Review and Herald, Vol. 89, No. 2. (1/11/1912)

Review and Herald

Jan 11, 1912

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 11, 1912

A Hymn for the New Year

By Frances Ridley Havergal

FROM glory unto glory! Be this our joyous song, As on the King's own highway we bravely march along! From glory unto glory! O word of stirring cheer, As dawns the solemn brightness of another glad new year! From glory unto glory! What great things He hath done! What wonders He hath shown us! what triumphs He hath won! From glory unto glory! What mighty blessings crown The lives for which our Lord hath laid His own so freely down! The fulness of His blessing encompasseth our way; The fulness of His promises crowns every brightening day; The fulness of His glory is beaming from above, While more and more we learn to know the fulness of His love. And closer yet and closer the golden bonds shall be, Uniting all who love our Lord in pure sincerity; And wider yet and wider shall the circling glory glow, As more and more are taught of God that mighty love to know. Now onward, ever onward, from strength to strength we go, While grace for grace abundantly shall from His fulness flow, To glory's full fruition, from glory's foretaste here, Until His very presence crown our happiest new year.

— Frances Ridley Havergal.

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Spain and Religious Liberty.

America a Beacon-Light to the Nations.

Should the State Teach Religion?

Cardinal Gibbons on Church and State Union.

Russian Passports and Religious Liberty.

The Church in Politics.

Religious Laws Now Before Congress.

Religion and State in Turkey.

Spain Tired of National Reformism.

Roosevelt on Liberty.

The Liquor Traffic and the Home.

An Important Temperance Convention.

Striking Cartoon! “Is It Constitutional?”

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A FEW FEATURES

Frontispiece, “California’s Giant Trees.” The Spirit in Which to Go Into God’s Out-of-Doors, by Geo. W. James (illustrated). Uncle Sam’s Own Boys, by F. W. Fitzpatrick. Junior Civic Leagues, by Mrs. Agnes McCaffert Bailey. Tuberculosis Among Working People, by Hon. John F. Gunshanan. Food Inspection in Milwaukee, by Carl D. Thompson, city clerk. The Home’s Responsibility for Immorality, by Mrs. Robert Park. How to Become a Good Cook, by G. E. Cornforth. Among the Aymara Indians, by F. H. Stahl. Among the Children in Korea, by Mrs. Dr. Riley Russell. Editorial.—Somebody’s Wrong—Bovine Tuberculosis, Report of the Royal Commission. As We See It.—The Minneapolis Vice Report—Harmlessness of Light Drink—Walking Versus Football. Abstracts.—Conservation of the Affections—The Moral Problem—Treatment of Ivy Poisoning. Current Comment.—Personal Liberty and School Inspection—Public Health and Public Hysteria.—Coffee and Its Effects—Pure Alcoholic Drinks—Patent Medicine Publicity, etc.

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For the Day of Death

By A. W. SPAULDING

A. W. SPAULDING

LIETH a day all broken, broken, Stained with the blood of mangled hearts, Clasping a grief that can not be spoken, Deep where the fount of anguish starts, And the light of life departs.

Cometh a day all glory, glory, Fused with the light of the city of gold, Rounding the tale of an old, old story That can not for wonder be fully told, Though the books of God unfold.

Dawneth a day with rapture throbbing, Banishing thought of death’s alarms, When babes for the breasts of mothers sobbing (Last of the echoes of sorrow’s storms) Shall burden the angels’ arms.

To Our Ministering Brethren

By Ellen G. White

MRS. E. G. WHITE

I AM instructed to say to our ministering brethren, Let the messages that come from your lips be charged with the power of the Spirit of God. If there was ever a time when we needed the special guidance of the Holy Spirit, it is now. We need a thorough consecration. It is fully time that we gave to the world a demonstration of the power of God in our lives and in our ministry.

The most solemn truths ever given to mortals have been entrusted to us, and to us has been committed the work of warning the world. In heart and life the minister of God is to be true to the trust committed to him. Never is he to engage in that which would lower before others the standard of the word of truth. His faith is to be revealed, not merely in words, in profession, but in his daily association with believers and unbelievers. Let those who stand as ministers of God to the people be faithful, preparing their own souls for the kingdom of heaven, divesting their own garments of every stain, that neither spot nor wrinkle be found on them. Then the Lord can use them to do a mighty work as his messengers.

We are living in an age when vice is prevalent. Corrupting practises are making the world like it was before the flood. But ere long the workers of iniquity with their wicked works will be consumed. Calamities on every hand, earthquake and fire and flood, the weapons of judgment in the hand of God, point to the more terrible destruction yet in the future, which the Word of God predicts will soon desolate the earth.

This is a time when every evil work, every unrighteous act, should be repudiated by those who are looking forward to the soon return of Christ. It is a time when believers should accept this last message of warning with a faith that purifies the heart and life. We are to stand on holy ground, as a people who watch and wait for their Lord, and who are colaborers with him for the uplifting of men. “Be ye clean, that bear the vessels of the Lord,” the Word of God declares. Every worker is to look to his own heart, to examine the motives that prompt his actions. He is to purify his own soul by obedience to the truth.

At this time, when evil walks abroad in the land, the Lord through his ministers designs to do battle against the errors and deceptions and evil-doing that exist. But if his professed servants pursue a course that is a denial of their faith, he can not do this. If they neglect their own spiritual interests, if they cherish wrong-doing in their lives, God can not work through them to prepare other souls for the kingdom of heaven. And more than this; if souls for whom the minister should have watched as one that must give an account, are lost because of his unfaithfulness, God will require their blood at his hands.

Let every minister at this time consider what it means to keep his lamp trimmed and burning. Read prayerfully the forty-eighth and forty-ninth chapters of Isaiah, in which the Lord represents the work of his messengers to-day. “It is a light thing,” he says, “that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth. . . . In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in the day of salvation have I helped thee: and I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages; that thou mayest say to the prisoners, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Show yourselves. They shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shall be in all high places.”

It is not right for ministers who have been placed in positions of responsibility in connection with the work of God to carry the responsibilities of secular concerns. The more closely they confine themselves to the ministry of the Word, to the work to which the Lord has appointed them, the more fully will they understand the sacredness of their calling as ministers. That he may gain efficiency in his work, the minister needs to pray much, and to meditate upon the Word. Then angels will cooperate with him, and the Spirit of God will be his teacher. There is a line of labor that belongs in a peculiar sense to the ordained minister; in order to gain an increasing qualification for it, he must grow in spirituality, by conforming his life practise to an ever-deepening knowledge of God and of Christ as a personal Saviour.

There are some who do not act intelligently in regard to the important work that God has given them to do. God desires to guide and direct the efforts of these workers; but because self comes largely to the front, because they choose to follow their own way, and to carry out their own will, God can not work through them as he would for the strengthening of his church and the advancement of his cause. To such workers I would say, Do not continue to follow your own judgment. Seek the Lord in earnest prayer, and accept his guidance at every step. If you will follow on to know the Lord, you will know that his going forth is prepared as the morning.

All through our history there have arisen men who have grown dissatisfied

with the work committed to their hands, and who have sought to become leaders, when they should be learners. There were men in Christ's day who sought to follow a similar course. They tried to make themselves his advisers. They thought to influence him to follow their plans and suggestions. But Christ ever followed the clear light from heaven.

The truth of God is found in his Word. As long as we heed the instructions of the Word, we shall remain in unity with our fellow laborers and with the purposes of God. When errors come into our ranks in the form of false and fanciful presentations of the meaning of the Word, we can lead the mind away from these deceptions by presenting the truth as it is revealed in the life of Christ. Truth presented in contrast with error will bring understanding to the minds of the people, and conviction to their hearts. The principles of the Word of God rest upon a foundation as lasting as eternity; they can never fail.

“Wake up the watchmen,” is the word of the Lord to his messengers. At this time the truth is to go forth with power, for the time in which to work is short. There is danger that those who hold meetings in our cities will be satisfied with doing a surface work. Let the ministers and the presidents of our conferences arouse to the importance of doing a thorough work. Let them labor and plan with the thought in mind that time is nearly ended, and that because of this they must work with redoubled zeal and energy. Let them seek the Lord earnestly, pressing their petitions to his throne until they are assured that their prayers are answered.

My ministering brethren, guard yourselves and your influence, remembering that you are to be instruments of the Lord for the carrying forward of his work on the earth. “I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem,” the Lord declares, “which shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence, and give him no rest, till he establish, and until he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.”

Arouse the people to the importance of the times in which we live, that they may be led to place themselves under the discipline of Christ. In his life on earth, Christ revealed the power of God's word to make men partakers of the divine nature. As believers are led to behold his life of self-denial and sacrifice that he might minister truth to the world, they may be changed in life, and may learn to reflect his likeness.

Seek the Lord in faith, holding fast to his promises. “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?” Let us appreciate the great sacrifice that God has made in our behalf. There will never be a time when we shall be more welcome to the gifts of his grace than now. Christ gave his life for men, that they might know how he loved them. He does not want any to perish, but longs to see all coming to repentance. All who will surrender the will to him may have the life that measures with the life of God.

This is the message that you are to bear to the souls perishing in their sins. If they will come to Christ in repentance, he will receive them, and will recreate them in his image.

Christ gave his Son that men and women might be partakers of the divine nature. The sword of justice fell upon him that they might go free. He died that they might live.

Let us ever bear in mind that our work is to be one of advancement. We are to follow on to know the Lord. God understands the actuating principle of every mind. He has witnessed the persistent, rebellious course of some whom he has warned and counseled. His all-seeing eye has noted the determined following of human devisings. “The ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord.” He “knoweth the thoughts.” “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.” “He looketh to the ends of the earth, and seeth under the whole heaven.” “The Lord searcheth all hearts.”

We are to stand firmly for the principles of the Word of God, remembering that God is with us to give us strength to meet each new experience. Let us ever maintain the principles of righteousness in our lives, that in the name of the Lord we may go forward from strength to strength. We are to hold as very sacred the faith that has been substantiated by the instruction and approval of the Holy Spirit from our earliest experience.

For years there has been creeping into the church an element that is educating many professed believers to resist the teachings of the Holy Spirit. In their efforts to make of no effect the Word of God, many array their strength on the side of the deceiver. I am instructed that we are to cherish as very precious the work which the Lord has been carrying forward through his commandment-keeping people, and which, through the power of his grace, will grow stronger and more efficient as time advances. The enemy is seeking to becloud the discernment of God's people, and to weaken their efficiency; but if they will labor as the Spirit of God shall direct, he will open doors of opportunity before them for the work of building the old waste places. Their experience will be one of constant growth in assurance and power until the Lord shall descend from heaven with power and great glory to set his seal of final triumph on his faithful ones.

The Lord desires to see the work of the third angel's message carried forward with increasing efficiency. As he has worked in all ages to give courage and power to his people, so in this age he longs to carry to triumphant fulfilment his purposes for his church. He bids the saints advance unitedly, going from strength to greater strength, from faith to increased faith in the righteousness and truth of his cause.

Our Adornments

By CLARENCE SANTEE

CLARENCE SANTEE

There are many teachers in these days who realize that the churches have departed far from God’s plan in their attire, yet who do not dare to teach the plain instruction given in the Scriptures, for fear of losing their prestige and influence with the large class who love to pattern after the world in their adornment.

This should not be the case with any Seventh-day Adventist. Believing as we do, that all—men, women, youth, and children who have reached the years of accountability—will very soon pass the most solemn test that can come to man, the judgment, a test based upon implicit obedience to God’s commands, we should with fearless constancy proclaim the truths of God’s Word to every judgment-bound soul.

There are many who earnestly desire to know the instruction God has given, yet who have not been instructed. The Lord has laid this work upon the ministry. “When a church has been raised up and left uninstructed on these points, the minister has neglected his duty, and will have to give an account to God for the impressions he allowed to prevail.”—

“Testimonies for the Church,” Vol. V, page 500. That the world is gaining many victories among the soldiers of Christ, is apparent to all.

God has called upon all to forsake the man of sin, and let him die. He says, “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.” Rom. 6:6.

To those who unite with Christ, he has given definite instruction to leave behind all that pertained to the former relationship. In every age he has spoken in no uncertain tones, yet men have been dull of hearing. Addressing his people in the days of Moses, he said, in speaking of the idols of the heathen: “Thou shalt not desire the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it unto thee, lest thou be snared therein; for it is an abomination to the Lord thy God. . . . Thou shalt utterly detest it, and thou shalt utterly abhor it; for it is a cursed thing.” Deut. 7:25, 26. This does not refer to the proper use of silver and gold, but to that “that is on them.” This instruction seems plain. In the days of Ezekiel he said: “A voice of a multitude being at ease [lukewarm] was with her [the church]: and with the men of the common sort were brought drunkards from the wilderness, which put bracelets upon their hands, and beautiful crowns upon their heads.” Eze. 23:42. Isaiah says, “They are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink.” Isa. 29:9. In verse 45 of chapter 23 Ezekiel says they shall be judged as “adulteresses.” That is, as lovers of the world. James 4:4.

In Paul’s day God said, “In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broiled hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array.” 1 Tim. 2:9. Or, as given in the “Emphatic Diaglott,” “In like manner, the women also, in becoming attire, with modesty and soberness of mind, not decorating themselves with wreaths, or gold, or pearls, or expensive clothing.”

Through Peter God said, “And adorn not yourselves with the external ornaments of curls of the hair, or of golden trinkets, or of costly garments.” 1 Peter 3:3, Syriac translation. King James Version reads: “wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel.”

Speaking of our own day, the judgment period, Inspiration says: “The Lord standeth up to plead, and standeth to judge the people. The Lord will enter into judgment with the ancients of his people.” Isa. 3:13, 14. This evidently refers to the same period spoken of in Eze. 9:4-6, the time of the judgment. Reading further in Isaiah 3: “Moreover the Lord saith, Because the daughters of Zion [the church] are haughty, and walk with stretched-forth necks.” The last of verse 16 is rendered by the Septuagint Version, “drawing their garments in trains.” “In that day the Lord will take away . . . the chains, and the bracelets, . . . the tablets, and the earrings, the rings.” Verses 18-21. I have left out some of the things that are mentioned, so that special attention might be centered upon these. “The chains,” whether of beads, gold, or other material, will not be desired.

The Septuagint, the oldest-known version of the Scriptures, renders verses 20-22 as follows: “And the array of glorious ornaments, and the armlets, and the bracelets, and the wreathed work, and the finger-rings, and the ornaments for the right hand, and the earrings, . . . and the Spartan transparent dresses.”

The “armlet” is defined as “a small, or short arm.” Can the prophet add more? Look at the array God will find among his people when he comes to them in judgment. Decked with “silver” and “gold;” lukewarm; “drunken” with the world; wearing “bracelets,” “crowns;” staggering in their Christian experience; “haughty;” with “stretched-forth necks;” drawing their garments in trains; with “chains,”—beads, gold, silver, and other materials,—“glorious ornaments;” “armlets,”—small, or short arms, or sleeves; “finger-rings;” “earrings;” and “transparent dresses.”

With all these evidences of a lack of appreciation of the solemn events now taking place in heaven, the Lord still waits. He has delayed the judgment because we were not ready. He is “not slack . . . as some men count slackness; but is long-suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish.” 2 Peter 3:9. He said to Israel when they came to the turning-point in their experience, “I will come up into the midst of thee in a moment, and consume thee: therefore now put off thy ornaments from thee, that I may know what to do unto thee.” Ex. 33:5.

A parallel is found to this in Rev. 3:15-18. As truly as Israel faced a crisis, so God’s people face the last decision to-day. The blessing can come only to those who heed the counsel of God. The tide is sweeping outward more rapidly than ever tide rolled out from ocean shore, and human strength is of no avail. The church has not been commissioned to prepare a list of articles of apparel. But God has promised to remove the desire for unnecessary adornment when the heart has been willingly submitted to him and he comes in and reigns. This results from hearing the voice saying, “This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.”

Some one will say, “I do not believe the Lord is so particular. It does not matter how I dress, just so my heart is right.” Truly if the heart is right, all is well. But how can you know that your heart is right? It is never right as long as it would evade or ignore one of the counsels of God. Willing obedience, loving what God loves, and hating what he hates, is true safety.

Loma Linda, Cal.

Rays of Light

By George E. Tack

GEORGE E. TACK

Out of the world-night, bitter, drear, Shineth a star, Flashing its ruddy beams of cheer, Anear and far.

Down through corridors vasty, cold, Where each planet sings, A ray of love from the throne of old, Its glad course wings.

Before me gleams the starry vast, House of the Lord; The many mansions that at last Shall peace afford.

There, where the seraphs lowly bend Before the throne, And sweet their holy anthems blend, Love's praise to own,

There shall my eager eyes behold The walls that gleam, The glorious highway paved with gold, And crystal stream.

Never again to tread alone Streets of despair; Never to go in fear, or moan, Or sorrow bear.

Never a farewell tear to know, Or parting sigh, But joy supreme, unknown below, Yet pledged on high.

But dearest to my soul shall be The wondrous sight, The Martyr-King who died for me, Reigning in light.

Baltimore, Md.

A Race of Giants

By John Norton Loughborough

J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH

[Reprinted by request from the REVIEW of July 18, 1865.]

WHEN the bones of men and animals of a much larger size than those living on earth at the present time are discovered, many are ready to claim that “these bones must have belonged to a race of men and to classes of animals that existed before Adam was placed upon the earth.” We believe the Bible gives us a record of the very commencement of the inhabiting of the earth. And instead of indorsing the idea that Moses’ record of “the beginning” is incomplete, we claim that earth’s first inhabitants, both men and beasts, were much larger than at present, having now been affected by the curse for nearly six thousand years.

While at Princeville, Ill., visiting at the home of Brother Bliss, a circumstance was related by him which I consider a striking proof of man’s larger stature in former times. Several years ago, as Brother Bliss was passing through the woods, I think he said in southern Illinois, he came across a tree that had been blown over. There were eighteen very large-sized human skulls in the earth turned up by the roots of the tree. These skulls, with many other human bones found under the tree, were in a good state of preservation. The tree, as designated by its grains, was at least one hundred fifty years old. The jaw-bones of these skulls were so large that Brother Bliss’s father, who is a large man, could easily put the lower jaw over his chin. A leg-bone was found there, which proved to be the bone between the knee- and ankle-joints. This bone, when set up endwise on the floor beside a six-foot man, would extend a handbreadth above his knee. By comparing this bone with the same bone in the leg of a six-foot man, it was decided that the bone must have belonged to a man at least eight feet high.

Brother Henry Nicola, of this place, has just stated to me that in his boyhood days he lived in Virginia. A mound was opened on his father’s farm, in which were found very large human bones. Among these bones was a skull so large that it could easily be placed on the outside of the head of the largest-sized man. These bones were supposed to belong to men eight or nine feet in height. The discovery of such large bones we regard simply as proof that men were once much larger than at present. The existence of these bones is not evidence that they belonged to men that existed before Adam.

By comparing man’s present stature with that of those who possessed these bones, we may learn that the race has fallen off greatly in size. And in this we also behold the fulfilment of Isaiah’s prediction of the languishing of the earth under the curse. “Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof. And it shall be, as with the

people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury to him. The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the Lord hath spoken this word. The earth mourneth and fadeth away, the world languisheth and fadeth, the haughty people of the earth [the height of the people, margin] do languish. The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the law, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left.” Isa. 24: 1-6. This prophecy is a striking description of the effects of the curse upon the earth and its inhabitants. It seems also from this prophecy that the height of the people’s stature was to diminish. This part we understand is strikingly accomplished in the physical, mental, and moral languishing of the race.

Beginning and Noble Example

WE can finish nothing in this life; but we may make a beginning, and bequeath a noble example.—Shakespeare.

Man on Trial

By Wm. Covert

WM. COVERT

EVERY one who enters the kingdom of God will surely have to pass through a stage of trial. Peter was referring to the necessary trial of men when he said that those under test “are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, . . . though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.” It is the trial that strengthens character, and the standing firm that gives evidence of righteousness. The trial of faith is the Christian’s training allowed of the Lord to develop strength of character. And these trials, though undesired, are more precious than gold can be; for they build the eternal riches into the very man himself, and these precious riches will never dim while the ages of glory move on.

God permits trials to come to us for our good, but we may permit these trials to work out our destruction by failing to stand firm for the right when they come. On this point Paul says, “There hath no temptation taken you but such as man can bear: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation make also the way of escape, that ye may be able to endure it.” 1 Cor. 10: 13.

God allows his children to pass through the school of adversity so that he may develop strength in them at points where their character is weak, and his leadings are often over roads that are rough, that they may grow strong by overcoming the obstacles which they have to meet on the way. It was the matter of training under trial that Moses had in mind when he wrote of how God led and cared for Israel. He says that in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness “he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings, so the Lord alone did lead him.” Deut. 32: 10-12.

Moses here compares the stirring up that God gave Israel in taking them out of Egypt, to what the mother eagle does for her young ones when teaching them to fly. She stirs up the nest where the fledglings are resting, and compels them to try their wings on the air. If the eaglet fails to get his poise and to bear himself onward, the mother swoops beneath and bears the fluttering charge on her own wings, repeating the lesson until the young bird is taught how to use his wings.

As the eagle must learn by trial how to cleave the air and fly over mountains and plains, so must the child of God learn how to bear himself over the way which God has marked out for him to go. Temptations beset and trials surround; but these may be used as the athlete uses weights and dumb-bells in his training to win a prize.

The redeemed who enter the kingdom will go there “through much tribulation.” Acts 14: 22. They will be like the oaks that grow on the open where summer’s winds and winter’s blasts have caused them to fasten deep into the earth so that they could resist the elements which have howled around them. Contrast the holding power of one old giant oak on the mountaintop with the resisting strength of one that has stood an equal number of years in the forest, surrounded by a thousand of its own kind. Remove the thousand and leave the one to withstand the heavy storm alone. Every woodsman knows what the result will be; the first wild wind will blow it down. It had not been tried by the storms that blew as was the other that resisted the elements by sending its tap-root down, and its laterals out to brace against the powers of the air that raged around it.

The person who does not stand with his anchor made fast by faith in the Mighty Rock, will fall when the storms of temptation come as certainly as the forest-grown tree falls when the trees around it are taken away. It is unwise to complain of trials which are allowed of God, for these are lesson books which must be mastered in that course which prepares us for heaven. These fiery trials are necessary to consume the refuse which would mar the beauty of holiness if it were allowed to remain.

“Every man’s work shall be made manifest: . . . because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.” 1 Cor. 3: 13. Suppose trials do come; we are admonished not to think it strange concerning the fiery trials which are to try us; for they are to be the lot of all who stand the test and wear the victor’s crown. “Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried.” Dan. 12: 10. God chooses them as he beholds their constancy in the furnace of affliction.

Chicago, Ill.

The Eastern Question and the Koran

By H. C. OLMSTEAD

H. C. OLMSTEAD

WHILE canvassing at Kimberley, in 1909, for “Heralds of the Morning,” I chanced upon a Mohammedan priest reading the Koran. He was reading about Joseph, and he translated a few paragraphs, which sounded like a story of Joseph rather than the simple Scripture narrative.

As I continued to point out the value of my book, it became evident that he was fully awake to the Eastern Question. He said the Koran taught much about it and the final battle of Armageddon. I asked him what it taught. Then, to my surprise, he said that according to the Koran the sultan of Turkey would sometime move his capital to Jerusalem, and that the present sultan expected to be obliged to do so. After this change, Jesus (a mere prophet) would come and lead the Mohammedans back to Constantinople, conquering the Christian world. “This is the time,” he continued, “when blood will flow to the horses’ bridles.” He said that at that time Mohammed would return and become the eternal king of the earth, restored to the faithful followers of the Koran. The priest intimated that the Koran prophecy included some sign indicating when the move to Jerusalem would be made, and at that time the sultan would be faithful to their sacred book, and transfer his capital.

This seemed remarkable to me, as I had not expressed any views upon the subject, simply referring to the great war preparations and the coming conflict of nations.

Basutoland, South Africa.

The Ease of Criticism

“CRITICISM is so easy a task that any one, no matter how unskilled, can do it without effort. The man in the gutter can criticize the saint, but that does not lift him an inch out of the gutter. When Thales, away back in classic times, was asked what was most difficult, he replied, ‘To know one’s self,’ but when he was asked what was most easy, he answered, ‘To advise another.’”

The Philosophy of Hard Knocks

“THE philosophy of hard knocks is hard to understand, yet every one who looks squarely at life recognizes its wisdom. The pampered boy often comes to uselessness, if nothing worse; while his companion, who has received rigorous treatment at the hands of the world, attains strength and effectiveness.”

Continue reading: The Price of One’s Soul