Review and Herald, Vol. 93, No. 6. (2/3/1916)

Review and Herald

Feb 3, 1916

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park, Washington, D. C. · Feb 3, 1916

My Guiding · Star

By Eliza H. Morton

ELIZA H. MORTON

Not massive domes nor gilded halls My heart desires while here below, Not castle towers nor palace walls Amid life's wretchedness and woe.

Not laurel wreaths, nor flattering wiles Have power my longing soul to cheer; Far sweeter than the world's vain smiles Communion with my Saviour dear.

My guiding star shines forth above, Mine eyes are fixed on what is true; I see the gleaming of God's love When earthly lights are dim and few.

There is a river wide and deep That bears my trusting soul along. Upon that current I would keep My fragile bark with prayer and song.

Unshrinking I would breakers meet, And say, “Ye stormy winds, why blow? Why round me in your fury beat? To yonder Haven I shall go.”

The Haven looked for by the seers, The Port that glimmers from afar, The Home I've seen through blinding tears,— That Haven is my guiding star.

A Church Threatening Political Boycott

THE Morning Star, official organ of the New Orleans diocese of the Roman Catholic Church, takes very strong exception to the recognition of Carranza by President Wilson, and proposes that this action on his part shall be made a political issue in the coming presidential election, advising that in this way Catholics show their disapproval of his course. The Star says:—

Mr. Wilson’s recognition of Carranza, the avowed enemy of the Catholic Church, is an insult to the Catholics of this country. It is a direct challenge to them, and we hope that not only Catholics, but every true lover of religious freedom, for which the glorious flag of our country stands, will give him such an open answer at the polls as will prove to him that no President of the United States can so flagrantly ignore the lawful and respectful request of 16,000,000 fellow citizens without paying the penalty.

The New Republic, in commenting on this clerical opposition to the recognition of Carranza, feels that this question is not a proper issue for domestic politics, and raises the question as to why the editors generally through the country have not frowned upon the dragging of this into the political campaign. It inquires:—

Why is this? It is because the Roman Catholic Church is the sacred cow of American journalism and American politics. But it will not always be so. Already in States like Massachusetts the aggressiveness of churchmen has made clericalism the real issue upon which men divide politically. Just below the level of newspaper comment, Boston seethes with religious partisanship which foolish papers like the Morning Star are trying to transfer to a national plane.

“A Purr and a Growl”

By Editor

THE Christian Advocate of January 13 contrasts the recent statement of Cardinal Gasparri to the Protestant Conference at Garden City, N. Y., regarding the friendly attitude of the papal see, with an address recently given by the Pope to the Society for the Preservation of the Faith in Rome. One is a “purr” and the other a “growl.” One breathes the spirit of Christian charity, and the other deplores the “scandal that would fill the Catholic world, if Luther and Calvin should come to set up their tents permanently in the City of the Popes,” and admonishes that “the spell of these robbers must be destroyed by a strong organization of defenders of the faith.”

Verily the Papacy has learned to become all things to all men, not, however, as did the great apostle Paul, that men may be won to Christ, but rather that the Papacy may advance its own interests and purposes. It is the system, and the principle for which the system stands, to which we are opposed. The Roman Church is not a church after the gospel order. It is primarily a political system masquerading under the name of the church the better to serve its purpose.

That there are many excellent men and women connected with the Roman Catholic Church we do not deny. That there are many conscientious, earnest members in that church we verily believe. They are doing the best they know, and living up to all the light they possess. They are Christians, not because of the system to which they belong, but in spite of it; and for their enlightenment we should labor. We should seek to bring to them the joy of Christian faith, the experience of personal salvation in Christ Jesus which we ourselves have come to feel in our own hearts and lives. We cannot do this by ridicule or by condemnatory words. In love and patience and forbearance we must seek to save the lost wherever they may be found.

Note and Comment

Cost of the War

THE cost of the great European war in January 1 is estimated as twenty-six billion dollars. In the beginning of the conflict experts believed that the war would cost about fifty million dollars a day, but it has now reached the total of eighty million. Of this sum it is estimated that the Quadruple Entente will bear two thirds, and the Teutonic allies or Central Powers one third. Great Britain is largely financing her allies, and Austria, Turkey, and Bulgaria are largely dependent upon Germany for financial assistance.

This immense outlay can be provided for only by colossal taxation, taxation which will drag over many weary years, and prove a burden not only to the people now living, but to their children and children's children, if time should last. That the working out of these enormous war debts will not make for domestic peace and tranquillity goes without saying. The resources of the future are being taxed to supply the demands of the present, and what the future will answer to this exaction remains to be seen. The future holds no roseate hues. Whatever the outcome of the war, every nation must sooner or later cope with terrible burdens, grievous to be borne. Those who are looking to the future for the golden age in this world's history will hope in vain. This old world will know no peace this side of the coming of the Lord.

Catholic or Protestant

For some time it has been recognized that a strong Romanizing influence is at work in the Protestant Episcopal Church. There are those in that church who favor a closer alliance with the Church of Rome. The proposition that this church cooperate with other Protestant churches in the Panama Missionary Conference to be held in 1916, has emphasized anew the existence of this Catholic party which strongly opposes such cooperation. Some of the Episcopal clergymen, however, have very little sympathy with this Romanizing spirit. Dr. Karl Reiland, rector of St. George’s parish in New York, declares himself, according to the Northwestern Christian Advocate of January 5, in the following plain and unequivocal manner regarding the question:—

St. George’s church has stood for a hundred years for evangelical Protestant Christianity, and it has a peculiar right to protest against this ominous and Romanizing tendency in the church. The laity should be warned that there is a Catholic party, and that it is striving to devitalize the true Protestant character of the Episcopal Church. We should use every means in our power to organize and prevent any further misrepresentation. We should insist that if our Catholic friends cannot stand our Protestant atmosphere, they should move. We should make use of every opportunity to unite with other Protestant communions in the interests of spiritual common sense, efficiency, and economy at home and in the mission fields. Our attitude toward other communions is at fault, because whenever Christian unity is discussed, advocates for the word ‘Catholic’ and all that is implied thereby, who love to assert that ‘Catholic’ is our legal title, are unfortunately permitted to represent the Protestant Episcopal Church in a way that seriously misrepresents it.

The Advent Message of Revelation 14

By W. A. S.

THE gospel message for this time of the judgment hour is set forth in the vision of Revelation 14:—

“I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.”

“And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.”

“And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.”

“Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” Rev. 14: 6-12.

When this message has been heralded to all nations, according to the prophecy, the end will come. The next scene brought before the prophet’s vision was the coming of Christ to reap the harvest of the earth:—

“And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle.” Verse 14.

The Message

The outline of the message here given reveals certain main features:—

1. A Gospel Message.

It is not a new or another gospel. There is but one gospel. This message is “the everlasting gospel” in terms meeting the situation in the time of the judgment hour. The advent movement carries the blessed message of full salvation from sin by faith in Jesus Christ. Even the warnings uttered are to vibrate with the saving grace and winning power of God’s love in Christ Jesus our Lord.

2. A Solemn Warning.

The message is God’s final answer to the age-long perversions of his truth. In the vision of Daniel 8, the prophet was shown the working of apostasy in the latter times, as it “cast down the truth to the ground” and “practiced and prospered.” But in answer to the question, “How long?” the great prophetic period of the 2300 years was given, at the end of which (in 1844) the judgment work in heaven was to begin. When that work is finished, Christ’s glorious appearing will end the reign of sin and error.

And while the closing judgment work is proceeding in heaven, this message of the judgment hour lifts up on earth the standard of truths trodden underfoot, and the Lord utters his last warning against sin and apostasy. It is a terrible word that he speaks. Bengelius described it,—

That threatening pronounced which is the greatest in all the Scriptures, and which shall resound powerfully from the mouth of the third angel.—“Introduction to Apocalypse,” Preface XXIX (London, 1757).

The Lord is in earnest with men in this hour when the judgment, now passing on the dead, must soon seal the eternal destiny of all living. Hence the message challenges every soul to a decision. Looking forward to the time when this message should be due, John Wesley wrote:—

Happy are they who make the right use of these divine messages.—“Notes on New Testament,” on Revelation 14.

These warnings are part of the “everlasting gospel.” Whosoever, therefore, preaches the full gospel of Christ in these last days must sound this solemn call.

3. A Call to Loyalty to God.

“Fear God,” is the call. “Worship him.” In the preceding vision of the thirteenth chapter, the Lord had shown the prophet the work of an ecclesiastical power, symbolized by a leopardlike beast, whose mouth was to speak great things, and who was to persecute believers through long centuries, warring against God’s truth and his sanctuary. “All the world wondered after the beast,” the prophet said,—

“And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb.” Rev. 13: 8.

While worldly influence and the voice of popular religion exalt this ecclesiastical power and give glory to it, the gospel message calls all men to worship God.

“Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him. . . . If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark, . . . the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God.”

A Clear and Momentous Issue

The issue, it is clear, involves the question of authority. Shall God be recognized as supreme? or shall this ecclesiastical power whose rise and work were foretold in the prophecy, be recognized as the great authority?

1. The Work of the Papal Power.

Any comparison between this leopard beast of Revelation 13 and the “little horn” of the fourth beast of Daniel 7, shows plainly that it is the same power represented in each. The same voice is heard “speaking great things,” the same persecuting spirit is shown, the same warfare against God’s truth. It is the Roman Papacy, in its exaltation of the human authority above the divine, that “lawless one” of Paul’s prophecy, setting itself forth as God in the temple of God, treading underfoot the Word and the law of the Most High, as foretold by Daniel:—

“He shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and laws.” Dan. 7: 25.

Against the recognition of the assumed authority of this power, the gospel message of Revelation 14 lifts its solemn warning: “If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark.”

2. The Image to the Papacy.

What is this image? Plainly an image to the Papacy must be some religious authority or federation not organically of the Papacy itself, but adopting papal principles and seeking to enforce these

principles by civil power, just as the Papacy has ever done where possible. This development in likeness of the Papacy was shown the prophet in the latter part of the vision of Revelation 13. He saw the image formed, and in vision witnessed its determined efforts to enforce upon men the mark or sign of the Papacy:—

“He exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. . . . And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast.” Rev. 13: 12-17.

3. The Mark or Sign of Papal Authority.

The Roman Papacy sets forth the Sunday institution as the mark of the authority of the church to substitute ecclesiastical tradition and custom for the Word of God. Thus, Monsignor Segur’s “Plain Talk about the Protestantism of Today” says:—

The observance of Sunday by Protestants is an homage they pay, in spite of themselves, to the authority of the church.—Page 213.

It was to this change in the Sabbath by tradition, contrary to the plain command of God to keep holy the seventh day, that the famous Council of Trent appealed when it gave Rome’s answer to the Reformation cry of “The Bible and the Bible only.” All along the Sunday institution has been held forth as the mark of the power of the church to command religious observances. Thus, again, Keenan’s “Doctrinal Catechism” says:—

Question.—Have you any other way of proving that the church has power to institute festivals of precept?

Answer.—Had she not such power she could not have done that in which all modern religionists agree with her,—she could not have substituted the observance of Sunday, the first day of the week, for the observance of Saturday, the seventh day, a change for which there is no Scriptural authority.—Page 170.

The prophecy of Daniel declared that this power would “think” to change the times and laws of the Most High; and the change of the Sabbath commandment is set forth as the mark of the church’s authority above the written law of the Most High.

Most remarkable of all, Protestant organizations are defending the unscriptural observance of the humanly established first-day sabbath in contradiction to the law of God, which declares that “the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” And these organizations in denial of the Protestant principle of religious liberty, are seeking power to enforce Sunday observance by civil law. But this is to make a very image to the Roman Papacy—a church using the power of the state to enforce religious observances.

It was all foretold in the prophetic word. The prophet was shown (Rev. 13: 11-17) this likeness or image to the Papacy—ecclesiastical organizations not of the Papacy itself, but following papal principles in this matter—seeking to compel men to receive the mark of the papal apostasy.

Against the workings of both the Papacy and this image to the Papacy, the last message of the “everlasting gospel” lifts its warning cry:—

“If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God.”

It is the time of the judgment hour, when God was to lift up the standard of truths long trodden underfoot. In the heavenly sanctuary Christ’s closing judgment work is going forward, preparatory to his coming in consuming glory to end the reign of sin. On earth the Lord is sending the last gospel message to men, warning against sin and error, and calling all men to worship God, and to keep “the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.”

4. The Sign of Jehovah’s Authority.

God also has his sign or mark of authority. He bases his claims to supreme authority upon the fact of his creative power. As Creator, his is the authority and the power: “The Lord is the true God. . . . He hath made the earth by his power.” Jer. 10: 10, 12.

And the divinely established memorial of this creative power is the holy Sabbath. The Sabbath is the mark or sign of the true God:—

“Hallow my sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God.” Eze. 20: 20.

On the one side is the mark or sign of the apostasy from God, on the other the mark or sign of the living God. Which mark will men receive as the issue is pressed upon every soul for decision? On which side shall we stand? Under whose banner shall we be found when the judgment hour closes?

The message of Rev. 14: 6-14 is spreading to the world. Every year thousands of new voices join in telling it. Printing presses are printing this message in many lands. Schools and colleges in every continent are educating thousands of Seventh-day Adventist youth, keeping before them, as the highest aim in life, the hastening of the advent message of Revelation 14 to the world. Sanitariums in many parts are training medical missionary evangelists, ministering at the same time to the sick, and teaching the principles of Bible health and temperance. The movement necessarily emphasizes every principle and every truth of “the everlasting gospel,” while pressing upon all the solemn issue that loyalty to Christ now means to turn from unscriptural tradition to the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.

In times past Christian believers have been unwittingly following the lead of the Papacy in this matter; the Lord holds no man accountable for light that he did not have. Reformation is a progressive work. Of the past we may say with Paul: “The times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent: because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness.” Acts 17: 30, 31. Now, with this “hour of God’s judgment” already come, the entire covering of papal tradition is to be torn aside, and in every land believers will be found having the faith and keeping the commandments of God as Jesus comes in glory.

All this was shown to John on the Isle of Patmos,—the coming of the judgment hour, the rise of the advent movement, and the heralding of the last message to the nations.

What John saw in vision nearly two thousand years ago, we see fulfilling before our eyes today. It is not enough to see it. We must have a part in it, and be a part of it. W. A. S.

The Sabbath Day

By G. B. T.

UNDER the above caption the Michigan Christian Advocate in its issue of Dec. 11, 1915, takes Seventh-day Adventists to task for “trying to foist upon gullible people their peculiar interpretations of prophecy and their assumption as to the Saturday Sabbath.” With this introduction the writer proceeds to argue the Sabbath question, and show that Sunday is now the Christian sabbath. He cites extracts from some early historians such as Eusebius, Cyprian, Tertullian, Justin Martyr, and others, but fails to give chapter or verse where a command can be found in the Bible authorizing any one to keep Sunday. The historians cited contain no proof on this point either.

Speaking concerning the seventh day, the editor says:—

God never made any particular day holy. He specified a holy rest, but did not specify on what day of the week that holy rest should be observed.

Then if God never made any particular day holy, why does the learned editor of the Advocate seek to keep the first day of the week holy? If God never made it holy, men cannot. But it is remarkable that any one who has ever read the Bible and makes any pretensions to stating correctly what it says, should make such a

statement as the foregoing. Here is what God's Word does say:—

“On the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.” Gen. 2: 2, 3.

The editor of the Advocate says that “God never made any particular day holy.” God’s Word declares that Jehovah “blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it,” or, in other words, commanded its observance. Does the editor of the Advocate believe that the blessing of God is a real thing? And is not the seventh day a “particular day”? He believes that the first day of the week is a “particular day.” Then is not the seventh day a “particular day” also? If not, why not?

The editor further says, “Let any person open his Bible and find, if he can, a Sabbath command specifying ‘the seventh day of the week.’ It is not there. The phrase ‘seventh day’ is there, but not the seventh day of the week.”

If the phrase “seventh day” does not mean the seventh day of the week, we should be pleased to have the editor tell us of what it is the seventh day. Is it the seventh day of a century, of a year, or of a month? He says it is not the seventh day of the week. It must be the seventh day of some cycle of time. Of what cycle, pray tell us, if not of the week? It is a mere dodge, to contend that this is not the weekly cycle. The following from ‘Binney’s Theological Compend’ is of interest here. In speaking of the Sabbath, Dr. Binney says:—

The day appointed of God, at the close of creation, to be observed by man as a day of rest from all secular employment, because that in it God himself had rested from his work. Gen. 2: 1-3. Not that God’s rest was necessitated by fatigue (Isa. 40: 28); but he rested, that is, ceased to work, on the seventh day as an example to man; hence assigned it as a reason why men should rest on that day. Ex. 30: 11; 31: 17.

The reason here assigned, that we should keep the Sabbath to commemorate the work of creation, is quite correct. This reason the Lord incorporated in the fourth precept of the decalogue when he handed it down in written form from Sinai’s burning summit. It was instituted at creation and kept centuries before Israel left Egypt, and in no way commemorates their deliverance from their national bondage. The Passover was instituted for this purpose. See Deut. 16: 1-3.

‘The Passover commemorated the deliverance out of Egypt when Jehovah passed over Israel, protecting them from the destroying angel.’—Bible Cyclopedia, Fausset.

Yet the editor of the Advocate goes on to say that the Sabbath which was kept for more than two millenniums before the Jewish nation existed is the institution that commemorates the deliverance from bondage in Egypt instead of the Passover which the Word of God explicitly declares was instituted for this express purpose.

In speaking concerning the Sabbath example of the apostle Paul, the Advocate editor says:—

Paul said, “For we which have believed do enter into rest.” They kept the resurrection day, the first day of the week, as their Sabbath.

Paul gave this holy and memorable day his approval.

In Troas “upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them.” Sunday had become a day of religious worship among Christians even then.

It is extremely sad for a religious guide to make such misleading statements as the above. They are utterly subversive of the truth. Where does the Scripture say that the apostles kept the first day of the week? Where is the text which affirms that Paul gave his sanction to keeping Sunday? We are told that he taught in the synagogue on the Sabbath day. See Acts 13: 42, 43; 17: 1, 2; 18: 1-11. Inspiration calls the day on which Paul taught in the synagogue the Sabbath. The meeting cited at Troas was an evening meeting, held on what we now call Saturday night, and Sunday morning Paul left on foot for Assos, about twenty miles away, where he met the other disciples and continued his journey. On this Conybeare and Howson say:—

Strength and peace were surely sought and obtained by the apostle from the Redeemer, as he pursued his lonely road that Sunday afternoon in spring, among the oak woods and the streams of Ida.

Candor compels the learned authors above quoted, although themselves observers of the first day of the week, to admit that Paul did not observe it on this occasion, but left Troas on the morning of the first day of the week in pursuance of his regular work. This is rather a slim foundation on which to construct an argument to blot out the Sabbath made and kept by the Son of God and all holy men of God through the ages.

Further on the editor of the Advocate in the article under review says:—

Resurrection Sunday was established as the Sabbath of Christianity two hundred and fifty years before Constantine issued his edict concerning the Sabbath, and five hundred and twenty-five years before the Bishop of Rome was designated as Pope. Constantine by his edict simply legalized the Christian Sabbath in the Roman Empire. The Romish popes had nothing to do with founding the Sunday Sabbath of Christianity. The founding was done by the apostles themselves.

Text, please. Where are we told in the Scriptures that Sunday was “established as the Sabbath of Christianity”? or that the “founding was done by the apostles themselves”? Why are we not cited to the place in the Bible where proof of this can be found? The reason is because there is no Scriptural proof to confirm this assertion. We ask the editor of the Advocate in all sincerity for,—

One text that says the first day of the week is the Sabbath.
One text that commands Christians to keep this day as a day of rest and worship.
One text that says it is a sin to labor on this day.
One text that says Jesus ever kept this day as the Sabbath, or enjoined any one else to do so.
One text that shows he ever mentioned the day when on earth.
One text that says any of his followers, while he was in the world, kept the first day as a day of rest.
One text that affirms that any of the apostles ever kept the day.
One text from any of their writings which authorizes its observance.
One text that gives any instruction as to how the first day of the week should be observed as a day of rest.
One text that applies to Sunday any sacred title whatever, or pronounces any penalty for its desecration.
One text that commands us to refrain from labor on Sunday, or promises any reward for its observance.
One text that says the seventh day is not now God’s holy rest day.
One text that states when, where, and by whom the seventh-day Sabbath was abolished.
One text that says the seventh day was the Sabbath for the Jews only.
One text that calls the seventh-day Sabbath the “Jewish Sabbath.”
One text that says the seventh day is not as holy and honorable today as when made at creation, or when the precept for its observance was written by the finger of God on stone at Sinai.
One text that tells us that the fourth commandment or any part of the moral law written by Jehovah on stone, has been abrogated, and hence is not binding.

Our contention is that the Bible is the sole authority on the Sabbath question. It must tell us which day is the Sabbath, for whom made, and how it should be observed. The editor of the Advocate must agree to this, or abandon the Protestant ground of the Bible and the Bible only as the Christian’s guide.

G. B. T.

Mission Funds

By W. T. Knox

HEREWITH is submitted, with much gratification on the part of the writer, the report of receipts on the Twenty-cent-a-week Fund for the year 1915. The report is worthy of the careful consideration of all readers of the REVIEW AND HERALD. The gifts of the denomination in North America have been based on the membership for 1913, which is

given as 68,478, which should have resulted in donations to the amount of $701,402, after making an allowance for the colored membership of 826 in the Southern Union, 706 in the Southeastern, 226 in the Southwestern, and 108 in Virginia, whose gifts were based on fifteen cents a week instead of twenty.

With this exception in favor of the colored membership in the South, the object at which we aimed was to secure from each member in North America, first the equivalent of fifteen cents a week for foreign missions, and second the equivalent of five cents a week for the relief of our training schools. Six union conferences have paid into the treasury in excess of the amount required. Of these, three—the Atlantic, the Eastern Canadian, and the Northern—make the excellent showing of every local conference in their territories remitting in excess of the amount required, while for the first time since the present plan has been inaugurated, every union conference has raised its full portion for foreign missions, thus supplying to the General Conference treasury for its world-wide work the sum of $524,838.60, and for the relief of our institutions in North America, $167,639.11.

Of the seventy local conferences and two mission fields, thirty-six, or one half, have raised in excess of the full amount required. The remaining thirty-six show a combined shortage of $69,312.08. Without doubt a much better showing would have been made in the Central and Pacific Unions had it not been that other and special campaigns were being carried on by them for the relief of their schools.

Taking the report as a whole, it is one that should bring courage to the hearts of all. It does give great satisfaction to the officers of the General and North American Division Conferences. It has placed in the treasury of the General Conference every dollar they requested for their operations for 1915, and makes it possible to turn back into the twelve union conferences $167,639.11 for the benefit of their training schools, which will in some instances place their schools entirely free from debt.

A new year is already upon us, bringing to us increased responsibilities in our mission fields, where great expansion in our work has been planned for this year. It has been agreed that the North American membership shall be asked to give to missions, as formerly, at the rate of fifteen cents a week a member; and for the relief of our institutions, five cents a week; and that all in excess of this shall also go to foreign missions. The Mission Board has appointed for 1916 to the fields dependent upon it in a very liberal manner, trusting that the liberality and devotion of our people will enable them to meet these appropriations. It has been repeatedly demonstrated that the greatest success in this work is found with those conferences whose officers begin their efforts early in the year, and keep at it constantly, educating the people to give systematically, and according as God has prospered them, thus hastening the coming of the day of the Lord.

W. T. KNOX.

Continue reading: Statement of Twenty-Cent-a-Week Fund for Year Ending