Review and Herald, Vol. 86, No. 41. (10/14/1909)

Review and Herald

Oct 14, 1909

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 14, 1909

A PRAYER FOR HOPE

By A. W. Spaulding

A. W. SPAULDING

SWEET was the peace, my God, wherewith of old I walked with holy company to pray, With voice of joy to sing Thy anthems bold, And satisfy my soul within Thy way. These things I call to mind when now, alone, My tears are all my food both day and night, When in the dark I wake to toss and groan, And in the day my tears bedim my sight.

*My soul, why wilt thou thus cast down remain? Why be disquieted before thy God? Thou canst not seek His mighty help in vain: Thy hope in Him shall bud the prophet’s rod.*

O God, my soul is crushed beneath men's scorn, Billows of wrath that Thou hast bid to roll! O let Thy loving-kindness break the morn, And speak Thou peace again unto my soul! To Thee, O God, I raise in faith my prayer. Thou art my Rock, my sure Foundation-stone; Nor from that Rock can men my footing tear; Thou wilt not leave Thy trusting one alone.

*O soul, who say to thee, “Where is thy God?” Shall see thy sore disquietude no more! Thy hope in Him shall lift thee from the clod! Look up, my soul, thy King is at thy door!*

Scholarships Earned by Periodical Sales

By R. C. Spohr

Indiana Students Enjoy Success in Summer’s Work

MEMBERS OF INDIANA SCHOLARSHIP PERIODICAL COMPANY

THE Indiana scholarship periodical company assembled in Cincinnati, Ohio, the evening of June 21, beginning its sales the next morning. For eleven weeks the workers toiled steadily, with a brief respite at the Bluffton, Ind., camp-meeting, concluding the summer’s labors in Toronto, Canada, September 6. The blessing of the Lord attended the company in every movement, and abundant success in making sales was enjoyed throughout the season. It is no small task to dispose of 24,420 of our ten-cent magazines, as this company did, receiving therefor upward of $2,500. Only through the hard work of all, attended by God’s blessing of health and strength, was this result obtained.

These workers placed the pages of truth in the hands of people scattered through fifty different cities in five different States and one province of Canada. The principal cities visited were Cincinnati, Louisville, Indianapolis, Detroit, Buffalo, and Toronto. The hard work was not uninterrupted by pleasant trips.

In addition to paying all their traveling expenses, board, and incidental expenses, the company paid $121.91 tithe from its receipts, having left a sufficient sum to equal seven scholarships. Of the eight young ladies who worked the eleven weeks, six of them earned full scholarships, three of the six more than enough for their scholarships, and the remaining two earned a large proportion of the amount they needed. Four of the eight had had practically no experience in periodical selling previous to their joining the scholarship company. Only two of the four did not earn complete scholarships.

The best single record for one day was 155 sales, on Thursday, August 26, in Detroit, Mich., by Miss Orra Bush.

The total for the company of eight that day was 772. The company’s best record was made the last evening of the season. Arriving at Toronto, Canada, a few minutes before 6 P. M., the workers at once entered upon their duties, and in about four and one-half hours sold 723 magazines, an average of 90 apiece, in spite of the fact that two did not work the full time on account of illness. More than fifty copies were sold by two of the young ladies in a large hotel, to the guests in the lobbies and corridors. Thus a most successful summer’s campaign ended most auspiciously, all being of most excellent courage when they retired for the night, feeling that they had accomplished great good besides earning a substantial sum of money to pay their way through school during the winter.

These young people have entered upon their studies in the following schools: Misses Ada E. Achor, Orra Bush, Alta M. Clapper, Blanche E. Hicks, Fay Korn, and Ona Marshall in Beechwood Academy, Fairland, Ind.; Miss Elizabeth L. Kern in Emmanuel Missionary College, Berrien Springs, Mich.; and Miss Frieda Huber (on account of the recent removal of her home to Nebraska) in Union College, College View, Neb.

R. C. SPOHR, Missionary Secretary, Indiana Conference.

Orders for Christ in Song

ORDERS for “Christ in Song” are received in almost every mail. About five hundred copies were shipped by the Review and Herald Publishing Association the last week. Its being a large collection of songs upon many different subjects makes it a very popular book. Choice selections can be found upon almost any Bible subject. It is suitable for use in church service, Sabbath-school, Student Volunteer societies, and church-school. It contains excellent songs suitable for family worship. Prices, cloth binding, 60 cents; half morocco, $1; full Turkey morocco, gilt edges, $2.50.

THE WORK — AND — THE WORKERS

Christian Education plans for the individual growth, the betterment of the home, the improvement of the school, the development of the church, and the general advancement of our special message.

REPORTS from the field show a most encouraging circulation of our large books. Although a goodly number who have been working during the summer for scholarships have earned their scholarships and have now returned to school, yet others are taking their places; so the amount of book sales seems not to be diminishing. The evidences all point to a successful fall and winter campaign.

READ this: “I sent for 50 copies of Life and Health late last month, the twenty-sixth, just to see if I could do such a thing as sell any of our papers. When they came, I was sick, and I continued sick for several days. But finally I decided that I must sell those papers before the month passed, whether sick or well. So I went by rail to a town twenty-two miles away, arrived at 8 A. M., and returned at 2 P. M., with all the papers sold, and I felt better in every way. This being my first attempt, I felt very grateful for the prosperity the Lord gave me, and for a knowledge of the fact that I could really do something in helping on this message. I sent for the papers just to see if the Lord could use me, and I believe he can, and will, if I seek him with all my heart.”

A MAN in Georgia asked one of our Life and Health workers the following question: “How many of your agents are there in the State? Everywhere I go, I encounter one.” This seems as though Life and Health workers were everywhere in Georgia. They are increasing in every State, yet we need more.

MRS. BESSIE HESELTON orders five copies of Life and Health, and says: “I want to sell a few if I am able. I am 75 years old. Have just broken my wrist, and can not do hard physical work.” Comment is unnecessary in this case. All one can do is to admire the spirit of the aged sister. The majority of our periodical workers, however, are possessed more or less of the same commendable zeal. Our periodical work affords a field in which every one, old and young, may find employment. And the Lord of the harvest invites all to have a part in this good work.

Monitor of Health

By Editor

“MONITOR OF HEALTH.”—The purpose of this book is to teach, in a plain and practical manner, those things which are of the greatest importance in relation to health. Every household will find in this volume something which will be of practical value. The book is divided into the following general sections: “Health Hints,” “Foods,” “Tests for Adulterations,” “Temperance,” “Simple Remedies for Common Diseases,” “Hydropathic Appliance,” “Accidents and Emergencies,” and “Medical Frauds.” Only a few copies of this book are still in print. 408 pages. Regular price, $1; but we will furnish the few remaining copies that we have for 50 cents, postpaid. Order from Review and Herald Publishing Assn., Takoma Park, Washington, D. C.

“To Loose Those That Are Appointed to Death”

By W. A. S.

A Token of Deliverance

Two men, in Queen Mary's day, were lying in the Salisbury prison condemned to the stake for Protestant heresy. The chancellor of Salisbury had urged immediate execution of the sentence, but the sheriffs had delayed matters, disapproving of the cruelty of the clergy. The chancellor, however, had brought matters to the point where little further delay seemed possible, when suddenly he died. Fox, the old martyrologist, says of an incident associated with this persecutor's death:—

Concerning whose death this cometh by the way to be noted, that these two aforesaid, John Hunt and Richard White, being the same time in a low and dark dungeon, being Saturday, toward evening, according to their accustomed manner fell to evening prayer; who, kneeling there together, as they should begin their prayer, suddenly fell both to such a strange weeping and tenderness of heart (but how, they could not tell), that they could not pray one word, but so continued a great space, bursting out in tears. After that night was past, and the morning come, the first word they heard was that the chancellor their great enemy, was dead; the time of whose death they found to be the same hour when as they fell in such a sudden weeping.

Their bitterest enemy being dead, they continued a little longer in prison, and were released by the death of Queen Mary and the accession of Elizabeth.

Brought by a Bird

In the days of persecution in Bohemia, one Matthias Dolanscious was arrested for heresy. Cast into prison in the city of Prague, he endured much suffering by cruel neglect. But the same God who fed Elijah by the ravens was watching over his children in Bohemia. We can not question the ways of Providence. Ofttimes the servants of the Lord were strengthened to bear witness by martyrdom to the glory of God. But the work of Dolanscious was evidently not finished. The extraordinary manner in which relief came to him at this time is thus related:—

One day, when he was on the point of starving, he cast his eyes toward the grate of his prison windows, and saw a little bird, perhaps a carrier-pigeon, sitting there with something in his bill. His curiosity led him thither, the bird flew away, but left a bit of cloth, in which, when he took it up, he found a piece of gold; with this he found means to furnish himself with bread until he obtained full deliverance.—American Tract Society Primer, No. 2.

Held Powerless

A young woman, Mrs. Bosome, visiting at Richmond, near London, in the time of the cruel Queen Mary, was pressed by her mother to attend church. She refused to turn and bow with the congregation, according to Catholic form, and was arrested by the church warden and constable, and ordered to appear next day before these officers at Kingston, across the River Thames. Suspected heretics were being burned all about in those times. Fox says:—

The next day, according as they were assigned, they came to Kingston to appear before the foresaid officers, who, at the same time (as it chanced) were going over the ferry, and meeting them by the way [leading up] from the ferry] saluted them by their names; but at that time had no further power to speak unto them. Afterward, as they [the officers] were in the boat going over, they knocked their hands, stamped and stared, lamenting that they had let them so pass their hands.

The ferryman reported this afterward. The young woman, going on to London, “escaped their cruelty,” Fox says, “through the secret working (no doubt) of the Lord, who in all his works, and evermore, be praised. Amen.”

“For he hath looked down from the height of his sanctuary; from heaven did the Lord behold the earth; to hear the groaning of the prisoner; to loose those that are appointed to death; to declare the name of the Lord in Zion, and his praise in Jerusalem.” W. A. S.

The Meaning of “The New Religion”

By William Warren Prescott

The somewhat formal pronouncement of Dr. Charles W. Eliot, president emeritus of Harvard College, concerning the religion of the future has attracted considerable attention. This is probably due quite as much to the prominence of the man as to the position taken, since Dr. Eliot does little more than to put into definite form the logical conclusions of the rather hazy assertions and denials of other well-known advocates of liberal ideas.

This open repudiation of those truths which have long been regarded as fundamental to Christianity has called out from some who still maintain the original faith a vigorous protest and a strong affirmation of their confidence in the old-fashioned gospel of Christ as the only Saviour. A notable example is an article in the Missionary Review of the World for October, written by the editor-in-chief, Dr. A. T. Pierson, whose earnest testimony to the truth we have had occasion to commend at different times. Our quotation from this article is rather long, but we believe that it will be read with interest:—

The “new religion,” which is in reality neither new nor a religion, but a philosophy, is rather negative than positive, rather destructive than constructive. It is difficult to frame any creed out of mere negations. But, if we attempt to articulate into organic form the denials of our day, there seems to be no belief in any final authority outside the human reason and conscience. There is no longer an infallible church nor an infallible Bible. “Man, in the present generation, is ready to be led, not driven,” and is a law unto himself. The belief in human depravity is abandoned, and there are “no malignant powers.” Sin is not guilt, but misfortune, and is to be dealt with not as deserving judicial penalty, but medical and ethical treatment, not hell but a hospital, not punishment or pardon, but new environment and culture. The expiatory death of Christ is denied, with all “safety thereby primarily afforded to the individual;” and it is denied that “character might be changed quickly,” or that “Christ is in any way essential to religion.”

Whether the vague new religion can be formulated in a creed is very doubtful; but if it can be, it would read somewhat thus:—

“I believe in a conception of God, a multiplication of infinities, and in creation by spontaneous generation and eternal evolution; and in Jesus Christ, as a distinguished ethical teacher, who was born of natural generation, suffered as a martyr for what he believed to be

truth, and was crucified, dead, and buried. He was reputed and believed by his disciples to have risen from the dead and to have ascended into heaven, and to be coming again to reign on earth as king.”

“I believe in the infallible ego, as the ultimate court of appeal in all matters of truth and duty, a universal church composed of all who are honest in their opinions, and upright in their conduct; in the communion of the cultured and the philanthropic, in the reformation of bad habits and the inculcation of virtue; in the proper care of the body, and the education of the mind; in scientific progress, college training, and the ‘spirit of the age;’ in ‘two great commandments—the love of God and the service of fellow men; in a life of altruism, and so in undying influence for good.”

In the above attempt to crystallize some of the tenets of the religion of the future into apprehensible form, there is no desire or design to misrepresent or caricature it. If we understand modern liberalism, it aims so to restate the beliefs of the ages as to suit and fit the progressive spirit of the twentieth century. We do not doubt the honesty of those who, with the courage of their convictions, make bold with their denials and affirmations. But we can not quite evade or avoid the vital inquiry, whether this new doctrine is sound and safe; whether Christianity has any essential, eternal facts and truths which can not be so modified without surrendering all its claims; whether such reconstruction is not in effect destruction. We are reminded of the Chinese method of slow execution—beginning at the fingers and toes and cutting off parts most remote from the centers of life, and slowly advancing toward the vital parts, meanwhile the life-blood gradually ebbing away. . . .

What now—to dismiss for the time all other issues—is the outlook for missions, if this new religion is to prevail? First of all, how are we to meet other religions? Is there any such thing as a “false faith”? or are all religious systems part of the “spiral movement,” or being toward perfection? If there is no court of last appeal beyond the “inner light,” what becomes of the decisions of that court when there is no unanimity of verdict? What we call “conscience” is a compound faculty, made up of judgment of the reason and an impulse or prompting of the moral sense. First, the judgment decides what is right or wrong, and then the sense of obligation or prohibition follows; but if the judgment errs, failing to discern moral quality, the moral prompting is unsafe—the blind leads the blind, and both fall into the ditch. Here lies the fallibility of conscience—in the fallibility of judgment. We have been comforted, amid all the divergences of human opinion, by the confidence that in the Word of God and the teachings of the Lord Jesus, we have an ultimate authority by which to correct even the errors of conscience—as by the siderial clock of God we correct the variations of our watches and chronometers. But if the new religion is true, and every man’s inner light is to be his guide, what are we to do when, according to our own deep conviction, the light that is in others be but darkness, and great darkness! Does it not, if this new religion is to prevail, become unnecessary and even intrusive and impertinent to plan a crusade against other men’s convictions and beliefs and say to them, as Paul did to the Athenians, “Whom ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you”? Why not let men alone if evolution instead of revolution will bring them out into the final perfection of one faith?

Again: if there is no necessity of the expiatory death of our Lord Jesus Christ—if that death was not substitutionary or vicarious, what becomes of the doctrine of the gospel? Why longer preach a gospel of grace as “affording safety primarily for the individual”? If salvation is not by receiving Christ by faith, but by reformation of the character by works, and character can not be changed quickly, why depend upon the evangel? What we need is not preaching, but teaching—the school rather than the church, books rather than sermons. There is little use in any longer saying, “Look and live.” There is no new birth from above. If there is any heaven, it is entered by obeying the two commandments, love to God, service to man. We need no coming to the cross—we pay our own penalties for sin, and work out our own salvation from sin—the only crown of glory is that which every man makes out of his own best attainments, and whose gems are his own heroic achievements.

We do not wonder that modern liberalism has no world-wide missions. It has no motive to go into all the world, and no gospel to preach to every creature. It has no need of waiting to be endued with power from on high—for it has no pentecost, as it has no Calvary. Whether it has any resurrection from the dead does not appear, or any certainty of a future life. The ex-president of Harvard—an institution whose motto is “Pro Christo et humanitate”—seems to us to leave out the pro Christo altogether and put a pro ego in its place.

For ourselves we think the “old wine is better,” having tasted the new. “With charity to all, and malice toward none,” we can only say that the new religion, weighed in the balances, is found wanting. It takes away a personal God and Father, and substitutes a vague multiplication and aggregation of infinities. It robs us of a supreme court of final appeal and substitutes the inharmonious discordance of a thousand warring opinions. It denies the malignant powers, and leaves us to the mystery of wondering “who carries the devil’s business on?” and how it is that Satan and sin seem so intensely alive and real. It takes away salvation by grace, regeneration by the Spirit, atonement of the cross, and leaves man to do his best to reform himself, bearing his own sin, and learning to sow only what he is willing to reap. It makes all sudden conversion a deception and delusion, and makes time an essential factor in the slow change or growth of character. It substitutes obedience to two commandments for faith in Christ, and makes them the foundation, instead of the structure built upon him as the one foundation. It gets rid of all that is fundamental to the Christian system in the new building it rears. To our conception the new religion is not Christ, but Antichrist.

Dr. Pierson is right in his closing statement. Liberalism is just as much opposed to Christianity as is the Papacy, although in a different way, and apostate Protestantism will join with the Papacy in the war upon true Christianity. It remains for those who know the truth to proclaim with renewed vigor the message against both the beast and his image. This is the work for the present hour. W. W. P.

Numbering Israel

By F. M. W.

The kingdom of Israel had become rich and populous. David’s long and successful reign had been attended with material prosperity. This prosperity, instead of turning the hearts of the people to God in grateful remembrance, had engendered pride and self-confidence. This spirit affected alike the king and his subjects, and filled them with ambitious designs.

David determined to increase his army by requiring military service from all who were of proper age. To effect this, it became necessary to take a census of the population. It was pride and ambition that prompted this action of the king. The numbering of the people would show the contrast between the weakness of the kingdom when David ascended the throne, and its strength and prosperity under his rule. This would tend still further to foster the already too great self-confidence of both king and people. The Scripture says: “Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.” The prosperity of Israel under David had been due to the blessing of God rather than to the ability of her king or the strength of her armies.—“Patriarchs and Prophets,” page 747.

God did not look with favor upon this work of his servant. Even Joab, unscrupulous as he was in other respects, protested against David’s command. But the objection was overruled, and David’s officers proceeded with their work. Soon after its completion, the judgments of God began to fall upon the nation, and the king, who gloried in his strength and greatness, was brought low in sorrow as the plague of the Lord carried off thousands of his subjects. Through this terrible disaster, through prayer and humiliation, David learned of his own finite weakness, and recognized that it was only of God’s mercy that his own life was preserved, and the hand of the destroying angel stayed from further destruction of the people.

This lesson is for God’s people in every age, and none the less for us today, both in our personal experiences and in our denominational work. Prone indeed is the heart of man to reason when prosperity attends his path, that by his might and genius he has secured for himself that which he possesses. We forget that the silver and gold are God’s, and that his are the cattle on a thousand hills; that he it is who gives power to acquire education, influence, or whatever wealth we may possess.

The same principle is true as applied to our own denominational work. We are the advocates of a rapidly progressing cause. God has given prosperity to his church. Believers have multiplied wherever the gospel seed has been sown. Institutions have been planted, giving character and stability to the movement. God has led this people on until the influence of the principles they represent is felt throughout the world.

Even as Miriam, with the voice of inspiration, sang of the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, as Moses and David and Paul and others recounted the workings of God in behalf of his people, it is well for us to recount signal experiences in this work, and bear them ever fresh in our memories; but in doing so, it is for us to recognize that all the success and prosperity have come through God, and not through ourselves. When we view the progress of this work from the standpoint of what we have accomplished, emphasizing what has been wrought through our efforts, then, like David, we are numbering Israel, and the glory of man, and not the glory of God, is the object of the comparison.

We would not see one whit less reported of the splendid advance of the message. We would not see less recounted of the workings of God in connection with it. We would not desire less published of facts and figures relating to its material progress; only let us keep self out of the comparison, and not think in our hearts, even if we do not utter it in words, “My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth.”

The strength of this cause is not in the numbers of its adherents, its system of organization, the worldly influence of its advocates, or the size or number of its institutions. Its vitality and power can not be computed in figures or measured by mathematical equations. Its power is of God; its true manifestation, the life of Christ in the lives of his disciples.

The needs of this hour are for men and means to proclaim the message to earth’s remotest bounds. But even above these needs, as great as they are, is the demand for a deeper consecration. Three hundred earnest, consecrated men in the days of Gideon could accomplish more than forty-two thousand who were irresolute and ease-loving. The spirit of consecration then turned the victory on the side of Israel; the same spirit of consecration to-day will accomplish wonders in this closing work. Only let us be humble.

An abiding sense of our own weakness and unworthiness will keep us from boasting, and enable us to exalt God instead of self. We shall be lost in amazement that Providence, in spite of our mistakes and failures, could use us in some humble way in connection with this closing work. “For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; . . . that no flesh should glory in his presence. . . . That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.” F. M. W.

God on His Throne

By C. M. S.

THE Scriptures give us warning of the coming of a time when the people would attempt the dethroning of God; when there would be an almost universal teaching against the kingship of Jehovah. The great prevalence of such teachings as the following proves to us that we have reached that time:—

Knowledge has given us a new universe. Knowledge has also given us a new conception of God. He is no longer sitting on a throne. He is in the sunset, in the air, in the mind of men. This new and grander God has been given us as a result of modern knowledge.—Rev. Minot J. Savage.

This is the teaching of the “higher critic,” who boasts of a wisdom and knowledge greater than God has chosen to reveal to man. This “new and grander God” is a creation of the human brain run wild in its own philosophy. It is indeed a new god, and many preachers and many churches are bowing at its feet to-day. But the command of the only true God still stands: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me;” and by our attitude toward that command will we be judged in the last great day, no matter how many “new” gods and “grander” gods we may have fashioned for our own worship.

The idea of “god in everything” is part of the New Thought creed; but that New Thought is as old as heathenism itself. Heathen philosophy put a god in everything that God had made or caused to grow, and then it fell down and worshiped the things in which it enthroned its gods. The New Thought advocate thinks it a grand and beautiful idea to have God in everything; but it is no grander or more beautiful than it was when the idolatry to which it led debased every instinct of love and virtue, and made of their religion a sensual pastime, a veritable workshop of the devil. It is clothed in new language; but in its heart is the sepulcher of souls. It is the avowed product of “knowledge,” but not the knowledge of God. Because “they refused to have God in their knowledge,” God permitted the heathen world to have its own way; and into every excess a reprobate mind could conceive those nations went.

This New Thought has found it displeasing to retain in its mind that conception of God which God himself has given in his Word, and so it has graven, molded, and fashioned this creature of its own devising, as the backsliding Israelites did before Sinai. The Israelites made them a “new god” to lead them back to Egypt. Whither will this “new god,” this “grander god,” lead its worshiping makers?

“He is no longer sitting on his throne,” say the heathen philosophers of the present day. But the psalmist

tells us that we may expect such a movement. He says: “Why do the nations rage, and the peoples meditate a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against Jehovah, and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their bonds asunder, and cast away their cords from us.” Ps. 2:1-3. Certainly this predicts a strong attempt to dethrone God and set up a vain imagination of their own in his place. But the Lord declares: “He that sitteth in the heavens [“on his throne”] will laugh; the Lord will have them in derision.” Verse 4. This scripture declares that God “sitteth in the heavens.” In Rev. 21:5 we read: “And he that sitteth on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.” In Rev. 3:21 we read: “He that overcometh, I will give to him to sit down with me in my throne, as I also overcame, and sat down with my Father in his throne.”

“He is no longer sitting on a throne,” say the New Thought and the modern theologian. But in making such a statement, they take direct issue with God. Need we ask, Which shall we believe? “Let God be true.” The God of the Bible is grand enough, good enough, and sure enough. In him there is hope; outside of him the blackness of darkness forever. C. M. S.

Exposed by the Search-Light

In reviewing a book on “Christian Science in the Light of Holy Scripture,” by I. M. Haldeman, Chicago, the Bible Record places in parallel columns some of the glaring contrasts drawn by the author. The following clipping shows vividly the unchristian character of the science:—

Christian Science Versus Holy Scripture

“There is no matter.”

“Man is incapable of sin.”

“Man is never sick.”

“‘There is no death.’”

“Man is coexistent with God.”

“God is not a person.”

“The Virgin Mother conceived this idea of God, and gave to her ideal the man Jesus.”

“Jesus is not the Christ.”

“The material blood of Jesus was no more efficacious to cleanse from sin, when it was shed upon the ‘accursed tree,’ than when it was flowing through his veins.”

“‘Resurrection: Spiritualization of thought.’”

“His reappearance in idea.”

“There is no final judgment.”

“Prayer to a personal God is a hindrance.”

“The claims of the marriage covenant may be relinquished by mutual consent or legally dissolved.”

“The personality of Jesus not to be worshiped.”

“The material record of the Bible is no more important to our well-being than the history of Europe and America.”

“Christ was incorporeal.”

“Church of Christ Scientist.”

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.”

“All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.”

“They brought him all sick people.”

“It is appointed unto men once to die.”

“As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.”

“The express image of his person.”

“When he cometh into the world, he saith, . . . A body hast thou prepared me.”

“Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ?”

“Without shedding of blood is no remission.”

“Jesus saith: ‘Handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.’”

“Judgment to come.”

“For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee.”

“What therefore God hath joined together, let no man put asunder.”

“At the name of Jesus every knee should bow.”

“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.”

“Every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh . . . is that spirit of Antichrist.”

“Many shall come in my name . . . and shall deceive many.”

“Decent Theaters”

By F. M. W.

MYRIAD are the ways that Satan employs to trap the unwary, and lead souls from their allegiance to the right. One very effective means is through the influence of baneful literature, which is circulated broadcast throughout the land. Novels, story magazines and papers, and much of scandal and crime that enters into the ordinary newspaper, have had a mighty influence to turn minds away from the more sober things of life and from the truths of God's Word.

Another mighty influence which Satan is using to accomplish his purpose is the power of worldly pleasures and the world's playhouses. Reference was made in our Home and Health department last week to the deadly influence of the theater upon the morals. Hundreds of earnest Christians throughout the land appreciate this, and from many quarters notes of warning are sounding. The demoralizing influence is not confined alone to vaudeville or the ten-cent show, but extends even to the high-grade theaters which are supposed to cater to the respectable class of people. Many respectable people attend theaters, but there is also a sufficiently bad element among theatergoers to demand the giving of plays which pander to depraved tastes and a lowering of moral standards.

The Detroit News-Tribune, in a recent number, has this to say of some of the so-called “decent theaters.” of that city:—

It is safe to say that within the past month the first-class theater patrons of Detroit have seen and heard more suggestive stuff than appears on the burlesque stages. Only very recently things appeared on the stage of the Detroit —, which, if they had appeared at the — or —, might have met with instant action on the part of the police. Because the costumes were a little better, because the literary and musical embellishments were of a higher order, because the audience was drawn from so-called respectable society, and because the prices of admission are higher, the play passed as unobjectionable. Yet, in its essence, it was as demoralizing as any of the cheapest stage, and the audience plainly showed that it was getting exactly the kind of stimulation desired by the more outspoken audiences of the less fashionable places.

Describing one strongly and impurely suggestive scene, the Tribune continues:—

It was called on several times, the apparently decent audience catching courage from its own commingled boldness and whetted taste to call loudly for the repetition. All this on the stage of Detroit's best theater. True, there was catchy music and loads of fun, but underneath it all was the diapason of woman's sin and man's passion, and to keep the sin from being too black the sirens toyed with the emotions of the audience, and easily worked it into a state where it didn't care. . . .

This is just a statement of the situation. If a man or a woman can get his or her indecent emotions in a respectable theater at a price which excludes the more frankly prurient public, both he and she will enjoy it, and condemn the other places. The plays answer a demand, or they would not pack Detroit's best theater six nights and two afternoons.

We can not conclude from this criticism that the theaters of Detroit are any worse than the theaters of other cities. No doubt the same criticism could be made of the theaters throughout the world. As this newspaper says, “The plays answer a demand.” The public taste craves such pleasure and excitement. Always bad in their influence, theaters have become worse through the increasing degeneracy of the age; and that which applies to theaters may be said also of the ballroom, of the moving-picture show, of the circus, of the skating rink, and of many other popular places of amusement.

We would not say that a Christian never attended a theater. An erring child of God may stray into this forbidden path, but he surely can not continue to frequent such places and maintain a living connection with his divine Lord. He can not ask the Lord to accompany him, and it is dangerous to go to any place where one must go without Heaven's guidance and protection. Seventh-day Adventists who appreciate the work for this solemn hour, will not be found in these assemblies. F. M. W.

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