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Review and Herald, Vol. 83, No. 39.

The Blessed Hope

Review and Herald

Sep 27, 1906

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 27, 1906

The Blessed Hope

¶ As for me, I will behold Thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Thy likeness. Ps. 17: 15.
¶ We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 1 Cor. 15: 51, 52.
¶ For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. 1 Thess. 4: 16.
¶ And His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south. Zech. 14: 4.
¶ And the Lord shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and His name one. Zech. 14: 9.
¶ In My Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. John 14: 2, 3.
¶ Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. The Lord hath taken away thy judgments, He hath cast out thine enemy: the King of Israel, even the Lord, is in the midst of thee: thou shalt not see evil any more. Zeph. 3: 14, 15.
¶ And there shall be no curse any more: and the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be therein: and His servants shall serve Him; and they shall see His face; and His name shall be in their foreheads. And there shall be night no more; and they need no light of lamp, neither light of sun; for the Lord God shall give them light: and they shall reign forever and ever. Rev. 22: 3-5.
¶ And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth are passed away; and the sea is no more. And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of the throne saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He shall dwell with them, and they shall be His peoples, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God: and He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death shall be no more; neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more: the first things are passed away. Rev. 21: 1-4.

Our Publishing Work

By Editor

The Lord gave the word: great was the company of those that published it. Psalm 68:11.
A NEW commandment chart has been printed by the Review and Herald Publishing Association, Washington, D. C. It is longer than the old chart, and has the words “The Law of God” printed in large letters at the top of the chart. The whole chart has been materially improved, yet the price remains the same, $1, post-paid.
No employment develops the individual so quickly and thoroughly as salesmanship. It brings self-reliance, instinct in meeting the demands of the moment, capacity to meet people in their sphere, and ability to adjust themselves to the present demands. No education or training is quite complete without the discipline of the occupation of salesmanship.
THE October number of Life and Health was ready to mail on the fifteenth of September. Although the September edition was the largest regular edition ever printed, it was entirely exhausted by the fourteenth of the month, and the October number was hurried out in order to meet the demand for the journal. The principal topics composing the October number are upon HYDROTHERAPY IN THE TREATMENT OF FEEBLE-MINDED CHILDREN, citing cases and giving the treatments with the results, by a practising physician; DIVINE HEALING, based upon Matt. 8:17, “Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses;” SOME MEDICAL FOIBLES, the fallacies of these foibles exposed to the X-rays of common sense; BENJAMIN FRANKLIN AS A VEGETARIAN—how he began, what he ate, and the result; HOUSEHOLD AND CULINARY HINTS on common things, such as Towel Racks, Baking Tins, Stewing and Boiling, Where to Obtain Information on Foods, Okra and Its Use, Teachers of Vegetarianism, Pickles, and Potato Chowder; CURVES OF THE BODY, designed by the Divine Architect, deformed by man—how to correct them; EDITORIALS ON Effects of Tobacco, Lack of Health among School Children in Large Cities, Where Doctors Disagree, The Health of a Farmer, etc.; CURRENT COMMENT. In sparkling paragraphs comment is made upon the following topics: Juvenile Smoking, Some Effects of Corset Wearing, How Much to Eat, Overeating by the Poor, Why Should We Eat Meat at All? Prevention Versus Cure, Don’t Worry, Value of an All-Round Education, Society People Adopting Outdoor Life, Bad Air Versus the Gospel, The Air Cure, Unsanitary Schoolrooms, Why Is School Work Irksome? German Work in Combating Tuberculosis, Snails as Food, etc. THE QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS DEPARTMENT contains questions with answers on the following subjects: Embalmed Canned Goods, Hives, Heartburn, Roaring in the Ears, Dry Ear-Wax and Itching, Itching after Bath, Drowsiness, Scurvy, Consumption, Raw Vegetables, Food Combinations, Blood Purifiers, Remedy for Acidity, The Sugar in Health Foods, etc. NEWS NOTES of interest and profit, together with other matter not mentioned, make up the October number. Address any State tract society, or Life and Health, Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C.
THOSE who have not purchased “Things Foretold” for their children should do so as early as possible. They will find it very helpful to them in many ways. It is simple in language, profuse in illustrations, tells the beautiful story of Daniel in Babylon, and makes interesting to the children the various symbols of the prophecies. It has been written and dedicated to the children. Price, 50 cents.
A FOURTEEN-YEAR-OLD girl made $9 a week selling Life and Health during the past year, and is now attending the South Lancaster Academy, paying her own way from the proceeds she has made selling Life and Health during the year. This is a good example for our hustling boys. There are many boys who are now making $5 a week when they might make more selling Life and Health. We want boys, industrious boys,—boys who want to do something for others while they are making a good income for themselves. Let all such boys write to Life and Health for full particulars.
WE often receive letters inquiring for a good, yet cheap book for inexperienced persons to sell,—a book that contains the message for this time. We feel free to recommend “His Glorious Appearing,” which is an exposition of that wonderful chapter, Matthew 24, containing Christ’s great prophecy of his own second coming, and the signs that are to precede this great event. It is, in fact, Christ’s own message to this generation. It has 114 pages of thrilling matter, thoroughly illustrated, bound in two styles, cloth and board, 25 and 40 cents. Good discount is given to agents. Three hundred and seventy-eight thousand copies of this book have been sold. A million copies ought to be circulated in the near future.
IF our readers would call more frequent attention to “Marvel of Nations,” they would find that people would be much more readily interested in the fulfilment of prophecy. Every one in America is especially interested in, and proud of, the wonderful progress of the United States; and when it is shown that this government is spoken of in prophecy, and that it is yet to play an important part in the world’s history, this subject becomes one of intense interest to active-minded persons, and they will read the book, and profit by its teachings. Let those who want to do missionary work, take a few hours and try the plan of calling the people’s attention to “Marvel of Nations.” The book contains 324 pages, bound in cloth, plain edges, $1.25; cloth, gilt, $1.50.
Orders for any publication mentioned on this page may be sent to any conference tract society or to Review and Herald Publishing Association, Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C., or Battle Creek, Mich.
Also Pacific Press Publishing Company, Mountain View, Cal.; Portland, Ore.; Kansas City, Mo.; Southern Publishing Association, Nashville, Tenn., and Fort Worth, Tex.

The Failure of Heathenism

By Editor

Editorial

SOME confound the prophet with the message which the prophet bears. A true prophet is still a fallible being, but the message of the true prophet is infallible. A prophet may make mistakes in personal conduct, just as other individuals, but the Lord does not make mistakes in the messages which he sends. Some would be saved from confusion if they would bear in mind this simple distinction.
THE summer campaign has been a time of victory for this message. From all parts of the field have come the most encouraging reports. The Lord has visited his people, and has wrought salvation for them. A forward movement has been entered upon which will increase in power until it culminates in the revelation of our Lord himself “with power and great glory.” It is no time now to grow faint-hearted. The final and glorious triumph of this message is just at hand. “Go forward.”

The Failure of Heathenism

IN the light which has been shed upon the world through revelation there have been constructed systems of morals which have been made the foundation of false religions. The claim is then made that heathenism is just as good as Christianity—that the shadow is the same as the substance. The failure of heathenism is found in the lack of power to transform human nature and to impart the divine nature, so that divinity may be manifested in humanity. The glory of Christianity arises from the fact that “the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us,” thus uniting divinity with humanity in the person of Jesus the Son of God and the Son of man, and making possible the same union of the divine and human in every believer in Jesus. Thus it is that while dwelling bodily here upon the earth we may sit together with our Saviour in the heavenly places. Thus it is that heaven is brought down to earth. Thus it is that the power of the endless life is joined to our weakness, and we become “strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.” He who professes to be a disciple of Christ, but depends upon his own power to attain to the standard of character held up in the Scriptures, will learn in his own experience what the failure of heathenism means. He who learns the mystery of godliness, and in whom the power of God works to overcome evil and to reveal the divine nature, will have a demonstration in his own experience of the difference between Christianity and heathenism. “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.” “But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who was made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption.”

Religion and the State

A CHICAGO clergyman in a recent address on “The Church and Civil Authority,” as reported in the Record-Herald of that city, voiced the confusion of thought which prevails in many minds concerning the proper relation between the church and the state. We quote a paragraph relating to education:—
The education of the people is a matter of vital importance to the state, especially as the participation of the common people in the affairs of government is increasing throughout the world. In our land the public school system is entirely free from any participation on the part of the church, and yet it is becoming more and more apparent every day that something more than a mere secular education is needed for the making of good citizens. Moral principles enforced through religion should be taught to our children in some way to impress upon their minds a deep sense of responsibility for their moral actions. The church may maintain its own private schools, but not to the detriment of the state. Men can not be permitted under the cloak of religion to teach or practise theories or doctrines that are contrary to the generally received principles of good government.
According to the view here advocated “moral principles enforced by religion should be taught” as a necessary part of the process of making “good citizens.” But this is to prostitute religion to merely temporal ends. It makes the welfare of the state the supreme thing, rather than the eternal interests of the individual. This is the pagan idea which found its most complete expression in the days of Greece and Rome. Christianity as taught by Jesus Christ met and conquered this heathen notion about religion, and established the principle that those who seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness are, in the proper sense of the term, the best citizens of the state. Furthermore, if the doctrine that “men can not be permitted under the cloak of religion to teach or practise theories or doctrines that are contrary to the generally received principles of good government” had been accepted by the early Christians, the gospel of Christ could not have been preached in the Roman empire. The state can properly impose penalties for uncivil conduct, but not for holding or propagating doctrines of any kind. Any departure from this principle is a step toward despotism.
This Chicago clergyman also dealt with the question of Sunday laws. He said:—
The Sunday question presents the keenest subject between church and state in this country because it is both a civil and a religious question. Man requires one day of rest out of seven. But what really constitutes a healthy day of rest is the vital question. . . . There must be a regulation of the leisure as well as the work of the people. Holidays must not be allowed to become evil days. The day should be jealously guarded by the state as a means for promoting that moral and religious character on the part of the people on which the safety of our republican institutions depends.
If it could once be settled that the state has nothing whatever to do with any matter as “a religious question,” the difficulty about “the Sunday question” would immediately disappear. If Sunday is to be jealously guarded as a means of promoting moral and religious character, then it will soon be found necessary to compel attendance at publicworship, and the next logical step would be to enforce all such religious observances as were approved by the state. This would speedily bring us back to those palmy days when the state regulated religious beliefs, and inflicted the death penalty upon those who advocated views “contrary to the generally received principles of good government.”
If the theories now being taught by the National Reformers and their allies are ever adopted in the administration of this government, the republic of the United States will become the complete counterpart of the republic of Rome, and will meet with the same fate. This whole problem should be studied in the light of prophecy.

Eleven New Tongues Hear the Word

By W. A. S.

BECAUSE the message of the everlasting gospel must quickly go to every nation and tongue, the Lord is hastening on the work of Bible translation and publishing by missionaries and Bible societies. Last year the British Bible Society added eleven new languages to its list, making over four hundred now in which it is breaking the bread of life. The new tongues reported by the Society’s organ are as follows:—
1. Singpho, spoken by tribes in the mountains of the far east of Assam.
2. Kuliviu, one of the languages of the New Hebrides Islands.
3. Mech, a dialect of a quarter of a million people in north Assam.
4. Zigula, a people living in German East Africa.
5. Ladakhi, spoken by dwellers in Leh, on the western frontier of Tibet, eleven thousand feet above the sea.
6. Laotian, the language of peoples living in central Siam and eastward into French Indo-China.
7. Bemba, a central African tongue, used north of Lake Bangweolo.
8. Egyptian colloquial Arabic, the tongue of the unlettered peoples of Egypt.
9. East Santo, another New Hebrides language.
10. Bribri, used by some Indian tribes in Costa Rica and on the Isthmus of Panama.
11. Saa. This is the language of Mwala, hard to find on the map, one of the islands of the Solomon group, in the far South Pacific.
The Good Shepherd has been looking for his lost sheep among all the isles, and here is his Word calling now in the Saa tongue.
The missionary awakening of this century of missions is God’s wonderful work of preparation for the coming of the Lord in power and glory.
Now at last every nation and kindred and tongue and people is to hear the warning cry, “The hour of his judgment is come.” The Lord, who has so exactly timed the developments of the missionary century to meet this “time of the end,” when the gospel work is to be finished, is well able to send the final message ringing through all these tongues. God is at work with mighty power, not overlooking the uttermost parts of the earth, nor the most remote peoples. The time of the finishing of his work is truly come. W. A. S.

An Interview on National Reform

By C. M. S.

AFTER listening several days at the National Reform Convention to the instructions of Dr. T. P. Stevenson, editor of the Christian Statesman, upon the general theme of Christian Citizenship, the writer sought an interview, of which the following is a verbatim report. It will be noted that the answers to some of these questions can be obtained by inference only, and others are answered in a way that is completely out of harmony with the outworking of National Reform principles:—
1. Has government a right to take from one class of men one-sixth of their time for labor because other men wish to rest on a certain day?
Answer.— We look at it in this way: The divine law of the Sabbath is not an exaction, but a boon. It lifts away the yoke of labor for one seventh of a man’s time, and that is a right with which God clothes every man—the right to rest one seventh of his time. That is a right that ought to be protected by the nation. If the government accords the right to the individual, it must be on that day which the majority of the people believe is the proper day for rest. That, of course, must be determined by the majority. I appeal to the government to protect me in my right to rest. The government would virtually say, “On the day which the nation feels is the proper day for rest you shall have an opportunity for rest, and no social organization shall come in to deprive you of that opportunity. If you are an employee, the corporation which you serve shall not interfere between you and your right to rest. As Horace Greeley said, ‘The liberty of rest for each demands a law of rest for all.’”
The doctor objected to the form of the question; but from his answer we must infer that he considers a government justified in doing what the question asks. The government “protects” the religious exercises of one man by depriving another of rights that are sacred to him. The government makes it harder for one man that another may have the satisfaction of seeing his neighbors do as he does. The injustice of protecting a day at the expense of violating individual conscience is a matter that received no consideration in this convention.
2. By what process of reasoning do you arrive at the conclusion that the state can be a religious institution without being at the same time a union of church and state?
Ans.— The National Reform Association protests against the union of church and state as being a violation of the will of God. In reference to the relation of these two institutions, God has created them both and made them independent, each self-existent. The state, therefore, has no right to establish the church, as in England, and the church has no right to accept such establishment by the state. The state has no right to govern the church. All that is implied in the union of church and state, and we thoroughly repudiate it. But we do maintain that the state is in duty bound to be religious for itself, in its own relations to God, not through the medium of any church establishment; just as the family is under obligation to be religious for itself. That did not unite church and family. There again you have the two distinct institutions—two planets moving around the same sun, obeying the same law of gravitation, each keeping its own orbit and not interfering with the other.
From this we learn that a union of church and state means the state ruling the church. Evidently it would not be a union of church and state for the church to rule the state; for that is exactly what this organization is seeking to bring about by demanding that all the laws, rules, and usages of the church shall be placed “on an undeniable legal basis in the fundamental law of the land.” The state dominant over the church is a union of church and state. The church dominant over the state is not a union of church and state. Why not?
3. Is it right for Christians to bring about a condition of things which must make criminals of other Christians for exercising the rights common to men?
Ans.— No, emphatically, no, it is not. We are not seeking to bring about any condition of things on the strength of our own will, simply seeking that God may have his will in our nation. We are not seeking to impose our will.
That clears them of the charge of religious persecution, and throws the onus of it all back upon God. In establishing laws that make criminals of Christians they are simply enforcing God’s will, and he is responsible for the pains and penalties that may fall upon those who are seeking to do his will in the light of his own Word. It would not be right for Christians to bring about that condition on their own responsibility; but by claiming to be the exponents of God’s will, they accomplish the same result and escape responsibility.
4. Is government, aside from the individuals who compose it, an entity, having itself rights that transcend the rights of the individuals that compose it?
Ans.— Yes, a nation is a moral entity, having its own relations to God, subject to his law and his moral government. The rights of government are conferred upon it by God as the rights of the individual are conferred upon him by God, and God is sufficiently wise to arrange that these rights shall not conflict with one another.
But in every combination of religion and government minorities have suffered at the hands of majorities for worshiping God in accordance with their interpretation of his will. Always have the rights of one been usurped by the other, and bitter persecution has been the fruit of it.
5. Has government a right to dictate the religious duties of its citizens?
Ans.— Certainly not; but government has a right to discharge its own religious duties; and as government leaves the individual free in the sphere of his individual life to be religious or not to be religious as he chooses, so the individual must be willing that the nation shall be free in its life, to be religious if it chooses to be, and he has no right to lay his veto as an individual upon the freedom and inalienable rights of the nation.
Think of it! A nation pleading with an individual to be allowed the right of worshiping God according to the dictation of its conscience!
6. Has government a right to prescribe a day of rest and worship and compel compliance therewith under pains and penalties?
Ans.— No, sir. Our Sabbath days do not do that. Our Sabbath laws are laws to protect the individual in the right to rest one seventh of his time, and to prescribe that government itself shall rest on a certain day of the week; but the individual may worship or not on that day exactly as he chooses, and we do not interfere with his freedom in that respect.
If it be true that “our Sabbath laws do not do that,” then a great many good people have been committed to prison in various States of this Union through a misapprehension of “our Sabbath laws” on the part of the judges and juries who interpreted those laws. The government does not yet compel men to worship on Sunday; but let a Christian who has already worshiped on some other day attempt to go about his own ordinary quiet vocation on Sunday in many States, and he will find that “our Sabbath laws” have pains and penalties attached.
7. Has government a right to prescribe other periods of worship and other religious acts, such as baptism, the Lord’s supper, etc., and compel compliance with these under pains and penalties?
Ans.— Emphatically, no.
And yet, these are some of the laws, rules, and usages of the church, and it is the laws, rules, and usages of the church that are to take their place in “the fundamental law of the land.” Why is it that the Sabbath, a religious institution, can be a proper matter of legislation, while the Lord’s supper, also a religious institution, would be an improper matter for the state to legislate upon, especially when “the state is a religious institution,” according to the declarations of the National Reform Association?
8. Have majorities rights in the exercise of religious convictions which minorities do not have?
Ans.— The majority has the right to exercise their own religious convictions, to determine in that way the action of the nation of which they are a part, so that the nation shall acknowledge God and relationship to him, and, according to its light, yield obedience to his law.
Worked out on that line, the answer would certainly be, Yes; for determining the action of the nation by exercising their religious convictions, they can pass any kind of religious legislation in making the whole people do what they think essential to a proper acknowledgment of God and obedience to him.
9. Was Daniel right in refusing to obey the law of the Medes and Persians when it commanded him to abstain from prayer?
Ans.— Certainly.
10. Was the government within its rights in making such a law?
Ans.— Certainly not. The individual is absolutely free from all dictation or interference by the government in the sphere of his individual life. He may be an atheist; he has a right to teach his atheism to his children. We would not interfere with that; but the nation has the same right, the same liberty. It has the right to be religious, to fear God, to avow its fear of God and its purpose to obey his law. The nation has the right to teach its children, its citizens, the fear of God, on the ground that a God-fearing citizen is the only good citizen; and if it leaves the individual man free to teach his religion and do that which is within the sphere of his individual life, he has no right to interfere with the nation in the sphere of its national life, teaching what it believes to be of vital importance to good citizenship; for the child is not only the child of the family, but the child of the nation. The nation has rights and responsibilities in reference to the child as well as the family. The only solution of the problem when it arises is to say that each shall be free in its own sphere, and neither shall interfere with the other.
It seems to us that the only solution of the problem—which has already arisen—is the solution given by U. S. Grant: “Keep the church and state forever separate,” and do it in fact, instead of working for a union in fact with a separation in name only. The state is out of its sphere always when it interferes with the exercise of the rights of conscience. We are not referring to the peculiar conscience which might be used as a cloak for incivility, if there be any such. But in the very nature of the case when the state enters the domain of religion, the religious convictions of a portion of its citizens are interfered with. It can not enter that domain and please all parties. Before its entry, all were free. After its entry, those are free only who obey its directions in religious matters. But these, in helping to bring that condition about, have set a snare that will entangle them when conscientious conviction shows them the error of their ways.
11. Was that government within its rights in condemning Daniel to death for his disobedience?
Ans.— No; its right to enforce the law falls with its right to enact such a law, which has been denied before.
But why “No,” if “the state is a religious institution”? If it is a religious institution, it must be religious through the people that make it up. If it can be religious for itself, it can be so only by shaping the religion of its subjects; and it can not shape that religion without enforcing the shape. To enforce the shape, it must attach penalties to any non-conformity. That is what that nation, that “religious institution,” did to Daniel; and if the National Reform idea is correct, it had the right to do it, and the doctor’s answer should have been, Yes.
12. Is the state within its rights in demanding obedience in religious matters?
Ans.— If you mean invading the liberty of the individual in the sphere of his individual life, I say, No.
And so say we; but if the state has a right to be religious for itself, and can be religious only through the religion of its subjects, then it must have the right to demand obedience in religious matters; and the doctor’s answer should have been, “Yes.”
13. Is God within his rights in demanding obedience in religious matters?
Ans.— Unquestionably.
14. Where these two powers conflict, are both right, and which shall we obey?
Ans.— God.
So long as the church keeps out of politics, and the state leaves the religion of its subjects alone, there will be no conflict. When there is, it is certain evidence that one or the other of these institutions is out of its sphere. There are many principles touched in this interview which have much more in them than space will here permit to be discussed. The complete replies of Dr. Stevenson are given that our people may see the line of argument now adopted, and the purpose which the National Reform Association and its allies have in view.
C. M. S.

Religious Liberty and Conscience

He who would preserve his right to follow the dictates of conscience in religious matters can not place those rights in the hands of any man or organization of men. The moment he does so, he virtually agrees to surrender those rights and privileges when the demand is made for him to do so.

The Peace Congress at The Hague

THE magazines of both Europe and America are giving much space to the matter of the coming peace congress at The Hague. Mr. Holls, one of the members of that congress, states that it is “called for the purpose of solving a present problem, and of furnishing guarantees, more or less permanent, for peace between the powers represented.” The eyes of the world are turned toward The Hague as the place where “differences between nations should be adjudicated and settled in the same manner as disputes between individuals are adjudicated; namely, by the arbitrament of courts in accordance with recognized principles of law.” One of the questions to be considered at that conference will be:—
The advisability of establishing an international congress to convene periodically for the discussion of international questions.
That, carried out, would make thecourt a permanent one; and it is proposed that in the interim between its sessions a permanent committee be appointed “in order to watch over international interests, to use its influence in behalf of peace and the enforcement of law, and report upon desirable changes or improvements in international law at the meeting of the following congress. Such a committee might in time gradually develop into a sort of international executive.”
It is recognized by the advocates of the universal peace propaganda that it would be impossible for such a congress to carry out its decrees without a strong international executive. It is not difficult to see that in the working out of this plan this “strong international executive” could either be, or be dominated by, the power at the Vatican. Neither is it difficult to see, through this plan, the fulfilment of Rev. 17:12, 17, when the kings of the world shall be of one mind to give their authority to that power. Thus in seeking universal peace by methods of man they would bring the culmination of the hope of Rome, and with it the climax of the great controversy between truth and error in the earth.

A Great Mission Field

By J. S. Washburn

We do not need to cross the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans to find a needy field for missionary effort. Right here in the United States is a large population whose necessities should appeal to us as strongly as those of any people in the world—a race brought to this country against their will, and for many years kept in slavery. Eleven and six tenths per cent of the population of the United States is made up of the descendants of the African race.
There were in this country in 1900, according to the United States census for that year, 8,833,994 negroes. The white population according to the same census, was 66,809,896. There were two States in the Union in which the colored population exceeded the white population. There were in Mississippi 907,630 colored persons, constituting 58.5 per cent of the population. In South Carolina 58.4 per cent are colored. Georgia has a population of 1,034,813 colored people, constituting 46.7 per cent of the population. Alabama has 827,307.
Fifty-five and two tenths per cent of the colored population live in the six States, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina, Virginia, and Louisiana. Where the largest amount of property per capita is held, there is the smallest number of colored people. Three fourths of the people of the United States, including those best able financially to help, know but very little of the real condition and needs of the colored people of this section. Those who are living outside of the South can scarcely realize what a missionary field there is in this part of the United States.
In the States which have the largest proportion of colored people, there is found the smallest amount of wealth to each inhabitant. These two States are South Carolina and Mississippi. The amount of property, on an average, owned by each individual in South Carolina in 1890, the date of the last complete property census, was only $348; in Mississippi, $352. These are the smallest averages of wealth of any of the United States. In North Carolina the average is $361; in Alabama, $412; in Louisiana, $443; in Georgia, $464; while the wealth per capita of the great State of New York is $1,430; Rhode Island, $1,459; Colorado, $2,780; California, $2,097. The wealth in the South, where nine tenths of the colored population are located, does not average more than $600 per capita. The larger part of the colored population is in deepest poverty. There are but few property owners among them.
When the matter of illiteracy is considered, of ability to read and write, their need is also strongly evident. In the year 1900 there were 2,853,194 who could not read or write, or forty-four per cent of the colored people; while the per cent of illiteracy in the white population of the whole country was but 6.2 per cent. In the South the per cent of illiteracy among negroes is 48 per cent; among whites, 11.7 per cent. It is true that the per cent of illiteracy is steadily decreasing. For instance, in Louisiana in 1890, 72 per cent of the negro population was illiterate; in 1900, 61 per cent. In Alabama in 1890, 69 per cent was illiterate; in 1900, 57 per cent. Other Southern States show among the negro population a similar advance along educational lines. This shows the possibility of helping the negroes. They are advancing. What many have accomplished under difficulties is most encouraging. They greatly appreciate help, and try to improve themselves. Our colored brethren pay tithes, and make liberal gifts to support the work.
Their poverty and need of education should appeal to our brethren and sisters who have been favored with the blessings of comparative comfort and enlightenment, to give liberally in the offering which will be taken for the colored people the first Sabbath in October. No doubt the Pharisee who passed by the poor stricken man on the road to Jericho was a very earnest foreign missionary, but those nearest to his own door were left to die. Let it not be so with the people who believe that this message must go to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people.
We can not believe that God sanctioned slavery, but that he permitted it in order to bring forth some great blessing somewhere, sometime, to some one in darkness and in need. Joseph was sold into Egypt into slavery, and he saved his father's house. God permitted the Ethiopian to be brought to the United States even as a slave. Surely this was that the light of the gospel of the kingdom might come to him, and he might carry it to Africa, his native land, to his brethren who have not had the light of the gospel that has shone upon him. We believe that many from the Southland will be giving the message in Africa before this work closes. Let us give liberally, generously, of our God-given means on the first Sabbath in October for the work among the colored people.
J. S. WASHBURN.

Without Me Ye Can Do Nothing

If our missionaries keep with them constantly the thought expressed by Jesus himself, “without me ye can do nothing,” they will fly much more frequently to the shelter of his arms to receive courage, strength, and wisdom for victory.

Note and Comment

THAT we are entering on an era of peace and brotherly love is not being proved by criminal statistics in the United States. Last year Judge Taft, in his address at the Yale Law School, presented some figures in this connection that contain food for thought. He showed that between the years 1885 and 1904 murders in this country had increased from 1,808 to 8,482. There had, of course, been nothing like a proportionate increase in population, nor had there been a proportionate increase in the number of convictions and executions for these murders. In fact, while the murders increased nearly five times, there were only 116 executions in 1904 against 108 in 1885. Mr. Taft says:—
As murder is on the increase, so are all offenses of the felony class, and there can be no doubt that they will continue to increase unless the criminal laws are enforced with more certainty, more uniformity, more severity, than they now are.
The editor of the Outlook, in commenting on these facts, says:—
In estimating the significance of these figures the reader should remember that the criminal population of the United States is large, and is believed to be increasing more rapidly than the entire population of the country.
Crime breeds crime. It is true in all countries. We are getting a large amount of criminals from the Old World; but we are not dependent upon the Old World for criminal progress in this country. “Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse,” says the Bible, and present conditions are showing a literal fulfilment of the prediction.
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