Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 30, 1903
Special Offer
By Editor
Mental Arithmetic for Twenty-five Cents
FOR a short time we offer to our church-school patrons, Prof. E. A. Sutherland’s “Mental Arithmetic,” for 25 cents, postpaid. This offer will afford all a favorable opportunity to secure this book for the fall and winter schools.
The great majority of the readers of the REVIEW are familiar with this book, and a detailed description is not necessary in this notice of the reduction of price. It is an excellent text-book for our church schools, and at the price we now offer it, it is easily within the reach of all.
The objectionable features found in other arithmetics that contain problems dealing in liquor, tobacco, drugs, tea, coffee, candies, false weights and measures, which have a tendency to poison the youthful mind, are eliminated, and the book presents the principles of mathematics to the pupils from an entirely new, original, and practical standpoint, yet in harmony with sound arithmetical principles.
Meat in Due Season
As the International Sunday-school Lessons for the last half of 1903 will be upon Old Testament subjects specially treated in “Patriarchs and Prophets,” the present time is very favorable for the sale of this book to thousands of Sunday-school attendants, teachers, and workers.
“Patriarchs and Prophets” contains the foundation principles of the message, and interweaves them in the biographies of the leaders of Israel mentioned in the coming Sunday-school lessons, in a manner that will guide those studying these lessons into the full gospel for this time. While the circumstances are favorable, a special effort should be made to give the people this “meat in due season.”
Send to the Review and Herald for free copies of “Helpful Hints,” which contains the topics of the International Sunday-school lessons, and the pages in “Patriarchs and Prophets” where these lesson topics are mentioned.
“Patriarchs and Prophets” is an elegant book in every particular. It is published in the English, Danish-Norwegian, Swedish, German, and Holland languages, and substantially bound in all the popular styles of binding. It contains 760 large pages; prices, $2.25 to $4.50.
Order of the State Tract Societies, or of the Review and Herald Publishing Company, Battle Creek, Mich.
Librarian’s Journal
By Editor
Through some oversight the Librarians’ Journal was not listed in our last year’s catalogue, and on account of this some have supposed it to be out of print.
We have an ample supply on hand, and can fill orders promptly. Price, $1.25, postpaid.
Sabbath-School Lessons
THE International Sabbath-school Quarterly containing the Sabbath-school lessons on Ephesians, for the senior classes, for the third quarter of the present year, contains important lessons under the following headings: Blessings of God; The Fullness of His Power; Living in Christ; The Household of God; The Mystery Of God; Glorious Privileges in God; The Unity of God; The Gifts and Their Purpose; The Godly Life; Children of Light; Practical Instruction; Home Instruction; The Christian Soldier.
Bell’s Series of Bible Lessons for Sabbath-Schools
Full Set Complete
THESE lessons are “progressive,” not only from their progression in the order of events, but from the fact that they are graded to correspond with the usual growth and advancement of the pupils intellectually as the study proceeds.
Prices
Volume 1, 15 cts.; Volumes 2, 7, and 8, 20 cts.; Volumes 3, 4, 5, and 6, 25 cts. The entire set, $1.75.
Appreciated Tracts
Words of Truth Series, numbers 36, 37, 38, 39, and 40 have had a large sale, and are still being ordered by the thousands. At the present time some of these numbers have nearly reached the hundred thousand mark.
These tracts contain the simple message for this day, and the people are sowing them nobly.
All one-cent tracts with usual discounts on large orders.
Education
BY MRS. E. G. WHITE
321 pages, beautifully bound in three-color cover design; price, $1.25.
EDUCATION in its entirety, covering all phases. Especially prepared for parents, teachers, and students. Excellent for all classes. The great principles of Christian education are clearly set forth, and The invaluable counsel for the education of the youth is placed within the reach of all.
Friend in the Kitchen
A PRACTICAL vegetarian cook-book. It contains over 400 palatable and wholesome recipes free from flesh foods, also many suggestions on foods and their combinations, and miscellaneous instruction of practical value and importance to every housekeeper. Bound in two substantial bindings: oilcloth and oil-paper; prices, 50 cents and 25 cents, postpaid. Kept by all tract societies and publishing houses.
The Nelson Bible
WE have a few of two very popular styles of the “Nelson Bold Type Series,” which we offer at special reduced prices. This series is printed on fine India paper, with maps and index; only ⅛ of an inch thick, and about six by four inches in size, a very popular size for ladies and young people.
No. 3258X, French morocco, divinity circuit, linen lined, silk sewed, round corners, red under gold edges; regular price, $2.50; reduced to $1.75, postpaid.
No. 3265X, levant, divinity circuit, calf lined to edge, silk sewed, round corners, red under gilt edges; regular price, $4.50; reduced to $3.25, postpaid.
Send all orders for the above styles of Bibles directly to the Review and Herald Publishing Company, Battle Creek, Mich.
The Place of the Bible in Education
By Alonzo T. Jones
BY A. T. JONES
248 pages, in paper and cloth bindings, 25 and 75 cents, postpaid.
ONE of the new books just out. An excellent volume to study in connection with “Education.” Its chapter divisions are as follows:—
Christian Education; The World's Education; The Essentials of Knowledge; The Secret of the Great Apostasy; The Greek or “Scientific Method,” Today; The Separation of Christianity and the State; The Bible’s Right to Supreme Place in Christian Education; The Education of Daniel; What Was Taught in the Schools of the Prophets; The Study of Wisdom; The Study of Knowledge; The Study of Science; The Study of Mental Science; The Study of Moral Science; The Study of Physical Science; The Study of Physical Science—Anatomy; The Study of Physical Science—Healing; The Study of Physical Science—Physical Culture; Literature, History, Law, Logic; The Failures of Popular Education.
Order of the State Tract Societies, or of the Review and Herald Publishing Company, Battle Creek, Mich.
A Fearful Record
By Editor
Editorial
A Fearful Record
An eyewitness of the Kishinef massacre writes of “the blood thirst” which was on the people of the town, and which was quenched only by the indiscriminate slaughter of men, women, and children. But this massacre is only an intensified form of “the blood thirst” which is taking possession of great numbers of those who are casting off the restraint of the Spirit of God. Human life is lightly valued. In many cases a very slight provocation is sufficient to incite to murder. A small sum of money (only thirty-five dollars in a recent instance) arouses a spirit of covetousness which does not hesitate to sacrifice life in order to gratify itself. A young woman refuses to marry her professed lover, or decides for good reasons to break an engagement already formed, and she is deliberately murdered. A quarrel between neighbors over the ownership of some property is quickly settled by an appeal to the shotgun, and the earth again opens its mouth to receive a brother’s blood. The record of the present year is thus far a most terrible one. In addition to the fires, floods, and famines, which show plainly that God’s judgments are in the land, we are confronted with a daily record of crime which is sickening. The rising generation seems to be possessed with the same spirit, and even children are not over twelve or fourteen years of age have slain their young companions. And the worst of all is that the reports of these frequent crimes seem to harden the minds of the people generally to a real sense of the situation, and to incite others to the same or more frightful forms of sin. What will be the end of these things? Who will survive this day of slaughter upon which we have entered? This is the final outbreak of wickedness, and it will terminate in the great day of the Lord’s fierce wrath. “Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast.”
Religious Sentimentality
THERE are many people now who, like the men of Athens in Paul’s day, are “very religious.” In appearance they even go beyond the Bible standard, but this high profession is often merely a cloak for covering up a persistent neglect of plain duty. When these people are confronted with the teaching of the Scripture showing that the Lord has reserved a tenth of our increase as his own, and that consequently we should pay a tithe into the Lord’s treasury for the support of his work in the earth, they at once declare that all they possess belongs to the Lord, and that all the increase is his. This apparently shows a higher degree of consecration and sacrifice than is manifested in paying tithe, but the actual results to the treasury are generally much below what the Lord designates. When there is pressed home upon the consciences of these people the obligation to keep holy the seventh day of the week, “according to the commandment,” they at once reply that all days are holy to them, and that this is the result of the greater spirituality of the gospel as compared with the days of legalism, but experience teaches that the practical result of this claim is that the Sabbath becomes a common day, rather than that all days become holy. There are people who are so pure in their own estimation that they feel at perfect liberty to throw down all the ordinary barriers against the temptations to impurity, and they quote with much unction the statement that “unto the pure all things are pure.” But these very people are usually the first to fall into the excesses of impurity. The truth is that all this ostentatious profession of a lofty degree of piety is merely religious sentimentality. These people are simply builders of religious air-castles. Instead of accepting the Lord’s standard of human conduct, and submitting to his requirements, humanity puts forward an apparently higher standard, which eases the conscience, but does not rule the conduct. This is a latter-day deception. Do not be ensnared by it. “To the law and to the testimony.”
A Saving Message
The Word of God declares that “in the last days perilous times shall come.” These are the times when “some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils.” These are the times when some will become “overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life,” and thus be unprepared for the solemn events which will occur in this closing generation. These are the times when everything, even religion, is becoming artificial, and the inventions of the human mind are being substituted for divine revelation. These are the times when Satan is working “with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceit of unrighteousness for them that perish,” trying to deceive, if it were possible, the very elect. But all these things were foreseen, and were foretold in the prophecies, and the very message was given for the world which would fully meet the needs of the world in these last days.4There is no other message aside from the third angel’s message which will do this. A general presentation of the saving principles of the gospel, while an essential part of this work, will not be a complete work in itself. There must be such an application of these general principles to the particular situation in the world just now, and to the needs of the people just now, as will satisfactorily answer the requirements of these peculiar times, and bring entire deliverance from all the forms of deception and all the varied temptations to new forms of evil which press upon the people of this generation. An accurate portrayal of these perilous times is given in the prophecies which deal with “what shall be in the latter days,” and we are also instructed clearly concerning the exact setting in which the gospel should be preached in order that the working of Satan may be unmasked, and that the saving grace of Christ may be revealed. And it is only in and through these same prophecies that the closing message can be given. This is both the incentive and the reward for a diligent study of the prophecies, that we may understand both the nature of the times and the saving message which alone will warn the people of, and save them from, the perils of these last days.
The Closing Message and the Schools
THERE is something stirring, something thrilling, in the very thought of the closing message. It is the closing message, the end is in sight, and this is the last generation, and we are to live and labor with reference to the consummation of that hope which has been the hope of the church for the ages, the final, glorious coming of Jesus Christ. This is the closing message, this is the closing time, and there is something stirring, there is something thrilling, in the very idea of the closing message. And we can not talk about the closing message, we can not fix our minds with any certainty upon that idea, without sweeping over the whole line of prophecy, and coming to that declaration, “There shall be delay no longer: but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, then is finished the mystery of God, according to the good tidings which he declared to his servants the prophets,” and we are in the days of the voice of the seventh angel. “This generation shall not pass away, until all these things be accomplished,” and we are in the closing years of that generation, and we are to take this view of the prophecy and of the work, and to face definitely the truth that the Lord is coming in this generation. This is the closing work, and this is the movement that is to bring the coming of the Lord. It is a stirring thing, it is a thrilling thing, and when it ceases to be such unto us, we need to have our advent faith revived.
Now this last generation and this last work are most definitely the theme of prophecy. The picture is plainly set forth in God's Word, by which we may recognize that this is the last generation, and the work which is to be done in this last generation to meet the situation is set forth in the Word, and no one can rightly relate himself to the message in this closing generation except he is quickened by the word and the Spirit, through the words given unto the prophets. So we must shape the message, and we ourselves must be molded by the prophecies that set forth this time and this work. We have already suggested that there is a phrasing of the gospel work which fits all times and all circumstances, a principle which is to run through the whole message of the gospel, and that is, The life manifested for salvation from sin. This phrasing includes a great deal, and as we study this theme, it will help us to see its application by taking another view, and putting the same idea into another phrasing, and stating the same thing from another standpoint; because this is an infinite subject, and we grasp it more and more fully as we view it from different standpoints.
Now that same statement, the life manifested for salvation from sin, may be turned into this statement, The revelation of the law of God as the life of humanity. It is the same thing, only it brings into our minds a new picture of it. But the revelation of the law of God as the life of humanity must be treated as a concrete thing, not simply as an abstract idea; then it becomes the experience of the gospel, the experience of God manifest in the flesh. The gospel is the experience, the provision, the power for the revelation of the character of God in humanity. That is the salvation of humanity, but that revelation, that provision, is the science of salvation. It is the science of redemption, and that is the theme of the Bible, but it turns upon this question of the revelation of the law of God.
Now take that familiar scripture, the fourteenth chapter of Revelation, verses 6-12, and the twelfth verse shows clearly that the center of that message will be the law of God. Here is the patience, the steadfastness, of the saints, those keeping the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus. That is the result of the closing message. Then the center in the closing message is the law of God, but the law of God, not as a code, set forth not simply as a set of precepts which men are to attempt to observe, but as the very message of the gospel; and the closing message is the same everlasting gospel of God manifest in the flesh, the character of God lived in humanity, the law of God written in the heart of men. The whole controversy has been over the law of God, as to whether humanity should be obedient to it, as to whether humanity should submit to the real principle of God's law, which is his character in life. That has been the center of the controversy.
Now to see what is involved in the acceptance of God's law, in its revelation in humanity, or the rejection of God's law for humanity, we only have to take a view of the world as setting forth the results of the rejection of God's law, and a view of Christ and his work in humanity, to see the acceptance of the law. To reject God's law means more than to do certain specific things, it means more than to have it as a code interpreted by human reason, and applied by human power. The rejection of God's law means the rejection of his character. The law of God is simply the transcript of the character of God, the divine nature as applied to humanity. God does not want human beings to attempt to take his place. He does not abdicate in favor of humanity, but the law is the revelation of the character of God, the divine nature as God's original thought was for humanity when humanity was created, that humanity should be all that was in God's thought for humanity when man was created in the image of God. To reject God's law, to turn aside from God's law, is to reject God's thought for humanity, to refuse God's plan for humanity, and to receive the opposite of that in all the relations of humanity, both of man with man and of man with God, and the result of that is seen in the world apart from God. This contrast, or picture, is so wonderfully drawn in a part of the book “Education” that I will read a few paragraphs from it, and I want you to regard it as a description of things when God's law is rejected.
To reveal this ideal as the only true standard for attainment; to show what every human being might become; what, through the indwelling of humanity by divinity, all who received him would become,—for this, Christ came to the world. He came to show how men are to be trained as befits the sons of God; how on earth they are to practice the principles and to live the life of heaven.
God's greatest gift was bestowed to meet man's greatest need. The light appeared when the world's darkness was deepest. Through false teaching, the minds of men had long been turned away from God. In the prevailing systems of education, human philosophy had taken the place of divine revelation. Instead of the heaven-given standard of truth, men had accepted a standard of their own devising. From the Light of life they had turned aside to walk in the sparks of the fire which they had kindled.
Having separated from God, their only dependence being the power of humanity, their strength was but weakness. Even the standard set up by themselves they were incapable of reaching. Semblance took the place of reality.
Now that is the principle to apply. That is the philosophy of the acceptance or the rejection of God's law. Human philosophy takes the place of divine revelation. The result outwardly is that semblance, mere profession, takes the place of reality, and we have a false world, we have hypocrites instead of Christians, and we have outward show hiding an inward corruption. We have appearances without the reality. Without divine insight people are deceived by appearances, and substitute that for the reality, and think it is the reality. It is a divine life that makes it possible to distinguish the difference between appearance and truth.
From time to time, teachers arose who pointed men to the Source of truth. Right principles were enunciated, and human lives witnessed to their power. But these efforts made no lasting impression. There was a brief check in the current of evil, but its downward5course was not stayed. The reformers were as lights that shone in the darkness; but they could not dispel it. The world “loved darkness rather than light.”
When Christ came to the earth, humanity seemed to be fast reaching its lowest point. The very foundations of society were undermined. Life had become false and artificial. The Jews, destitute of the power of God's Word, gave to the world mind-benumbing, soul-deadening traditions and speculations. The worship of God “in Spirit and in truth,” had been supplanted by the glorification of men in an endless round of man-made ceremonies.
We should note the very phrasing of these sentences as the picture of that time; because it is the picture of our time. “The worship of God ‘in Spirit and in truth’ had been supplanted by the glorification of men in an endless round of man-made ceremonies,” and that is simply another way of saying that righteousness by works had taken the place of righteousness by faith. And that is a picture of our time.
As the evil passions and purposes of men banished God from their thoughts, so forgetfulness of him inclined them more strongly to evil. The heart in love with sin clothed him with its own attributes, and this conception strengthened the power of sin. Bent on self-pleasing, men came to regard God as such a one as themselves,—a Being whose aim was self-glory, whose requirements were suited to his own pleasure,—a Being by whom men were lifted up or cast down according as they helped or hindered his selfish purpose. The lower classes regarded the Supreme Being as one scarcely differing from their oppressors, save by exceeding them in power. By these ideas every form of religion was molded. Each was a system of exaction. By gifts and ceremonies, the worshipers sought to propitiate the Deity, in order to secure his favor for their own ends. Such religion, having no power upon the heart or the conscience, could be but a round of forms, of which men wearied, and from which, except for such gain as it might offer, they longed to be free. So evil, unrestrained, grew stronger, while the appreciation and desire for good diminished. Men lost the image of God, and received the impress of the demoniacal power by which they were controlled. The whole world was becoming a sink of corruption.
There was but one hope for the human race,—that into this mass of discordant and corrupting elements might be cast a new leaven; that there might be brought to mankind the power of a new life; that the knowledge of God might be restored to the world.
Christ came to restore this knowledge. He came to set aside the false teaching by which those who claimed to know God had misrepresented him. He came to manifest the nature of his law.
Now is not that which we have read but a veritable picture of this day? Do we not recognize it as we read it? Does it not seem as though it were written for our day? It is a picture of our day. The same principles have brought us to the same conditions.
(To be continued)
Another Theory in Science
By L. A. S.
THE daily papers are telling about a “great revolution in science.” There have been great revolutions in the past, since the days when men believed that earth, air, fire, and water were the four elements of which everything was composed; but it was believed that modern science was not susceptible of any great revolution. It had settled things with such sureness, it had employed so many and so wonderful resources for discovering the exact truth, that any serious disturbance of its conclusions was considered out of the question. Even though its conclusions were contrary to the statements of the Bible, they must be accepted, and the Bible discarded if necessary, since science, and especially modern science, settled everything beyond a doubt.
Now, however, we have arrived at another revolution in science, and what has been firmly believed for many years and accepted without question by all scientific students of the day, must be discarded as an exploded theory. Modern science is forced to admit that it has been saying “certainly” where it should only have said “perhaps.”
The cause of this sudden overturning of long-standing scientific dogmas is the wonderful newly discovered metal, radium. Experiments and observations made with this most rare and remarkable substance have, we are told, led scientists to the conclusion that the elements are not stable, as was supposed, that atoms are not the ultimate indivisible units of which matter is composed, and that there is but one ultimate element in all matter, the nature of matter and the difference between one kind of matter and another being due to the number of ultimate elements or “ions” in each atom of the substance. The “ions” themselves are all precisely alike; but a change in the number of “ions” composing the atom makes a total change in the substance which the atoms compose. This is the theory which, if press reports be true, is now advanced.
We quote from the Chicago Tribune the following statements on this subject, furnished by its London correspondent, on the occasion of a recent lecture on radium by Professor Lodge, one of the foremost scientists of Great Britain:—
The world’s foremost searchers after the ultimate secrets of the universe have at length committed themselves to the stupendous theory, for some time foreshadowed and now apparently substantiated by study, of the new substance, radium.
Crookes, the other day in Berlin, and Lodge and Curie, this week in London, have confidently proclaimed that it is easy to define this great revolution in science in scarcely more than a sentence, but to comprehend it is almost as far beyond the power of the human mind as the idea of eternity or infinite space.
The old theory that the atoms of elements consist of indivisible units of matter now is definitely discarded. Instead, we now are told that each atom is a whole stellar system of infinitely smaller but absolutely identical units, all in a regular orbital motion. The nature or identity of each substance depends upon the number of such ions contained in each atom. Thus 11,200 ions in each atom produces what we know as oxygen, 37,200 of the same ions if combined in a single atom would yield what we regard as gold. The nature of these ions is, for want of a better word, electrical. In other words, electricity and matter are one and the same thing.
This theory has been more or less familiar to scientific men for two or three years, but it has been undemonstrable until recently. What Roentgen rays suggested now radium seems to furnish complete. Professor Curie’s examination of radium and other phenomena leads Professor Lodge and his associates to believe that matter is not stable in its atoms, as heretofore supposed. Everybody is familiar with the disintegration of matter, which means a rearrangement or recombination of the elements. Thus water may be separated into oxygen and hydrogen, but it never before was imagined that the atoms themselves were capable of disintegration.
Professor Lodge suggests this is a notable process of nature, yet it is proceeding at a rate so slow that it baffles the powers of conception of the human mind to estimate the length of time required. In radium alone it proceeds so rapidly that the phenomena is easily observed.
The Tribune correspondent concludes with the statement that according to Professor Lodge “we clearly are on the verge of the greatest revelations of science yet vouchsafed to mankind—a knowledge so gigantic that it is only limited by the capacity of the human mind to receive it.”
In view of all this, it would certainly become modern science to assume a humbler attitude, and speak with less of an air of infallibility in setting forth its conclusions regarding the origin and destiny of terrestrial things. Christianity is the true science of the hidden mysteries which are so far beyond the reach of the human mind that they can not be grasped through what the world calls science. They can be brought to man only through faith. By faith we reach even to infinite heights of truth, and lay hold upon knowledge which otherwise would be possible only to the mind of God.
L. A. S.
Is It a Good Investment?
By W. C. White
OUR people are being asked to contribute liberally, on Sabbath, July 4, to the support of our missionary enterprises in Australasia.
It will be of interest to those who have made gifts to the Australasian field, and to those who are now asked for the first time to contribute of their means to this6work, to know what has been accomplished by the financial assistance rendered to the Australasian work in past years.
From their earliest experiences, the Australian and New Zealand Conferences have made a brave effort to be self-supporting, and to take the message of present truth to the vast, unworked portions of their territory.
The records of the tithes and offerings they have paid in seasons of great adversity as well as in times of prosperity, stand as a worthy example to our brethren in other lands.
The conditions of the field threw upon the workers in Australasia extraordinary responsibilities. It was found to be necessary to establish a publishing house, a training-school for Christian workers, also to build meeting-houses in many places, and later on to establish sanitariums, hydriatic treatment rooms, and a health food business.
The need for these institutions, and the fact that there were but a mere handful of Sabbath-keepers in each colony (about five hundred in all when the Echo Publishing Company was organized, twelve hundred when the Avondale school was started, and not more than two thousand when the sanitarium building was begun), appealed strongly to our people in America, Africa, and Europe; and they have contributed freely for the building of churches, and the planting of necessary institutions in Australasia.
In order that our people in all lands may see that the brethren in Australasia have been enabled by the blessing of God to use wisely the talents of means intrusted to them, and that they may see that the institutions established are growing in influence and power, we shall extract from letters and reports some statements which will help to make a picture of a prosperous and growing work in this great field.
The Echo Publishing Company
When in the spring of 1885 Elders Haskell, Corliss, and Israel were preparing to go to Australia, they laid plans and made preparations for the publication of a monthly paper. It was impressed upon their minds that periodicals, tracts, and books would act a leading part in the Australasian Mission.
Six months after their arrival in Melbourne, they laid the foundation of our publishing work in the southern hemisphere, by the issue of The Bible Echo and Signs of the Times, a sixteen-page monthly journal. For this work a building was erected in North Fitzroy.
During 1886, 1887, and 1888 the blessing of the Lord attended the workers and the work. As the message was given by the ministers, churches were raised up. The Bible Echo was widely circulated, and books were freely sold by consecrated canvassers. The growth of the publishing work demanded more room and better facilities for printing. In April, 1889, the Echo Publishing Company Limited was incorporated, and the erection of buildings begun on Best Street, North Fitzroy.
For some years the publication of The Bible Echo and the sale of our subscription books were the principal features of the work, but in 1891 an effort was made to begin the publication of our smaller books. “Steps to Christ” was the first book issued by the company. Then followed “Coming King,” “Christ Our Saviour,” “A Friend in the Kitchen,” “The House We Live In,” and “Desire of Ages.” Step by step the work of the Echo Publishing Company has been developed until the institution is in a position to print the greater part of the subscription books sold in Australasia.
From an address made at the last annual meeting by W. D. Salisbury, president of the company, we quote the following:—
“Glancing back over the thirteen years of this company, we can see that God has been guiding his work, and that his prospering hand has been over it from year to year. Much good has been accomplished by the publications that have gone out from this office.
“Compared with the number of our own people, Australia is the banner field throughout the world in selling books. This is not because canvassing is easier here. The population is small and scattered. The prices are higher on our books than in any other part of the world. It is due to the earnestness of our canvassers, and the thorough organization of our book work, in every part of the field, that we are enabled to sell so many books.
“During the past thirteen years, books to the value of £125,000 retail have been sold. The company has donated to missionary work £2,600, which includes £1,725 loss on The Bible Echo, £555 on other periodicals, and £220 donations in cash and material.
“Although during this time we passed through bank failures, and the results of the bursting of the land boom, we have recorded but one year’s loss in ten years. Some years the profits have been small, but they have been sure. The past year’s profit is the largest in the history of the company; and this at a time when many changes have taken place in this country, and business in the commercial world has been uncertain.
“From a small beginning the Echo Company has grown to be one of the best equipped printing and publishing houses in the southern hemisphere. Not because we have such a large variety of machinery and material, but because it is the latest and most improved of its kind, and capable of turning out the best work when properly handled. (There are ninety persons employed by the company.)
“Our present net worth is now £5,000. We believe we can realize far more than that amount, after paying all our creditors, should we at any time sell our plant and buildings.
“The value of business the past year has been £19,390. This is £4,086 more than the preceding year, and £1,689 more than the year before that, which was our best year.” W. C. WHITE.
Note and Comment
OPPOSITION to the truth in Wilburton, I. T., is showing itself in the form of religious persecution. The following facts are given by Brother J. J. Johe, of Hartshorne, I. T.:—
DEAR BRETHREN: There has developed a bit of religious persecution in the town of Wilburton, I. T., where our church is located. Brother H. Syar has been arrested and brought before the courts at two different times for working in his repair shop on Sunday. The first arrest was on Sunday, May 31, 1903. The marshal took him in charge and bound him over to appear in the mayor's court the following Monday, at which time they convicted him, imposing a fine of one dollar and costs. But he took an appeal to a higher court, which will not meet until next January.
The second arrest occurred Sunday, June 7. His trial was set for Tuesday, the 9th, at which time a hearing was granted the defendant, and a plea of not guilty was made by the attorneys for the defendant, according to the statutes which they produced, exempting those who keep another day than Sunday.
This hearing came before the judge of the commissioners' court. The judge reserved his decision until next Monday, June 15. The city marshal made the arrest in this case also, and then turned Brother Syar over to the United States marshal, who placed him in jail, where he stayed for several hours, until a bond of one hundred dollars was made for him.
Brother Syar is the only one who has been arrested for working on Sunday, although the livery stables, ice-cream parlors, and other places do a flourishing business every Sunday, and are not molested. Also employees of the coal mine operators work on Sunday, and are not molested.
It also became known that they had threatened a man who lives in Hartshorne, and runs a loom on Sunday (meaning me), that, if the mayor did not stop him, they would send after him themselves, or something to that effect.
The town of Wilburton is quite stirred up over the matter, and public opinion is running high in favor of the persecuted.
Germany Bans Mormon Propagandism
The German government is endeavoring to put an end to Mormon propagandism in that country, and to this end has issued a decree debarring Mormon preachers and teachers from entering Germany. It is stated also that Mormon leaders now in Germany will very likely be ordered to desist from any further teaching of Mormon doctrines.