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Review and Herald, Vol. 83, No. 41.

C. M. SNOW

Review and Herald

Oct 11, 1906

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 11, 1906

C. M. SNOW

By C. M. Snow

Restoration

C. M. SNOW

My God, the weight of years bears heavy on the world, And like a palsied man she trembles at her age. The wasting blight of sin has sapped her buoyant life, And stamped her for her dissolution soon to come. Shall change and retrogression be her lot for aye, And all Thy purpose for the race be nullified, While human hearts sink ’neath a growing weight of sin, And sorrows pile on sorrows with a crushing load?
My God, it can not be. I grasp Thy living Word, And feel the thrill of life through every hungry vein. Though Death with clanking chain tread close upon our heels, By Thy great oath-bound promise we shall live again. Where swept the scourge of war, immortal peace shall reign; Where sin was all in all, His righteousness shall be; Where want and woe sat long in wretchedness and rags, We’ll find the glad abundance of the earth made new.
Hail, blessed Lord! All hail, Thou gracious King of kings! Set Thou Thine age-enduring throne within my heart, And make me what Thou wilt, so I am Thine alone, With Thee to reign immortal through eternity. O glad fruition of a long, long waiting hope! O day of all glad days when I shall see His face! Speed, speed thy pace till in the furling sky above We see His form and hear His benison of love.
Takoma Park, D. C.

Our Publishing Work

By Editor

The Lord gave the word: great was the company of those that published it. Psalm 68:11.
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THE August number of American Motherhood gives a very nice notice of “A Friend in the Kitchen.” The editor states that her attention had been called to the book by one of her readers who stated that she had several very comprehensive cook-books, but used “A Friend in the Kitchen” almost entirely. She found this book very practical, inasmuch as it gives over 400 recipes that have been thoroughly tested and proved to be practical in every particular. We trust the readers of the REVIEW will secure a copy of this book. Prices, 25 and 50 cents.
“HOW A LITTLE GIRL WENT TO AFRICA” will be a very interesting and profitable book for the children. It will also inspire a missionary spirit in those who read it. It was written by a little girl who went with her parents to Africa as a missionary. Her story of what she saw and heard while there will be interesting to every child. The book is given free for three new yearly subscriptions to the Instructor at 75 cents each. Sample copies of the Instructor will be furnished to all who wish to solicit for Instructor subscriptions. Address Youth’s Instructor, Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C.
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URIAH SMITH, in his work, “Here and Hereafter,” has very clearly presented the subject of man in life and death. This book contains every scripture bearing upon the subject of immortality. It is an excellent work to place in the hands of friends who do not understand the subject of the nature of man. In cloth binding, $1.
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THE October number of Life and Health is being heartily received by the general public. Our agents express themselves well pleased with this number. Let all who have not tried to sell this health journal order 25 copies, which will be furnished at 2½ cents a copy, post-paid. Suggestive canvasses will be furnished to those who desire them. Special instruction will be given to all beginners. Write to Life and Health for special agent’s rates.
AGAIN we call the attention of the readers of the REVIEW to “Lessons for Children’s Meetings, No. 4.” This is an excellent work. The price is so reasonable it can be placed in the hands of all. It contains outlines and lessons, together with suggestions, blackboard drawings, and word-picture studies, especially adapted to the needs of primary workers in children’s meetings. It will be found to be very helpful to mothers who desire to give their children lessons at home. The price is only 10 cents a copy, post-paid.
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Suffering and Glory

By Editor

Editorial

Suffering and Glory

TRIALS and suffering are in the path to glory. “Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: but rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.” “In all ages Satan has persecuted the people of God. He has tortured them and put them to death; but in dying they became conquerors. They revealed in their steadfast faith a mightier One than Satan. Satan could torture and kill the body, but he could not touch the life that was hid with Christ in God. He could incarcerate souls in prison walls, but he could not bind the spirit. They could look beyond the earthly gloom to the glory, saying, ‘I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.’ ‘Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.’ Through trials and persecutions the glory— character —of God is revealed in his chosen ones. The church of God, hated and persecuted by the world, are educated and disciplined in the school of Christ. They walk in narrow paths on earth; they are purified in the furnace of affliction. They follow Christ through sore conflicts, they endure self-denial, and experience bitter disappointments; but their painful experience teaches them out of the guilt and woe of sin, and they look upon it with abhorrence. Being partakers of Christ’s sufferings, they are destined to be partakers of his glory.” To refuse trial and suffering is to refuse the glory to be revealed.

More “Hard Nuts” Cracked

LAST week we gave some attention to the contents of a leaflet entitled “Hard Nuts for Seventh-day Adventists.” In this article we shall continue the examination of some of the questions and pretended arguments in this remarkable effort in behalf of the Sunday sabbath.
The seventh question propounded is this: “Why did Jesus not require the young ruler to keep the Sabbath when enumerating the commandments?” It is difficult to escape the conviction that the writer of this question is guilty of wilfully attempting to confuse and mislead his readers. If there is any force at all in this inquiry, it must rest upon the implied fact that Jesus mentioned the other nine commandments in his enumeration, omitting only the fourth from the list. But it is only necessary to read the record as found in Matt. 19: 16-22 to find that Jesus made no direct reference to the first, second, third, fourth, or tenth commandments. Does this prove that in his teaching Jesus intended to convey to the people the idea that it was unnecessary for them to refrain from idolatry or from taking the name of the Lord in vain? Any sane person would repudiate such a conclusion. But this reasoning is just as sound as that which leads to the conclusion that Jesus did not regard it necessary for the young man to keep the Sabbath. A little study of this case will show that Jesus exposed the formalism of the religion of this young man by showing that the love which is the very essence of commandment-keeping was lacking in his relation to those about him. This would determine his real attitude toward God, “for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?” There is not the least shadow of an argument here against the obligation to observe the seventh-day Sabbath.
The inquiry is next made, “If Christians are to keep the law of Moses—the Sabbath—why did the apostles and elders who met at Jerusalem leave it out of their address to the churches?” Here is another case of the same kind of reasoning as that with which we have just dealt. In the first place it is the law of the Lord, and not the law of Moses, in which the Sabbath commandment is found; but passing by this effort to belittle God’s law, we call attention to the fact that this address to the churches does not contain an enumeration of all the duties of Christians. An attempt was made by “certain men which came down from Judea” to enforce circumcision as a necessary condition of salvation. They said: “Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye can not be saved.” “The Holy Ghost saw good not to impose the ceremonial law on the Gentile converts; and the apostles and elders saw the matter in the same light, and their mind was as the mind of the Spirit of God.” “The Gentiles, however, were to take no course which would materially conflict with the views of their Jewish brethren, or which would create prejudice in their minds against them. The apostles and elders therefore agreed to instruct the Gentiles by letter to abstain from meats offered to idols, from fornication, from things strangled, and from blood. They were required to keep the commandments, and to lead holy lives.” We ask those who urge the omission of the fourth commandment from this address to the churches as an argument against the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath, If Christians are to refrain from idolatry, from profane swearing, from murder, from stealing, from lying, and from coveting, why were these prohibitions left out of this address? This is a plain case of an argument which proves too much, and therefore proves nothing.
The ninth question in this series is this: “If Christians are required to keep the Sabbath, how are we to account for the open violation of the law by Jesus Christ, who is our example, unless by saying that the power that made the law can take it away, and that he did?” In his anxiety to escape the obligation to observe the Sabbath of the Lord, this writer seems to hesitate at nothing. He even charges Jesus with openly violating God’s law, in order that he may make an argument against the observance of the law in our time. But let Jesus speak for himself: “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy,but to fulfil.” Matt. 5:17. “If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.” John 15:10. Jesus challenged the Jews to cite any instance in his life where he had transgressed the law of God (John 8:46), and we pass on the challenge to the writer of this leaflet. It is quite true that Jesus refused to be bound by the traditions and man-made regulations which were taught in his day, and if Christians would do the same now, they would repudiate the Sunday sabbath just as he repudiated what the Pharisees had added to the Sabbath commandment in his day, but to charge him with open violation of the law of God is to make a false accusation against him. It is a terrible thing for transgressors of God’s law in this day to attempt to hide behind the baseless claim that in so doing they are following the example of Jesus. We entertain a more exalted idea of the character of our Saviour than to declare that he was a violator of the law of God, his Father. Jesus kept the law of God in his own flesh that he might keep it in our flesh, as we exercise faith in him as the very life of our life. “He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.” 1 John 2:6. Christ kept the seventh-day Sabbath, and his followers should do the same.
The next question runs as follows: “If you keep the Sabbath because, as you think, it was kept before the law of Moses, why do you not practise circumcision, seeing it is plainly commanded in these ages?” We keep the Sabbath because it is one of the precepts of the eternal, unchangeable, moral law of God, that law which the apostle Paul declares to be “holy;” but we do not practise circumcision, because it was one of the precepts of the ceremonial law, which was nailed to the cross. “Is any man called being circumcised? let him not become uncircumcised. Is any called in uncircumcision? let him not be circumcised. Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God.” 1 Cor. 7: 18, 19.
Again this writer asks: “When did patriarch, prophet, or apostle, or anybody else, command any Gentile to keep the law of Moses?” We are here reminded of the following anecdote: A man once waited upon a clergyman and offered to prove to him that the law of God was not binding in this age of the world. The clergyman called his servant and said, “Show this man out and watch him until he gets off the permises. He does not believe that the ten commandments are binding upon him.” There are few who are willing to risk their own reputation by openly declaring that they do not regard the ten commandments as governing the moral conduct of all men. The principles of God’s law are eternal in their nature. This law, as applied to the conduct of men, was given to mankind centuries before there was such a people as the Jews. By this law is the knowledge of sin (Rom. 3:20; 7:7), and sin was in the world before the law was rehearsed at Sinai and given to Moses. Rom. 5:13, 14. Furthermore the apostle Paul says: “Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.” Rom. 3:19. The expression “under the law” in this verse might be properly rendered “in the law,” as it is translated by Young, Rotherham, and Davidson, meaning “within the sphere of the law.” All are within the sphere of the law, and therefore all the world becomes guilty before God, because all have transgressed that law. In harmony with this reasoning it is stated in verse 23 that “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” What clearer proof could be given that the law of God is of force among all nations and peoples? No man is “guilty” unless the law applies to his case. Furthermore, all men are to be judged by the law which forbids murder and adultery (James 2:10-12), but men are not judged by a law which they are under no obligation to obey. Who will dare to assert in the judgment that he was outside the sphere of God’s law? “As many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law.”
Our space will not permit us to crack all these “hard nuts” in this article, and so we will defer others until another time.

Sinning Wilfully

It sometimes happens that a conscientious believer is disturbed by the statement of the scripture, “For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins.” Heb. 10: 26. The fear arises lest through wilful sin the opportunity for forgiveness has been forfeited. The context (read verse 29) shows, however, that the wilful sinning here mentioned is such a rejection of the atoning sacrifice of Christ as involves treading under foot the Son of God, counting the blood of the covenant an unholy thing, and doing despite to the Spirit of grace. For him who disdains the sacrifice of Christ there remains no salvation.
To those who are inquiring as to what sin is a wilful one we commend the following comment upon this passage:—
The question will be asked. But what is wilful sin? How can we know when we are guilty of it? No answer can be given: no one on earth can draw the line between what is and what is not wilful sin. Only He who sits on the throne, and who knows the heart, can judge. But how will this warning profit, if we can not see what wilful sin is? The warning will just thus profit us most—it will make us fearful of committing any sin, lest it might be, or lead us into, wilful sin. He that would know what wilful sin is, with the thought that he is safe as long as he keeps from that extreme, deceives himself. The only sure way of being kept from wilful sin is to keep far from all sin.
We know that Jesus has given himself for our sins, and that the purpose of this sacrifice is to save us from committing sin, and we know that “he is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him.” When we enter into God’s purpose for us, we shall not need to distinguish between different kinds of sin, but we shall lay hold of divine strength that we may be kept from all sin. He who lays hold upon the provision of divine grace in order to be kept from sin need have no anxiety about sinning wilfully.

Losing Hope

By C. M. S.

FAITH and hope and trust and loyal obedience—these are the heritage as well as the privilege of the true Christian, and there is a blessing in them each and all.
While men and women of the world delve and toil and worry and strive for that which they can not take with them when the last summons comes, the Christian uses this life as an opportunity for entrance upon the grander one in which he can enjoy all there is that is good, and be free from every interference of unrighteousness. He whose hope of enjoyment is bounded by the cradle and the grave and beset on all sides by the forces of selfishness overreaching each other, has no anchor that can hold when human courage quails, and human strength gives out.
We can not build for this life only and build safely. We can not turn our attention and our energies in upon our own desires if we expect one day to let our eyes rest in pleasure upon “the King in his beauty.” Paul says: “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.” We can not stop with this life, and be Christians. The Christian’s hope lays hold on eternity. The Christian’s work must be a work for eternity. Speaking of that great hope around which cluster the prophecies and warnings and encouragements of the whole Bible, the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews declares:“Which we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast, and entering into that which is within the veil.” Heb. 6:19. Christ is within the veil; he holds the anchor. As long as the child of God clings to that anchorage, he can not drift. There is no power on earth that can sweep him away—there is no power in heaven that will.
But apart from that anchorage, there is no power to save man from eternal ruin. Outside heaven’s purpose for man there is no power that cares to do so. And because that is so, and men are drifting away from that true anchorage, we find an ever-increasing proportion of the human family losing hope, trust, and courage, and launching themselves into eternity with no preparation to meet God. Year by year the number of self-destructions increases—a sure indication that with each year an ever-increasing number are losing their anchorage and their courage.
The causes for this are manifold. The increase of skepticism, outside the church and inside the church, fostered by the destructive criticism of the Bible at the hands of an unconverted ministry, is doing perhaps as much as any other one thing to bring about this sad condition in the world. When a great portion of humanity lose faith in the Word of God, there is nothing but human power to encourage or guide, or even restrain. Their interest in even the things of this temporal life begins to loosen and unwind like the strands of a frayed rope. Every tremor of wavering in the pulpits of the land is increased and intensified in the great aggregate audience that listens. One note of doubt in the pulpit can make more skeptics than all the rest of the sermon can make converts. If he whose business it is to proclaim the Word doubts it, he has lost every leverage he might have employed to bring souls to the anxious seat.
But the land is filled to-day with these discords of doubt emanating from the pulpits of spiritual advisers. The hired choir has done its work of disintegration in the church; but the result of its work is completely lost in the maelstrom of ruin created by a doubting pulpit. From every seed of infidelity scattered by such hands there spring up a hundred tares to choke out the aspirations of the soul, destroy trust in God, and ruin respect for divine law. With that gone, there is no power but the human to restrain the hand, and more and more frequently is that power found to be utterly insufficient.
The world is losing hope because it is coming to have nothing but this life to hope in; because it has seen man’s only sure anchor disparaged; because it has seen the Word of God belittled by those who were paid to expound it. But this confederacy of ruin should not surprise the child of God. We have been forewarned by that very Word that in the last days scoffers would arise; that seducing spirits and doctrines of devils would be abroad; that genuine faith would be scarce in the earth; and that sin would abound on every hand. Men have placed their hopes in the accomplishment of some great purpose, and when the storm of disappointment came, their bark dragged anchor, and they lost their soul. Many indeed have seen their brightest hopes fade and wither and become the plaything of the winds of misfortune, and in that stress of spirit they have carried their case to judgment in their own hand, and with no advocate at the bar. Truly the world is losing its grip on God.
At such a time how the Christian should labor to place before the world the only hope worthy the name. “Hope thou in God.” The hope of the Christian is real. It spans the gulf between death and the resurrection. It bridges the strait between paradise lost and paradise restored. The Golden Gate toward which the Christian looks is the pearl-hinged gate of the city of God. Inside that is life everlasting, the fruition of hope long deferred, the companionship of the Christ who bought us with his blood. In spite of the fact that the world is losing hope, the true Christian may now look up and lift up his head, knowing that “our redemption draweth nigh.”
C. M. S.

“A Zealous and Enterprising Denomination”

IN a recent issue of The Christian Advocate, the leading Methodist paper of this country, there appeared an article under this title, from which we take the following:—
One of the most active and energetic of existing religious sects is that of the Seventh-day Adventists. Its aim is avowedly to run the earth; and small though the denomination still is, it has its missionaries scattered through every region of the globe, working with at least equal zeal with those of any other organization, and with a consummate skill that is systematically taught as a part of their regular training. The Adventists originated in 1845 in Maine, in a separation from the general Millerite following. There were only half a dozen of them, all poor; and there were not enough of them to form an organization till 1860. They have gained since then steadily, though slowly, in numbers, but immensely in push, and have at present 1,500 workers, of whom 510 are full ministers and 571 missionaries, 1,892 churches, with 437 companies not yet organized, 75,767 members to the church funds last year were $510,259; and their year's increase in numbers included 114 laborers, 117 churches, and 11,764 believers. Their institutions and various enterprises, all made effective agents for proselytism, have cost very large sums. Their agents are dispersed through both Americas, all the States of Europe, the Levant, Egypt, South Africa, India, Australia, New Zealand, and most of the islands of the Pacific. They recognize no missionary comity, for they believe that they alone have the truth, and all others are intruders. They maintain large and fine printing houses at Battle Creek, Mich., and in California, and other smaller ones in London, Hamburg, Basel, Australia, besides numerous branch houses, from which literature is sent out in large quantities in about forty languages. For the instruction of their youth under the direct influence of the church and the training of workers, they maintain six colleges, four academies, ten industrial schools, and 228 church-schools, with in all 381 teachers and 6,600 pupils. Their policy and principle are to discourage attendance at the public schools. A special feature in all these schools is drilling in methods and arts of propagating the principles of the denomination. Their sanitariums and health institutions are used persistently and skilfully as means of winning converts. As they are well patronized, they are capable of being made effective instruments for this purpose. There are twenty-seven of them, besides thirty treatment rooms, with two thousand workers employed, in all quarters of the earth.
Although there are some errors in this article, which will be readily recognized by those familiar with our denominational history, yet taken altogether, it is a very fair and favorable presentation of the work of this people. It will serve to call the attention of many thousands to this advent movement.

Note and Comment

An editorial in the September issue of The World's Work, with the title of the “Respect for One’s Stomach,” deals with the efforts to guard the people from adulterated foods. From this article we learn the result of analyses made by the Indiana State Board of Health. “Out of 889 samples of different things, 389 were bad or were improperly labeled—most of them bad.” The closing paragraph of the article runs as follows:—
The less bad food, the less bad medicine—if, indeed, all medicine be not bad. It seems very strange now that every rascal who chose should all these years have been allowed to put up unwholesome food in cans and bottles and packages for our murdering. Of course the ideal way out of such danger is for every household to have its own little garden and orchard, preserve its own fruit and vegetables, and not use “ready-made” foods at all. If every family would keep a cow and chickens, and eat few things whose whole history they do not know,our people would live simply, healthfully, and long. What a lot of money even poor people waste in food that does not nourish, even if it does not poison! The best safeguard of all is to treat our stomachs with some reverence, and not to dump stuff into them that we can know nothing about.
This advice is sensible and sound, and is the real philosophy of “the simple life.”

Catholic Church Property in France and America

CERTAIN Catholic journals of this country have taken strong exception to the suggestion that the conditions the pope is fighting so strenuously in France are the conditions under which the church operates in this country. Those journals have had much to say about the possibility of French church property being administered by men who were members of secret societies inimical to the welfare of the Catholic Church, if the regulations of the French law should be followed. They have also used strong language in condemning the “ignorance” of Protestant editors for suggesting that the conditions would be fully similar in the two countries if the French law were complied with.
As a matter of fact the plan by which the French bishops proposed to organize under the new laws was very similar to that which obtains in this country. The bishops proposed that the board holding the church property should be nominated by the pastor in charge and be appointed by the bishop. They must be of legal age, communicants of the church, contributing to its support, submissive to the teachings of the church and to its ecclesiastical authorities. They must agree to abstain from joining any secret societies, to give Christian education to their children, to accept Christian marriage for themselves and their children, and religious rites for their dead. In drawing a comparison between what the French bishops proposed under the French law and the regulations under which Catholic church property is administered in this country, the New York Independent says:—
These are very nearly the same restrictions as are laid down by the plenary council of Baltimore [concerning the qualifications of those composing the board holding the church property] which says (Sections 285 and 287) that no layman can have any part in the management of the secular affairs of the Catholic churches in this country as a matter of right, but solely as a matter of privilege, and that they are appointed by authority of the bishop and removable at his will. The conditions are that they must (1) be communicants; (2) must have a regular seat in the church and pay church dues; (3) must have their children taught in Catholic schools; and (4) must not be members of any secret or other forbidden society. The French bishops refer to this American rule, and seem to have copied it.
This, then, puts the control of the church properties under the direct hand of the bishops, and yet would have been permissible under the French law. It is the condition which prevails in this country, and is in harmony with the law here. It does not seem to have wrecked the Catholic Church in this country, nor to have incurred the pope’s special ill will. It is difficult to make out why the pope should set the whole machinery of the hierarchy against the French government in the one case, and pronounce his blessing upon the United States in the other. Why should the pope call the French law an “iniquitous law” when under it his bishops can legally organize a system of operation practically identical with that which obtains in this country, and which he has never condemned.
Many of the French Catholics, recognizing the inconsistency of the position taken, have written a strong letter of protest to the pope. They openly assert that he has listened to the advice of German Italian, and Spanish prelates, and rejected the advice of the French episcopate. They point out the danger, and strongly advise him to withdraw his action. The outcome of the matter is still an unsolved problem. It is hardly supposable that the “vicar of Christ” will bring his acts into harmony with an “iniquitous law.”

Good-by, Sunday

By Editor

WORRIED over the inability of the Sunday institution to maintain its sacredness, a contributor of the Beloit (Wis.) Free Press writes as follows:—
Good-by, Sunday! Yes, farewell! “Day of all the week the best, Emblem of eternal rest;” for surely judging by the way its professed friends even, look idly on in comparative indifference to its gradual, thorough sun-eclipse by a day of mirth, amusement, jollity, and traffic!
Marvel of marvels, especially when we remember that Protestant America at least knows but one holy day, that it should, without a struggle, allow it to sink into the most riotous of holy days.
Fellow professed Christians, is it too late to call a halt; or must we lie supinely on our backs in stupid indifference until the Christian sabbath, hitherto the stronghold of the Christian church, is clean gone forever?
This contributor is anxious for enforced Sunday reverence. We wonder how he would have written if there were not only no law protecting the day from “desecration,” but a law making it a crime to labor on Saturday—thus stripping the day of all protection, and encouraging its desecration by tacitly compelling labor on that day. This is the condition confronting observers of the true Sabbath, an institution which needs no human law for the preservation of its sacredness. The world may strive and toil as it will, and when it will, but Jehovah’s Sabbath is enshrined in the hearts of his people. Human law to protect a divine institution is like the attempt to “steady the ark;” and it is interesting to note that in that ark was the Sabbath law of Jehovah.

Christianity Without Christ

The religions of the heathen world are no less reasonable and no more useless than some of the philosophies, called Christian, that are being expounded from fashionable pulpits in Christian lands to-day. The editor of the Outlook is quoted as saying:—
If it could be scientifically proved that Christ was not supernaturally born and not supernaturally raised from the dead, that would be no reason for rejecting Christianity.
But in that case we would have simply a system of ethics founded on a fable, demonstrated to be such. But as Christianity is the truth of God in action, and as the Word of God plainly declares the miraculous birth, the sinless life, and the supernatural resurrection of Jesus Christ, the whole structure stands or falls together. If the miraculous birth and resurrection are untrue, then the Word itself which records them is untrue, and the whole system would be untrue because founded upon an untruth. The idea of Christianity without Christ as the Bible declares him is unworthy a moment’s notice. It is one of the efforts of the evil one to build up a system of religion that shall have in it no power to save men from the consequences of sin. If men reject Christ as being all that the Word declares him to be, they reject the only power there is in the world to save men, and in that rejection spell out their own ruin. It is a sad fact that this system of “Christianity without Christ” is sweeping multitudes into its fold, and outward conformity to a system of ethics is taking the place of that deep heart work essential to acceptance with God.

Labor Unions Enter Politics

The labor unions have entered politics this year with greater earnestness and determination than ever before. Several congressmen have been blacklisted for refusing to pledge themselves to do the bidding of the leaders of organized labor. At Colorado Springs, Colo., on September 27, a resolution was passed by the State Federation of Labor, denouncing the chancellor of Denver University, Henry A. Buchtel, who is one of the candidates for governor of the State. The reason given for this action is that “the Methodist Episcopal Church in all its many publishing houses employs non-union men, and refuses to recognize the eight-hour day.”

— Thirza Richmond

By Thirza Richmond

Trifles

You little thought the word you lightly spoke Would sear the heart of one you called your friend, And through long days cause him to writhe and bend. In voiceless agony beneath its yoke.
You did not know that half-contemptuous smile Would send a tottering faith far down the height, And hide from him that inner mystic light That leads a struggling soul from durance vile.
You deemed a thought hid deep within your breast Was all your own, and none would ever know Its secret presence in your life, when, lo, It stands revealed — a monstrous, bidden guest.

— Thirza Richmond

Continue reading: Universal Guilt During the Time of the End