IN the twenty chapters into which this book is divided, the author discusses the unity of the divine plan and the continuity of God's purpose through all the ages, showing that in all dispensations the truths constantly impressed upon the minds of the people have tended to one end,—the elucidation of one central idea,
THE RESTORATION
of the dominion which was lost in Adam.
CHAPTER I is a brief discussion of the Creation of the World; Man's Dominion and How He Lost It; the Origin and Authorship of Sin, with the divine remedy for its consequences.
CHAPTER II treats of the "Promise of God to the Fathers," with all that it implied in heaven and on earth. In other chapters are discussed such subjects as "The Abrahamic Covenant;" "Righteousness through Faith;" "The Covenant with Israel," the reasons for it, and the universality of its application; "The Return of the Jews;" "The World's History in a Dream;" "The Setting Up of the Everlasting Kingdom;" "The Hour of Judgment;" "The Fall of Babylon;" "The Seal and the Mark;" "Signs of the Second Coming of Christ," and the responsibility of man in recognizing them; "The Resurrection of the Dead," and what the doctrine involves.
THE LAST CHAPTER is a GRAND COMPILATION of the Promises of God in regard to the "Restoration of the First Dominion," with a vivid portrayal of the earth's appearance and condition when clothed in the garb of Edenic purity and loveliness.
THE BOOK is substantially bound, and handsomely embossed with floral designs; gold title on side and back; heavy, cream-tinted, sized and super-calendered paper; size, 5½ in. x 9 in.; price, postpaid, $1.00; gilt edge, with side design embossed in gold, $1.50.
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News and Notes.
FOR THE WEEK ENDING JUNE 18.
RELIGIOUS.
—The new mayor of Merrill, Wis., has compelled the saloons to close on Sunday, and the merchants consented to close without compulsion.
—The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church has indorsed the American Sabbath Union, thereby upholding religious legislation by the general government and by the various States, which is practically Church and State union.
—That we have a practical Church-and-State Government on hand is evidenced by the fact that in Nebraska City, Neb., a Catholic priest named Corbett is on trial for refusing to obey a court injunction restraining him from holding church services.
—Rev. George Frederick Fisher, formerly pastor of the Methodist Church at Newtown, Long Island, has become a Catholic. And Priest Lambert, who a few months ago withdrew from the Catholic ministry, has united with a Methodist Church in New York City.
—It is said that Editor Phelan, of the Western Watchman, who is also a Roman priest, has been obliged to retract some bold utterances in favor of the public schools. He had received some flattering encomiums from Protestants who were simple enough to suppose that a Catholic priest could be independent and patriotic and still maintain his position.
—There is considerable discussion of the subject of arbitration of disputes between nations, rather than war. The latest suggestion is a standing arbitration tribunal, and a prominent Catholic paper suggests that only one person enjoys the confidence of the nations to a degree that would qualify him for the position of head of such a tribunal, and that is the pope.
—The ministerial associations of the various evangelical churches of Allegheny County, Pa., have appointed representatives to form a general committee to look after the matter of Sunday observance, and this committee have recommended that all the ministers in the county preach on the subject of the Sunday newspaper, on the third Sunday in this month.
—At a recent yearly meeting of the Society of Friends, says the Philadelphia Press, some marked changes in discipline were adopted. It is now permissible for a member to marry outside of the society without permission. Another point is that members must abstain from the use, cultivation, manufacture, and sale of tobacco. The article in relation to slavery is stricken out, and many obsolete expressions are moderated.
—Overtures looking to a union of Northern and Southern Presbyterians were recently made by the General Assembly of the Northern body to that of the Southerners, and rejected by a large majority. One of the reasons given was as follows: "To enter into organic union with the Northern Presbyterian Church involves the surrender of the plan of an independent negro church, which this assembly regards as essential alike to the religious and social welfare of both races."
—The Catholic News says that "as many as 40,000 pilgrims made their way to Argenteuil, near Paris, on Whit Monday, to venerate the sacred tunic of our Lord Jesus Christ, given by Charlemagne to Argenteuil eleven centuries ago. . . . For the first time since 1880 the touching relic, by order of Pope Leo, was exposed to public view. The relic consists of the inner garment of our Divine Lord, worked by the hands of the Blessed Virgin, and stained with the sacred blood of the Redeemer. It is of a brown hue, very much worn, and evidently of great antiquity even to the ordinary observer.
—Professor Garner, who spent some time in Africa, endeavoring to become acquainted with monkey language, recommends that all the Christian missionaries be recalled from that country, alleging that the condition of the natives is worse after the missionary has been with them awhile than before. If this is the case, it is not the fault of the missionary; it is more directly due to the fact that the trader follows in the wake of the missionary, taking advantage of the civilization thus inaugurated to impose the alcohol and firearms curse upon the unsophisticated black man. The latter, having a taste of the good effects of Christianity, is prone to receive whatever the white man brings, and is thus led astray by the wiles of the great deceiver. It was just so in the islands of the Pacific, and in other missionary lands, and Christianity is accredited with the result. If Professor Garner were as zealous for the welfare of the poor African heathen, for whom Christ died, as he is to learn the alleged language of the chimpanzee, he would no doubt see the work of the self-sacrificing missionary in a different light.
SECULAR.
—George Peabody Wetmore has been elected U. S. Senator from Rhode Island.
—A property loss of $250,000 was the result of a fire in New York City on the 14th inst.
—The city of Norfolk, Va., has elected the Prohibition municipal ticket entire, from mayor down.
—A heavy hailstorm on the 15th inst. did much damage to crops in the vicinity of Brighton, Colo.
—A Panama dispatch of the 13th inst. reports that fire had destroyed property to the value of $350,000.
—The Supreme Court of Virginia has decided to admit women to the practice of law in the courts of that State.
—Governor Pennoyer, of Oregon, has pardoned five life-term State prisoners because of a doubt as to their guilt.
—The president of Ecuador in his message to Congress has recommended the adoption of a gold money standard.
—The American yachts seized by the Canadian authorities for illegal fishing on Lake Erie have been released on bonds.
—An extensive body of very rich gold-bearing ore has been discovered in Manitoba, between Rat Portage and Port Arthur.
—On the night of the 16th inst. a very heavy rain prevailed throughout Nebraska, causing the Missouri River to rise rapidly.
—Several explosions of fire damp occurred in a coal mine at Kerwin, Austria, on the 14th inst., causing the death of about 200 miners.
—A London dispatch of the 14th inst. announces the death of Lord Chief Justice Coleridge. It is also announced that Baron Russell will succeed him.
—A boatload of harvest hands about to be shipped from Ireland to Scotland were capsized near Annah Head, on the 14th inst., and about fifty of them drowned.
—Within three months twenty barns have been burned near Stockton, Cal., and although the fires were evidently incendiary, no clue has been found to the culprit.
—It is announced that a great trust has been formed, with $10,000,000 capital, for the consolidation of all the leading gas and gasoline stove manufactories of the country.
—In a recent address of President Brinkerhoff, of the National Prison Commission, he said that "the criminal record is growing greater, it is rising with a continuous swell."
—A Madrid dispatch says that an earthquake shook several districts of Andalusia on the 11th inst. In the towns of Granada and Almeria many houses were destroyed and several persons were killed.
—The plague continues with great severity at Hongkong, China. Eighty-six deaths were reported on the 13th inst. About 100,000 residents had fled from the city, and there had been 1,500 deaths up to that date.
—The color line is becoming so marked in Texas that even the Republicans are enforcing it. In a convention at Fort Worth it was decided that no club composed of blacks and whites was entitled to representation.
—The financial deficit of the government for the year ending the 30th of this month will be $75,000,000. The gold reserve, on the 16th inst., was below $68,000,000, the lowest point reached since the $50,000,000 bond issue of January last.
—A New York paper prints a statement based upon the testimony before an investigating committee, showing that the illegitimate revenue of the Police Department annually is $10,215,000, of which $8,120,000 comes from disorderly houses.
—A drunken saloon keeper at San Jose drove a pair of spirited horses into a Salvation Army procession, striking right and left with his whip, and it was with difficulty that the members kept out of his way. He was arrested and fined $50.
—At Cramp Hill, a suburb of Camden, N. J., on the 14th inst., John Kaufman killed his wife and three children and then committed suicide. He had failed to secure employment, and it is said the family were suffering for the necessaries of life.
—The negro schoolteachers of Indianola, Miss., are said to have been identified with a gang of burglars and thieves who have been infesting the county. One of the black pedagogues was caught with positive evidence of guilt in his possession.
—A great fire occurred in the establishment of the Central Stock and Transit Company, Jersey City, on the 16th inst., the loss being stated at $1,000,000. In addition to buildings and a vast amount of dressed meat, 5,000 head of live sheep were burned.
—The United States Court of Appeals, in the cases against the city of New Orleans wherein damage was claimed for the lynching of Italian prisoners, has decided that municipal corporations are not liable for damage by mobs excepting for damage to property.
—The craze for raising "industrial armies" is still in vogue, although they do not make much progress toward Washington. On the 14th inst. 150 armed deputies left Omaha for Julesburg, Colo., to arrest a crowd who were hindering the progress of trains at that point.
—Muley Hassan, sultan of Morocco, has been assassinated, and his young son, Mulai Abdul Aziz, has been proclaimed sultan by the army and the ministers. Trouble is anticipated, and Spain has asked Italy, France, Great Britain, and Germany to act in concert in the matter of preserving order.
—At St. Johns, Newfoundland, on the 15th inst., a mob of about 5,000 persons gathered about the wharves and tried to take goods without payment of duties. The governor called upon the British ship Buzzard for assistance, when the crowd dispersed. But the city was left practically under martial law.
—The British House of Lords has rejected the bill sanctioning marriage with a deceased wife's sister. The Earl of Selbourne argued that "the House ought to pause a long time before following the example of America, where relaxation of the laws had led to a great increase in the number of divorces and other evils."
—It is said that the government, through Assistant Attorney General Russell, will soon commence suits against the estates of Mark Hopkins and Charles Crocker, deceased, as original stockholders of the Central Pacific Railroad, for $15,000,000 each, that sum being their proportion of the indebtedness of the company to the government.
—The English combination coal owners have decided to make a general reduction of ten per cent. in wages, and the mines are said to be organizing to resist the cut. Also in Scotland the Scotch Mine Owners' Association have been officially notified that 7,000 men would strike if the association carried out the intention to reduce wages one shilling a day.
—The saloon keepers of San Jose, who, after defeating the city Sunday-closing ordinance at the polls, were arrested for violation of the county ordinance, have agreed to allow one of their number to plead guilty, and will close their saloons until the Supreme Court passes on the case. If defeated there, they will aim to defeat the ordinance at the polls in the next election.
—The czar has caused the issuance of a decree appointing a court of honor to regulate dueling in the Russian army. The court is composed of army officers, whose duty it is to decide whether a duel is necessary. If it decides in the affirmative, any officer refusing to accept a challenge will be dismissed from the army in disgrace. Lawsuits arising out of duels will not be permitted.
—It is said that President Cleveland will surrender the Salvadoran refugees now on board the cruiser Bennington, as soon as he is assured that the new government is sufficiently well established to grant them an impartial trial on the charges preferred. Commander Thomas says that if the refugees were surrendered in the present state of excitement they would be murdered without trial.
—The treaty with Russia provides that Americans are to enjoy the same privileges in that country that Russians do in America. But the Russian Government has recently refused to allow Rabbi Kranskepf, an eminent Hebrew resident of Philadelphia, to enter Russian territory with the purpose of looking into the moral and political condition of his brethren in the Polish provinces. The attention of the administration has been called to the matter.
—Hon. William Walter Phelps died at his home in Englewood, N. J., on the 17th inst., aged 55 years. He was noted in literary circles, as well as in financial and political life. He inherited a large fortune from his father, which has been increased to $10,000,000. Besides serving three terms in Congress, he was appointed minister to Austria by President Garfield, and to Germany by President Harrison. Few if any of our public men have rendered better service, or sustained a more honorable reputation.
—Twenty-three "industrials" have been sentenced to sixty days' imprisonment for capturing a freight train at Fairfield, Ill. In the matter of the 250 "industrials" arrested at Ogallala, Neb., Judge Dundy has ordered that they be taken to Fort Sidney, and, if convicted, serve their sentence there. He is of opinion that they get themselves arrested in order to be taken to Omaha. The officials of Weber County, Utah, have entered suit against the Southern Pacific Railroad Company to recover damages for bringing into that county numerous men without means of support. "General Bennett," of the Kansas City Army, has disappeared, together with $103 donated by the Populist convention. Some Bismarck, North Dakota, deputies had a fight with some "industrials" who had stolen a train, and several persons on both sides were injured. A part of the deputies were disarmed, but sixteen "industrials" were arrested. Kelly's army does not receive a favorable reception in the Ohio River towns. At Evansville, Ind., they scattered through the city, begging from door to door. The mayor of Louisville, Ky., announced that if they should attempt to stop there, they would be arrested as tramps and vagrants.
Roman Catholic Estimates of Ability
By Editor
THE Roman Catholic press always measures the ability of a person by his attitude toward the Roman Catholic Church. For instance, the Catholic Mirror of June 2 has two editorial articles illustrating this very thing. One is on that prince and father of modern caricaturists, Thomas Nast. But because he used his talent in this direction so powerfully against Roman Catholicism, he is set down by the Mirror as "a back number." His work is characterized by the Mirror as "crude, coarse, and clumsy." But it told and still tells, as the Mirror proves. Another person against whom the Mirror cannot suppress its wrath is Mr. Harold Frederick, the London correspondent of the New York Times. The Mirror accuses him of making at divers times "an attack on the Vatican," and says: "These attacks, of course, are of about as much importance as the firing of a boy's pin darts at some majestic old castle." And yet the Mirror spends more than a column on Mr. Frederick, of whom it speaks as "a sort of third-rate novelist." Incidentally it mentions that "if the Times is really not prosperous, as gossip in New York newspaper circles declares, it is quite likely that its anti-Catholic policy may have something to do with that melancholy circumstance." Messrs. Nast and Frederick and the New York Times are to be honored for the enemies they have made.
THE question of taxing church property is being agitated in New York State. The value of such property in the State is estimated by the Sun at $140,123,000. The Literary Digest thus sums up the arguments used on both sides:—
"Those who favor the exemption of church property argue that the property is non-productive. Those who urge the taxation answer: A great deal of secular property is non-productive, while in many churches pews are rented at such prices that only the wealthy can secure them, making these churches, practically, clubrooms for the rich. The exemptionists say that the churches exert a great moral influence. The non-exemptionists declare that this is the weakest defense of church pauperism, and ask, What can be said of the moral influence of an organization which deliberately refuses to pay its just dues?"
What business has the Church asking the State for support, anyway, even in a negative way? The argument is all on the side of taxation; tradition, custom, and prejudice on the other.
CONTENTS OF THIS NUMBER.
By Editor
Editorial.—Notes and Comments—“Unchristianizing the Universities”—Bible Faith—Sad, Sad, Indeed—Papal Infallibility—The Real Conflict—Look Out for It—The True Test..................................................................................513, 514, 528
General Articles.—The Day of the Lord (verse)—One Cause of Suffering—The Christian Ideal of Civil Government—Christian Education (continued)—God's Purpose Concerning the Earth—The Arian Controversy—With All Thy Strength—True Happiness—Concerning Ears—A Prayer (verse)—The Law of God...........................................................................514-520
Home and Health.—Our Daily Bread (verse)—Love in the Household—Effie's Hymn—One at a Time (verse)—A Word to the Boys—The Inexorable Facts of Heredity—Modern National Flags—A Mother's Practicing...........................................................................520, 521
Mission Fields.—Faith (verse)—Across Thibet, The Roof of the World—Notes on the Kongo.....................................................................................522, 523
Our Work and Workers.—Let Thy Speech Be with Grace (verse)—Responsibility in the Use of Means—Danger of Praise in Christian Work—Modesty in Christian Testimony—Field Notes...........................................................................524, 525
International S. S. Lessons.—Presentation in the Temple (Lesson 2, Sunday, July 8, 1894)—Taught of God (Lesson 1, Sabbath, July 7, 1894)...........................................................................525, 526
News and Notes.—Religious—Secular...........................................................................527
Notes on Education and Christianity
By Editor
THERE is but one way of salvation,—Jesus Christ. There is but one standard of truth,—God's word. He who receives that word as it is in Christ Jesus receives Christ.
READ "The Christian Ideal of Civil Government," in our General Articles department. Could anyone ask for more? Are not those who do ambitious to exercise lordship?
WE commend to those who would be rich the article in another department, entitled "One Cause of Suffering." Its suggestions, if followed, will do much toward relieving distress.
DR. TENNIS S. HAMLIN, of Washington, D. C., calls attention in the Independent to the important facts that less than forty years ago a college year at Harvard or Yale cost from $180 to $280, with the period of study consisting of forty-one weeks. Now it costs from $800 to $1,000, with a college year of thirty-six nominal weeks. He pleads for a return of the forty weeks' period. This drift of the universities is in harmony with the spirit of the age.
THE Literary Digest quotes the Rev. Maurice Philips as saying that "in India the only organized opposition which Christianity has as yet had to meet has been from the efforts of the Hindu graduates of our universities. Similarly in China the other day we had to draw attention to the fact that the effort of introducing higher education among the natives of Hongkong has been to raise up a class more dangerous, and more politically and religiously opposed to us, than the ordinary native of China itself. And all this may be expected as long as science so called is made the basis, and standard of education, and the word of God is made secondary. In the primary schools and in childhood days the word of God is generally taught by Protestant teachers as the authoritative standard of truth, if taught at all, but in the colleges and universities all this must be unlearned; the word of God is no longer authority only as it conforms to various scientific data and deductions which the next year may utterly demolish. What wonder that "education," such education as the higher schools generally give, is opposed to Christianity!
Woman Suffrage
Woman Suffrage.—The Advance, in speaking of the woman suffrage agitation in New York, points out that "those who have been prophesying the advent of sweetness and light into politics with the placing of the ballot in the hands of women have been somewhat shaken by the utterances of one woman advocate, who has declared that 'we have but one slave in New York State, and that slave is woman,' and also that 'the women who are against woman suffrage have placed themselves on a plane with the worst and lowest elements the world has ever produced.'" Dr. Joseph Parker in speaking of the same thing is reported to have said, "Women be hanged," because he believed that it would be worse in the city of New York under woman suffrage than better; for many of the best men do not vote, neither would the best women, while every corrupt woman would vote for corrupt politics. What better are the governments of those States where women do have the rights of suffrage? What better are the men? What better are the women?
SUNDAY-LAW RIGHTEOUSNESS.
By William N. Glenn
"Of the 12,000 saloon keepers in New York City, no less than 8,000 have served terms in the prisons. And this is the class of men whose 'good moral character' entitles them to license."—Christian Statesman.
This item, though short, is to the point. It speaks volumes against the iniquitous license system, which many professed Christians seem to think is all right if only the price of license be high enough. They would add, as the crowning evidence of "good moral character," the possession of sufficient money to pay a respectable price for the privilege of doing evil. But these same saloon keepers form a class which another "national reform" organ, the Union Signal, depends upon to carry the Sunday law to a successful issue. The fond hope of having the saloon power as an auxiliary in the Sunday-closing movement is thus expressed by the Signal of May 31:—
"'Sunday closing' is in the air, and it is mightily augmented by the opposition of the liquor traffic, which, in retaliation to closed saloons, in some localities, is determined to close all kinds of business on Sunday. Would that the enemy would carry this war to the gates, and that every form of industry and trade be forced to rest on the Lord's day, if necessary to secure closed saloons. Verily, 'the wrath of man' shall be made to praise Him in these latter days."
Of course if the saloon keepers become the means of making the great Sunday law cure-all a success, their certificate of "good moral character" will no longer be questioned. W. N. G.
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Inexpensive Funerals
By Editor
Inexpensive Funerals.—We have at different times spoken of the need of a reform in this respect. Funerals often come at the end of a long spell of expensive sickness, when the friends of the deceased are least able to meet the financial outlay. They are also placed in a position where it seems disrespect for the dead to protest against exorbitant prices. In such a case, among those in limited circumstances, let the matter be placed in the hands of some good friend who will look to the interests of the living. The following is to the point, which we clip from the Literary Digest:—
"The New York Churchman states that a committee, appointed by Bishop Potter, recommends . . . that the use of brick graves and vaults should be discouraged, that 'earth to earth coffins' should be adopted, and that everything should be done to reduce the expenses of a funeral, whether of the rich or poor. It is, of course, to the undertaker's interest to encourage the feeling that to be buried decently is to be buried expensively. And if we want to make funerals Christian in character, the arrangements for them must be taken out of the hands of the undertaker. In the event of a death in the family, the relatives should be advised to go at once to the clergyman. The clergyman can then make such suggestions as will promote economy, and conduce to the carrying out of Christian burial. With the undertaker a funeral is purely a matter of business; with the pastor it is entirely a religious matter—an important distinction."
Costly funeral trappings and monuments are often but manifestations of effort to gain the praise of the world. If duty has been done to the living, modesty and Christian principle demand economy to the dead; but if duty has not been done to the living, no costly casket, funeral train, granite shaft, or expensive sarcophagus for the dead, will atone for the neglect.