RECENTLY on the occasion of the swearing in of some naval recruits at Wilhelmshaven, the German emperor made a speech referring to the patriotism and soldierly qualities of the Japanese, in which he is quoted as saying that one must not draw the conclusion because of the victories of Japan over Russia—“victories of a heathen over a Christian people,—that Buddha is superior to our Lord Christ.” He ascribed Russia’s defeats to the low state of Russian Christianity. The same failure to distinguish between the nature and sphere of the kingdom of God and earthly kingdoms, which is noticeable in the emperor’s statement, is responsible for the misdirected legislation which assumes the alliance of Christianity with political power in the United States.
THE United Presbyterian of June 15 makes reference to the action of the Presbyterian General Assembly, in putting “itself on record as favorable to a campaign for a better observance of the Sabbath,” and says that “those who are opposed to the enforcement of the Sunday laws are enemies of the church, of society, and of government.”
This is the sentiment which, when it becomes more general, will bring persecution upon those who adhere to the Sabbath of the Lord, and thus manifest loyalty to the government of heaven. The very fact that God’s government and the world are at enmity, so that friendship with the world is forbidden to the Christian, is ample evidence that worldly agencies can have no place in advancing the kingdom of God. Such agencies can serve the ends of civil government, but not of the Christian religion.
AGAIN the unstable equilibrium of peace in Europe has by the most narrow of margins avoided being upset, and the calamity of a great European conflict, if not that of a world-wide war, been averted. On June 14 orders were given by the French ministry of war directing all army officers and men on leave of absence to rejoin the colors immediately, and the railway train service of the country was turned over to the military authorities to facilitate the execution of the order. This was in view of the threatening attitude of the German kaiser, whose recent actions had almost convinced the French government that he was bent on forcing a war. Happily the crisis seems to have been averted, but to the Bible student the incident is a reminder that the winds of strife are ready to blow on the earth
at any time, being restrained only by the “four angels standing on the four corners of the earth,” whose mission it is to hold the winds until the servants of God on the earth shall be sealed in their foreheads.
It is reported from Rome that “the pope has issued an encyclical encouraging Catholics to participate in public affairs.” The report states that “the encyclical has created a sensation. Its object is to induce Catholics to enter public life, so that they may be a force against the threat of socialism.”
The encyclical is apparently aimed at the situation in Italy more than that elsewhere, and is taken to mark the complete abandonment of the policy set up by the first “prisoner of the Vatican,” requiring Italian Catholics to refrain from voting, as a protest against the Italian occupation of Rome. There has been no rule against Catholic participation in politics elsewhere, but on the contrary, Catholics throughout the world were urged by the late Pope Leo to do all in their power to cause the constitutions of states, and legislation, “to be modeled in the principles of the true church;” and they have been everywhere active in seeking to obey the admonition.
AN interesting feature of the proceedings of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, which convened at the national capital May 10, was a resolution introduced by Rev. C. E. Smith, calling for the appointment of a committee to investigate the histories in use in the public schools of Maryland and the District of Columbia, which he charged with teaching that Roman Catholics founded Maryland as a refuge for people suffering from religious oppression, and that to Catholics was due the religious toleration offered by that colony in its early history. Mr. Smith’s resolution provided that the committee should, if they found such teaching being given in the public schools, bring the matter to the attention of the authorities in Maryland and the District, and call for such corrections as would be in harmony with historical facts. That Rome is striving earnestly to eliminate the testimony of history against herself by such means as is here referred to, having in view both the text-books in the schools and the books in the public libraries, has been shown on frequent occasions. The facts regarding the Catholic claim of having favored religious freedom in the case of the founding of Maryland, are, as every student of history knows, that Catholics in that colony were in a minority at the time the toleration act was passed, and favored its passage with a direct view to their own religious interests.
The General Conference
By Ellen G. White
THIRTY-SIXTH SESSION MAY 11-30
The Need of Home Religion
(Concluded)
What we need is home religion,—the sanctification of the truth in the home life. We know in whom we have believed, but we do not half express it, and when we fail to give expression to our faith, we lose half the sense of what it means to give ourselves to God. To live for him means sacrifice at every step. It means self-denial in the matter of dress. Much money is spent in the adornment of the person that ought to be devoted to the proclamation of the truth for this time. A world has been committed to us, and in the name of Christ Jesus, I ask you, my sisters, to dress plainly and neatly, but not for display. Do not try to follow every fashion. Get a good fashion, and keep it. Let all see that you have a nobler aim in life than following the ever-changing fashions of the world, that you are preparing for the higher life in the kingdom of God.
My brethren, build plainly and solidly the houses that you put up. We have no fault to find with the buildings here. Our institutions are to be a representation of the characters that we are to form. Everything about them is to be solid. God will help us as we try to carry out his will in our character building.
Christ came to our world without display. But to-day great displays are made every now and then. Thousands of dollars are expended right among our people in such displays, and this God forbids. That is not the way to get the truth before the people. Christ could have come to this world accompanied by thousands of angels, but he did not do this. He stepped down from his high command, and laying aside his royal robe and kingly crown, he came to this world in the garb of humanity, to live a life of perfect obedience, that human beings, receiving him as their Redeemer, might become partakers of the divine nature, and at last stand before God without spot or stain of sin. He died for us that we might be made worthy to enter through the gates of the holy city, and hear the welcome, “Well done, good and faithful servant; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.”
In our work we are not to strive to make an appearance. We are to look unto Christ, beholding what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God. And what a joy, what a power, will be with us as we do this! It will not be merely the excitement of feeling, but a deep, abiding joy. We are to present the solid truths of the Word of God, that these truths may be impressed on the hearts of the people, and that men and women may be led to walk in the footsteps of the Redeemer.
When the Pharisees complained because Christ and his disciples ate with publicans and sinners, the Saviour said, “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” He accepted the invitations given him to attend different gatherings, and every time he went to one of these places, he spoke words that reached forth to rescue the lost sheep.
May God help us so to act that his converting power may be seen among us. Parents and children are to act as if they were under God’s discipline. In the home, under the direction of the great Counselor, they are to carry out the principles of heaven. God will be with them in their work, giving them victory after victory, if they will follow in the way of truth and righteousness.
O, how my soul longs after God,—to see him with his people, to see his power revealed in the heart, in the character, and in the home!
We need true religion in the church. It is God’s purpose that we shall show that we are born again, and that we are working out in our lives the great, heaven-born principles of truth. Thus only can we gain eternal life in the kingdom of glory. But there are so few who are going out to proclaim the wonderful truth that we have received! Why do you not go out? Why do you not enter the different places that have not yet heard the truth? Do you say, I do not know how I should be supported? Christ told his disciples how they would be supported. He told them to go right into the homes of the people, and eat at their tables. He wants his workers to-day to come so close to the people that those for whom they are working will be bound to the one who speaks to them the word of life. There all might be a thousand more laborers than there now are if God’s people would deny themselves, and take up the cross and follow Jesus. What we need is the sanctification of the Holy Spirit, and we need it every day. What we need is men of prayer,—men who in quietness and humility, without any display or excitement, are overcoming self.
What we need at this meeting is to settle into the living principles of present truth. Satan is creeping in with his sophistry, to undermine the principles of our faith. You remember how, when Paul and Silas were teaching in a certain place, a woman met them, “and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most high God, which show unto us the way of salvation.” This woman was possessed with a spirit of divination, and by soothsaying brought her masters much gain. Her influence had helped to strengthen idolatry.
“But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out that same hour.”
But, you say, she spoke good words, and why should Paul rebuke her? It was Satan speaking through her, hoping to mingle his sophistry with the truths taught by those who were proclaiming the word of God.
The same danger exists to-day. The enemy is trying to bring in his sophistry through those who ought to be on their knees before God, praying for an understanding of what saith the Scriptures, that they may stand against the evil influences that fill the world. God desires scientific sophistry to be purged from every heart. He desires us to rebuke every evil devising, every evil work. If we allow such devising to go unrebuked, we shall have to suffer the consequences.
After the woman had been freed from the evil spirit, she became a follower of Christ. Her masters saw that their hope of gain was gone, and taking Paul and Silas, they brought them before the rulers, charging them with troubling the city. This caused an uproar. The multitude rose against the disciples, and the magistrates commanded that the prisoners should be beaten. They were then taken to prison, and their feet were placed in the stocks.
Things looked very discouraging for the disciples, but angels of God were with them, and they sang the praises of God in the prison. Could we have sung under such circumstances? They did. While they were singing, “suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one’s bands were loosed.”
“And the keeper of the prison, awakening out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled. But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm: for we are all here.”
“Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, and brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house.
“And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway. And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house.”8
It looked as if their effort had been a failure, when they were in jail, with their feet in the stocks. But their effort resulted in the conversion of the jailer and all his household.
What we need is to hold fast to the living principles of the truth, whatever may be the consequences to us. We are not to accept one thread of sophistry from any doctor or minister or any one else. God is our teacher. And yet we are bound to unify. Christ has declared that we are to be one, even as he is one with the Father. But we are not to pick up sophistry from men whose lives are full of failures and mistakes and underhand working. God wants us to go to him for light, and to carry his presence with us wherever we go.
May the Lord impress his people that there is good religion in good management in the home. When this is done, we shall have men and women who understand the meaning of good management in the church. We shall have those who will stand as firm as a rock to principle. They will not try to gain all the advantages for a certain place, because they have an interest in that place. What God wants is men who are as true as steel to principle. Unless we have such men, we shall not know when the devising of the enemy comes. We shall not know when he speaks as he spoke through the woman in Paul’s day.
We are to bring sound principles into the home, and into the church. Every member of the family is to exert a right influence in the home, in the church, and in the world. Parents, I ask you, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, to begin to work in God’s lines in your home. We desire to see the salvation of the Lord revealed in every home. I desire your homes to be such that angels of God can enter them, and work with you and your children. But if by harsh words and angry blows you are constantly sinning against God, the angels can not enter your home. Sadly they turn away, grieved that those for whom Christ has done so much should thus dishonor their Redeemer.
If parents have not a reformation to make in their homes, God has never spoken by me. They need to be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
This is the last Sabbath that we shall be here together, and I want to know how many in this congregation are ready to take hold of the work of the Lord in advance lines, ready to spend their time hunting and fishing for souls. Christ did not place his fishermen-disciples in a school to be educated for his work. He took them to himself, bidding them follow him. They asked no questions, but followed him. To-day men will go straight from our churches to work in the harvest-field. They may never have laid on them the hands of ordination, but they will do a work for God, and none are to forbid them.
The time has come when the Jews are to be given light. The Lord wants us to encourage and sustain men who shall labor in right lines for this people; for there are to be a multitude convinced of the truth, who will take their position for God. The time is coming when there will be as many converted in a day as there were on the day of Pentecost, after the disciples had received the Holy Spirit.
The Jews are to be a power to labor for the Jews; and we are to see the salvation of God. We are altogether too narrow. We need to be broader-minded. God wants us to carry out the principles of truth and righteousness. His work is to go forward in cities and towns and villages.
I wish to ask how many are willing to re-consecrate their hearts to God to-day. How many are willing to take the stand that they will no longer be lukewarm in their religious experience, neither cold nor hot? Christ wants you to be where the virtue of his life is taken into your life. How many during the meeting have been impressed by the truth, and are determined to obey it?
[The entire congregation arose.]
Will you in the name of the Lord take steps upward? Christ has placed one end of the ladder firmly on the earth. The ladder reaches to heaven, and you may climb round by round until at last you step off the topmost round into the kingdom of God.
I want you to remember that you have to-day pledged yourselves to live wholly for God. You have declared your determination to serve him. Let your lives be so pure and holy that Christ will not be ashamed to call you brethren. In such a day as ye think not, the Son of man cometh. Get ready to meet him in peace. Theories are being presented that say, My Lord delayeth his coming. But look at the world, at its wickedness. The life of no one is safe, except for God’s protection. The world is fast becoming as Sodom and Gomorrah. It is fast becoming as it was in the days of Noah. We are to be as wholly consecrated to Christ and his service as the world is wholly given over to evil. The enemy will present his sophistries, with little fibers that would take hold of your experience and undermine your faith. I pray that your eyes may be anointed with the heavenly eye-salve, that you may discern what is truth and what is error. We need to put on the white garments of Christ’s righteousness. We need to walk and talk with God.
Biennial Report of the Pacific Union Conference
By W. B. White
The Pacific Union Conference, as its name implies, extends the length of the Pacific coast of North America, and includes, generally speaking, the territory west of the Rocky Mountains. It embraces the States of California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Utah, and Nevada, the Territories of Arizona, Hawaii, and Alaska, and the Canadian province of British Columbia. This vast region, reaching from Mexico on the south and extending far into the frigid zone on the north, contains 1,842,986 square miles, or, by comparison, has an area a little over half as large as that of the United States. It is a sparsely settled portion of the world, for in all this great territory there is a population of only 3,774,342, a trifle less than that contained in the State of Ohio, and only 140,000 more than in the city of New York alone.
In this union conference there are six self-supporting State conferences, namely, California-Nevada, Southern California, Western Oregon, Western Washington, Upper Columbia, and Montana,—and three mission conferences which receive annual appropriations from the union conference, namely,—Utah, Arizona, and British Columbia,—and two mission fields, Alaska and Hawaii, which are almost wholly supported from its treasury.
In these conferences and mission fields there are, according to our latest reports, 9,754 Seventh-day Adventists, of whom 8,940 enjoy the privileges of organized churches, 292 are in unorganized companies, and 552 are classed as isolated. Our roll of churches numbers 221. We have at present 341 Sabbath-schools with a membership of 9,447, a gain of 67 in schools and 1,114 in members for the biennial period.
In this union conference there are eighty-nine ordained ministers, twenty-eight licentiates, and fifty-four who hold missionary credentials.
Our finances show a total tithe (two years) of $230,180.15, being a per capita tithe of $11.54 annually. Our Sabbath-schools have contributed $16,643.49 in weekly offerings, of which $10,645.63 has gone to the foreign work; $6,874.59 has been given as First-day offerings, and $2,698.90 has been contributed from various other sources to the foreign field, making a total of $44,507.12 for foreign missions.
Before touching upon the several departments of our work on the coast, let me speak of the mission fields which are under the direct supervision of the union conference, namely, Alaska and Hawaii. The former field has had a laborer for the past three years, and work has been done at Skagway, Dawson, and other points on the southwestern coast. Some good fruit is already seen, and we hope for more. Hawaii has had the labors of an ordained minister during most of the biennial period. The Anglo-Chinese Academy at Honolulu,9for the benefit of the Chinese youth of the island, is in a prosperous condition, with an enrolment of about fifty. It is hoped that the medical work may be re-established at this point ere-long.
Our publishing house, the Pacific Press, has labored under peculiarly trying circumstances the past year, in the removal of its plant from Oakland to Mountain View, and in the cutting out of much of the commercial work which it formerly carried. While we believe this move is right and for the best, it has created temporary problems of a difficult nature, and has been attended with financial loss. We are glad to say, however, that the prospect for the coming year's work is very bright, and we are hopeful for the future.
During the past two years part of the conferences in our union have transferred their heavy stock of subscription and trade books to the Pacific Press Publishing Company, agents and churches now dealing directly with the house and with its Portland branch. Most of the conferences carry a light stock of tracts, pamphlets, Sabbath-school supplies, etc. How this experiment, this departure from the past regular lines of work, may affect the State conference interests, remains to be seen.
The general depression of the past few years in the sale of our publications has been felt in the Pacific Union Conference in common with other parts of the field. There are at present about forty-five who are giving all or a large portion of their time to the work of putting our publications into the homes of the people, and in two years the book sales have amounted to $57,993.47. Feeling the need of a general awakening along the line of our book work, a bookmen’s convention was called last January at Mountain View, Cal., which was attended by all the leading general agents, canvassers, conference presidents, and tract society secretaries of our union. Ten days were spent in carefully planning for the prosecution of this important branch of the cause, and already there are indications of a genuine revival of the canvassing work in the several conferences. We look for the coming year to be a prosperous one in this department. Considering our Spanish population, we are at a disadvantage on account of the limited number of denominational works published in this tongue. Here is a foreign field at our very doors, indeed within our own borders, which is scarcely touched, and for which we plead the translation of books and tracts on present truth at an early date.
Some or all of our papers are finding their way into the homes of most of our people, the REVIEW having a circulation in our territory of 2,524 copies, the Signs of 4,621, Good Health of 1,448, and Life and Health of 2,191. Our conference organ, the Pacific Union Recorder, has also a weekly circulation of 850.
Our camp-meetings held last summer, sixteen in number, were seasons of great power and blessing. The hearts of the people were greatly cheered and strengthened in the faith, sinners were converted, and many who had been cold and careless were awakened to a new life. In some of the conferences steps are now being taken to cut out, as far as possible, the business of the conference from the large camp-meeting, thus giving more time and opportunity for spiritual work.
In the Pacific Union Conference there are three training-schools where the young may receive a Christian education,—at Walla Walla, Wash.; Healdsburg, Cal.; and at Fernando, Cal. These schools during the last two years have enjoyed a reasonable patronage, there being at present a combined enrolment of 402. During the school year now closing a goodly number in each of these schools have started in the Christian life, and have received baptism and church fellowship. All these schools are struggling with the burden of debt, and while through the sale of “Christ’s Object Lessons” and voluntary donations, they have been able to materially reduce their liabilities, the battle for freedom from debt is still on. At present the debt on Walla Walla College is $19,527.82, on Healdsburg College, $32,070.96, and on the Fernando school about $8,000. Five intermediate schools have come into existence of late, and are being patronized to the extent of their accommodations. Western Washington has a small school at Mt. Vernon, north of Seattle; western Oregon, one at Gaston, about thirty miles south of Portland, and another at Gravelford, in southern Oregon. Montana is now putting its Bozeman school on an industrial basis and British Columbia has a country school near Hammond. Their schools have a combined enrolment of eighty-four, and employ six teachers. Our churches are also conducting seventy-two church-schools, with eighty-four teachers, and a total enrolment of 1,560. Thus there are 2,046 children and youth enjoying the advantages of a Christian education in our schools on the coast.
During the last two years some plans have been laid to bring out needed text-books for our primary and intermediate grades, and these efforts have been well received among the people. We feel, however, that to insure uniformity, General Conference plans should be inaugurated which may include all our schools. We trust that this may have careful consideration at this conference. As far as possible, our training-schools and intermediate schools, and in some cases our church-schools, are carrying on industrial work, but we are coming more and more to the conclusion that only such departments should be opened in this line as can secure the services of competent instructors and be successfully conducted.
Passing to the medical interests, we would say that we have six organized sanitariums, located as follows: St. Helena, Cal.; Glendale, near Los Angeles, Cal.; Paradise Valley, near San Diego, Cal.; Portland, Ore.; Phoenix, Ariz.; and Spokane, Wash. The latter suffered the misfortune of having its main building destroyed by fire about a year ago, and is now moving to Walla Walla, Wash., having leased a portion of the college building. The institutions at Glendale and Paradise Valley have both been opened during the past year, and have been full to overflowing from the very start. Treatment rooms are also being maintained at Vancouver, Seattle, Spokane, Salt Lake City, Ogden, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, and at several other points. We are glad to say of all these institutions and branches that they are enjoying a good patronage, and their financial reports show encouraging gains each year.
There are also conducted in our union conference seven successful vegetarian cafes and three health food factories. Most of these institutions are now paying a tithe of their net earnings to the union conference, and it is planning to put one or more persons into the field who shall give all their time to instructing the people in the principles of health reform. We feel that these many lights along the Pacific coast which point to a better way of living are of incalculable value to the work, and we are glad to say that the greatest harmony exists between the evangelical and medical departments of the work. There is being maintained on the coast a legal medical association termed the Pacific Union Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association, incorporated under the law, and having its requisite number of officers.
Needs of the Field
As we regard it, the needs of our field to-day are:—
1. A spiritual reviving in all our churches, which shall create more of a realization of the needs of the hour, the times in which we live, and the work we have to do. We believe that there should be in this great field a few strong, spiritual men who can give their whole time to evangelistic efforts, especially in our camp-meetings, schools, sanitariums, and important centers, who will present before the people the living issues of the day, the need of a complete consecration to God, and who, in connection with State conference officials, will organize the people for active work. We feel that these should have the burden of the work at heart, and should call the attention of the people, especially those of means, to the necessity of giving liberally to the cause, both at home and abroad.
2. A greater appreciation by the ministry of the need of carrying this truth speedily to those who are still unwarned, especially in the large centers of population.
3. A need of a consecration by all, ministers, physicians, teachers, laymen, to this work, which will lead us away10from commercialism and worldly ideals to the simple, straightforward principles of our message, and which will make the teaching of the third angel’s message the one great object indeed of all our preaching and of all our institutional life.
W. B. WHITE, President.
The Educator’s Power
“A KEEN, sharp intellect may be an advantage, but the power of the educator is in heart connection with the Light of Life of the world.”
The Fountain of Sin
By Andrew A. Bonar
NEVER trifle with one sin. It is like a little cloud which, as a poet has said, may hold a hurricane in its grasp. The next sin you commit may have a mighty effect in the blighting of your life. You do not know the streams that may flow from that fountain; for sin is a fountain—not a mere act, but a fountain of evil.—Andrew A. Bonar.