Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jan 1, 1894
The Poisoned Apples of Sin
"Behold, I come quickly; and My reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work shall be." Rev. 22:12.
SAYS one writer: "The apples of sin are all poisoned at the core. And every unlawful pleasure we pursue is transformed at last into a hound that turns and rends us." There is a great truth in the words. The Scriptures express the same thought in the words: "The wages of sin is death. Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." In every sin is a seed of death. It matters not how beautiful it may appear, how sweet to the taste, odorous to the smell, or melodious to the ear, in every pleasure of sin lies hidden the germ of death.
But all this man will not believe by the evidence of his senses, because his senses are in harmony with the fleshly lusts, and are educated to pander to their demands. Man of himself, the natural man, cannot, therefore, discern sin. He judges only by conscience and experience; but as conscience has been educated by the desires of the flesh and hardened by continually resisting its admonitions, it becomes a very uncertain and erratic guide. And so with experience. No living man has experienced in himself all of the results of sin; for its ultimate result is death. He may have reaped some of its results, he may have seen them in others, but he is often persuaded that the same sin will not again result the same in himself, because it has not in others, and so the sin deceives and his experience becomes as uncertain as his conscience. This brings us to the all-important thought.
The only way of knowing sin is by faith. But faith is not built on experience, nor on conscience, but on the word of God. "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." That word is ever the same. The Spirit which inspired that word and enlightens our heart through that word is ever the same. Sin, therefore, however changeable we may be, is ever the same. Says one apostle, "Sin is the transgression of the law." Says another, "Nay, I had not known sin but by the law; for I had not known lust except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet." It matters not, therefore, whether we may feel a certain thing to be sin or not, if the word of God calls it sin, it is sin, and if we have faith we will accept it as such; and if in simple faith we acknowledge it as sin because God says so, and turn from it, the Spirit of God will give us a tender conscience and spiritual sense to see and feel the sin. John 16:7-11; 2 Cor. 2:15, 16. But the Spirit brings feeling to the heart through the word. John 6:63; Heb. 4:12.
The word of God, therefore, becomes an absolute necessity to salvation. In every sin is the seed of death. Walking in sin is walking in the way of death. But as we must know sin in order to turn from it, and as we can only know it by God's law, revealed in his word, we must have a knowledge of that word, and simple faith in what it says. The word will then reveal to us not sin alone, but a Saviour from sin. It reveals to us the sin in order that it may reveal to us a Saviour. It shows us that we are desperately sick in order that we may be healed by the great Physician. It points out the exceeding sinfulness of sin, of sinful pleasure, that we may be led to choose those joys, those pleasures, which are unalloyed with base metal, and which never pall upon the heart. Reader, will you not look upon sin in all its deceptive forms the way God looks upon it? You may do this in the light of his word. Will you not also choose that Saviour from sin and sinning, who was manifested to take away our sins, that you may walk in the way of eternal joys? Is there a better time to choose than now? Why choose sin? Why not choose Christ?
Jesus is now the friend of sinners; and therefore, sinner, whoever you are, however great your sins, he is your friend. He cleansed men from that vilest of all physical diseases, the leprosy, by a word, to show to all that he has power and will to cleanse from the viler disease of sin. From the vile leper everyone shrank with loathing, save Jesus of Nazareth. He loved the leper, but he hated the leprosy, and when the mind of the leper had faith to lay hold of the mind of Jesus, the leprosy was cleansed and the man was saved. And so Jesus hates the sin, but he loves the sinner; and when the sinner will renounce the sin, and by faith lay hold of Christ, the healer, that same word which cleansed the leper will cleanse the sinner, which banished the leprosy will banish the sin. When he comes the second time, he will destroy all sin and all that is identified with sin. Those who forsake the sin now will welcome him at his coming as the dearest friend ever known, because he has delivered them from the worst enemy. Those who do not now renounce sin will then be identified with it, and in its destruction will be involved. Christ wants to save you from that; will you let him?
The Year 1893 in Review
By Editor
1894.
ANOTHER year, with all its failures, fears, hopes, triumphs, and joys is in the past. Many, as individuals, will look back upon it with regret, and who will not? Blinded indeed must he be who cannot see that he has come short of the copy, the life of Christ Jesus. With many it has been a year of sin and sinful pursuing, with only occasional desires to do better. Are they willing the future should be the same? With others it has been a year of vain striving of human strength against the bonds of sin, and the way is marked with the wrecks of broken resolutions and the débris of high purposes. Are they willing to continue the unequal struggle? With others it has been a year of victories. Self has been crucified, sin renounced, and Christ and his righteousness chosen. The old life has given place to the new life in Christ Jesus. Let them rejoice, and as they have received Christ, so walk in him in the year to come.
The year 1893 has been one of great moment in the world, politically, religiously, socially, spiritually. The great nations yet tremble and fear for looking after those things which are coming on the earth. Social and financial troubles have convulsed the kingdoms. Revolution is rife. Anarchy is sleepless and growing. Labor troubles, or the lack of labor, is threatening some of our greatest cities. The great Parliament of Religions has been held. Popular "Christianity" has compromised with Baal. It has done worse than this; it formed union with the powers of earth in this country in 1892, and 1893 finds it deeper in degradation and glorying in its shame. The governments of earth are yielding to the church, and all signs betoken the near culmination of the fearful apostasy foretold in Holy Writ, and the soon coming of the dread day of God.
But over all these dark clouds, and through the occasional breaks, shines the wonderful love of God. He has not forsaken the world. All day long he stretches out his merciful, mighty hands in warning, reproof, admonition, and invitation. He calls not to nations now but to individual souls. He comes to the door of each heart; he knocks at its portal; he asks entrance. The mightiest tide of evil and woe and wickedness cannot bear130down the weakest soul which trusts his strength. The sorest distress and persecution cannot take from the joy of him who maintains his personal connection with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore we are of good cheer. God's work is onward. His message was never moving so rapidly. Half-hearted souls now and then fall out by the way, but the ranks close; the cheering words of the Captain, who is love, inspires every loyal heart, and the column marches on to renewed victory. We are sad that men turn from Christ and his truth; we rejoice that he saves all who yield to him. Only in knowing him is true happiness found; for "thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches; but let him that glorieth, glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth; for in these things I delight, saith the Lord." In this knowledge of God we wish all our readers a Happy New Year.
WILL THE MIDWINTER FAIR BE OPEN ON SUNDAY?
By Editor
THIS is what the Occident (Presbyterian organ of the coast) of December 21 has to say about it:—
There has never been an iota of reason for hoping that the gates of the Midwinter Fair would be closed on Sunday. Petitions and protests have been presented to the directors, only to be met with scant courtesy at the best. There is no reason, in their minds, why they should not do as they please. It is a private enterprise. The nation was behind the Chicago Fair, and Congress had made conditional appropriations in its behalf. It was in a sense a national show. Not so the Midwinter Fair. No nation, State, county, or city has fathered the enterprise. It stands for nobody but itself. A score of people form a syndicate to start and run a theater. A hundred people contribute funds to sustain a baseball team. Ten thousand people contribute from ten cents to ten thousand dollars each and open up a Midwinter Fair. California has no law against open theaters, baseball sports, or Midwinter Fairs on Sunday. Churches may petition the managers to close, and these respected gentlemen can snap their fingers, inquire with a circumflex how much cash the petitioners have put in, and courteously assure the reverend callers that the time has not come to consider that question. It never will come. Chicago's shame has no warning for the Midwinter Fair. California is too fond of such shows on Sunday. The Lord's day is always the greatest day of the week for the car lines and in the park. The people that want it closed are in the minority, and even if they were not, what odds? God's law is not binding when the balance sheet is involved.
It is merely a difference of opinion. If bishops and deacons were running the Fair, it would be closed on Sunday. Those who are to run it are not exactly bishops and deacons, and therefore it will be open on Sunday.
Only let our friends understand that it is not California or San Francisco that gives the Fair, but a voluntary, private, though numerously-aided, association. They can do as they please, and they will. Prospects brighten for a really very fine exhibit. We may be proud of the display. We rejoice in the beauty and plenty, the strength and glory of this magnificent region of the sunset shores. But we do not vote for the Sunday show. We cannot vote against it. We can speak against it, and we do it again now. The moral force of a disregarded protest has already been applied, and the Christian people of California are as helpless to change the inevitable as to close the theaters, or stop the races, or lock the portals of Golden Gate Park on the day which God has sanctified and an ungodly people have set at naught.
Let us respectfully inquire:—
1. Have not the baseball players, the theater managers, and the directors of the Fair as much right to demand and expect the churches to close as the churches have these shows? And, after all, are these amusements doing as much to undermine Christianity and morality as some of the sermons preached and services held every Sunday? That spirit which would prohibit Sunday pleasure seeking would, if it had the power, prohibit even the worship of every religion save the one considered orthodox. The principle in the one case would operate in the other.
2. It is true that in this world "God's law is not binding when the balance sheet is involved," for expediency is more than principle. But when, and where, and how has God's law forbidden the doing of aught on Sunday which may not legitimately be performed on other week days? Does not God's law say "the seventh day"? And does not Matt. 28:1; Luke 23:56, and 24:1, show that this means the seventh day of the week? But Sunday is the first day; how, then, will an open Fair on Sunday violate God's Sabbath law?
3. What kind of a Sunday did the nation keep at Chicago? Some of our most earnest Sunday-law papers tell us that the religious people attended in vast numbers, traveling on Sunday as soon as the railway rates were lowered.
4. What "moral force" has a protest anyway which is itself against God's moral law? It may have the force of public opinion, of the boycott, but what moral force, when it is diametrically opposed in matter and spirit to the great moral Governor of the universe?
In the light of the simple facts of God's law, in the light of the Golden Rule, in the light of the gospel of liberty, it seems to us that the foregoing questions are worthy of consideration.
WHAT A BAPTIST PAPER SAYS.
By Editor
WE have before noticed the ground that was taken in a paper read a short time since at a meeting of the New York Ministers' Conference. The subject was "The Transference of the Sabbath," and the writer was Dr. E. T. Hiscox, an able Baptist minister. The following week there was a large attendance, and the paper was discussed. The Examiner, the leading Baptist paper in America, in its issue of November 16, thus speaks of that meeting:—
"The moderator, Rev. R. M. Luther, D.D., was in the chair, and the attendance was large, it including many pastors of the larger churches in New York and Brooklyn. The morning was given to the discussion of the paper by Dr. E. T. Hiscox, on "The Arguments for the Transference of the Sabbath," read at the last Monday's meeting. No hastily written and condensed report could do justice to the accurately written and critical statement made by Dr. Hiscox. While the positions taken in the essay seem to be incontrovertible, the statements were startling to many who had not carefully examined the question. The essayist began by defining the conditions of the question. The appeal is to the word of God, not to tradition or to the custom of the church in any age. When we examine exactly what the New Testament says, one is surprised to find that there is no definite statement on the subject. The first and most common argument for the transfer of the worship day from the seventh to the first day of the week is based upon the supposed fact of the resurrection of our Lord upon the first day of the week. The statement is simply that very early in the morning of the first day of the week the disciples came to the sepulcher and found that he had arisen. . . . When we come to examine the meetings of the apostles, we find that they met naturally on the day succeeding his resurrection. Their next meeting was after eight days—certainly not the first day of the week. The same uncertainty attends the statements made in the Epistles and in the Apocalypse. The much-quoted passage in the Book of Revelation, in which John says he was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, the time is not definite. It may refer simply to an intermediate period, as does the similar phrase, "the day of the Lord." In conclusion, there is no definite and clear statement in Scripture that there was any transfer of the observance of a Sabbath to the first day of the week."
Among the speakers who took part in the discussion were Rev. Messrs. E. T. Tomlinson, Ph.D., G. W. Samson, LL.D., Norman Fox, D.D., Walter Rauschenbusch, J. B. Simmons, D.D., Lemuel Moss, D.D., Professor N. Schmidt, of Hamilton, and Dr. D. J. Yerkes, of Plainfield, N. J. "Of this discussion," says the Examiner, "it may be said in a general way that very little new light was thrown upon the subject. The best thing that can be said of it is that it proved to be one of very great interest to the ministry of the churches. The discussion of itself was very unequal." What are our Baptist friends, who have prided themselves on their loyalty to the Bible, going to do with the seemingly "incontrovertible" position of Dr. Hiscox?
THAT CATHOLIC CIRCULAR.
By Editor
ABOUT two weeks ago a dispatch was sent out from Baltimore which stated that, by "direction of Cardinal Gibbons, printed circulars bearing on the local school question" were being distributed among all classes. It indicated that a demand was to be made for public moneys for parochial schools. The Catholic Review declares, it is said, that the circular was issued on the authority of the Cardinal, but the following, from the Independent of December 14, would seem to indicate the Cardinal's position:—
In reply to an inquiry from us about the circular, Cardinal Gibbons wrote, under date of November 29, as follows:—
I am just in receipt of your letter asking me whether myself and Monsignor Satolli "have signed a general circular advising Catholic citizens in all the States to make a demand upon the State legislative bodies for a division of the school fund." In reply I beg to say (1) that I have signed no such circular; (2) I am sure Monsignor Satolli has not signed any circular on the subject; (3) I never heard of the circular till your letter came; (4) I am certain that no such circular has any existence except in the imagination of people ever open to suspicion. You are quite correct, therefore, in not believing the report.
Faithfully yours in Christ, J. CARDINAL GIBBONS.
The dispatch to which we have referred stated that this circular was to be distributed in all the States. Thinking that there might be some misapprehension as to what we referred to, we wrote again to Cardinal Gibbons, inclosing a copy of the circular as it appeared in the Catholic News, with an introductory statement similar to that published in the daily papers, and asked him if it was true that it was issued by his direction. His response is as follows:—
CARDINAL'S RESIDENCE, 408 North Charles St., BALTIMORE, Md., December 7, 1893.131MY DEAR SIR: Replying to your kind note, dated December 6, I would beg to say that the circular which has appeared in some papers, alleging my action in presenting a claim for State aid for parochial schools, did not emanate from me and was not published with my authorization. Neither have I signed any petition to the Legislature for the purpose, and I am sure that Monsignor Satolli has not. Moreover, the paper in question is not something new. It appeared about a year ago without my sanction, and it has again appeared without my knowledge and consent.
Faithfully yours in Christ, J. CARDINAL GIBBONS.
But it will be noticed that the Cardinal does not say that the circular was issued against his authority. He may not have written it; he as Cardinal may not have authorized it, nor sanctioned it; but he does not say that he disapproved it. It is a good way to sound public opinion without committing himself. Be not deceived; Cardinal Gibbons is not in the movement simply because he does not want to commit even to temporary defeat the authorities of the Catholic Church.
FIFTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE AMERICAN SABBATH UNION.
By C. P. Bollman
BY C. P. BOLLMAN.
THE fifth anniversary of the so-called American Sabbath Union was held in the city of New York, December 10-12. The anniversary sermon was delivered Sunday morning by Rev. D. J. Burrell, in the Marble Collegiate Church, of which he is pastor.
"Moreover also I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them."
The whole sermon was a begging of the question so far as the claims of Sunday were concerned; that Sunday is the sabbath was assumed throughout, and the fourth commandment and Isa. 58: 13, 14 were applied to the first day of the week without a blush. The speaker even went so far as to say that the "Lord told the children of Israel to gather the manna on Saturday and not to gather it on Sunday; if they gathered it on Sunday, it bred worms and stank"! That intelligent men can make such statements even thoughtlessly, in view of all that has been said on the Sabbath question, seems impossible. Painful as is the thought, the conclusion is unavoidable that such statements are made with the deliberate purpose of misleading the people in the interests of a false sabbath. Not being able to show from the Scriptures that the Sabbath has been changed by divine authority, they would have people forget or ignore the fact that it has been changed at all.
Monday afternoon there was a meeting for the appointment of committees and the transaction of routine business. The public was not invited. A second public meeting was held Monday evening, at which addresses were delivered by Rev. T. S. Fernley, D.D., of Philadelphia, Rev. T. L. Cuyler, D.D., of Brooklyn, Rev. C. H. Payne, D. D., secretary of the Board of Education of the M. E. Church, and Rev. W. W. Atterbury, D.D., secretary of the New York "Sabbath" Committee.
Tuesday two public meetings were held, with an attendance of about forty in the forenoon and not quite twice as many in the afternoon. The main features of the morning meeting were a report from the general secretary and a discussion of the Sunday press. The secretary's report showed that the society had been closely affiliated in its work with Sunday leagues and committees in every State and Territory in the United States, and that a very large quantity of literature had been circulated through its instrumentality. "Its work," says Secretary Knowles, "has received the hearty indorsement of statesmen, civilians, and wage earners in every part of the land, and of fourteen religious denominations."
The discussion of the "Sunday secular press" was opened by Rev. Dr. A. H. Plumb, of Boston. His main argument against Sunday papers was that their influence is "to weaken the foundation of all religious institutions." The meaning of this remark might be somewhat problematic had the doctor not explained it himself. He said:—
"Admitting that the Sunday secular press can be made a great educational force, it still has a tendency to weaken the influence of the church by secularizing the sabbath. The church and religious organization are the foundation upon which all moral reform rests. We cannot get enough people interested in these institutions to-day to maintain the high standard of morality we should. This is very largely owing to the influence of these Sunday publications, which secularize public thought on the sabbath, thereby exerting a powerful tendency toward breaking down the religious influence and restraint which is absolutely necessary for the preservation of our religious institutions."
Thus the doctor admits that which is very generally denied by the advocates of Sunday legislation, namely, that it is primarily in the interests of the churches, and is therefore religious legislation.
The principal feature of the afternoon meeting was to have been an address by Rev. Dr. MacArthur (Baptist) on the "American Sunday and Religious Liberty," but the doctor was not present. It was announced that he was unavoidably absent. Possibly he discerned the difficulty of reconciling Sunday enforcement with that perfect freedom in religious things so staunchly defended by Baptists a century ago, but to which so many of that communion have now proved recreant. At all events the doctor was not present, and, in lieu of his address, Dr. Burrell made an impromptu speech, in which he grew very enthusiastic in thanking God for the glorious victory achieved in the matter of the Sunday closing of the World's Fair. He asserted, as did also several other speakers both before and after him, that no attempt would ever again be made in this country to keep such an exposition open on Sunday. The fact that the California Midwinter Exposition is to be open on Sunday was for some reason ignored entirely, as were very many other facts not in line with their theories.
All the meetings were small, but the strength of the American "Sabbath" Union lies not in numbers, but in organization, in influential names, and in the circulation of literature. It is still true, as it was in the days of Job, that "great men are not always wise;" but it is also true, as it was in the days of Christ's earthly ministry, that the opinions and example of the great ones of earth have an immense influence. The question in one form or another is asked by thousands everywhere, "Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him?" Too often the4masses judge of any question not so much by the merits of the arguments on the respective sides as by the opinions of those whom they esteem as wise men. The full force of the influence of names and of the dependence of the Sunday cause on them, was admitted by doubling the number of vice presidents, for the sake of the added influence of their names. Hereafter there will be two vice presidents for each State and Territory.
The keynote of the New York meeting was organization and coöperation. It was the boast of more than one speaker that even the Catholics were in harmony with the efforts put forth in behalf of the "American sabbath." This was emphasized especially by Dr. Payne, who said that with three million voters in the church and four million adherents influenced by the church, making seven millions out of the eleven millions of voters, the united churches could have anything they ask. What they will ask was foreshadowed by Dr. James M. King, who said that the perpetuity of the republic rests on three pillars, "God's word, his Son, and the Lord's day." It follows that these things must be equally subjects of legislation. It is evident that nothing short of complete governmental recognition of what they regard as the fundamental doctrines of Christianity, will satisfy such men.
One of the most interesting as well as one of the most significant addresses was by Dr. Atterbury, secretary of the so-called New York Sabbath Committee, on "Sunday Rest Congresses." He gave a very interesting history of the several Sunday congresses held in Europe, and dwelt at some length and with much satisfaction on the names of the great men who had given their influence to make them successful. But his description of the one held at Chicago was particularly graphic, especially when telling the part that Cardinal Gibbons and Archbishop Ireland took in the congress, the former sending a paper which was read, and the latter closing with "a beautiful prayer, which might have been offered by any Christian minister." The spirit of toadying to Papists for the sake of securing their influence in compelling by civil law the recognition of the papal Sunday, the badge of papal authority, was a marked feature of this address, as, indeed, it was of the whole meeting.
New York, December 13, 1893.
BEHIND PRISON BARS.
By T. S. Parmelee
BY T. S. PARMELEE.
Though into prisons vile a few of us are called to go,
Though grated doors upon us close and guards walk to and fro,
There comes from heaven a peace to us that few in this world know,
Behind prison bars.
What though temptations reach the child of God in dungeons drear,
What though we look in vain for our deliverance to appear?
Temptations reached the Saviour once, but now they bring him near,
Behind prison bars.
To him who hears the faintest sigh and marks each falling tear,
We look, but do not look in vain; his love dispels our fear.
What matters it though we are found when Jesus shall appear,
Behind prison bars?
Frankfort, Mich.
The Papacy’s Growing Influence
NEWSPAPERS everywhere are talking about the wonderful strength, vitality, and growing influence of the Papacy. Below is a characteristic utterance, from the City Argus, of San Francisco, of December 2. In speaking of the soon passing away of Leo. XIII., and how the Papacy is tied up in the vital international problem of Europe, the Argus says:—
Nothing could show more eloquently the actual gain to the Papacy involved in its loss of temporal power. With it the popes had sunk into political unimportance hardly distinguishable from that of the Armenian patriarch. Without it Leo, in fifteen years, raised the Papacy again to the dignity and prestige of a great political force, commanding an amount of attention which recalls the days of Borgias and the Medicis.
But this gain Rome does not see, and therefore she will use it, and the influence which it has brought her, to again obtain control of that which she has lost. She will do this to her own final destruction, as well as that of the governments of earth. God's word has predicted both.
CONVERT THE CHURCH.
By Editor
If Christians would live up to their profession, there would be no need of their seeking the civil arm to enforce the observance of their institutions. Are Sunday laws demanded to help Sunday people to keep Sunday? At least they seem to be among the most notorious of Sunday breakers. The Christian Advocate, of New York, in its issue of November 30, in speaking of the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western Railway, says that "it stands almost, if not absolutely, alone of all the great roads in its regard for the holy Sabbath [Sunday]. One of the conductors informed us that he had been employed twenty-eight years, and had never had to work on the sabbath." It is said to be a very prosperous road, although it has resisted all appeals to run Sunday, the "strongest persuaders" to Sunday breaking being Methodists. Says the Advocate:—
The late William E. Dodge, long connected with the road, informed us, before we became so well acquainted with it as now, that some of the strongest persuaders for sabbath trains were the representatives of certain Methodist camp meeting associations, who did all they could to break down the practice of the road; and he said that it gave him a great deal of pleasure to be able to say to them, "The Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western Railroad runs no trains on Sunday."
Would it not be well for the Methodist churches to themselves observe Sunday before they seek to compel others to do so? And if one railway can keep Sunday without law, why cannot others, especially when most of the stockholders and patrons are "Christians" of this "Christian nation"?
THE JESUITS IN GERMANY.
By California Christian Advocate
THE power of the Papacy in Protestant Germany was manifested in a vote taken in the Reichstag, the German Parliament, a few days ago. For many years the Jesuits have been forbidden to reside or organize societies in the German Empire. The Centrists, or Catholic party, in the Reichstag recently introduced a motion to give the Jesuits legal admission to the German States. After a spirited debate the motion was carried by a vote of 173 to 136. The press dispatch containing this item of news also says, "It has been fully understood from the first that the government would not accept the bill." But, accepted or not, the bill and vote are of striking significance, and constitute a notification from Pope Leo XIII. to Emperor William that if at any time the German government should need the support of the Catholic party to enable it to carry any important measure, the price of that support will be the legal admission of the Jesuits into the empire.
The Catholic Church owes much to the Jesuits, and the present pope is a staunch friend of the order, which has been aptly defined as "a naked sword, whose hilt is at Rome and whose point is everywhere." The United States is the Paradise of Jesuits. They throng here by thousands, and thrive under our free institutions without let or hindrance. They have always, as an order, been a disturbing element in every country in which they have existed, and this country is already realizing the truth of this statement.—California Christian Advocate.