Review and Herald, Vol. 84, No. 5. (1/31/1907)

Review and Herald

Jan 31, 1907

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 31, 1907

Our Publishing Work

By Editor

*The Lord gave the word: great was the company of those that published it. Psalm 68:11.*

By handing to your friends at different times a single leaflet, you can acquaint them with present truth. The set of Signs of the Times leaflets is composed of sixteen different 2-page tracts, embracing the following subjects: The Sure Word of Prophecy, Prophetic History of the World, Second Coming of Christ, The Signs of Our Times, The Sanctuary, The 2300 Days, The Law of God, The Sabbath of the Bible, The First Day in the Bible, Who Changed the Sabbath? The Great Threefold Message, The Seal of God and the Mark of the Beast, Church and State, Life and Immortality, The Great Judgment Day, The Home of the Saved, etc. You can get a pound (eighteen of each leaflet) for 50 cents, or 100 of any single leaflet for 15 cents. No less than 100 of any single tract will be sold.

THE new Year-Book for 1907 has been completed, and already more than two thirds of the edition has been sold. We would therefore suggest that those who desire a copy of this important publication order at once. In all probability, a second edition will not be printed. It contains many improvements over previous editions, and serves as the reference book to denominational affairs. All the usual matter heretofore comprising our Year-Books is arranged in a more convenient form, and the new statistical records of our institutions are greatly enlarged, and appropriately grouped with the other matter. It contains the fundamental principles of Seventh-day Adventism, which were printed in the 1905 Year-Book. This feature will be of great service in missionary work, for there is a constant demand for a statement of the belief of our people, which can not be supplied in any other publication. Price, 25 cents, post-paid.

SUNDAY law agitations, springing up in different sections of the country, are awakening our people, and like minutemen many of them are springing into action, and sending in calls for religious liberty literature. We are just finishing another edition of 20,000 copies each of the four religious liberty tracts hereafter referred to, and will give all orders prompt attention. Let us get these publications in the hands of the people, so that when such agitations arise, they may understand the principles at issue, and take their stand on the right side. “To be forewarned is to be forearmed.” PRINCIPLES TOO LITTLE UNDERSTOOD, a short, practical, impressive discussion of the fundamental principles of personal, national, and religious liberty. R. L. No. 1; eight pages; price, 38 cents a hundred. SUNDAY LAWS: THEIR ORIGIN, NATURE, AND OBJECT, a terse consideration of the enforcement of such laws. R. L. No. 2; eight pages; price, 38 cents a hundred. THE LOGIC OF SABBATH LEGISLATION, exposing the evils of Sabbath Legislation and revealing the true meaning of all Sunday laws. R. L. No. 3; eight pages; price, 38 cents a hundred. THE CIVIL SABBATH, refuting the arguments in favor of enforced rest for public benefit, and revealing the principles of true Sabbath observance. R. L. No. 4; twelve pages; 55 cents a hundred. One hundred of each kind sent post-paid for $1.65.

It is interesting to note that during the six months ending Dec. 31, 1906, there were sent out from the Office here in Washington 52,707 subscription books at a retail value of $58,350.19; 355,244 pamphlets and tracts, at a value of $2,322.58; 9,850 trade books at a value of $5,551.97. The total number of publications amounts to 417,801 copies, at a retail valuation of $66,725.99. Twenty-one other publishing houses, scattered throughout the world, are equally busy turning out the pages of present truth, which will afford some idea of the amount of literature that is being circulated at the present time.

To be conversant with the publication and distribution of our literature, one should possess a copy of the Report of the Publishers’ Convention, recently held at Takoma Park, D. C., under the auspices of the General Conference. Besides a vast amount of statistics and general information with reference to our publishing houses and their work, there are reprinted in this Report the papers read by the leading bookmen of the country with reference to the best means of distributing and selling our literature. These will bear careful study, and they contain valuable suggestions and help for those who may engage in this work. This pamphlet, containing some 256 pages, has been gotten out at considerable expense, but has been offered at the very low price of 10 cents a copy, so that all our people may secure it.

OUR YOUNG PEOPLE AND SHORTHAND.—Have you ever given thought to the benefits to be derived from a knowledge of shorthand? Many of our leading men have at some time been stenographers in the various offices of the denomination. The stenographer is in constant touch with the head of the institution, and has exceptional opportunities for increasing his knowledge, and by careful observation is prepared for greater usefulness and promotion. Whether in after life one becomes a doctor, minister, business man, etc., his shorthand will always be of value to him. The taking of notes after a speaker or the preparing of manuscript, is greatly facilitated by a knowledge of this art. Those who have “stick-tuitiveness” and will spend a little time each day, in connection with their other duties, in the study of Rogers’ Compendium of the Graham System of Shorthand, will be able to acquire a satisfactory knowledge of the best system of shorthand in existence, and will be able to do efficient work either for personal satisfaction or in an office. The Compendium of Shorthand retails for $2, or will be sent in connection with Rogers’ Manual of Typewriting for $2.25. Orders may be addressed to this association.

Orders for any publication mentioned on this page may be sent to any conference tract society, or to Review and Herald Publishing Association, Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C., or Battle Creek, Mich.

Also Pacific Press Publishing Company, Mountain View, Cal.; Portland, Ore.; Kansas City, Mo.; Southern Publishing Association, Nashville, Tenn., and Fort Worth, Tex.

S. D. A. (Concluded)

Now there is another side to this whole question, to which I wish to give the chiefest emphasis, and that is the personal side, the application of these principles and these truths in daily life. All these substitutes for Christ, and these outward forms, outward organizations, find their counterpart in our own hearts. That is, it is the very essence of sin, as it originated in the beginning, to put something else, or some one else, in the place of Christ. Not to acknowledge the supremacy of Christ, was Satan's thought. Yielding to that led to his fall and to his being cast out of heaven. That is the very essence of sin; and now the purpose is to lead us to think that there is some way to be restored other than through faith in Christ.

I want to read a few scriptures and call attention to them, as showing the essential things in salvation. There are many ways in which we may reveal religion; there is only one principle in religion. There are many ways in which we may reveal our allegiance to Christ; there is one essential thing in that experience. I purpose to read a few scriptures, and call attention to their meaning. In the Gospel by John, third chapter and third verse, we read:— “Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he can not see the kingdom of God.” This is expressed in another place after this manner: “We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works.” That is, there must be a new birth; there must be a new creation; there must be a new life, from above; there must be a power from outside one's self. Salvation is not of self. When one puts himself in the place of Christ, he misses salvation. One can not be his own savior. “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.”

Again: in 1 Cor. 7: 19: “Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God.” That is, salvation does not come through performing a ceremony; neither is there any merit in neglecting a ceremony, simply. There is one essential thing in the experience, and that is the keeping of the commandments of God. The special application of this thought, this principle, to this time, is very obvious when we read that, as the result of this movement, this very movement of Seventh-day Adventism, in the world, in this generation, there will be called out a people of whom it was said, “Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.”

Again: in Gal. 5: 6: “For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.” And also in the same epistle (Gal. 6: 15): “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.”

Now put these texts together: “Except a man be born again, he can not see the kingdom of God.” A new birth is essential. Nothing can take the place of it. “Circumcision is nothing, uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God.” That is one of the essential conditions. “In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.” Nothing can take the place of faith; and that faith must be centered in Christ and his work. And again, “In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.”

These are essential things in salvation. We may have different forms in organization; we may have different plans of work; but there are certain things which are essential, and which can not be omitted, which can not be changed, and for which nothing else can be substituted.

Now note how this same principle was applied at the time of the first advent. At that time formalism had taken the place of living experience; and when John the Baptist came to make the announcement of the coming Saviour, he said to those who prided themselves that they were the descendants of Abraham, and were therefore the heirs of salvation through the flesh, “Think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father;” and to others of the Jews who were present at the baptism of Christ, he pointed him out, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world!” And when Peter preached to the rulers after he and John had been put in prison because they preached Christ to the people, the resurrection of Christ, and the resurrection of the dead, Peter said, “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” Now see how this rebukes formalism, and points out the true way of salvation. “Think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father.” “Behold, the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world!” “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”

That was the real message of John the Baptist. When he interpreted the prophecy of Isaiah, he said, “Behold your God,” and pointed out Christ, the Saviour in the flesh. The work of John the Baptist was typical of our own work; and this message and this movement must be a rebuke to formalism; and in order that it shall be in itself a rebuke to formalism, it must itself avoid formalism, and must not substitute even the true outward forms and outward ceremonies for the life.

I have often thought that there was with us a constant danger that with many enterprises, many organizations, many outward forms, many busy activities, we should become so absorbed in these things that we should neglect the real vital thing in all, and that is the living presence and power of Christ in this church and in this message.

You know, and I do not need to tell you, that many times we carry within what we should feel loath to have others know that we were carrying. You know perfectly well how the temptations beset us. You know how oft we are buffeted

and harassed. You know how oft we tremble with the doubts and the fears, which, in spite of ourselves, bring trouble into our lives. I doubt not that every Sabbath more than one comes to this place of worship needing more than ordinary help, really desiring a message of salvation from sin, and a new lease of life in resisting temptation.

I have thought often of the experience of the feast, when, after they had gone through the most elaborate ceremonies day after day, with the temple decorated in the most beautiful way, and everything in the outward form and the outward appearance to please and to gratify, and multitudes had come and gone, and not one of them had tasted the water of life during all those days, “on the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.” Those words meant more to some who were longing for deliverance and help than all the outward ceremonies and the forms, the glitter and the pomp.

Now we can not afford to lose out of our services, out of our preaching, out of our experience, out of our daily work, in connection with this message, this one idea, that Seventh-day Adventism must stand for the divine Saviour announced unto men. It must stand for that not only in the public proclamation by those who have been set apart for the ministry of the word, but every one who assumes the name Seventh-day Adventist should be in himself an announcement of the coming Saviour. His life should reveal that fact in the power of it; and he himself should be a preacher of that righteousness which is by faith in Jesus Christ; and, if every one who bears the name should thus live to the meaning of the movement, there would be indeed a power in this movement that would make itself felt against the tide of evil, of infidelity, and all this organized effort to put down Christ from the place which belongs to him. There would be such a voice heard, such a protest made, in both words and lives, that would command the attention of the world at this time. Now this message must be given in all the world for a witness, and then shall the end come. And in all these different lands where this message is getting a foothold, where this message is being taught, the one thing that must stand out above every difference in doctrine, or every difference in organization, the one thing that must stand out over all, and give beauty to all, both in the teaching and in the lives, must be this thought: that this movement in this generation, this closing generation, the movement that is to prepare the way for the coming of our Lord in person, must reveal Christ in the flesh constantly, in the person of those who receive this truth. When that interpretation is given to this message, there will be a power for righteousness in the earth that will win souls for Christ and his truth.

Human Confederacy Versus Trust In God

By C. M. S.

Scientists refer to different periods of the earth's history as the stone age, the bronze age, the iron age, etc. We might very appropriately denominate this age the age of confederacy. Men are confederating on every hand and on every pretext. In certain places the work of unionizing school-teachers is going forward, and from time to time we see reference made in the public press to a similar work among certain bodies of the clergy.

It is the aim of the labor element ultimately to unionize all classes of industry. The unionizing of day-laborers and mechanics is going on at a wonderful rate. The same work is now progressing among the farmers, and we receive from time to time queries as to whether Seventh-day Adventist farmers should join these unions. There is no doubt that the farmers who refuse to join these confederacies will be subjected to the same trials and persecutions that are suffered by conscientious carpenters, masons, mill hands, etc., who refuse to join the labor unions. They may even suffer the boycott at the hands of their neighbors for their refusal to confederate with these worldly forces. But in all this we must remember that it is not trials, inconveniences, or even physical suffering, that are to determine for us the course which we are to pursue. We must look into the principles that are involved, and into the admonitions of the Word of God.

In the first place, the religion of Jesus Christ is a religion of choice. The follower of Christ is always and everywhere a free moral agent. It is, “Choose you this day whom ye will serve.” There is nothing compulsory in the service of Christ.

When we investigate the characteristics of these confederating forces, we find an altogether different spirit at work. We find an influence going forth from these organizations which is very different from that emanating from the teachings of Jesus Christ. His was not a propaganda of force in any sense; but the unions, or confederacies, of to-day are built upon force, and by force they expect to accomplish whatever they achieve. It is carried even to the extent of strife—and most bitter strife at that; but Christ declares, “My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.” John 18: 36. Concerning Jesus himself Inspiration speaks thus: “He shall not strive, nor cry aloud; neither shall any one hear his voice in the streets.” Matt. 12: 19.

So he who enters the unions of this world to force the unwilling to yield to his demands, drops the spirit of the Master, and takes on the spirit of a force which is antagonistic to Christ and his purpose. The Christian warfare is the warfare of non-resistance, except, of course, in the spiritual warfare against sin. As the servants of Christ were not to fight, they can not join organizations which accomplish their purposes by carnal weapons. As Christ was not to strive nor become a disturber in the streets, his servants can not join organizations which accomplish their designs by strife, disturbance, noisy strikes, accompanied by the maiming and killing of men and the destruction of property. The two things will not mingle; they are opposed the one to the other, as much as darkness and light.

The purpose of these confederacies is that the confederated parties may protect themselves against those who have encroached upon their rights, or who they fear may do so. Therefore in these confederacies they put their trust, and in their power they confide and hope.

This is not God’s purpose for his people. The Word says: “Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help.” Ps. 146: 3. Again: “Hope thou in God.” The prophet of God was caused to look down to the time just prior to the second coming of Christ, and saw the conditions that exist to-day; and the Lord caused him to write this admonition to his people: “Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid.” Isa. 8: 12. We are told by the Saviour that in the last days men’s hearts would be “failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth.” Because of their fear and because they have not put their trust in God, they form unions of various kinds, confederacies. But the Lord warns us against helping on these human schemes or joining in them. He also tells the world what will be the result of forming these confederacies and trusting in them: “Associate yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces. . . . Take counsel together, and it shall come to naught; speak the word, and it shall not stand: for God is with us.” Isa. 8: 9, 10. He is against the confederacies, and will bring them to naught; and those who trust in them must necessarily go down with them.

There will be a company who will put no trust in these towers of earth. They will refuse to join the confederacies.

They will be participants in that work which the Lord calls binding up the testimony and sealing the law. That makes them firm adherents of the Word of God, and keepers of the law of God, including the Sabbath. They will also be looking for the return of their Lord, as this same chapter of Isaiah points out.

Because of this stand, they are made the objects of Satan’s bitterest wrath; and the boycott, the keenest weapon of these confederacies, will be directed against them vigorously. This also the Lord has foretold in Rev. 13: 17. Thus we see that in joining unions we are allying ourselves with that power which will fight against God and his remnant people in the culmination of this great conflict. C. M. S.

The Witness to All Nations

By William Ambrose Spicer

A New York correspondent writes: “Will you kindly answer through the columns of your paper to what extent Matt. 24: 14 has been fulfilled?”

The text is: “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.”

It is evident that we can trace the progress of world-wide evangelization in a general way only. The Lord has many agencies at work, and his Spirit is dealing with hearts everywhere. He alone can know when the witness is borne that leaves without excuse those who resist the drawing of his Spirit.

But we can watch the progress of the visible witnesses. Wherever the Bible goes, the witness is being borne. The Scriptures, in whole or in part, it is estimated, are now translated into languages making them accessible to ninety-five per cent of the people of earth. Copies of the printed Scriptures are going out through Bible societies alone at the rate of about seven millions a year. Tibet and Abyssinia have been the closed lands, but missionaries are in their borders. Wide stretches of Africa and Asia are without missionary agencies, but every grand division of peoples and tribes has somehow been brought within the range of the witness to the gospel.

All these activities are agencies for the fulfilling of Matt. 24: 14. The mighty power of God is seen in this marvelous spread of missions in this generation. But the final phase of the witnessing is what interests us most deeply. The gospel of the kingdom, as the end draws near, means the good news of the soon-coming kingdom and the special message of preparation to meet the Lord. All these missionary activities have been hastened forward under God to prepare a quick way for the final proclamation of the everlasting gospel as described in Rev. 14: 6-14. The message, “Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come,” is to go also to every nation, tongue, and people, and then the prophet sees the Son of man coming, according to Christ’s own promise of Matt. 24: 14.

This advent movement rose in 1844, when the hour of his judgment began. It is being preached by voice and literature in every language of Europe, including that of Iceland, and our workers are found in every country save Servia, Montenegro, and Greece. Definite steps are now being taken to place workers in Greece, and Servian believers on the Hungarian border are planning to get into Servia.

In Asia, while our work but fringes the vast continent, it nevertheless has a foothold in all the great divisions of territory, as India and Ceylon, Burma and the Straits Settlements, China, Japan, and Korea, representing nearly half the population of the world, and day by day new witnesses are drawn into service as the message spreads. We hear of them in Manchuria, in Turkestan, Central Asia, and in the Euphrates Valley. We know of no representative in Persia.

In Africa the message is being preached in the colonies and provinces of the south, Rhodesia, Nyassaland, German East Africa, Uganda (or British East Africa), Sierra Leone and the Gold Coast on the west, and Algeria and Egypt on the north. And now workers have been appointed to Abyssinia.

We have no representatives at work in Colombia and Venezuela, South America, but the West Indian Union is planning that this shall not long be the case. Then, as workers are placed in Guatemala, Salvador, and Nicaragua, every country of the New World will have its witnesses.

The Australasian Union Conference is continually annexing new territory in the island fields of the Pacific and the East Indies. There are few general groups as yet unentered among the islands.

Thus the review of the field of our work is a review of the whole habitable earth. There are wide gaps indeed in the missionary line of the advent message. The situation calls upon us to pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send forth laborers. No one can make estimates for future progress by anything of the past. The Lord, who can do the work of a thousand years in a day, is the one pledged to finish the work and cut it short in righteousness. For our sakes he calls us to service with him, and lays the burden of going into all the world upon us. When once the witnesses are planted in every part of the world, as the Lord would have them stationed, how quickly he can allow crises to break upon the world, and his Spirit convict of sin and bring hearts to a decision in all the earth. The very greatness of the task is an inspiration to our missionaries in the midst of the populous unwarned fields, for it is just such a mighty work as the Lord delights to do.

A review of what our eyes can see shows that the fulfilment of Matt. 24: 14 is rapidly drawing to a conclusion. “Then shall the end come.”

W. A. S.

Organization—No. 1

By Arthur G. Daniells

A Brief Account of Its History in the Development of the Cause of the Third Angel’s Message

Organization, as it is related to the churches, conferences, departments, and institutions of the religious movement being carried forward by Seventh-day Adventists, has an interesting, instructive, and important history. Its beginning, development, and effects may all be easily and clearly traced in our denominational records. Its purpose is well defined, and its place is firmly established.

The system of organization adopted by Seventh-day Adventists and applied to the administrative affairs of the denomination has not come by chance, or mere happen-so. It did not take shape without thought, study, or purpose on the part of the pioneers of this cause. The subject of organization received the most careful consideration and thorough study from the ablest men associated with this movement in its early days. Organization had friends and foes. By these it was both approved and condemned. The brethren discussed and agitated the question for years before the agreement was reached that organization should have a place in this movement.

The fear of organization and the opposition to it by the pioneers of this cause may be easily and reasonably accounted for. The majority of those who at the first embraced the third angel’s message had been in the movement under the first angel’s message. In that movement, organization had no place. The purpose of the proclamation of the first angel’s message, the manner in which the proclamation was made, and the brief period of time it covered, appear to have made little demand for organization. In explaining the purpose and methods of this work, William Miller, the recognized leader in the proclamation of the first message, said:—

In all my labors I never had the desire or thought to establish any separate interest from that of existing denominations, or to benefit one at the expense of another. . . . The great majority of those who were converted under my

labors united with the various existing churches. When individuals came to me to inquire respecting their duty, I always told them to go where they would feel at home, and I never favored any one denomination in my advice to such.—“Life of Miller,” page 361.

Joshua V. Himes, who ranked next in importance to William Miller in proclaiming the first message, states the case as follows:—

He [William Miller] made no attempt to convert men to a sect or party in religion. Hence he labored among all parties and sects, without interfering with their organization or discipline, believing that the members of the different communions could retain their standing, and at the same time prepare for the advent of their King, and labor for the salvation of men in these relations until the consummation of their hope. When we were persuaded of the truth of the advent at hand, and embraced the doctrine publicly (in 1840), we entertained the same views, and pursued the same course among the different sects, where we were called, in the providence of God, to labor.—Review and Herald, Vol. 2; page 76.

The prevailing sentiment regarding organization was clearly expressed by Josiah Litch in the Advent Shield, May, 1844, as quoted in the REVIEW, Vol. 8, page 43. Mr. Litch was a prominent minister and writer in the first message. He said:—

No provision has been made for the establishment of permanent institutions, among Adventists. Indeed, we have no means of ascertaining the number of ministers, and others, who have embraced the advent faith. . . . All peculiarities of creed or policy have been lost sight of in the absorbing inquiry concerning the coming of the heavenly Bridegroom. Those who have engaged in this enterprise are from all the various sects in the land. . . . All these have agreed to work together for the accomplishment of a certain object; and the organization to which this has given rise, so far as there is anything which may be called an organization, is of the most simple, voluntary, and primitive form. . . . We neither expect nor desire any other organization, until we reach the New Jerusalem, and organize under the King of kings.

When the movement under the first angel’s message neared its culmination in 1844, the masses of those who embraced it, being unable to remain in their churches in peace, separated from them. The situation at that time was explained by Geo. Storrs, a prominent minister in the movement. Speaking of the attitude of the churches, he said:—

Which of them will suffer a soul to remain among them in peace, that openly and fearlessly avows his faith in the advent at the door? Are not the terms of remaining among them undisturbed, that you wholly refrain from a public expression of faith in the coming of the Lord this year, whatever your convictions may be on the subject, and however important you may feel it to be to cry, “Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come”?—“The Church and Its Organization,” page 89.

Of this time and experience William Miller writes thus:—

Previously to this, in the fall of 1843, some of my brethren began to call the churches Babylon, and to urge that it was the duty of Adventists to come out of them. With this I was much grieved, as not only the effect was very bad, but I regarded it as a perversion of the word of God, a wresting of Scripture. But the practise spread extensively; and, from that time, the churches, as might have been expected, were closed against us. It prejudiced many against us, and created a deep feeling of hostility between Adventists and those who did not embrace the doctrine; so that most of the Adventists were separated from their respective churches. This was a result which I never desired nor expected; but it was brought about by unforeseen circumstances. We could, then, only act in accordance with the position in which we were thus placed.—“Life of Miller,” page 363.

This experience led Mr. Storrs and many of his associates in the ministry to give the following advice to those who believed the advent message and found themselves separated from their churches:—

Take care that you do not seek to organize another church. No church can be organized by man’s invention but what it becomes Babylon the moment it is organized. The Lord organized his own church by the strong bond of love. Stronger than that can not be made; and when such bonds will not hold together the professed followers of Christ, they cease to be his followers, and drop off from the body as a matter of course.—“The Church and Its Organization,” page 87.

It was in this unorganized condition that thousands of those believers came up to the close of the prophetic period, at which time they fully expected the Lord would come. The terrible disappointment they experienced because he did not come, threw them into utter confusion, and the great mass fell to pieces like a rope of sand.

A. G. DANIELLS.

Note and Comment

The writer of the Sunday-school lessons in The Weekly Review of Apache, Okla., referring to the necessity of a Sabbath, says:—

Some such institution was essential to the moral and religious development of man, the means of cultivating his higher nature, and hence, to the best progress of his civilization—physical and mental.

The two great essential foundations of man’s progress and true prosperity were ordained at the very beginning,—the family and the Sabbath. These two primeval institutions, kept sacred and wisely used, are the remedy for most of our social and moral evils.

These are true words; but the Sunday-sabbath no more meets the design of Jehovah for a Sabbath than does the polygamous or polyandrous family meet his design for the family. The exponent of the Sunday-sabbath tells us it is the sabbath idea—one day’s rest in seven—that is required rather than the definite seventh day of the week appointed by the Lord. So may the Mormon hold that it is the family idea that is inculcated by the Word rather than a union of one man and one woman. The one is as true as the other.

Political Turmoil in Europe

Germany, England, and France have each come up to the opening of the new year with the minds of their people fully absorbed in questions of the greatest moment. Perhaps never in their history have all three nations been plunged simultaneously into such a tremendous whirlpool of internal disagreement as those in which they are all struggling at the present time. The German Reichstag has been dissolved for performing what the German people consider the legitimate functions of that body. The members of the dissolved body are protesting against what they consider the absolutism of the ruler in seeking to force legislation favorable to his ideas, and there is no little feeling of dissatisfaction throughout the realm on that account. The English Education bill which has raised such a storm throughout the nation is now declared to be dead, but the manner of its taking off has opened the way for a broader struggle over the questions of actual disestablishment of the church and the dissolution of the House of Lords. France continues to maintain a dignified attitude toward the great question that has threatened internal disorder in that country. Officials of the Catholic Church throughout the world have sought to make it appear that the present French government is bent on a course of persecution of the church and open warfare against religion; but it is difficult for an unprejudiced observer to see how the separation of church and state could have been accomplished in a more lenient manner. The government amended the new law of associations that even the appearance of rigor might be obliterated; but Rome would have none of it. She would accept nothing that she herself did not dictate. From the first, the Roman officials have seemed to manifest a purpose to force the French government to take extreme measures, in the hope that the very severity of the actions taken might result in a strong reaction against the government. The government has refused thus to weaken its cause, and the threatened civil war has not materialized. There are interesting times before the nations as well as before this people.

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