Review and Herald, Vol. 87, No. 9. (3/3/1910)

Review and Herald

Mar 3, 1910

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 3, 1910

He Alone Is Great

By Sarah Bolton

I like the man who faces what he must With step triumphant and a heart of cheer; Who fights his daily battle without fear, Sees his hopes fall, yet keeps unfaltering trust That God is God, and somehow true and just His plans work out for mortals; not a tear Is shed when fortune, which the world holds dear, Falls from his grasp; better with love a crust Than living in dishonor; envies not Nor loses faith in man; but does his best, Nor ever murmurs at his humbler lot, But with a smile and words of hope gives zest To every toiler. He alone is great Who by a life heroic conquers fate. — Sarah Bolton.

OUR OWN PAGE

On this page the managers of the Book and Circulation Department announce each week the best things they have to offer, including some of the many good, encouraging reports that come in each week from the field. To miss reading this page is to miss some of the most inspiring messages the paper gives. Watch for the weekly announcements.

MARCH COLDS

March is the month for colds. It seems that every one has them, and they range in severity from the troublesome stuffy cold in the head, from which there is seemingly only the inconvenience of muddled thoughts, to an attack of the genuine grip, which causes every bone and muscle in the body to cry out in distress. March is the month for colds because it is the month when the weather begins to break up, and every one is naturally careless.

We have grown to look lightly upon a cold as something which one can scarcely expect to avoid—a necessary evil—which, when contracted, must be allowed to “wear itself out.” Few are aware of the short step there is from a slight cold to pneumonia, and perhaps none of us stop to think that every cold which one has weakens the body’s resistive powers to some degree, and offers a foothold to some disease of a more serious nature.

We need to know more about colds to recognize their dangers and to be better prepared to resist them. It is to provide just such information that the book, “Colds: Their Cause, Prevention, and Cure,” has been prepared by Dr. G. H. Heald, the editor of LIFE AND HEALTH. It contains all essential points in a nut-shell, compactly presented in a volume which you can put in your pocket, and which it will take only a few hours, at the most, for you to read. You should read it yourself, and then have the copy conveniently at hand to pass on to your friend this month when he is suffering with a cold or coming down with the grip.

In white leatherette, with title stamped in brown, the price is only 25 cents. Order from your Tract Society or direct from the Review and Herald Publishing Association.

TWO STRONG BOOKS

If we, as Seventh-day Adventists, believe in the soon coming of the Lord as fervently as we should, every means should be taken to present this truth to others, and in no way can we do it more effectively than through circulating such books as “The Story of Daniel the Prophet,” and “The Story of the Seer of Patmos,” by Elder S. N. Haskell. Exposition of the prophecies in Daniel and The Revelation is given in these words in a most felicitous manner. The books are devoted to a pleasing and fascinating study and discussion of the prophecies. In these books the prophecies are presented in such a manner that they may be readily understood by the fifteen-year-old boy or girl as well as by much older persons.

By this it should not be understood that they are juvenile books, for they are no more so than the Bible itself. They are books which are equally attractive for old and young.

If you have not read “The Story of Daniel” or “The Seer of Patmos,” get them now and begin to do so at once. If you can borrow them from your neighbor, it will be well for you to do so, and after you have read them, we know you will want them in your own library to consult and pass on to others as opportunity affords.

The “Story of Daniel the Prophet” is sold at the three prices, $1.00, $1.25, and $1.50, in plain, half cloth, and full cloth bindings respectively. The same prices apply with “The Seer of Patmos.” Both books are handsomely illustrated. Order through your Tract Society or direct from the Review and Herald Publishing Association.

JUST OUT

A new book entitled “Temperance Torchlights.” The most practical, helpful book on the subject of temperance. Millions of lives have been cursed and many homes made sad by the demon intemperance. This book will be a great assistance to temperance workers. This is a very opportune time to place such a book in the hands of your friends and neighbors, and thus show them that you are interested in doing what you can as an advocate of the principles of true temperance. It is a splendid book to place in the hands of the members of the W. C. T. U. and other temperance organizations. It contains 256 pages. Bound in cloth, it is sent, post-paid, for only 50 cents. Both young and old will enjoy reading this interesting book.

WITH THE WORKERS

There are thousands of people who at the present time know nothing whatever of the REVIEW, who would appreciate it just as much as the person mentioned in the following statement, could they only know its real value:—

“Enclosed please find check for 90 cents to pay for six months’ subscription to the REVIEW for Mrs. ——. This lady has been reading the REVIEW for the past two months, and is delighted with it. She says she can not be without it.”

The following statement, just received, shows the power the PROTESTANT MAGAZINE has in claiming the attention of the people:—

“Your PROTESTANT MAGAZINE for the third quarter being handed me to read a few days ago, I came to the conclusion I must secure it for the coming year. If your fourth quarter issue is a continuation of the same subject as in the third quarter’s issue, please commence my subscription with it. Enclosed find 25 cents in stamps.”

The following demonstrates the selling qualities of LIFE AND HEALTH, the kind of grit required in the work, and the liberal remuneration for this kind of missionary work: “I worked Wednesday and sold 155 copies of LIFE AND HEALTH. I sold the remaining 45 Thursday in the forenoon. Enclosed you will please find money-order for $8 to pay for the 200 papers. Although many said, ‘Times are hard, we can not buy,’ I did not get discouraged, but kept right to work until I had sold them all.”

The Day of Sacred Rest

The first poem that appeared in the REVIEW—in number four of the first volume, January, 1851—shows that among those first Sabbath-keepers were fingers that could skilfully touch the harp of sacred song. From this poem, entitled “The Sabbath,” by H. N. Stevens, of Paris, Maine, we quote:—

“Thy holy sway Quells the wild tumult of the troubled soul, And softly whispers peace. The sorrowing heart Grows glad at thine approach, and spirits faint, Fanned by thy hallowed breath, revive and smile. From the rapt vision fades the world away, And saints, in union sweet, draw near to heaven. . . . . . . “Six days the Almighty labored with his word, But now his labors ceased, and heralded By the clear anthem of the ‘morning stars,’ Crowned with excessive glory, shone on high The first Sabbatic morn. To greet its dawn, All heaven joined in univocal song; Mellif’ous voices filled the balmy air, Accompanied by harps of sweetest note, Hymning the praises of creating love, And the bright glories of the day of rest. “Momentous day! its first observer He. The high and lofty One, whose fearful name Gleams as a signet on its holy brow. Alone ordained, and sanctified by him, And with his blessing blest forevermore.

“When from the sacred mount, Whose cloudy top and trembling base proclaimed The awful grandeur of its Guest sublime, In thunder tones went forth the ‘royal law,’ God’s will to man, made known in ten commands; On that dread morn, while to its center shook The steadfast earth, and Israel in dismay Turned from the fearful sight, nor could endure The voice of him that spake; the great decree Unchangeable was passed on all below. ‘Six days may work be done, but on the seventh, Which is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God, Thou and all thine shalt rest; for in six days The Lord made heaven and earth and all therein, And rested on the seventh, and hallowed it.’

“Based on this grand foundation, stands secure The Sabbath of the Lord. And who art thou, That rashly dream’st to pluck this fabric down; And on its ruins to erect thine own? Thy blest, thy sanctified! Shortsighted man! Canst thou command unnumbered worlds from naught? Or canst thou thunder with a voice like him? Then mayst thou think to change the law divine. Thy weakness know, and know that God is strong, And jealous of his glory; and who dares With impious hand to touch his high renown, Shall his displeasure prove, and taste his ire. “Blest all-immortal day! Ah, it shall stand; Unmoved amid the strife of mortal tongues, And while eternity his mighty years Shall roll unnumbered o’er the earth made new, Effulgent shine in glory’s noontide ray, By nations who are saved, observed for aye.”

Deliverance From a Scourge

By W. A. S.

THE heart of faith believes not merely in a God who has power away yonder in the heavens. Faith clings in loving trust to One who not only has the power, but has the willingness and the care actually to do things out of the ordinary when to his glory and for the good of his children. In the REVIEW of June 30, 1896, an article by Lois A. Calkins bore witness to a manifest interposition of the Lord's power in deliverance from a scourge. It is a testimony that will bear repeating. The time was the early seventies. The writer said:—

My people lived at Chain Lakes, Martin Co., Minn. I do not remember the exact time when the grasshoppers came, but I think it was in August. We were returning home from meeting on the Sabbath, and when about half-way home, we saw the grasshoppers. We had never seen so many before; we were soon surrounded by them, and could go nowhere without coming in contact with them. They destroyed much of the grain that year, and deposited their eggs very thickly for many miles around. A bounty was offered, and large machines were used for their destruction, and thousands of bushels were destroyed in this way; but this did not seem to diminish them.

My father was an old man in very feeble health; mother was not strong, and I had two little brothers. My health was also very poor; and our income was small. Still, we were not discouraged; we studied the Bible, and believed that the promises of God are the same to us in these last days as they were to his people in olden times, and we laid the matter before him. We told him how we were situated, and asked him to bless us in planting a garden, and to protect it from the grasshoppers; and we believed he would do it. . . .

In the spring when the grasshoppers hatched out, they covered a large portion of our small garden spot. To all outward appearances, it would be useless to plant a garden there. However, we had the ground prepared, and planted our garden, trusting in the Lord to protect it from the grasshoppers. When the seeds came up, there were no grasshoppers in our garden, and the vegetables grew rapidly. When the grasshoppers were full grown, in the time of day when they hopped and flew, it sounded like the fast falling of hail all around and over the garden; and in the time of day when they were quiet, they were in great heaps around the garden.

When I went into the garden, and saw everything growing so thriftily, exceeding everything I had ever seen or heard of, and the grasshoppers so very thick around it, and knew that everything else was destroyed for many miles around by them, it seemed almost like holy ground. I could not but think what a kind Heavenly Father we have, and how unworthy we are of his favors.

The small garden yielded beyond all expectations, we are told; fifty bushels of beets from a small patch, eighty-three very large squashes from three vines:—

It seemed to us that the ground had surely brought forth its increase. Forty of the squashes we put into the cellar, and they lasted until the spring, and not a rotten spot came upon one of them.

People came eight miles to buy of us, and though our garden was very small, we sold fifteen dollars' worth of vegetables from it, at the usual price, and gave some to our neighbors, and had our cellar well filled. When people came to buy of us, they wondered at the abundant yield, in the midst of the grasshoppers. Even those who were not Christians, when they saw our garden, would exclaim, “How you are blessed!”

In conclusion, the sister said:—

We had just begun to pay tithes, it being the first time we had ever heard anything on the tithing system, and had not noticed what the Lord says: “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground.” In this, the Lord fulfilled his promise.

Not always, of course, does the Lord ward off temporal disaster. His accounts with his children are not settled in this world. Some are called upon to take joyfully the spoiling of their goods, knowing that in heaven they have the enduring substance. Therefore, with Habakkuk, we will say: “Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; . . . yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.” He is our God, and we trust him just the same. w. A. S.

Clouding the Message

By C. M. S.

God’s servants were never sent out into the world without a definite message to give to the people. As in the days of David, it is not the swift runner that is needed so much as the man with something to tell and a sense of the importance of the message which he bears.

But this is not the case to-day in the majority of the churches in Christendom. There is no warning trumpet sounded from the Lord of hosts by the appointed watchman, though that day is fast approaching which is full of terror and desolation for those who are unprepared. This is the time in which it was declared that the people would be saying to the appointed seers of God, “See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits.” Isa. 30:10. All this was done in order that they might “cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before” them.

That is also the time spoken of in 2 Tim. 4:3, 4: “For the time will come when they will not endure the sound doctrine; but, having itching ears, will heap to themselves teachers after their own lusts; and will turn away their ears from the truth, and turn aside unto fables.” The teaching of fables is the burden of a great deal of the pulpit productions to-day. Philosophical essays about religion, the social life, athletics, and politics, learned disquisitions on evolution and the Higher Criticism, with much discounting of the Word of God, — these occupy the thirty or forty minutes given to the appointed pastor of the popular church to-day at the most important meeting of the week, while vocal and instrumental solos and pipe-organ entertainments unite to lull the consciences of men and women into sweet dreams of security. While this is going on, Satan is busy fettering souls.

Knowing the agencies that are at work clouding the message of God and doing their utmost to destroy faith, is it any wonder that faith will be very scarce in this time? With the higher institutions of learning in the country pitted against the Word, is it to be wondered at that the faith of many should be shaken? The people of old “did not like to retain God in their knowledge,” and therefore he “gave them over to a reprobate mind.” The people of this age are coming to delight in fables more than in the Word of God. Therefore he will permit “strong delusion” to come upon them; and as a natural result they will “believe a lie,” and go down with it.

Isaiah is speaking of that very condition of ease and security that men have made for themselves, when he says: “The bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it; and the cover narrower than that he can wrap himself in it.” Isa. 28:20. They have made a bed for themselves; but they will awake to the sad fact some day that it is a bed of delusion, which can give no comfort. They have trusted in their own righteousness; but they will find, when the test comes, that that righteousness will not cover them. Instead of giving them the message of warning which should have been given, their teachers spoke to them “smooth things,” and they loved “to have it so.” When that great day comes that must “try every man’s work,” then comes the sad disappointment and the terrible cry: “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.”

This comes, in great part, because the appointed messengers have clouded the message, and have sought to please the people in their own ways when they should have warned them to flee for their lives, and to look not behind them to the allurements of this world. It is never safe in the time of a great crisis to turn to our own pleasures and close our ears to the warnings of the watchman. We are in such a time. Let us heed the warnings of God, and turn from the enticing snares set by Satan to capture souls. C. M. S.

Are We Growing Careless?

By F. M. W.

Are we growing careless in the things of God? This is a practical question which every disciple may well ask himself. As a business man takes account of his affairs, noting carefully his income and expenditures, and the actual status of his business operations, so it is well for us sometimes to consider our Christian experience.

The apostle Paul exhorts us to this investigation. He says: “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?” He says again: “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called To-day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.”

While we can not attain Christian growth by looking at ourselves, or at others, at the same time we are exhorted many times in the Scriptures to take diligent heed unto our ways. Are we to-day, as a church, standing in that relationship to God as regards faithfulness, loyalty, and conscientious Christian living, that becomes our profession? Are we as careful as we were a few years ago regarding some of these things?

1. Have we that conscientious regard for Sabbath observance which we once possessed?

2. Are we growing careless in the payment of tithes and offerings?

3. Are we drinking in the spirit of the world as regards its pleasures?

4. Do we manifest that simplicity of dress and personal attire to which we are exhorted in the Word of God and by the testimonies of his Spirit? What witness is borne to this question by our congregations?

5. Do we show the same regard for the principles of health which was formerly shown by those believing this message?

6. Do the appeals which come to us through the spirit of prophecy affect us in the same measure that they once did?

7. Are we growing careless in Bible study and personal devotion?

These are only a few of the questions for self-examination which suggest themselves. We mention the matter of Bible study and personal devotion last. This is really the first and most important inquiry. Carelessness in this respect will lead to carelessness in every other Christian duty. No disciple can hope to live a Christian life in these days of stress, and storm, and conflict who does not daily

seek communion with the source of all power.

There are too many Seventh-day Adventist homes to-day where family worship is not known, where from one Sabbath to another but little if any time is spent in the study of the Word, or in seeking God for his help. Some claim that they have not money to supply themselves with our periodicals or books, but they seem to have an abundance of means to spend for story papers, newspapers, and books of fiction. Surely this kind of experience can only be fraught with disaster in the end.

We are carrying forward to-day great, missionary enterprises; we are operating many institutions; we are distributing the printed page by the thousands. All this is well and good, and we may thank God that he enables us to do so much in these ways, and yet we may do all these things, and not really know God. We may give all our money to feed the poor, and sacrifice our bodies to the burning, and yet be devoid of those humbler qualities of heart which characterize us as the Lord's own.

Let us remember that the foundation of all true Christian experience, the foundation of successful Christian character-building, is the cultivation of the simple qualities of daily, practical Christian living. Walking humbly with God, seeking a daily acquaintance and communion with him, discharging every duty in his fear, knowing every day that our sins are forgiven, and that God is guiding us by his Spirit,—it is this experience, and this experience only, which will keep us from carelessness, preserve us unspotted from the world, and present us blameless before the throne of the Father at last.

The great need of Israel to-day is the cultivation of personal piety in the life. We need to study the Word more, we need to pray more, we need to cultivate more love and faith and hope and charity. We need to exercise the simple, childlike spirit in asking and believing. If we do this, the bestowal of God's power and grace will come as the inevitable result.

F. M. W.

Man’s Way or God’s

By C. M. S.

The ways of God as revealed in the Word of God are being much criticized to-day, and men are setting up their own way in opposition to his. It is certain that there is a vast difference between the purely human way and the way of him who is from everlasting to everlasting. All men are transients in this world. They were not here yesterday; they are here to-day; and to-morrow they are but a fading memory. But “from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.”

So while transient man makes for himself a way which he may judge to be a right way, God, who sits in the heavens and views eternity, sees man’s way as the crooked, piecemeal way that it is.

For that reason the Lord speaks to man in these words: “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto Jehovah, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith Jehovah. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Isa. 55: 7-9. That there is no security, no safety, in the ways of men is shown by the fact that they are not only at variance with God’s ways, but they “are at variance with one another. The Lord says of them that they are not equal.” Again he declares that “there is a way that seemeth right unto a man; but the end thereof are the ways of death.” Man can not see the end of the way he marks out for himself, though he may think it is the only way there is, and that he can see the end with perfect clearness; but God, seeing the end from the beginning, sees Death standing with open arms at the end of the way which so many men and women choose for themselves with perfect confidence. It is no wonder, then, that the Lord entreats men to turn from their evil ways. “I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord Jehovah: wherefore turn yourselves, and live.” Eze. 18: 32.

From these scriptures it is evident that there is no safety or salvation in the ways of man. Adam and Eve chose a way for themselves which was in opposition to the way of God. We have seen the result of that. On the plain of Shinar a human way to heaven was being built when the Lord touched the tower of their way and the tongue of their speech, and shattered them both, and scattered the builders. His chosen nation would not have him to rule over them, but chose their own way, and got it; and at the end of that way of their own choosing stood the death of their nation. God saw it, but they could not see, nor would they heed his warnings. When the Desire of nations came to Israel and stood in the temple, whose every service predicted and prefigured him, Israel was still busy with her own way. That way led to the crucifixion of her Lord, to the destruction of her temple and city, and to her own scattering among the nations that hated her.

Then a great portion of the church established by the Master himself and led and brooded over by the Comforter, wearied of the way and chose its own way, turning aside from the glorious light of the gospel to follow hard after the smoking flambeau of heathenism into a darkness that has cursed the world for hundreds of years, teaching image-worship and a spurious sabbath, trampling under its feet the law of the Eternal, and in the end condemning to death those who shall faithfully adhere to the gospel and the way of Christ. That is the climax of its career. Israel’s career was closed when she decreed the death of Christ. The destiny of that apostate power will have closed in reality, when it decrees the death of the followers of Christ. Christians may go down under the blows of that decree; but they will go down to rise again triumphant. But that power will seal its own destiny in the signing of that decree. To that terrible end will lead the choosing of its own way and its trampling upon God’s way.

Men to-day are choosing a fatal way as truly as ever did Israel of old. Men choose to be rich, throw their whole soul into that purpose, even bartering their soul to accomplish their end. Death stands at the end of the way. The young man spurns the advice of parents, determined to “see something of the world,” and too often refuses to turn from that way. Linking his ambitions and desires with the world and its ways, he goes down bound to it to the last. The young woman, wise beyond her years, and knowing more of the world than the parents who brought her into it, spurns counsel, chooses her own desires for a guide, and finds, mayhap, when too late, that she has chosen foolishness, and must reap the fruit of it. O the many bitter cries that follow the sun around the world, coming from the lips and hearts of those who have found out that the grain we reap comes always true to the seed we sow—who have found out that the way of their own choice, which looked so beautiful in the dawn, has led them into the quicksands of death when night came down over the world! There is a better way. It is the way of God—the way of life. His ways are ways of pleasantness, and all his paths end in the garden of peace. He sees the way from its beginning to its end. It is better to let him do the choosing; for in the path of his way there is no disappointment, no sorrow, no death.

C. M. S.

In His Name

By F. M. W.

CHRIST promises his disciples, “Whatsoever ye ask in my name, that will I do.” This constitutes the assurance of every petition. We can not approach God in our own worth or merit. Our very best efforts have resulted in failure. In us there is no good thing. We can not claim the blessing of God by

virtue of anything we have done or may do.

Though we have resolved to do better many times, we have fallen short of the mark. We can only cast ourselves at his feet, and plead his mercy, and ask that in the name of the Lord Jesus, and through the merits of his sacrifice, God will pardon us, and receive us.

The name of Jesus is the all-prevailing name in heaven and earth. Said the angel of Mary, in announcing the birth of Christ: “She shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins.” That name, and faith in that name, have wrought deliverance to the followers of the Lord many times since that announcement.

In that name, the heralds of the cross have gone forth in every age to proclaim the gospel of power. Through it, miracles have been wrought, stubborn hearts subdued. Peter could testify regarding the impotent man: “And his name through faith in his name hath made this man strong.” And the apostle Paul, in speaking of the Lord Jesus, says: “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth.”

As we seek the Lord in prayer, let us come in the all-prevailing name of the Lord Jesus; let us realize what that name stands for, in mercy, and love, and goodness, and long-suffering, and tender compassion; and then with our hearts sensing the power and mercy of the One bearing the name, let us press our petitions with faith and assurance to the throne of the Father.

We have a mighty advocate, and no influence in heaven or in earth can resist the power of his plea and ministration in our behalf. Let us, therefore, present our petitions with assurance, claiming the promise, “Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do.”

“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: for every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.”

F. M. W.

The Most Effective Weapon

INFIDELITY and the Higher Criticism are making inroads in the world to-day, not because their arguments have not been successfully met so far as logic and reason are concerned, but because the great mass of professed Christians fail to exemplify the power of the gospel in their own lives. Speaking of this, P. S. Hensen, D. D., says:—

It isn't the Higher Critics that are destroying the influence of the church—and I have no more sympathy with the destructive critics than you have. The trouble is not with the Higher Critics, but the lower living of Christians. The fog of Higher Criticism is not to be dissipated by firing great guns at it. That only adds to the fog the smoke of the powder. You can dissipate the fog only by the sunbeams of Christian living. I'll wear myself out preaching the evidences of Christianity, and some cross-grained representative of Christianity in the pews will spoil the whole inside of ten minutes after I get through. The strongest influence which can be pitted against infidel cavil and the sophistries of Higher Criticism is the influence of a godly Christian life.

Bible Finance

“For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?”

“Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, at all that behold it begin to mock him, saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish.” Luke 14: 28-30.

Note and Comment

Religious Conditions in Germany

THE Harvard Theological Review for January has an article on religious conditions in Germany. It is stated that 99½ per cent of the people belong to the established churches, the Lutheran or the Catholic. The half per cent belong to “sects,” a small part of which are of German origin. Of the others we read:—

Almost all the other sects have come from Great Britain or America—Methodists, Baptists, Irvingites, Adventists, Christian Scientists, Mormons, Darbyites, etc.

Of the general religious attitude we are told:—

We find that of the whole German population about 35 per cent take a friendly attitude to the Protestant Church, about 25 per cent to the Catholic Church, and that about 40 per cent are completely indifferent or hostile to all churches.

A Christian, Not a Heathen

To the oft-repeated question of professed Christians as to why they should give money to save the heathen, A. B. Upham, in a recent number of the Missionary Review, gives the following pertinent answer:—

Why should we give money to save heathen abroad when there are heathen in our own country to save? There are other “why’s” equally logical! Why should I give money to save those in other parts of this country when there are needy ones in my own State? Why should I give money for those in other parts of the State when there are needy ones in my own town? Why should I give for the poor in the town when my own church needs money? Why should I give to the church when my own family wants it? Why should I waste on my family what I want myself? Why?—Because I am a Christian and not a heathen.

A New “Industry”

In the National Geographic Magazine for December, Mr. A. H. Warner says that while visiting a village near Palermo, Italy, he asked what the chief industry was. “Agriculture and emigration to America,” was the reply. He adds:—

The answer would be equally true of all that part of Italy which lies south and east of Naples, including Sicily. It is this region . . . that for almost a score of years has been pouring its life-blood into the United States, until it has given us a population of some two million Italians, and brought it about that at least every eighth man, woman, or child in the city of New York is of that race.

This is the situation that emphasizes the importance of the work of our Foreign Department, which requires the co-operation of all our people and conferences in the effort to evangelize the people of foreign tongue whom Providence is allowing to come to our shores.

Union of Churches

DEFINITE moves are being made toward union between the Congregational and Episcopal churches in this country. The last conference of bishops of the Episcopal Church expressed the wish that conferences might be arranged with representatives of other Christian bodies looking toward union. A committee was appointed at the Congregational conference in 1908 to consider the matter and expedite the union. That committee, at the last Congregational conference, reported progress, and was enlarged and continued. One Episcopal bishop has gone so far as to declare that the Episcopal Church would be willing to give up its thirty-nine articles of religion and drop its name to bring about union. It is felt by those who are considering the matter that if these two bodies are able to unite under one general management, it will open the way for other religious bodies to do the same. Once the movement is well started, it is not difficult to see where it will end, and who will stand at the head of the great organization at last when all are united in one body save those only whose distinguishing characteristics are, keeping “the commandments of God” and having “the testimony of Jesus.”

Your Life Is Somebody’s Bible

“Your life is somebody’s Bible—a ‘living epistle, known and read.’ What is being read in you?”

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