“Every manifestation of creative power is an expression of infinite love.” God has not given life to a single creature but that He has created something to sustain that life. Everything is created with an adaptation to the element in which it is to move. He has made the fish for the sea, the animals for the land, and the birds for the air. The tiny fish, the great whale, every beast of the field, every fowl, tree, or blade of grass, is continually speaking to the senses of men, that there is a God, the Creator and supreme ruler of all. The sun, that rises in splendor, and gives forth light and heat to supply the needs of man; the moon, that brightens the gloom of night; and the stars, that shed forth their light, all these speak with a plainer voice than the lips of man or tongue of angels, the power and love of God. The psalmist meditated on the power of God, and while gazing upon the numberless worlds twinkling in the blue dome of the heavens, the Spirit of God rested upon him, and he wrote, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth His handiwork.” Ps. 19:1. If the sun, moon, and stars should be blotted out of existence, darkness equal to that in the beginning would be upon us. Were it possible for men to live under such conditions for a short time, they would greatly appreciate the love of God in creating the world, and lighting it up so perfectly to their needs.
O, how selfishly we appropriate the rich blessings that God has bestowed upon us through nature! In this world God’s sun shines on the just and the unjust, and His rain falls on the good and the evil. It will not be so when the earth is renewed. There will be none in that beautiful world but those who have recognized the love of God in granting these blessings under the present conditions. Were it possible for them to be there, they could not endure the brilliancy of the sun’s resplendent rays; for says the prophet Isaiah, “The light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the Lord bindeth up the breach of His people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.” Isa. 30:26.
It was in infinite love that God pronounced a curse upon the earth after our first parents sinned in Eden. He said to Adam, “Cursed is the ground for thy sake.” Gen. 3:17. Yes, it was for man’s sake that the strength of the soil was weakened, that thorns and thistles grew, and that the atmosphere, teeming with the effects of the curse, hid six-sevenths of the sun’s brilliancy. God has so arranged this world that sinful men can exist in it, and through Christ prepare to live in it after it is renewed. We could not endure the conditions of any other world. Praise the Lord for His wonderful wisdom and infinite love!
Every one who through repentance and confession will respond to the love of God, will see new beauty in all His created works. His heart will be drawn out toward the great Creator, and a bond of sympathy will spring up that will lead him to put his whole trust in his heavenly Father. He will have faith that all his needs will be supplied, even under the most adverse circumstances. His fields may be parched and unproductive, his wells of water exhausted, and the streams dry; yet the God who loves him, and whom he loves, will surely supply his needs. Israel was as secure from want in the barren desert as when surrounded by fields of waving grain. Their supplies fell fresh from heaven every night; for Christ, who led His wilderness people, worked on the principle that He afterwards enunciated in the prayer He taught His disciples, by giving them daily their daily bread.
E. HILLIARD.
Tonga, Friendly Islands.
FAITH.
By W. M. Healey
“NOW faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Heb. 11:1. In this chapter we find many examples cited of what faith will do for those who have it. It shut the lions’ mouths for Daniel. It kept the fire from burning the three Hebrew children. It saved Noah from the destructive flood. It caused Abraham to leave his native land for a country he had never seen. It enabled some to be “sawn asunder,” others to wander in the deserts, cold, hungry, and naked, and they endured all this by faith. It takes fully as much faith to endure persecution and suffering as it does to win battles, or gain victories over the wild beasts or the elements of nature. It requires as strong faith to suffer illness and live a Christian life as it does to heal the sick. But the Bible teaches us that faith is sufficient for all these things. “And this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” 1 John 5:4. It is faith that “overcometh the world.” If faith can overcome the whole world, then it is certain it can overcome anything in or of the world, for no part of the world can be stronger than the whole.
When men and women sin, how often they cry out against the “strong temptation;” they bewail the power of Satan; but his power did not prevent them from gaining the victory; it was because they lacked faith! If an army of one hundred thousand is camped near an enemy’s lines and an officer is sent with one hundred men to spy out the enemy’s camp, with instruction to sound the bugle if he needs reinforcements, and he suddenly meets a foe of one thousand, and engages in battle, without calling for aid, and finally succeeds in reaching his camp alone, bruised and bleeding, leaving all his men dead on the battle-field, can it be said that he was overcome by the strength of the foe, and thus he be excused?—No; he was overcome because he did not call for help.
What Is the Faith
which has more power than all the world?—It is simply belief in what God has said. Noah’s faith saved him from the flood, because he believed that what the Lord had said about it was true, and so he prepared for it.
Belief alone is not scriptural faith. Many people believe they will be saved when the Lord comes to make up His jewels. “Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name? and in Thy name have cast out devils? and in Thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you; depart from Me, ye that work iniquity.” Matt. 7:22, 23.
While these persons evidently believed they would be saved, they will surely be lost. They had no warrant in the Word of the Lord for believing they would be saved. Verse 21 tells us that “not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven.” They had no Word of God on which to base their faith. There is no promise of entering into the heavenly kingdom while refusing to do the will of the Father, even tho Christ may be called Lord.
Jesus said, “If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.” Matt. 17:20. What is the faith of a grain of mustard seed?—It is simply this, that God has made the laws that govern its being and life, and they are perfect and to be obeyed. This small seed never attempts to do anything contrary to the law, word, or will of the Father in heaven, “who giveth to every seed his own body.” It takes what God gives, is satisfied, and so lives and grows thereby.
This is the faith that makes all things possible. Whatever God says to do may be done. If He says move a mountain, faith in His word will cause it to pass from its foundation. But for one to simply believe he can move it without any word of God for him to do so, is to trust in his own strength. So for one to think he will be saved while violating the “will of My Father,” simply because he believes or thinks he will be saved, is not in any sense scriptural faith, having no warrant for it in the Word of God.
Eve believed that she would not die when she ate the forbidden fruit, but this faith, or belief, was a curse to her, not being built on the Word, and it led her into sin and far from God. Believing a thing does not make it so. “Faith is the evidence of things not seen.” But while the things are “not seen” by the believer, they have an actual existence; they are facts, not fictions.
It was a fact that death would follow sin, and Eve’s belief to the contrary made no change of that fact. It changed her relation to God, because she accepted untruth instead of truth. “Thy Word is truth.” John 17:17. Christ told the Jews to “search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life.” Those people thought they had eternal life in the Scriptures, but it is evident they did not, for Christ pronounced them sinners, to be shut out of heaven. Search the Scriptures and see if the things you believe are the truths of God’s Word, and remember that simply because you believe them does not prove that they are the words of the Lord. And if not, belief in them is vain and will lead away from God, from life, heaven, home, and happiness. No man can hold to an untruth without loss.
To maintain that a thing is so simply because we believe it so, is to deprive man of reason, for the facts are not changed, but he is changed. In the insane asylum may be found the ripened fruit of this theory. There in one corner sits a forlorn creature with a stick, and a few pieces of cloth around it, rocking to and fro, singing her lullaby song, believing this is a darling, living child. Her belief does not change the facts, but it changes her from a rational, reasoning being to a demented, helpless soul.
Do not be deceived into the idea that things are as you think. They may seem to be so to you because the mind has been compelled to deny the facts and is not permitted to accept the truth. This is the “deceivableness of unrighteousness;” the “strong delusion,” “that they should believe a lie; that they all might be damned who believed not the truth” (2 Thess. 2:10-12); the “way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.”
Be not deceived. Test every point of what you believe by the Word of God. “The entrance of Thy Word giveth light.” Believe God, and obey Him; for he “that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as He is pure.” Pure faith leads to a pure life; nothing else can. W. M. HEALEY.
DO YOU KNOW HIM?
By Editor
THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES is set for the purpose of lifting up Jesus Christ before the world. He is "the power of God and the wisdom of God" to save all who will come to Him. He is the Creator and Upholder of all—one with the Father. "It pleased the Father that in Him should all the fulness dwell," and in Him are all the children of faith made full. He declares, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life."
He is the Way, the path, the road, which leads to the everlasting, sinless, wantless, deathless, sinless kingdom of God. In His own life and experience He bridged the awful chasm between earth and heaven, made by sin. He is the ladder of Jacob’s vision, which reaches from the lowest depths of human degradation and wo to the throne of Infinite Peace, Purity, Love, and Happiness. He is the Way. He would have you accept His way for yours. Will you do it?
He is the Truth. His "Word is truth." His "law is the truth." Every word which He has spoken or His Spirit inspired is truth, and reaches back to the Eternal Throne. Satan has his counterfeits, almost resembling the original. He would blind men to the truth as it is in Jesus Christ by the glamor of a false science, by heathen philosophy, by the sophistry of high-sounding words, by the utterances of men with learnedly-long titles, by the decisions of great religious bodies and systems; but in all these utterances are only the strength and wisdom of the creature that dies. Every word of God is the word of the Creator. Received, retained, followed, it leads to the great, Central Throne; it purifies the heart; it establishes character; it makes man one with God. Jesus Christ longs that you shall believe and accept God’s truth as it is in Him, as He taught it and lived it. Will you not do it?
He is the Life. Apart from God man dies. "In Him we live, and move, and have our being." By sin man has forfeited his life. Sin came into the world, and death by sin. And "all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." Apart from God man was eternally lost, doomed to eternal extinction of being. But the great Father did not leave him here; "for God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." In Him is eternal life, because in Him is eternal righteousness. He became sin for us, and died in our behalf. He became righteousness for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. He came forth from the grave a conqueror over sin and death, because there was no sin in Him, because of His righteous character wrought out in the obedience of faith. And every one who receives the imputed and imparted righteousness of God will come forth from the grave or from mortality a conqueror when Christ comes. He is the Life. In His resurrection, and the righteousness for which that event stands, is our hope—is the hope of a dying world. Sinner, Christ would be your life. He would have you yield up to Him your sinful life and accept His righteous life, give up your sinful dying and accept His righteous living, in order that, eternally saved, you may dwell with Him forevermore. Will you accept it?
Will you not accept Jesus Christ, the Way, the Truth, and the Life?
A LESSON OF HISTORY FOR TO-DAY.
Let America Heed It.
WE are told in the Book of God, by His apostle to the Gentiles, that “whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope” (Rom. 15:4); and of the history of the Israelites that “these things . . . are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come” (1 Cor. 10:11). We may, therefore, believe that there are lessons for us and our times in the Inspired Record. Does not the following contain a lesson which the people of the United States would do well to consider?
“Moreover Amaziah gathered Judah together, and made them captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, according to the houses of their fathers, throughout all Judah and Benjamin; and he numbered them from twenty years old and above, and found them three hundred thousand choice men, able to go forth to war, that could handle spear and shield. . . . And Amaziah strengthened himself, and led forth his people, and went to the valley of salt, and smote of the children of Seir ten thousand. And other ten thousand left alive did the children of Judah carry away captive. . . . Now it came to pass, after that Amaziah was come from the slaughter of the Edomites, that he brought the gods of the children of Seir, and set them up to be his gods, and bowed down himself before them, and burned incense unto them. Wherefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against Amaziah, and He sent unto him a prophet, which said unto him, Why hast thou sought after the gods of the people, which could not deliver their own people out of thine hand?” See 2 Chron. 25:5-16.
The present administration in this country, and the people generally, felt that it was a righteous thing to lift the crushing, grinding heel of Spanish tyranny from suffering Cuba. The spectacle of the years of misery of the inhabitants of the beautiful yet devastated Pearl of the Antilles could no longer be borne; and hearts were stirred; armies and navies were called into existence, and Cuba was at last freed.
But what caused Spanish cruelty in Cuba? What caused it in the Philippines? What caused it through the dread centuries of the Inquisition? One reply is sufficient for all these,—the blighting influence of the Papacy, the religion dominant in Spain. Away back of papal influence in Spain, when the darkness of Mohammedanism hung over the land, Spain was not so cruel. The Spanish heart was as tolerant as other hearts. Under the Gospel of Christ it would, we have no reason to believe, have been any more tyrannical, cruel, or intolerant than England or Germany. But after centuries of control by an apostate Christianity, which founded and fathered and mothered the Inquisition, the Spanish character itself became changed to what we now see. The Spain and her colonies of to-day are what they are because of the Papacy. Spain is what the Papacy has made her during these centuries of her tutelage. Her priests, her teachers, her rulers, her schools, her churches, her armies, her navies, have all been faithful children and institutions of the Papacy, and have perennially been blessed by the pope. Spain’s adherence and the pope’s blessing and tutelage have resulted in the Spain whose power crumbled before that of the young giant of the West, whose chief diet has been that of Protestantism—absolute divorce of Church and State—and liberty of conscience to all.
These glorious principles of liberty of conscience and equality of man, of non-union of Church and State, of non-interference by the civil magistrate in ecclesiastical affairs, and non-interference of the ecclesiastic in civil affairs, gave America all its power, its vigor, its worth. But now, having conquered Spain, this government is bowing down and doing homage to the very gods which not only could not deliver Spain, but which made her the deceived and weakling thing she is now among the nations.
What is our proof of this?—It is the constant yielding and subserviency to papal influence on the part of the government, a subserviency and inclination and yielding which ought not to be shown toward any religious body on the face of the earth. Read, in the light of this, our first-page article. Read the article in our Outlook department. And for the latest event take the following special press despatch to the San Francisco Examiner of December 26:—
IRELAND FOR PEACE ENVOY.
The Archbishop to Represent America at the Czar’s Conference.
[Special despatch to the Examiner.]
WASHINGTON, December 25.—Archbishop Ireland will represent the United States at the Czar’s Peace Congress. The President has had the subject under advisement for several weeks, and, according to the best authority, it may be said a decision has recently been reached, the archbishop having agreed to accept this most important and honorable post.7
Ever since his induction into office, the President has been anxious to testify his appreciation of Archbishop Ireland’s Republicanism, which took the form of strong interviews and speeches made during the campaign of 1896, and of his mental gifts and learning. Prior to the war with Spain the archbishop was of great service to the administration in acting as the unofficial intermediary between the Roman pontiff and the President. It was Archbishop Ireland who suggested to the holy see the propriety of using pontifical influence upon Spain with a view to averting a war. The prelate has rendered distinguished, if unofficial, services since the signing of the peace protocol.
The czar’s call for an International Peace Congress, at which his proposed universal disarmament is to be discussed, presented exceptional opportunity to honor Archbishop Ireland in an illustrious manner. As the representative of the United States in such an assemblage, his position would comport with the dignity of his ecclesiastic office, while not interfering with its duties, owing to the temporary character of the present appointment. Aside from the pleasant effect such a designation would have upon a large proportion of the population of this country, it is assumed that the United States would gain prestige among the Catholic nations represented, as well as achieve for the President a reputation for good taste in the selection for a peaceful mission of a professional messenger of peace and good-will.
It is not yet known whether the archbishop will be the sole representative of the United States, or whether he will head a delegation of three or four representatives from this country.
In this connection it may be said that the question of a proper papal delegate to the Philippines has been occupying the President's mind. Because of the importance of this matter, and Archbishop Ireland's talents, the President has latterly felt that the appointment of the archbishop temporarily, at least, as papal representative in Manila, would be desirable. This view has not been pressed, and some friends of the archbishop are in doubt as to whether the post is of sufficient dignity and importance to warrant his designation. There is no doubt, however, that Archbishop Ireland, in case the President should desire and the pope should consent to the appointment, would gladly act as papal commissioner for a few months at least.
The proposed appointment of the archbishop to the Peace Congress has, of course, the sanction of the pope, and it is extremely significant that just at this time The Examiner correspondent has learned from a creditable source a report that the pope has in view the elevation of Archbishop Ireland to the cardinalate.
Archbishop Ireland will soon be in Rome, where he will explain to the pope the administration's attitude toward the church in Cuba and the Philippines. It is argued that if Pope Leo regards the archbishop's work as valuable to the church and creditable to himself, he may indorse President McKinley's attestation of the prelate's worth by conferring upon him the red hat.
Read the above, and read anew the story of Amaziah and the gods of Seir.
But this is not all. It is neither the beginning nor the end; but it is evidence that papal diplomacy is superior to Spanish arms and presents American statecraft.
Neither are we concerned over this because it involves the Papacy alone. We have naught against Roman Catholics as men and women. Christ died for them all. It is the evil principle of union of Church and State which is thus worming its way to the heart of the Republic. It is the poisoned dagger thrust which strikes at the heart of religious liberty, paralyzing the nerves while it pierces the arteries.
And yet God foresaw all this, and has foretold it in His prophetic Word; and upon these definite specific prophecies of Divine Inspiration, more hereafter.
TO THE WOMAN'S CHRISTIAN TEMPERANCE UNION OF CALIFORNIA.
By Editor
THE Woman's Christian Temperance Union is again lending its influence to unchristian work, namely, religious legislation. We regret that this is so, not for ourselves, but for their sakes who do this thing. The Pacific Ensign, the Union organ for the Pacific Coast, of December 8, contains the following petition, which the members are asked to sign in duplicate for both houses:—
To the Senate and Assembly of the Legislature of California—
We, the undersigned, residents of ———, in the county of ———, California, respectfully ask your honorable body to enact a Sabbath law that will prohibit all unnecessary secular labor and business and all public sports and amusements inconsistent with the sanctity of the day, and that at the same time will secure the necessary weekly rest to all classes of weary toilers.
And this appeal is made by the superintendent of this branch of the work:—
Sisters, how is the rest day observed in your locality? In your superintendent's locality many workmen have "bowed the shoulder to bear," like Issachar, and have become servants to Sabbath toil. They are asked to work, or make way for the man who will work, on Sabbath, and, not being able to do without employment, they yield.
Mothers, what assurance have we that our children will not be thus oppressed or become the oppressors? We did not cast the ballot in the late election; but now we can centralize many ballots for a Sabbath law by securing voters' names to the memorial. Under our beneficent institutions and form of government this power is vested in the Legislature to prescribe the rules, and the courts to enforce them. In the other States and all Christian lands the Sabbath, as an institution, is enforced by law, and is constitutionally upheld by the Supreme Court. Its mission is to provide for a compulsory observance of the first day of the week as a day of rest, and cessation from labor and the tumults and bustle of business; but it adds not to this requirement any religious obligation. The Israelite and the seventh-day Christian are not required to rest on the first day, if they observe the seventh.
What a great and lasting benefit our W. C. T. U. can now do for Californians if three thousand of us engage in this work of securing signatures until December 20, when they should be returned, to be prepared for the introduction of the bills when the Legislature convenes!
All who do not have the memorials will please copy or clip them from this paper. On or before the date, December 20, mail them to the superintendent.
Sisters, come and let us reason together over the matter.
1. Who are oppressed in the matter of Sunday work? Surely there is no such a thing recognized in California as involuntary servitude for law-abiding citizens. There is not a man in the State compelled to work Sunday unless he so elects. "But if he will not do it, he will lose his place," you say. Not always. Usually integrity and loyalty are respected by unconverted men. But what if he does lose his place? Can he not afford to do it for conscience' sake, for Christ's sake? Is a religion worth having which will not take this risk? Self-denial for Christ's sake is at the very foundation of the Christian religion. "If any man will come after Me," said Jesus, "let him deny himself." Matt. 16:24. Can not the Christian believe the words of the prophet, when told to lose money rather than engage in a questionable transaction, "The Lord is able to give thee much more than this"? It is better to suffer for principle's sake than to serve at a money profit in its compromise. If Christians can not meet this small temptation, how can they meet greater ones?
2. Let the godly women of the W. C. T. U. teach their children Christian principles. Then, if oppressed, they will come forth the stronger; and they will never be oppressors. No Christian can.
3. Yes, the Legislature prescribes rules, but only in civil matters. The duties which lie between man and his Maker are entirely foreign to the duty and province of a legislative body. Just as soon as a legislature assumes to make laws to govern men's duty to God, it puts itself in the place of God, blasphemously arrogates to itself divine authority, and paves the way for persecution of the innocent and for the destruction of the State.
4. No; the Sabbath, the Bible Sabbath, the Sabbath made and observed by Christ, was never enforced by law; it never could be enforced by law. The Lord's Sabbath is the Lord's rest. "God is spirit;" "the law is spiritual." The Lord's rest is spiritual, "rest unto your souls." The Lord's spiritual rest can only be known or observed by those who know the rest in Christ Jesus, rest from self-righteousness, sin, and strife. They can know this only as they accept it willingly. It can not be enforced, and any attempt to enforce the Sabbath is but the putting forward of an empty, lifeless form, whether true or false, Satan's counterfeit to the true.
5. There are no Christian lands or governments on earth save the church or body of Christ, and she is subject only to her Head. Any act or attempt to enforce any religious or ecclesiastical dogma is unchristian. "Whose image and superscription hath it?" Is it Cæsar's or God's. The Sabbath is the Lord's; it belongs not to Cæsar. Render to Cæsar the things which are his, and to God the things that are His, is what the Master enjoins. And let not Cæsar meddle with the things of God. Further, Jesus Christ said, "If any man hear My words, and believe not, I judge [condemn] him not; for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world." Why should the good women of the W. C. T. U., or the Legislature, or the courts, presume to sit in judgment on those who do not believe the Sabbath as they do?
6. But our sisters of the W. C. T. U. tell us that this Sunday act for which they strive is not religious. If so, what mean the words "a Sabbath law," "secular labor," and "sanctity of the day"? These all clearly imply a religious law. What means the exemption expressed, that "the Israelite and the seventh-day Christian are not required to rest on the first-day, if they observe the Seventh"? Why exempt this class? Who can tell whether they observe the seventh or not? And if a Sunday law is good, why any exemptions?
O sisters of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, it is not Christian to compel. You drive away more than you win, and you never win by compulsion. You can not. You can compel men to try to act as tho they were Christians, but you can not make Christians by civil law. You will make men hypocrites; you will turn them from God to man, from the Gospel of love to the gospel of force, "and what will ye do in the end thereof?" Is it not true, Christian sisters, that any and everything that is of Christ will stand because of His own inherent life? Is it not true that what will not stand in Him is not worthy that any child of His should endeavor to maintain it? "Every plant which My heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up." Are not Gospel means and power better than that of force? Is not God stronger than Egypt or Assyria? Is not prayer to God more effectual than petitions to legislatures?
899. Christians and Secret Societies.
Christians and Secret Societies
Is it right for a Christian to belong to secret societies, as a beneficial organization for the care of the sick or orphans?
A READER.
Secret Societies
By A Reader
Of what good is a secret society? What grace or blessing or obligation or privilege is there in it that is not in the church? And if there is good in it, why should Christians wish to keep it to themselves? And if evil, it ought to come to light, so as not to deceive the unwary. Jesus said, "I spake openly to the world; . . . and in secret have I said nothing." See John 18:20; Matt. 10:26, 27; Ezek. 8:7-16; Matt. 28:18-20. There is a secret association between believers in Christ, understood only by those who share His Spirit. This He wants all to do. Why should he who drinks at the cool, living springs in Christ's church desire to taste from the fouled pools of men?
Is THE second coming of Christ to be preached 120 years?
"As the days of Noah were" do not refer to time, but to condition of morality, violence, indifference, blindness. See verses 38, 39.
THE OUTLOOK
ROME WANTS INDIAN EDUCATION CONTRACTS.
By William N. Glenn
Many Protestants, as Protestants, urged on the war in behalf of Cuban independence because they hoped that such a result would also break the Roman Catholic yoke in that island. They are desiring the permanent holding of Porto Rico and the Philippines for the same reason. These hopes are based largely on the delusion that the United States Government is under Protestant control. But Rome has two factors—one is Jesuit, the other is "liberal;" one is for church domination, the other is for religious liberty, according to locality or other circumstance. Where the former fails, the latter is ready to step in.
Rome’s Jesuit feature was loath to see Spain lose her island colonies, but her love of liberty (!) bids Godspeed to the United States in her victory, as soon as it is assured. True, Rome had large financial interests at stake, but the prospect is good that the ingenuity of Yankee Catholicism will eventually more than make up the loss to the church, besides making unprecedented progress in the matter of government control in the United States. The war which caused apparent reverses to the church in the islands gave a splendid opportunity for the Catholics of the United States to demonstrate the church’s loyalty, patriotism, and love of liberty, as also the papal desire for peace on earth. All things considered, the way was well opened for the church to come in as master of ceremonies at what professed Protestants blindly supposed would be her funeral. And now we have the aspect of Roman Church functionaries, because of their sacerdotal rank, being asked to assist the government in the settlement of Church-and-State affairs in these conquered islands. Surely all these things are logically encouraging to the Papacy; for did not the pope several years ago acknowledge the United States as the child of Rome?
The Papacy is always solicitous for the victors if she can be allowed to assist them in her own way. So there has been a vast deal of hobnobbing between the government and Roman dignitaries ever since it was a foregone conclusion that the United States would, at least for a time, hold sway in the conquered provinces. It is held that the Roman Church must be helped onto a self-sustaining basis in Cuba, and that the priesthood must not be antagonized in the Philippines.
Logically, we are right here confronted with another proposition, namely, "that the subject of Indian education under the government contract system be reopened." This proposition is made openly by Cardinal Gibbons in a petition to Congress. Many of our readers know what this system is, but perhaps many do not. Some years ago, under what was known as President Grant’s "peace policy" in dealing with the uncivilized Indians, contracts were made with various missions for the education of these Indians. At first teachers were practically appointed by the religious denominations, but paid by the government; but, to avoid the appearance of Church-and-State union (which it really was, for they all taught religion according to their denominational tenets), the formal contract system was adopted. As a matter of fact, this did not relieve even the appearance of that evil—and here is the way that fact came to be realized: In course of time the Roman Catholic Church was receiving more money from the government for Indian education than all the Protestant denominations combined. According to Cardinal Gibbons’ petition, that church received in 1886, $118,343; in 1887, $194,635; in 1888, $221,169; in 1889, $347,672; in 1890, $356,957.
These enormous gains from year to year, and the fact that the Catholics were far outstripping the Protestants in the contest for public funds, at last convinced the Protestants that the whole system was wrong. The Baptists were the first to see it, altho they were the first to solicit and to receive government aid in their work. Then they declined to receive any more government funds, and other Protestants followed their example. Of course this brought a strong pressure upon the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and the whole contract system was stopped. This was a cause of great grief to the Catholic Bureau at Washington, and many of the "knowing ones" in political circles ascribe to this cause the defeat of President Benjamin Harrison for the second term.
Be that as it may, the revival of the Indian contract agitation by Cardinal Gibbons just at this time is significant. It would be a fine scheme for "civilizing" and "Christianizing" the "Indians" in Cuba, in Porto Rico, and in the Philippines—there are millions of them in the latter province. Then there are hosts of teachers—priests and sisters—already on the ground, who have just been thrown out of government support by Spain’s defeat, and "must not be antagonized" by the United States Government.
The outcome of the cardinal’s petition can not be divined as yet, but he and several other high dignitaries of "the church" are so intimate with the government, and they are all such astute politicians, that it is not to be supposed for a moment that the petition would have been introduced without some good assurances of support. These are red-letter days for Roman Catholic influence with the Government of the United States. W. N. G.
