—The grand jury at Elizabeth, N. J., recently brought in a presentment declaring church fair lotteries illegal.
—Rev. David McAllister, D.D., one of the founders of the Christian Statesman, and for twenty-five years one of its editors, has again, after a lapse of some half dozen years, taken proprietary and editorial control.
—Advices from Lexington, Ky., state that Pastor J. B. Jones has been deposed by the Providence Christian Church, because he took a prominent part in the campaign against Colonel Breckinridge, candidate for renomination for congressman.
—Bishop Matz, of the Roman Catholic diocese of Denver, Colo., has forwarded his resignation to Rome, with the request that it be acted upon immediately. This unusual action has caused much speculation as to the cause, which is not yet made public.
—A Mrs. Williams, a noted American Spiritualist medium, was recently exposed in a Paris seance while using dolls for spirits. She had appointments out in several European cities, but the Paris exposure spread everywhere. The exposure was effected by Spiritualists who suspected fraud at a previous seance.
—A Rome dispatch of the 8th inst. says: "The pope to-day presided at the last conference in regard to the union proposed between the oriental churches and the Church of Rome. His holiness sanctioned decisions aiming to confirm and enhance the prestige of the five oriental Catholic patriarchs, and to extend their powers."
—A Russian house of worship has been erected and dedicated at Streator, Ill. It is said to be the only distinctly Russian religious edifice in America, excepting the one at Sitka, Alaska. All the wood in the building came from Russia, and is the remains of the Russian vestibule in the Manufactures Building at the Chicago Fair.
—At the Methodist Missionary Conference held in Brooklyn, N. Y., last week, attention was called to the fact that Bishop Taylor, who received an appropriation of $2,500 for a library, and large private donations besides, had made no report of his expenditures since 1888, although he had been called upon by the conference to do so.
—The Occident (Presbyterian) says: "Someone has well said, 'To pull a man out of a ditch it is not necessary to get down in the ditch with him.' Christians are to be in the world but not of the world." But the Christian Endeavor Society of this county, encouraged by prominent Presbyterian ministers, proposes to "get down in the ditch" of politics, not to pull men out of the mire, but to stay there with them in a vain attempt to purify them in their impurity.
—Rev. R. F. Coyle, D.D. (Presbyterian), of this city, says, "I expect to see the Christian Endeavor Society a great political power before the close of the century." Yet most of the ministers who are endeavoring to make it such profess to stand in holy horror of the Catholic Church because of its political proclivities. "Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest; for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things." Rom. 2:1.
—A Corean correspondent of the New York World says: "The brother-in-law of the king, Pak Tong Hyo, once famous as a rebel leader, has returned to Corea. He asks me to say to the American public that Christianity is the only thing that can save this country. Corea is under the influence of Confucianism, and can make no progress unless another system is introduced. Pak Tong Hyo thinks that the Christian scheme is the only solution of the problem that confronts his country. It needs a vital religion." Somebody ought to see that they get the Christian religion from a Bible standpoint, and not in the degenerate form of human traditions.
—Rabbi Sonneschein, of the Hebrew congregation Ohabai Shalome, San Francisco, has resigned his pastorate, for the reason, it is said, that he is for ultra reform, while the congregation prefers to remain "orthodox." The climax was reached on the day of atonement, when the rabbi refused to carry out the time-honored custom of reading the prayers for the repose of the souls of the dead. These prayers are a fundamental part of the services of orthodox Jews, and are moreover a source of revenue to their congregations from the offerings that are made. The members were astounded, for such a thing was unknown in the history of the congregation. President Altmeyer was requested to instruct Rabbi Sonneschein to read the prayers, on penalty of instant dismissal. After much talk, the cantor, Rev. Meyerson, was instructed to do so, as Dr. Sonneschein was steadfast in his refusal.
—The Christian Endeavorers of this county have again demonstrated that their political movement for Sunday closing is not aimed specially at the saloons and is not a temperance effort. The proof is in their election circular, which contained the names of all the candidates for office, with the commended names printed in bold-face type. But it was noticeable that only two names were those of Prohibition candidates, and those for minor offices. This political move of the C. E., under the direction of the ministers of the "evangelical" churches, is simply in the interest of Sundayolatry, and yet most of them would have it understood that they are opposed to Catholicism.
—Rev. S. S. Palmer, of Brooklyn Presbyterian Church, this city, says, "The church should purify the State, and the State should protect the church." That is precisely the papal doctrine, the doctrine on which all the dark deeds of the Dark Ages were predicated. "History repeats itself, because human nature is the same in all ages." How much has Rome ever purified any State in whose politics she has mingled? Has she not made them more corrupt? Yet her opportunities have been greater, and her professions just as fair, and her purposes just the same, as those of her professed Protestant imitators. In the past when the church undertook to purify the State by political methods it became more corrupt and tyrannical than the State which it sought to purify, and a like course to-day will produce a like result.
SECULAR.
—The city council of Jacksonville, Fla., has repealed the ordinance passed last winter permitting prize fights.
—"Rev." A. Willison, of Portland, Oregon, has been sentenced to eighteen years in the penitentiary for forging notes.
—A strike has occurred on the Panama Canal. The workmen are paid thirty-five to forty cents per day, and they want fifty cents.
—Prince Hohenlohe, the new chancellor of the German Empire, is the emperor's uncle. The chancellor is also premier of Prussia.
—It is said that a war levy of $5.00 a head has been imposed in Hankow, China, and there is a prospect that the people will resist it.
—A late Constantinople dispatch states that twenty-five Armenian villages have been destroyed by the Kurds, and 3,000 people killed.
—The burning of the Rex Flour Mills at Kansas City, Mo., on the 6th inst., caused a loss of $150,000, and leaves 100 men out of employment.
—The German Tabera Company, in German East Africa, report severe contests with the natives near Konto. Two lieutenants and several men were killed.
—Coxey, of "Coxey's army" fame, has been defeated in his race for congressman from the Massillon, Ohio, district. The majority against him was 12,000.
—A packer and shipper of New York City has been arrested and placed under $25,000 bonds for shipping a lot of cartridges to Havana, Cuba, packed in tallow to avoid recognition.
—A bill has passed both houses of the Cherokee Legislature making it treason for a Cherokee citizen to sell real estate of this nation to a non-citizen, naming as a penalty for so doing death by hanging.
—In California election day was as near perfect as is possible under present conditions of the earth. In New England and in various parts of New York it rained and snowed, tapering off to a gale in New Jersey.
—The Chicago Chinese Association has been incorporated for the purpose of suppressing gambling, learning the English language, building a Chinese hospital, and eventually working for American citizenship.
—If illustration were wanting to prove the instability of the human mind, the elections of the past four years in the United States would be sufficient. This year it is a Republican "wave" that floods the political marsh.
—It is estimated that 500 pauper Japanese immigrants have been admitted to the United States the present year. Friends have supplied them with the necessary $30 to comply with the requirement to possess that amount.
—The London Standard says there is good ground for the opinion that there is at present little prospect of united intervention by European powers between China and Japan. Russia is ready to intervene, and France does not object, but Germany is unwilling. A Washington dispatch says that President Cleveland has offered a peaceful mediation.
—Worden, one of the leaders in the great strike at Sacramento, Cal., last summer, has been convicted of wrecking the train at the time Engineer Clark and others were killed. Two others implicated in the affair are to be tried immediately. Worden promises a startling confession. As the wreck occurred in Yolo County, the trials are held in Woodland.
—California has elected a Democratic governor, Ex-Congressman James H. Budd, of Stockton, and one Supreme Court justice, Judge Jackson Temple, of Santa Rosa. All the rest of the State offices have gone to the Republicans.
—A war correspondent in Corea says that the king has sent his second son to thank the emperor of Japan for freeing his country from the Chinese yoke, and stating that the Coreans will try to make the most of their liberty.
—Professor Roche is advocating in the College of the Northwest, at Chicago, the use of hypnotism as an anesthetic in surgery, and some very delicate operations are reported, even the flow of blood from a wound being stopped by its influence.
—The steamer Crown of England ran on the rocks of an island in Santa Barbara Channel, off the Southern California coast, on the 11th inst., and was totally wrecked. The accident was caused by a dense fog. The crew escaped to an island.
—A convention, representative of all the States and cities of the Union, has been called for assemblage at St. Louis December 11, to discuss and formulate a plan for the care of the homeless and indigent children found in the cities of America.
—European governments all declare for peace, and profess to believe that the future outlook is peaceable, but the Standing Parliamentary Military Committee of France has declared against the proposition of the government to cut down the large standing army by even 12,000.
—Sheriff Cook, of Washington Court House, Ohio, who recently prevented the lynching of a colored prisoner who had confessed a heinous crime, has been overwhelmingly defeated as a candidate for reelection. In defending the prisoner three persons were killed and several injured.
—Professor Zacharin, the principal physician of the late czar, has incurred the ill-will of the populace on account of an alleged mistake in the diagnosis of the dead ruler's disease. This feeling ran so high that a mob surrounded his house, on the 8th inst., and smashed the windows with stones.
—Revolution in Brazil is again making considerable headway, especially in the State of Rio Grande do Sul, where several government garrisons have recently joined the insurgents. It is said that political prisoners fill the prisons throughout the country, and many of them are secretly put out of the way.
—Adolph Sutro, the San Francisco millionaire who has been waging a single-handed warfare against the consolidated street railroads, and has succeeded in gaining a reduction of fares to the ocean beach, has been elected mayor of the city, having received a majority of the entire vote of the city.
—A man in Emporia, Kansas, has been detected in carrying on an illegal traffic in liquors by keeping his stock stored in the coffins kept on hand in his side business of funeral undertaking. He had been frequently accused of doing an underhand liquor business, but his stock had always baffled detection.
—The Japanese have found a new trouble in Corea, the people known as Tonghaks having risen against them. Kil Nak, vice president of the Council of State, appointed by Japanese influence, has been assassinated, and a large force of Japanese troops have returned to Seoul to subjugate this troublous element.
—A passenger train and a cattle train collided near Rockwood, Pa., on the 7th inst. Both trains were running on fast time, and the collision resulted in wrecking several cars. Six persons were killed and three severely injured. A dozen cattle cars were piled upon each other, and many of the cattle were killed or maimed.
—The French steamer Sydney was searched recently by the Japanese at Kobe, Japan, and three passengers—two Americans and one Chinese—were arrested. The Chinaman has been connected with the legation at Washington, and it is claimed that the three prisoners were engaged in a plot to blow up Japanese vessels.
—Secretary Carlisle has instructed the Collector of Customs at Port Townsend, Wash., that certificates of registration issued to Chinese should be taken up by the Collector when such Chinese leave this country. This is necessary to prevent the certificates from being turned over to Chinese unlawfully entering the United States.
—William E. Hallett, a railroad conductor, has sued the Chicago and Eastern Illinois Road for $25,000 damages on account of being placed on the blacklist and thus prevented from obtaining employment. He was discharged in July last for participating in the strike, and now cannot get employment on any road because of being blacklisted.
—The latest reported victories of the Japanese army are the capture of Kin Chow and Talien Wan, both fortified cities. It is now stated that the Chinese Government has waked up to the fact that they are not prepared for war, and are consequently ready to make terms of peace. But it is thought they are hardly ready to concede all that Japan will demand.
The Lord's Day Again.
By Editor
A writer in the Marshalltown, Iowa, Times-Republican, of some time ago, who signs himself "Consistency," complacently utters the following:—
However, no one will presume to find fault with the expression "Lord's day," for once in the New Testament, though only once, do we find the first day of the week called Lord's day. John the Revelator so calls it in the first chapter of Revelation. Nor is the appropriateness of this name lessened when we remember that the Mosaic Sabbath was also called the Lord's day.
How does "Consistency" know that John calls the first day of the week "the Lord's day"? John does not say so, neither does any other Bible writer. But the Bible does declare, as this writer admits, that the Lord called the seventh-day Sabbath the Lord's day. In fact, the Lord expressly calls it "my holy day." Isa. 58:13. And Peter says that it was the Spirit of Christ which testified through the prophets. 1 Peter 1:11. Christ, therefore, through Isaiah, as well as by his own lips (Mark 2:27) calls the Sabbath his day, the day of which he is especially the Lord. But nowhere in "God's word written" is the first day called "the Lord's day." Reader, in view of the above facts, what day of the week did John refer to in Rev. 1:10? Answer as you must in the judgment.
Question Corner.
By Editor
"If ye will inquire, inquire ye." "But avoid foolish questions."
159. A NEW COMMANDMENT.
WHAT is meant in 1 John 2: 8 by the new commandment?
The "new commandment" spoken of in the 8th verse is the same commandment as mentioned in the 7th verse as the "old commandment." In the 7th verse the apostle expressly says, "I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye had from the beginning." In the 8th verse he says, "Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you; because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth." That is, all the darkness being past, and the true light now shining, is what makes the old commandment new. The sinner is against the law. "The carnal mind is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." Rom. 8: 7. The commandment simply shows that he is a sinner (Rom. 7: 7), and therefore condemns him. But when God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven his sins and changes his heart, he delights then in the law of God, and says with the Psalmist, "Oh how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day." The apostle says, "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." The law which formerly condemned him as a sinner, is now seen to be glowing with God's wondrous love, and is a witness of the righteousness which God has granted him. Rom. 3: 22. The new commandment of 1 John 2: 8 is therefore the old commandment made new to us, because we have accepted Christ, the Light of the world. See also the SIGNS OF THE TIMES of October 1, page 740, beginning with the last paragraph of the first column. This will give additional light.
160. KEEPING POST OFFICE ON THE SABBATH.
Is it proper or right for a Seventh-day Adventist to take charge of a post office and run it? and does he become guiltless by hiring a deputy to do his work on the Sabbath?
To our mind the keeping of a post office or the running of a hotel which demand Sabbath work is not best for a Sabbath-keeper to engage in, neither should he encourage it on the part of others. Certainly among the multitude of vocations which the world presents before us, there are other ways by which we can obtain support without placing ourselves in any way so as to compromise with the world. Running a post office, apart from the work on the Sabbath, is also likely to draw one into political issues and lead to the compromise of principle in other directions. All such enterprises and openings are, to our mind, traps of the devil to lead souls away from the truth of God. Just as long as we live in such a world as this there will be open post offices on the Sabbath, but we are not compelled to keep them or to patronize them.
The above writer also asks whether it is right to make a specialty of depositing mail on the Sabbath, when it could just as well be done other days of the week.
It seems to us that the answers to all of these questions are so obvious that they need no reply. "Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work." Of course this refers to work for our own pleasure or profit. There is some work, such as the necessary care of animals and our own persons, the care of the sick, etc., that is proper, as our Saviour himself showed. But all extra work on the Sabbath day, or the preparation of such work, is not only transgression of the letter of the Sabbath law, but of the spirit also. It is by such means as these that men are led away from the truth of God.
161. SWEDISH BIBLE ON SUNDAY.
In the Swedish Bible printed in Stockholm, 1854, "Lord's day" in Rev. 1: 10 is translated "Sunday." The Bible is printed by J. A. Lindburg. Adolph Benniero, publisher. Is this translation correct?
No, it is not correct. The Greek, in which the New Testament was written, for Lord's day is kuriakē hēmera, and the only proper translation of that Greek term is "Lord's day." Such a translation as "Sunday" is wholly unwarranted.
CONTENTS OF THIS NUMBER.
By Editor
Editorial.—Notes and Comments—The Assurance of Faith—That "Christian Nation" Claim...849, 850, 864
General Articles.—In the Realm of the King (verse) —A Perpetual Memorial (Concluded)—"As Ye Go, Preach"—The First and Greatest Strike—The Service of the Sanctuary—How Sadly Fallen—Time and Its Story (Continued, verse)—The Overcomer—Study the Prophetic Word—He Trembled As He Viewed His Work—Heirs of God--Our Coming King —Our Conversation—Is Life Worth Living?—Light Affliction...851-856
Home and Health.—Guardian Angels (verse)—The Boy Who Dared to be a Daniel—Poisoning Instead of Resting—Reason or Instinct, or Both—Correct Breathing a Cure for Consumption—Fast Traveling —Beer Drinking Abroad—Largest Flower in the World...856-858
Mission Fields.—The Need of Adversity (verse)—The Pilgrim Fathers of Alaska (Article I)...858, 859
Our Work and Workers.—Every Year (verse)— Will Switzerland Imprison Pastor Holser?—Field Notes...860, 861
International S. S. Lessons.—Christ's Testimony to John (Lesson 9, Sunday, December 2, 1894) —Condemning the Just (Lesson 9, Sabbath, December 1, 1894)...862
News and Notes —Religions—Secular...863
Sunday Imprisonment in Tennessee
By Editor
Just the time of closing up our forms for stereotyping a letter comes from Brother D. C. Plumb, who is in jail at Dayton, county seat of Rhea County, Tenn., for cutting wood on Sunday. We will give it to our readers next week.
The Pilgrim Fathers of Alaska
By Editor
In our Mission Fields department will be found a most interesting article on "The Pilgrim Fathers of Alaska." Another on the same subject will be given next week. We bespeak for them an interesting reading. The work of Mr. Duncan should inspire others with hope and courage.
Switzerland and Freedom.
By Editor
Just in time to get it into this issue comes the article from W. H. McKee, Esq., found on page 858, entitled "Will Switzerland Imprison Pastor Holser?" The article contains the answer. Here are two countries,—Switzerland and the United States,—republics, both of which have long boasted of their liberty, imprisoning men for following Christ. Reader, Christian, by whatever name you may be called, what do you think about it? Is it in accordance with the Golden Rule? Is it like Christ? Is it not the fulfilling of prophecy?
Labor Troubles and the Sabbath
By Editor
Sentinel Library No. 61.—The title of this tract is "Labor Troubles and the Sabbath." It has been pronounced by those who have read it to be a good document on a "live issue." It shows that those Sunday reformers who lay the guilt of Sabbath "desecration" at the doors of the great monopolies and labor unions are themselves the chief sinners. It should be widely circulated. Price only one cent. Address Pacific Press, Oakland, Cal., or any of our tract societies.
Our Land of Liberty
By Editor
Our "Land of Liberty."-Just as we go to press the news reaches us that one Christian, D. C. Plumb, a school student, has been sentenced for twenty-seven days for cutting wood on Sunday, and another in Pennsylvania, E. W. Remminger by name, a mechanic, is under arrest for the same reason. Both of these men work the first six days of the week, as did Jesus the Carpenter of Nazareth. Both of these observe the seventh-day Sabbath, as did Jesus, at least as well as they know how. For following Christ in this our "land of liberty" they and others before them have been arrested, fined, and imprisoned, mobbed, stoned, and life imperiled. Would not Jesus, if he were here doing as "he did aforetime," as "his custom was," be thus treated, and that too by those who profess his name? What reason have we to believe otherwise?
A HISTORY OF PITCAIRN ISLAND.
By Editor
PITCAIRN ISLAND, one of the volcanic gems of the Pacific, has been heard of wherever the English language has been spoken. The story of the working out of the problem of human life on its limited territory reads stranger and more thrillingly in many respects than a romance. But most if not all of the tales told and books printed have either been too fragmentary, or incorrect and misleading. It will be interesting to the friends of that miniature world to know that an authentic history has been written, and that by a native of the island, one to the manor born. The title of the new work, which is now in press, is "The Story of Pitcairn Island." It is written by Miss Rosalind A. Young, one of the direct descendants of the mutineers of the Bounty. The little book, of 256 pages, is a plain, unvarnished tale of Pitcairn and its inhabitants from its settlement to the year 1894. It is written with a charming simplicity of style which refreshes the reader and invites a continued perusal. It is amply illustrated. We will have more to say on the completion of the work. The price we understand is one dollar post free. Address Pacific Press, Oakland, Cal.