Review and Herald, Vol. 85, No. 31. (7/30/1908)

Review and Herald

Jul 30, 1908

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 30, 1908

The Book Department Mirror

Being a Reflection of Interesting Happenings and Notes on Our Publications. Conducted by the Book Department of the Review and Herald Publishing Association.

¶ One of our field missionary agents called to see us recently. During his conversation he said, “I believe we are in the time of the loud cry, and that the work is soon to be finished. I do not believe there will be any more slack times in our canvassing work.” Brother, sister, have you a part in this great closing movement?

¶ Speaking of the loud cry naturally brings to mind that important little book, “Early Writings,” with those chapters entitled, “The Sealing,” “The Trial of Our Faith,” “The Third Message Closed,” and “The Deliverance of the Saints.” If you have not read these chapters, you should lose no time in sending for a copy of the book. Pocket Edition, paper covers $ .35 Regular Edition, cloth .75 Leather 1.25

¶ We have just received a report from one agent who worked 180 hours, and took orders to the value of $354.85. This brother is crippled, not having any legs. Such a record as this should be an incentive to those who are not handicapped by misfortune.

¶ “So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please; and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.”

¶ Some of the tracts of the “Words of Truth” series have proved a most excellent means of spreading the truth. “Christ’s Second Coming,” No. 42, ½ cent; “Court Week in Heaven,” No. 47, ½ cent; “We Would See Jesus,” No. 36, ½ cent; “What Do These Things Mean?” No. 39, ½ cent; and “Signs of the Times,” No. 37, ½ cent, are among the best we have for general distribution.

¶ “One of the most effective ways in which light can be communicated is by the private personal effort in the home circle, at your neighbor’s fireside, at the bedside of the sick. . . . Thus you may sow precious seed that will spring up and bear precious fruit.”

¶ Our “home-workers’ list” is especially prepared for those who are doing this kind of work. “Education” by Mrs. E. G. White is furnished for $1.25. “Our Little Folks’ Bible Nature” is an excellent book for children, and can be obtained in boards for 25 cents; cloth, 50 cents. Where “Helps to Bible Study” is placed in the home, it will invariably lead to Bible readings. This book can be obtained in paper covers for 25 cents; cloth, 50 cents. Special discounts are given our home workers; these can be obtained by writing to any State tract society.

¶ One of the prettiest volumes in our showcase is the new “Steps to Christ.” Its outside cover, though, is not nearly so important as the matter which it encloses. A personal touch with the Lord Jesus which the author introduces can not fail to interest even the casual reader. There are sixty-one beautiful illustrations, which help to impress the thoughts on the mind. Paper .................... $ .30 Cloth .................... .60 Presentation, gilt ........ 1.00 Russia .................... 1.00 Morocco, de luxe .......... 1.50

¶ Any of the publications mentioned on this page may be ordered through any State tract society or publishing house, or direct from Review and Herald Publishing Association, Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C., New York City, or Battle Creek, Mich.

Bible Teaching in Our Schools

By Editor

(Concluded)

5. THIS whole second advent movement is based upon prophecy, and is in itself a fulfilment of prophecy. Those, therefore, who occupy the position of teachers in such a movement ought to give more than an ordinary amount of study to the prophecies of the Scriptures. Furthermore, this study should be directed primarily to the prophecies themselves, rather than to what some one has written about these prophecies. While no criticism is offered against the use of all available helps in interpreting the writings of the prophets, yet by his own original study every teacher should assure himself of the correctness of the interpretations of others, and should thoroughly digest and assimilate the thoughts of others until he is able to present them as the true product of his own mind.

While special attention should, of course, be given to the books of Daniel and the Revelation, yet the prophecies contained in these books are not to be isolated from other prophecies; neither can a broad and safe interpretation of these predictions be made unless they shall be given their proper setting in the whole scheme of history and prophecy. The full meaning of the great metallic image, of the tree which “was strong, and the height thereof reached unto heaven, and the sight thereof to the end of all the earth,” and a comprehensive interpretation of the handwriting on the wall, can not be understood apart from that history which begins with Nimrod and the tower of Babel and those prophecies concerning Babylon which were uttered during the preceding years. Furthermore, such a knowledge of the historical Babylon is absolutely necessary in order to avoid fanciful interpretations and applications of the inspired utterances concerning modern or spiritual Babylon.

But there is another phase of this question of the study and the teaching of the prophecies, which must have our attention. Many able expositors of prophecy have arisen since the days of the great Reformation, and with much learning and deep spiritual insight they have thrown great light upon the symbols and the figurative utterances employed by the prophets. What need, then, is there that there should be a new presentation of these same prophecies in this last generation?—The answer is found in the fact that in this last stage of the gospel history there must be a setting given to the message of salvation which is appropriate to the time. This appropriate setting is found in Rev. 14: 6-14, in which the revelator in a few striking sentences, corresponding to the suggestive strokes of a master artist, indicates both the standpoint from which the last message is to be given and the vital points upon which the light of all past time is to be focused. The prophecies which cover a period of more than twenty-five centuries, are all to be marshaled now into one solid phalanx, and with one mighty voice they are to proclaim, “The hour of his judgment is come.” In no generation in the past could this be done. The close of the great prophetic period of twenty-three hundred days (years) ushered in a new era in prophetic interpretation. Not in the exposition of disconnected prophecies, however clear and correct they may be, but in the orderly collocation of all prophecies, and in the harmonizing of the voices of all the prophets, to declare that the last generation has been reached, that the seventh angel is sounding, and that the mystery of God is to be finished without longer delay, will be found the proper function of prophecy in the great second advent movement.

6. With a pre-vision of the present denial of a personal God as the creator of the heavens and the earth, and of the consequent substitution of science for revelation, and of the gospel according to man in place of the gospel according to God, the seer of Patmos directed the teachers of the heaven-sent message for this generation to turn the minds of men to “him that made heaven, the earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.” This indicates that the gospel of redemption is the gospel of creation, and that to deny a personal Creator is to deny a personal Redeemer. The mark, or sign, of the Creator and the seal of his law (the original seventh-day Sabbath) will inevitably be presented as a part of such a gospel. The fall of modern Babylon, the counterpart of the historical experiences in Daniel’s time, is an index to the spiritual condition of the professed church of Christ, which in its alliance with the world has “become the habitation of devils” instead of “an habitation of God through the Spirit.” The warning against the beast, his image, and his mark, and the threatened wrath of God upon those who fail to heed it, are to be proclaimed to the ends of the earth, so that men may be without excuse when the great assize closes. The result in the character of those who accept such a proclamation of the gospel is shown in that highest of all spiritual attainments, the keeping of the commandments of God; and the impending event, in view of which the final proclamation of the gospel is made in such a setting as this, is the coming of the Son of man on a white cloud.

In the light, therefore, of this threefold outline, the whole Bible is to be studied and taught, and the final message is not “another gospel,” but “the everlasting gospel,” the gospel of righteousness

by faith, the one only gospel since the days of Adam.

From what has already been set forth in this paper, it will be evident that the primary qualification of a Bible teacher in one of our educational institutions will be a thorough knowledge of the Bible itself. Nothing else can take the place of this, but this does not preclude a wide range of reading, especially of the history of those nations which, because of their intimate relation with the people and work of God in the earth, are made prominent in the Bible. It ought to be emphasized, however, that the Bible throws more light upon history than does history upon the Bible, and that consequently history should be read in the light of the Scriptures rather than the Scriptures in the light of history. There is a wide difference between these two standpoints.

Much more might be said with profit, but it may be best to bring this paper to a close with a few hints and suggestions upon special topics.

A Principle of Interpretation

The Bible has a value above all other books in that the instruction contained in it is based upon general principles, and always and everywhere applicable. It may be that the instruction as given applied primarily to a set of circumstances then present either to the prophet or the teacher through whom the message was given; but when a similar combination of circumstances recurs, the instruction applies with the same authority as in the first instance. It is, therefore, not wise to take out of its immediate connection some passage and with the arbitrary statement, “This text applies to our time,” expound it as if it were written for this generation alone. There is nothing new under the sun, and provision has been made in the Scriptures to meet every possible situation which man or devils may bring about, and it is only necessary to show that in the further progress of the great controversy the same principles are again involved, in order to apply authoritatively the divine instruction given for a similar occasion in the past. He who interprets arbitrarily may be answered by an interpretation equally arbitrary, and who should decide between the two if both rest upon a merely human assertion? Nearly all the symbols used in the Scriptures are interpreted somewhere in the Bible itself, and unless there is a special interpretation to the contrary, there should be a uniform explanation of the same symbol in different parts of the Scripture. The connection will usually suggest the general or special interpretation. For example, there is no danger of confounding the Lion of the tribe of Judah with the lion of the seventh of Daniel, although on general principles the lion is the symbol of an earthly power. Other similar instances will readily come to mind. A conservative and dignified interpretation of symbols and figurative expressions will command the respect of thoughtful readers of the Bible.

Different Translations

Teachers of the Bible will find it profitable to supply themselves with a variety of translations of the Scriptures, but wisdom should be exercised in making a right use of them. The authoritative appeal should be made either to the Authorized or Revised Versions of the Scripture, or in this country, to the American Standard Revised Version, which has been indorsed by a large number of the best scholars. Any argument which can be established only by the use of other translations is not a safe or necessary one, and would better be omitted. Those who have no knowledge of either Hebrew or Greek, should be especially cautious in accepting any translation which changes the general meaning of the accepted versions, and care should be taken to distinguish between a literal translation (like Rotherham’s translation of the New Testament) and an undignified paraphrase (such as the Twentieth Century New Testament).

New Light

We have been encouraged to expect that there would be a further development of the gospel message, and that additional light would shine upon the pathway of those who are now seeking the way to Zion. The teachers of the Bible in our educational institutions ought certainly to be among the first who should discover new disclosures of truth, like watchmen upon the walls who note the first indications of coming day; but let it be remembered that there will be no new light, which is really light, that contradicts the fundamental positions already established. Fanciful interpretations of prophecy, far-fetched analogies, and the tendency to lose sight of the plain, literal teaching of the Scriptures in the mystical spiritualizing of the most simple statements, should be avoided by those who wish to lead students in safe paths of Bible study. Furthermore, there is a kind of itching after something new which prompts one to regard everything as unsettled, in order that his mind may be open in an unprejudiced way to the reception of new truth. This is a deception fraught with much evil. Every question is not an open one, and to the believer in the inspiration of the Scriptures there are not two sides to every proposition. The truth which is revealed in a plain, “Thus saith the Lord,” is established beyond controversy; and it will give the fullest play to all the powers of the mind in a studious effort to fathom the depth and to comprehend the height of revealed truth. New light should be accepted and welcomed, but it will all stand the test of harmony with those truths of the third angel’s message which have been established by prayerful study and confirmed by the testimony of the spirit of prophecy.

Revelation or Reason

Teachers of the truth for this time should be able to recognize the vital principle which distinguishes the gospel according to God from the gospel according to man. In the wide range of discussion it is easy to overlook the crucial point. There are various ways of expressing this distinguishing principle, any one of which will serve the purpose, provided the thing itself is recognized. Some of the familiar forms of statement in which the false and the true are expressed are these: all men are the children of God by the natural birth; or, those only are the children of God, in the Scriptural sense, who have been born again: again, every man is a temple of the living God; or, only those who have received Christ by faith are temples of the living God: again, God is recognized and directly apprehended through the consciousness of his immediate presence everywhere and in all things; or, he is made known as a personal God only to those to whomsoever the Son reveals him: again, the Christ whom we receive is a product of our own consciousness, testified to in the Scriptures and approved of by our own reason; or, he is the unique Being primarily revealed to us in the Scriptures. The essential difference in each case lies in the acceptance or the denial of the catastrophe of sin, and in the rejection or the acknowledgment of the atoning work of that Christ “who gave himself for our sins.” Many statements of truth or untruth grow out of this fundamental difference, but the application of the one test will reveal their nature.

The philosophy of these facts may be readily understood. From all eternity it has been the purpose of the Father that in all things his Son should have the pre-eminence, and the only hope of a lost world is the acceptance of restoration through the mediation of the same eternal Son. Either to deny sin or to attempt to provide salvation through the evolution of a nature inherently divine, is to reject the gospel according to God and to substitute the gospel according to man. In cultured phrases and in philosophical reasonings which please the natural heart by exalting man as man, this flattering gospel of self-salvation is taught from many professedly orthodox pulpits, and is sweeping a large number of professed Christians from the old foundations. In this second advent movement the truth of the gospel has been revealed in such a setting as will provide an effective means of defense

against this overmastering delusion. When in the early days of this movement, a knowledge of the heavenly sanctuary and the ministry of Christ therein, which had long been shut away, was restored, there was supplied such a revelation of the gospel in its original, divine setting as would be a sufficient protection against all these last-day perversions of the truth. The existence of God, who is a personal Being rather than merely an intelligent power; the great fact of sin; the necessity of an atonement; the sacrifice provided; the cleansing from sin by the power of the blood; and the restoration of the body to be again the temple of the living God, are so clearly set forth in the sanctuary and its services as to save those who receive the gospel in this setting from the pantheistic, spiritualistic, or scientific errors which are now flooding the world. Teachers of the present gospel message, who recognize these facts, and appreciate their importance, will shape their study and their instruction in harmony therewith, and will give to the subject of the sanctuary and its services the place which belongs to them in this time of the cleansing of the sanctuary.

The Influence of the Bible in All the Departments of Instruction

There is a legitimate sense in which the Bible is at the foundation of all proper education, and a proper study and teaching of the Scriptures may therefore be fundamental in every department of knowledge; but the limits of this paper will not permit the development of this topic. It must suffice to say that the Scriptures were never intended to be used merely as a text-book in the various branches of knowledge, or to supply those facts which are within the range of observation. The Scripture is a revelation of truths outside the field of human investigation; but so close is the relation between the seen and the unseen, that a knowledge of the latter is often conveyed by comparisons and by extending the principles applicable to the physical world into the spiritual world. Thus Jesus said, “So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground;” and again, “Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God? or with what comparison shall we compare it? it is like,” etc., etc. The head of the Bible department of one of our institutions who wisely improves the opportunity offered to him may exert a powerful influence in molding the instruction in every other department of the institution.

All the circumstances of the present hour unite in an urgent appeal to our Bible teachers to do most earnest and thorough work, and to lift to a much higher plane the department of Bible study and Bible teaching.

Editorial

By Editor

THE selfishness of the unconverted heart is absolute. Only the grace and Spirit of God can change the natural traits and make us Christlike, but his grace is sufficient for us. “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.” These promises may be fulfilled to every believing sinner. It is by such promises that we are made partakers of the divine nature.

The Rise and Fall of Religious Liberty in America

By C. M. S.

The Making and Meaning of Rhode Island—No. 2

THE sentence of Roger Williams to banishment from the jurisdiction of the Massachusetts Bay Colony bore date of Oct. 9, 1635, and was to take effect within “six weeks next ensuing.” Because of the inclemency of the weather at the time of year when his departure must take place, the time was extended. Mr. Williams did not attempt to preach or teach in public, but a considerable number who sympathized with him would gather at his house from Sunday to Sunday, and listen to his discourses in private, thus absenting themselves from their accustomed places of worship on that day. This was very displeasing to the officials of the established church; it was also against the law, and increased the feeling of annoyance and irritation against him whom they had condemned to exile.

Roger Williams had for some time contemplated the founding of a state whose inhabitants should enjoy the fullest liberty in matters of conscience,—a state which should be founded upon the principles of equity toward the original inhabitants of the land. In fact, one of the expressed reasons for the banishment of Williams was the fact that he had declared against the justice of taking possession of the Indians’ lands without their permission. This purpose of Williams to establish a new state based upon the principles of freedom of conscience and the rights of the Indians, determined the Puritan officials to get him out of their midst without further delay. A vessel was then riding at anchor in Boston harbor, and it was determined to send Williams to England on board of her. A warrant was despatched by the court at Boston summoning Williams thither. He replied that he believed his life to be in danger, and did not obey the summons. An officer was despatched to bring him; “but when they came at his house, they found he had been gone three days before; but whither they could not learn.”

Leaving his wife and three children, the youngest less than three months old, and having mortgaged his property at Salem for means to supply his wants, Roger Williams plunged into the wilderness to find among the savages that freedom which a union of religion and the state denied him among civilized men. He speaks of himself as being “denied the common air to breathe in, and a civil cohabitation upon the same common earth; yea, and almost without mercy and human compassion, exposed to winter miseries in a howling wilderness.” These miseries of the wilderness he endured for fourteen weeks, “not knowing what bread or bed did mean.” During this time whatever shelter he had was in the smoky, dingy lodges of the Indians. But their hospitality to him in his extremity he sought during all the remainder of his life to requite by deeds of kindness. During these days and nights of distress, Williams was teaching the Indians the principles of the gospel, which he ever sought to illustrate to them in his treatment of them and the rest of his fellow men. He had learned the language of the Narragansetts, and through this exile, he became the first of the Pilgrims to carry the message of salvation to the Indians.

Circumstances so brought it about that the exile of Williams became for the New England settlements what the selling of Joseph by his brethren became to the children of Israel during the time of the seven lean years. But more of this later.

In the following stanza Williams refers to the kindly hospitality of the Indians while plodding through the snow from one Indian settlement to another in search of a place of abode:—

“God’s providence is rich to his, Let none distrustful be: In wilderness, in great distress, These ravens have fed me.”

At Seekonk, on the east bank of the Pawtucket River, Williams broke ground for a habitation, and began to build and plant; but before his crop had had time to mature, the Plymouth officials learned of his whereabouts, and, despite his former ministrations among them, warned him that he was a trespasser upon their domain, and must move on. With five companions he obeyed the ouster of his Plymouth brethren, embarked in a frail canoe, and began to descend the river. At the mouth of the Moshassuck River they landed, near a spring, and there founded a settlement which they called Providence, and which has grown to be the present city of Providence. “It was, and has ever been,” as E. B. Underhill says, in his introduction to the reprint of Williams’ “Bloody Tenent of Persecution,” “the refuge of distressed consciences. Persecution has never sullied its annals. Freedom to worship God was the desire of its founder—for himself and for all, and he nobly endured until it was accomplished.”

At several different times Roger Williams had it within his power to “avenge himself of his adversaries,” but no such thought seems ever to have entered his mind, and more than once he went far out of his way to do invaluable favors for those who had banished him, or were supporters of those who did. Samuel G. Arnold, in his “History of Rhode Island,” dwelling upon the fact that some of the laymen opposed the decree for the

banishment of Williams, while every minister save one approved it, makes the following striking and truthful statement: “A practical commentary is thus afforded on the danger of uniting the civil and ecclesiastical administrations. It suggests the reflection that, of all characters, the most dangerous and the most despicable is the political priest.” There is no sadder demonstration in history than the demonstration of the truthfulness of that quotation.

It is outside the purpose of these articles to give anything like a detailed history of Rhode Island, interesting as that history is. We shall have to content ourselves with the briefest possible statements in reference to its establishment and its organic law.

As soon as it was known that a settlement had been started by Roger Williams among the Indians most friendly to him and most tractable, men of various beliefs and of no particular beliefs, who had been oppressed by the religious hierarchy of New England, began to gather around him. Land was purchased from the Indians by Williams which he designed should be used as a mission station, but which was later divided among the thirteen original settlers. Other settlements were founded by his followers, and these were finally brought into one colony under the title of The Providence Plantations. But before these settlements had become one political unit, the Indians of New England had grown restive under the oppressions of the whites, and began to form a confederacy among themselves, with the avowed purpose of exterminating all the English in New England. The powerful Pequots proposed to unite with the Mohegans and the Narragansetts to accomplish this purpose, in the hope of thus averting the calamity which they foresaw must soon annihilate the Indian race. It was indeed a perilous hour for Massachusetts, Plymouth, and Connecticut. Rhode Island was in no such imminent peril. The Rhode Islanders had paid for their lands, and were on most intimate terms with the sachems of the Narragansetts, their immediate neighbors.

The Pequot emissaries were among the Narragansetts to bring about the confederacy against the whites when the governor and council of Massachusetts wrote a most urgent letter to Roger Williams, desiring him to use his good offices to prevent the consummation of the Indian confederacy. He was recognized as the only man in New England who could avert the impending evil. With the memory of his persecution by Massachusetts still fresh in his mind, he did not hesitate to throw himself between his own persecutors and their relentless foes. He knew that he was risking his own life at the hands of the Pequot emissaries. Concerning this dangerous expedition Williams himself says:—

The Lord helped me immediately to put my life into my hand, and scarce acquainting my wife, to ship myself alone, in a poor canoe, and to cut through a stormy wind, with great seas, every minute in hazard of life, to the sachem’s house. Three days and nights my business forced me to lodge and mix with the bloody Pequot ambassadors, whose hands and arms, methought, reeked with the blood of my countrymen, murdered and massacred by them on the Connecticut River, and from whom I could not but look for their bloody knives at my own throat also. God wondrously preserved me, and helped me to break to pieces the Pequot’s negotiation and design; and to make and finish, by many travels and charges, the English league with the Narragansetts and Mohegans against the Pequots.

Thus was New England saved from probable extinction by one whom she would not permit to come into her borders, not even after such signal service as Williams had rendered. The Pequots, foiled in their efforts to combine the New England Indians, determined to carry on the war alone. The result was the total extermination of the Pequots, which was brought about largely by the help of the very Indians whom Williams had prevented from joining the confederacy. “It is a singular fact,” says Arnold, “that Winthrop alone, of all the old writers upon this war, makes any mention of the part performed by Roger Williams in averting a fatal catastrophe.” Governor Winthrop and some of his council, in view of what Roger Williams had accomplished for the common good, moved in the general court that he be recalled from banishment, and honored by some high mark of favor; but the records of the court fail to show that any action was taken upon the matter.

History does record, however, that only six years later Massachusetts was making most earnest endeavors to gain control of the Providence, or Narragansett, settlements. Certain disaffected ones in Rhode Island had placed themselves under the protection of Massachusetts, and when Massachusetts began to threaten trouble, Roger Williams was despatched to England to obtain a patent from the British government for the territory now known as Rhode Island. He was there none too soon; for he found the emissaries of Massachusetts on the ground endeavoring to obtain a patent covering the very same territory—strange return for Rhode Island’s assistance to them in their hour of dire need! A document known as the Narragansett Patent was actually drawn up, and was signed by nine of the Parliamentary commissioners; but the influence of Roger Williams and Sir Henry Vane (one time governor of Massachusetts) prevented the consummation of the iniquitous proceeding. Nevertheless the Narragansett Patent was made, by Massachusetts, the basis of a notification to the Providence Plantations to cease the exercise of all jurisdiction in the Narragansett country.

No notice seems to have been taken of this notification, and Massachusetts, evidently realizing the groundlessness of her case and the worthlessness of the Narragansett Patent, made no further move in the matter. Williams’ petition for a patent covering the Narragansett Bay country was granted in 1643; but about this time a confederation was formed of the colonies of Massachusetts, Plymouth, New Haven, and Connecticut, which had for one of its objects common protection against the Indians, and for another “preserving and propagating the truth and liberties of the gospel.” It was provided in this agreement “that no other jurisdiction shall hereafter be taken in as a distinct head or member of this confederation, nor shall any other, either plantation or jurisdiction, in present being, and not already in combination, or under the jurisdiction of any of these confederates, be received by any of them.” This was, of course, directly aimed at Rhode Island, and was in perfect harmony with another act of those colonies in boycotting Rhode Island commercially, politically, and socially.

As a result of the commercial boycott, the Rhode Islanders were not permitted to receive goods from abroad either through the ports of Massachusetts or of Connecticut. This was indeed a great hardship, and yet they felt it a much smaller evil than to be compelled to live under the jurisdiction of either Massachusetts or Connecticut with their consciences outlawed. One of the earliest laws of Rhode Island shows one of the results of this commercial boycott. The Rhode Islanders, being quite largely cut off from communication with the outside world, began to be in need of many things, one of which was gunpowder, which they desired both for hunting and for protecting themselves from the Indians. Because of this lack, a law was passed making it obligatory upon every male between the ages of seventeen and seventy years to have in his house a bow and four arrows, with which he must exercise from time to time. It was also made obligatory upon each head of a household to teach his sons to shoot with the bow.

Another illustration of the boycott is seen in the following: A man by the name of John Green, who had come to America soon after the arrival of Roger Williams, and who settled in Salem, disliking the rigorous laws of Massachusetts in reference to matters of conscience, moved to the Providence Plantation.

Later, on his return to Salem to dispose of his property, he was heard to make the remark that “the power of the Lord Jesus in Massachusetts was in the hand of civil authority.” For this he was arrested by Governor Endicott, and put under bonds to answer for contempt. Two years later (1638) an act was passed by Massachusetts that “John Green shall not come into this jurisdiction upon paine of imprisonment, etc., and because it appears . . . that some other of the same place [Providence] are confident in the same corrupt judgment and practise, it is ordered that if they shall come within this jurisdiction, they shall be apprehended, . . . and if they will not disclaim the said corrupt opinion, . . . they shall be commanded presently to depart.”—Massachusetts Colonial Records, Vol. I, page 224.

This unchristian procedure—the boycott—together with the Salem church’s excommunication of Roger Williams, was as near what the Catholic Church denominates “major excommunication” as anything could well be that was not so named; and it illustrates also that a union of church and state, being a pago-papal invention, always partakes of the characteristics of the papacy.

The characteristics of the Rhode Island patent and charter, and the success of the Rhode Islanders in opposing Connecticut’s attempt to absorb the Providence Plantations, and put an end to the experiment of freedom of conscience, will be considered next week.

C. M. S.

Note and Comment

Prohibition in Maine

DURING the campaign for governor of Maine, which ended on June 30, there were two candidates in the field for office of governor on the Republican ticket — Hon. William T. Haines and Hon. Bert M. Fernald. Both had avowed their belief in the prohibitory law, but Mr. Haines was in favor of submitting again to the people the question of whether prohibition or license should rule in the State. The question had been resubmitted to the people in 1884, and the people had expressed their wishes in the matter by a vote of three to one in favor of prohibition. So strong was the sentiment throughout the State against even resubmitting the question to a vote, that, when the time for the nomination arrived, Mr. Haines withdrew from the race. In reference to his withdrawal, Mr. Haines says:—

I bow in the most humble way to the will of the majority. I have advocated resubmission. We have had resubmission here by the agitation I started, and I have had the full benefit of it. By the action of this convention, the great cause of prohibition has been reaffirmed as much as if it had been voted by the people of the State at the polls.

One Law, Two Results

THE affinity between tobacco and liquor is being well illustrated in Georgia at the present time. A traveling salesman for a large tobacco firm, who is also a tobacco dealer in Augusta, Ga., states that “since the State prohibition law has gone into effect, the jobbing sale of cigars has decreased forty per cent. When asked for the reason for the falling off in cigar sales, he said:—

The closing of the bar-rooms caused a tremendous decrease, since many a man who smoked when he went into a saloon would not otherwise do so. You see it is this way: When there were saloons, men would congregate in them in groups, and enjoy a few drinks; then all would light up their cigars. Then they would probably fill up their pockets for sociability’s sake. Cigar drummers have stopped coming to Georgia, and until there is a change in the present conditions, there will be still fewer cigars sold.

Thus, while prohibiting the sale of liquor, the law acts also as a real deterrent to the wasting of money for tobacco; and further, it is a recognized fact that a decrease in the use of tobacco will cause a corresponding decrease in the thirst for liquor. Thus two good results are accomplished by one good law.

Christless Christianity

A LIBERAL Jew expresses his opinion of the teaching of the leaders in the “New Theology” movement in plain words. He says:—

Most of these men preach a Christianity with all the Christianity left out.

But “a Christianity with all the Christianity left out” is no Christianity at all, and is merely human philosophy. In this philosophy there is no more power for salvation from sin than in the latest biological theory, or in the demonstration of a proposition in geometry. It is a pity to use the familiar terms and forms of expression of the true gospel in which to present in a refined form the original doctrines of heathenism. There is great need of a revival of true religion.

Eddysm

A RATHER keen student of the philosophy of Christian Science, who has come to the conclusion that the real center of this movement is found in the person of Mrs. Eddy rather than in any vital principle, has prepared a “Christian Science Shorter Catechism,” which emphasizes his analysis of this cult. We quote his catechism:—

1. What is the term for the swirl of modern thought? An Eddy.

2. What is the object of Christian Science discourse? To Eddy-fy.

3. What food does Christian Science approve? Whatever is Eddy-ble.

4. Which article in the Christian Science Sentinel should be read first? The Eddy-torials.

5. How far should the other articles receive attention? So far only as they make for Eddy-fication.

6. Where do Christian Science congregations assemble? Each in its own Eddy-fice.

7. To what object in the English Channel may Christian Science be compared? The Eddy-stone lighthouse.

8. The Standard Dictionary defines “eddy” thus: “A turning aside or departure from the main current of thought or life.”

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