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Review and Herald, Vol. 83, No. 35.

Fundamental Gospel Principles

Review and Herald

Aug 30, 1906

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Aug 30, 1906

Fundamental Gospel Principles

God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have eternal life. John 3:16.
He that believeth on the Son hath eternal life; but he that obeyeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him, Verse 36.
And [the jailer] brought them out and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved, thou and thy house. Acts 16:30, 31.
All have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God; being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God set forth to be a propitiation, through faith, in His blood, to show His righteousness because of the passing over of the sins done aforetime, in the forbearance of God; for the showing, I say, of His righteousness at this present season; that He might Himself be just, and the justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus. Rom. 3:23-26.
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me. John 14:6.
He came unto His own, and they that were His own received Him not. But as many as received Him, to them gave He the right to become children of God, even to them that believe on His name. John 1:11, 12.

Our Publishing Work

By Editor

The Lord gave the word: great was the company of those that published it. Psalm 68:11.
See last paragraph on this page for instructions where to order.
ORDERS are coming in rapidly for “Bible Readings” and “Daniel and the Revelation.” New editions of these books will be printed at once.
THE three boxes of kindergarten material used in connection with teaching the lessons in “Bible Object Lessons and Songs for Little Ones” may be secured from any of the publishing houses or tract societies. The price of the three boxes is $1.75, post-paid.
PARENTS should not lose sight of the pamphlet bearing the name of “Lessons for Children’s Meetings,” No. 4. This pamphlet contains much valuable information for all parents. It is an illustrated pamphlet of 62 pages, containing outlines of lessons, together with suggestions, blackboard drawings, and word-picture studies adapted to the needs of primary workers in children’s meetings. It is also very helpful to mothers who desire to give their little ones lessons at home. It is remarkably cheap when compared with its real value. Price, 10 cents.
“BIBLE OBJECT LESSONS AND SONGS FOR LITTLE ONES” was prepared especially for the use of kindergarten teachers. It is composed of fifty-two lessons, one for each Sabbath in the year, with suggestions accompanying each lesson; thirty-nine songs and hymns written especially for the lessons; thirty-six full-page pictures, six-by-eight half-tones, and colored plates; fifty-two pen drawings, showing how to use the illustrative material; 160 pages, filled with very practical information to all kindergarten and primary teachers. Bound in durable board, 7½ by 10 inches, $1.50; cloth, the same size, $2.
WHAT do you know about the health journal, Life and Health? Do you know it has been published since 1885, and that since it has been removed to Washington, D. C., been improved, and had its name changed from the Pacific Health Journal to Life and Health, it has more than quadrupled its circulation? Do you know how much it is appreciated by the people, and that boys and girls are selling it with excellent success? Do you know that one fourteen-year-old girl sold over two thousand copies of the July number and one thousand five hundred copies of the August number during the last two weeks of July and the first two weeks of August? Do you know that agents make two and a half cents a copy on each copy sold? Have you seen the September number (the “melon-cholera days” number), which contains articles upon the Common Disorders of Children, Strenuous School Work, Bringing Up of Children, and many other good things for the general public? We advise REVIEW readers to interest themselves in this health journal. Sample copies will be sent on request, and special agents’ rates will be furnished to those who wish to solicit for the journal.
THE new edition of “Great Controversy” is being rushed to completion by a Kansas City firm.
THE new improvement on the Waterman fountain pen renders it practical in every respect. The price of the standard pen having all the improvements is only $2.75.
THE church at Clearfield, Pa., has just ordered one thousand copies each of Life and Health, and Liberty, No. 2. They are planning to circulate ten thousand copies of each of these journals in the immediate future. What other church will follow their example?
WE have just published a catalogue of religious tracts, giving the number, title, and price of the Signs of the Times Leaflet Series, Words of Truth Series, Bible Students’ Library Series, Apples of Gold Library, and Religious Liberty Leaflets. These catalogues are put up in folder form, letter size. They will be convenient to enclose in a letter. We will send them to any person desiring them, for the cost of postage, or sixteen for a cent. Order of REVIEW AND HERALD.
THE author, Elder Uriah Smith, often stated, while living, that the results of the best part of his life could be found in the book bearing the title of “Here and Hereafter,” which forcibly and clearly portrays man in life and death. It is, in fact, a treatise on the subject of immortality. It is, indeed, a very clear exposition upon this most important subject. Every Scripture reference in regard to the question of the immortality of man is elucidated. Bound in plain cloth, $1.
THE Review and Herald Publishing Assn., of Washington, D. C., has secured a line of Bibles printed in the old country, that will come up to the standard of any other Bible published. They contain all the latest up-to-date features in Bible manufacture, and have the famous large “quart-in-a-pint” type, plain Arabic figures—the kind that the old people like—for chapter headings. They are furnished with or without concordance and thumb index. Supplied to agents at good discount. The general demand is for large type in a small Bible. This line is the nearest approach to such a book that we know of. Write for descriptive circular for these Bibles. Any one who sells five Bibles, can get one of the best bindings free.
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.

Editorial

By Editor

By his judgments God is calling upon the inhabitants of the world to repent of their sins and to become loyal citizens of the heavenly kingdom. Happy are those who heed the call, and turn to him with full purpose of heart. Soon the day of probation will close. “Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”
NOTHING can take the place of simple faith in Christ as our sacrifice, our substitute, our surety, our High Priest in the heavenly sanctuary. Jesus “gave himself for our sins.” “One died for all.” “By so much also hath Jesus become the surety of a better covenant.” “We have such a high priest, who sat down on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man.” Our whole Christian experience grows out of our acceptance of Christ and his work in our behalf.
IN the death of Christ we may behold the climax of the hatred of Satan and the fullest revelation of the love of God. Satan instigated the persecution and the final rejection of the Son of God with the hope of overthrowing the plan of salvation. God overruled all this for the accomplishment of his purpose in giving Jesus as a sacrifice for sin. In causing the death of Christ, Satan sealed his own doom, and rendered sure the salvation of sinners. Thus God can permit Satan to have his own way, and at the same time work out the divine purpose. From this standpoint we may understand how it is that Satan uses the forces of nature to bring destruction and desolation in the earth, while these visitations are at the same time the judgments of God. Although Satan is “the prince of this world,” yet he has not been able to dethrone God from his place as King of the universe.

Unchristian Science

By Editor

With many science is now exalted above revelation, and the god of scientific theology has taken the place of the God of the Bible. In the creed of “the theology born of modern science” the idea of a personal God, in any proper sense of the term, has been eliminated, and with it the belief in special creation “by the word of the Lord.” In the place of the former we have an all-pervading Presence, the immanent God; and in the place of the latter we have gradual development and the survival of the fittest—evolution.
These fundamental ideas appear in many forms and disguised by many beautiful phrases. They color the utterances of many pulpits, and find expression more or less openly in the columns of many publications. They are often clothed in a mystic beauty which suggests more than it actually states, and thus they fascinate those who are not grounded and settled in a Scriptural faith.
Not only does this scientific theology repudiate the Biblical conception of a personal God, but it also refuses to acknowledge any personal devil, and, as a natural consequence, it relegates to the realm of myth the Biblical record of the fall of man, the entrance of sin into the world, and the atonement for sin through the sacrifice of Christ. According to this view there is no such thing as sin in the sense of a settled enmity against God and a determined rebellion against his government, an experience which transforms the very being, whose wages is death, and which required the life of the Son of God in order to purge it from the universe. On the contrary, evil (the word “sin” seems to be avoided) is simply an imperfection, an undeveloped condition, introduced by man himself by putting good things to wrong uses. The only punishment known in this system of theology is that which comes as the consequence of the disregard of the inherent law of things rather than the law of God, and this, according to modern interpretation, is the complete fulfilment of the divine pronouncement, “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”
Our attention has again been called to this modern philosophy by an article in one of our exchanges which purports to expose the errors of Christian Science, but which in reality simply substitutes unchristian science for the so-called Christian Science. It is a plain case of darkening counsel by words without knowledge. To indicate the character of this teaching we quote two or three paragraphs from the article:—
It is the wrong use or application of good things that creates evil. God did not do this. Man creates evil, God does not. God made all things, but left to man to create good or bad relations in the right or wrong use of good things if he chooses so to do. This is where evil came in. Evil relations of good things finally lead to such deterioration of things originally good that they lose their good qualities in whole or in part, and become evil. This is the origin of evil things. . . .
When a man is sick, no new force is acting upon him or within him. Disease is not a thing which fastens itself upon a man or enters into him. The expressions which embody such notions of disease are relics of those dark days in the history of the race when men lived under the shadow of that terrible belief that the forces of nature, the gigantic powers which play in the thunder-storm, the tidal wave, the earthquake, the cyclone, as well as the mysterious agents which stealthily invade our homes in the pestilence, consumption, slowly destroying disease—that these powers and forces are but the operations of malign and furious agencies, demons or devils, which employ these means to vex and torture the world and its inhabitants. . . .
The forces of nature are friendly. They are the agents of our existence, essential to our lives. Disease is not a malignant entity. The forces acting in disease are the same as those which act in health. They are beneficent; they are kind; they are directed not toward destruction, but toward the saving of the body, although they are embarrassed by evil conditions for which, in most cases, the patient is himself responsible. . . .
Disease does not exist as a thing. It exists only as a wrong relation. The attitude of the Creator is always the same toward his creatures. In him there “is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” The wrong relation is man’s fault. God is always healing, never destroying.“Evil shall slay the wicked.”
There is a great healing power abroad in the universe always at work, limited only by the divine law of consistency, which permits healing only in harmony with that eternal principle, “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”
There is a mixture of truth in this teaching which makes it the most dangerous kind of error. It is true that “the attitude of the Creator is always the same toward his creatures,” and that “in him there ‘is no variableness, neither shadow of turning,’” but it is the prerogative of the Creator, rather than the creature, to define his relation to the works of his hands. In attempting to establish a so-called scientific basis for faith the advocates of the evolutionary scheme of the universe substitute for the God of the Bible a god which they have discovered by their researches, and then attempt to adapt the language of the Scriptures to this false god. The result is a system of human philosophy, into which a few texts of Scripture are woven in a plausible way, which is foisted upon the people as the highest interpretation of Christianity; but which in fact is not Christianity at all. It is false philosophy wearing the mask of Christianity. It is the most dangerous form of infidelity.
The fundamental difficulty with this scientific philosophy is that it ignores the tremendous fact that through the sin of our first parents Satan usurped the dominion which had been given to man, and became “the god of this world,” and that in working out the purpose of God he is permitted to exercise a limited power for a limited time. In solving the problem of sin in the presence of the universe, the originator of sin, for reasons which only the divine mind can fully comprehend, is granted the privilege of developing the principles of his kingdom within certain limits, and of showing himself as the destroyer. This is plainly set forth in the following quotation:—
Satan works through the elements also to garner his harvest of unprepared souls. He has studied the secrets of the laboratories of nature, and he uses all his power to control the elements as far as God allows. . . . While appearing to the children of men as a great physician who can heal all their maladies, he will bring disease and disaster, until populous cities are reduced to ruin and desolation. Even now he is at work. In accidents and calamities by sea and by land, in great conflagrations, in fierce tornadoes and terrific hail-storms, in tempests, floods, cyclones, tidal waves, and earthquakes, in every place and in a thousand forms, Satan is exercising his power.—“Great Controversy,” pages 589, 590.
It thus appears that “that terrible belief that the forces of nature, the gigantic powers which play in the thunder-storm, the tidal wave, the earthquake, the cyclone . . . are but the operations of malign and furious agencies, demons or devils,” even though it be a relic “of those dark days in the history of the race,” is plainly taught through the spirit of prophecy; and this is in harmony with the teaching of the Scriptures. This is certainly a more satisfactory basis upon which to rest a belief than the mere assertions of human philosophy.
Furthermore, it is also true that during this time of dealing with sin God does by special judgments show his displeasure against evil, and as a last resort uses destruction as an agency to turn men unto himself. This does not indicate any change of attitude toward his creatures, and in the final destruction of the impenitent wicked that justice which is an essential element in the divine love will be revealed.
There is another phase of this false teaching which ought to be noticed here. It is evident that the immediate raising up of the sick in answer to the prayer of faith, in harmony with James 5:14, 15, can have no place in the system which declares that the “great healing power abroad in the universe” is limited in its working by a law “which permits healing only in harmony with that eternal principle, ‘whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.’” Not according to this philosophy did Jesus deal with the impotent man at the pool of Bethesda. John 5:8, 9, 14. The law of divine consistency can not be invoked to forbid the miracle of healing according to the divine promise.
Sin is responsible for disease and destruction of every kind, and in attempting to explain these experiences we must take into account the present abnormal condition of things in this world, and must remember that Satan, a being who stood high in the counsel of the Creator, is leading a rebellion against the divine government, and is, in every possible way permitted to him, perverting the power of God to evil uses. This is clearly recognized by Rev. Hugh Macmillan, who has given much study to the spiritual interpretation of the phenomena of nature. He says: “Our Saviour, too, in rebuking the fever, and the winds and waves, did not use a mere oratorical personification, but traced the disorders of nature up to their source in a person—brought them back to Satan and to fallen man as their ultimate cause.” To say, therefore, without limitation or exception, that “the forces of nature are friendly” is to ignore Satan, sin, and the consequent perversion of the forces of nature. There would be no such thing as a blighting heat, an overflowing flood, a destructive cyclone, an earthquake or a tidal wave, apart from the existence of sin and its originator.
All this false philosophy is the fruit of an effort to harmonize the principles of evolution with the teaching of the Scriptures. It recognizes evil, but accounts for it by a gradual deterioration. It makes creation a continual process. It does not acknowledge a God who can destroy as well as create, but virtually, if not in so many words, recognizes the god of evolution who has been defined to be “a creator or purposer whose plans have never been thwarted, and whose creatures have never successfully defied him, and whose will is being to-day, and in all time, superbly accomplished in the lifting of man to higher and higher spheres of thought and love.”
We regard this teaching as a subtle perversion of the truth, and are uncompromisingly opposed to it. We can not change our attitude toward it simply because it is put out from a place where it is claimed that the third angel’s message is taught just as it has been in former years. We warn our people against this unchristian science, no matter from what source it emanates. The genuine message for this generation is a protest against all this human philosophy.

The Snare of the Golden Calf

By C. M. S.

ISRAEL worshiped a calf of gold, and suffered God’s displeasure. His servant burned the calf, ground it to powder, and scattered the dust upon the water.
The people of our day have molded no calf of gold, but it is literally true that they have bowed down to the same metal that Aaron molded into a calf and Moses scattered upon the water. It would be less displeasing in the sight of God ifthis worship of gold were confined to the people of the world, the mixed multitude; but it is not so. In very many cases indeed, even the church-member has sacrificed truth and honor to the shining idol, and then has sat down to eat and drink and has risen up to play.
The Word declares: “They that are minded to be rich fall into a temptation and a snare and many foolish and hurtful lusts, such as drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil: which some reaching after have been led astray from the faith, and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” 1 Tim. 6:9, 10. In many, many cases we have found that this unholy and dangerous love has taken possession of those of our own faith; and an idol has been set up in the soul that has eclipsed the missionary zeal, the love of the message, and even the fervent love of God experienced in former days. Satan has been wonderfully industrious in these closing years to invent a myriad of schemes for catching the eye and the heart of every soul in this age.
If we are “minded to be rich,” we may know, as surely as the Word of God is true, that we have put ourselves in the way of Satan’s temptations and thrown ourselves into his snare, and have opened up our hearts for the “many foolish and hurtful lusts” that Satan has invented for the very purpose of drowning men “in destruction and perdition.” We can not love two things supremely at the same time. When the love of God is uppermost, the love of the things of this world sinks out of the heart. When the love of money is uppermost, the love of God declines and vanishes; and then it is that men are “led astray from the faith.”
At the present time unscrupulous men, whose only god is the gold they have or covet from you, are advertising all kinds of plausible schemes to enable “the small investor” to amass a fortune in a few months. These men are not ashamed to print the picture of their own faces to inspire confidence in their impossible propositions. They profess to have, or propose to establish, great plantations in Mexico, Central America, Cuba, or the Philippines, for the production of some article indigenous to the climate, which will yield large dividends. The whole proposition is figured out almost to a demonstration. The people invest their means, and may even receive a dividend; and then for some reason, plausibly explained, the project ends, the “promoter” is rich, and the people who invested that they might become rich have the experience and a depleted purse.
Concerning one of these get-rich-quick concerns, the Financial World says:—
These people are rich and bold, as people usually are when they have come into sudden wealth and consider themselves smart. As for his [the promoter’s] guarantee, it means absolutely nothing, and it is apparent that the idea originated to make shallow-minded people jump at the shares, thinking no such offer could be made unless such shares were an absolutely safe investment.
The guarantee runs for only a year. During that time, all that he is required to do to make good and inspire the confidence of those who purchased the shares for this reason, is to pay eight per cent. After the year has passed, the guarantee is wiped out. Where then is the protection to the shareholders for the remaining ninety-two per cent of the principal, which they may invest?
The Springfield (Mass.) Republican says:—
A very striking exhibit of the extent to which investment in speculative stocks has been carried, even by so-called conservative men, appears in the showing made by the estate of the late Charles H. Houseman, cashier of the Columbus (Ohio) East End Savings-bank. The probate court has ordered 94,781 shares of stock in twenty-seven different gold-mining companies, bought by Houseman, to be sold for four hundred dollars. These shares represented the better class of stock in prospective mines, sold at prices between ten and twenty-five cents a share. No common fake stocks, such as Mount Shasta Gold Mines Corporation, or Ray Consolidated, or similar concerns promoted by Make-ever or other “bankers,” are said to have been on the list—and yet these shares have hardly brought one half of a cent. This shows how dangerous and destructive investments in mining companies usually are. And yet great things were expected of all these companies—great dividends and fortunes!
Under the heading, “Plundering a Nation,” the World says:—
It is estimated that during the last five years confiding investors have sunk a fortune in excess of one hundred million dollars every year in fake oil, mining, and industrial stock-jobbing promotions. Not long ago a reader of this paper informed us that since he was so unfortunate as to answer a get-rich-quick advertisement, about one thousand one hundred prospectuses of fake companies, whose total capitalization ran up to over one billion dollars, have reached him. While he did not bite, they caught thousands of small, thrifty business men, clerks, workman, and servants, to whom every dollar means a great deal. They lost all their money.
It might at first be supposed that the public press would take up these unscrupulous transactions and expose them for the benefit of the public. But the press itself is muzzled by its business management, hungering for the shekels that come from the advertisements of these very men. So the public press, whether it realizes it or not, is, to that extent, made participes criminis.
The writer knows that some of our own people have invested their hard-earned means in one or another of these plausible propositions, and that it is still there, beyond their reach, and many times they have received not a penny of dividend thereon. They can not contribute as they would like to the promulgation of the third angel’s message; for the very being that prompted “the love of money” is holding theirs where it can never be used for that purpose. It is a scheme of the adversary—and it works.
Such investments are like those of which Haggai speaks: “He that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes.” God’s blessing is not upon them. How much better to follow our Saviour’s instruction: “Provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Luke 12:33, 34.
The powers of darkness will never come to the support of the legions of light to advance the interests of the kingdom of Christ in this world. Satan exults when Christians (and especially Seventh-day Adventists) put their means where he can handle it in his own way.
C. M. S.

Preaching by Cable

By W. A. S.

THE Canadian correspondent of the London Times cabled to that paper this week a good paragraph on the Sunday bill before the Ottawa Parliament. He tells of the efforts of the government party to exempt Jews and Seventh-day Adventists, of the defeat of the exemption clause, and of the warm discussion proceeding on the whole question. The Times is the famous organ of high-class and government circles in England, and thus by cable the truth is borne witness to in quarters seldom reached by our own effort. The very name of Seventh-day Adventist is a testimony for the truth. It is surprising to see in traveling how the mention of that name challenges attention and arouses inquiry. Yet so the spirit of prophecy said it would be, at the time when our brethren adopted that name. As these issues develop all over the world, the cables will be used to carry the news that Seventh-day Adventists stand as witnesses for God’s own Sabbath.
W. A. S.
London.

The Socialists of Colorado

By C. M. S.

THE Socialists of Colorado have nominated W. D. Haywood for governor of the State. Mr. Haywood is now in the county jail at Boise, Idaho, charged with complicity in the murder of Governor Steunenberg. He was secretary of the Western Federation of Miners at the time of Governor Steunenberg’s assassination, and it is claimed that the governor’s murder was decided upon by the Western Federation officials because of his calling federal troops to the mining district to uphold the law. At that time there was a state of practical war in Idaho between constituted authority andthe union miners under the direction of the officers of the Western Federation. There were many murders of non-union men and much destruction of mining property before the arrival of federal troops. This bringing order out of anarchy has never been forgiven by the miners’ union. Now the most desperate attempt will be made to elect to the highest position in the State of Colorado one charged with participation in that crime. In his letter accepting the gubernatorial nomination, Mr. Haywood makes open declaration of his uncompromising opposition to the existing form of government. Eight hundred and fifty thousand copies of a socialist paper advocating his election will be distributed through the State of Colorado before the date set for the election. This is one of the most remarkable candidacies ever recorded, and is certainly an indication of the approach of troublous times. C. M. S.

Young Germany Responds

By W. A. S.

During the Friedensau meeting, a call was made for one additional worker to go out and join the East African Mission.
On the instant, volunteers were springing to their feet in all parts of the great tent, and the union committee had seventeen earnest candidates from whom to select their missionary. These young people have a very stern reminder, too, of the fact that volunteering for East Africa is no light matter. Just on the edge of the sanitarium grounds is the little cemetery, where a stone marks the resting-place of Brother Wunderlich, one of the Friedensau workers who went out to Africa to help found the station, and who returned stricken with death.
W. A. S.

Forward in Britain

By W. A. S.

THE same word of progress meets us in Great Britain, at the opening of the British Union Conference in London.
A little time ago the message came by the spirit of prophecy that the time for the enlargement and growth of God's people had come. True to this word there has been a rise and growth in this work within a short time, as plainly to be seen as though a visible hand from heaven had moved the lines of our work forward.
The progress in the British Union in the first six months of this year is almost as great as the growth for the whole of last year. And that year shows a marked forward movement. The Union was organized four years ago. Then the field was divided, and the work placed on an organized and systematic basis after the plan of union organization. In these four years the actual growth in membership and churches has been equal to the growth in all the twenty-three years preceding.
Such facts show that a new power, and a new time have come in the work of God. The time for the enlargement has come, and we see it. It is the word from all lands.
The school in London has been training workers who are greatly strengthening the forces in the field in all this United Kingdom. The staff of laborers, really a small one, is so much larger than only a few years ago that all hearts are greatly cheered.
The literature is being circulated vigorously by workers and people. Their weekly paper, Present Truth, has had an average weekly sale throughout the year of 21,320 copies. The British Good Health has had a sale of 40,208 monthly. The value of the total sales of the publishing house has been over fourteen thousand dollars more than in the previous year.
The time has simply come when the third angel's message is to go to all the world, and that without delay. In all Europe our work is stirring with the new power coming down from above and taking hold of every agency surrendered to God. It is magnificent to see it. The forces of the enemy are marshaling. We hear of new Sunday movements in Great Britain and on the Continent. The enemy is astir. But at every point God is giving victory to the truth.
W. A. S. London.

The Missionary Spirit

By I. H. Evans

When Christ sent his disciples into the cities of Judea to preach the gospel, he said, “Freely ye have received, freely give.” It is this spirit of giving that permeates all who receive the gospel into their hearts. One no sooner feels the touch of divine fire in his soul, and finds the assurance of salvation in Christ his Saviour, than his thoughts go out to others. A longing desire possesses his being to bring others to his Saviour.
Thus we find, wherever the knowledge of Jesus is received into the heart, there is begotten the desire to go into all the world and preach the gospel.
When the call for the One Hundred Thousand Dollar Fund was made for the work in Washington, it found a response from believers in nearly every nation on earth. Great Britain, Scandinavia, Germany, Russia, India, China, Japan, Africa, South America, the islands of the sea, sent in their offerings to establish our headquarters in Washington, D. C. A twofold blessing was received in all these offerings. Those who received these donations felt that their hands were strengthened by this united co-operation of believers throughout the world, while those who gave received the blessing which comes to those who give for Christ’s sake.
But our hearts were especially touched a few days ago when the Mission Board received a donation from the church in Calcutta, India, for the work in China.
The first thought naturally would be, India is a great country just as destitute as China. China’s need does not exceed that of India as far as we can judge. The Mission Board is sustaining the work in both countries. The needs of both these fields are almost infinite. The strength of one is about equal to that of the other as far as means for pushing the work is concerned. Why should not India keep her funds to open up work in her countless cities where no work has ever been done? Why should India help China when India is perishing for the need of funds?
Yet, I venture to say that the twenty-nine rupees that the Calcutta church sent to help the workers in China will be a tenfold greater help to the work in India than it would have been had India kept this money for her own use.
There is nothing that strengthens the spiritual life of believers more than to do something for others. The missionary spirit is the spirit of the gospel. When Japan heard the Macedonian cry from Korea, “Come over and help us,” was it a hindrance to the work in Japan when she sent the chairman of her board to visit that field and baptize the believers?
It is this spirit that keeps the church of Christ alive in these degenerate days. Every conference should look beyond its own territory for missionary work. Look how the German Conference in Europe has reached out beyond its own borders. It has opened up the work in many fields outside of its own. But this very spirit of service for others has been a great blessing to the local work in the German field itself, and its number of believers has greatly increased. One can hardly be a true disciple of Christ without this world-wide missionary spirit entering into his life.
The command is, “Freely ye have received, freely give.” This means that each is to help the other. India shall help China, and China shall help Siberia, and Japan shall help Korea, and every believer shall help to send the message on.
The most blessed omen that we see in the church to-day is this active missionary spirit. Let the good work go on. Let it spread and permeate the church till every believer in this glorious truth is an active missionary in the hands of God to save a perishing world.
I. H. Evans.

English Court Ruling on Religious School Taxes

The English Court of Appeals has rendered a decision to the effect that the present Education act does not authorize the appropriation of money out of the public rates for religious teaching, and that the local authorities are not obliged to raise funds for those purposes. According to this decision theso-called “passive resisters” were legally right in their refusal to pay taxes to be used in the support of religious teaching in the public schools.

Note and Comment

A WRITER in the New York Times makes the following pertinent comment upon the difference between Christianity and Christian Science: “I recently heard a gentleman remark that the spirit of Christianity and the spirit of Christian Science are well expressed by the opening words of the two books upon which they are founded. The Bible begins: ‘In the beginning God’—; Mrs. Eddy’s book begins: ‘In 1866 I’—.”

Catholic Pilgrimage to Rome

Very frequently we read of a pilgrimage to Rome made by some party of American Catholics conducted by some Catholic bishop. On July 31 such a company of pilgrims was conducted to the Vatican by the Right Rev. Henry Gabriels, bishop of Ogdensburg, N. Y. At the audience granted by the pope Bishop Gabriels read an address in which he said Catholicism was making rapid strides in the United States, due to the complete freedom which the church enjoyed, and the good will of the American civil authorities. Bishop Gabriels quoted President Roosevelt as saying to him, on learning that the bishop was to conduct a pilgrimage to Rome:—
Tell the pope that I send him my profound regards. I have tried to treat Protestants and Catholics alike, as my latest appointments show. I will try to perpetuate this policy. This republic will stand for many a century. I expect that there will be Catholic presidents as well as Protestant. I trust that they all will treat each other as I have tried to do.
Whether or not there shall be Catholic presidents, there is no doubt that Rome will seek to use the presidents that are elected, as well as all other government officials, to the greatest possible extent in furthering her ends. In view of the bishop’s declaration that the church now has the good will of the American civil officials, one is led to question the necessity for the great and growing Federation of Catholic Societies, whose avowed purpose is to see that the Catholic Church shall secure and maintain its rights in this country. If the Catholic Church does not have its rights at the present time, what mean the bishop’s words regarding the complete freedom which the church enjoys here? Is it greater rights than the other churches enjoy which she wishes? Or is she denied her “rights” in not being allowed to deny others their rights? We are inclined to believe that this is the condition which is most obnoxious to the Church of Rome. We know that where she has full power, she exercises that “right” to the very limit, and refuses to grant to others in such countries what she demands for herself in this.
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