Earlier text: XIX. THE TWO WITNESSES“The God of all grace, who hath called us unto His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.” 1 Peter 5:10. 2. The grace of God comes to man through Jesus Christ. “I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ.” 1 Cor. 1:4. 3. This grace is a free gift. “But not as the offense, so also is the free gift. For if through the offense of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.” Rom. 5:15. 4. Salvation is by grace, through faith. “By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.” Eph. 2:8. 5. Object lessons of grace. 6. The sinner is under the law, and the believer is under grace. “Sin is the transgression of the law” (1 John 3:4); and “The wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23). “Sin [the transgression of the law] shall not have dominion over you [believers]; for ye [believers] are not under the law, but under grace.” Verse 14. “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Ch. 8:1. 7. The realm of grace is a kingdom. “Giving thanks unto the Father, . . . who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son.” Col. 1:12, 13. “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” Heb. 4:16. 8. Who may be subjects of grace. “The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men.” Titus 2:11. 9. Who really profit by the opportunity. “God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.” 1 Peter 5:5. “Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time; casting all your care upon Him; for He careth for you.” Verses 6, 7. “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” Rom. 5:1, 2. A “HOLINESS” exchange quotes the statement of a correspondent in another “holiness paper” that “almost all the young men who come into the experience of holiness, and profess to be sanctified, declare that God has called them to preach.” Now neither of the papers alluded to pretend to deny the statement of said correspondent; but the one first mentioned comments in part as follows:— We take occasion, while mentioning the matter, to announce our distinct conviction that almost all the young preachers who are sanctified, and who profess as a first thing after being sanctified that God is leading them straight forth to do the things that are named [certain prominent works], are simply misimpressed. And for the reason that they are misimpressed (doubtless by some tempting spirit), they are unwittingly subjecting themselves to evil misleading in point of mistaken endeavors that will almost surely tend to mischief in God’s work, and will hardly less surely tend to their own partial, if not total, miscarriage in life as to the spiritual prospects that lie ahead. There can hardly be a more preposterous supposition concerning the will of God, or concerning Holy Spirit leadings, than that which would seem to engage an utter novice to do a work for the right accomplishment of which mature knowledge and mature experience are manifestly demanded. Such early and strained eagerness to rush forward with impatient vim in holy work as above indicated, and as evinced by many—and indeed by most—sanctified novices, betrays error of conviction in more ways than one. This comment can not be gainsaid, and it gives emphasis to the tacit admission of the editor, as well as of the editor of the other “holiness paper,” that “almost all the young men who come into the experience of holiness, and profess to be sanctified,” are “simply misimpressed,” are “unwittingly subjecting themselves to evil misleading in point of mistaken endeavors, that will almost surely tend to mischief in God’s work,” etc. We have long known that this so-called “holiness movement”—a holiness that ignores the commandments of God—is a delusion and a snare; but we had not expected to see the fact so clearly demonstrated by “holiness” advocates themselves. It is certainly a dangerous type of sanctification or holiness that is fraught with such disastrous effect upon “almost all the young men who come into the experience” of it. The logic of the admission is that all who escape the delusions connected with it are those who do not really “come into the experience.” Surely, then, it is safe to keep aloof from the deceptive thing altogether. A doctrine that stands so unmistakably condemned by its own advocates is certainly a false doctrine. A “holiness” that admittedly brings forth such fruit is certainly misnamed. The successes, the honors, the highest attainments that this world affords, soon pass away; yet the multitude follow on in quest of these transient baubles, in face of their unsatisfactory and uncertain possession. Nor is there any keeping power in the honorable positions of this life, nothing to give any assistance or to inspire any inclination to do right. A striking incident in illustration of this truth is the suicide of Major-General Sir Hector MacDonald, of the British army, in a Paris hotel, on the 25th ult. Inside of fifteen years, by dint of great courage, endurance of hardship, and innate military skill, he passed from the rank and file of the army to the grade of Major-General. He was conspicuously successful in India, in Egypt, and in South Africa, and was especially complimented by the highest authorities of his government. No blemish appeared on his career as a soldier until, basking in the sunshine of high reputation and honor, he is suddenly confronted with charges that demand a court-martial. To evade the disgrace, he deliberately ends his life, going down and out of life's possibilities with a tacit admission that the charges were true, and were enough to demolish the monument he had raised. How much better to humbly build on the Rock, and to securely grow in Him who “is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.” G. It is quite impossible to explain such a scripture without a fuller consideration of the matter than the space in this department will permit. It involves the great plan of redemption itself. We commend as a possible, probable help to its solution the tract, “Bible Election,” No. 67, Bible Students’ Library, price 2 cents. In brief, the scripture teaches that in God’s plan of salvation there is no difference. All have sinned, all need mercy, and all by faith may be saved through Jesus Christ. Rom. 10:11, 12. The following is from the Springfield Republican; and the answer to the argument from the Pilot is well spoken:— “Why should not Catholics have some of the taxes they pay to educate their children? The fathers of our republic gained the freedom of the land by fighting for the principle of no taxation without representation.” This is the forcible way the case is put by the Hon. James Smith, Jr., United States senator from New Jersey, at the recent celebration of the silver jubilee of the Rt. Rev. John J. O’Connor, D.D., Bishop of Newark, N.J.—Boston Pilot. The Roman Catholics do have their share of the taxes for education. The State assumes the duty of teaching its children, and the advantages of the public schools are open to all of every faith. The church demands that it shall have a proportion of the school taxes to carry on religious teaching also. This can not be allowed, simply because it applies the public money to the advantage of a special religious cult. The orator and the editor know this, and all the reasons for it. Any set of people, of any religion or no religion, have an equal right to maintain their own schools, if the public schools do not suit them, but to demand from the State the payment of teachers of any religion or no religion is altogether foreign to the idea of the republic. The triumphs of Marconi are naturally bringing forward the previous experiments of James Bowman Lindsay, to whom we referred a few weeks ago. Lindsay was born in a Scotch village in 1799; worked as a weaver at a hand loom in his early youth, but a taste for reading became his ruling passion. As Elihu Burritt when he was a blacksmith apprentice tied a text-book to the bellows and read what was in it as the bellows went up, and recited it to himself when the bellows went down, so Lindsay invariably tied a book to his loom during working hours. He worked and plodded until he became a student at St. Andrew’s, and afterward a teacher in Dundee. He devoted his time between science and language; experimented as an electrician, and undertook to compile a dictionary of fifty languages. He certainly forecast wireless telegraphy, the heating and lighting of houses by electricity, and the general introduction of electric power. He began his electrical work in 1831; in four years devised a telegraphic system, suggested welding by electricity, and produced a continuous electric light which he said could be increased without limit. He went about lecturing and predicting that houses and cities would be lighted by electricity instead of gas, and heated by it instead of by coal. These prophecies were made in 1834. He resumed the experiments in 1844 and telegraphed messages across ponds without wires. In 1853 he sent them a quarter of a mile at Portsmouth, and later three-fourths of a mile on the Tay. In 1859 he read a paper on wireless telegraphy before the British Association. But his details were entirely different from Marconi’s. Lindsay immersed two sheets of metal on one side of a pond or river, and connected them with a wire which passed through a coil to move a needle. And on the other side he placed two smaller plates connected similarly. He thought it necessary to have the plates on each side of the pond or river a mile apart. When he talked about transatlantic telegraphy he proposed to immerse and connect plates three thousand square feet at the northernmost and southernmost headlands of the United Kingdom, and supply a coil of two hundred pounds and a battery of one hundred and thirty square feet, and to have this on both sides of the Atlantic. This is almost totally unlike the plan of Marconi. Marconi operates with vertical wires in the air rather than with electrical wires in the water, as did Lindsay. Sir John Leng, who has taken great interest in Marconi’s experiments, knew Lindsay well.—Christian Advocate. (From the New York World.) THE most pertinent, forceful, and valuable passage in the report of the President's Strike Commission is that treating of the right of every man to work on terms and conditions satisfactory to himself, free from fear or interference. This is the essence of human freedom—“the right to labor and enjoy the fruits of one's labor,” as Lincoln expressed it. On this point the Commission says:— “The right to remain at work where others have ceased to work, or to engage anew in work which others have abandoned, is part of the personal liberty of a citizen that can never be surrendered, and every infringement thereof merits and should receive the stern denunciation of the law. “Our language is the language of a free people, and fails to furnish any form of speech by which the right of a citizen to work when he pleases, for whom he pleases, and on what terms he pleases, can be successfully denied. The common sense of our people, as well as the common law, forbids that this right should be assailed with impunity. It is vain to say that the man who remains at work while others cease to work, or takes the place of one who has abandoned his work helps to defeat the aspirations of men who seek to obtain better recompense for their labor and better conditions of life. Approval of the object of a strike or persuasion that its purpose is high and noble can not sanction an attempt to destroy the right of others to a different opinion in this respect, or to interfere with their conduct in choosing to work upon what terms and at what time and for whom it may please them so to do. “This all seems too plain for argument. Common sense and common law alike denounce the conduct of those who interfere with this fundamental right of the citizen. The assertion of the right seems trite and commonplace, but that land is blest where the maxims of liberty are commonplace. “What is popularly known as the boycott (a word of evil omen and unhappy origin) is a form of coercion by which a combination of many persons seek to work their will upon a single person, or upon a few persons, by compelling others to abstain from social or beneficial business intercourse with such person or persons. Carried to the extent sometimes practised in aid of a strike, and as was in some instances practised in connection with the late anthracite strike, it is a cruel weapon of aggression, and its use immoral and anti-social. “To say this is not to deny the legal right of any man or set of men voluntarily to refrain from social intercourse or business relations with any persons whom he or they, with or without good reason, dislike. This may sometimes be unchristian, but it is not illegal. But when it is a concerted purpose of a number of persons not only to abstain themselves from such intercourse, but to render the life of their victim miserable by persuading and intimidating others so to refrain, such purpose is a malicious one, and the concerted attempt to accomplish it is a conspiracy at common law, and merits and should receive the punishment due to such a crime. “The practises which we are condemning would be outside the pale of civilized war. In civilized warfare women and children and the defenseless are safe from attack, and a code of honor controls the parties to such warfare which cries out against the boycott we have in view. Cruel and cowardly are terms not too severe by which to characterize it.” In the closing quarter of the eighteenth century the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States were missionary documents in the Old World. The seed sown by them has worked wonders in Europe, in the matter of liberty for the masses. But while the nineteenth century witnessed the gradual relaxing of the shackles of the people in almost every European State, its closing years witnessed a strong tendency to place new restrictions upon civil and religious liberty in the United States. While, in the guise of National Reform, the twentieth century opens with marked encroachments of the Church upon the prerogatives of the State, with a growing tendency on the part of the Church to control the people through the State, which means a restriction of religious liberty, we find even in Russia a royal decree enlarging the religious liberties of the people. While in this country there is on every hand a building up of great land monopolies, we find even in Ireland that the government is moving to break up great landed possessions, and give the poor a chance to own their homes. From being the boasted “land of the free,” the trend in America grows stronger and stronger toward the rule of monopoly. It is a rush for monopoly in every phase of life—in politics, in religion, in business circles of all kinds, and even in the matter of ordinary labor. And monopoly always means oppression. By no other means can monopoly be sustained. The spirit of self-interest seems to have taken possession of all classes of men, and the Book of the law of God is lost in the rubbish. What will remedy this great evil, and check the mad rush in self-interest to self-destruction?—Nothing but a seeking after God, a taking heed to His Word. Are we likely to see such a general work?—No; for we are in the last days, which our Saviour said would be as in the days of Noah. “For as in the days that were before the Flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not until the Flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.” Because men have turned away from the Word of God, they will be ignorant of the things it foretells until the threatened doom is upon them. Apologies for following after Rome are coming to the front in quick succession. The Presbyterian Banner gives one that almost covers the whole ground. It argues that the observance of Christmas and Easter concedes the principles of the “Christian year,” by which is meant the holidays enjoined by the church during the year. It further argues that the observance of these two days “logically prepares the way for the acceptance of its [Rome’s] general calendar.” So far the argument is logical, but the endorsement of the concession to Rome which follows is a full surrender, in principle, to the papacy:— Whatever good reasons there may once have been for rejecting it [the papal calendar], these reasons have passed away, and the fear of popery is no longer before our eyes. The fact that it always has been and now is observed by the greater part of the Christian world is an immense motive in its favor. That so many other Christians accept it is surely no reason why we should reject it; rather this is a reason why we should share in its common blessing. It would be a great step toward Christian unity for all Christians to travel through the Christian year together. The common Sabbath is a powerful bond of unity and means of action to the Christian world, and a common church calendar would contribute to the same end.
The fact that Protestantism has become so blind to its fundamental principles that even a Presbyterian organ can imagine that the reasons for rejecting papal institutions have passed away is cause for Protestant alarm. Rome’s boast is that “Rome never changes;” where, then, does the Protestantism stand that can see no further reason for rejecting Roman Catholic decrees? Every week one or more specific cures are announced through the press for various dangerous maladies to which human beings are liable, such as typhoid fever, leprosy, consumption, heart-failure, and various other diseases. These are mostly in the nature of serums injected into the circulation. Professor Behring, the discoverer of the diphtheria serum, has discovered a serum which he claims will cure tuberculosis in cattle and in children, rendering the latter immune during life. Another physician has announced before the Boston Medical Society the discovery of a specific for heart-failure. The secretions of certain glands of the body are injected into the circulation to strengthen heart action. The discoverer of the supposed specific for typhoid crushes the germs of the typhoid disease in liquid air, and the juices thus obtained are injected into the human organism both as a preventive and as a specific for the cure of typhoid. But it is in the treatment of consumption that the greatest number of remedies are being invented—and proved ineffective, as the other specifics also may prove to be. In the Balkans.—The situation in the Balkan States has become much more serious during the past week. The Macedonians were not satisfied with the reform measures which Russia and Austria forced the sultan to promise, and the Albanians are opposed to the concessions which the sultan has promised to grant. It is a compromise to which neither of the parties involved are willing to agree. The Mohammedans regard the concessions as granting too much, the Macedonians as granting too little, and the latter have no faith that even these will be carried out. A number of encounters have taken place between the Turks and the revolutionists, and it is reported that many lives have been lost. In some instances whole companies of the revolutionists are reported to have been annihilated. Russia has again warned Bulgaria to prevent Bulgarians aiding the Macedonians. The Albanians also are now in revolt, have shot and seriously wounded the Russian consul, and attacked the regular Turkish troops. The reports state that the sultan has sent sixteen more battalions from Asia Minor to Albania, and that Austria has threatened to take active steps to quell the disorder. The British Government has informed the nations concerned that England’s interests must not be overlooked in whatever action is taken in the Balkan States. The sultan hardly dares to take very active measures against the Albanians, because his own bodyguard is composed of Albanians who are jubilant over the Albanian attack on Mitrovitza. The present situation is regarded by many as more serious than at any time since the present trouble arose. Among the Strikers.—A disagreement has occurred between the coal miners and operators in the anthracite mines over the ruling of the coal strike commission in the matter of the number of hours to constitute a day’s work. As a result several collieries have been closed. Some of the miners have decided to return to work and allow the matter to be settled by arbitration. The strikers at Keswick, Cal., have been enjoined from interfering with the smelting company or its employees. Considerable violence has been indulged in there by the strikers. The injunction issued against the Brotherhoods of Railway Trainmen and Firemen at St. Louis, Mo., has been removed, the ground for this action being that the company had misrepresented the situation in applying for the injunction. About 15,000 men in the building trades are now idle in New York and adjoining States, because of the refusal of the building contractors to accede to their demands for increased pay, shorter hours, and other concessions. The street-car strike in Tacoma and Seattle continues, a few cars running, but no immediate prospect of agreement. The threatened strike of street-car men in San Francisco has not yet taken place, tho the company has refused the demands of the men. In the strike which threatened to result in a number of vehicle makers leaving Chicago, it has been decided to yield the demands to arbitration. A war upon saloons has been inaugurated by a young lady of Kokomo, Indiana. She had lost her position in a store at the behest of the saloon element because of a slumming tour which she had made. She then circulated remonstrances, and the commissioners refused licenses to thirteen saloons in one ward. She is now circulating similar remonstrances in other wards, and declares that she will close all the saloons in Kokomo, of which there are thirty-three. The saloons which have been put out of business must stay out for two years at least. At Winfield, Kansas, two sisters attacked two saloons, breaking their way in with hatchets, and smashing a number of bottles and glasses. They were not arrested. A bill has just passed the Assembly of Wisconsin, making it a misdemeanor for any person or firm to bring into the State or sell or give away any cigaret or cigaret-paper or substitutes for them. The same bill passed the lower house two years ago but was defeated in the Senate. Mayor Low, of New York City, has refused to receive a visit from the agents of the Liquor Dealers’ Association, of that city, because of their responsibility for so much of the police corruption in New York. He holds that the Liquor Dealers’ Association is one of the principal obstacles to a genuine reform in the police department. Earthquakes.—On March 30 an earthquake said to be of unprecedented violence shook the city of Jerusalem. The entire population was panic stricken, but the damage done was not large. An earthquake was felt at Kalispell, Montana, on April 1, which shook down five acres of land into the river, completely blocking the channel, causing the river to flood the bottom lands. Another eruption of the volcano on the island of St. Vincent, W. I., occurred on March 21, lasting until March 30, when the crater glowed with the appearance of a huge electric arc. Young vegetation is again obliterated by the cinders from the volcano. Troubles in China.—Reports from China indicate that the rebellion in several of the provinces is still in progress. Prince Tuan and General Tung Fu Hsiang are reported to have threatened to establish a kingdom in China out of the provinces of Shensi and Kansu, unless the empress dowager will depose the emperor and put young Pu Chun on the throne. Large bodies of rebels are moving in these provinces, and government troops have been repulsed in encounters with them. Magistrates of many of the cities or villages are reported to have surrendered to the rebels and opened the gates of the cities to them, knowing that they were powerless to resist their attacks. All the Chinese viceroys and governors have united in a protest against the payment of the indemnity in gold, declaring that the resources of the people are exhausted. Dishonesty in Office.—Not long ago the whole country was discussing the municipal corruption in Minneapolis and St. Louis, and facts were brought to public attention which made respectable people blush for shame. In both these cities dishonest rings were formed for the purpose of obtaining money from the lawless element in return for granting to that element permission to carry on their dishonest business. The same conditions are known to exist in other cities. Now St. Louis has another occasion for unenviable notoriety. It has been charged before the grand jury of that city that the Missouri legislature literally “held up” the manager of a street railway company, compelling him to pay to some of the members $1,000 before he was granted permission to build a bridge from one of the company’s houses to another. At the same time the Seattle grand jury has brought against the mayor, chief of police, and others charges of malfeasance, perjury, and extortion. The grand jury then recommended that these officials resign from their offices. Riots.—On April 2, during the celebration at Monterey, Mexico, of the victory of General Diaz’s troops over the French, a mob of about 15,000 persons attacked the home of General Reyes, governor of the State of Nuevo Leon. In the fighting which ensued between the mob and the police, eight persons were killed. On April 3 an enormous mob paraded the streets of Madrid, Spain, crying, “Long live the Republic,” and “Death to the minister of the interior.” Twenty persons were injured in the battle with the police which followed. Later a mob of 3,000 workmen and students attacked a detachment of police with stones. A riot broke out recently in Agram, Austria, and assumed such proportions that the entire garrison had to be called out to clear the streets. The trouble was due to jealousy on the part of Croatian students because of the official sanction of the use of the Hungarian and German languages. The spirit of unrest and riot is growing with the other evidences of the decay of this present world. Aping the Feminine.—The Taylor and Cutter, of London, is authority for the statement that the wearing of that feminine article of apparel, the corset, is on the increase in England among the “smart dressed” young men. This is as truly an indication of degeneracy as is the aping of the masculine by a certain class of women, and the evils are just as great in the one case as in the other. The purposeless man and the aimless woman are both indications of an age given to folly and luxury, an age plainly pointed out in the Word of God as the last generation of this world. In San Domingo.—The revolution in San Domingo has assumed such proportions that the government of the little republic finds it difficult to cope with it. Serious fighting has occurred during the week, and many lives have been lost. The insurgents have secured control of some of the government’s war vessels, and on land they have entrenched themselves in various places. The rebels are holding Santo Domingo City, and tho the government forces have attacked several times, they have not been able to dislodge the defenders. United States marines have been landed for the protection of the consulate. In Central America.—The presidents of San Salvador and Guatemala have drawn up an agreement which it is hoped will enable them to avert future wars. The presidents met on the high seas for the interview. The agreement is in reference to the arbitration of all future disputes between the two little republics. A cable from Guatemala states that another revolution has broken out in Nicaragua, but contains no details. The newly-elected president of Honduras continues to make progress toward the capital, and the former president is reported to be making overtures for peace. In the Philippines.—The religious leader of the Mohammedan people known as the Moros, has recognized American sovereignty over that district, and it is believed that opposition to the Americans in that quarter has come to an end. Visits have been exchanged between the American officers and the leaders of the Moros. The American commander there, Captain Pershing, has been directed to take a census of the Moro people, and will begin the work without delay. THE coal barons are reported to have decided upon a systematic and gradual rise in the price of coal, so that by next winter coal will be selling at a price considerably in advance of what it is retailed at to-day. This action, it is charged, is taken because of the coal strike arbitration committee deciding on an advance in the wages to be paid the miners. ADVICES from Paris state that most of the Catholic orders which the Government has ordered to disband have decided to comply with the order at once. Others will take the full time allowed them by the law, and it is intimated that some of them will wait until they have been advised from Rome before making definite plans as to their course.