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Review and Herald, Vol. 84, No. 41.

LIBERTY

Review and Herald

Oct 10, 1907

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 10, 1907

LIBERTY

By Editor

The Official Organ of the Religious Liberty Bureau
Enlarged and Improved
SET as an exponent and advocate of heaven-born liberty, the natural heritage of man,—the liberty that is in harmony with the laws of God and all just statutes of men; defending Christianity and the rights of conscience, and upholding the Bible as the infallible word of God; recognizing the church and state as ordained of heaven for specific, distinct purposes, but protesting against an alliance of the church with the state in establishing Christian usages upon a legal basis in the Constitution and laws of the land; opposing every effort to commit the government to religious legislation to any degree, and educating the public mind upon the true principles of civil and religious liberty.
As a means in the accomplishing of this great work, Liberty began to be published April, 1906, as a 32-page quarterly, and has been heartily supported by the general public; but the time has come to enlarge its sphere of usefulness. As the matter composing each issue does not become old or out of date, and as a quarterly affords our workers ample time to dispose of a large quantity of each issue without losses occasioned by the passing of the time of publication, it has been thought advisable to make Liberty a 48-page magazine instead of a 32-page.
Beginning with the next number, which is expected to be ready October 15, Liberty will contain 48 pages of as good matter as can be secured, with ample illustrations, and such other improvements as the times may require. While the size of the magazine will be increased one half, the subscription price will not be raised, but be continued at the extremely low rate of 25 cents a year. The retail price has been raised from 5 to 10 cents a copy, and this increase of the retail price enables our workers to receive a living remuneration for their services after they have paid the publishers sufficient to enable them to bring out a good number each time.
Therefore, beginning with the next issue of Liberty, the following schedule of prices will go into effect:—

NEW PRICES

Single copy, 10 cents; 2 to 25 copies of any current issue, 5 cents a copy; 25 to 500 copies of any current issue, 4 cents a copy. Special rates made on orders of 500 or more copies. Regular subscription price, 25 cents a year (only full-year subscriptions received). Ten or more copies, one year, one address, 15 cents a copy. Foreign subscriptions, including Canada, 50 cents a year.
Order of any State Tract Society or Publishing House, or direct from
LIBERTY;
Takoma Park,                                  Washington, D. C.

Home and Health

A Book True to Its Title,—
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It enables the reader to apply many of the remedies of nature in the treatment of common diseases.
It will lighten the labors of many an overburdened housekeeper through practical suggestions upon the principal features of housekeeping.
It will prove to be an all-round, valuable counselor in every feature of home life.
It is, in truth, a book of real merit and practical value.
In a word, it embraces “The Home,”—how to make it; “General Housekeeping,”—all of its details; “The Diet,”—what it should be; “The Care of the Body,”—revealing the simple things one must do to keep the body healthy; “The Care and Training of Children,”—sound common sense for parents; “The Home Treatment of Disease,”—a valuable instructor, doctor, and nurse.
It contains 592 pages, and is illustrated with over 250 original drawings made especially for the book.
Bound in cloth, $3; full law sheep, $4; full morocco, $5.

AGENTS WANTED

An army of workers is wanted for the circulation of this valuable book. We want hundreds of women who can most fitly and enthusiastically represent the principles taught in “Home and Health” to their sister housekeepers, who need it very much. We want hundreds of men and women who have not yet had the courage to volunteer for the sale of other books,—men and women who will read the book, and practise its teachings, and as a basis for all this, we want thousands of purchasers who will send to us for this book and introduce its teachings into their homes and neighborhoods.
Order through any State Tract Society or any of the Publishing Houses or their Branches.

Editorial

By Editor

To confess, to weep, to pray, to resolve—all these are of no avail unless we believe. It is by believing that we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by believing the “exceeding great and precious promises” that they are realized in our experiences. In order to receive any benefit from the work of Jesus we must believe that he is “able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.” To the blind men who sought his help, Jesus said, “Believe ye that I am able to do this? They said unto him, Yea, Lord. Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you. And their eyes were opened.” To the ruler of the synagogue Jesus said, “Fear not: believe only.” We must remember, however, that “a nominal faith in Christ, which accepts him merely as the Saviour of the world, can never bring healing to the soul. The faith that is unto salvation is not a mere intellectual assent to the truth. He who waits for entire knowledge before he will exercise faith, can not receive blessing from God. It is not enough to believe about Christ; we must believe in him. The only faith that will benefit us is that which embraces him as a personal Saviour, which appropriates his merits to ourselves. Many hold faith as an opinion. Saving faith is a transaction, by which those who receive Christ join themselves in covenant relation with God. Genuine faith is life.” Believe, and live in obedience to the will of God.

The Old-New Gospel

Creation and Redemption

THE one great theme of the Scriptures is Christ and his salvation. “Ye search the Scriptures,” said Jesus to the Jews, “because ye think that in them ye have eternal life; and these are they which bear witness of me.” After Philip had become acquainted with Jesus, he said to Nathanael, “We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” Whether it be in history or in prophecy, whether it be in discourse or in song, the subject of the revelation is the person, the attributes, the position, the work, the grace, the merits of the eternal Son of God, in whom the Father of all is made known, and through whom salvation is brought to the human family. And such a revelation is made concerning the eternal Son as to furnish a sound basis of confidence in the provisions of the gospel of salvation from sin.
It is by no mere chance that the first chapter in the Bible is occupied with a brief outline of the great facts of creation; for when the foundations of the earth were laid, the material foundation was laid for faith in the gospel of salvation. The opening words of this chapter are significant: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Elsewhere it is revealed that God wrought through his Son in making the worlds, giving voice through him to those creative facts which brought all things into existence, so that “by faith we understand that the worlds have been framed by the word of God so that what is seen hath not been made out of things which appear.” In the first chapter of Genesis we have the only reliable account of creation, a revelation of facts which it would be beyond the power of the human intellect to search out; and yet this information has not been given primarily in order to establish physical science upon a sound basis, although it may very properly be used as a means of testing the so-called scientific theories concerning the origin of things and beings. The Bible is the text-book to be used in the study and the teaching of the science of salvation. It gives us knowledge of the true God, and of Jesus Christ his Son, whom he has given to be the Saviour of the world. It reveals to us the purpose of God concerning the earth and its inhabitants. It makes known to us the plan of the divine government, and the thought of the Father concerning his Son in his relation to the animate and inanimate creation; and inasmuch as the basal question in religion is the relation which God sustains to all things and all beings, the opening chapter in this text-book on the science of salvation deals with the origin of things. Here we learn that the God of the Bible, the God who invites us to worship and obey him, is the Creator of the material universe, the one whose infinite power and wisdom are revealed in the things that are made. This is the foundation truth of Christianity, and the first chapter of Genesis is “the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”
This thought of God as the Creator is almost continuous throughout the Bible, and this manifestation of power and wisdom in the things which can be seen is made the basis for understanding, so far as finite minds can understand, and for having confidence in, the same power and wisdom as manifested in the plan of salvation. Some quotations from the Scriptures will help us to see this: “Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard? The everlasting God, Jehovah, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary; there is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint; and to him that hath no might he increaseth strength.” “Thus saith God Jehovah, he that created the heavens, and stretched them forth; he that spread abroad the earth and that which cometh out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein: I, Jehovah, have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thy hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles; to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison-house.” “But now thus saith Jehovah that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel: Fear not, for I have redeemed thee; I have called thee by name, thou art mine.” “For thus saith Jehovah that created the heavens, the God that formed the earth and made it, that established it and created it not a waste, that formed it to be inhabited: I am Jehovah; and there is none else. I have not spoken in secret, in a place of the land of darkness; I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye mein vain: I, Jehovah, speak righteousness, I declare things that are right. . . . Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else.” “For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. But be ye glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy.” “Thus shall ye say unto them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, these shall perish from the earth, and from under the heavens. He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding hath he stretched out the heavens. When he uttereth his voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and he causeth the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; he maketh lightnings for the rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of his treasuries. Every man is become brutish and is without knowledge; every goldsmith is put to shame by his graven image; for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them. They are vanity, a work of delusion: in the time of their visitation they shall perish. The portion of Jacob is not like these; for he is the former of all things; and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance: Jehovah of hosts is his name.”
“O come, let us sing unto Jehovah; Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving; Let us make a joyful noise unto him with psalms. For Jehovah is a great God, And a great King above all gods. In his hand are the deep places of the earth; The heights of the mountains are his also. The sea is his, and he made it; And his hands formed the dry land. O come, let us worship and bow down; Let us kneel before Jehovah our Maker: For he is our God, And we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.”
Thus in these and other places in the Old Testament the fact is repeatedly recited that Jehovah, the true God, is the Creator of the heavens and the earth, and this is made the basis of the appeal for confidence in him and his saving power. In the more complete development of the gospel of Christ, as set forth in the New Testament, the foundation laid in the Old Testament is built upon, and the identity of creative power and saving power is clearly established. Let us note some of these statements: “I am not ashamed of the gospel: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is revealed a righteousness of God from faith unto faith.” That creative power which is inherent in the very nature of God, and which was revealed through his Son, is the power of the gospel for righteousness, the power which transforms character. “The invisible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even his everlasting power and divinity.” The very essence of the gospel is infinite power as the revelation of a divine nature working through the eternal Son, “the power of God, and the wisdom of God,” “who was made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption.” In the things that are made we have constantly before us the visible working of that power, the proclamation of the gospel of the glory of the blessed God; for “the heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handiwork.”
Furthermore, in direct and positive statements it is made clear that the process by which sinners are made righteous through faith in the Son of God, is a creative process. Here are some of these statements: “Wherefore if any man is in Christ, there is a new creation: the old things are passed away; behold, they are become new.” “For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.” “By grace have ye been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works, that no man should glory. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God afore prepared that we should walk in them. . . . For he is our peace, who made both one, and brake down the middle wall of partition, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; that he might create in himself of the two one new man, so making peace.” “But ye did not so learn Christ; if so be that ye heard him, and were taught in him, even as truth is in Jesus; that ye put away, as concerning your former manner of life, the old man, that waxeth corrupt after the lusts of deceit; and that ye be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man, that is after God, created in righteousness and holiness of truth.” “Lie not one to another; seeing that ye have put off the old man with his doings, and have put on the new man, that is being renewed unto knowledge after the image of him that created him.”
The true God, who calls us to his kingdom and glory, created all things through the eternal Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. At the close of creation week “God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.” Through sin man, who had been created in the image of God, lost that image, the curse came upon all things, and the creative work was marred. The gospel is the provision for a new creation through the same eternal Son, so that the image of God may be restored in the soul of man, the face of nature may be renewed, and a perfect creation may again appear. And this leads us to the conclusion that redemption is creation—the carrying out, in spite of sin, of the original purpose to create through the Son a world in which righteous beings should dwell. “Remember now thy Creator.”

The Christian’s Responsibility

By C. M. S.

If the great mad world had its own way, it would rush on to its doom unwarned. It is not looking for God’s warnings, and the preachers and teachers that love to please the world are not giving them. Multitudes are forging on to their ruin, while blind “sentinels” are on the walls. Lips that should be sounding God’s warnings are dumb. Hearts that should be thrilled with the approaching culmination of the work of God are willing captives in the toils of this world’s allurements. Away from these things and out from these conditions God calls his messengers, calls them to be minute-men in these terribly important times. It means something to be a watchman for God—it means something to be a watchman just now when all the forces and purposes of the age are focusing to a climax. And let it not be supposed that the ordained ministry alone must bear the responsibility of carrying out God’s charge to the watchman. Whosoever accepts the name of Christ accepts that responsibility. It is a sacred trust; it is a blessed service; and God’s rich reward will be upon every soul that performs faithfully the duties which it involves.
The sentry who in time of war sleeps at his post forfeits his life. He is the watchman for the camp. On his watchfulness and fidelity depends the safety of hundreds or thousands of lives. He holds their lives in his hands.
God has made his servants his watchmen, and holds them responsible for the faithful discharge of the duty to which he has called them. This is his charge: “Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me. When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.” Eze. 3: 17, 18. Just so certainly as God had his messages of warning for the people of bygoneages, he has his warnings and messages for the people of this age. As he held his servants responsible for the giving of his message in those days, and as he is the same yesterday and to-day and forever, we may know to a certainty that he will hold his servants responsible for the giving of the message committed to them for these days—the days in which his work for man will culminate. The penalty for unfaithfulness in giving the warning then will be the penalty for unfaithfulness in giving the message now. That meant the loss of a soul there, and it can mean no less here.
That message-giving watchman must himself watch for the development of God’s work, for the opening doors of his providence, and for the approaching calamities that are surely coming upon the world. He says: “If the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them; he is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand.” Eze. 33: 6. It is not enough that the watchman give the warning message given him; but he must be awake to every interest of the kingdom he serves, watching every move, and always ready to warn of every advance of the enemy and of every impending judgment of God. If we are servants of the King of kings, then we are watchmen for God, and charged with a responsibility which we can not evade and be guiltless.
Christ’s personal instruction to his servants is: “Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is.” “Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the Lord of the house cometh, whether at even, or at midnight, or at cockcrowing, or in the morning; lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping. And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.” Mark 13: 33, 35-37. That is Christ’s command; and that makes a watchman of every Christian, for the Christian obeys Christ.
This duty of the Christian as a watchman is further emphasized in the last divine admonition to the church: “Be thou watchful. . . . If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.” Rev. 3: 2, 3. The unfaithful watchman then comes under the condemnation of his Lord, and is punished for unfaithfulness. The reward of the righteous is not his. On the other hand, Christ declares through his prophet: “Blessed is he that watcheth.” Rev. 16: 15. God’s obeyed commands are always laden with blessings. It is the obedient who are to “have right to the tree of life,” and “enter in through the gates into the city.” Rev. 22: 14. The command to watch is one of his commandments. The Christian will obey it, and at the same time will be giving to the world God’s warnings for his time. In that work there is power and blessing and eternal reward. C. M. S.

The Primitive Hope

By W. A. S.

THE tendency in every denomination, as it has grown in numbers, has been to depart from the primitive simplicity and fervor. What is to keep this growing denomination from the same tendency?
The answer is plain. The primitive hope, the hope that means all there is to this message, is the thing that will maintain the primitive simplicity and love and devotion.
That hope is the hope of soon seeing Jesus coming in the clouds of heaven. It transforms the life of the man who has it, and shapes all his business and every plan of life.
“Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.”
“This hope,” made us a people. It is “this hope” that has given vitality to the message. And, thank God, “this hope” is founded in the sure and unfailing promise of the Lord Jesus. It grows brighter with the passing of the years. He is coming. Just as surely as the sun will rise to-morrow morning, Jesus will come according to his promise.
Be of good cheer, brother. The hope of those who have believed the advent message is to be fulfilled. Though the vision seem to tarry, the Lord declares that “it will surely come, it will not tarry.” Let us see to it that this hope is kept a living experience in the daily life. When, in 1844, the believers expected actually to meet Jesus as he came in glory, it led them to a putting away of sin, a surrendering to God, and a devotion that shut out all the world’s distractions. How it stirs our hearts when those who lived in the days of the ’44 movement tell of the power of that hope.
It was the all-absorbing reality in the minds of those who thought the expiration of the twenty-three-hundred-year period meant the appearing of Christ. A sister in New York told me how her father, on that tenth day of the seventh month, with his little family gathered about him, watched to see the cloud appearing and the heavens open. As a cloud appeared, shining with unwonted brightness, the father clapped his hands for joy, crying, “Bless the Lord, our Saviour is coming.”
There was a decided preparation in that home to meet Jesus. We need the same preparation of heart, for soon we are actually to meet the Saviour.
There is a mighty work to be done. The warning message is to be borne to all the world. We need the same experience to fit us to carry it that we shall need in order to be ready to meet Jesus. And surely none can be ready to meet Jesus who do not join in the work of carrying the message to the world just as whole-heartedly as they expect later to join in the triumph of the cause of truth when Christ shall come.
This means every resource of time and means and talent devoted to God. It means that every one who has the hope will be living and doing business for the one thing, to send this message to the world and to be ready to meet the Lord. Nothing else matters.
The things we can not understand will all be plain then. There is present comfort in all our trials and troubles, and then that glad day shall forever wipe away all tears and heal all sorrows. Let every one challenge himself with the question, Do I really want the Lord Jesus to come quickly? Then, if the hope is faint, seek the Lord for such a conversion of heart that the soul will continually cry out that last prayer of the Bible, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” Rev. 22:20.
“We know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.” 1 John 3:2, 3.
W. A. S.

The Curse of Meroz

By I. H. Evans

It was a day of victory and triumph in the camp of Israel. From hamlet to hamlet, and from city to city, spread the glad news of the great battle with the enemy, and an overwhelming victory for the people of God.
The battle was a great one. For twenty long years Israel had been oppressed, and had been compelled to bear the galling yoke of the heathen nations about them. Nor was this oppression a mere slight tax or homage exacted by the heathen king Jabin. The Bible says, “Twenty years he mightily oppressed the children of Israel.”
The time came when that oppression was to be broken. God raised up the necessary leadership, and inspired his people with courage to throw off the tyranny of the king. The call to battle was sounded, and ten thousand men from Zebulun and Naphtali marched to the front to give battle to the enemy. Through God the victory came to Israel, and the power of the oppressor was broken. Israel was free!
But in the midst of the song of deliverance, at the very time of rejoicing because of the great victory gained, we hear this terrible denunciation of wrath: “Curse ye Meroz, said the angel of the Lord, curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof; because they came not to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty.”
It was the duty of the inhabitants of Meroz to unite with their brethren in meeting the enemy. Instead of doing this they chose to remain safely at home. If Israel gained the battle, they would share in the blessings of the victory. If Israel was defeated, the heathen king would not regard them as having joined in the rebellion. So, by remaining neutral and non-committal, they were to be benefited whichever side gained in the conflict.
But God did not look upon their position with favor. From God’s viewpoint, when his people were in great trial, and there was a battle raging between them and the enemy, it was the positive duty of the inhabitants of Meroz to join with God’s people in defeating the enemy. They were not permitted to remain at home safely sheltered from all the hardships of the campaign, and with their lives secure, while their brethren jeopardized their lives to break the yoke of bondage which was upon Israel. It was their imperative duty to meet the enemy, and positively to throw their influence on the side of God’s people. When they took a neutral position, and neither joined the enemy nor helped God’s people in the deadly conflict in which they were engaged, God did not accord to them the right to enjoy the fruits of the victory. In his sight they were enemies to the best interests of the people of God. As far as we can understand, God regarded them with even more disfavor than he did the enemies who fought against his people.
The awful curse of God sounded the death knell of the inhabitants of Meroz. True, they had not joined the ranks of the enemy in fighting the cause of God; but in the day of battle and great trial they had remained neutral. They failed to see the hand of God working deliverance for his people from the hand of the oppressor. They had not discerned the signs of the times, nor the call of God to action. Shall they now enjoy the fruits of the victory purchased by the sacrifice of the lives of their brethren?
God’s message of doom answers all these queries. “Curse ye Meroz, said the angel of the Lord, curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof; because they came not to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty.”
I. H. EVANS.

Note and Comment

THE unsettled conditions in Russia during the past year have been productive of many suicides, especially on the part of the student class. Within the past twelve months there have been one hundred fourteen suicides among the pupils of the Russian high school.

Religious Legislation and Liquor Licenses

THE demands for religious legislation springing up in all quarters within recent months indicate the working of some power along well-defined lines in the interest of that particular movement. Whatever the organization is that is carrying on this work, it is evident that it is not particular as to the company it keeps, or who its advocates are. From one quarter the demand for religious legislation goes forth coupled with the demand for the restriction of the liquor traffic and the suppression of vice; and from another quarter the demand goes forth in a different setting. This was illustrated by the action of the German Press Association of the West at Peoria, Ill., on September 26, in passing a strong resolution demanding that the Illinois General Assembly give full power to city councils in every incorporated municipality in the State to regulate Sabbath observance, and “to grant to respectable and reliable societies, organizations, and individuals special licenses for the sale of beer and wine at festivals and assemblages.” This German Press Association of the West is willing to use its influence to secure legislation regulating Sabbath observance provided the right be granted to “respectable societies, organizations, and individuals” to sell beer and wine at their gatherings. The German Press Association of the West is a powerful organization, and can wield a strong influence of its own; and yet the reason for prefacing its demand for liquor licenses with a demand of a seeming religious character must be apparent to all. The cause of truth needs no such compromising support.

Blessed Is He Who Considers the Poor

“BLESSED is he that considereth the poor: the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble. The Lord will preserve him, and keep him alive; and he shall be blessed upon the earth: and thou wilt not deliver him unto the will of his enemies. The Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing: thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness.”

Theological Teaching Discourages the Ministry

THE query is raised in many religious periodicals. Why are so few young men presenting themselves as candidates for the ministry? That we need go no farther than the popular pulpit to find the reason has been suggested by some; and this is not a groundless suggestion, as the following incident will illustrate: A young man who intended to become a preacher went to the theological school of the Chicago University. At the end of his course he decided not to go into the ministry. He stated that it was the instruction received at the theological school that caused him to make this decision. What he had been taught was this: “There is nothing miraculous in the Bible; Jesus Christ was the Son of God only in the sense that all of us are; and the death of Jesus Christ did nothing for us.” When the assimilation of such teaching causes a Christian young man to give up his purpose of being a minister of the gospel, it is but reasonable to expect that the preaching of those same theories by men who have had that sort of theological training will have the same effect upon the young men who hear it that it did upon this young man. If it prevented his becoming a minister after he had become a candidate, it will prevent others from becoming candidates. Not only that, but, so far as its influence goes, it is turning the ministry away from gospel teaching to the teaching of a sort of religious philosophy and man-worship, destroying genuine faith, and turning sanctuaries into palaces of doubt.

What the Church Needs—A Secular Suggestion

THE Lincoln Magazine quotes from Leslie’s Weekly the following, under the heading, “What the Church Needs—A Secular Suggestion:” “1. A genuine spiritual revival, a righteous reformation in all the churches. 2. A united, organized, and determined movement for the enforcement of the laws protecting the sanctity of the sabbath, and restraining liquor selling, gambling, and vice, and an equally united and militant effort to secure such additional legislation on moral issues as is needed.” The waning of real spiritual life in the church has always gone hand in hand with the demand for laws to compel a man to follow the dictates of another’s conscience. Our hand must let go the hand of Christ before we can grasp a whip with it to force another into the attitude of prayer or praise or worship. How fitting that the suggestion above quoted should come from a worldly source! How eminently fitting that it should label itself a “secular suggestion”! The harmony of the plan with the source from which it springs is seen also in the mingling of that “suggestion” with things good in themselves—the restraining of the liquor traffic, gambling, and vice. There is no doubt also that the church needs a genuine spiritual reviving; but the prefacing of that “secular suggestion” by a call for such a revival should not be allowed to blind the eyes of the people to the iniquity of the proposed movement for the enforcement of Sunday laws. That is the hub around which this wheel is built and is to revolve. That is the edifice for which this foundation is laid. The lack of divine sanction and sanctity for the Sunday institution makes necessary this “secular suggestion” for its protection.

One Hundred and Fifty Thousand Dollar Fund

By Arthur G. Daniells

For Special Work at Home and Abroad
An Encouraging Outlook
THOSE who have read with care the camp-meeting reports this summer must have been gratified to learn that at these meetings many of our conferences raised in cash and pledges the remainder of their part of the $150,000 fund. The most of the pledges taken are small, so that they can and will be paid soon.
We are not sure that we have a full list of the conferences that have made this provision for their entire quota, but we know of about thirty that have done so. Some of these have already sent to the General Conference Treasurer their full amount, and even more. The rest are collecting the pledges promptly.
In a general way, the affairs relating to the fund stand about like this: $120,000 has been raised in cash and pledges; $92,517.30 of this amount is reported in this number of the REVIEW as having been received by the General Conference Treasurer. Fifteen conferences have already fully paid up. A number have less than $200 yet to send to the General Conference Treasurer. No conference has a very large sum yet to raise.
These facts and figures are very gratifying and encouraging. The $150,000 fund was launched less than one year ago. The first printed statement regarding it appeared in the REVIEW of October 25. The first acknowledgment of contributions to this fund was made in the REVIEW of November 15. Less than six thousand dollars was raised by the close of 1906.
At this writing we have received at the General Conference treasury over $92,000. Nearly thirty thousand more has been definitely promised by individuals whose promises are reliable. No one person has given very much time during the last year to the raising of this fund. Very little extra expense has been made in raising it.
This compares favorably with our experience in raising the $100,000 fund. The first appeal for this was published in the REVIEW of Feb. 25, 1904. One of our ministers was appointed to devote a large share of his time to raising this fund. He worked faithfully, and employed such help and means as seemed necessary. With all this, it took one year and four months to raise the $100,000. But it was raised, and the raising of it proved to all our people what we can do by a persevering effort. This experience has no doubt been a great help in raising the $150,000 fund.
Now that we are well along with this undertaking, why should we not finish it before the first day of January, 1908? Please think of this until next week, when we shall give some good reasons why this can and should be done.
A. G. DANIELLS.
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