“REMEMBER the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” Any of the other days you may use in legitimately obtaining a livelihood; “but the seventh day is the Sabbath of”—whom?—“the Lord thy God.” Ex. 20:8–11. God commands, “In it thou shalt not do any work.”
Dear friend, are you working on the Sabbath, the seventh day, the day preceding the first day of the week? You say, “I don’t know as that is the seventh”? Listen. The Lord gave us the sun to rule the day. Gen. 1:14, 16. The clock is an invention sought out by man. God said, “From even unto even shall ye celebrate your Sabbath.” Lev. 23:32. In Christ’s time, the Sabbath was past when the first day of the week began. Mark 16:1, 2. It was the seventh-day Sabbath “according to the commandment.” Luke 23:56.
No one will claim that the world, or any single nation thereof, ever lost a single day as reckoned by the sun, when once the only means by which it could be brought about is understood. Who can imagine a thousand persons, at different stations on the globe, concurrently losing the hour of the rising and setting of the sun? And unless this could be done, to the extent that forty-eight hours might be introduced into the period between the sun’s rising and setting without discovery and rearrangement, the whole idea of the lost seventh day must be abandoned.
In A.D. 30, “according to the commandment” the seventh day preceded the first day. The week still consists of seven days, and all authorities term Sunday the “first day of the week.” So Saturday must be the last, or seventh, and it is, therefore, “the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.”
Do not try to escape God’s command by saying, “It can not be kept at the North Pole.” How came people to be at the North Pole? Were they remembering the Sabbath, and thereby their Creator, when they went there? Can they not leave there? Do not become anxious over what you imagine others can not do. “What is that to thee? Follow thou Me.” John 21:22.
CLINTON DE W. SHARP.
Rochester, N. Y.
SABBATH EVENING REFLECTIONS.
By Louise Bidwell
When the evening shadows lengthen,
And the peace of day’s no more,
I sit in the purple twilight
And count my blessings o’er.
His loving voice still calls me,
When so oft I’ve gone astray;
His gentle hand has led me
Through this blessed Sabbath day.
He gives me food and raiment,
And I know His tender care;
He gives no tasks or trials
I am too weak to bear.
More fair than the beautiful sunshine
To light this sin-cursed earth,
I behold that bright light gleaming
That dawned at the Saviour’s birth.
And of all the countless blessings,
Bestowed so full and free,
The one I count the chiefest
Is the Word of God to me.
Louise Bidwell.
Adams Center, Wis.
POWER OF KIND WORDS.
By Pauline E. Fife
There is infinite power in kind words and tender tones. God’s most mighty means of winning the lost is through the still, small voice. His voice is always loving, for He is love. How tenderly yet powerfully He speaks to us through nature, of purity, trust, and obedience!
“What ice-bound barriers have been broken,
What rivers of love been stirred,
By a word in kindness spoken,
By only a gentle word!”
Love alone can save from sin. But how easy to forget that “the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God”! The reproof given with flashing eyes and sneering, taunting words is never effectual except for evil. “Grievous words stir up anger, but the tongue of the wise is health to the bones.” How often men take up these weapons of Satan and shoot them straight into the hearts of even the ones they love! Often Satan himself looks out of people’s eyes when they correct faults in others.
“Angels of God will flee from the home where there is strife and angry words.” O, that men realized more the power kind words have to soothe, cheer, and inspire!
“The ill-timed truth we might have kept,
Who knows how sharp it pierced and stung?
The word we had not sense to say,
Who knows how grandly it had rung?”
Men and women faint under heavy burdens and go down to defeat whom one honest, kind word might have saved. True, we urge them, scold, threaten, and point out the disaster which awaits wrong action, but our words are powerless because they lack the inspiration of love. Why should we lock up in our hearts these powerful ministers of strength and inspiration?
“What silence we keep year after year,
With those who are near to us and dear.
We live beside each other day by day,
And speak of myriad things, but seldom say
The full, sweet word that lies just in our reach,
Beneath the commonplace of common speech.”
Why should we wait until icy death has sealed the ear and chilled the responsive heart before we speak out freely praise and tender thoughts? On many a tombstone there are loving words which the silent sleeper beneath was once hungry to hear; but which slow and selfish hearts withheld. Often we pay our debt of love and gratitude too late.
O, then, let us learn to speak more of these gentle words! “Life and death are in the power of the tongue,” so let us use it to its fullest capacity for good.
Speak out sweet, encouraging words to the starving hearts about you. Let them crowd out the harsh, censorious ones.
Pray the good Master that your lips may be touched with a coal from the altar of love—“that in your tongue may be the law of kindness.”
PAULINE E. FIFE.
Oakland, Cal.
“IF WE CONFESS OUR SINS.”
By T.
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9.
“If we confess our sins.” Everything hinges upon that point. Not that God is seeking to humiliate us; but, rather, He is seeking to have us gain that true humility that really elevates us.
We are going in the wrong direction. We are committing sin. We are filled with impatience, unkindness, deceitfulness, and all the rest of that great catalog of evils that God calls “sin.”
So the Master has left us the promise that He will send us the Comforter. “And when He is come, He will reprove [margin, “convince”] the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.” Notice that the first thing the Spirit does when He comes is to reprove, or convince, of sin. God wants us to be right. He is seeking every moment to turn us to the right, and establish us there. But since we are in the wrong, and are full of sinful ways, the first step on His part is to send His Spirit to reveal to us that sin.
Then when He reveals the sin to us, if we confess our sin, if we say, “Yes, Lord, I see it; I acknowledge that I have been going wrong; I confess my sin,” the Lord answers us back by saying, “Since you acknowledge the wrong, since you confess it to Me, I now forgive you your sins,” and then the blessedness of what follows, “I cleanse you from all unrighteousness”!
This is God’s plan. It is simple, and it is just. What do you think about it? Will you confess to Him, and then receive the cleansing?
Do not trouble yourself about how God does this work. Do not spend your time in doubts as to how He can take such a vile person and cleanse him from all unrighteousness. For this cleansing is God’s part of the work. It is also God’s part of the work to send His Spirit to “convince us of sin.” He does not leave us to fret and worry for fear that we will not see all our sins, and, therefore, can not tell when we have confessed enough. No, indeed! Our Father is so good that He shows the sin, and urges us to turn to Him. And in the very act of turning to Him, we say, “Heavenly Master, I confess my sin, I see my wrong.”
Then comes the happy reunion. Then we throw ourselves into the arms of our Father in heaven, and He it is who does the cleansing. And everything He does is done well. Leave it to Him to convince of sin, and you rejoice in the fact all the time that He will not fail to disclose to you every vestige of sin and imperfection. And then rejoice also in that still deeper and more consoling thought that, as He reveals sins and you confess, He also “cleanses.” Yes, He says He is “faithful and just” to do this work.
How kind! And how completely is our God a perfect and tender Father! Love Him with all your soul and might, and trust Him, without a shadow of limitation or reserve. He loves you too well to be happy while you are going wrong. So He seeks in every fatherly way to get you to “confess your sins;” for He longs to fill you with the joy of cleansing and righteousness. What a dear Father! Can you find it in your heart to turn your back upon such devoted love? T.
SPIRITUAL GIFTS.
False Prophets and True.
The gift of prophecy is one of the gifts of the Spirit, a gift which God has “set in the church.” From the time of “Enoch the seventh from Adam” to the time when John wrote his holy visions on barren, sea-girt Patmos—fruitful of revelations of divine glory—God has had His messengers, the prophets. At intervals, as the people of God rejected His message, the voice of the prophet was not heard; there was no more open vision.
The false prophets have existed contemporaneously with the true. Their existence demonstrates the existence of the true. There would never be a counterfeit were there no genuine. Satan never counterfeits that which is not worth counterfeiting.
Characteristics of the False.
A prominent characteristic of the false prophet is his proclamation of peace, his soothing to ease and quietness when God would “sound an alarm.” His message ever tends to lull to sleep those who are “at ease in Zion,” and so prevent the message of God from reaching their hearts and the hearts of sinners.
Another characteristic of the false prophet is to call men’s attention to himself and to men, and away from God. The glory of God is hidden, while the glory of human might and merit and learning is exalted. Men’s minds are turned from the Book of God’s revelation to the opinions of men, and His counsel is darkened by words without knowledge.
All through the Biblical centuries these characteristics of the always-more-numerous false prophets have been manifest, as the following Scripture passages will show:—
“When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously; thou shalt not be afraid of him.” Deut. 18:22.
“If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them; thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams; for the Lord your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Ye shall walk after the Lord your God, and fear Him, and keep His commandments, and obey His voice, and ye shall serve Him, and cleave unto Him.” Deut. 13:1–4.
“For there shall arise false christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.” Matt. 24:24.
“The working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.” 2 Thess. 2:9, 10.
“Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name? and in Thy name have cast out devils? and in Thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you; depart from Me; ye that work iniquity [lawlessness].” Matt. 7:22, 23.
“For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely. They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of My people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.” Jer. 6:13, 14.
“Then said I, Ah, Lord God! behold, the prophets say unto them, Ye shall not see the sword, neither shall ye have famine; but I will give you assured peace in this place.” Jer. 14:13.
“Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you; they make you vain; they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the Lord. They say still unto them that despise Me, The Lord hath said, Ye shall have peace; and they say unto every one that walketh after the imagination of his own heart, No evil shall come upon you.” Jer. 23:16, 17.
“O Israel, thy prophets are like the foxes in the deserts. Ye have not gone up into the gaps, neither made up the hedge for the house of Israel to stand in the battle in the day of the Lord. They have seen vanity and lying divination, saying, The Lord saith; and the Lord hath not sent them; and they have made others to hope that they would confirm the word. Have ye not seen a vain vision, and have ye not spoken a lying divination, whereas ye say, The Lord saith it; albeit I have not spoken?” Eze. 13:4–7.
“Because, even because they have seduced My people, saying, Peace; and there was no peace; and one built up a wall, and, lo, others daubed it with untempered mortar.” Verse 10.
“Because with lies ye have made the heart of the righteous sad, whom I have not made sad; and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way, by promising him life.” Verse 22.
“There is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof, like a roaring lion ravening the prey; they have devoured souls; they have taken the treasure and precious things; they have made her many widows in the midst thereof. Her priests have violated My law, and have profaned Mine holy things; they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they showed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from My Sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.” Eze. 22:25, 26.
“Ye have plowed wickedness, ye have reaped iniquity; ye have eaten the fruit of lies; because thou didst trust in thy way, in the multitude of thy mighty men.” Hosea 10:13.7
“Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. . . . Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven.” Matt. 7:15–21.
“For I know this, that after My departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.” Acts 20:29, 30.
“But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you.” 2 Peter 1:1–3.
“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” 2 Tim. 4:3, 4.
“For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them.” 1 Thess. 5:3.
“Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come forever and ever: that this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the Lord; which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits; get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us.” Isa. 30:8–11.
Here are characteristics of false prophets. Read the above carefully. Read the context. Note the actuating motives of deceivers and deceived. You will find in the messages of these prophets, who were nearly always in the majority, that while great signs and wonders were at times wrought, and miracles counterfeited, while predictions of future events were at times fulfilled, yet these prophets drew away from God, and obedience to His law; they lulled people in sin to sleep with the cry of assurance and peace when the true prophet warned of danger and exhorted to repentance; they sought to build up themselves, to add to their own power, prestige, and wealth; they healed but slightly and superficially the wounds made by sin; they exalted corrupted imaginations above the Word of God; they did not present unpopular, trodden-down, but eternal truth; they substituted their own teachings for the Word of God; they put pagan lies for the truth; they destroyed the people by leading them to put their trust in man and the multitude; they cried, “Peace and safety,” right on the eve of destruction; and all these did they do because of rebellion against God, because of the carnal mind’s opposition to the law of God. These are vitally solemn truths, which find their application in our time; and God has recorded them as merciful warnings to the people of this generation, “upon whom the ends of the world have come.”
The Test of the True.
And here are a few passages which present the test of the true:—
“Preach the Word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine.” 2 Tim. 4:2.
“The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath My Word, Let him speak My Word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the Lord. Is not My Word like as a fire? saith the Lord; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?” Jer. 23:28, 29.
“Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.” Jer. 6:16.
“For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which He hath purchased with His own blood.” Acts 20:27, 28.
“To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” Isa. 8:20.
“If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words.” Isa. 58:13.
“For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem.” Joel 3:1.
Note these lessons which the Lord would teach us in these scriptures. The true prophets of God will regard His Word; they will reprove, rebuke, exhort in harmony with that Word; they will defend, not on their own feeble logic or eloquence, but on the Word and Spirit; they will call men back to the “old paths where is the good way” of God; they will declare “the whole counsel of God;” they will feed His flock on His Word; they will cry aloud against popular sins; they will proclaim the coming judgments of God and the day of His coming; in all things will they “fear God, and give glory to Him.”
But the great test, the one in which all others are summed up, is loyalty to God, unswerving fidelity to His law. “To the law and to the testimony,” is the supreme test.
One Voice has spoken to the world from heaven. It declared from the glory-capped peaks of Sinai the great constitution of the moral code, the Decalogue. That is God’s Voice, eternal, unchangeable, by which all other voices must be tested. Every prophet who in all things speaks in harmony with that Voice, who leads men to obedience to that law, is the messenger of God and the co-worker of Jesus Christ. By their fruits, according to “the law and the testimony,” shall ye know them.
A MIGHTY ARGUMENT WITH GOD.
ONE of the mightiest arguments we, as sinful mortals, have to offer for God’s help is our need. God pities us because we are needy. He gave His Son to die for us because we were needy. Jesus Christ lived His blameless life, and fought and conquered the whole battle with sin, because we are helpless, and can not do it ourselves, and are therefore needy. Our need commends us to His compassion and love. Our need is the counterpart of His fulness.
Then go, sinner; to the great compassionate, infinitely-loving God, and plead your need. “He delighteth in mercy;” He can not refuse you.
“All the fitness He requireth
Is to feel your need of Him.”
“Without a Headache.”
One of the merits of a certain brand of whisky, as set forth in its advertisement, is that it is “the whisky without a headache.” The very claim is an admission on the part of its friends of one evil of at least all other brands of whisky. Whoever heard of advertising “water without a headache,” or “bread without a headache,” or “lemonade without a headache”? It is indirectly an advertisement that every other brand of whisky has with it the headache.
Would to God that that were all the evil that any whisky had with it! And we could almost wish that the ache was ten times worse than it is, and universal among those who willingly drink the poison. That ache is the merciful warning of God that the whisky is toxic—poison. It is placed there in mercy to warn of greater evils to follow its continued use. We are sorry, if it be true, that there is a whisky without this danger signal. The headache is a small thing. Would that the heartaches of the deadly, damnable stuff could rise up as the personified fiends that they are, in every glass which the drinker quaffs,—the heartaches of fathers and mothers, of wives and children, sometimes of husbands, oftentimes of the drunkard himself as he winds his crooked way down the steeps of lost manhood to utter ruin. O reckless, careless indulger, confirmed inebriate, turn from the wretched stuff to Jesus Christ! The water of life which He will give knows neither headache nor heartache.
Question Corner
By Editor
“Enquire and make search and ask diligently.”
[From time to time we will reply under this head, if deemed advisable, to such candid inquiries as may be sent us. Correspondents wishing a reply to their questions must give their full name and address, not for publication unless they wish, but as an evidence of good faith on their part, and to give us opportunity to reply by letter if deemed best. It is always well to inclose stamp. Let the questions be short and pointed, and such as may be answered in limited space. The questions will be numbered continuously.]
880. Frequency of the Lord’s Supper.
Why is the Lord’s Supper eaten only once in three months? Was it not the custom of the early church to eat it whenever they met together? F. B.
Partly for convenience’ sake, so as to secure a larger representation for a scattered church, perhaps; partly because of custom; it was begun in that way. There is no stated time or day for its celebration, that part resting wholly with the people. In the early church it was a daily matter for a while. Acts 2:46. On one occasion it was held on the evening after the Sabbath, in a farewell meeting with Paul. Acts 20:7. That there was no stated, set time for observing the ordinance is shown by the expression, “As oft as ye eat this bread and drink this cup,” etc.
In Deut. 14:23 is the place spoken of, the temple? In the twenty-sixth verse does “whatsoever thy soul lusteth after,” include unclean meats provided they want it? Does that feast have any antitype now?
(1) When they came into the land of promise and the temple was builded, that place was the temple.
(2) “Whatsoever thy soul lusteth after,” is limited by the specific laws of the previous part of the chapter. Such general permission is limited by positive law. And, again, the soul of the true child of God would not lust after that which did not please God.
(3) That feast has no antitype now that we know of.
What covenant is here referred to? and who are the fathers?
The covenant made at Sinai. Ex. 19:5–8; 24:5–8. The “fathers” are Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the patriarchs, and so on down. The thought is that God declares that His practical truth is present truth.
883. Sinning against the Holy Ghost. J. E. H.
You misunderstood what the SIGNS has said with reference to sinning against the Holy Ghost. If any one resists the drawing of God’s love till that love can affect him no more, he certainly sins beyond forgiveness. There are many who resist God’s love, even to an alarming extent; but it appeals to them again and again, till they finally yield. But he who holds out to the last, cuts himself off from the love of God, shed abroad by the Holy Ghost. He places himself by his resistance where the Spirit can not reach him.
884. Increase of Longevity.
Can it be possible that the average human longevity has increased in the nineteenth century? [The writer incloses a clipping stating that such is the case.] J. S.
Probably in civilized countries under better hygienic surroundings. When Christ came to earth, the moral and physical status of man was about as low as it could be. If the people of nineteen hundred years ago had possessed the same knowledge as this generation relative to hygiene and sanitation, the average length of human life would probably have been in excess of what it is to-day.
THAT INDIAN OUTBREAK IN MINNESOTA.
By W. N. G.
When the Indian dares to defend what he supposes to be his rights, in his own crude way, having exhausted his feeble efforts to secure them in the “civilized” way, he is usually termed a “treacherous redskin.” But when the white authorities wreak vengeance upon him for daring to assume that he has any rights, the Indian blood that is spilled is always deemed the result of patriotism and exemplary courage. In nearly all Indian uprisings there is to be found in the background the shadow of the white man’s misdealings. The late trouble with the Pillager Indians in Minnesota seems to have been no exception to the rule, according to a correspondent of the Chicago Record. The battle of October 5 cost the lives of seven white men and seventeen Indians, with fourteen white men wounded. The causes which led to the battle are thus set forth in the Record:—
“The outbreak was caused by the determination of the Indians to prevent the arrest and punishment of their head chief, who is accused of violating the laws that prohibit the sale of whisky on Indian reservations.
“There has been a great deal of trouble in this particular tribe about the whisky traffic. It has been difficult to make the Indians comprehend why they should be punished for selling whisky to each other, when white men in the villages around are allowed to do so, freely and without interruption. Their ‘untutored minds’ can not catch on to the logic of such discrimination, and the license system adds to their perplexity. Eighteen or twenty Indians have been punished for selling whisky to their neighbors, and the neighbors who bought it were taken to Duluth and held as witnesses until the trials were over, when they were released and told to go home. They received their witness fees and their mileage, and most of them proceeded to get roaring drunk on the money. Nobody prevented them from buying whisky in Duluth, and the men who sold it to them were not interfered with, which they consider a rank injustice on the part of the officers of law.
“Bush Ear, the chief, who was the principal offender against the whisky laws and regulations, managed to escape arrest when the original raid was made, and he lay low until he thought the trouble had blown over; but the deputy marshal, who was biding his time, caught him when he came down to the agencies to draw the annuities for his people, and endeavored to run him off to Duluth. But the Indians were too quick for him, and rescued the prisoner. They were not only impelled by loyalty to their chief but by a sense of injustice arising from the circumstances I have described. The regulars were sent to assist the local authorities in arresting and bringing in all the offenders, with the result above stated.”
The Independent gives a further detail of the causes of grievance which these Pillager-Chippewas have suffered at the hands of the government’s servants and their favorites. We quote a few paragraphs:
“In 1889 a commission negotiated with the Chippewas for the cession of all their lands in Minnesota, except the Red Lake and White Earth reservations, and also of so much of those reserves as should not be needed for allotments. The Indians who were not then living at Red Lake or White Earth were to have the option of removing to White Earth and receiving allotments there, or of taking allotments upon the ceded lands; special inducements in the way of houses, cattle, and implements were held out to those who should remove.
“The Pillagers, as a whole, entered reluctantly into this agreement, and many stoutly opposed it. The leaders of the opposition were the band, numbering about 400, which lived on or near Bear Island—an island toward the northern end of Leach Lake, about a hundred yards from the mainland, ten miles from the sub-agency and twenty-five miles by water from the town of Walker, which is just off the reservation on the southern shore of the lake. Isolated, independent, and heathen—not one of them has accepted Christianity—they have watched with bitterness the wasting away of their possessions. For some years they refused to accept any cash annuity, tho lately they have taken it. What irritated other Chippewas incensed them.
“The principal argument which induced the Indians to sign the agreement was the provision that the proceeds of the sale of all their valuable pine should be divided equally among them all after deducting expenses of estimating and sale, cost of removing and allotting Indians, pay of commissioners, etc.
“It would be hard to find a more iniquitous proceeding than the estimating of that pine, first under the Harrison and then under the Cleveland Administration. Half of the twenty-six estimators employed at $6.00 a day knew nothing whatever of the business. They made up their reports from guesses, or from the estimates of others, or carefully under estimates in the interests of the lumbermen. Much of their time was spent in carousing and gambling in camp and in the neighboring towns. A report of an investigation published by Congress shows that the second fraudulent estimating cost $150,000, and that the underestimated tracts had all been sold, while those correctly estimated remained unsold. The estimating is now being done for the third time, and for the third time the Indians must foot the bills.
“The commissioners appointed to remove and allot Indians expended in three years and eight months $145,000, more than half of it in salaries.
“For many years, under the wretched fee system, deputy marshals have made fat livings by arresting Indians as liquor drinkers or witnesses, bringing them before the courts, and then collecting fees for serving papers, mileage, etc. Hundreds of Chippewas have thus been taken to St. Paul. Sometimes the liquor was furnished by the very one who made the arrest. The object was not to suppress but to increase liquor drinking, and the whole proceeding would have been a farce if it had not been an outrage. However, since deputy marshals have been given salaries instead of fees, this evil has been lessened.
“One or two years ago an old man of Bear Island was taken to Duluth in some liquor case, and when the deputy marshal had no further use for him, he left the Indian to foot and beg his way home, 200 miles, as best he could. The next time he was wanted he was unwilling to go; his friends stood by him, and they in their turn were served with warrants for resisting a United States officer. Later they were prevailed upon to deliver themselves up, and were let off with slight punishment.
“Probably few agencies have suffered more from political appointments than has the White Earth Agency. Agents have been changed with every administration, and during a long series of years most of them have been inefficient or worse, have made no attempt to elevate the Indians, or even to break up drinking, gambling, and vice of all kinds; and sometimes they have gone so far as to encourage the wild, demoralizing Indian dances, against the express prohibition of the Indian office. Indirectly, the dead soldiers of Minnesota, like many of their fever-stricken comrades of Southern camps, may be considered victims of the spoils system.”
W. N. G.
ROME AND HER ATTITUDE.
The Rev. E. G. Zwayer, writing from Girardville, Pa., to The Examiner (Baptist), calls attention to the real attitude of Catholics in the late war with Spain, as shown by the expressed sentiments of the common laymen and priests, and the politic attitude later assumed by these individuals after the instructions evidently received from higher prelates. Here are two excerpts:—
“Those of us who live in sections where the European Catholic population is large have seen some things, during the past few months, that convince us that Romanism is even more of a menace to the safety of American institutions than we have imagined. The anthracite coal region has a very large Catholic population. In many places the Catholics far outnumber the non-Catholics. Just before the war broke out, and during the first few weeks that followed the outbreak of actual hostilities, there was little, if any, attempt on the part of the Catholics to disguise their sympathy for Spain. In some churches the priests spoke strongly against the American attitude, and in some cases are said to have given the impression that it would be entirely wrong for the Catholics to fight against their ‘Spanish brethren.’ At Mount Carmel, a town of about 15,000 inhabitants, an American flag was torn down and trampled underfoot; and in another place an American flag was taken down and a Spanish flag substituted. In still another town the flag rope at the armory was cut and many small flags torn down from the homes of citizens.”
“By and by the sentiment began to change, and it was evident that some higher authority than the local priests was bringing about the change. It was surprising to see what efforts were made to prove, on public occasions, such as flag raisings, that Catholics are loyal and patriotic.”
“No doubt there are thousands of American Catholics who would have been loyal to their country even had the pope not given them the right to be so; but there is no question that there are thousands of European Catholics in America who would gladly have taken up arms under the Spanish flag. Is not our country in great danger with such a foe, or, if you prefer, such a doubtful friend, in its bosom? The fact that the pope did not continue to take a more active part openly for Spain, is no indication that he has any friendly feeling for the United States. His motives for the attitude he assumed were various and far-reaching. First, as The Examiner remarked some time ago, he is too feeble to stand the physical strain of such a campaign. Again, he could not have helped Spain without letting the whole world see what is his true attitude toward America, and he is too shrewd thus publicly to declare war against us. Again, there was great danger of losing more than could be gained; thousands of American Catholics would doubtless have been loyal to their country even against the wishes of the pope, and thus there might have been a split in the church, and his grip on American institutions would have been greatly weakened. Besides all this, it must be borne in mind that while the United States Government was fighting against Catholics, she was also fighting for Catholics, and whatever might be lost in Spain, would be more than made up by the fact that a new Catholic nation, however small, would be created, and the territory taken from Spain and added to the United States would increase Catholic influence in America.”
