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Review and Herald, Vol. 86, No. 31.

In Our Father’s Care

Review and Herald

Aug 5, 1909

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 5, 1909

In Our Father’s Care

The ships glide in at the harbor’s mouth, And the ships sail out to sea, And the wind that sweeps from the sunny South Is as sweet as sweet can be. There’s a world of toil and a world of pains, There’s a world of trouble and care; But, O, in a world where our Father reigns There is a gladness everywhere!
The earth is fair in the breezy morn, And the toilers sow and reap, And the fulness comes to the tasseled corn Whether we wake or sleep; And far on the hills by feet untrod There are blossoms that scent the air; For, O, in this world of our Father, God, There is beauty everywhere!
The babe lies soft on the mother’s breast, And the tide of joy flows in; He giveth, He taketh, He knoweth best— The Lord to whose home we win. And, O, when the soul is with trials tossed, There is help in the lifted prayer! For never a soul that loves is lost, All share our Father’s care.
The ships sail over the harbor bar, Away and away to sea; The ships sail in with the evening star To the port where no tempests be; The harvest waves on the summer hills, And the bands go forth to reap; And all is right, as our Father wills, Whether we wake or sleep.
— Selected.

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Editorial

The Delivering Hand of God

In the following incidents, one in the strenuous Reformation times, another in the common round of modern New England life, we see the same ministry of a watchful Providence over children of God in danger:—
From Rome to Liberty
One of the characters of the Scottish reformation was John Craig, associate of Knox. He was converted in a Dominican convent, in Bologne, France, through getting hold of one of Calvin’s books. He was in an enemy’s country. John Whitcross, of Scotland, wrote thus of Craig’s trials and wonderful deliverances:—
He was seized as a heretic soon after, and carried to Rome, where he was condemned to be burned; but on the evening preceding the day of execution, the reigning pontiff died, and, according to custom, the doors of all prisons were thrown open. All others were released; but heretics, after being permitted to go outside the walls, were reconducted to their cells. That night, however, a tumult was excited, and Craig and his companions escaped. They had entered a small inn at some distance from Rome, when they were overtaken by a party of soldiers sent to apprehend them. On entering the house, the captain looked Craig steadfastly in the face, and asked him if he remembered having once relieved a poor wounded soldier in the neighborhood of Bologne. Craig had forgotten it. “But,” said the captain, “I am the man. I shall requite your kindness; you are at liberty. Your companions I must take away with me; but for your sake I shall treat them with all possible lenity.” He gave him all the money he had, and Craig escaped. But his money soon failed him; yet God, who feedeth the ravens, did not. While Craig was lying at the side of a wood, full of gloomy apprehensions, a dog came running up to him with a purse in his teeth. Suspecting some evil, he attempted to drive the animal away, but in vain. He at length took the purse, and found in it a sum of money which carried him to Vienna.—“Anecdotes of the Assembly’s Shorter Catechism.”
Why the Horse Balked
A New England minister years ago wrote out for the late Mr. H. L. Hastings, of Boston, this story of deliverance. His father was a man of faith, regularly committing the lives of all the household to God at the family altar. One day, in 1850, he started for the mill at Rockland, R. I., with a bag of rye to be ground into flour for the family bread.
On the way the staid old family horse unaccountably balked on a bridge over a stream, and began to turn and back up. He kept on till the rear wheels of the wagon went over the log guard along the edge of the planks. The farmer jumped out, and the horse stood still, holding the front wheels catching on the log guard, so that the wagon did not go over, but the contents were thrown into the water. Neighbors helped to right the wagon up, and the grist was fished out. The minister says:—
There was a mystery about the transaction. The horse had showed no signs of fright, and had never acted so before. My father was perplexed. He had earnestly prayed only that morning that the angel of the Lord might encamp round about us that day, and here was this unaccountable accident.
He returned home, and we went to work to dry our grain and prepare it for grinding; but when we spread out the rye upon a cloth in the sun to dry, we noticed, scattered through it all, fragments of a fine, glittering substance, which, on examination, proved to be glass. Thousands upon thousands of fine fragments mingled with those two bushels of rye—enough to cause the death of all the family if the grain had been ground and baked and eaten.
We were amazed at this revelation; and with what grateful hearts we knelt around the family altar and thanked God for his wonderful providence which had so strangely preserved our lives.
He says they found on investigation that the rye had been kept for a time in an open barrel, and that above this workmen had been smoothing ax handles, using pieces of glass to scrape and polish the wood. In this way particles of glass had been ground off, to fall down through and into the rye. This was unnoticed when the grain was emptied into the sack to be taken to the mill when bread was needed.
W. A. S.

As to Evolution

THAT system of liberal teaching which is somewhat loosely designated as the New Theology is the result of applying the principle of evolution in the religious field. The fundamental feature of this system is the more or less complete elimination of the supernatural, and the substitution of natural laws and forces for the personal Creator who upholds all things by the word of his power.
The inevitable result of this method of attempting to account for the existence of things, to explain the present condition of man, and to foretell his future state, is to reject the Biblical revelation of the fall of man and the entrance of sin, to deny the divinity of Christ in any true sense of the term, to discard the idea of salvation through the sacrifice and the atoning work of Christ, and to make every man his own savior through a process of developing the divine elements within him according to certain fixed laws operating under the influences of his environment.
So fascinating and so fashionable has this evolutionary doctrine become, that few teachers have the courage to make any protest against this wholesale departure from the clear teachings of the Scriptures. But now and then some defender of the faith speaks out plainly in opposition to this speculative, scientific scheme which robs God of his personality, Christ of his divinity, and the Scriptures of their authority. Among those who thus refuse to abandon the old gospel is Dr. Walter Quincy Scott, of the Bible Teachers’ Training School, New York City, who writes at some length in the Bible Record for June, 1909, under the title “Some Reflections Upon Mechanical Theories of Evolution in Relation to the Person of Christ.” We think it will be of interest and profit to our readers to quote several paragraphs from this article:—
Evolution as looking upward by necessary laws can have no meaning at all in man's world except to reach its only possible end, the perfect man. If Jesus reached that goal by the perfecting process of evolution, how can his sufferings and death be accounted for unless his death is to be taken as the final step of his evolution and so his perfection be first realized in his future life, a life beyond the knowledge of such a theory of evolution?
Further, if by evolution Jesus did not attain complete identity with God, but did become divine, what sort of a divinity is it that is merely human, though perfectly human? If his humanity became perfect, divine, by necessary laws, how can such perfection be reconciled

W. W. P

with criticisms of his ideals and opinions as modified by his environment?
Again: if God is himself the presupposed unity of the objective world and the subjective, and Jesus is only a man, the first to gain that goal of union by evolution, or the first man in whom God manifested himself as occupying that unity, what is to hinder another man, or any man, from attaining by evolution the same goal? Why has no other man, in well-nigh two thousand years after Jesus, reached that goal as Jesus reached it? What significance can the success of Jesus in reaching it have for the death in infancy, in ignorance, and in sin of unnumbered myriads since Jesus triumphed? He either died or did not die. If he died, every bond of death in the physical universe held him in the grave. He either rose from the dead, or he did not. If he did not, what can evolution by necessary laws tell us of his divine humanity? If he did, it must have been because every bond of death in the physical universe was broken from him by the whole energy of life in the universe, by the power of the living God. And how can evolution by necessary laws include the eternal God?
Once more, he was either conceived by the Spirit of God and born of Mary, or he was not. If he was born of human parents, by what hitherto unheard-of process did evolution enable that child to put the contrast of divinity with humanity between itself and its humble parents? For he was either conceived and born of them as a divine-human child or himself acquired divinity during his individual life. If he was born so, the contrast is inconceivably abrupt between the parents and the child. If he was not born so, but became divine in any legitimate sense of the term divinity, his imperfect humanity prior to its becoming divine must be explained.
So of many questions that throng around the cradle and the grave of Jesus which can not be answered by either the silence or the contempt of the advocates of any theory of evolution rigidly confining its methods of reasoning to finite things, however eloquently that theory may set forth the humanitarian aspects of the life of Jesus. . . .
When man, who expresses his moral freedom in the simple prediction, “I will,” violates his dependence upon God by saying, “I will,” he discovers all the possibilities of sin; and he can return to God only by coming to himself again and saying, “I will God's will.” But such a self-surrender of man's moral nature in the freedom of faith is no possible resultant of necessary evolution. It is the soul's self-surrender responding to self-sacrifice in the divine nature—to Jesus, the eternal Son of God who alone could say, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God.
It is nothing less than astounding that those who have been “set for the defense of the gospel” should be so ready to surrender the fortress of faith and to place more confidence in the unproved and unprovable assertions of self-satisfied scientists than in that revelation concerning himself and his works which the God of heaven has condescended to make to man. The conclusions which are deduced from a very limited range of observation and from such assumptions as in their very nature shut out the existence of the supernatural, are received as of more authority than those words of light and wisdom which have been a guide and a hope to men of all ages.
In answer to all these claims and denials of a false science, we present a “Thus saith the Lord.” Instead of regarding Jesus as a mere product of his time, the flower of Judaism, we accept him as the eternal Son of God, who took our flesh that by uniting divinity and humanity in his own person he might become the way of salvation to fallen man. We accept in their fullest sense the words of Jesus, “Without me ye can do nothing,” and depend upon the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, the representative of Christ, as the power for righteousness and hope of perfection; and we “look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness,” not as the product of evolution, but as the fulfilment of that promise of old, “Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.” Our confidence is in creation rather than in evolution.

W. W. P

Forces in Training

The Christian Endeavor Convention at St. Paul, Minn.

The tendency of these times is confederation of forces for a common purpose. It may be represented by a great river toward and into which flow numerous smaller streams, all flowing ultimately into the waiting sea. There is a See which is patiently and with the utmost confidence awaiting the inflow of the united forces of Christendom. Those forces are systematically uniting, and are moving with steady flow toward that See—the papal See.
The movement of National Reformism and church federation is a movement that is attracting the quiet but most intense attention of the Roman hierarchy. The spider and fly furnish the only adequate illustration of the anomalous situation. The spider does not show himself when the fly is approaching the web. The strong drift of the two movements named toward common ground with the Catholic Church is as certain as the movement of the Mississippi toward the Gulf; but their movement in that direction is no more certain than is the movement of the Christian Endeavor organization toward National Reformism and federation, and therefore toward their common destination. This confluent movement was manifest at the Christian Endeavor convention at St. Paul in three particulars: The demand for the union of religion and politics; the demand for more stringent Sunday laws and the stricter enforcement of those already in existence; and the recognition of National Reformism itself by giving the leading representative of that organization a place on the official program of the convention to advocate National Reform ideas.
The demand for a union of religion and politics was the one crimson hue that ran through every feature of the convention, giving the tone of the whole color scheme. To mingle, as Christians, in the politics of the nations was set before that vast assemblage as the paramount duty of every member of the organization; for by such means they were to usher in the kingdom of Christ and set him upon the throne of this world. It was the revivification of the old cry of the political aspirants in the W. C. T. U.: “The kingdom of Christ must enter the realm of law through the gateway of politics.” Hardly a speaker addressed the main audience who did not give expression to that idea in some form.
In the meetings held under the auspices of the department of Christian Patriotism the necessity of securing or enforcing Sunday laws was made a prominent feature. At one of these meetings the leader of that department, in instructing the Endeavorers how they could influence legislators to do their bidding, said: “Tell them that if they do not vote right now, you will vote right when they are up for re-election.” Thus would they play upon the legislator’s fear of the loss of his place, and without regard to the oath he had taken, compel him to act either against his will or against his conviction. This is perhaps the most demoralizing feature of the campaign for the “purification of politics.” The man who yields to such a threat is made a perjurer, and that through the influence of professed Christians who are conducting their campaign for the purpose of bringing in the reign of truth and righteousness. Such a course has long been followed by political “bosses” and by wealthy and unprincipled men; and that mode of operation has given us the kind of politics the world has to-day. Can the professed church of Christ remedy the dire conditions by adopting the very methods that have made the conditions what they are?
At the same meeting the same gentleman proposed to oust the liquor dealers by boycotting those who patronize them. He said: “A great many patronize institutions that favor the liquor traffic. If we let them know that we will not patronize them as long as they favor the liquor traffic, they will take notice.” Another stated the same proposition in a little less offensive way: “Instead of boycotting the fellow that is for liquor, patronize the fellow that you know is against it.”
At the close of this meeting a vote was passed recommending the establishment of a national department of Christian Citizenship.
On the evening of July 11, Bishop W. M. Weekley, D. D., of the United Brethren Church, Kansas City, Mo., delivered an address upon the theme, “The Sabbath for Man,” in which he took the position that this nation must have a national Sunday or go down. He said, in part:—
The blight of physical, mental, and moral degeneracy will fall upon any nation that ignores the law of rest and worship. Ours is a Christian nation. It is such because it was established by Christian men and Christian ideals. Its foundations were laid broad and deep in the belief that one day of rest out of every seven was in perfect accord with the divine Word, and absolutely essential to man’s well-being, whether spiritual or mental, physical or social. Therefore any attempt to destroy the sanctity of our Sabbath or divorce it as a day of worship from our national life is an effort to undermine and destroy forever one of the chief corner-stones of our republic.
Again and again have thoughtless men, or men with a position to prove, proclaimed the Sunday institution to be “one of the chief corner-stones of our republic.” The position is utterly untenable. It must be granted that the keeping of Sunday was an almost universal custom among the early settlers of America; but it is one thing to be a custom of the people, and quite another to be a “chief corner-stone” of a government. It is a very peculiar circumstance that if Sunday was “one of the chief corner-stones” of the American government, the edifice should have been erected with the corner-stone left out; for left out it certainly was, along with every other religious dogma or ceremony practised by the general public. More than that, the Constitution of the nation was so amended as to rule out the enactment of any religious legislation that could be regarded as establishing any form of religion.
The speaker denominated those who were opposed to the national Sunday idea as the country’s worst enemies, who, if their ideas were accepted, would dominate the country with influences unchristian and un-American. He scouted the right of the people to use the day as they saw fit, and the tone of the address indicated that if there were a law compelling church attendance on Sunday, he would help in its enforcement, as did the Puritans of New England. He held up the example of the Puritans in the observance of the day as worthy of our emulation, and quoted the following words of a judge of the Supreme Court of the United States, to strengthen his proposition: “Where there is no Christian sabbath, there is no Christian morality, and without this, free government can not long be sustained.”
The Sabbath which he wished to see established as a national institution was not the “civil sabbath” advocated by many to smooth the corners of distrust and opposition. He said:—
No one can truly keep the Sabbath without being a Christian, for Sabbath implies worship, and worship means the cultivation of faith and devout meditation and prayer. Nothing else is worship, and nothing else is keeping the Sabbath. I confess that my patience is severely tried by those, who, in discussing this question, endeavor to eliminate the religious element. Of course it is a day of rest for the body; but it is emphatically a Christian institution, and as such has the sanction of high heaven, and this phase of the subject should be tremendously emphasized. We should ring it out in tones loud and clear: The Sabbath is holy, and must be employed in a way to promote fellowship between the soul and its God.
While all this is true when applied to the true Sabbath, it must not be forgotten that it is this religious institution with its religious setting and its religious requirements which it is proposed to nationalize and make obligatory upon all. And to make such an institution obligatory is to make worship obligatory, and church attendance obligatory, as a matter of course. But when we have religion and the observance of religious institutions made obligatory, what have we but the papacy reincarnated in principle in the organizations that profess to have thrown it off? And what more did the papacy ever require?
“Religion,” said Bishop Weekley, “demands a Sabbath, and when any community or country brushes aside its authority, it decrees its own overthrow.” Therefore the only conclusion is that if the nation would not decree its own overthrow, it must establish a sabbath, a religious sabbath, a sabbath which shall be characterized by faith, devout meditation, and worship, and require all its subjects to participate in its observance, in spirit as well as in letter. From the adoption of that papal principle it is only one more step to the open arms of the papacy itself.
After a short address by Archdeacon J. B. Richardson, of London, Ontario, upon “Fellowship for Service,” Dr. T. P. Stevenson, corresponding secretary of the National Reform Association and editor of the Christian Statesman, spoke upon the topic, “The March of the Nations Toward the Kingdom of Christ.” He took the position that the kingdom of Christ is an actual, present fact because of the declaration made by Christ that he had overcome and had set down with his Father on his throne. But to hold that position and at the same time to pray the Lord’s prayer—“thy kingdom come”—made it necessary for the doctor to take the paradoxical and anomalous position that “it is a present, actual fact; it is always coming; it has always been coming; and it is yet to come,”—a series of propositions which rob the most important and definite declarations of Scripture of all meaning, and give point to the accusations of infidels, that “you can teach anything you please from the Bible.” This is a position which totally ignores all that the King himself has said as to the coming of his kingdom, and is an attempt to do in our day what the immediate disciples of Jesus attempted to do in his day; that is, make him king in their own way, and in opposition to his way. As he rebuked those, so must he rebuke these.
Dr. Stevenson attempted to harmonize these self-destructive propositions in this way: “Christ reigns over wicked men and wicked nations even while they are impenitent and rebellious; but when they are changed by his grace and power into loyal and obedient subjects, then Christ as king has come to them in a new and different sense from that which was apparent before.” Thus are lightly tossed aside all the great truths of the advent, and all the plain teachings of the Messiah himself regarding that event, and Christ is made to come whenever an individual is converted, or a nation places its Christian “laws, rules, and usages” in its fundamental law. The declaration of Christ that he will come in the clouds of heaven, rewarding saints and punishing sinners, is spiritualized away, and Malachi’s description of the end of wickedness and the wicked goes for naught, with a great portion of the rest of the Bible, while the daily grind of this old world goes on from age to age, or until some “golden age” in the far reaches of eternity, when nations have ceased to be wicked, and by common consent place the Messiah upon the throne of the world. Such is the gospel of the advent from the religio-political point of view adopted by the National Reform movement and by the Christian Endeavor movement.
Dr. Stevenson holds that the extension of Christian mission work among the nations is an indication of the march of the nations toward Christ. With these reformers nothing smaller than nations counts for much. The nations are made living, breathing, moral personalities, to be saved or lost, redeemed or eternally damned. “Caring for the individual,” said Dr. Stevenson, “does not heal the woes and miseries of society.” The soul of the individual is lost sight of in the glowing halo that surrounds the greater soul of the nation. The salvation of the individual sinks into insignificance when they contemplate “the salvation of the nation,” and the work which it is to
do in “going forth gloriously to save the world for truth and righteousness.” They lay much stress upon the text, “The kingdom of the world is become the kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ: and he shall reign forever and ever” (Rev. 11:15, R. V.), while ignoring completely the psalmist’s declaration that when the nations are given to Christ for his inheritance, he will “break them with a rod of iron” and “dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” Ps. 2:8, 9.
The speaker saw in the increasing control of the world by “Christian nations,” the movement for the abolition of war, the great number of arbitration treaties, the adoption of laws against cruelty, the temperance movement, the Christian citizenship movement, etc., etc., sure indications that the nations are marching toward Christ. “These facts,” he said, “show forces which will yet bring all nations, all governments, under the benign sway of Immanuel.” He wanted his hearers to remember that “Jerusalem is still far away.” It is in harmony with the Saviour’s teaching that along with the false conception of the advent and the “peace and safety” cry should go that other declaration, “My Lord delayeth his coming.” And the servant who utters that saying is the servant who persecutes his fellow servants. Matt. 24:48-51.
The convention was urged by various speakers, especially by Rev. Charles Stelzle, superintendent of the Department of Church and Labor of the Presbyterian Church, to form a closer bond of union with the labor organizations, and the practise of exchanging “fraternal delegates” between ministers’ unions and labor unions was warmly advocated. This feature of the convention brought to mind the editorial utterance of the New York Independent: “If the members of labor unions are all to become dogmatic religionists, the days of persecution for the faithful are not over.”
There were, during the convention, numerous addresses based upon the idea of “bringing in the kingdom” through political means, through social reforms, through the enactment of human laws, etc.; and the last service of the convention consisted of a march of the delegates by States and nations, with banners waving, each company telling, in a one-minute declaration, “How We Propose to Help Bring in the Kingdom.” There were many strong expressions of a determined purpose to carry into execution all that the movement stands for. Here was a great company, representing a much greater constituency, receiving a definite training and a definite and strong inspiration for a very definite work; and from this center of influence and purpose went out, to all the States and to many nations, advocates of all that was learned here, enforced by the influence of eloquence and numbers. We may expect to see rapid developments in the lines that affect the third angel’s message during the next two years.
C. M. S.
St. Paul, Minn.

Wait on the Lord

It is necessary oftentimes to wait on the Lord. Everything does not come around at the expected time. There are days of apparent defeat, hours of darkness, occasions of keen disappointment, when hope, long deferred, almost goes out in blackness, and the weary heart grows faint at the thought of longer waiting and suspense.
David passed through just such experiences as these in his eventful life. He says: “I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” He had not always seen the manifestation of God’s mercy and grace as he desired. He experienced long-waiting periods for the fulfilment of his cherished desires. But he believed he would see the salvation of God; and his faith in what God would eventually do for him, proved an anchor to his soul, and kept him from fainting by the way. Speaking as a result of this trial of his faith, he admonishes us: “Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.”
May this message and admonition bring comfort and cheer to the weary, fainting ones who read these words to-day. Some of you have waited long for the fulfilment of cherished hopes. You have toiled, and wept, and prayed, and still there seems to come no answer. Perhaps the burden of your prayer has been an erring son or a careless daughter, who apparently is growing more indifferent with passing years. It may be for an unconverted wife, who has resisted every effort to win her to God; or a drunken husband, who has met love with hate, and words of wifely tenderness and devotion with insult and abuse; or it may be the pouring out of filial love for the conversion of a parent who knows not God. You have waited day after day and year after year, hoping, longing, praying that God would hear and answer. Has it seemed so long? and have you almost given up the struggle? Hold on a little longer. Perhaps all these years God has been working by his Spirit to fulfil your desires. He has been shaping circumstances and conditions in the lives of your loved ones, whereby he could lead them to him. God usually works through means and agencies in the accomplishment of his purposes, and unknown to you, he has been working all the while you have been praying and waiting. Now, when the end is almost reached, and the darkness about to break, hold firm and steady a little longer. All these years God has not grown weary or faint hearted. We read of him, “He shall not fail, nor be discouraged.” Continue to co-operate with him, and the joy of fulfilled hope will some day be yours.
Continue to press your petitions to the throne of grace. Seek God for wisdom, that you may know how rightly to relate yourself to the subject of your prayer. Seek to show every kindly consideration to the unfeeling husband, the wayward child. Show by your life in the home the value of a connection with Christ. Be sparing of your words. Do not censure or find fault. Above all else, preach by your godly life. As you work and pray, trust and hope, and wait patiently for God. He in his own good time, and as he sees will be for the best, will fulfil the desires of every heart, and his children shall see of the travail of their souls and shall be satisfied. “Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.”
F. M. W.

Health Principles and Their Application

THE message of truth for this last generation has brought many priceless blessings to those who have accepted its teaching. Nor have its benefits been confined alone to the field of spiritual truth. It has bestowed upon its recipients temporal benefits as well. For the light of truth upon healthful living this people are under the deepest obligations to the Author of this great message of reform.
The Scriptures of truth contain great principles relating to man's physical being. These principles have been made plainer and more specific in detail by the light which God has been pleased to give through his specially appointed servant.
The value of these health principles to each individual will be in direct proportion to the intelligent application he makes of them to his own needs. They will count for but little worth to be admired merely, to be looked upon as a component part of a beautiful system of truth. This is the way many have looked upon them, and some are inclined to grudgingly acknowledge even this much, regarding with indifference their plainest requirements. Others, in untempered zeal, have taken their own narrow conception of what the Testimonies taught, and made them a standard whereby they gauged the love and loyalty of their fellows. Thus the cause of true health reform has suffered from two sources, the criticism or indifference of those unfriendly to its principles, and the unwise course of those who used the principles as a club against others.
But neither of these untoward influences should deter any believer in this message from earnestly and conscientiously seeking to learn just what principles should govern his life with respect to his physical living, and how in his own peculiar circumstances he can most wisely apply the principles. It is not alone a duty, but, above all, a blessed privilege, to learn how one can best glorify God in his body.
In this matter the workers and public teachers of this denomination have the first duty, in order that not alone for themselves they may practise right principles of living, but that they may also exemplify them in teaching the members of their flock. No man can truly represent this great message of truth to-day unless he represents it in its completeness. Hence our workers have a duty to inform themselves regarding health principles, that they may teach the same and properly advise in their application.
Fathers and mothers have a personal duty in this likewise. Upon them rests the responsibility of placing before their children food which shall make them strong and pure in body and in mind. God will hold them responsible for the right use of the power bestowed upon them to give a right mold, physically, mentally, and morally, to the young lives looking to them for guidance.
But it is not to questions of eating alone that the principles of healthful living apply. They embrace all that pertains to the physical life,—eating, drinking, dressing, ventilation, exercise, and a score of other details which might be enumerated. He who sees but one little detail and practises that, while he shuts his eyes to the great field wherein perhaps he is violating every right principle, is inconsistent indeed, and but a poor representative of the cause he seeks to promote.
We can not excuse ourselves from giving proper heed to this great subject, because some have perverted the principles or so misapplied them that injury rather than good has resulted. Rather we should learn lessons from their experience, and seek to determine the right way for ourselves.
While each should stand ready to aid his neighbor by kindly suggestion or helpful instruction, let him study the question of health reform for himself and as applied to his own needs, allowing his neighbor to do the same for himself. In promoting true reform unkind criticism has no place. The exemplification of right principles in our own lives is the greatest and most powerful preaching which can be given.
In this age of enlightenment no one can justly plead ignorance on so vital a question. Much excellent information is obtainable. The instruction given through the spirit of prophecy, together with the information contained in Life and Health, constitutes a splendid fund of valuable health teaching available for every believer. Let this instruction be studied, and let each with the ability and sober judgment which God gives him, seek to apply it carefully and consistently in his experience, and God will add to him his rich blessings in so doing.
F. M. W.

Work for All

In the pioneering of new mission fields the call is generally for married men. But the history of missions bears witness to the fact that there is a large place in the work for the single woman missionary, as mission stations are developed and schools and hospitals established.
The American Board (Congregational) is calling for candidates to fill forty-one positions in its field for 1910. They call for eighteen men—thirteen to be ordained ministers, three physicians, two educational workers. The other twenty-three posts call for single women to fill the need—five physicians, two nurses, four normal teachers, nine general teachers, and five evangelistic workers.
W. A. S.
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