Review and Herald, Vol. 85, No. 13. (3/26/1908)

Review and Herald

Mar 26, 1908

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 26, 1908

FRESH FROM THE PRESS

Year-Book for 1908

By Editor

JUST COMPLETED

WE have just finished printing the new Year-Book, and it is now ready for mailing. Besides containing all that has been in previous issues, it has many new and valuable features. There are twenty-seven maps drawn especially for this issue, showing union and local conference and mission field boundary lines. The maps also show the location of each institution and of the headquarters of each conference. The edition contains all the changes which have been made in the union conference sessions held recently. Many pages of valuable statistics regarding our institutions and their work are printed for the first time in this issue.

Last year we printed two editions, but they were all taken in a very short time. There will be but one edition this year, and you should order at once to avoid the possibility of disappointment. The added features will make it more valuable than ever, and we anticipate a large demand. Order at once. Price, 25 cents, post-paid.

Testimonies on Sabbath-School Work

NOW READY

“A NEW element must be brought into our Sabbath-school work in every church.”—Mrs. E. G. White.

To help in directing those who wish to place the Sabbath-school on the right basis, this valuable compendium of selections from the Testimonies on Sabbath-school work was prepared. It will be welcomed by every Sabbath-school officer and worker. The book should be in the hands of every one who attends the Sabbath-school.

Much valuable information and many important suggestions are given for conducting a Sabbath-school in the most profitable manner. The entire book is arranged in a logical and concise way for reference and study. Many State secretaries are expecting to use this as a text-book for a course of study on Sabbath-school work.

It is now ready to mail. Orders may be sent in at once. Convenient pocket size, cloth, 25 cents; leather, 35 cents.

Steps to Christ

NEW EDITION

Just what you have been waiting for!—the new edition of “Steps to Christ.” Profusely illustrated, with beautiful drawings made especially for this book by New York artists. Printed from entirely new plates, on a fine quality of calendared paper.

This little volume is intended as a guide-book “for all who wish to attain the Christian life, or learn the way more perfectly.” The book has proved true to its title, and hundreds testify to its merits. Over 200,000 copies of the old edition were sold, and we feel certain that the 20,000 which we are now printing will not last long.

The cover is one of the most attractive which we have ever seen. The design is a beautiful border of white lilies of the valley, with green leaves, which encloses the title, and a medallion head of Christ, surrounded by the crown of thorns, stamped in gold. The whole is worked out upon a light-brown cloth, and the entire effect is very beautiful. Cloth, 50 cents; paper, 25 cents.

Life and Health

By Editor

FOR APRIL

We take pleasure in announcing that the April number of our health journal is now being printed, and will be off the press in a few days.

This issue of Life and Health is a Mothers’ Number. Its pages are filled with excellent articles that deal with many phases of experience in the life of the mother. These articles are well written, and will be of interest and help to every parent whose aim is the welfare of the family. Do not miss the benefit you will receive from reading the Mothers’ Number of Life and Health. If you are not a subscriber, send for a copy at once.

In this number Dr. Lauretta Kress begins a series of articles dealing with the care of children. The first article is entitled “Baby’s First Six Months of Trouble.” Every mother will desire to have the benefit of this series of articles. Send in your subscription now. Order a quantity of the magazine to sell to the people of your community.

Yearly subscription price, 75 cents. In quantities, 2 to 25 copies, 5 cents a copy; 25 to 500 copies, 4 cents.

Tract Society and Publishing House Orders

Order of any State Tract Society or Publishing House, or REVIEW AND HERALD PUBLISHING ASSN. New York City WASHINGTON, D. C. Battle Creek, Mich.

The World Growing Better?

SOME professed teachers of the truth are shutting their eyes to the actual condition of things in the world, as observed by unprejudiced persons, and are declaring that the world is growing better, and that the church was never so pure as at the present time. Where is the evidence? Is it in the increase of crime? Is it in the wide-spread corruption in public and private life? Is it in the uncontrolled and uncontrollable worldly spirit which is so manifest in the church? Is it in the repudiation of nearly every one of the doctrines of the apostolic church and the substitution of scientific and philosophical devisings? Only those who have fully committed themselves to a creed which they feel in duty bound to defend at all hazards could pretend to believe that the record of the world’s doings indicates spiritual improvement year by year. And yet this very claim is one of the signs that we are living in the last days. They are now saying “peace and safety.” The impending event is “sudden destruction,” according to the Word of God.

The Gift of Righteousness

The subject of the Sabbath-school lessons for the next quarter is “Great Reformatory Movements in the Light of the Threefold Message of Revelation 14,” and the topic of the lesson for April 4 is “The Fundamental Truth of the Gospel.” We hope this lesson will be given the careful study which it deserves.

In order that we may understand the way different historical steps in the development of the gospel, it is necessary that we should have clear and well-defined ideas as to the real essence of the gospel. This we may state simply and briefly: The gospel is God’s means for saving men from sin; he takes away sin by imparting his own righteousness; his righteousness is a free gift; this righteousness is not an abstraction, but a life, even the life of God in Christ Jesus our Lord; God gave Christ to be our righteousness, and that we might become the righteousness of God in him; we receive the gift of righteousness, just as we receive the gift of Christ,—by believing,—and we do not properly receive Christ unless we receive him as “the Lord our righteousness.”

Let us emphasize the great truth that righteousness is an absolute gift. For some it is hard to accept this doctrine even as a theory; for others it seems to be difficult to act upon it even after assenting to it as a part of their creed. It is so contrary to human thinking that we are not required to pay for it at least to some degree, either before or after receiving this most wonderful blessing. It would gratify our human pride if we could read the current price of righteousness in the market quotations, order what we need through some broker of good standing in the church, and pay for it with our own check. Then it would be ours without our being under obligations to any one. But no, among all the commodities and stocks and shares quoted on change, righteousness is not found. No broker deals in it, and indeed it is not likely that many of them possess it. Righteousness can not be purchased. It is a gift, an absolutely free gift, without money and without price.

Furthermore, we can not prepare ourselves by good works to receive the gift of righteousness, and we can not receive it by doing good works, and we can not pay for it by any good works which we may do after receiving it. We are not even saved by the good works which are wrought by faith, for all is the gift of God. We are not saved by keeping the commandments of God, but the righteousness which is of faith is manifested through keeping the commandments, and thus witness is borne to the genuineness of the righteousness which is received as a gift.

These are simple truths, and in no way extreme statements. The more we meditate upon these simple truths, the more clear will they become to us. We need not fear to yield ourselves wholly to them. There are no other teachings of the Scriptures which will contradict or modify them. They stand absolutely true. When we read of “the gift of righteousness” (Rom. 5:17), we may know that it means a gift; and when we read that Israel failed of righteousness because they did not seek it by faith but by works (Rom. 9:31, 32), we may know that righteousness can not be obtained by works.

But are not good works required?—Certainly, but not as a means of securing righteousness, and not as a price for righteousness. Are we not required to keep the commandments of God?—Certainly, but not as a means of securing righteousness, and not as a price for righteousness. Righteousness and life are both gifts, both from the same source and through the same channel, and they are both re-tained by obedience, but they are not ob-tained by obedience. This is a distinction which makes all the difference between righteousness by faith and righteousness by works. We obtain righteousness as a free gift through faith. We manifest and retain righteousness by keeping the commandments,—an experience which is itself a gift of God through the ministry of Christ, and therefore first and last it is wholly the gift of God, and not by works at all. We are saved by grace through faith, and that not of ourselves, it is the gift of God. We do well to ponder these words.

The message of righteousness by faith is not to be discredited because some who

formerly taught it with clearness and power have departed from right paths. Neither is this fundamental truth to be modified nor nullified, with the idea that by so doing others will be prevented from departing from right paths. The only salvation for anybody is to be found in the gift of the righteousness of God which is received by faith and manifested in a life of obedience to the law of God, while the righteousness and the faith and the power to obey are all and equally gifts of God. “Where then is the glorying? It is excluded.” “He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.”

These are the lessons which the teachers ought to make clear on Sabbath, April 4, and which the preachers of the gospel ought to make clear on every Sabbath. This is “the everlasting gospel” which has been proclaimed in all the ages of the past, and which is to be proclaimed anew in this generation “to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people.”

Editorial

By Editor

THERE are some things which are absolutely essential to the success of a religious movement. They are a clear discernment of the truth of the gospel, the power of the Holy Spirit to attend the proclamation of this truth, and a living Christian experience on the part of those who shape and direct the movement. Other things may be proper enough, and even necessary, but no other things can take the place of these essentials. Every individual, and especially every teacher in this advent movement, should regard it as his duty to contribute his share toward preserving these essential features in order that this last gospel message may speedily accomplish its work and the way of the Lord may be prepared.

Contrasts and Counterfeits

By C. M. S.

—No. 3

We have seen how man’s belief of Satan’s contradiction of God in Eden resulted in a system of deception and untruth that attempts to make gods of men and rob God of his glory as the uncreated founder and ruler of the universe. It was but the perpetuation in the earth of Satan’s campaign of deception in heaven. He purposed to accomplish man’s fall, and then to make man believe himself unfallen and incapable of falling, therefore in no need of a Saviour or Redeemer who should make it possible for him to be restored to his former estate. Thus he hoped to thwart the plan of God for bringing the earth back into the possession of man after he (Satan) had won it from him.

Satan’s other statement, “Ye shall not surely die,” made at the same time, had in it the same subtle purpose. Satan knew that God only was immortal; but he would make man believe that he, too, was immortal, and believing that, he would take from Christ the glory due him as the One who should bring “life and immortality to light through the gospel,” to bring man under Satan’s power and to thwart God’s purpose for man and for the universe.

What was the result of Satan’s effort? His statement is more generally believed to-day than is that which God made to Adam. God said: “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” Satan said: “Ye shall not surely die.” To die is to be mortal. To be beyond the possibility of death is to be immortal. God’s statement to man in Eden, therefore, was a declaration of man’s mortality. Satan’s contradiction of that statement was a declaration of man’s immortality. In which of these declarations do the majority of mankind believe to-day? Assuredly it is not God’s declaration in which they place belief; for almost the entire body of Christendom has accepted the belief of the inherent immortality of the soul.

In all the great denominations one tenet of faith is that death is the gateway to eternal glory; that at death come the eternal rewards and punishments. More than that, the belief in the immortality of the soul has made necessary the institution of a place of punishment wherein the immortal wicked shall writhe in torment as long as the righteous inhabit heaven—as long as God lives.

But all this is outside the purpose of God. Man is not immortal; death is not the gateway to glory; neither the righteous nor the wicked are rewarded at death; there is no everlasting place of torment.

To prove this, we have but to quote the words of Inspiration: “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” There is no plainer declaration in human language than this, nor can there be. Satan contradicted it, and men have sought to make it mean something entirely different—everlasting life in eternal burnings. The one is as much a contradiction of God’s statement as the other; for both are a denial of death and an assumption of immortality on the part of those whom God had declared mortal. There is involved in that contradiction the contradiction of another statement of Inspiration, which is this: “The blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; who only hath immortality, dwelling in light unapproachable.” 1 Tim. 6:16. If men have inherent immortality, this statement of Inspiration can not be true. Man must decide for himself in whose word he shall put his trust; whether he will drink at the fountain of wisdom or at the pool of deceit; whether he will believe the Father of light and truth or the prince of darkness and the father of lies.

There is much, very much, involved in the attitude we take in this matter. If we believe Satan’s statement that man is deathless and therefore immortal, we, in the first place, make God a liar; and in the second place, we confuse ourselves and all who follow us in reference to the whole plan and work of God for man. We make death the gate to glory, when the Bible calls it the “king of terrors” (Job 18:14; Ps. 55:4), and “the last enemy that shall be destroyed” (1 Cor. 15:26); we make unnecessary the death of Christ to give us life, for we do not die, and therefore have life already; we make unnecessary the resurrection from the dead, for no one is dead, or in need of a resurrection; we make unnecessary the coming of Christ to reward the saints, for the saints who have “died” have gone to Christ and had their reward already; we give the reward of life to the righteous and the punishment of eternal misery to the wicked at death, whereas Christ says, “Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to render to each man according as his work is” (Rev. 22:12); we do away with “the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men” (2 Peter 3:7; Acts 17:31), for the immortal righteous and the immortal wicked, in order to enter upon their reward and punishment at death, must have been judged at death; we make Christ’s statement untrue—“I am the way, the truth, and the life”—for death is the way, the door, the gate, into the eternal reward, and Christ could not be “the truth,” because we have life, immortal life, inherent in us without reference to Christ’s work in our behalf.

It seems almost sacrilegious even to state the logical conclusions to which one is led who accepts the dogma of inherent immortality. How dishonoring to God and to Christ, therefore, to accept the dogma as truth and teach it to the world! The bare statement of what is wrapped up in it should be enough to cause the Christian man or woman to turn from it as we believe Eve ought to have turned from the temptation in Eden. It is a part of that very temptation, and we have the sad example of her unwise choice to help us in deciding wisely.

C. M. S.

The Sabbath and the Spanish Inquisition

By William Ambrose Spicer

THE message of Sabbath reform and of the soon coming of the Lord is winning its way to true hearts in Spain. The land of the Inquisition is to hear the last message. The Inquisition and Loyola’s society of the Jesuits turned away the Reformation from Spain. It was as near to the stamping out of the truth from a land as ever history records. Yet there was a rich soil for Protestant truth in Spain in those days.

Spain had sent its teachers into England and the Low Countries to help combat the reformed teaching. But some of them returned, converted to reform, and began to preach in Spain. Their reception is described by Michael Geddes, an old English writer on Spanish and Portuguese themes, who had himself witnessed executions by the Inquisition in Portugal:—

And of the disposition Spain was in at this time, viz., betwixt the year 1550 and 1560, to have embraced the Protestant religion we have a further testimony from Paramus, who in his history of the Inquisition affirms, that, had not the Inquisition taken care in time to put a stop to those Protestant preachers, the Protestant religion would have run through Spain like wild-fire, people of all degrees, and of both sexes having been wonderfully disposed to embrace it.—“Miscellaneous Tracts,” Vol. I, page 440.

Evidently the more thoroughly Protestant teaching that had prevailed among the Waldenses and others of southern Europe found its way into Spain. According to one writer, who has, unfortunately, not given her authority, Sabbath-keeping practises gave the Inquisition much trouble in the brief course of Protestantism in Spain:—

“Of the many who were burned, and otherwise destroyed for Judaism,” observes a Spanish author of the sixteenth century, “it is not probable that one tenth were of the race of Israel, but heretics, who, for persisting in saying that the law of Moses was still binding, were accused of Jewish practises, such as circumcision and Sabbatizing, to the latter of which they uniformly plead guilty.” A Dominican inquisitor, in giving an account of the proceedings of that infernal tribunal in the north of Spain, declares that since it was known that many of the heretics were accustomed to solemnize the old Sabbath by religious worship, . . . it became the policy of the Holy Office to take notice of such persons as were shut up on that day, and of such persons as were found to be absent from worldly engagements. “The result answered my expectations,” he continues, “for when these people were arrested, and being brought before me, were shown the rack, they generally confessed their Judicial practises, at least so far as it related to Sabbatizing, which the holy church had expressly forbidden.”—“History of the Sabbatarian Churches,” Mrs. Tamar Davis.

It is necessary to scrutinize the accounts of Sabbatarian practises in Spain very closely, for multitudes of Jews had been forcibly converted. “New Christians” they were called. Some were continually reverting to the religion of their race. Yet the papal writers quoted seem clearly to have in mind Sabbath observers who were genuine Protestants. Brethren and sisters of our own faith, they were, who followed the Lord, and loved not their lives unto the death in that early day.

Thank God, the same Protestant standard is lifted again in Spain. The papal church there has the old inquisitorial spirit, but it has not the old-time power. The twelve hundred sixty years of papal supremacy expired; and however difficult the way may be made by ecclesiastical opposition, the sure word shows that in the closing reformation no powers will be able to shut the message absolutely away from any country, as the Inquisition turned the Reformation away from Spain in the sixteenth century. The prophet saw the last message actually going to every nation. Now, while doors are open, is our time to carry it.

W. A. S.

An “Inconsistency” Explained

By Editor

In the Washington Post of March 13 immediately after the mass-meeting which was reported in our last issue, there appeared under the heading “Liberty of Conscience” the following editorial:—

A great mass-meeting was held in this city recently. It was a coalition of the prohibition and Seventh-day Adventist forces, and was held under the auspices of the Religious Liberty Bureau. The prohibitionists gathered to pass resolutions demanding the arbitrary application of prohibition laws to the District, regardless of the will of those of the District’s citizens opposed to prohibition. The Seventh-day Adventists were gathered to denounce a law compelling Sunday observance on the part of citizens who are opposed to the observance. But the two parties joined forces and mutually agreed upon a platform which they would both support and which they embodied in a set of resolutions. The resolutions read in part:—

“That we hereby respectfully protest against the passage of the bills now before Congress which look to the enforcement of Sunday as a day of rest.

“That we continue to use our influence and our energies to prevent this proposed legislation, and to perpetuate among all men the blessings of civil and religious liberty.

“That we favor the prohibition of the liquor traffic, in both State and nation, and pledge ourselves to do all in our power for the suppression of this dangerous, expensive, and destructive traffic.”

The Post respectfully begs liberty to point out the inconsistency in this platform, and to suggest that the coalition of the prohibitionists and the Seventh-day Adventists appears singularly incongruous—when the difference of principles underlying the two movements is observed. The prohibitionists have demanded that temperance be forced upon its opponents whether they like it or not. They have denied liberty of action to those who disagree with their views of right. They excuse this on the ground that prohibition is for the common good, and therefore, while distinctly inimical to civil liberty, must be endured by those who suffer under it. On the other hand, the Seventh-day Adventists are fighting for the right to act as their own conscience directs them, and not according to the conscience of somebody else. They resent being coerced by the views of right and wrong of other people. They demand liberty—liberty of conscience and the privilege of free action in matters of conscience. If a Sunday observance law be argued as “for the common good,” they will rebel against sacrificing their own liberty of conscience for sake of “the common good.” In other words, the principle behind their movement is exactly opposed to that behind the prohibition movement. Prohibition opposes personal liberty, and so does the Sunday observance law.

Consequently, instead of aiding each other, as a matter of principle, these two forces should be against each other. To see them, therefore, as bedfellows is likely to lay them open to the charge of being actuated by selfish motives rather than by principles of justice.

In pointing out this inconsistency the Post wishes to make it plain that it is neither opposing the prohibition movement nor the Seventh-day Adventists. It has no quarrel with the cause of either. But it respectfully suggests that if liberty of conscience is a good thing for some of the people, why may it not be good for all of the people?

In reply to this editorial there was printed in the Post of March 17 the following letter:—

EDITOR POST: Referring to your editorial in last Friday’s Post on “Liberty of Conscience,” in which you point out an apparent “inconsistency” in the alleged coalition of the “prohibition and Seventh-day Adventist forces,” please permit a few statements by way of correcting an evident misapprehension and a misapplication, as we conceive, of a vital principle involved.

In the first place, there was no pre-arranged or preconcerted coalition of the prohibition forces of the District and the Seventh-day Adventists in the mass-meeting held in National Rifles’ Armory, on the 11th instant. The meeting was planned, arranged, and conducted solely by and under the auspices of the Religious Liberty Bureau. The only addresses in favor of prohibition were made by the chairman of the Bureau, who was also chairman of the meeting, and a national W. C. T. U. lecturer, chancing to be in Washington, who is in perfect accord with the principles and work of the Bureau. There was no compromising of principles or pairing of forces whatever on the part of any one who took part in the meeting. All are believers in religious liberty, and all stand for prohibition.

As to the consistency or inconsistency of the same individual, society, or mass-meeting standing for prohibition and opposing Sunday legislation, permit me to point out that the liquor traffic, as such, is purely a civil matter, and one, therefore, with which the state may properly deal, while the keeping of the Sabbath, or weekly day of rest, is primarily a religious question, and therefore a matter of conscience, and hence outside the province and sphere of civil government. No man runs a saloon because it is a duty he feels he owes to God. No one calls the saloon “holy,” nor the conducting of one a “holy calling,” but the Sabbath is “holy,” God himself having hallowed it in the beginning, and the divine command enjoining that the day be remembered “to keep it holy.”

Upon principle, therefore, Seventh-day Adventists, believing that civil government not only has a right, but that it has a duty to legislate for the preservation of society and for “the common good” within the civil realm, stand squarely for the prohibition of the liquor traffic. On the other hand, believing that religion is not within the purview of civil government, they are just as strongly opposed to religious legislation. Prohibition does not mean that the individual can not manufacture for himself and drink spirituous liquors; it means that he shall not make a business of manufacturing and selling to other men that which debases, enervates, and destroys. To prohibit this is no more an infringement of personal liberties or rights than is the prohibition to manufacture and sell impure foods, or the

law forbidding the ordinary civilian carrying firearms. Each is a menace to life or health or both. But to require all, irrespective of their beliefs or conscientious convictions, to observe Sunday or any other day of the week as a day of rest is an infringement of the dearest rights of man, the rights of conscience. The two questions stand upon entirely different ground. Our only fears are that Congress will fail to do the thing it ought to do, and, through adverse and unhallowed influences, be led to do the thing it ought not to do.

W. A. Colcord,

Secretary Religious Liberty Bureau.

As this editorial and the reply to it deal with an important principle, we have deemed it advisable to reprint both of them for the benefit of any of our readers who may be compelled to face the same charge.

A Tragedy in the Philippines

We clip from the Christian Herald of March 18 the following graphic account of the attack recently made upon a congregation of Christian Filipinos in the island of Cebu. The account was written by one who is on the ground, Mrs. E. W. Jansen, and speaks so plainly for itself that no comment is needed. She says:—

Last October a petition was brought to the Cebu missionaries from the village of Santander. It was signed by one hundred eighty-five persons, who begged to have an evangelist sent to them. The condition of affairs in this town was so awful that the petitioners seemed to fear that the document might be looked upon as a bait to entrap the evangelist, so they had added to it the sworn signatures of three of its principal men.

Two years before this petition was brought to the missionaries, three hundred of the villagers had separated themselves from the Church of Rome. This was probably in part due to the tyranny of the priests. The fear of the parishioners who remained under the priests' control appeared to be absolutely abject. The native pastor, Ricardo, was living some ten or twelve miles from Santander, so he arranged to help the people by visiting and holding services for them. From among the seekers forty were accepted as candidates for baptism. About two hundred fifty others were kept waiting that they might receive further instruction before confessing their faith in the Saviour by baptism. Among these was a man of remarkably simple and strong Christian faith. His gentle spirit won him the love of all who knew him.

The gospel was being accepted in Oslob and other neighboring towns. In Oslob alone, three hundred persons had declared their faith in Christ, and their lives were bearing witness to the pure and uplifting power of the gospel. The priests and those under their influence had done all in their power to hinder the advance of the Saviour's teachings. The converts suffered stonings and countless indignities, as well as loss of employment in many cases, and imprisonments and threatened death.

In Santander, it was decided to build a church, and the converts erected a suitable building for their simple services. The Sunday was agreed upon for the dedication of the church, and the friends in Oslob with Pastor Ricardo were invited. According to the testimony of several of the priest's parishioners, the Sunday before dedication he ordered his people to come armed to mass the next sabbath. That week his people spent in sharpening their bolos, as was proved by what followed. Those who had not native weapons obtained or else made them. All went on Sunday morning to their church armed for the carrying out of the priest's orders.

That Sunday morning much prayer and praise went up to God from the simple, trusting souls gathered in the new church, and hearts beat stronger with faith and determination to live for the praise and glory of their Saviour, whose teachings and spirit had brought love and peace into their hearts and homes. Some of the people were much impressed by the words of their loved teacher, who told them that, though he felt there was trial of faith awaiting him, yet even if he should be called to lay down his life for the faith, he was unspeakably thankful to God that he had received the gospel.

With no thought of impending danger, the Christians returned to their homes with their children by their side. The native pastor and other guests were provided with refreshments, which were prepared for them in the three largest houses. While all the friends were at dinner, some persons rushed to the house where Ricardo and others were seated, and in terrified words, told them that a mob of three hundred armed men, led by the priest, was hurrying to kill them. The word was passed to all to flee, and men, women, and children sought to make their escape. Their thought was to find shelter in Oslob, but twelve miles distant.

Only a little distance was covered when Ricardo's strength began to fail him. He said to his friends that they must go on and not linger for him, as he could not proceed. At this moment a man on horseback drew near. He was friendly to the Protestants and knew Ricardo. At the request of the exhausted man's friends, he dismounted and gave Ricardo his horse. The hope of getting help for the endangered people seemed to give him strength, and he hastened to Oslob; but the mayor refused to send help to the people in danger, and Ricardo wired to the American missionaries in Cebu of the urgent need.

The other escaping people, mostly women and children, reached Oslob, bringing the news that one of their number had been hacked to pieces. Next morning the constabulary's launch arrived, and took the refugees from Santander back with them to their village. Some little children were missing, and the sorrow of many hearts was intense. Ricardo and the friends who had been with him were also taken back to the village. Dr. Graham, of the mission in Cebu, was on board, and his presence gave the people some comfort.

Many came back to ruined homes. The desolation which met their gaze in the morning sunlight was terrible. Five homes lay in ruins.

They went on toward their church, the constabulary with their officer, and the medical missionary and the captain of the vessel leading the way. When about a hundred yards from the church, they saw the body of the murdered man lying in a pool of blood. The head had been nearly severed from the trunk, and gaping wounds in the body bore witness to the ferocious fury of the priest and his helpers. By the side of the mutilated corpse the poor wife was standing silent. She had watched there through the long afternoon and night, to keep the animals away from all that was left her of her beloved husband. The horror and sadness of the scene brought tears to the eyes of the officers and men.

The converts in Cebu City have collected some money, which they sent to the poor widow and her children. All are full of thankfulness that no more lives were lost. On one of the villagers informing the priest that the desired deed was done, saying to him, “Father, I have killed one of your men,” the priest is reputed to have answered, “Good! And if you had killed ten, you need fear nothing, for no harm would come to you.”

The offending priest had passed on him a sentence of seventeen years' imprisonment and a fine. But as he has appealed his case, and is let out on bail, we fear that the troubles are not over for the poor Cebuans.

The Pacific Union Conference

By Arthur G. Daniells

THE third biennial session of the Pacific Union Conference was held in the St. Helena Sanitarium chapel at Sanitarium, Cal., January 17-25. The delegates numbered about fifty, but the meetings were attended by many of our people who were living in the vicinity of the sanitarium.

As I was detained at the Southern Union Conference at Nashville until after the Pacific Union meeting opened, I was permitted to attend only the latter part of this meeting. I had not met with the Pacific Union brethren since 1904, and it was a real pleasure to meet these workers from all parts of this union on this occasion. In all the meetings that were held after my arrival, there was present the good spirit of brotherly love and union. This spirit I was told had characterized the conference from the opening service.

The meeting devoted to the discussion and adoption of resolutions in behalf of raising funds for foreign missions was one of the most encouraging and uplifting I have attended in my visits to the union conferences this year. The delegates gave the great needy mission fields earnest, sympathetic consideration, and adopted plans which, if carried out by all our union and local conferences, will increase the contributions to missions two hundred thousand dollars a year. The delegates at this conference said the plans were feasible, and gave hearty assurances that they would do their best to carry them out.

The report from the various conferences and institutions were, on the whole, very encouraging. Some of the conferences showed remarkable gains in tithes and offerings. The tithe of the Southern California Conference for the biennial period ending Dec. 30, 1907, was $63,236.45, the second tithe was $21,000, and the contributions for missions reached $67,892.70. The tithe of the California Conference for the same period amounted to $133,040.17. This is $16.57 per capita for the conference membership. The donations to missions for the two years were $40,826.08.

In view of these figures, it is needless to say that the receipts of the Pacific Union for the last two years have been very encouraging. The balance sheet showed that after settling all accounts for the biennial period, the tithe still on hand amounted to about twenty thousand dollars. A comparison of the reports for 1902 and 1907 shows that with every division of the territory and reorganization of the conferences on the Pacific Coast the receipts in tithes and offerings have mounted higher and higher each year.

As I placed the large sums paid by these conferences by the side of the few thousands received by many of our weak conferences in the South and in foreign fields, I was deeply impressed with the splendid help it is in the power of the Pacific Union Conferences to render to many of our weak conferences that are struggling in their deep poverty to make headway. Until our work is done, our brethren and our conferences that are blessed with large resources must constantly share their abundance with the destitute fields.

The details of the conference will no doubt be furnished the readers by the conference secretary. The regular officers were re-elected. As all who are connected with the large work of this important conference take up their duties for another period, they should have the earnest prayers and hearty co-operation of our brethren. How vain and useless are the activities of men without the presence of the Holy Spirit.

A. G. DANIELLS.

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