Review and Herald, Vol. 78, No. 46. (11/12/1901)

Review and Herald

Nov 12, 1901

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 12, 1901

THE JOY THAT SATISFIES.

By Eliza H. Morton

ELIZA H. MORTON.

The perfume of the garden flowers That makes the air like balm, The stillness of a summer day With all its restful calm, Glad news from home when far away That fills the heart with song, The whispered words of tender love That linger there so long;

The thought that wakens in the soul A dream of future bliss, The idols wrought of earthly things That promise happiness, Are not the sweetest things below; The blossoms quickly fall, The blasts of winter sweep the earth As with a funeral pall,

And changes come with fleeting years: The love is not for aye, The dreams but flash across the brain, The idols are of clay. But list, O wanderer on life's shore, Give ear and know this truth: There is a joy to satisfy Old age and buoyant youth.

The joy of Christ when here on earth Was in the souls set free,— Those purchased ones, His joy and crown For evermore will be,— And we may know that rapturous bliss And revel in the thought Of all the wondrous, glorious things That humble prayer hath wrought.

Then let us pray, and as we pray Believe our prayers are heard. There's power to-day, as long ago, Through faith in God's own word; And joy will come to satisfy, To waken songs of praise, And we shall see a glory shine To brighten all our days.

No Accidents in Heaven.

By S. O. James

S. O. James.

There are no accidents in heaven, No painful, sad extremes; No improprieties will mar The gladness of our themes. Offenders will be gathered out, And unbelief will die, The hounds of war all put to rout, And yokes of slavery.

The Circulation of Our Health Journals.

By Ellen G. White

MRS. E. G. WHITE.

The circulation of our health publications is a most important work. It is a work in which all who believe the special truths for this time should have a living interest. God desires that now, as never before, the minds of the people shall be deeply stirred to investigate the great temperance question and the principles underlying true health reform.

The physical life is to be carefully educated, cultivated, and developed, that through men and women the divine nature may be revealed in its fullness. Both the physical and the mental powers, with the affections, are to be so trained that they can reach the highest efficiency.

That perfection of character which the Lord requires is the fitting up of the whole being as a temple for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. God will accept of nothing less than the service of the entire human organism. It is not enough to bring into action certain parts of the living machinery. All parts must work in perfect harmony, or the service will be deficient. It is thus that man is qualified to co-operate with God in representing Christ to the world. Thus God desires to prepare a people to stand before Him pure and holy, that He may introduce them into the society of heavenly angels.

Perfection of character cannot be attained when the laws of nature are disregarded; for this is transgression of the law of God. His law is written by His own finger upon every nerve, every muscle, every fiber of our being, upon every faculty which has been intrusted to man. These gifts are bestowed, not to be abused and corrupted, but to be used to His honor and glory in the uplifting of humanity.

But how far have men departed from fulfilling God's purpose! Wherever we look, we see defilement and corruption. The world is full of disease and misery, deformity and sin. Life is regarded as of little value. Crime is increasing on every side. By many, sins of the very darkest dye are lightly regarded, or even justified. The violation of physical law, with its consequent suffering, has so long prevailed that the terrible results of such violation are now regarded as the appointed lot of humanity: God is not pleased to have this suffering exist. This is not His work. It is the work of man. The wretchedness and misery, poverty and woe, that exist all around us are brought about by wrong habits,—by violating the laws that God has made to give health and happiness.

What can be done to press back the inflowing tide of evil? The people must be led to understand its cause. With unerring certainty the seed sown produces a harvest of its kind. He who sows to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption . He who sows to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. In order that men may be more careful how and what they sow, they must be led to realize that they make their own harvest. This is the great need of the masses of mankind at the present time. The blessing that God gives as the result of obedience to the laws of health, is a healing power, a balm for many of the evils that are cursing the world to-day. Satan's strongest hold on man is through disobedience to these laws.

The relation that exists between mind and body is very intimate: when one is affected, the other is always more or less in sympathy. It is impossible for men, while under the power of sinful, health-destroying habits, to appreciate sacred truths. When the intellect is clouded, the moral powers are enfeebled, and sin does not look sinful. The most ennobling, grand, and glorious themes of God's word seem but idle tales. Satan can then easily snatch away the good seed that has been sown in the heart; for the soul is in no condition to comprehend or understand its true value. It is thus that selfish, health-destroying indulgences are counteracting the influence of the message which is to prepare a people for the great day of God.

We are living in a most solemn, awful moment of this earth's history. Not a soul whose life is one of careless self-degradation, through transgression of physical laws, will stand in the great day of trial just before us. There is a terrible account to be rendered to God by those who have but little regard for the human body, and treat it ruthlessly. Transgression of God's law is sin, and the punishment is death. “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.”

Reform, continual reform, must be kept before the people, and by our example we must enforce our teachings. True religion and the laws of health go hand in hand. It is impossible to work for the salvation of men and women without presenting to them the need of breaking away from sinful gratifications, which destroy the health, debase the soul, and prevent divine truth from impressing the mind. Men and women must be taught to take a careful review of every habit and every practice, and at once put away those things that cause an unhealthy condition of the body, and thus cast a dark shadow over the mind.

If the word of God were studied as it should be, we would better understand the value which the Lord places upon men and women, whom He has purchased at infinite cost. Many of these are in great distress because they know not the truth in regard to these things. They are perishing for lack of knowledge. Our Heavenly Father sees the deplorable condition of these poor souls who, ignorant of the result, are disregarding the great foundation principles of nature's laws. And it is in love and pity that He has caused light to shine upon this subject, showing the blessings that are sure to reward obedience, as well as the terrible punishment that will follow transgression.

The Saviour has told us in plain language what would be the condition of the world just before His second coming. And to-day we cannot fail to see that His prophecy is rapidly fulfilling. “But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” We are told that in the days of Noah before the flood, “God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”

Christ has given a warning message that the fearful destruction so soon to come upon the inhabitants of the world may not find them unprepared. “Take heed to yourselves,” He says, “lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.” This message is to be given at this time. We are without excuse in failing to give it to the world with power.

God desires His people to be light-bearers to a world lying in midnight darkness. But if they refuse to go forward in the light which He causes to shine on their pathway, the light will finally become to them darkness; and instead of being light-bearers to the world, they themselves will be lost in the blackness that surrounds them. God desires His light-bearers ever to keep a high standard before them. By precept and example they must hold this perfect standard high above Satan's false standard, which, if followed, will lead to misery, degradation, disease, and death for both body and soul.

Those who act as teachers are to be intelligent in regard to disease and its causes, understanding that every action of the human agent should be in perfect harmony with the laws of life. The light God has given on health reform is for our salvation and the salvation of the world. Men and women should be informed in regard to the human habitation, fitted up by our Creator as His dwelling-place, and over which He desires us to be faithful stewards. “For ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” Our bodies are wonderfully made, and the Lord requires us to keep them in order. All are under obligation to Him to keep the human structure in a healthful, wholesome condition, that every muscle, every organ, may be used in the service of God. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind.” God, who formed the wonderful structure of the body, will take special care to keep it in order, if men co-operate, instead of working at cross-purposes, with Him.

These grand truths must be given to the world. We must reach the people where they are, and by example and precept lead them to see the beauties of the better way. The world is in sad need of instruction along these lines. The time has come when each soul must be stanch and true to every ray of light God has given, and begin in earnest to give this gospel of health to the people. We shall have strength and power to do this if we practice these truths in our own lives. If we all followed the light we have received, the blessing of God would rest on us, and we should be anxious to place these truths before those who know them not.

Those who are enjoying the precious blessings which come to them through obeying this message of mercy, will do all in their power that others may share the same blessings. But we may rest assured that Satan will do all in his power to prevent anything like a message of reform from being given to the world at this time. Shall God's people be found on the enemy's side, either by failing to heed it themselves, or by neglecting to give it to others? “He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad.” If we would be safe, we must not fail to know on whose side we stand.

The people are in sad need of the light shining from the pages of our health and temperance journals. God desires to use these journals as mediums through which flashes of light shall arrest the attention of the people, and cause them to heed the warning of the message of the third angel. Our health journals are instrumentalities in the field to do a special work in disseminating the light which the inhabitants of the world must have in this day of God's preparation. They wield an untold influence in the interests of health and temperance and of social purity reform, and will accomplish great good in presenting these subjects in a proper manner and in their true light to the people.

In all our work, caution should be used that no one branch be made a specialty, while other interests are left to suffer. There has not been that interest taken in the circulation of our health journals that there should be. The circulation of these journals must not be neglected, or the people will suffer a great loss.

Let none think that the circulation of the health journals is a minor matter. All should take hold of this work with more interest, and make greater efforts in this direction. God will greatly bless those who take hold of it in earnest; for it is a work that should receive attention at this time.

Ministers can and should do much to urge the circulation of the health journals. Every member of the Church should work as earnestly for these journals as for our other periodicals. There should be no friction between the two. Both are essential, and both should occupy the field at the same time. Each is the complement of the other, and can in no wise take its place.

If men do not let their own minds and their own feelings come in to rule and change the Lord's design, there will be perfect harmony between these lines of work, and a most wonderful success will crown the efforts put forth to advance them. Unity will bring into the work a power that we have not yet seen. This will be the evidence to the world that the work is of God. The circulation of the health journals will be a powerful agency in preparing the people to accept those special truths that are to fit them for the soon coming of the Son of man.

REPENTANCE

By H. A. St. John

ELDER H. A. ST. JOHN.

1. True repentance toward God embraces, first, some knowledge of sin, hence some knowledge of the law the transgression of which is sin; second, conviction, or a godly sorrow for all known sin; third, a confession of all known sin; and fourth, a turning from all known sin.

2. True repentance must be preceded and accompanied by genuine faith in God and Christ.

3. Conviction, or godly sorrow for sin, is occasioned by the operation of the Holy Spirit, without which there could be no penitence. Hence the ability, or power, to repent is a gracious gift of God.

4. The object of confession is to secure pardon, or justification. All valid confession must necessarily embrace a full purpose to abandon the practice of all known sin, henceforth and forever.

5. All valid confession must embrace the spirit of restitution, also the work of restitution to the extent of the knowledge and ability of the penitent.

6. Secret sins, known only to God and the individual, and not against a fellow being, should be confessed to God only.

7. Sins open to the gaze of our fellow men should be confessed publicly, and to one another.

8. The confession of secret sins or sins against individuals, to a promiscuous public assembly, or to the world, or to the Church, or to a confessor, is debasing to manhood, degrading to the noble instincts of the soul, and unnecessary to pardon. Furthermore, it may give the enemies of our Lord a chance to blaspheme that worthy name wherewith we are called.

9. Sins of ignorance and sins forgotten are generally, if not invariably, among the sins freely forgiven the truly penitent at conversion.

10. There is a cross, a deep contrition, in confessing to God what He already knows, or to our fellow men what they already know, if godly sorrow exists. If the soul has not godly sorrow, the confession is not acceptable to God, and the object is not gained.

MISSIONARY WORK.

By W. A. Spicer

DEAR BRETHREN AND SISTERS: In the work for the regions beyond, all may share. One scripture that is a source of added courage to the missionaries in the field is 2 Cor. 1:11, in which Paul, speaking of his warfare in various parts, says: “Ye also helping together by prayer for us, that for the gift bestowed upon us by the means of many persons thanks may be given by many on our behalf.”

By reports in the Missionary Magazine and elsewhere you are kept informed as to the location and the work of the various laborers. They report in order that the dear ones at home may be helpers together by prayer for them. This whole work is to be done by the power of prayer. That is to qualify the missionaries and send them forth with the sinews of this holy war. The Japanese missionary, Joseph Neesima, who wrought a great work in his native land, said, “We must advance on our knees.” And so must we all. The prayer circles at home have much to do with the progress in far-away lands.

Many have been thinking of the little band in Matabeleland mourning the death of good Brother F. L. Mead, whom everybody loved for his hearty, manly nature. But we know that those who are left are so pressed with added burdens that they have no time to stop to mourn. Out in the fields the struggle is so like a veritable battle against mighty hosts, that when workers fall, the ranks close up, and the conflict goes on with no time for thinking of the changed conditions. Brother Mead’s last letter reported the beginning of longed-for fruits in their native work, the development of teachers. Several, qualified by their training in the schools, had been sent out with promise of success in evangelizing districts to the northward.

During the last few months, four workers who stood in charge of their fields, have died: L. M. Crowther, of Trinidad; H. P. Holser, formerly of Central Europe; D. T. Jones, of Mexico; and now F. L. Mead, of Matabeleland. What does it mean? We need not try to penetrate God’s providences, but the meaning to us is that more earnestly than ever men are to be pressed into the field to take the places of those who fall. This is what every general does in time of battle. We must put in enough men, too, so that those who lead will not have so often to work beyond the bounds of human endurance.

We are now getting within sight of a real effort for China. Aged Brother La Rue has been alone in Hongkong for years. The Mission Board is getting together a picked company to

pioneer the way in China. A Swedish brother already in the country, employed by a Bible society, has accepted the truth, and we expect he will join this party. The wife of a missionary, who read herself into the truth on her return to China after a time at the Battle Creek Sanitarium, is also praying that our work may open there. Are you not glad that the walled kingdom, with one third of all the world’s population, is at last to be entered by us?

“O Church of the living God! Awake from thy sinful sleep! Dost thou not hear yon awful cry Still sounding o’er the deep? Is it naught that one out of every three Of all the human race Should in China die, having never heard The gospel of God’s grace? Canst thou shut thine ear to the awful sound, The voice of thy brother’s blood? A million a month in China Are dying without God!”

The dear Lord will help us to go through these lands quickly, late as we are in entering them. We must keep the literature—sharp, pointed literature in leaflet form for these populous empires—falling like the leaves of autumn. Miss Burrus tells of the interest in the leaflets on the second advent, among the millions of Bengal. Work in shop and bazaar was dropped as the people crowded after her to secure the tracts. But one poor man, not a Bengali, was unable to get a leaflet in his tongue. He said, sadly and reproachfully, “Mensahib, don’t you know there are millions in India who know only my language? What are you going to do for us?”

Of course we shall give his countrymen the tracts in their own tongue. And so in all the great fields. And our brethren and sisters at home will see that it is possible to do it.

As we send out this letter, a council of the Conference Committee and the Mission Board is being held in Battle Creek. The work to be done and the ways and means of doing it are being considered day by day with prayerful study. Every unproductive feature that can be discovered must be dropped, and the plain, simple truth of this message must be set on high before all the earth. A thousand more workers are needed in the fields abroad. Will you pray God to send them, and stand by as God gives the ability while they go?—Of course you will. By the grace of the dear Lord, who loves us so, and who loves everybody else just as much, we shall soon be where He asks us to be—out in every land, telling this message, either personally or by representatives.

The keynote in the coming week of prayer will be the topic that will thrill our hearts to the end—“this message to all the world now and at once.” The best of it all is that this is not to be talk merely, but this people is actually to do it. It will take all we have. It will stir us up, and forbid our settling down in easy indifference as if a very battle was not raging out in the field. It is bound to set in motion a whole people. For this annual season of prayer and the annual gifts to mission fields all of us should now begin to plan. Discuss the gifts to be made with the Lord in prayer. Tell Him how much you love Him, and ask for His help in making ready the offering. Last year’s annual offering was $26,000. The new year of the century, a new year in the history of God’s work, the year from which we ought to be able to date the missionary revival which will quickly finish this work and bring the coming of the Lord,—yes, this very year ought to be marked by a double contribution, $50,000, as the thank offering this coming week of prayer. Let us work for it everywhere, and pray for it. Turn into money everything that you can spare for God and the cause that He loves so much that even His Son Jesus was not too precious to give up for it. That is the cause for which we now are to yield our all of life and means.

We have not to establish great plants in all lands. Training centers there must be for workers. Self-supporting medical institutions will multiply. But the splendid work before us is to run, swift-footed, through every land, preaching the word and sowing the literature.

MISSION BOARD, per W. A. Spicer, Sec.

THE GREATER AMERICA.

By Frederic Emory

What Our Growth as a Nation Means—Commercial Absorption of the Western Hemisphere—Will It Involve Further Acquisitions of Territory?—Conditions That May Reconcile Latin America to Our Supremacy.

FREDERIC EMORY,

Chief of the Bureau of Foreign Commerce, Department of State.

(Concluded.)*

ANNEXATION OR A STRONGER AUTONOMY?

The precise nature of our future political relations with the other countries of America as they are developed by our industrial invasion of them, one after another, is necessarily a matter of wide speculation, for the reason that no one can predict the course that national or race impulses are likely to take. As our people become entrenched in commerce and industry in a Latin-American country, it is but natural to suppose that they will exert a controlling influence in public affairs. Will their interest be found to lie in federation with the United States, or in molding the native elements capable of co-operating with them into stronger sovereignties not merely imitative of, but actually responsive to, our ideas of self-government, of public order, of healthful progress in manufactures, in commerce, in education—in a word, in all the lines that cross and recross each other so inextricably in the cunning fabric that makes us what we are?

In the consideration of this question—the question which, more than any other, is agitating the minds of Latin Americans in their discussion of the growing power of the United States—the experiment about to be made in Cuba becomes a matter of great importance. If the Cubans, aided by the immigration from the United States, and restrained by the impact of our capital and industry, should prove themselves capable of maintaining political independence, to the benefit of all concerned, a working model will have been provided for other Latin-American communities as they fall, one by one, under our industrial control.

A GUARANTEE TO ALL LATIN AMERICA.

Such a solution of our future relations with the rest of America would seem to be the easiest, the most economical, the most healthful for ourselves as well as for the countries, which, as has been shown, seem fated to become, industrially and socially, dependencies of the United States at first, and ultimately, partners in its prosperity and power. It would relieve them of all apprehension of territorial acquisition; it would safeguard us against the intrusion into our political system of influences alien to our institutions which might and probably would have a baneful effect upon our domestic affairs. In view of these considerations, may we not conclude that it is the part of sound economy, as well as wise statesmanship, to do everything in our power to make Cuba self-supporting, free, and stable? She would thus become a guarantee to all Latin-America of the moderation of our views, and an object lesson of the material benefits accruing from the closest association with our industrial forces, our rapidly augmenting money power. No Latin-American country would fear us longer if the conviction spread that we were much more deeply interested in making it strong and prosperous, and, therefore, a profitable customer and an inviting field for our capital and enterprise, than in aggrandizing ourselves politically.

HOMOGENEITY OF OUR PEOPLE: THE SOURCE OF OUR STRENGTH.

Undoubtedly, there is much to be said in favor of preserving the homogeneity of our people. If

we have prospered so amazingly, it is because we have proceeded systematically on the lines laid down by the founders of the republic for a chain of colonies peopled by a single race, with substantially the same political and social instincts, the same standards of conduct and of morals, the same industrial capabilities. Wave after wave of European immigration—made up of elements the most diverse and often the most antagonistic—has broken upon the rock of American character with no other effect than to be lost in the general current of our development. Had these elements not been swept from their moorings at home and forced to mingle with our native population, they might have preserved their traditional instincts, and have exercised a strongly modifying influence in shaping our national growth and evolving an American type very different from that which has given us such prominence in the eyes of the world. In other words, had we annexed these peoples en masse, without dislocating them from their native environment, we would have enabled them to preserve the solidarity of their racial traits, and might not have found it easy to absorb them. Wherever they have gone, they have been exposed to contact with purely American ideas, customs, impulses, and the most stubborn of them have yielded gradually to the constant attrition.

It is doubtful whether we shall so readily convert the populations of our dependencies—Porto Rico, Hawaii, the Philippines. Their racial instincts are probably not more stubborn than those of the Italians, the Poles, the Russian Jews whom we have Americanized, but they are detached from us, and incapable of being merged into the great mass of our population.

DANGER OF ACQUIRING MORE TERRITORY.

It follows that Canada and Mexico are the only regions to which we could look for such extension of our boundaries, and both of those countries are growing so rapidly in the elements of a healthful national development and independence that it will probably be found to be unprofitable to disturb them. As a matter of fact, have we any sound interest in seeking more territory? Is it not true that the greatest strain our democratic institutions have had to bear—a strain that culminated finally in the terrible convulsion of civil war—has sprung from the vast extent of our domain, dividing, by reason of mere distances as well as climatic conditions, into large sections of country with different interests and different economic and social conditions? It is only because of that racial homogeneity which has been described that the breach has been healed, and the Union to-day is stronger, more durable, than ever before. It is the Northerner at work in the South with his ingenuity and his money; the Southerner at work in the North as well as at home, with his new spirit of enterprise and practical adaptability, who reconcile the two sections to each other. It is New England enterprise spread all over the West that has harmonized that region with the interests of the East. . . . Solidified though we be at present, we have not wholly passed beyond the danger point of sectional jealousies. Political or economic changes are easily imaginable which might again array one part of the country against another. It is not impossible that statesmanship may some day find its hands full in adjusting fresh causes of difference; and at all events, our labor will not be thrown away in conserving with jealous care the influences that make for a closer Union, a more widely diffused Americanism, a stancher national life.

NO IMMINENT RISK OF OVERCROWDING.

We have, excluding insular possessions and including Alaska, an area of over 3,600,000 square miles, about equal to that of the whole of Continental Europe. Our population, spread over this vast territory, aggregates 76,000,000. That of Europe is about 320,000,000. At our diminishing rate of progress, and leaving out of consideration the probable decline of immigration as the Union becomes more thickly settled, and new countries are opened up, offering superior inducements, it may be a century or more before we reach two thirds of Europe’s total. It is to be noted, moreover, that we have less waste land than has Europe, and that there are no political and race barriers which, on that continent, prevent the spread of one nation into the more sparsely settled territories of another.

The truth is, our people, as yet, are merely skimming the cream of their productive capacity, and there is still an immense field of agricultural development, with intensive cultivation and the more general use of labor-saving implements and machinery, even in the older, more thickly populated communities. Take the State of Maryland, for example. It was settled in 1634, and has been under comparatively close cultivation for nearly two hundred years. Yet colonies of Dutchmen and Swiss have, in recent years, settled on lands that the average Marylander has always regarded as either worthless or of but little value, and are making them blossom like the rose. So of irrigation on the arid plains of the West. Lands that were desert a decade ago are now luxuriant with vegetation. Europe has a density of population of nearly 100 to the square mile; ours is but 25.6, and it has not quite doubled in forty years. Who can doubt that we still have plenty to do before we shall have developed our soil to its full capacity of comfortable support for the increase of population?

CONDITIONS THAT ENCOURAGE INDUSTRIAL EXPANSION.

But long before there is any real overcrowding, there will be restlessness on the part of the speculative and adventurous among our people, and an eager quest for golden opportunities wherever they are likely to be found. The steady influx of Americans into Mexico, Central America, South Africa, shows that this movement is going on even now. The instinct is in our blood. In every American community, however conservative, there are always individuals who are unable to content themselves with the humdrum of the daily routine or the moderate profits to be earned. They are by nature speculative, daring, venturesome. The risk involved in enterprises in a distant region which seems to offer a dazzling prize, attracts instead of repelling them. They are born pioneers. From the birth of our nation, it is this class that has steadily advanced our outposts, and blazed the way for general immigration and the gradual upbuilding of industry and trade.

As our population grows, and the pressure of competition becomes more onerous for every individual, it is to be expected that this national spirit of impatience with contracting opportunities for acquiring wealth and distinction will become more and more pronounced. It is more than probable that the overflow of enterprise and industry from the United States into other parts of the Western hemisphere will swell with increasing rapidity every year, and this tendency is likely to be greatly accelerated by the progress of industrial combination which inevitably circumscribes individualism, and therefore increases the number of those who find it difficult at home to rise above the common level. In an undeveloped country only can they hope to emancipate themselves, and carve out a competence, or perhaps a fortune, of their own.

THE MOVEMENT SOUTHWARD.

The drift of industrial and capitalistic outflow from the United States, as has been intimated, shows that this movement will be to the southward. At each step of its progress, we may assume, it will safeguard itself by laying its impress broad and deep upon the vital interests of the people, and weaving about them a net of distinctively American influences it will be difficult to break through. The settlers from the United States in any of the Southern countries, so soon as they are strong enough, will inevitably take an active part in the government; they will help to make its laws, to regulate its foreign relations; and as they become more and more firmly entrenched as the authors and guardians of its peace and prosperity, there will be less and less danger of complications with the United States, and a more and more general acquiescence in our leadership. What possible need could we have for the mere form of suzerainty, with all the perplexities and perils which would inevitably accompany it, when once our people had won, by peaceful and ordinary means, the substance of power?

A PRACTICAL GOAL FOR PAN-AMERICANISM.

If our future relations with the Latin-American countries, following the law of what may be termed the mechanical probabilities of the case, shall take this salutary course, the sentimental idea of Pan-Americanism will be no longer a dream, but an accomplished fact, and the Greater America will be at once the largest contributor to, and the most powerful guardian of, the peace of the world. It will be imperialistic in appearance, but democratic in fact. It will wield enormous forces, and be a dominant figure in the world, but applying the general principle of home rule, of popular self-government that has preserved the individuality and stimulated the development of our States while merging them into a more perfect Union. It will secure to all the parts of a vast international fabric the same free play of expansive forces that has made us so strong and great.

Is not this a consummation, following our own historic process of development, devoutly to be wished? If we are to expand, as seems inevitable, is not this the form of expansion most nearly in harmony with our institutions? If we are to be the permanent spokesman to the world for the whole of America, would it not be best for us, as well as for our constituents, that we should act with the ready and cordial assent of all its parts? Such willing concurrence can never be obtained by the forcible imposition of our will. It can come only from the gradual blending of the material interests of every community with our own.

“THOSE AT HOME”—A PART TO ALL.

By A. R. Ogden

ELDER A. R. OGDEN.

(Valparaiso, Chile.)

When the Lord stirred up King Cyrus to make a proclamation regarding the rebuilding of Jerusalem and those going to do the work, he spoke of those left at home, and said: “And whosoever remaineth in any place where he sojourneth, let the men of his place help him with silver, and with gold, and with goods, and with beasts, beside the freewill offering for the house of God that is in Jerusalem.” Ezra 1:4. Thus we see that those at home were to help; all were to have a part. Thus it is that great nations carry on their wars. Men are sent to the frontier to do the fighting; but they are wholly dependent on those at home to provide them with weapons of war, ammunition, food, clothing, etc. So God is to-day carrying on a war against sin. Some are called to the forefront, the larger number are left at home, but all are to have a part. What part in the rebuilding did those have who remained at home? Ah, they were to help with gold, silver, and with goods. So those who remain at home may have a part in this grand work by returning to the Lord’s treasury of His gold and silver and goods.

What success could we expect an army to have if its soldiers had to plant and reap and cultivate the fields for the necessaries of life? They would not have much time for pioneer, aggressive work, but would be continually handicapped. But the government says: Go; we will send you provisions; we will support you. Will not the people of God, in these last days, say to the workers: Go, and we will help?

But remember God has so arranged His work that all may have a part. And if one fails to have a part here in this world, a part in doing, and a part in receiving of the blessings that come as a result of doing, could he be really happy in receiving of the blessings of the kingdom? One would feel just a little out of place to receive so much when he himself had done so little in helping others.

When the Lord gave His instructions to Moses concerning the building of the sanctuary, He said: “Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring me an offering: . . . and this is the offering which ye shall take of them: gold, and silver, and brass.” Ex. 25:2-8. Again we see that the Lord wishes all the people to have a part in His work. Are there not many Seventh-day Adventists who have gold and silver ornaments, rings and other things, which, since seeing the truth, they have laid aside, who could dispose of these, and put the proceeds into the Third Angel’s Message? Would not God be better honored in this way than by having them laid away to be burned in the final conflagration?

And now a word about the offerings. Are we giving freely in proportion to the greatness of the work which we have before us? A greater work has never been committed to any people. Some one may say, “I can give so little;” but nothing is small if given in Jesus’ name. Ten cents a week for each Seventh-day Adventist is not small; for it would mean four hundred thousand dollars annually. Are you doing your part? Think of what a great work could be accomplished in a short time with this amount of means. Will you help to raise it?

Continue reading: ITEMS OF INTEREST