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Review and Herald, Vol. 84, No. 10.

A Prayer for Guidance

Review and Herald

Mar 7, 1907

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 7, 1907

A Prayer for Guidance

By Richard Watson Gilder

Lead me, yea, lead me deeper into life, This suffering, human life wherein Thou liv'st And breathest still, and hold'st Thy way divine. 'Tis here, O pitying Christ, where Thee I seek, Here where the strife is fiercest; where the sun Beats down upon the highway thronged with men, And in the raging mart. O deeper lead My soul into the living world of souls Where Thou dost move!
But lead me, Man divine, Where'er Thou will'st, only that I may find At the long journey's end Thy image there, And grow more like to it. For art not Thou The human shadow of infinite Love, That made and fills the endless universe? The very Word of Him, the unseen, unknown, Eternal God that rules the summer flower, And all the worlds that people starry space? — Richard Watson Gilder.

Publishers’ Page

By Editor

Conducted by the Department of Circulation of the Review and Herald Publishing Association

Life Sketches

THE complete life of Elder James White and the biography of Mrs. E. G. White, with a thrilling history of the rise, early struggles, and progress of the work of Seventh-day Adventists, may be found in a little book by the title of “Life Sketches.” This little work will prove to be of great benefit to all who are in any way interested in the work for which these noble servants of the Lord have so earnestly sacrificed. The book is bound in cloth, and contains 435 pages. Price, $1.25.

The King’s Royal Life Insurance Company

A NUMBER of years ago the Review and Herald printed and circulated a large number of folders in opposition to life insurance. This folder was named “The King’s Royal Life Insurance Company.” It contains reasons for insuring in the King’s Royal; gives an exhibit of the present business and standing of the Royal, together with its business for 6,000 years in the past, conditions to be met in taking out a policy in the Royal, and quoting several strong scriptures against life insurance. This folder is again called for from many sources, and a new edition is printed. Orders can be filled immediately for any number under 10,000 copies. Price, 60 cents a hundred.

History of the Sabbath, by J. N. Andrews

CONTAINING a mine of information on the Sabbath question. Every passage of Scripture having any connection with the Sabbath in the Old and the New Testament is examined. The steps by which the change from the seventh to the first day was made, and the final exaltation of the Sabbath are given in detail. The complete testimony of the Fathers immediately succeeding the time of the apostles in regard to the Sabbath and the first day is presented, and the comparative merits of the two days are shown. The Review and Herald has just succeeded in securing a small edition of the plain cloth binding, which they will close out at $1 a volume. This is a rare chance for those who desire this complete history to secure it at a very reasonable rate.

Religious Liberty Leaflets

THIS series of tracts is gradually growing, and we can furnish our readers the eleven numbers mentioned below, which deal forcibly and conclusively with the questions indicated by their respective titles: (1) Principles Too Little Understood, 8 pages, 38 cents a 100; (2) Sunday Laws, 8 pages, 38 cents a 100; (3) Logic of Sabbath Legislation, 8 pages, 38 cents a 100; (4) The Civil Sabbath, 12 pages, 55 cents a 100; (5) Civil Government and the Church, 4 pages, 20 cents a 100; (6) Religious Liberty — What Eminent Authorities Say, 8 pages, 38 cents a 100; (7) The Church’s Greatest Need To-Day, 4 pages, 20 cents a 100; (8) Limits of Civil Authority, 4 pages, 20 cents a 100; (9) A Vital Question, 8 pages, 38 cents a 100; (10) What Are Works of Charity and Necessity? 4 pages, 20 cents a 100; (11) What Sunday Legislation Involves, 16 pages, 75 cents a 100.

Colds: Their Prevention and Cure

ANY one can learn how to prevent colds, and how to break up one which has been contracted, by reading the little book entitled “Colds: Their Cure and Prevention.” This little book is worth many times its price. It is very practical during the entire year. Price, 25 cents.

Life of Joseph Bates

THE “Life of Joseph Bates” was full of unselfish motives and noble actions, and his biography is the best kind of reading for the young people. We have a nice little book containing the life of Joseph Bates that we will send to our readers for 35 cents. This excellent work will soon be out of print. Only a limited number remain. All who care to secure the book may procure it now at the small price of 35 cents a copy. The regular price was 85 cents.

History of the Sabbath in Poetry

THE principal facts in the Sabbath arguments have been made in verse, and bound in a neat little volume. It makes a very appropriate present for a friend, or an excellent book to loan to the neighbors. There are people who will read a poem on subjects they would refuse in prose. This Sabbath poem traces the Sabbath institution from Eden to paradise restored, and the rhythm of the verse seems to add materially to the force of the great historical and Biblical facts set forth in defense of this great memorial. It is neatly bound in cloth and paper covers, and contains 64 pages. The original price was 30 cents, but it can be secured now for 15 cents, post-paid.

Looking Unto Jesus

A BOOK that will assist the reader to look unto Jesus from every Scriptural point of view. In the words of the author: “To look unto Jesus is one of the most prominent injunctions in the Word of God. In him we find the acme of all divine excellence. We are to look to him as one sent forth by the Father, to be, in his own person, his representative among men. We look to him as our teacher and guide. We look to him as our example, the author and finisher of our faith, but above all we look to him as our Saviour and Redeemer, the hope and source of everlasting life.” “Looking Unto Jesus” gives Christ in type and antitype, and is an exhaustive treatise on the subject of the sanctuary. It is a well-written and nicely illustrated book of over three hundred pages on the work of Christ as revealed in prophecy from the beginning. It will indeed enable the reader to look to Jesus more effectually, and will give him a clearer conception of the work of the Saviour. Plain cloth, $1. Beautiful presentation edition, $1.50.

New Commandment Chart

OUR new commandment chart just printed by the Review and Herald Publishing Association is 36 inches wide and 52 inches long. The type is large enough to be easily read in the largest hall or tent. It has the words, “The Law of God,” printed in large type at the top. It is in all particulars a decided improvement over the old chart, yet the price remains the same,—$1, post-paid.

The Revised Sabbath-School Secretary’s Record

THE new revised edition of the “Complete Sabbath-school Record and Register” is now ready.
Several changes have been made in this Sabbath-school Secretary’s book that were suggested by a large majority of the State Sabbath-school officers. These changes materially simplify the work of the secretary in keeping the records of the school. Record “F” (the smaller size) has been enlarged so as to answer for schools having twenty-five to fifty members, and one entire page of the book has been given to the minutes of each session of the school. The old Record “F” gave only one-half page to each session. This addition has, of course, raised the price, but not in proportion to the improvements in the book.
Record “C” is prepared for schools having a membership of from fifty to one hundred and fifty. Only these two sizes of Records will hereafter be published, and the prices will be: Record “F,” 50 cents; Record “C,” $1.

Kindergarten Supplies

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 the 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 people (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 Association, Mountain View, Cal.; Portland, Ore.; Kansas City, Mo.; Southern Publishing Association, Nashville, Tenn., and Fort Worth, Tex.

The Victories of Faith

(Continued)
LET us look upon God’s requirements from the standpoint of privilege. I wish that we could remove from our minds the idea that every requirement of God is a yoke of bondage. No requirement of God ever was a yoke of bondage to the one who will submit to it in Jesus Christ. “Take my yoke upon you,” said Christ, “and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Lay aside the yoke that you find heavy and galling; for it is not God’s yoke. Any burden that you are bearing that wears your life out with its weight, let it alone. Christ’s “yoke is easy,” and his “burden is light.”
Therefore, when God sets before you his requirements, look at them from the standpoint of privilege, as being the revelation of what God is and what he desires us to be. If we could get this view of the law of God, there would never be any drawing back from its requirements. It would always be a privilege to be like God. “This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” Anything short of this is existence merely.
I would like to emphasize again the difference between our relation to God’s law, in Christ and out of Christ. When we meet the law out of Christ, it keeps us; when we meet the law in Christ, we keep the law. We may read this thought in Gal. 3:21-26. “Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterward be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.”
By sin we are shut up, and the jailer who stands at the door to keep us, is the law. But when faith comes, we and the law change places. Christ came to deliver us from the power of sin, but “the strength of sin is the law.” Christ sets us free, and we walk at liberty because we keep his law. Outside of Jesus Christ the law keeps us. In Christ we keep the law. This is the victory of faith. Faith, by bringing us into right relation with God and his law, delivers us from the power of sin. Faith does not make void the law of God, but changes our relationship to it. We are the ones who are to be changed, not the law. “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.” Through our faith in his atoning blood and by the power of his Holy Spirit, Christ has set us free. We are set at liberty, but not to be out of harmony with God’s law. That is what brings us into bondage. If there is any one who ought to walk at liberty, it is the man who has been set free from the bondage of sin, for he knows what liberty is. “Egypt. “Let my people go that they may serve me.” To-day he says to the devil, who would hold people in the bondage of sin, “Let my people go.” In the service of God there is perfect freedom, perfect liberty, and only the one in whom the life of God is revealed, knows what liberty is.”
Let us look for a moment at God’s law as recorded in Exodus, in order to see more explicitly what the law becomes in Jesus Christ. Let no one regard God’s law as a bugbear to be shunned. It is the description of the character of God as revealed in Jesus Christ, the unfolding of that one statement, “God is love.” But it makes a great difference whether we look at this law through Christ, or whether we look at it outside of him, as a code of hard-and-fast regulations. Let us notice first that obedience to this law is simply love to God. I know that there exists in the minds of some a false idea concerning this matter, which they might themselves find it difficult to define, but which runs like this:—
We are in the dispensation of love. Jesus Christ has been revealed as the love of God, therefore we are simply to love God with all our heart, strength, and mind; that it savors too much of legalism and the Mosaic dispensation to talk about being in harmony with God as revealed in his ten commandments. All this is simply a misapprehension of what religion is. Religion is not simply being lifted into a sort of ecstatic joy that gives us the privilege of doing what we please. That is not loving God. The man who allows his life to be molded on the idea that feeling is Christianity, is one of those men who are up to-day, down to-morrow, usually down two days and up one. Ask this man if he believes in God, and he inquires of his feeling, and if he feels well, he looks upon that as Christian experience. There is no device of the devil that is involving more people in difficulty and doubt than the idea that Christianity is feeling; that the measure of our Christian experience depends upon the measure of our feeling. The only way we can know God is from his word; the only foundation for knowing what God does, is his word; the only way we can know our relation to God, is from his word. What he tells us there is so, whether we feel up or down. God’s word does not change from day to day, depending upon our passing feelings.
The devil can counterfeit feeling andchange feeling, but he can not counterfeit or change God’s word. The solid foundation for the Christian life in sickness or health, in reverses or prosperity, is God’s word. Let God’s word be true, and every man a liar. That word is true, whether we say so or not. Faith is that which lets that word be true in us.
(To be concluded)

Living Epistles

By Editor

Editorial

Living Epistles

MANY persons who never read the epistles of Paul as translated into English by the scholars of the day are constantly perusing that translation of these and other epistles of the Bible made into daily conduct by the average Christian. “Ye are an epistle of Christ . . . written . . . in tables that are hearts of flesh.” How important that the translation be plain and correct!

All in the Message Preached

By W. A. S.

As the third angel’s message is preached in the mission fields, we see not only Sabbath-keepers springing up, but educational, publishing, and health enterprises following on.
The preacher goes into some distant land with only his Bible. Our numbers and institutions in the home field have no influence there to draw the people. He preaches the message. Men and women turn to the Lord and begin to keep the Sabbath. They realize that they are a part of a united world-wide advent movement, raised up in fulfilment of prophecy.
They are ready to put their means into schools for the training of workers. People who, perhaps, had never learned to read, begin to study; for they must know how to read this message for themselves. All this is in the preaching that is preached.
The desire to spread the truth brings a realization of the need of literature, and the publishing work is started. People who never would have thought, before this message came to them, of investing in such a thing as a printing-press, gladly sacrifice to put their means into producing the literature. The preaching of the message has done the work.
The preaching also revolutionizes habits of living. People who had perhaps never given a thought to the religious duty of caring for health, as a talent lent of God, abruptly turn from life-long customs. Intoxicating drinks, tobacco, and flesh foods forbidden by the Scriptures are immediately discarded, with such reform as to the whole question of diet and health as to very generally cut off the use of any kind of meat as a common article of food; this, not as a matter of commandment, but as a matter of privilege and duty to follow the cleanest and most wholesome and healthful way of living. The preaching of the message does this work among the people to whom it goes.
And then comes the interest in health and temperance work and appreciation of its benefits, that lead poor people to give of their means to bring out nurses or physicians, and to start sanitariums for the teaching of health principles, and the helping of the sick.
This is what the preaching of the message does in every land. In the very preaching are schools, printing-presses, sanitariums, and all the facilities that Providence has called into being to swell the cry of the advent warning. It is a wonderful message that the missionary carries into new fields and new communities. And the thing that builds up and maintains all the work is the preaching of the truth of God for these last days.
W. A. S.

The Influence of a Great Example

By C. M. S.

PRACTICALLY the whole world is agitated at the present time upon the question of liberty. It is assuming the proportions of a popular revolt. In some countries the protest is against the oppressions of clericalism; in others it is against the exercise of despotic power on the part of the government.
The American nation was founded in the providence of God. It was to be a standing object-lesson to both nations and individuals in God's design concerning the freedom of mankind—a lesson which the common people were not slow to appreciate. Whatever it has come to be at the present time, God's design in its founding was that it should teach men the blessings of liberty, and teach it by the example which it set within its own borders. The principle enunciated in the Declaration of Independence, that none are by the mere accident of birth authorized to lord it over their fellows, is one of the principles of the gospel of Christ. The equality of men, so far as liberty and human rights are concerned, was not new in 1776, except to the officials of monarchical governments and to those who had been taught that some were created for the special service and caprice of others deemed better by birth. To these it was new, and not only new, but heretical. But it is as old as the gospel itself.
Here, then, was the opportunity of the ages; and here was the chosen instrument to make known these welcome tidings to men. Humanity had groaned through centuries because of involuntary servitude, and in the trackless wilderness of America God had planted a tree whose leaves were designed for the healing of the bruised and suffering people of this present world. They have flocked to it from all quarters of the globe, till the nations have been compelled, for the security of their own existence, to grant a measure of liberty which their inhabitants had never before experienced. On that high hill of the world sat God's last national object-lesson for the last generations of men; and the oppressed in all the world have been struggling up through the crust of imperialism and monarchy to reach the sunlight of free government in their own land, or flee to a government already founded upon the principles of the equality of men.
State after state in the New World threw off the control of mother countries in the Old, to set up for themselves here governments of the people; but they practically nullified their own act by permitting one foreign prince, the claimant of the thrones of the whole world, to dominate in their affairs, both temporal and spiritual.
Mexico finally led out in the movement to remedy this condition of affairs, and there have been ebullitions in most of the countries of Central and South America, which indicate a desire on the part of at least a portion of the people to break away from ecclesiastical domination. Venezuela and Colombia have experienced quite decided movements in that direction. Peru is struggling for religious freedom now, and in other countries a larger toleration is granted than in their past history.
The people of the Old World have not looked on disinterestedly while these movements were going on. In 1901 there was a popular revolt in Portugal against the exactions of the Jesuits. In the same year in Spain the military had to be called out to protect the lives and property of the members of the Catholic orders. In Austria and Germany about the same time the Los von Rom (Away from Rome) movement was growing to be a real threat to the Catholic powers. Mutterings and protests against oppression, both spiritual and temporal, have been heard for years from Macedonia, Poland, and Finland; and Russia herself is like a huge caldron seething over the fires of Nihilism. On December 11 came the final break between France and the Vatican, which has seemed to widen as the days went by. There has been a decided movement in Germany during the last few months against Rome's influence in the politics of that country. With France and Germany taking the position they did, it was not to be wondered at that Spain and Switzerland should begin to show a spirit of independence so far as clerical interference with the government is concerned.
Now, while the ground seems to have been gradually slipping from under her feet in the Old World, Rome has been increasing in influence and has been strengthening her entrenchments in the northern hemisphere of the New. There is no doubt whatever that America's example in the separation of church and state influenced the countries of the Old World to a great extent, and that their present actions are the direct result of that influence. But now a change has come in America herself.
In that historic document prepared by the Presbytery of Hanover, Virginia,and addressed to the General Assembly of Virginia, in 1776, there is one statement which seems to have had in it a prophecy of our times. It reads:—
It is at least impossible for the magistrate to adjudge the right of preference among the various sects that profess the Christian faith without erecting a chair of infallibility, which would lead us back to the Church of Rome.
The whole document from which this quotation is taken was a protest against the joining of religion and the state, against religious legislation. The statement is true; but as this country has started in a career of religious legislation, we may expect to see the result there indicated. We are seeing the beginning of it now.
In 1829 these words were written by a committee of the United States Senate:—
All religious despotism commences by combination and influence; and when that influence begins to operate upon the political institutions of a country, the civil power soon bends under it; and the catastrophe of other nations furnishes an awful warning of the consequence.
Combination and influence to compel statesmen to legislate upon religious matters are being exerted now as never before in the history of this country. It is the beginning of “religious despotism.” The civil power already “bends under it,” statesmen admit it; and as surely as this is a fact, we may see our destiny in the “catastrophe of other nations.”
The following was written by a committee of the House of Representatives in 1830, when Congress was being petitioned to pass a law for a stricter observance of Sunday:—
If Congress shall, by authority of law, sanction the measure recommended, it would constitute a legislative decision of religious controversy.
That is what the Presbytery of Hanover declared would be erecting a chair of infallibility that would lead us back to the Church of Rome. In 1892 the Supreme Court of the United States declared that this is a Christian nation, and Congress has passed laws dealing with religious things. It is therefore not surprising that Rome then stepped to the front and announced that “what the church has done in the past for others, she will now do for the United States.” She has begun to do it; and America has begun the second stage of her influential career that is to result in undoing her influence for liberty, while she leads the nations back toward the fold of Rome, and fulfills the prophecy which said she would do it. C. M. S.

Organization—No. 6

By A. G. Daniells

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

When the discussion of the subject of organization had been fully opened in the REVIEW, prominent ministers availed themselves of that opportunity to tell of the growing confusion that existed, and the perplexing difficulties that were arising, owing to the absence of organization. And some grew bold enough to tell that their views of the question were being changed by the discussion the subject was receiving. The following frank statement from Elder M. E. Cornell describes the general situation as it then existed:—
My mind has been for years decided that taking a name, or in any way leaning on the laws of the land, was wrong. I supposed that it was fatal to receive religious benefit from any law provisions whatever. But within the last week my mind has been changed. When I consider the subject more fully and without prejudice, it has a different aspect entirely. And I must confess that I have several times felt embarrassed because of the lack of order and organization in regard to financial matters. I have been perplexed to know what advice to give in regard to building houses of worship; how they should be built and held in trust so as to prevent confusion and trouble. Houses of worship are a growing necessity, but many are so fearful that they will get into Babylon that they dare not move in the matter, and we are often so perplexed that there is really a Babylon existing in our own minds. This embarrassment has become so general that no doubt all can agree in this, that something must be done.
Again: there are those who wish to secure their property to the cause of truth, by will or bequest, in a legal way, but they can not do it because we have no denominational name, and hence can not be known in law. At present I can not see what evil can grow out of God’s people taking a distinctive name by which they may be known from all others. I can not find any scripture that would forbid all the remnant being called by one name, but the warning of Scripture is against divisions among them. . . .
To have a name significant of a spiritual life and at the same time be dead is, of course, inconsistent; but to have an appropriate name for the Advent, commandment-keeping, Laodicean, remnant people, I now believe to be a matter of propriety and necessity.
I wish to admit the necessity of complete organization to supply the demands of the cause as far as the laws of God and men will permit. I can not say that I have the clear light to suggest “a plan on which we as a people can act,” but I feel that it is an important matter, and one that demands the prayer of faith for wisdom. When I consider how much Brother White has suffered from the lack of legal system in the business department of the work, I think his testimony is none too pointed. The necessity exists, and should be mutually realized and acknowledged.—Review and Herald, Vol. XVI, pages 8, 9, May 29, 1860.
At the time Elder Cornell wrote that article, he was one of the most active and successful evangelists in the cause. He was well qualified to state the conditions then existing. His statement throws a flood of light on the situation they were facing. He said they were “embarrassed because of a lack of order and organization;” “perplexed to know what advice to give in regard to building houses of worship,” and “how they should be built and held in trust so as to prevent confusion and trouble.” “Many,” he said, “are so fearful that they will get into Babylon . . . that there is really a Babylon existing in our minds.” “This embarrassment has become so general that . . . something must be done.” “Those who wish to secure their property to the cause of truth by will or bequest . . . can not do it because we have no denominational name, and hence can not be known in law.”
It is not surprising that in closing his article, Elder Cornell said: “I wish to admit the necessity of complete organization to supply the demands of the cause.” If such was the state of perplexity, confusion, and embarrassment without organization at that time, when there were only twenty-five or thirty ministers and workers, only four or five thousand believers, but one small printing plant, no schools, no sanitariums, and the work confined to the narrow limits east of the Missouri River, what would be our condition now without the efficient, far-reaching system of order and organization under which we are carrying forward this many-sided, world-wide movement?
As the discussion of this subject continued in the REVIEW, and among the people in the different States, the call for organization grew more definite and positive in all parts of the field. It was plainly evident that many of our people were changing their views. This encouraged Elder White, who wrote as follows:—
We are happy to say that the discussion of this subject is evidently coming to a close with good results. As far as we can learn, there is a general feeling that something should be done in the line of legal organization, and those who at first started back at the idea, are seriously pondering the necessity of it.—Id., page 20.
In view of the agitation of this question and the growing sentiment in favor of organization, Elder J. N. Andrews proposed that a general council be called for the purpose of giving the subject of organization careful, thorough study with the view of reaching correct and harmonious conclusions. The following is the suggestion he published:—
How shall we manage relative to the legal holding of the office? I would suggest with all respect to the feelings and opinions of others, that no step be taken until we first have a general gathering from all parts of the country, and aprayerful consultation relative to the right course. I believe that in this way we could act in unison, and what is still better, act just right.
I have confidence in Brother White’s integrity of purpose in bringing this subject before the brethren. It also seems to me that he is clearly right in asking that something be done. I hope therefore that those who may think that some dangerous step is about to be taken, will pray with their whole hearts that God will be pleased to avert all evil and guide us aright. Meanwhile I would express the hope that we may be able to adopt so simple and proper an arrangement that it will be open to no reasonable objection.—Id., page 108, Aug. 21, 1860.
This was the first proposal ever made by our pioneers to hold a general council in the interests of organization. It was made by one of the most careful, cautious men numbered among the leaders of this cause. It met with hearty approval, and a general meeting was immediately called to convene in Battle Creek, Sept. 28, 1860.
A. G. DANIELLS.

God Alone Commands the Heart’s Affections

“HUMAN power may extort vain sacrifices, but the Deity alone can command the affections of the heart.”—Committee Report of the House of Representatives, 1830.

Note and Comment

By Editor

Two terrible famines are in progress at the present time, one in China and the other in Russia. In China an area comprising forty thousand square miles is affected, while that in Russia is gripping nine provinces. Concerning the Chinese famine J. S. Tait, manager of the International Banking Corporation, says:—
The condition of the people has grown steadily more desperate, with no improvement. China is a poor country, and she is quite unable to cope with the disaster.
The famine area is a region corresponding in latitude to our North Carolina and Virginia. For some reason, appeals made for public help to relieve this horrible situation appear to be regarded with comparative apathy by the people of the United States and Europe. Whether it is that Americans have heard so much of horrors that such things no longer move us, or that our unequalled prosperity has hardened our hearts, it is impossible to say, but it is a fact that a population of from ten to fifteen millions is now in the throes of starvation, while it is believed that tens of thousands of persons have already died.
Parents are throwing their children in the water, and then committing suicide themselves. Can we measure the depths of suffering and despair before people come to that pass? When we reflect what hardships such a touch of winter as we now have entails upon the poorer classes of this city, we may perhaps understand how desperate the necessity must be in a climate similar to our own, where homes and land have been ruined, and where for months past acute starvation has existed.
Russia also is appealing to the people of America for her starving people. The Russian government has organized a relief-work system, but it is reported to be proving wholly inadequate to cope with the great hunger plague. Mr. Tait's statement that Americans are hearing “so much of horrors that such things no longer move us,” is worthy of note. In previous Russian, Chinese, and Indian famines a well-directed movement throughout the country was carried on energetically to collect and distribute relief. We do not see it now. We shall see less of it as famines increase in frequency and violence. It brings to mind these scriptures, whose fulfilment must precede the second coming of Christ: “And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences.” “Men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters.”

Baptists Support French Religious Liberty

PROTESTANT denominations of America have been represented in France and Italy as upholding Rome in her struggle with the French government. Because of this the Baptist Ministers' Conference held in Baltimore on February 11, adopted resolutions declaring it to be the sense of the convention “that these reports are base misrepresentations, and that we hereby express our warmest sympathy with the French government in its heroic efforts to give to the French people religious liberty.” A copy of the resolutions was forwarded to the French cabinet. Catholic officials in America have carried on a vigorous campaign intended to make it appear that the French government was being condemned by the whole American nation. They have even gone so far as to plan a boycott of all articles of French production. This campaign and the practical silence of American Protestantism thus far has seemed to indicate to France just what the Catholics designed it should. It is well that the Baptists have spoken. The apparent success of the American Catholic campaign and the lethargy of American Protestantism in reference thereto can be attributed only to the fact that American Protestantism has lost the inclination to protest, and that the people are swinging far away from the principles that made America a nation and made it great.

Finnish Children Excluded for Speaking Their Language

A CONTROVERSY somewhat similar to the San Francisco-Japanese school question has arisen in Ohio. Two Finnish lads have been excluded from school because they conversed in their own language on the school grounds at Painesville, Ohio. The disheartening part of the matter is that the State commissioner has upheld the action of the teacher. The Finnish vice-consul at Cleveland has been appealed to by the parents of the debarred children; but it is doubtful if anything can be done by him to protect the rights of the Finns. It is impossible to detect in this matter any element of reason or justice. Despotic governments of the Old World have compelled children to cease using their parental language; but these Finns had migrated to “the land of the free.” But when America takes from her people the right to worship how and when they will, it is only another step in the same direction to take from immigrants the right to speak among themselves the language of their choice.

The Seventh Day Is the True Sabbath

MORE and more frequently we are seeing in the secular press declarations to the effect that the seventh day of the week is the only true Sabbath. The following from the Morning Oregonian of February 20 is an interesting testimony to this effect:—
A writer in the Salem Statesman, who calls Sunday “The Sabbath,” proposes the following conundrum to the Oregonian:—
“Will the editor of the Oregonian come out frankly and say that while American patriots keep up the remembrance of the heroic lives of Washington and Lincoln by the celebration of their birthdays, Christians act ‘ludicrously’ in celebrating religiously the resurrection day of the world’s Redeemer?”
No; the Oregonian will say nothing of the sort. It is well to celebrate the resurrection day of the Redeemer as religiously as one’s conscience directs; but it is not well to try to compel all men to celebrate it in the same way. Nor is it well to try to force those to celebrate it who do not feel so disposed. In this matter every person should be free to celebrate or not, according to his own desire. It is not “ludicrous” to observe Sunday as a day of rest and worship. On the other hand, it should not be made unlawful to divert one’s self at a picnic, a game in the fields or to the theater. The trouble with Sabbatarians like this writer is that they are not satisfied with reasonable liberty for themselves; they wish to compel everybody else to forego liberty.
Our learned commentator adds that “He who created man made the Sabbath for him.” This may be so. But if it is, we are surprised that the erudite theologian of the Statesman does not keep the Sabbath instead of substituting for it an entirely different day. What authority has he from the Creator of man and the Sabbath for this illicit substitution?
The Oregonian is right upon the matter of religious liberty. It also sees the goal aimed at by those who are advocating Sunday laws. It is also right in denominating the Sunday institution an “illicit substitution.” We are glad that the readers of the Oregonian have had the matter of the true Sabbath thus brought to their attention. As the Oregonian makes no profession of religion or religious practise, this testimony upon the Sabbath question is almost a case of the stones crying out in defense of the truth.
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