty toward both the Lord and the government.

In a convention held in New York City, in 1873, in the interests of the National Reform propaganda, Jonathan Edwards said:—

We want state and religion, and we are going to have it. It shall be that so far as the affairs of state require religion, it shall be religion—the religion of Jesus Christ. The Christian oath and Christian morality shall have in this land “an undeniable legal basis.” We use the word religion in its proper sense, as meaning a man’s personal relation of faith and obedience to God. Now we are warned that to engraft this doctrine upon the Constitution will be oppressive; that it will infringe the rights of conscience; and we are told that there are atheists, deists, Jews, and Seventh-day Baptists who would be sufferers under it. These all are, for the occasion, and so far as our amendment is concerned, one class. They use the same arguments and the same tactics against us. They must be counted together, which we very much regret, but which we can not help. The first-named is the leader in the discontent and in the outcry—the atheist. . . . It is his class. Its labors are almost wholly in his interest; its success would be almost wholly his triumph. The rest are adjuncts to him in this contest. They must be named from him; they must be treated as, for this question, one party. What are the rights of the atheist [by which he means, What are the rights of the several classes above named]? I would tolerate him as I would tolerate a poor lunatic; for in my view his mind is scarcely sound. So long as he does not rave, so long as he is not dangerous, I would tolerate him. I would tolerate him as I would a conspirator.

Atheism and Christianity are contradictory terms. They are incompatible systems. They can not dwell together on the same continent.

In reading the preceding let it be borne in mind that this representative opposer of religious freedom in this country is speaking not of atheism alone, but by his own declaration he is speaking of all the classes who oppose the propaganda of retrogression which he represents. It matters not how sincere a Christian a man may be, if he opposes a union of church and state, if he opposes religious legislation, the forcing of men’s consciences, the intrusion of the state into men’s religious concernments, he is to be tolerated only as a lunatic or a conspirator is tolerated, or denied the right to exist on the same continent with these reformers when they have gained the power they seek. It does not need a second reading to discover that the doctrine promulgated by Mr. Edwards at that time (and which was published as a campaign document by the National Reform Association) is completely subversive of the fundamental principles of our government,—“equal and exact justice to all,”—that it refuses to recognize any rights whatever as belonging to any man outside their religious organization. He admits that the plan will be oppressive to all who are out of harmony with it; but this does not deter him from carrying it out, for the “lunatic” and the “conspirator” can be imprisoned, and the rest can be exiled. That remedy is actually proposed by another zealous advocate of those principles, Rev. E. B. Graham, one of the vice-presidents of the National Reform Association, in a speech delivered at York, Neb., and published in the Christian Statesman of May 21, 1885. In that speech he said:—

We might add in all justice, If the opponents of the Bible do not like our government and its Christian features, let them go to some wild, desolate land, and in the name of the devil, and for the sake of the devil, subdue it, and set up a government of their own on infidel and atheistic ideas; and then if they can stand it, stay there till they die.

This remarkable diatribe had as its general theme such a reformation of this government as would make of it a practical theocracy, making the law of God the basis of its legislation, and regulating the religious affairs of men by civil statute. Those who oppose this program are denominated “opponents of the Bible,” and recommended to exile.

That the program of that association and its friends and supporters does contemplate the establishment of a national religion, is further shown in the utterance of Rev. M. A. Gault, a district secretary of the organization. He says:—

Our remedy for all these malefic influences is to have the government simply set up the moral law, and recognize God’s authority behind it, and lay its hand on any religion that does not conform to it.

While it is one of the fundamental principles of this nation that all men have the right to worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences, Rev. David Gregg, a vice-president of the National Reform Association, in an article in the Christian Statesman of June 5, 1884, declares that the civil power “has the right to command the consciences of men.” If it has that right, then, all the persecutions of the Dark Ages were right; all that Rome ever did in commanding the consciences of men and “correcting heretics” by flame, dungeon, and rack, was right; all the persecutions of early colonial days were right; and all that has been done in this country to free the soul from the oppression of spiritual tyranny is wrong. Are we to believe that our whole national program is a pernicious, wicked blunder, which can be rectified only by a readoption of the papal principle of soul-slavery to an ecclesiastical tyranny? that the best results for man’s spiritual welfare can be attained by the interference of the magistrate between man and his

God? that the crushing of human consciences in the mill of a state-enforced religion will enhance the happiness of the race, or make of civil government the divinely appointed instrument of heaven?—Verily, no. Such a program is out of harmony with justice, true religion, or divine purpose.

That program did not cease when the utterances quoted above were made. The earnest advocacy of those principles goes steadily on, increasing in extent, and bearing actual fruit. Practically the whole force and energy of the movement are now directed toward the securing of Sunday laws in the national government, and the enforcement of them by State and nation. Said the Rev. S. V. Leech, D. D., in an address at Denver, Colo.:—

Give us good Sunday laws, well enforced by men in local authority, and our churches will be full of worshipers, and our young men and women will be attracted to the divine service. A mighty combination of the churches of the United States could win from Congress, the State legislatures, and municipal councils all legislation essential to this splendid result.

That is the power upon which they propose to rely to bring men and women to Christ. But our Lord repudiates such a program in these words: “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.” Thus the failure rightly to represent and present Christ is made an excuse for Sunday laws to bring men to him by a method he neither instituted nor approved, and those laws are made the entering wedge for the whole system of soul-slavery, licensed hypocrisy, and religion by legal enactment.

The next article will deal with the steps already taken in this country to transform the government into harmony with the purpose of these self-styled reformers.

C. M. S.

The Early Scottish Church and the Sabbath

By W. A. S.

THE well-known Scottish writer, Mr. Andrew Lang, in the first volume of his “History of Scotland,” has this to say of the early Celtic church up to the time of Queen Margaret:—

They worked on Sunday, but kept Saturday in a sabbatical manner.—Page 96.

It was in the middle of the eleventh century that Queen Margaret, an English Catholic princess, came to the Scottish throne by her marriage with Malcolm. The Celtic church was manifestly still following the teaching of Columba and his successors in keeping the Sabbath. Columba came over from Ireland in 563, the first missionary to the pagan Picts and Scots of North Scotland. All the story of his work, as well as of the early Irish church of Patrick, has come to us distorted by Catholic tradition; but there is clear evidence that the Roman apostasy had not drawn the early teachers of Scotland away from the Sabbath of the commandment. Queen Margaret persevered until the Celtic church accepted the papal Sunday. Now, as our work spreads in Scotland, the call is sounding for the Scottish people to take their stand for the Sabbath of the Bible and of the primitive Celtic church.

W. A. S.

“Many Adversaries”

By William Ambrose Spicer

ONE side of missionary life in tropical or unhealthful lands is seldom touched upon in missionary reports. It is that of personal discomforts and dangers to life and health that must be experienced day in and day out. Just a suggestion as to these may help some to pray more intelligently for the toiling missionary and his family.

Mr. Winston Churchill, M. P., of the British Cabinet, has recently made a trip through Africa, from the East Coast to Uganda, and up through the Nile Valley to Egypt. In an article in the Strand Magazine, he describes the precautions observed by his party in tropical Africa:—

With the approach of twilight comes the mosquito, strident-voiced and fever-bearing; and the most thorough precautions have to be taken against him and other insect dangers. We dine in a large mosquito-house made entirely of fine gauze, and about twelve feet cubically. The bedding, which should if possible be packed in tin boxes, is unrolled during the day, and carefully protected by mosquito-nets well tucked in, against all forms of vermin. Every one puts on mosquito-boots, long, soft, leather leggings, reaching to the hips. You are recommended not to sit on cane-bottomed chairs without putting a newspaper or a cushion on them, to wear a cap, a scarf, and possibly gloves, and to carry a swishing mosquito-trap. Thus one moves, comparatively secure, amid a chorus of ferocious buzzings.

To these precautions are added others. You must never walk barefoot on the floor, no matter how clean it is, or an odious worm, called a “jigger,” will enter your foot to raise a numerous family and a painful swelling. On the other hand, be sure when you put on boots or shoes that, however hurried, you turn them upside down and look inside, lest a scorpion, a small snake, or a perfectly frightful kind of centipede may be lying in ambush. Never throw your clothes carelessly upon the ground, but put them away at once in a tin box, and shut it tight, or a perfect colony of fierce-biting creatures will beset them. And, above all, quinin!

This last-named remedy, he explains, is not of great avail to the permanent resident in warding off malaria, as its action is diminished with constant use. But this is no overdrawn suggestion of the nagging and serious hindrances to be grappled with in some quarters.

To the traveler rushing through, with all possible provision of equipment, it is not so serious. It is not one month or one season under burning heat or amid “many adversaries,” seen and unseen, that breaks the missionary worker down. It is the constant warfare against these adversaries to life and health, year in and year out, unceasing and unchanging, that does sometimes wear into the nerves and sap the vitality.

But round the tropical belt of the globe are the millions in the darkness of ignorance and unbelief. The people are there, and we must go to them. As some go down into the pit, the rest must stand by with their prayers and their means. More help in these fields and better facilities will mean a better chance for the workers to maintain health, and to push the work to the end. There is no romance about foreign mission service. But there is sin, and sorrow, and death, and hopeless gloom; and the light of the last warning message finds everywhere ways of shining into some hearts that long for help. This is the thing which makes the hearts of the missionaries strong to hold on to the last limit of endurance.

Pray for the workers as you read their reports.

W. A. S.

A Cheering Report

By A. G. Daniells

We have just received at the General Conference Office the first printed report of an effort to sell the Thanksgiving number of the REVIEW. This report comes from Canada, where Thanksgiving week comes a little earlier in the season than it does in the United States. Here is the report, as given in the Canadian Union Messenger of October 27:—

One sister in the Toronto church has disposed of her two hundred copies of the Thanksgiving REVIEW, and has received for them $27.70, an average of almost fourteen cents apiece.

Just think what would be accomplished if every Seventh-day Adventist in the United States and Canada would do what this sister has done in one short week. We would circulate 13,000,000 copies of the REVIEW, and gather in $1,800,500 for the mission fields. Such are the great possibilities of this Thanksgiving campaign plan.

What is wanted is an earnest, conscientious, prayerful effort on the part of all. We know that some can not do all that the sister in Canada has done, but some can do more.

There is no question whatever about the results that are possible; the question that causes some anxiety is whether our people will make the effort.

Here are a few facts every believer should look squarely in the face:—

Our message is to be given to all the world in this generation.

The doors of nearly all nations are wide open for our messengers to enter.

A few have gone to nearly all, and send earnest calls for more workers.

Hundreds of consecrated volunteers stand ready to answer these calls.

They can not go because there are not sufficient funds in the treasury of the Mission Board to support them.

The funds must be provided by our people, either by giving their means or by obtaining gifts from others.

The demands seem too great for the resources of our people; hence this Thanksgiving-week campaign plan.

The plan is simple, feasible, and consistent. Everything is ready for the work to start November 22.

Now the question is, Who will seize this opportunity? How many will enter into this effort?

Many prayers are ascending to the Lord of the harvest that this undertaking shall prove a great success.

A. G. DANIELLS.

Note and Comment

A Mighty Republic

It is evident that the nation which fulfils the specifications of the prophecy concerning the beast which arises out of the earth (Rev. 13:11-17) must be a world-power. No nation of limited territory or restricted influence would be able to accomplish what is set forth in this prophecy. We find, therefore, in President Roosevelt's Thanksgiving proclamation unintentional but weighty testimony to the correctness of that interpretation of this prophecy which makes the beast with two horns a symbol of the United States. To quote:—

Year by year this nation grows in strength and worldly power. During the century and a quarter that has elapsed since our entry into the circle of independent peoples, we have grown and prospered in material things to a degree never known before, and not now known in any other country. The thirteen colonies which struggled along the seacoast of the Atlantic, and were hemmed-in but a few miles west of tidewater by the Indian-haunted wilderness, have been transformed into the mightiest republic which the world has ever seen. Its domains stretch across the continent from one to the other of the two greatest oceans, and it exercises dominion alike in the arctic and tropic realms. The growth in wealth and population has surpassed even the growth in territory.

This nation, the first to put into practise the Christian idea of civil government with a separation of church and state, has exerted a strong influence in favor of liberty and equality. When it repudiates the principles upon which it was established, and forms an unholy union with the apostate church, it can easily lead the nations in the path of intolerance and persecution.

An Intolerant Association

In the annual report of the International Federation of Sunday Rest Associations of America for 1908, a statement is made concerning the effort to secure the passage of a Sunday law for the District of Columbia. The whole paragraph follows:—

A bill was prepared early during the last session of Congress, and that the best results might be obtained, a committee, composed of Protestant and Catholic ministers and laymen, and representatives of the labor unions, all residing in the District of Columbia, was appointed to secure its passage. Rev. Wallace H. Radcliffe, D. D., of Washington, was chairman of the committee. We placed in his hands a copy of the large petition we had secured, and brought to bear the influence of the federation wherever possible in favor of the passage of the bill. We urged that if a law be passed, it should prohibit unnecessary business, such as the selling of candies, cigars, etc., as well as labor, and that no exception be made because of religion. The bill at this time has not been finally acted upon.

From this report it is entirely apparent that the movement was a religious one, although at the time this was denied. The united influence of the local committee and that of the federation was brought to bear in favor of the bill. It is worthy of note, also, that so far as the association was concerned, it was urged “that no exception be made because of religion.” This shows plainly what may be expected when the principles urged by these Sunday-law advocates are adopted. The persecutions of medieval times will be revived.

A Heathen Doctrine

SPIRITUALISM is an essential feature of heathenism. It forms an important part of the Shinto religion of Japan, as is clearly shown in this quotation:—

The elementary beliefs of Shinto are that all the dead become gods, good or bad, according to their lives; that these gods, the spirits of the dead, remain in this world, in their tombs or in the homes which they occupied in life, and, though invisible, share in the life of the living; and, most important of all, that the happiness of the dead depends upon the care and service of the living, and, in turn, the happiness and prosperity of the living depend upon the spirits of the departed.

In his book on Japan, Lafcadio Hearn tells of the belief of the Japanese concerning their departed relatives:—

They are not thought of as dead; they are believed to remain among those who loved them. Unseen, they guard the home, and watch over the welfare of its inmates; they hover nightly in the glow of the shrine-lamp; and the stirring of its flame is the motion of them. They dwell mostly in their lettered tablets; from their shrine they observe and hear what happens in the house; they share the family joys and sorrows; they want affection; but the morning and evening greetings of the family are enough to make them happy. They require nourishment; but the vapor of food contents them. They are exacting only as regards the daily fulfilment of duty; to neglect them is a cruelty, is the proof of an evil heart; to cause them shame by ill conduct, to disgrace their name by bad actions, is the supreme crime.

Those who believe in the conscious state of the dead characterize this as “really a very touching faith, the belief that the dear ones are or may be very near.” But how can the Japanese be induced to give up ancestor-worship if the basis of their belief is still retained as gospel truth? The teaching of the Scriptures concerning the nature of man and life only in Christ, overthrows the very foundation of the false religions of the far East, and ought to be proclaimed everywhere among them.

Improved Conditions in Turkey

THE advantages which have accrued to the cause of missions as a result of the recent political changes in Turkey are great. Although there is much still to be desired, yet the advanced steps which have already been taken are a great blessing in the proclamation of the gospel in that most difficult field. The situation as it now stands is described in one of our exchanges:—

The principal points of the new constitution are: Personal liberty, no punishment without trial, religious toleration, a free press, equality of all Ottoman subjects, security of property, inviolability of domicile, and abolition of torture. The general assembly will consist of two chambers,—the senators, to be chosen by the sultan for distinguished service to the state; the deputies, to be elected in the proportion of one for each fifty thousand inhabitants. Following the sultan's irade ordering the dismissal of spies, these abhorred persons, who formerly haunted all the public places, have completely vanished. The newspapers are freely indulging their new-found liberty, and are expressing the people's joy over the granting of a constitution. Missionary work among Mohammedans in Turkey has until recently been forbidden, as has been the sale of controversial books. A Moslem might be cast into prison simply for visiting a missionary's house. Now there is in Turkey more liberty for Christian propaganda than is allowed to missionaries under British rule in Khartum and the Sudan. A door has been opened, and for the first time the gospel will be freely preached among the subjects of the Ottoman empire.

It may require some time to adjust to these new conditions, and there may be cases of intolerance in some localities, as is almost always the case under similar circumstances; but there can be no doubt that an opportunity is now offered for the spread of the gospel truth in the Ottoman empire such as has not been granted for many centuries. This opportunity ought to be improved.

Let Us Be Kind

By W. Lomax Childers

Let us be kind; The way is long and lonely, And human hearts are asking for this blessing only— That we be kind.

We can not know the grief that men may borrow, We can not see the souls storm-swept by sorrow, But love can shine upon the way to-day, to-morrow: Let us be kind.

Let us be kind; Around the world the tears of time are falling, And for the loved and lost these human hearts are calling— Let us be kind.

To age and youth let gracious words be spoken, Upon the wheel of pain so many weary lives are broken, We live in vain who give no tender token: Let us be kind.

Let us be kind; The sunset tints will soon be in the west, Too late the flowers are laid then on the quiet breast— Let us be kind.

And when the angel guides have sought and found us, Their hands shall link the broken ties of earth that bound us, And heaven and home shall brighten all around us: Let us be kind.

—W. Lomax Childers.

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