Review and Herald, Vol. 81, No. 8. (2/25/1904)

Review and Herald

Feb 25, 1904

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Feb 25, 1904

The Desire of Ages

IN the National Sunday-school Lessons for the first half of the present year, Christ, the Desire of Ages, is the central figure. No story is more impressive than the life of Christ, and none will so well bear repetition. In the hearts of all there is a longing for something not possessed, and it is God's design that this longing shall lead alone to the One who is able to satisfy it.

It is the purpose of “The Desire of Ages,” which is an intensely interesting and instructive book of over 866 large pages on the life of Christ, to set forth that Life of lives as the One in whom every longing may be satisfied; and from now until July is a very favorable time to interest the Sunday-school people in this book, and thereby bring to them a fuller and truer knowledge of the Redeemer. Those who will, at this time, take this book to the Bible-loving people in the Sunday-schools, will not only be of great service to them, but will receive a commission on their sales that will abundantly pay them for their work.

The book is a handsome volume, profusely illustrated with six thousand dollars' worth of new original drawings, bound in the following styles:— Cloth, marbled edges .......... $3 50 Cloth, gilt edges ............. 4 25 Library, marbled edges ........ 5 00 Full morocco, gilt edges ...... 7 00

New Edition of the Great Nations of To-Day

BY ALONZO T. JONES

A PRESENTATION of the great nations of the present time, their rise, relations, career, and their destiny, in connection with a clear and concise treatise on the seven trumpets, the three woes, the third angel's message, the threefold messages, Babylon, the beast of Revelation 13 and its image in all its phases and workings, the commandments, the hour of the judgment come, and the setting up of the everlasting kingdom of God.

An excellent volume to loan and to place in general circulation. 257 pages; paper covers, 25 cents.

The Lover's Love, or John Three Sixteen

ON March 1 the new book entitled “The Lover's Love, or John Three Sixteen,” by William P. Pearce, will be ready for delivery.

This will inspire the hearts of believers, and win souls to God from the ranks of unbelievers. It will be a thrilling treatise on that priceless scripture recorded in John 3:16, and will impress the reader with the wonderful love of God for the world. It will contain an important message to the world, and can easily be sold to all readers of the Bible at this time while the Sunday-school lessons are upon the life of Christ.

Some conception of the scope of the book may be gained from the following table of contents:— “Love Counteth Not the Cost”

(poem); “John Three Sixteen;” The Bible's Lover—“God;” The Lover's Intensity of Love—“So Loved;” The Lover's Object—“The World;” The Lover's Proof—“That He Gave;” The Lover's Gift—“His Only Begotten Son;” The Lover's Proviso—“Whosoever Believeth;” The Lover's Purpose—“Should Not Perish;” The Lover's Pledge—“Have Everlasting Life.”

It will be published as a trade book, in neat cloth binding, with 176 pages, 5⅜ x 7⅝ inches. It is printed in large type, without illustrations, and will sell for 75 cents, postpaid.

What Think Ye?

A TRACT of forty pages, published by the Southern Publishing Association, and containing short, pointed readings on the following important subjects:—

God's Gift to the World, What Shall I Do to Be Saved? Baptism, God's Sabbath, The Condition of the Dead, The Resurrection of the Dead, Tokens of Christ's Coming, The Judgment, The Earthly Sanctuary, The Heavenly Sanctuary, The 2300 Days, The Third Angel's Message, The Fate of the Wicked, The Home of the Saved. Price, 3 cents, postpaid.

Looking Unto Jesus

ARE any perplexed in the study of the Sabbath-school lessons? If there is anything about the lessons they do not quite understand, they should procure a copy of “Looking Unto Jesus,” and study it thoroughly. It will help them to get a better understanding of the sanctuary services. It is an exhaustive treatise on the subject of the sanctuary, and imparts invaluable information upon the prophecies as related to Christ and the plan of redemption. Its author, Uriah Smith, often said it contained the best of his life's efforts. Of it the North and West says:—

“This work considers the theme of themes, our Saviour and Redeemer. Christ is regarded from every Scriptural point of view,—as present in creation, redemption, and the final judgment; as he is involved in history from Genesis to Revelation.”

Bound in a neat cloth binding, $1, postpaid.

The Gospel Reader

A READER prepared especially to follow “The Gospel Primer,” being graded and generally adapted to the natural progress of the children finishing the “Primer.”

The long and successful experience of the author (G. H. Bell) as an educator and Biblical student has enabled him to embody in this reader the primary essentials in progressive reading, and to utilize the more prominent events in Bible history as suitable subject-matter for a reader adapted to children. The cardinal principles of the gospel are taught in a clear, progressive, interesting manner, and the language is so clear, simple, and direct that small children have no difficulty in understanding the teaching of the text.

The thirty-five chapters of the reader are beautifully and impressively illustrated with twenty-two fine half-tone Bible pictures, and it is substantially and attractively bound in cloth, with a portrait of the Saviour in gold on the front cover; also bound in board covers in two colors. It contains 192 pages, printed in large, clear, new type. Price, in cloth, 75 cents; board covers, 50 cents.

Christ's Second Coming, or the Bible Evidences and the Signs of Our Times

BY J. Q. A. HAUGHEY

THIS excellent tract, which has been out of print for some time, has been reset, and bound without covers, and made No. 42 of the Words of Truth Series. It contains 32 pages of Bible evidences of Christ's second coming, and has proved to be an excellent tract for general circulation. Several hundred thousand have been sold, and excellent reports have been received of the good work it has accomplished.

It now sells for 2 cents a copy, with the usual discount to Tract Societies.

Our Paradise Home

IT is simply wonderful how popular this little book has become in the short time it has existed. Almost every mail brings words of praise for it, of which the following is a fair sample:—

“We can not express too heartily our indorsement of ‘Our Paradise Home.’ We believe it will meet with even greater favor than ‘Gospel Primer,’ and be a great help to our canvassers. The message is presented in a very clear and interesting manner, and can not fail to fasten the attention, and to cause serious thought on the part of those who read it, and will create a desire to investigate further. The title is attractive, and appeals to the hearts of all; for ‘home’ is one of the dearest words that man can know. “E. A. MERRIAM, Sec. West Mich. Conf.”

Revised Science in the Kitchen

BY MRS. E. E. KELLOGG, A. M.

Superintendent of Mothers' Work for the National W. C. T. U., Chairman of the World's Fair Committee on Food Supplies for Michigan.

This excellent work has just been revised and greatly improved. It contains about 600 pages, printed on excellent paper, finely illustrated, and gotten out in a style at once popular, attractive, and substantial. As to its subject-matter, while it is thoroughly scientific, it is also thoroughly practical in presenting the best methods of preparing foods; and the work gives over eight hundred tested recipes for the same. The book is written in a style bright and entertaining, although concise, and is the embodied result of the patient and almost continuous research and experimentation carried on by Mrs. Kellogg during the last ten years, in the Experimental Kitchen connected with the Battle Creek Sanitarium. Price, oilcloth, $1.90.

Order of State Tract Societies: Review and Herald, Battle Creek, Mich.; Review and Herald, Washington, D. C.; Pacific Press, Oakland, Cal.; Kansas City, Mo.; Southern Publishing Assn., Nashville, Tenn.

The Precious Blood

By Editor

Editorial

The Precious Blood

In the simple language of the Scripture we are told of the infinite cost of our redemption. “Ye were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from your vain manner of life handed down from your fathers; but with precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, even the blood of Christ.” Jesus “gave himself for us.” We were “sold under sin,” but the redemption price has been paid in “precious blood.” For this reason we are told, “Ye are not your own; for ye were bought with a price.” Every one of us belongs to God by right of creation and by right of purchase at an infinite price. The terrible nature of sin is shown in the fact that so many refuse to regard this double right, and attempt to act upon the basis that they belong to themselves. What an insult it is to the God of heaven to count the blood of the covenant a common thing! In the estimation of heaven that blood is precious, and the redeemed ones both now and forevermore will testify to its worth. “The unspeakable value of the cross will be proclaimed throughout eternity, from every part, from every glorious feature, of the new creation, as well as from every inhabitant of the heavenly city.” “The precious value of the blood of Christ will be made manifest in every part of the new creation. All will tell out the costliness of the price that has been paid.” The song of “the four living creatures and the four and twenty elders,” who “fell down before the Lamb,” will find a response in the heart of every saved sinner: “Worthy art thou, . . . for thou wast slain, and didst purchase unto God with thy blood men of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation, and madest them to be unto our God a kingdom and priests.”

“Oh, precious is the flow That makes me white as snow; No other fount I know, Nothing but the blood of Jesus.”

The Coming of the Seed

The Second Advent

We have now traced the development of the original promise of the Seed through the various experiences in the history of the church. We have followed it in the promises to Abraham, in the promises to David, in the experience in ancient Babylon, in the first advent, in “the falling away,” in the experience in modern Babylon, and in the final call out of Babylon, and we have seen that God’s promises to his people and his providential dealings with his people have all had reference to the fulfilment of the original purpose and plan that sin and its author should be destroyed by the gift of his Son to the human family, and we have seen that the hope of the church and the principal theme of promise and prophecy is the coming of Christ the Seed. This is indeed the true keynote of Scripture teaching. To take this idea out of the Bible would be like taking the framing timbers out of a building. The whole structure would collapse. The gospel can not be taught in its proper setting, with due regard to its historical development, unless “the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” are constantly emphasized. This has always been true, but in this generation, as the time of the promise draws near, the true gospel message for the world must be most emphatically the gospel of the coming of the Seed.

The second advent of Christ, the coming of the Seed of the woman as the Lord and King of glory, is the climax of all that is involved in the original promise made in the garden of Eden. This is the glorious consummation toward which the whole history both of the church and of the world has been tending during this whole experience of sin. “To God’s pilgrim people, so long left to sojourn in ‘the region and shadow of death,’ a precious, joy-inspiring hope is given in the promise of his appearing, who is ‘the resurrection and the life,’ to ‘bring home again his banished.’ . . . From the day when the first pair turned their sorrowing steps from Eden, the children of faith have waited the coming of the Promised One to break the destroyer’s power, and bring them again to the lost Paradise. Holy men of old looked forward to the advent of the Messiah in glory, as the consummation of their hope. . . . The coming of Christ to usher in the reign of righteousness, has inspired the most sublime and impassioned utterances of the sacred writers. The poets and prophets of the Bible have dwelt upon it in words glowing with celestial fire.”

“About his coming cluster the glories of that ‘restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his

holy prophets since the world began.’ Then the long-continued rule of evil shall be broken; ‘the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign forever and ever.’ ‘The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.’ ‘The Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.’ He shall be ‘for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty, unto the residue of his people.’

“It is then that the peaceful and long-desired kingdom of the Messiah shall be established under the whole heaven. ‘The Lord shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord.’ ‘The glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon.’ ‘Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate: but thou shalt be called my Delight, and thy land Beulah.’ ‘As the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee.’”

“From the dungeon, the stake, the scaffold, where saints and martyrs witnessed for the truth, comes down the centuries the utterance of their faith and hope. ‘Being assured of Christ’s personal resurrection, and consequently of their own at his coming, for this cause,’ says one of these Christians, ‘they despised death, and were found to be above it.’ They were willing to go down to the grave, that they ‘might rise free.’ They looked for the ‘Lord to come from heaven in the clouds with the glory of his Father,’ bringing to the just the times of the kingdom.”

As the promise of the coming of the Seed runs like a thread of gold through all the teaching of the Scripture, so in the closing work of preparation for the coming of the Seed this whole chain of truth should be presented to the people. Every promise has reference to this time. Every prophecy is a part of the one great prophecy which finds its fulfilment at this time. All the experiences of the past which were emphasizing some phase of the one great truth, throw their light upon the present time. Much of the preaching of to-day is utterly lacking in power, and fails to meet the needs of the people, because it does not recognize and give the proper place to the truth for the hour. “Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath set over his household, to give them their food in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.”

We earnestly urge those who voice the third angel’s message to the world to give fresh and faithful study to the whole question of the coming of the Seed as revealed in the Scripture. A comprehensive grasp of this central truth of the gospel message will give a clearer understanding of the application of the utterances of the prophets of all times, and will make it possible to bring to a focus in our own day all the rays of light which have shone forth from God’s Word from the beginning. Those who thus consider this great theme will certainly be impressed with the fact that “the return of Christ to our world will not be long delayed,” and they will certainly make this “the keynote of every message.”

Two Significant Quotations

By Editor

In the current issues of two leading publications we find editorial comments which show how great are the changes which have come in recent years in matters of religious belief, and to what an extent the churches generally have yielded the ground to the claims of modern science and the Higher Criticism. Here are two representative paragraphs:

The liberal religious press of the United States and England has spoken in the highest praise of the work and influence of Herbert Spencer; and it thus gives a striking measure of the profound change of orthodox feeling that has come within twenty-five years. Darwin, Spencer, Huxley, and Tyndall were long the objects of especial condemnation by both the religious press and the pulpit in England and America. It was they who were meant when ecclesiastics spoke of “profane and vain babblings and the opposition of science falsely so called.”—The World's Work for February.

A dozen years ago Profs. Charles A. Briggs and Henry Preserved Smith were suspended from the ministry by the Presbyterian General Assembly for their teachings of the Higher Criticism; the battle is over now, and the church is full of the higher critics.—The Independent (New York), of January 28.

The subtle influence of this modern infidelity reaches further than we might think at first, and under one form or another it is found where its presence is little suspected. There can be, however, no fellowship between it and the truth of this message, neither can there be any compromise with it.

More Sunday Legislation by Congress

By L. A. S.

On three separate occasions of comparatively recent date the national legislature—the Congress of the United States—has occupied itself with the settlement of questions and the enactment of legislation lying within the domain of religion. On the first of these occasions, in 1892, Congress decided that Sunday is the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, and enacted that the gates of the World's Fair at Chicago should be closed on that day. The second of these occasions arose with the appropriation of five million dollars from the national treasury for the benefit of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, in 1901, the managers being obliged, as a condition of receiving this money, to bind themselves by a strict agreement for Sunday closing of the entire exposition. The third of these occasions has only just passed into history, having occurred on the eighth day of this present month. The facts of this most recent instance of Congressional religious legislation should be of interest to the readers of this paper. Especially would we invite to them the attention of any who may have thought that this issue of religious legislation had died out, and was no longer to be taken into serious consideration.

The occasion of the action taken by Congress on the 8th inst., was the appropriation of a sum of money to the “Lewis and Clark Centennial and American Pacific Exposition,” to be held at Portland, Ore., to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of the exploration of the Oregon country. The bill before Congress provided for the appropriation of $1,775,000 for this purpose. The Senate committee having the bill in charge presented the following amendment:—

That no machinery shall be operated on said exposition grounds on a Sunday for the purpose of display, and all places of amusement within the enclosure of the exposition grounds shall be closed on every Sunday during the period that such exposition shall be held. Provision shall be made by those in charge of the exposition grounds for the holding of devotional exercises and sacred concerts on the grounds on Sundays.

An amendment to this amendment providing for Sunday closing of the exposition was then presented by Senator Platt, of Connecticut, thus:—

That as a condition precedent to the payment of any and all appropriations made in this act, the corporation in charge of the exposition shall contract with the Secretary of the Treasury to keep the gates closed on Sundays during the entire period of the exposition.

Senator Fulton stated that the question of Sunday closing had “been discussed very widely in the city of Portland and throughout the State of Oregon,” and that “almost unanimously the people favor the amendment reported by the committee,” allowing Sunday opening of the exposition grounds.

Senator Bailey said: “I can not quite understand why this Congress shall prescribe that anybody anywhere shall conduct religious exercises. . . . I am opposed to inserting into a law of Congress any requirement that anybody shall be compelled to hold religious exercises of any kind.” “I believe as devoutly as anybody in churches; I believe in the propriety of religious exercises; but I do not believe they ought to be held under the requirements of Congress.”

An amendment was passed striking out the words “devotional exercises,” leaving only “sacred concerts” to be provided in the exposition grounds on Sundays. The discussion then turned again upon Senator Platt’s amendment for Sunday closing of both the exposition and the grounds. Mr. Platt said:—

Congress provided in the St. Louis exposition bill that the gates should not be opened on Sundays; and I think Congress ought not to recede from that proposition. . . . I think that Congress, once having taken that stand, ought not to recede from it.

Note the illustration of the fact that one act committing Congress to the principle of religious legislation is certain to be used as a precedent and a lever for forcing Congress to go further in this direction. The progress of this kind that had been made since the act closing the gates of the Chicago exposition was alluded to by Senator Bailey. He said:—

It looks to me as though the very history of this provision, as traced by the senator from Connecticut, serves to warn us. We first began at Chicago, providing that there should be no exhibits on Sunday. . . . We proceed along this line for ten years. Then comes the St. Louis appropriation, and then the Congress not only says there shall be no government exhibits open to inspection on Sundays, but that the gates shall be closed. Then when we reach Portland, in Oregon, in this good year of our Lord 1904, we are confronted with a proposition to require religious exercises and sacred concerts. Thus the matter grows apace, and these local communities, in order to get federal aid in the shape of money, are submitting their local affairs to the control of the general government.

So far as I am concerned, I do not think the religious people of this country

are looking to Congress to protect their religion. Their religion has grown and spread its blessed teachings all over this land without the aid of the laws of Congress, and without even the aid of the legislatures of the several States. The religious sentiment of this country makes no such demand as this upon the American Congress. It does not require—indeed, it will not sanction—a law of Congress that assumes that the people of these communities can not be trusted to spend their Sabbath days in the proper observance of their religious duties.

But the speech that went straight to the merits of the question was made by Senator Stewart, of Nevada, who spoke as if commissioned to deliver a message of divine truth to the lawmakers of the nation. He said:—

Mr. President, I hope the amendment of the senator from Oregon [Mr. Mitchell] will prevail, and I presume it will, but I should like to remark here that I think it inappropriate for Congress to enact any legislation in regard to the religious observance of the Sabbath or any other matters pertaining to religion.

It was the most fortunate condition that ever occurred on earth that in the formation of our Constitution religious freedom was ordained. The people of the different colonies came here as believers in the creeds of various denominations. They were very radical in their beliefs, and it was many years before the residents of some of the colonies could even visit the others.

When, finally, the conflict came with Great Britain, the colonists united for the purpose of general defense, and after they had succeeded in the Revolution, it was found necessary, in order to preserve the government, that they should form a constitution. But so jealous were they of their particular creeds—for there were different creeds in each of the colonies—that they left out any reference to creed in the Constitution, and provided that each individual might worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience.

I believe that idea has done more for liberty, for religion, for progress, and for civilization than any other provision of the Constitution, or any other proposition that was ever made in this or any other country.

In traveling through Europe last year and some years before, I met people there alluding to our country and the blessing of the principle that here prevails, that all people may worship God according to the dictates of their own conscience.

I am utterly opposed to assuming any jurisdiction over the consciences of men or regulating their religious principles by the general government, because our position on that question has permeated the entire world; it is world-wide; it is going on revolutionising the bad practises of tyranny everywhere, and the people of the whole world long for that glorious privilege. All interference in the matter of religion having been removed from the province of the general government by common consent in forming the Constitution, I agree with the Senator from Texas [Mr. Bailey], and I am old-fashioned enough to wish to have all allusion to Sunday closing or religion left out of the bill, and let the States and local communities regulate such matters as they may see proper.

Senator Fulton said there was no more valid objection to the opening of the exposition grounds on Sunday than there would be to the opening of a public park on that day; to which Senator Platt replied that “when we are called upon to appropriate large sums of money to one of these exhibitions, we may very well provide that the universal sentiment that one day in seven shall be observed as a day of rest, shall be observed with reference to that institution.” Senator Platt also quoted from a speech made by Congressman Dingley for closing the Chicago World’s Fair, in which that congressman cited among other reasons for closing the fair, the fact that “in the estimation of millions, the divine injunction to ‘remember the Sabbath day and [to] keep it holy’ is regarded as a command of the Creator, to be obeyed as a religious duty.” Then he again appealed to the precedent for religious legislation which had been set up: “As I said before, the Senate and the Congress have once adopted this principle, have once recognized the Sabbath as a day in which the government should not engage, or if it contributed its money, should not permit States or corporations to engage, in the amusement business, in the show business. I ask for the yeas and nays on the amendment.”

After some further discussion, during which Senator Gallinger, of New Hampshire, said that “the churches of New England desire this exposition to be closed on the Sabbath day,” the yeas and nays were taken, and Senator Platt’s amendment closing up the exposition and grounds on Sunday was carried by a vote of twenty-nine to seventeen.

Senator Platt (of Connecticut), the author of this amendment, is the same individual who not very long ago arose in Congress with an amendment to the Declaration of Independence, changing that vital phrase “deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed” by injecting into it the word “some,” so that the American doctrine would be, and by the action taken at that time now is, that governments derive their just powers from the consent of some of the governed. The closing of an exposition on Sunday by act of Congress at the dictation of a part of the Sunday-observing religious element of the people, is distinctly an illustration of government by the consent of “some” of the governed.

Thus passes another historic occasion leading to the fulfilment of that which inspired prophecy has spoken of this nation, regarding the attitude to be taken by its government toward the truth and the people of God. The recognition of Sunday as the Christian sabbath and the principle of legislation to uphold a religious institution are now well entrenched by precedent in the national lawmaking body. Other steps are soon to follow, and the climax of the controversy will erelong be reached.

L. A. S.

The Answer Given to China’s Call

By W. A. S.

All will surely remember the stirring call from China, printed three weeks ago. Brother E. Pilquist reported the safe arrival of the medical missionary party in Honan, and told of the cheering reception accorded them by the people. He appealed for one thousand dollars with which to secure buildings and land suitable for chapel, training headquarters, and medical dispensary and hospital.

The appeal was printed with the suggestion that some one or two individuals might find it possible to give immediate response, a thing that the mission treasury was unable to do before learning the full returns from the week-of-prayer offerings, and the regular calls from the fields for the new year. The Lord’s providence that led our workers in far China to discover the very favorable location in Sin Tsai Hsien, had also prepared hearts to answer the call when made. The following letter came last week from a brother and his wife in Wisconsin. We know the writers will naturally shrink from having the circumstances of the gift made public, but for the blessing it may be to others to share in the joy of the message they send, we are sure we shall be pardoned for printing the letter:—

Last Sabbath, when reading the REVIEW AND HERALD, we became much impressed by the stirring appeal from China. God has blessed us, and by hard work and economy we have saved up just one thousand dollars, which we have decided to give to this needy mission field; but we have it out on interest, and can not get it before the first part of April. If there is money in the General Conference treasury that you can spare until that time, we would ask you to send Brother Pilquist that one thousand dollars at once, and we will surely send it to you by the first part of April.

This is about all that we own in this world, but we feel assured that God will provide the necessities for us as long as we are to stay here, so we give it cheerfully, and hope and pray that much good may come out of it. Please write and let us know if you can do this, and oblige.

Yours in the Master’s service,

MR. AND MRS. PETER PETERSON.

The draft for one thousand dollars is already on its way. Well may we thank God for the good cheer which so prompt a response will bring to our workers in China. The outbreak of hostilities in the far East is a warning to us that the time to work is short. It will mean much to the China Mission that plans can at once be laid to start the training and dispensary work in the very center of the “Great Plain,” the most thickly settled region in the world.

There is a helpful lesson in the fact that this response to the special call from China does not come from persons to whom a thousand dollars is not a very large possession. It represents the surplus

savings of a life of hard work and economy. It suggests the resources that God can command for the missionary cause as his love touches hearts with a sense of the need. And even though such a gift represented the accumulations of a lifetime, is it an unwise or imprudent investment for one who is not well off in worldly possessions? Who would assert that it is? At a critical time in our work in the far East, when trained missionaries are on the ground ready to lift high the standard of the third angel’s message in the very heart of the most populous empire on earth, the appeal comes for a special fund needed to place the work on vantage-ground. The appeal is answered, and the splendid work goes forward. That thousand-dollar gift will go on working among China’s millions till the Lord comes. It is not a small thing that brethren and sisters on the farm or in the towns of America may by their gifts and prayers be actual comrades in arms with those who are face to face with the peoples of far-away lands and strange tongues. We are one band in this missionary crusade. Those who pray and give at home stand shoulder to shoulder in the ranks with those abroad. This gift from a source which only the Lord could have pointed out does all of us good who hear of it. And we can share by anticipation the joy it will bring to the little missionary circle across the sea, when the word reaches China. Truly it is a grand thing to be in God’s work to-day, and it is a cause to which we may gladly devote our lives and our all. As soon as the message is sounded as a witness to all peoples, the Lord will come.

W. A. S.

The Special Offering for the Religious Liberty Work

By Arthur G. Daniells

To Be Taken Sabbath, March 12

I HOPE all the readers of the REVIEW read Elder Allen Moon’s article in last week’s REVIEW with reference to the religious liberty work. Brother Moon, as chairman of the Religious Liberty Department of the General Conference, is endeavoring to set in motion important influences in behalf of this phase of the work. He has the confidence and hearty co-operation of the General Conference Committee. The Washington General Conference council, held last October, recommended that a Sabbath offering should be taken at an early date in 1904, to assist in providing the literature and facilities required to get this work under way.

While the enemy is not making the open attack on the liberties of the people that was being made some years ago, he is not idle, by any means. A secret, stealthy work is being done, against which the third angel’s message is to proclaim a solemn warning. This message must be placed before the nation. It can not be done from the platform alone. The press must be utilized. Literature must be prepared and distributed. It is for this purpose that the special offering will be taken Sabbath, March 12. We hope all our ministers and church officers will call attention to this, and do what is consistent to secure a pleasing gift to this department of our work. And we all hope that this effort will bring many to the knowledge of the truth, and help to bring the end. The offering should be sent promptly in the usual way to the conference treasury.

A. G. DANIELLS.

Some Facts Relating to the Far Eastern Question

By L. A. S.

In a recent article contributed to The Outlook, Mr. Chester Holcombe states some interesting facts bearing on the present war between Russia and Japan, which, as former secretary of the American legation at Peking, he gathered from association with leading diplomats of the Oriental nations. Japan, he says, feels that she is fighting for her national existence. In an interview some years ago with a Japanese official of high standing, in Tokyo, the latter gave this illustration of the Japanese view of the situation as it existed then. “Holding up one hand,” says Mr. Holcombe, “and separating the first and second fingers as widely as possible from the third and fourth, he said: ‘Here is the situation. These four fingers represent the four great European powers—Great Britain, Germany, France, and Russia. In the open space between them lie Japan, China, and Korea.’ Then with really dramatic force he added: ‘Like the jaws of a huge vise, those fingers are slowly closing, and unless some supreme effort is made, they will certainly crush the national life out of all three.’ He urged with great earnestness that the United States, Japan, and China should enter upon a mutual agreement—a tripartite alliance—to defend the independence and territorial integrity of Korea.”

Briefly stated, some of the essential points presented by Mr. Holcombe are the following:—

1. When Japan conquered China in 1895, the treaty of peace gave to Japan the island of Formosa and a small part of Manchuria. Russia, as soon as these terms were known, served notice on Japan that “it would not be permitted to retain permanent possession of any portion of the mainland of Asia,” and gave Japan forty-eight hours in which to accept or reject this proposition. Japan was obliged to accept it. A cabinet minister at Tokyo said: “If we had only three battle-ships, we would declare war against Russia within twenty-four hours. We have but one, recently captured from China, and it will not be fit for service within six months, while the czar has six here in our harbors. What can we do but submit to this insolent threat?”

2. Japan was ordered away from Manchuria by Russia because it was the purpose of Russia, when the time for it was ripe, to annex that rich province, and also Korea, to her own domain. This is why the Russian government has within the past year endeavored to frighten China into refusal to grant to the United States two additional open ports in Manchuria.

3. This purpose of Russia was understood by Japan in 1895, and Japan also understood that if it was carried into effect, it would mean the eventual destruction of Japanese and Chinese nationality.

4. The present struggle to determine whether Manchuria shall remain Chinese or become Russian has a much broader ultimate end in view. It may be regarded as “a single test case in a broad issue which may be framed somewhat in legal form as independent national existence in the Far East versus partition and subordination to European authority,” this issue covering Japan as well as China and Korea.

5. If this issue is left to the decision of the European powers, the latter alternative will be the result. Travelling once in Japan in company with five ministers from European courts accredited to the Japanese emperor, Mr. Holcombe was told by the French minister that “it is not the policy of my government to permit the growth of China and Japan into first-class powers,” and the statement was strongly indorsed by the ministers of the other powers.

6. When the Boxer uprising was put down by the European powers, these powers “suppressed Boxers and government forces alike,” and “stripped the disturbed area of arms, and of nearly everything else.” Then they forced an agreement on China not to buy or allow to be imported, for a term of years, any munitions of war of any sort; this being done ostensibly to guard against another Boxer uprising, but really to make the Chinese government defenseless against European aggression.

7. The United States is hostile to the partition of China, and these three governments—China, Japan, and the United States—could by united action easily prevent its partition. Mr. Holcombe does not raise the question, but it is a very vital one, whether the United States will be drawn into such an undertaking. The events of recent years, and certain indications of the present moment, make the answer to this question by no means certain.

8. “China offers the richest field in all history for the hunters after plunder.” Such is the situation as it exists to-day, and such is the point of view of the

Asiatic nation which is now contending with Russia on the field of battle. The outcome will be, as the student of prophecy knows, that the way of the “kings of the East” will be prepared, and these Eastern nations will be made ready to join in the final fray of Armageddon. The present sound of war reminds us of the approach of the last great conflict, when the winds of strife shall be loosed throughout the whole earth.

L. A. S.

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