Review and Herald, Vol. 91, No. 40. (9/24/1914)

Review and Herald

Sep 24, 1914

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 24, 1914

Physical Culture and School Children

Are parents generally neglectful of the physical welfare of their children? I believe that, in too equipment. But childhood is also a time for building a physical foundation for the great life struggle. Every child

That education which places large emphasis on mental food, with little regard for physical food, is responsible for the fairly educated nervous wrecks who spend most of their time in sanitarium.

Which will develop into the best men and women? It is not customary to cage children, but it amounts to the same thing when children are huddled together in crowded tenements with no place to play but the fire escapes, or are sent to crowded schools without adequate playgrounds.

THE WORK AND THE WORKERS

How to keep well, how to get well, how to treat simple ailments at home without drugs, how to sleep, cook, eat, and dress for health,—these and many other questions are answered in Life and Health.

PROTESTANTS, Catholics, Jews, Japanese, Mohammedans, people of all races and persuasions, are interested in the principles advocated by Life and Health, the “entering wedge” magazine that breaks down prejudice.

THE editor of the Medical Review of Reviews, New York, N. Y., writes: “The — number of Life and Health came today, and we wish to congratulate you on being the only editor of a health journal who keeps his pages free from harmful fads and pernicious quacks.”

WILLIAM S. WOODS, editor of the Literary Digest, New York City, writes: “Many thanks for sending us the fine editorial in your — number of Life and Health. I am forwarding it to our science editor, and trust he will be able to make some use of it in our columns.”

FREDERIC H. ROBINSON, editor of the Dietetic and Hygienic Gazette, New York City, writes thus of Life and Health: “I believe your journal to be the best health journal that has ever been published. It is the only one free from all pernicious fads. You certainly deserve great success, and I hope you are attaining it.”

TAKE another look at that beautiful three-color harvest scene on the cover of the October Life and Health. Don’t miss that valuable “School,” “Child Welfare,” “Antiwar,” “Healthful Cookery,” “Medical Missionary,” and “Questions and Answers” number. Sample copy, 10 cents. Send $1.00 for 20 or $2.00 for 50 copies today.

THE assistant curator of the Smithsonian Institution, United States National Museum, Washington, D. C., writes: “I have received the two numbers of Life and Health, and have just found time to look them over. It is by far the best health magazine I have ever seen, and I take pleasure in sending you herewith check for $3.00 for five years’ subscription.”

A BUSINESS man connected with the largest insurance company in America writes: “Some time ago it was my good fortune to come across your valuable magazine Life and Health, but I find that I cannot buy it from any of the news dealers in this vicinity. I am deeply interested in this subject, and naturally do not want to miss anything in this line.” Business men buy this magazine.

A FEW features of the beautiful October Life and Health: “Physical Culture and School Children,” “The Reason for Runts,” “Antidotes for Fatigue,” “How Bob Was Weaned,” “Healthful Cookery Menus for a Week in October,” “Open-Window Schools,” “Horrors of War,” “Food Combinations,” “Farmhouse Sanitation,” “Sanitary Toilet,” “Worms,” “Loose Teeth,” “Freckles.” Send five two-cent stamps for sample copy today. Better still, order 20 copies for $1.00 or 50 for $2.00.

Forget the War and Attend to Your Health!

By Editor

In these times of war and carnage, cruelty and destruction, the world needs a gospel of PEACE, JOY, KINDNESS, and UPBUILDING in the MENTAL, SPIRITUAL, and PHYSICAL spheres. Instead of BULLETS, SHELLS, and BOMBS, the frail HUMAN BODY needs TENDER CARE, RESTFUL SLEEP and RESTORATION. Life and Health brings a monthly message of HEALTH and GOOD CHEER. The great October or “School,” “Child Welfare,” “Antiwar,” “Medical Missionary,” “Healthful Cookery,” and “Questions and Answers” number is just the medicine this poor old sin-sick and war-mad world needs. Scatter it broadcast. Send $2.00 for 50 or $1.00 for 20 copies today.

Its Provision for the Development of a Holy and Perfect People

By Ole Andres Olsen

The Fullness of the Gospel — No. 1

Its Provision for the Development of a Holy and Perfect People

O. A. OLSEN

[In sending forth the twelve disciples to teach and to preach, Christ endowed them with power and authority to meet every need of humanity. They were commissioned to preach the gospel, heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, and cast out devils; freely they had received, and as freely they were to give. See Matt. 10: 7, 8; Luke 9: 1, 2.

When Christ was about to leave the world and return to the Father, he repeated the original commission, giving it a world-wide application. He said: “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.” Mark 16: 15-18.

The human family is suffering from the effects of sin. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the only remedy that can fully meet every requirement and bring the help and relief so much needed by suffering humanity. “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.” Rom. 1: 16. “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” Acts 4: 12.

When the disciples were first sent forth to preach the gospel, they were also instructed to heal the sick and to cast out devils. All the ills and sufferings of humanity are the result of sin: therefore it is most natural that the gospel that brings salvation from sin, should also heal the sick. On one occasion they brought to Christ “a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed: and Jesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsy; Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee.” “For whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and walk?” Matt. 9: 2, 5. Thus the healing of the sick is a part of the ministry of the gospel.

For carrying forward the gospel ministry, “God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.” 1 Cor. 12: 28. All these gifts are needed in the church for the work to be done. While “there are diversities of gifts,” still it is all by the same Spirit, for “it is the same God which worketh all in all.”

In the work of Christ, we have an illustration of a complete ministry. He preached, he healed, he fed the hungry, and he ministered comfort to the sorrowing. He did just what the occasion called for.

We have entered the time of the closing work of the gospel in the earth. The great advent movement set forth in the wonderful threefold message of Rev. 14: 6-12, is being fulfilled. Great light is shining forth from the sacred pages of God’s Book, and as a people we are in the enjoyment of great blessings. Early in our experience our attention was called to the principles of health reform as an important factor in the work of developing perfection of character preparatory to the coming of the Lord.

Anciently the Lord gave his people very definite instruction as to how they should conduct themselves. They were commanded not to follow the ways and habits of the heathen nations about them. Lev. 20: 22-26. Israel was to be holy unto the Lord, and therefore they were not to eat and drink and do as the heathen nations about them. Their eating and drinking and their general conduct were to reveal their holy character. The Lord also promised them health, on condition of implicit obedience: “If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the Lord that healeth thee.” Ex. 15: 26. “For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God: the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth.” “And the Lord will take away from thee all sickness, and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which thou knowest, upon thee; but will lay them upon all them that hate thee.” Deut. 7: 6, 15. “And ye shall serve the Lord your God, and he shall bless thy bread, and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee.” Ex. 23: 25.

Thus the Lord, in his dealing with his special people Israel, not only gave them instruction regarding their worship, their sacrifices, and how to obtain forgiveness of sin (see Leviticus 4, 5, and elsewhere), but he also gave them very definite instruction concerning their physical well-being, that, as God’s chosen people, they might, both in holiness of character and in physical development, reflect the glory of God. Ps. 105: 37. He also fed them with the best food: “And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven. Man did eat angels’ food: he sent them meat to the full.” Ps. 78: 24, 25.

God has now set his hand the second time to gather the remnant of his people: “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people.” Isa. 11: 11.

Anciently God called his people out of Egypt. They were not allowed to obey God there, so he called them out that they might serve him. Ex. 4: 22, 23; Ps. 105: 43, 45. God’s people are to bear his own character. Lev. 20: 26.

Now the Lord is again making a special call, this time out of Babylon. Babylon has fallen, and become the very habitation of wickedness: hence the call

(Rev. 18: 2, 4), “Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.”

God’s people are not to follow or pattern after the world any more now than in ancient time: “Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.” 2 Cor. 6: 17, 18. “Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” 2 Cor. 7: 1. “Be ye holy; for I am holy.” 1 Peter 1: 16.

The remnant of God’s people are to be known as those “which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ” (Rev. 12: 17); and “the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy” (Rev. 19: 10).

Again the Lord is calling the attention of his people to these health principles in a most emphatic manner; and the reason given is the same, namely, to “glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” 1 Cor. 6: 20. “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises [“virtues,” margin] of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” 1 Peter 2: 9.

The Church Not a Kingdom

By S. E. TABB

S. E. TABB

IN THE REVIEW OF MAY 21, 1914, Lee S. Wheeler quotes from Cardinal Gibbons's “The Faith of Our Fathers,” page 23, the following:—

“The church is called a kingdom: ‘He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.’ Now in every regulated kingdom there is but one king, one form of government, one uniform body of laws, which all are obliged to observe. In like manner, in Christ's spiritual kingdom there must be one chief to whom all owe spiritual allegiance, one form of ecclesiastical government, one uniform body of laws which all Christians are bound to observe; for every kingdom divided against itself shall be made desolate.”

Mr. Wheeler very pertinently adds: “If the assumption that the church is the kingdom be granted, the whole [papal] system appears logical and Scriptural.

“Consequently, if this interpretation is to be allowed, all the decrees of intolerance and all the crusades of extirpation waged against infidels and heretics must be conceded to be but the exercise of the legitimate authority of the church over the state. Protestantism has no defense.”

“If the assumption . . . be granted;” “if this interpretation is to be allowed.” Aye, there's the rub.

The cardinal's “The church is called a kingdom,” brings to mind the conundrum that used to be sprung on us rustics back in boyhood farm days: “How many legs has a calf if you call its tail a leg?” If the farmer said five, the laugh was on him; but not infrequently the rustic was shrewd enough to answer: “Four; for calling a calf's tail a leg doesn't make it a leg.” Calling the church a kingdom doesn't make it a kingdom. Nowhere in the Scriptures is the church ever called a kingdom, nor is Christ ever called the king of the church. To be sure, “King” is one of his divine titles (Ps. 10:16), and he is “King of the Jews” (Matt. 2:2), but “King of the church” never.

“Christ is the head of the church” (Eph. 5:23), and the church is his body, for “he is the head of the body, the church” (Col. 1:18). Again, Christ “is the bridegroom” (John 3:29), and the church is his bride, who at “the marriage of the Lamb” becomes “his wife” (Rev. 19:7). In that wonderful passage, Eph. 5:23-32, the apostle Paul uses marriage to set forth the relation between Christ and his church — husband and wife. He may be “king” to others, but not to the church. Of that he is “head” and “husband,” and the church is his “body,” his “wife.” The cardinal's application of Luke 1:33 to the church — “He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end” — should not confound even a tyro in exegesis.

The Jews rejected their “King” and his Messianic kingdom. The kingdom movement was thus halted. The kingdom, therefore, is for a time in abeyance, and Jesus is now as “a certain nobleman” who “went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return,” Luke 19:12. The time parenthesis between his rejection and return is the church period, the time for taking out from among the Gentiles “a people for his name” (Acts 15:14), that is, a church; and after this he “will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down” (Acts 15:16), setting up the prophesied and promised kingdom of which Luke speaks. The church is thus an out-called, chosen, selected body that serves its purpose during the kingdom-interregnum period and is then removed from the earth, caught up “to meet the Lord” (1 Thess. 4:17), thus in its earth form coming to an end.

To confound the Roman Catholic Church with the true Scripture church, which is made up of all who by truly believing in Jesus become of his “body” (Col. 1:24), most of all to make the true church a “kingdom,” is an inexcusable error. This exegesis stands on a quicksand foundation, and the superstructure of a Roman Catholic kingdom church which the cardinal in the quotation has so pretentiously builded thereupon, tumbles into ruins; and great is the fall of it.

Yet his disallowable interpretation is no more invalid than much on which the Roman Church builds. Another instance: How much the hierarchy makes of the “power of the keys,” assuming all prerogative and supreme power in the church, from the text which Christ speaks to Peter, “I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven.” Matt. 16:19. In a footnote on this passage, in the Douay (Romanist) Bible, we are told that thus Peter should become “chief pastor, ruler, and governor; and should have accordingly all fulness of ecclesiastical power signified by the keys of the kingdom of heaven.” Ecclesiastical power! Did Christ mean what he said, and say what he meant? He said “kingdom of heaven,” and did not say “church.” While it is true that the church and the kingdom of heaven have much in common, it is also true that, according to the Scriptures, they have characteristic differences that utterly preclude their being considered in their entirety to be one and the same thing. The fond assumption that the new Pope, Benedict XV, or the whole Roman hierarchy, now holds the keys to the church is simply absurd. If not now, never.

No, the church is an ekklesia, not a basileia — a called-out company, not a kingdom.

J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH

By John Norton Loughborough

The Second Advent Movement — No. 11

J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH

When the Lord especially works for his people, we should expect it to be for those who have consecrated life and all to his service and to their faith in his immediate coming. It was so in this case; for some very soon began to receive light which explained the great disappointment and their situation. Hiram Edson, of Port Byron, N. Y., had been an earnest worker in the midnight cry movement, and he with others was in prayer meeting all night of the tenth day of the seventh month. The next morning, in company with a young man, O. R. L. Crozier, he went home across the cornfield. They talked of the situation, and then knelt down by a shock of corn and prayed.

In the third season of prayer the Spirit of God came in a powerful manner upon Brother Edson, nearly smiting him to the ground, and with it the word came, as distinct as if spoken with an audible voice, “The sanctuary to be cleansed is in heaven.” He told this impression to Brother Crozier, and said, “What does that mean?”

They hastened home, and, asking God to guide, Brother Edson opened his Bible to the eighth and ninth chapters of Hebrews. As he read that the earthly sanctuary was a “shadow” of the heavenly, a “figure,” and the service “an example,” he said to Brother Crozier: “I have read that a hundred times, but I never saw it as I see it now. The sanctuary is in heaven, and Jesus has gone in to cleanse the sanctuary.” They followed out their study, and it resulted in a clearly written article on the sanctuary, which was published in the Day-star, an Adventist paper of Canandaigua, N. Y.

In another Adventist paper, the Voice

of Truth, published at Rochester, N. Y., Nov. 7, 1844, the editor said: “We cheerfully admit that we have been mistaken in the nature of the event we expected would take place on the tenth day of the seventh month, but we cannot yet admit that our High Priest did not on that day accomplish all that the type would justify us in expecting. We now believe he did.” Shortly after, the same editor said in his paper: “We have had the first and second messages. There is a third to be given. Search for that message.”

As the Adventists approached the tenth day of the seventh month, and saw the hardness and impudence of the ungodly, they said, “We have done with the nominal churches and all the wicked, except so far as this message may affect them.” What, then, was their surprise to see that, after the time book had been eaten, and its honey sweetness passed, and they were in the bitter state of disappointment and reproach, to read, “Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.” Rev. 10: 11. This very language shows that those to whom it is addressed thought their work was done.

They began earnestly to inquire: “How can we get started? We cannot meet the people until we have some explanation of our past disappointment.” The Lord had made provision for that in the very next words, “And there was given me a reed like unto a rod: and the angel stood, saying, Rise, and measure the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein.” Rev. 11: 1. They said: “This measurement is not a literal measurement in cubits, for ‘God is no respecter of persons.’ The measure of the worshippers must be a delineation of character. And the standard for this measurement is the law of God, for ‘by the law is the knowledge of sin.’ Rom. 3: 20. Also, the measurement of the temple must be the study of it and its service.”

They had taught that when the seventh trumpet should begin to sound, the mystery of God — the gospel work — should be finished, as declared to his servants the prophets. In the prophecy of Daniel this close of Christ’s work was to be the cleansing of the sanctuary, at the end of the 2300 days. While they had in mind the popular idea that the earth was the sanctuary, they supposed its cleansing must be by fire, in the destruction of the wicked at the coming of Christ. Now they saw that, at the sounding of the seventh angel, “the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament.” Rev. 11: 19.

They saw that the earthly sanctuary was a “figure” of the true, and its service an “example” of the heavenly, and that the apartment containing the ark was opened only once a year, and that for the high priest to enter in and cleanse the sanctuary. They said, “The time has indeed come for Christ to cleanse the sanctuary,—his last work as high priest, his blotting out the sins of his people.”

Then, again, the text said, “There was seen in his temple the ark of his testament.” His testament is the testimony that God spoke with an audible voice from Sinai, and wrote on two tables of stone. This was a duplicate of what is now seen by faith in the ark in heaven, for that was what God gave to Moses. They could say, “We have found the reed, like unto a rod, by which the people are to be measured. The ten commandments — the fourth, and all — are binding, just as God spoke them on Mt. Sinai.” Then began to appear a special need that the law of God should be proclaimed, that the people might see how they came short of doing the whole will of God.

Some of the Adventists began to teach the Sabbath from another standpoint than the ark, but their work was of short duration. T. M. Preble based his effort on what was said about the little horn of Daniel changing times and laws, and he put out this terse statement, “Pope’s Sunday keepers are God’s commandment breakers.” Very soon, however, he took the position that the ten commandments were abolished at the cross. J. B. Cook answered the texts brought forward to prove Sunday keeping, and said, “Thus easily is all the wind taken out of the sails of those who sail, perhaps unwittingly, under the Pope’s Sabbatic flag.” His work soon ended, he claiming that he had discovered from the church Fathers “an eighth day to be kept,—Sunday.” Those who stayed by the work were those who received the light from the sanctuary, the ark, and the third angel’s message.

Lodi, Cal.

The Message to the Church of the Laodiceans

By D. W. C. McNETT

D. W. C. McNETT

It has come to be generally believed by Seventh-day Adventists that the message of Rev. 3: 14-22 is being received by God's remnant people, and no doubt this is true of many in the church. But is there not danger of our receiving this solemn message theoretically, thus falling into the very error which the message itself warns against? Our great danger is in self-deception — feeling all right when indeed we are all wrong. This message is more than a sentiment adopted as an opinion or a creed. It is a call to self-examination, a call to repentance. We are exhorted, “Be zealous therefore, and repent.” It is to the closing work of the gospel what the message of John the Baptist was to the establishing of the gospel. His message was: “Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” “Prepare ye the way of the Lord.” “To make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” Compare Matt. 3: 2; Luke 3: 4; 7: 27; 1: 17; Mal. 3: 1, first clause; and Mal. 4: 5.

The divine purpose of the Laodicean message seems to be to cause the inward perception to become clearer; the quickening of the individual consciousness to one's condition as needy, unworthy, sinful, self-righteous, self-important, and self-satisfied, consequently leading us to a state of humility and self-abnegation well-nigh unknown to many of us.

Many and varied are the figurative expressions used by the inspired writers to describe this work of repentance, that we may comprehend its nature and be impressed with its importance. For instance, we read: “Whosoever shall fall on this stone [Christ] shall be broken” (Matt. 21: 44); “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him [Christ]” (Rom. 6: 6); “Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him” (verse 8); “In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands” (Col. 2: 11); “Buried with him” (verse 12); “Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth” (Col. 3: 5); “Baptized into his death” (Rom. 6: 3); “And have no confidence in the flesh” (Phil. 3: 3). It is the office of the Holy Spirit to convince of sin and to direct the work of repentance for us, and not we for ourselves, apart from him. “Him [Christ] hath God exalted, . . . for to give repentance to Israel.” Acts 5: 31. Our part is to pray for the Holy Spirit, and then submit to its workings. The inspired caution is, “Quench not the Spirit.”

Is it not possible that we are grieving away from our hearts and minds that tender Guest, while inviting its presence? The Holy Spirit must be recognized and received. We must buy the “gold of faith and love,” and anoint our eyes with the eyesalve of spiritual discernment before we shall recognize the gifts of the Spirit in our brethren, or its operations upon our own hearts. In other words, we must have the “fruit of the Spirit,” which “is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance,” before we shall receive the fullness of the Spirit, which includes the gifts of the Spirit. The body, with all its powers, must be presented “a living sacrifice,” given for service at the Spirit's bidding, and we must be “transformed by the renewing” of our minds before we shall be able to “prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God,” for us individually in the gifts of the Spirit. See Rom. 12: 1-8.

Let us thank God for the degree of the Holy Spirit already given, and ever cherish its gracious influence upon our hearts. As we do this, we invite him into our hearts and his presence will be more constant. Then let us hold fast to the promise, “And the Lord shall guide thee continually.” Isa. 58: 11.

Prayer

PRAYER is so necessary, and the source of so many blessings, that he who has discovered the treasure cannot be prevented from having recourse to it whenever he has an opportunity.—Fenelon.

Sentenced to Attend Mass

By C. M. S.

THE Milwaukee Journal of August 24 gives a little foretaste of what may be expected more and more frequently as Rome secures the upper hand in the various departments of our municipal and national governments. One Arthur Stewart, of Chicago, had been arraigned before municipal Judge Jarecki on a charge of nonsupport filed by his wife. The judge sentenced Stewart to attend mass in a certain Catholic church regularly for a year. The judge himself is a Catholic and attends mass at this particular church. It is stated that the judge takes great delight in observing the punctuality with which Mr. Stewart is “serving his sentence.”

In colonial days, when church and state were admittedly united, church attendance was made compulsory, and those were fined who did not regularly attend. When Sunday observance began to be enforced by law in the days of ancient Rome, the same spirit of compulsion in religious things was manifest. All through the Dark Ages compulsion in religious things was working, and that was what made those ages dark. The victims of stake, rack, and dungeon went to their death as a protest against such compulsion. We have heard frequently within the past few years of soldiers and sailors being compelled to “attend divine worship;” and the Chicago incident above mentioned is not the first report we have seen of men being sentenced to attend church. Such actions by a court of justice indicate that not all Americans appreciate what religion really stands for, or what rights the Constitution guarantees the citizen, or even what century we are living in. Such a “sentence” not only tramples upon the rights of the individual, but is an insult to the church and to the Head of the church. Our Lord never designed that his church should be used as a penal institution, or that individuals should be forced into it under compulsion of threat of punishment. Force in such things is utterly foreign to the purpose and character of Christ. Never did he use force save twice, and then it was to drive unworthy men out of his sanctuary, not into it. These modern developments show a tendency to break away from the fundamental principles of the national structure and follow the course of other nations in making unholy alliances between civil and religious things. We shall hear of such developments with greater frequency as the government becomes more subservient to the dictates of the church. It is history repeating itself; but when this repetition is complete, we shall see the end. C. M. S.

Gathering Funds for Missions

By W. A. S.

Just now, as we face another autumn Ingathering season, it may add to the interest in the campaign for missionary funds to know that practically all the missionary societies are calling on their constituencies to go out after money for missions.

While the combined missionary societies in North America are securing about $17,000,000 a year for missions, there is thorough agreement among them all that far more could be done. Within the last two or three years special attention has been devoted in the general missionary councils to the matter of increased and systematic giving for missions. The general appeal, it is felt, is no longer adequate. The call has been made for the lay members in all the churches to take upon their hearts the burden of personal effort to gather the funds needed for the hastening of the evangelization of the world.

This very year numbers of the societies are pushing with all vigor what they call an Every-Member Canvass. People are urged to go out among their friends, aiming to reach every member in the great religious bodies, soliciting a missionary gift. This campaign means a call for the active workers in the great denominations to go out to interview men and women in their places of business, making appeals for missions. In the August number of Missions, the organ of the Northern Baptist Missionary Board, the call is made:—

WANTED AT ONCE.—Five thousand men and five thousand women to canvass immediately for individual gifts for raising what remains of the missionary debts.

. . . Don't faint away if people say, “No.” Smile and go forward, and return the next day and see if they have not changed their minds. Call them up by telephone to inquire if you did not misunderstand what they said.

Organs of the great societies urge successful business men and others to join in planning ways and means for increasing the missionary resources. Without doubt, this movement, which is very general, will bring in many hundreds of thousands of dollars, perhaps millions, to the various missionary societies. Somehow there is a burden upon the hearts of all those who are leading out in missionary endeavor in the great churches to do something very strenuous, and to do it quickly. They have not the light upon the prophecies that we see, though it should be added that many have in their hearts a feeling that the coming of Christ is drawing near, and that the work of the church is to carry the gospel to the world in preparation for his coming. But we Seventh-day Adventists have, as we know, light upon the special message of preparation that is to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. Much more may we, then, take upon our hearts a burden to gather in the resources for the missionary advance.

The experience year by year shows that there are multitudes who do not ordinarily make regular gifts for missions who are glad to help when the good cause is set before them. This general movement in behalf of missions has been given wide publicity in the public press, and many are familiar with the idea. This can only be a help in preparing hearts to respond with gifts when the idea is presented.

And our brethren and sisters who have been out year after year with the Harvest Ingathering number of our papers feel that the Lord certainly goes before them. One sister at a Western meeting told of gathering in a good sum, nearly all in small amounts, as she went about telling the simple story of her own interest in God's work in the earth and her desire to gather missionary gifts for it. On one occasion, as she went to a country home, the man of the house saw her coming and halted as he was starting across the fields, waiting for her. Before she stopped, the good man said to her, “I think you have come to ask me for something for God's work, haven't you?” She said she had, and

explained the object of her visit. “I thought so,” he said, “when I saw you coming,” and then and there he gladly made a gift.

Never was there greater need for missionary gifts, and never was there a season when the topic of foreign affairs and the need of this world for the gospel of Christ could be more readily introduced to the minds of the people. It is perfectly apparent that now is the time to push the work of missions in Asia and Africa and all the great mission fields, where heathendom is being stirred up by Christendom for the final conflicts. It is a good time in which to tell the people of our world-wide work to which we are devoting our own resources to the utmost, and in behalf of which we may confidently appeal to others.

W. A. S.

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