1. Has God promised a clean universe in which there will not be one particle of sin?
And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever. Rev. 5: 13.
2. Have other prophets foretold a time when this earth will be entirely rid of sin?
They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. Isa. 11: 9.
For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. Hab. 2: 14.
3. How is this cleansing of the world from sin accomplished?
For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Rom. 6: 23.
When lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. James 1: 15.
NOTE.—Sin has produced everything that is wrong in all this world. Hence God has decreed that sin may run its course, so that all may have the opportunity for themselves of seeing what are the awful results of disobedience to the just and right laws of Jehovah. Then the only right thing that can be done is to visit death upon sin, and any one can see that this must bring death to the sinner also if he persists in clinging to his sins. God has provided a complete and sure remedy for sin, but those who absolutely refuse to accept it will have to go down in the end with all their load of sin upon them.
4. What Old Testament scripture plainly tells of the destruction of the wicked by death?
For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of Hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. But unto you that fear My name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in His wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall. And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of Hosts. Mal. 4: 1-3.
5. What New Testament scripture makes a similar statement to this text quoted from the Old?
The heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. . . But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. 2 Peter 3: 7, 10.
NOTE.—The Scriptures in numerous passages and under various figures and forms of expression tell clearly of the utter destruction of sin, and the utter destruction of the finally incorrigibly wicked. As one studies the subject, it becomes more and more clear that it is the only just thing that could be done. Before the wisest and most humane tribunals of men it is recognized that it is absolutely necessary to punish crimes in order to make it possible for the well-meaning person to live at all. And hence God has decreed that those who refuse to do the right, and insist on making this world a place of crime and misery, shall finally be destroyed. And then we will have a clean universe, and the "earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea."
6. Then to whom, and to whom only, is eternal life promised?
He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him. John 3: 36.
And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. 1 John 5: 11, 12.
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Jezebel's Palace Unearthed
For some time the expedition sent out by Harvard College has been excavating among the ruins of ancient Samaria in Palestine, and news from there tells us that the palace of Jezebel, Ahab's queen, has been unearthed. The work has been under supervision of Prof. George Andrew Reisner. Five thousand objects of archeological interest have been brought to light, among which are the jewels, amulets, and charms which are described in the Bible as essentials of a queen's outfit. According to Turkish law all art treasures have to be left within the borders of that government; but Professor Reisner hopes that the sultan will present some of these relics to Harvard. It is interesting to know that this find corroborates some of the stories told of Jezebel in the Bible, and also establishes many facts about customs and habits of life in Bible times.—The Sabbath Recorder.
Wanton Extravagance in Government
By George W. Rine
URS is an age of wanton prodigality. In the realm of politics as well as in that of society, extravagance has attained a magnitude unparalleled even in the days of the decadent Rome. Glance at the expense history of our own country. One hundred years ago there were six million people in the republic. Now there are somewhat more than ninety millions, or fifteen-fold as many. Also in President Jefferson's time, $5,000,000 was paid to run the Government a year; whereas to-day the annual cost of Government goes two hundred millions beyond the billion-dollar mark. Fifteen-fold the population; two-hundred-and-forty-fold the cost! A sensible difference!
Now observe how the climbing tale of national expense has run. The annual cost of Government in Madison's time was $8,000,000; in Monroe's, $11,000,000; in Jackson's, $13,000,000; in Polk's, $27,500,000; in 1860, the last year of Buchanan, a moiety over $55,000,000. Then came the Civil War, and the story of our national expense has been taking titanic leaps ever since. Until 1860 the governmental expense matched the population, and kept step with it at the ratio of a dollar a head. It is now nearly fourteen dollars per capita. This stream of swelling extravagance is chargeable to both the big parties, altho the Republicans have dominated our politics almost continuously since 1861. Crying against "a billion-dollar Congress," the people, in 1890, turned the Republicans out. Now we have two-and-a-half-billion-dollar Congresses.
The Lavish Granting of Pensions
A year after the close of the Civil War, our Government paid $15,000,000 to disabled soldiers, their widows and orphans and other dependents. In 1874 the yearly pension bill had grown to $31,000,000. Then it began a natural decline. By 1878 it had fallen to $28,000,000. In 1879 there was passed a law giving full arrears to all persons entitled to pensions. In two years the pension bill bounded from $28,000,000 to $58,000,000.
The Grand Army of the Republic, organized at the close of the war, now fell into the hands of pension promoters, Corporal Tanner, a professional pension agent, at its head. A succession of Grand Army pension agents administered the Government's Pension Bureau. "God help the surplus in the United States treasury when I get at it," said Corporal Tanner when President Harrison appointed him Commissioner of Pensions. The yearly bill went steadily up until in 1889 it reached $92,000,000. In 1890 the bill leaped to $110,000,000. And up it kept going until in 1893 it reached the colossal sum of $161,000,000. In 1908 Congress extended the granting of pensions to widows of ninety-day men, without regard to their pecuniary need. Hence the bill of 1909 swelled to the unprecedented total of $165,000,000.
More than three fourths of the soldiers who survived the Civil War, and of the widows of Civil War soldiers, are dead. Yet to-day, nearly a half century after the close of that war, the Government is laying upon every man, woman, and child in the land a tax of two dollars a year for military pensions. As the war recedes in time the pension tax increases.
We all gladly concede that every soldier who was disabled in the service of his country is entitled to a liberal pension from his grateful compatriots. Every widow of a soldier killed or disabled in the service of his country, and every dependent upon him, is entitled to relief from needs due to his patriotic devotion.
But according to the testimony of Mr. William Bayard Hale and other reliable authorities, the Government is paying out millions of dollars in pensions, each year, to persons who are in no way either justly or legally entitled to pension. The act of June 7, 1888, removed all limitations as to the date on which a widow might file her claim; that is, a woman might inform the Government years after a veteran's death that she was his widow, and collect in one sum a widow's pension from the date of his death. This act, Mr. Hale maintains, is one of the most fruitful of fraud, and has resulted in the filing of thousands of swindling claims. It has led to organizations of criminal pension attorneys in no less an enterprise than the manufacture of widows for dead soldiers. In his report of 1899, Commissioner Evans pointed out that the records of national cemeteries had been brought into use for the purpose of learning the names and services of those buried there. Women were then hunted up who would undertake to pose as relatives of dead veterans. These women signed applications; cases were made out by means of stock witnesses, the attorneys pocketing the large first payment, leaving the fraudulent widow to draw the subsequent payments. The pension officials maintain that it was practically impossible to disprove a marriage alleged to have taken place thirty or forty years before. Mr. Hale, named above, in his series of articles, under the caption, "The Pension Carnival," published in the "World's Work," cites scores of specific cases of such fraudulent-widow pensioners.
In round numbers, $5,000,000 is yearly paid out to persons each of whom has been made a pensioner by the enactment into law of a special pension bill. During the first ten years after the war, 537 special acts were passed; during the next decade, 773; during the next, 4,073; during the next ten years, 2,800; during the last nine years, more than 25,000. As long ago as 1886 President Cleveland said, "If the veterans of the war knew all that was going on in the way of granting pensions by private bills, they would be more disgusted than any other class of our citizens." Mr. Hale has produced evidence overwhelming in magnitude and irrefutable in character, proving that a very large majority of the persons who have become the Government's beneficiaries by special pension acts, are utterly undeserving. I beg to refer the reader to Mr. Hale's articles in the "World's Work," October, 1910, to March, 1911, inclusive.
Mr. Hale makes the following thought-provoking statement: "It is questionable whether the regular pension laws are so narrow and stingy that it has been necessary to pass special acts for the pensioning of 30,000 persons not entitled to pensions under the laws." Is it not questionable, too, whether girls born twenty-five years after Appomattox should be pensioned by the Government because they took a fancy to, and married, some decrepit veteran with good prospects of an early death? Actual cases have been discovered where two and even three persons have drawn pension for one man's service; also cases where the payment of pensions has been continued for years after the true beneficiaries were dead; cases where one man has drawn several pensions; many cases where DESERTERS are receiving pay equal to that of men who served gallantly to the end; cases where men absolutely without military records have been given, by special legislation, an enlistment and honorable discharge; numberless cases where soldiers are given compensation for ills utterly unconnected with military service; and cases where women never married to soldiers are pensioned as lawful widows.
Indeed, the attitude of Congress toward pension claimants has become so madly extravagant that it sometimes goes beyond the mere correcting of records and actually undertakes to CREATE a record from non-existing facts.
Mr. A. L. Drummond, for many years chief of the Government Secret Service, once suggested to a number of congressmen the establishment of a secret service department in the Pension Bureau. Drummond's own words are: "I told the members of Congress that if that body would appropriate $100,000 for the establishment of an investigating bureau attached to the Pension Office, and put the Government Secret Service in charge of it, I believed I could in the first year REDUCE THE PENSION PAYMENTS TWENTY MILLIONS OF DOLLARS."
Thirty-one years ago General Garfield, in reporting the annual bill appropriating less than $30,000,000 for pensions, declared that this sum would be the maximum, and that it would gradually decrease until the Pension Bureau should send out its last check and close up its business. Instead of Garfield's prophecy being realized, the pension bill since that time has multiplied itself by five and a fraction and merrily goes on multiplying. The Hon. Wayne MacVeagh recently declared that if only those who deserved pensions received them, $100,000,000 a year in pensions alone would be saved. The present Commissioner of Pensions, Mr. J. L. Davenport, in his latest annual report shows that the total number of pensioners on the roll at the close of 1910 was 921,083 — an army more than eleven times as large as the total enlisted force of the United States army to-day.
Marble Palaces for Congress
About five years ago the erection of two sumptuously elegant marble palaces was completed in Washington. They were built by authority of the Government, one for the comfort and convenience of the members of the Lower House of Congress, and the other for those of the Upper House. Mr. MacVeagh informs his readers, in his famous "Appeal to President Taft," published in the "North American Review," February, 1911, that the original cost of these palaces was $6,000,000, an amount equal to the total earnings for a whole year of 10,000 members of the unskilled working class. To maintain these edifices, allowing interest on their cost, with the necessary repairs and attendance, will probably cost $600,000 a year, or the total earnings for a whole year of 1,000 members of the same unhappy class. Now, allowing five members to a family, the cost of those palaces represents the entire means of livelihood of 50,000 people for a whole year. Mr. MacVeagh says: "These palaces are reported to be provided with such waste in mahogany furniture, marble bathrooms, and even velvet cushions for the repose of the heads of wearied statesmen, as formerly could be seen only in the seraglio of an Eastern sultan. Before our Congress wasted these millions of the people's money on themselves, they were far more luxuriously provided for, and at far greater cost, than any other legislative body in the world." Mr. MacVeagh declares that this11wanton expenditure merits special reprobation.
Wanton Waste in the Navy
In March, 1909, George von L. Meyer was appointed Secretary of the Navy. He is a trained business man. He lost no time to examine personally every navy-yard on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. He found that the United States has over twice as many first-class navy-yards as Great Britain, which has a navy at least double the size of ours; and that we have one more navy-yard of the second class than Great Britain has. In the five years previous to 1909 the eleven American yards cost $40,000,000 for maintenance. During the same time the seven home navy-yards of Great Britain cost only $7,000,000 for maintenance. At the New Orleans yard $1,040 worth of work was done in 1907. The maintenance of the yard that year cost $97,178, and $309,000 was expended there for improvements. Between 1902 and 1908 a dry dock was built at Charleston, South Carolina, at a cost of $1,250,000. Secretary Meyer declares this dry dock to be practically useless, "as it fills in opposite the dock at the rate of from three to four feet a year." Through the influence of Senator Tillman, of South Carolina, the Government built, at an expense of more than a million, another dry dock at Port Royal, South Carolina. Concerning this naval station Secretary Meyer says, "It is unapproachable for battle-ships, or even cruisers, except at unjustifiable expense." The secretary attests the fact that the volume of money expended in the construction and maintenance of these naval stations has been a sheer waste. When, in March, 1899, Senator Tillman succeeded in having Congress vote the appropriation necessary to build the Port Royal navy-yard, he expressed himself concerning it, on the floor of the Senate, as follows: "This bill [naval appropriation] is loaded down with expansion in every navy-yard. I am trying to get a little for Port Royal; because if you are going to steal, I want my share."
As early as 1885, Secretary W. C. Whitney estimated that there had been, since 1868, an absolute waste of $70,000,000 in the United States navy. The proprietor of "McClure's Magazine" declares that the ANNUAL waste to-day reaches about half that great sum.
Alfred Henry Lewis makes bold to assert that we are fortifying the Hawaiian Islands at a cost equal to four times their value, and that the Philippines lose us more than one hundred millions a year. He says further: "Be assured of this: the nation now costing one billion two hundred million a year, can be run for four hundred millions; and be as much of a world's force as in the thirteen-million day of the Iron Jackson, when he drove France to do us justice at the muzzle of the gun." Mr. MacVeagh is authority for the following statement: "Even Senator Aldrich [now Ex-Senator] confessed that under the administration of Roosevelt and that of Taft $300,000,000 was being wasted yearly by each Congress."
It is obvious that this carnival of extravagance in the affairs of Government is a prime cause of the tremendously increased cost of living in these opening years of the new century. The people pay the bills, altho they generally do not realize the fact because of the INDIRECT method of Federal taxation. We pay it by paying more for all that we eat, wear, and use. To those living in these "last days," the apostle James prophetically addressed the following significant words: "Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been WANTON." How aptly the word "wanton" expresses the blind, reckless prodigality of present-day politics!
GEORGE W. RINE.
The Christian Endeavor Convention
By B. F. Kneeland
IN some respects the International Convention of the United Societies of Christian Endeavor, held at Atlantic City, New Jersey, June 6 to 12, 1911, was an epoch-making event. Every State and province on the North American continent was represented among the 8,000 delegates, who, with the visitors, packed the two immense auditoriums located on the "Million Dollar Pier," where the meetings were held.
The writer was greatly impressed with the magnitude of the movement that was represented by the thousands of young people who entered so heartily into the spirit of the occasion. It is evident that they are tremendously in earnest in the work they have undertaken, and there is no question but that a great deal of good has been accomplished by the Christian Endeavor Society.
The enthusiasm of the young people was roused to the highest pitch by the stirring addresses given by men of national reputation. Considerable emphasis was placed by the leaders on the fact that the convention was, in a way, recognized by the Government in the presence of President Taft and Speaker Champ Clark. Both of these officials applauded in their speeches the entrance of the Christian Endeavorers and other church organizations into the arena of politics. The young people were urged to plunge still deeper into the political activities of the nation. These sentiments were cheered to the echo by the assembled thousands. The thunderous applause and the vigor with which the various delegations gave their respective State "yells" indicated that they might easily be made to feel at home in a political convention.
To Swing the Church into Politics
Such emphatic endorsement, by men who stand at the very head of the nation, of the movement on the part of many church leaders to swing the forces of the church into political affairs, can not but give a mighty impetus to this attempt to place the church in a position where she can dictate the policies of the State, and force legislators to pass whatever laws the leaders of the church shall decide ought to be on the statute-books. An indication that these leaders see the situation in this light is in a sentence which I will quote from one of the resolutions passed without dissent by the convention. Speaking of one of the laws now pending in the national Congress, the resolution says:
"Let either the law, or its congressional foes, be passed, and that right early."
The close student of church history can not fail to note the remarkable likeness between conditions that prevailed in the third and fourth centuries and those of to-day. Those conditions developed the Papacy; and the people who are giving the message of the third angel, can only feel their faith in God's Word and message grow stronger as they thus actually see a reproduction of that power growing up before their eyes. Now, as never before, should we sound with loud voice the warning that God has given us for this generation.
They Appear Sincere
That the Christian Endeavorers have a sincere desire to be of real service to humanity, is shown by the great efforts they are making to bring about the establishment of international arbitration, and thus avoid the war and bloodshed that has so often disgraced our civilization. But the dream of universal peace that is held before them, and which seems such a laudable object, is, as we know from the study of the Bible, destined to a most disastrous awakening.
Efforts to Confederate
About a score of Protestant denominations were represented on the board of trustees, which elected the officers and practically did the business of the convention. An effort is being made to bring about a federation of all the young people's societies. It is easy to see that such an organization, presided over by men of years and experience, would be a most powerful factor in promoting any enterprise in which its leaders would point the way.
In Favor of Sunday Laws
One of the ways which that leadership is almost certain to continue to follow is indicated by the strong resolution introduced in favor of Sunday laws. This was passed without a word of protest, and without a dissenting vote. The idea of reforming the world by law seems a very popular one now; and with the leaders of the church urging political activity upon the members, and the great men of the nation opening the doors and inviting the church to enter politics, there can be little doubt that we shall see remarkable activity on the part of those who are clamoring for religious laws in the national Government, and more stringent legislation in the States where this class of statutes has already a foothold.
The delegates were emphatically assured by Speaker Champ Clark that the world is rapidly getting better. President Taft and other speakers looked forward to an era of peace, and some of the enthusiastic ones thought they could almost see universal peace within their grasp. B. F. Kneeland.
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A few years ago Mrs. Annie Besant was preaching infidelity with Bradlaugh the atheist throughout England. She then had no desire for any religion. She has passed through various evolutions, until now she is high priestess of the Theosophists. She has recently published a book making an attempt to bring together the more important texts of four religions in one — Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Mohammedanism. Now she claims to be directly instructed by masters invisible to human eye, most of whom she is able to bring back to a physical plane. She predicts a great spiritual teacher soon. She says that his last incarnation was Christ, but the physical body has already appeared for his next great incarnation. Her followers declare that it is a young Brahman boy whom she brought from Southern India. William T. Stead, the great publicist, says that the boy, Krishnamurti, has been brought to England for the purpose of being educated at Oxford University, and after a few years he will be overshadowed or incanopied by the divine spirit of the promised teacher, and will begin to execute his mission as the messiah of the new cycle of the world's history. All of which is one of the deceptions of the devil for these last days to hide from men the true coming of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.
Reports from Washington regarding the congressional investigation of the great steel trust now proceeding discloses the fact that the great combine does not make steel. It is itself a holding company, having within its grip the great steel concerns of the country, controlling practically the railroads of the country through its directors and their connection with the railway boards; and its stock, which has been sold to the extent of $1,700,000,000, is two thirds water. The whole thing shows that congressional officials and Ex-President Roosevelt were deceived by the trust magnate. The Despatch says that "Judge Gary seemed to tell almost with a pride, of his part in the scheme which elevated the clutch of a remorseless monopoly on the people of the United States, and put a President of the republic in the position of giving his consent to the commission of a crime." This is the same Gary who talks so glibly of running the steel business according to the "Golden Rule." This tremendous power in America shows us just what it will be in the world.
One of the sad things about Wall Street, New York, is the beggars which it has made. They are ever to be found hanging around the entrance of the Stock Exchange and asking alms. Many times the wealthy men give liberally; they do not want to view the effects of their sins in rags, and as one writer has expressed it, prefer to "gild even the beggars with some show of doing well." Sometimes they use them as errand boys. For instance, one of the beggars there is a man who stood high in even Government circles, was offered the position as ambassador to many courts, was one time the manager of a railroad. He is now glad to get a quarter. Some of these wrecks are half insane. There are a dozen or more cases, we are told, around there, each of which has an interesting tale to tell of the one time when he was in plenty. They are derelicts on the gambling sea by which the foolish speculator may take warning.
