Review and Herald, Vol. 84, No. 7. (2/14/1907)

Review and Herald

Feb 14, 1907

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 14, 1907

The Law of God

Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

Thou shalt not make unto thee a graven image, nor any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them; for I Jehovah thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generation of them that hate me, and showing loving-kindness unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.

Thou shalt not take the name of Jehovah thy God in vain; for Jehovah will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

‘Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is a sabbath unto Jehovah thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days Jehovah made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore Jehovah blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long in the land which Jehovah thy God giveth thee.

Thou shalt not kill.

Thou shalt not commit adultery.

Thou shalt not steal.

Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor’s.

Our Publishing Work

By Editor

The Lord gave the word: great was the company of those that published it. Psalm 68:11.

THE Review and Herald Publishing Association has manufactured a supply of Vest Pocket Memorandum Books, which have been named “Memory Annex.” These are so constructed that when the blank paper is all used, a new supply can be added in the form of a paper-bound tablet of 75 pages of good stock, 2½ by 5½ inches. The permanent cover of the Annex is made of durable, flexible, red leather, which will last for years. The cover and one filler sells for 25 cents, post-paid. The fillers can be supplied, post-paid, for five cents each. The Memory Annexes and the fillers can be ordered through the regular channels.

IT will soon be the time of the year when increased efforts will be made in the organizing of Sabbath-school kindergarten classes. We wish to call the attention of our readers to “Bible Object Lessons and Songs for Little Ones.” This excellent kindergarten book contains 52 lessons, one for each Sabbath in the year, with suggestions accompanying each lesson; 39 songs and hymns written for the lessons; 36 full-page pictures, 6 × 8 half-tones, and colored plates; 52 pen drawings, showing the use of the illustrative material. The whole book contains 160 pages, beautifully printed and profusely illustrated. The book is bound in four styles,—board cover, 7½ by 10 inches in size, $1.50; blue cloth, $2; lemon edge, royal edition, $2.75; gilt edges, panel size, $3.75.

WE call the special attention of the REVIEW readers to the February number of Life and Health, which offers some suggestions on, How to Overcome Constipation; How to Remedy an Unhappy Life; it stimulates faith in Christ’s power to heal; cites some of the evils that come to our children through improper reading and objectionable companions; sounds a note of warning against the tendencies unfavorable to the home and the family; gives a judge’s reasons for the downfall of boys and girls. It contains Questions and Answers on, Alcohol in Candy; Removal of Tonsils; Cough Medicine for Children; Poor Circulation; The Age of Healthful Bread; Jaundice; Ulcer of the Stomach; Shortness of Breath; Diseased Tonsils; Nasal Catarrh; Effect of Cooking Food, etc.; Editorials on, False Claims Made Through Newspapers; Advertisements for the Cure of Special Diseases; Some Enemies of Reform; Two Reasons for the Use of Alcohol Examined; Sleep for the Children; Changes in Methods of Treatment; What Rheumatic People Should Eat: Current Comment on, The Anti-Alcohol Movement Among Students and Practitioners; Paralyzing the Leucocytes; A Deadly Fallacy; The Venereal Peril; Unclean Newspapers; Smallpox and Vaccination; A Time for Study and a Time for Sleep; The New Dietary; Reading in Bed; The Earthquake Cure; Some Uses of Cottonseed Oil, etc.; Household Suggestions on Unfermented Bread; reports of the advancement of healthful living in foreign countries, and a large collection of instructive News Notes. This number of Life and Health costs only 5 cents, but its value can not be estimated in dollars and cents. Sample copies free.

ALL the readers of the REVIEW are familiar with “Christ in Song,” by F. E. Belden, which contains 414 pages with over 700 hymns set to music, embracing nearly all the old favorite songs with many new ones. It contains twice as many hymns and songs as are found in the average Sabbath-school song-book. It is bound more securely, and is furnished at the following prices: One or more copies, post-paid, in heavy flexible cloth, 35 cents; in paper-covered boards, with attractive ink design, red edges, heavy canvas back, 40 cents; in canvas-covered boards, aluminum title, red edges, 50 cents; in half morocco, gold title, $1.

WE again call attention to “Bible Hero Classics,” a series of twelve covered pamphlets containing ethical Biblical stories of Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Joshua, Samuel, Solomon, Elijah-Elisha, Daniel, Ruth-Esther, Samson-Gideon, Moses, and David. In bringing out this series of stories it is the author’s purpose to make this generation as well acquainted with these principal Bible characters as with Alexander, Caesar, King Arthur, etc. It is hoped that thousands of parents and teachers will take advantage of the “Classics,” in order to introduce the inimitable stories of the Bible to the young people. It is believed these thrilling stories will be read by the youth, instead of the many harmful stories, if they can only be placed in their possession. The books have been critically examined by competent persons, and are pronounced clean and good. The Review and Herald will sell them in full sets, post-paid, for 80 cents.

WE can thoroughly equip kindergarten class rooms with furniture, and material with which to illustrate the lessons given in “Bible Object Lessons and Songs for Little Ones.” We can furnish substantial hard top tables with folding legs and inside cabinet for material, sufficiently large to seat eight children and the teacher, at $3.75, freight or express extra. We can furnish little chairs for the children for 60 cents for the 14-inch, and 50 cents for the 12-inch, with freight or express extra. We can also furnish three boxes of kindergarten material, which make teaching comparatively easy. Boxes 1 and 2 contain hard maple blocks cut into cubes, halves, quarters, squares, and oblongs. Box 3 contains 10 miniature sheep, 30 mounted sticks to represent men (10 of them children), green French tissue-paper for representing water, cones, domes, and green splints for river outlines and tree-building. Where the three boxes are ordered with one book, the purchaser receives free a portfolio of blackboard sketches on the life of Christ, which will materially aid in drawing. The three boxes of material, express paid, $1.75.

Orders for any publication mentioned on this page may be sent to any conference tract society, or to Review and Herald Publishing Association; Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C., or Battle Creek, Mich.

Also Pacific Press Publishing Company, Mountain View, Cal.; Portland, Ore.; Kansas City, Mo.; Southern Publishing Association, Nashville, Tenn., and Fort Worth, Tex.

“The East and West”

As would naturally be expected, the decision of the San Francisco school authorities to exclude the Japanese from certain grades of the public schools of that city arouses much interest in Japan, and is a subject of discussion in the papers of the country. The action in this matter has opened up the whole race question, and the future relation between the nations of the Western world and those of the East.

As indicating something of the trend of feeling from the Japanese view-point, not only upon the school question, but also upon the broader question of the attitude of Japan toward the civilization of Europe and America, we quote at some length from an editorial in the issue of the Japan Times for Dec. 27, 1906. The whole article is of much interest, but it is too long for our use entire. We will therefore confine our extract to the following paragraphs:—

We have said it is both misleading and unjust to include Japan unqualifiedly in the designation “Orientals.” We do not say this from a mere sense of self-importance. There were days when we saw with a feeling of abhorrence Western men and women shake hands or walk arm in arm. Then kissing appeared absolutely immoral to us, while the act of walking into houses with shoes or boots on was evidence to us of the inferiority of the Western race. What a host of other practises and usages we might recall of Europeans and Americans that once shocked our sense of decency and politeness! But they no longer do so, and for good or bad we ourselves are rapidly adopting these manners.

So long as those practises and usages disgusted us, they formed so many sources that fed and fanned our prejudice against the Westerners; but they no longer disgust us, and this turn of affairs is the most conclusive proof that the anti-foreign spirit is dead and gone in Japan.

We have for a long time shared with the other nations of the Orient the sense of being humiliated by the West. But unlike the others, young Japan started her career with a hope, resolution, and faith that she would outlive the period of self-resignation, win a place of respect and consideration in the world, and that by her silent and unremitting exertion for self-betterment.

We are now on a fair way toward the accomplishment of this aspiration, with reasonably encouraging prospects before us, and we have nothing to complain of.

And taught by our past, we look with disdain on all hot-headed attempts and noisy clamorings which often characterize the doings of our fellow Asiatics.

If there is a caste of the East, we have freed ourselves of its shackles, and we are not Orientals in that respect.

In our relations with the West, there is, therefore, nothing on account of which we should be disposed to entertain any social antipathy toward the nations of Europe or America. If the accident of complexion is to be insisted upon as a mark of our racial inferiority, we will not stop at pitying the innocence of those who adhere to such a proposition, but will yet strive to disprove the allegation in a manner as will do credit to our past.

The racial problem, then, in so far as we Japanese are concerned, is one that does not affect us so much as the mode of thinking or the way of looking at things on the part of the Westerners.

We have hinted above as to our attitude toward the rest of the Oriental nations. In view of the spirit of restlessness now observable throughout those countries, it will be well to be definite on this point. We have gained new prestige since the late war, and this has given new power and influence. There seems to be a vague feeling among a section of Westerners that we will use this power and influence in setting the East against the West.

The idea is absurd on the face of it. To incite the East against the West, with Japan as the rallying-point, will be to make this country the vortex of the mad whirl of vast Asia, untrained, unsystematized, mob Asia, and Japan would be drawn up into the waterspout, then dashed and ruined before she could lead the hordes in battle array. Japan would not be so foolish. If Japan is at all inclined to exert her power and influence outside her own limits, it will be always in restraint and guidance, and to promote better understandings between the East and the West. For all this disposition on our part, which is sincere and genuine, it is in the power of the West to distrust and blackmail and ultimately compel her to throw in her lot with the East and rise or fall with the East. Then the responsibility will be on the West. But with England as our ally, the United States as our most trusted friend, France coming to the side of world’s peace, and Germany knowing us better, such a turn of events will never occur.

There are some statements in this quotation which are worthy of special attention as being the utterances of a Japanese who exerts a molding influence among his own people. It is declared to be the purpose of Japan to win “a place of respect and consideration in the world, and that by her silent and unremitting exertion for self-betterment.” This representative Japanese further states that “we look with disdain on all hot-headed attempts and noisy clamorings which often characterize the doings of our fellow Asiatics.” As to the influence of Japan upon the other nations of the East, this writer says: “If Japan is at all inclined to exert her power and influence outside her own limits, it will be always in restraint and guidance, and to promote better understandings between the East and the West.” At the same time this writer recognizes the possibility that the Western nations may compel Japan “to throw in her lot with the East and rise or fall with the East,” but in such a case as that he affirms that “the responsibility will be on the West.”

The views expressed in this editorial are such as ought to command the respect and confidence of all candid thinkers, and especially those in the Occident who profess to regard it as a part of their duty to give the gospel to Japan. In proportion to the light which they have received, the Japanese are more clearly revealing some of the fundamental principles of the gospel than are some of those in the West to whom the people of the far East are looking for help in their effort for “self-betterment.”

We earnestly hope that those who know the message for this generation, which is the one thing that Japan needs more than anything else, will feel their responsibility to impart the saving gospel to those who are thus looking expectantly toward the West for something better.

Editorial

By Editor

Loving and Hating

RIGHTEOUSNESS is to be loved, and iniquity is to be hated. Righteousness is to be loved to such a degree that it will be revealed in the life, and iniquity is to be hated to such a degree that even the appearance of it will be avoided. “Ye that love the Lord, hate evil.” The love of righteousness is to be cultivated, and the hatred of iniquity is to be stimulated. The natural man loves iniquity, and hates righteousness. Only love incarnate can work a transformation in human nature. Are we loving and hating according to the Scriptures?

The Study of Missions

By W. A. S.

THE best material for the study of missions will be found in the reports, warm and fresh from the hearts of our workers in the fields, who are face to face with the needs, and who tell us of the onward march of this cause.

These reports from the fields ought really to be studied, not merely read. One needs to have conveniently near an atlas of the world, so that the significance of every onward move may be well understood. The incidents and experiences described, and the plans outlined by our missionaries, furnish weekly material for missionary and prayer meetings. Their proper study will keep the missionary zeal burning brightly in every heart.

Of literature on our missions in book form we shall doubtless soon have something. Our missionary history is just now rapidly in the making. For the benefit of teachers in our schools, the Mission Board some time ago put out a little pamphlet, “Outline of Mission Fields,” giving the barest record of facts regarding the opening of our different missions and the growth up to recent times. A call has been made for publication in book form of the more comprehensive studies on the beginnings of our missions which have been appearing in the Instructor from the pen of Sister L. F. Plummer.

A helpful book, which will be especially appreciated by leaders of missionary meetings, is “The Missionary Idea,” by Mrs. A. E. Ellis. (Published by the Union College Press, College View, Neb. Price, 75 cents.) The author has given special study to the home end of the foreign missionary idea for many years. As missionary secretary years ago in Minnesota, I believe, she inaugurated the second-Sabbath missionary study which has been adopted throughout our churches. Its many chapters give abundant variety of helpful suggestions, incidents, and Bible studies on missions. The book has been a labor of love for the cause of missions. It gives not simply the facts, but earnestly seeks to fasten the root idea of missions in our hearts and consciences.

For systematic study of the great heathen fields, their history, tribes, and their opening by missions, the volumes of the Student Volunteer Movement are most interesting, excellent, and very cheap. For 35 cents each, one can procure the following: “Africa: Daybreak in the Dark Continent,” “India and its Christian Opportunity,” “China: Dawn on the Hills of T’ang,” and “Sunrise in the Sunrise Kingdom” (Japan). The office of the Movement is 3 West Twenty-ninth St., New York City.

There is every facility for keeping informed as to the situation and needs of the great unwarned fields.

W. A. S.

Marshalling the Forces for the Fray

By C. M. S.

In view of the position now taken by many professed Protestants regarding the Church of Rome, it is necessary from time to time to refer to statements which Catholics make, outlining their true position. We are frequently told that the Roman Church of to-day is very different in her feelings toward those not of “the fold” from what she used to be; that she is far more liberal; that she would not to-day repeat her dark deeds of yesterday. Building on this belief, professed Protestants are drawing toward Rome, fondly imagining that Rome is deserting her past and drawing near to their standard. The motion they think they see is as unreal as the most deceptive mirage.

But we will let Rome speak for herself, and tell us what we might expect from her were she in power to-day. We take the following extract from Libre Parole, a Jesuit, anti-Jewish journal of Paris:—

“The anti-Semites [they are speaking of themselves] do not blame the Inquisition. . . . They are convinced it assured the grandeur and independence of Spain; and their first care, if they were in power, would be to establish a tribunal which should be, it is true, exclusively laic [carried out by the laity], but which would much resemble the Spanish Inquisition.”

That is to say, they would have an Inquisition carried out by the laity, in order to relieve the church of the charge of burning and torturing “heretics.” As in days gone by, the clerical conclave would declare a man a “heretic,” and the civil power would put him to death for being such. But the church would see to it that the state carried out its part of the program. The fact that the church, rather than the state, is advocating such a conspiracy against liberty and life, shows plainly who would be the actuating factor in the capital punishment that would result to the man who chose to think and worship as his conscience dictated. That church has long disavowed its responsibility for the death of the millions of Christians who suffered during the Dark Ages. That church would make the state responsible for the whole transaction, disguising the fact that the state was but the tool of the church in it all. That church knew that its pronouncement of heresy against any person was the signal for the state to execute him.

In the light of this declaration of Libre Parole, is it any wonder that the French government to-day is seeking to teach the church its place? The wonder is that the nations of earth have submitted to her domination as long as they have; and that professed Protestants are to-day uniting with that power to bring about clerical interference with the affairs of this country and with the religious practises of its people. In the light of the facts the toadying of Protestants to Romanism is unexplainable. The gulf between the two bodies is narrowing so rapidly that it scarcely requires bridging to step across. Recently Father Esper, of the Roman Catholic church of St. Joseph, Mich., invited the ministers of the Protestant churches of St. Joseph and Benton Harbor to meet in his church in the interests of a campaign for better Sunday-keeping. They accepted, and a resolution was passed in harmony with that purpose. The National Reformers have expressed their willingness to join hands with Rome for Sunday enforcement. Recent reports from England state that the Roman Catholic Church, the Church of England, and the non-conformists have joined in a campaign for “better Sunday observance.” The labor unions and the churches are preparing for joint work along the line of compulsory Sunday rest.

In spite of the seeming setback which the Roman Church is now receiving in Europe, there are forces quietly working along definite lines, the result of which will be to bring the world under the domination of Rome. The present attitude of professed Protestantism in this country and certain developments in Great Britain are directly along this line; and the influence of Rome in politics at the present time is an indication of her aim and an earnest of her success in bringing the world to her feet. An apathy, both dangerous and deceptive, has come over the Protestant world. Barriers are melting away which will eventually throw formal Protestantism into the arms of Rome. This is not the dream of an alarmist. It is what is coming—coming with a swift and powerful current, and coming soon. And he only is safe who refuses allegiance to the rapidly forming confederacy, keeping “the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.”

When tempted, under stress of great trial, to lose heart and hope, remember the promise of God: “I, Jehovah, have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thy hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles.” Isa. 42:6, 7

C. M. S.

A Brief Account of Its History in the Development of the Cause of the Third Angel’s Message

By A. G. Daniells

Organization—No. 3

A Brief Account of Its History in the Development of the Cause of the Third Angel’s Message

WHILE the people who had suffered such bitter disappointment because the Lord did not come as they had expected in 1844, were being scattered, and the leaders in the message were endeavoring to establish some sort of organization, or “associated action,” as they termed it, to aid in holding them together and harmonizing their sentiments, there were some who were earnestly seeking and fervently praying for a Scriptural explanation of that great movement. They could not believe that the message they had received and proclaimed was a deception and a fraud. They had seen nothing that had disproved the correctness of the fundamental truths of the message. They would not reject what they could not prove to be false; and, moreover, they refused to repudiate the personal religious experience they had enjoyed while believing and teaching the message.

Among those who turned to the Scriptures with their hearts set on finding a true, consistent explanation of that terrible disappointment under the first angel’s message were Joseph Bates and James White and his wife. The earnest, prayerful study of these servants of God was soon rewarded. They began to awaken to the fact that there was a third angel’s message which was to follow the first and second messages which they had given. The study of the third message led to a study of the whole sanctuary question, and this gave the desired explanation of the entire movement, including the disappointment, under the first and second messages.

The relief and joy that came to their hearts with this new-found light was beyond all expression. As a natural consequence they yearned to make this explanation known to others. As they endeavored to give to their friends and neighbors the truth they had discovered, it became clearer, and grew larger to them, until a beautiful, harmonious, convincing system of truth was developed, which has found its way to all lands, and has won the confidence, love, and loyalty of thousands of men and women.

The dawning of the light of the third angel’s message was to mark the beginning of a new religious movement. The church must again proclaim a definite message “before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.” Rev. 14:6; 10:11. That great world-wide movement was inaugurated by those humble believers to whom the time, place, and meaning of the third angel’s message was revealed. Perhaps no great movement in the history of God’s people had ever started in such apparent weakness as did this one. The first believers

in the third message were few in number, and had but few friends who sympathized with them. They had no facilities of any kind with which to carry forward their work, and they were penniless. The only possible course open to them was house-to-house visitation among such of their old friends and fellow believers as would listen to them. They made use of this one opportunity. The message had power. Many of their friends were convinced that they had the truth, and joined them in obeying it and in making it known to others. As their numbers increased, they were able to come together for local and general meetings. Men went out as preachers at their own expense, companies of believers were established here and there, printing was undertaken, and the circle of their operations continually widened. Schools were established, medical missionary work was begun, and foreign missionary enterprises were entered upon.

At the beginning of this movement, little thought was given to the question of organization. In the first place, there was very little if anything that called for system or organization, and in the second place the majority of those who first connected with the movement had been in the movement under the first angel’s message, where organization had no place, and by whose leaders it was looked upon with disfavor.

But there came a time when some of the leaders in this new movement became convinced that there should be established some sort of organization securing order, system, and intelligent co-operation in carrying forward the work. Elder James White was among the first to recognize this need. As editor of the REVIEW AND HERALD, the one general paper of the believers, he occasionally made mention of the lack of order, harmony, and system that existed. He wrote an editorial now and then on “Gospel Order,” which indicated the trend of his thoughts. But it was not until 1860, fifteen years after the cause was inaugurated, that the first definite suggestion was made in the church paper that steps should be taken to establish some form of organization for safeguarding and advancing the interests of the cause.

At the time this suggestion was made, there were several thousands of believers, and some twenty or thirty regular ministers. The cause had been carried as far west in the States as Minnesota and Iowa. Two regular papers were being published, a small printing-house had been built, and equipped with machinery, and a number of small meeting-houses had been erected. And yet there was nothing in the way of organization. No name had been chosen by which the

believers might be known or designated as a people. No church organization had been effected. The believers met together wherever they could, and conducted services as they thought best. There were no regularly established church-members nor officers. There was no way of determining who were accredited representatives of the people, and no regular nor adequate means of support provided for the ministers who were known to be true. No provision was made for legally holding the church buildings nor the property of any general institution. Nor was there any way by which wills, legacies, etc., could be made secure to the cause. About six thousand dollars of resources had accrued to the publishing plant, yet it belonged to no one unless it might be Elder White, who acted as publishing agent. Financial obligations had been created, but no one was legally responsible for them.

In view of such a situation, it is not surprising that some of the brethren on whose shoulders the heaviest responsibilities of the cause rested, began to demand that some plan of organization be adopted by which this chaos might be transformed into order.

A. G. DANIELLS.

An Open Door

By G. B. Thompson

“AND this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” Matt. 24:14.

In portraying to his questioning disciples the signs of the end, the Saviour looked down the ages and saw, among other signs, that all nations would open their doors to the gospel, and that it would be preached as a witness. Then, he said, the end will come.

This significant sign of the coming consummation none who look can fail to discern. The gospel is being preached in all the world. Its very closing notes, the last message men will ever hear, the gospel of the kingdom, the gospel announcing the advent of the King—the rightful heir—and the establishment of the eternal kingdom are being carried speedily into all nations.

For many years China stood as an acknowledged Gibraltar of the heathen world. As one missionary lay dying of fever off the forbidden coast of China, he is said to have exclaimed, “O rock, rock! when wilt thou open?” Another, as he stood gazing at her inaccessible mountains, said, “O mighty fortress! when shall these impenetrable brazen gates of thine be broken through?”

In 1819, when the translation of the Chinese Bible was completed, Robert Morrison said, “I trust that the gloomy darkness of pagan skepticism will be dispelled by the Dayspring from on high.

and that the gilded idols of Buddha and the numberless images which fill the land will one day assuredly fall to the ground before the force of God’s Word, as the idol Dagon fell before the ark. These are my anticipations, although there appears not the least opening at present.”

The hope of this great missionary hero has, however, come to pass. This non-Christian fortress has been captured, and there is an open door in dark Sinim. When Morrison was once sneeringly asked if he expected to make an impression on the idolatry of this great empire, he said, “No, sir; I expect God will.” And God has made an impression.

And what is true of China is true also of other nations. The darkest portions of the earth are being entered. The last message is sounding, and the Macedonian cry, “Come over and help us,” is being heard out of the midst of the darkness.

It is true that there are difficulties, some of which seem insurmountable, and the stupendous work to be done seems appalling, yet it will be finished, even in this generation, hoary though it be with age. Valiant soldiers of the cross are needed who will enter the “open doors,” and push the work of the “mystery of God.”

There are two hundred million Mohammedans in the world. Less than a century ago there was not a single Christian worker in any Moslem land. To-day almost every Moslem city is being entered. The Bible has been translated into every language in the Mohammedan world, whereas the Koran is only in the Arabic. How shall this great Mohammedan world hear the last message? The problem is great, but the Author of the gospel is a Being of unlimited power and resources.

Morrison prayed that the Lord would station him in that portion of the field where the difficulties were the greatest. There is an “open door” in the Mohammedan world, and workers are needed to enter here. May the blessed Lord send forth laborers into the harvest-field.

G. B. THOMPSON.

Note and Comment

While the report of the Royal Commission on the matter of the illegality of present practises of the Church of England is still hanging over the Anglican Church, a hymnal has been published which is adding fuel to the flames of the controversy. The Archbishop of Canterbury and seven of the bishops of the Anglican Church are using their influence against the new hymnal, and in some instances have prohibited its use. Their reason is that sacerdotalism and the worship of Mary are so flagrant that “no one respecting the teaching of Scripture or the content of the Book of Common Prayer can tolerate their use in the Church of England.” On the other hand, the “Catholic party” in that church declares that to give up the use of these hymns and the hymnal would “weaken the defense of Catholic doctrine in regard to the eucharist and the faithful departed.” The “Catholic party” inside the Church of England will not give up without a struggle the ground it has won in its effort to turn the Church of England over to the domination of the Church of Rome. The report of the Royal Commission of investigation into the present rituals of the church indicates that the “Catholic party” has been gaining ground rapidly in the matter of introducing Roman rituals into the Anglican Church services. No action has yet been taken upon the report of the Royal Commission. This lack of action would indicate that the government has found so large a task in the matter that it will move slowly and cautiously — if at all.

Christendom’s Union Under Papal Control

THE tendency toward a union of Christendom under papal control is recognized by others than Seventh-day Adventists, as will be seen by the following from a paper published at Allegheny, Pa.:—

A paper on “Present Tendencies of Romanism” was read before the Presbyterian ministers’ association yesterday by Rev. Dr. Daniel Russell, pastor of the Bellefield church. Dr. Russell said the paper had grown out of his experience while being nursed through an attack of typhoid fever in a Catholic hospital in Rome.

Dr. Russell said he believed the present-day tendency is toward a union of Christendom. He stated that the Catholic and Protestant churches are not so far apart as many people think; that nine tenths of the doctrines and practises of the two bodies are identical.

Dr. Russell does not look with disapproval upon this union, and yet he knows, as all Christendom must know, that such union can not come without a recognition of the pope’s authority and infallibility, and an acceptance of all the claims he makes as vicegerent of the Son of God and “corrector of heretics.” There is much truth in what Dr. Russell says. The greater portion of professed Protestantism has never completely thrown aside the unscriptural teachings of the Roman Church, such as infant baptism, the keeping of Sunday, the immortality of the soul, and the eternal torment of the wicked. While these children of the papacy have been fostered, the “protest” of Protestantism has been stronger in name than it has in fact. Therefore the present strong drift back toward Rome is not to be wondered at. The drawing together of the two bodies is not a mutual movement. Rome stands where she always has stood, and apostate Protestantism is moving slowly but surely into the shadow of her tabernacle. It is no time for us to lose hope while the prophecies of God’s Word are working out before our eyes.

The Seven Day Slave

UNDER the title, “The Seven Day Slave,” the Home Herald (Ram’s Horn) of February 6, says:—

The oldest institution in the world is the Sabbath. Before God established the church, before he planted the family in Eden, he set apart the seventh day for rest. He also hallowed it. That made it holy.

The Sabbath is unique among religious institutions in that it is older than all religions, and it is therefore incumbent upon all the race to observe it, whether Jewish, Christian, Buddhist, or pagan.

God is not particular about the particular day, but he does insist on this principle, that one seventh of our time is to be devoted to rest and recuperation, and readjustment of body, mind, and spirit.

This divine injunction against ceaseless toil lies not only in the commandments uttered on Sinai; it is inherent in the constitution of our being. The man or nation that breaks that injunction is guilty of contempt of court, and pays a penalty by losing vigor of body and mind, and by losing the fine sense of susceptibility to the divine,—the touch with the unseen which comes from close communion with God.

Presumption could hardly go further than it has gone in this. The law of this land means what the Supreme Court declares it to mean. And here is a self-arrogated supreme court sitting upon the law of God, declaring the meaning of its phraseology and the extent of its functions. God has given a very particular law, and designated a particular day to be observed. He gave Israel many evidences of his intention regarding the day he appointed. That he was particular about it is shown in the penalties imposed upon those who disregarded the Sabbath law. But the Home Herald, with the generality of Christendom, has in effect, pronounced this part of the law of God unconstitutional, and given an interpretation of God’s intentions which the spirit of Inspiration did not deign to do. It is true that the man who does not regard the Sabbath loses “the fine sense of susceptibility to the divine.” It is also true that he who passes upon the constitutionality of the law of God and interprets it to suit his own convenience loses “the fine sense of susceptibility to the divine.” There is more in the Sabbath of Jehovah than resting one day in seven. There is the matter of obedience or disobedience to the command of God; and there can be no greater “contempt of court” than that shown in the extract above.

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