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Review and Herald, Vol. 85, No. 2.

God’s Guidance

Review and Herald

Jan 9, 1908

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jan 9, 1908

God’s Guidance

Our Father, our Father, who dwellest in light, We lean on Thy love, and we rest on Thy might; In weakness and weariness joy shall abound, For strength everlasting in Thee shall be found; Our Refuge, our Helper in conflict and woe, Our mighty Defender, how blessed to know That Thine is the power!
Thou knowest our dangers, Thou knowest our frame, But a tower of strength is Thy glorious name; O, lead us not into temptation, we pray, But keep us, and let us not stumble or stray; In Thee as our Guide and our Shield we confide, Thy children shall under Thy shadow abide; For Thine is the power!
Our Father, Thy children rejoice in Thy reign, Rejoice in Thy kindness, and praise Thee again! Yea, Thine is the kingdom and Thine is the might, And Thine is the glory transcendingly bright; For ever and ever that glory shall shine, For ever and ever that kingdom be Thine, For Thine is the power!
— Frances R. Havergal.

New Edition of the Chart

“Law of God as Changed by the Papacy”

This is what you have been waiting and looking for so long—a new supply of those charts, “Law of God as Changed by the Papacy,” showing in a very striking manner the way in which the law of God has been tampered with by the papacy. Numerous quotations from standard Catholic authorities are given, locating very definitely that blasphemous power which should speak great words against the Most High.
The chart is printed on the best quality of muslin, and is suitable for all public meetings, whether in a hall or tent. The type is large and clear, and can easily be read at a distance. Size, 36 x 45 in.
Price ................................ $1.00

The Commandment Chart

In size and style the “Commandment Chart” is similar to the “Law of God as Changed by the Papacy.” The ten commandments are printed in large clear type, and displayed so as to make them easily read from almost any point in a tent or lecture hall.
This chart forms an excellent companion to the “Law of God as Changed by the Papacy,” and when the two are hung up side by side, they never fail to make a strong impression—the one showing God’s perfect law in its entirety, the other, man’s substitute.
Price ................................ $1.00
Every minister and Bible worker should have both these valuable charts.

MAKING HOME HAPPY

and

MAKING HOME PEACEFUL

Two companion books intended to assist in rendering home attractive and pleasant. “Making Home Happy” reveals how an unhappy home was made happy. It is a bright and cheery volume, especially intended for the young, but it is profitable also for the old. This little work pictures before the reader in consecutive narrative the relations that should exist, and the lines of influence that should be guarded and cultivated, in every home. It contains 206 pages, nicely illustrated, and is supplied at 25 and 50 cents.
“Making Home Peaceful” is an intensely interesting and profitable sequel to “Making Home Happy.” Those who have read “Making Home Happy” will not only desire, but need, to read the sequel, “Making Home Peaceful.” These two volumes in the possession of children and young people will be a great aid to the parents in establishing and maintaining a proper spirit in the hearts of the children, and the two books will be of great practical value in teaching the sacredness of the home and the obligations resting upon each member to contribute his share to its happiness and comfort. There are many homes that do not have the full benefits of all the pleasure of home life, simply because the members of these homes have not been led to think upon the common courtesies of home life, and have not been stimulated to cultivate all the graces that should characterize every member of every home.
The price of “Making Home Peaceful” is 75 cents. The two books, therefore, bound in cloth, can be purchased for $1.25, post-paid.

THE GREAT SECOND ADVENT MOVEMENT

Early in the spring an examination will be given all the young people of the denomination on the history of present truth based on the text of the book, “Great Second Advent Movement.” Those who have not provided themselves with a copy should do so at once, and begin the study in time.
This grand book is written by a real pioneer of this message, Elder J. N. Loughborough, and takes the place of that book formerly known as “Rise and Progress.” Brother Loughborough has revised and rewritten the text, and brought the book thoroughly up to date. The study of this intensely interesting volume will be an inspiration to the old as well as to the young.
Price, only........... $1.25, post-paid
Order to-day of any tract society, publishing house or

REVIEW AND HERALD PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION

Takoma Park, Washington, D. C.

The Daily Life

Editorial

ANY interpretation of the revelation of God which robs us of a childlike trust in his fatherly care, and which requires us to deal with a scientific personality instead of with a person, is a perversion of the gospel of our salvation, an enemy of our peace, and a false guide. Let us “ask for the old paths, where is the good way.”
No form of godliness, not even the right form, will take the place of the fruits of righteousness in the life. The divinely prescribed form of godliness ought to be simply the channel of expression for a life in harmony with the will of God—the revelation of the indwelling Christ. “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father who is in heaven.”
THERE is much comfort and assurance to the child of God in that promise, “For I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.” In dealing with Jacobites, persons in whom is found that spirit of scheming and twisting to carry out their own plans, God manifests an unswerving, straightforward course, founded in his own attribute of eternal truth. Therefore, unconverted professors are not consumed. But salvation is not found here. The experience of Israel, that of wrestling until victory is obtained, must be experienced. The attribute of unswerving truth must be inwrought into our characters also.
Such will not be tossed about, to and fro, by every wind of false doctrine raised by him who has no truth in him—the one possessing the very opposite attributes of our God who “changes not.” By walking in the truth, we may become like Jesus, who “is the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever.”

The Daily Life

IT is for the common experiences of life that we need the grace of Christ. To be patient under trial, to be kind to the unthankful and the unfriendly, to be faithful in little things, to refrain from saying or doing the things which worry and annoy, and to cultivate an atmosphere of contentment and hope,—these are the evidences of Christianity which, in the daily association of the home and the neighborhood, will far outweigh in their convincing power all the formal arguments of the theologians. “It is easy to join in devotional exercises, to quote promises, to extol the beauty of the Scriptures; but there are many who do these things whose religion utterly fails them in the very places and at the very times when it ought to prove their staff and stay. . . . It is no heroism to live patiently where there is no provocation, bravely where there is no danger, calmly where there is nothing to perturb. Not the hermit’s cave, but the heart of busy life tests as well as makes character. If we can live patiently, lovingly, and cheerfully amid all our frets and irritations day after day, year after year, that is grander heroism than the farthest-famed military exploits; for he that ruleth his own spirit is better than he that taketh a city.”
“If only we strive to be pure and true, The foam of the sea will lower its crest, And the weary waves that we used to breast Will sob and turn, and sink slowly to rest With a tender calm all over and through.”

A Humanized God

The real meaning of the New Theology and of the scientific religion which is now so widely advocated is being developed in such a significance that no one need be longer in doubt as to what is involved in them. Those conclusions which at one time it was necessary to infer from the premises and principles adopted are now plainly stated and accepted by the exponents of these modern views of religion, and we can therefore quote their own words as to these revolutionary teachings.
The acknowledged leader of the New Theology in England is R. J. Campbell, who succeeded Dr. Joseph Parker as pastor of the City Temple, London, for a long time the home of liberalism. Mr. Campbell’s exposition of his views has now been published in a recent book which has been reviewed by a friendly critic in The Outlook of Dec. 14, 1907, from whose summary of its teaching we take the following paragraph:—
The ancient and recently recovered truth of the immanence of God and his indwelling in humanity [God in man]—the distinctive note of the “New Theology”—saturates his thought and controls his interpretation of the New Testament. To him “the spiritual idea is to reach the stage where we can say with fulness of knowledge, and not merely as an act of faith, ‘I and my Father are one.’” He will not recognize that there is any real dividing line between the being of God and the being of man: “our being is God’s, not some of it merely, but all of it, although our present consciousness of it is our own.” It is this apparent if not real denial of individual personality, which seems to many of his readers to carry with it a denial of individual responsibility and an obscuring of divine personality, which has aroused the popular criticism against Mr. Campbell, and given significance to his theological critics. In thus treating of essential humanity as essentially divine, Mr. Campbell entirely humanizes Jesus, and thereby scandalizes the adherents of the traditional Christology, though he declares “the all-pervading Presence represented and summed up in the name of Jesus.”
Here we have a plain statement of the real essence of the New Theology,—“the immanence of God and his indwelling in humanity,”—and this is interpreted as removing “any real dividing line between the being of God and the being of man.” Of course this denies individual personality both to God and to man, when any proper idea of personality is entertained, and with this go the Biblical teaching concerning sin and the atonement, and all the essential features of the gospel of salvation through faith in Christ.
This may be called “new theology,” but it is in truth very old theology, being identical in its essence with the Hindu theology, although the forms of expression are adapted to modern times. In corroboration of this assertion we will quote some statements from “The Intellectual Development of Europe,” by Draper:—
The theology of India is underlaid with pantheism. “God is one because he is all.” . . . They [the Vedas] convey the idea that while there is a pervading spirit existing everywhere of the same nature as the soul of man [no “real dividing line between the being of God and the being of man”], though differing from it infinitely in degree, visible nature is essentially and inseparably connected therewith. . . . As to the relation between the Supreme Being and man, the soul is a portion or particle of that all-pervading principle, the Universal Intellect or Soul of the World, detached for a while from its primitive source, and placed in connection with the bodily frame, but destined by an inevitable necessity sooner or later to be restored and rejoined—as inevitably as rivers run back to be lost in the ocean from which they arose. . . . Considering thus the relation in which all animated nature stands to us, being a mechanism for purification, this doctrine of the transmigration of the soul leads necessarily to other doctrines of a moral kind, more particularly to a profound respect for life under every form, human, animal, or insect. . . . The fundamental principle of Buddhism is that there is a supreme power, but no Supreme Being. . . . It asserts an impelling power in the universe, a self-existent and plastic principle, but not a self-existent, an eternal, a personal God.—Vol. I, pages 59-69.
As further showing the identity of the fundamental ideas of the modern, scientific religion with the heathenism of ancient India, we will quote from an article in the Christliche Welt (Christian World), a German publication, written by Pastor Faut, who defines the latest religious views of scientists:—
The world no longer is regarded as a soulless machine, but as an organism endowed with a soul. Scientists are teaching that the world has a soul, which is the mysterious background or foundation of the activities of the world. All things are saturated with the world spirit or world soul. . . . Formerly it [science] deprived the world of its God; now it makes a god of the world itself. The God of the old faith is regarded as a visionary conception; and science still adheres to the tenet that a transcendental God can not exist. Rather the world itself, the whole universe, is God, and accordingly the soul has now again an object to which it can consecrate itself. . . . This new religion is not identical with the old, which in childlike confidence trusted the fatherly love of God; but religion has been entirely humanized, and is no longer a faith in transcendental things. Religion has been restored to mankind; and this is the religion of the modern man on the basis of the pantheistic teachings of modern science. The result is the “religious common sense” of the modern thinker, which is to take the place of the former absence of all religions. . . . It teaches a divine immanence in nature, and is a kind of pantheism.
Those who were obliged to deal with the teachings urged upon this denomination, but repudiated by it, and which are still being put out from the same source need only to read these quotations to see that we were being asked to accept the pantheistic principles of the New Theology and of the religion of modern scientists, a mere variation of Hindu theology. There was the same “profound respect for life under every form, human, animal, or insect,” which led to the assertion that “there is likewise a greater brotherhood, which includes not only man, civilized man, savage man, Christian man, heathen man,—all men,—but likewise man’s humbler relatives of the animal world, into whose nostrils, as well as man’s, God breathed the breath of life,” and which designated the slayer of an animal as “an assassin;” and there was that definition of life as “that divine spark of infinite energy which animates all living things, and makes all sentient creatures kin.” There was also that same idea of “that all-pervading principle, the Universal Intellect or Soul of the World,” which is found in the Hindu theology, as may be seen from the following quotation:—
The more one learns of nature, the more deeply one looks into the secrets of God’s creative work, the more clearly does one recognize the kinship which exists between the human mind and the infinite, between the higher and nobler manifestations of human thought and the divine thoughts which are expressed in the sunlight, the clouds, the flowers, the trees, the fields of waving grain, the fragrant meadows, the rushing torrent, the heaving ocean, the whole moving, speaking universe about us. . . . Nature reveals to us an infinite personality [not a person] working constantly, harmoniously. The uniformity of law is due, not to the fact that the power behind is blind, unintelligent, unreasoning force, but to the fact that the power [not the person] at work in nature is possessed of such infinite intelligence that every act was perfect the first time it was done, and not being susceptible of improvement, can only be repeated.—“The Miracle of Life,” pages 454, 455.
This third angel’s message was designed to be a protest against all this perversion of the revelation of God and the gospel of Christ, and we are thankful that it has not yielded to the blandishments of this self-exalting and God-debasing, scientific theology. The truth of the gospel needs now to be proclaimed to all the world “with a loud voice.”

The Strangers at our Door

We have all read of the migrations of the tribes who came down from the north of Europe upon Rome, and carved the Western empire into the ten kingdoms. But according to the National Geographical Magazine, the migration from Europe into the United States is the greatest in history. Writing last year of the peaceful invasion from across the Atlantic, this journal said:—
No migration in history is comparable to the great hordes that have crossed the Atlantic during the past twenty years to enter our territory. In 1905, 1,026,499 immigrants were admitted; in 1906, 1,100,735, and in the present year the total will exceed the record of 1906 by many thousands. Since June 30, 1900, 6,000,000 have been admitted.
The analysis of the immigration records shows that more than one third of the arrivals intended to remain in the State of New York. One sixth were destined for Pennsylvania. One twelfth were expecting to go on to Illinois.
These figures show how great a proportion are flocking into the large centers of population, as New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago. While thousands find their way to the West, the vast body are congregating in the Eastern States. It indicates the great responsibility upon our conferences in these Eastern districts for the evangelization of these strangers of many tongues.
Not many days ago there was a terrible explosion in a coal-mine, in western Pennsylvania, in which nearly two hundred lives were lost, and the mining town of Jacob’s Creek was plunged into mourning. The people were mostly Russians and Bohemians. Announcements regarding relief and information to the people had to be given in these languages. Passing through on a train shortly after the accident, and seeing the disconsolate groups, waiting for the slow clearing of the mines, I wondered if by any possibility any of our Russian or Bohemian literature had ever been distributed among these people. Very likely not.
We have not until lately been prepared to handle the leaflets and papers in the Russian, Hungarian, Polish, Bohemian, Finnish, Italian, and other tongues, aside from the German and the Scandinavian. Now, however, the New York office of the Review and Herald is a depository for publications in all the languages of Europe. Our people who know of settlements of foreign-speaking peoples should find out their nationality and write to A. Boettcher, Review and Herald, 32 Union Square East, New York City, making inquiry regarding tracts and books available. He is the agent of the General Conference, recently come from Helsingfors, Finland, to give special attention to fostering this work among peoples who have been largely neglected. There are true hearts among them to be reached, and now we have the literature that must prove the life-line thrown out to the perishing.
In the North Michigan News Sheet Brother O. Montgomery gives an interesting report of work among the Finns. A Finlander named Evans had come into the truth through reading our Finnish books. The report continues:—
After reading “Great Controversy,” he was so delighted with the new light which he had found that he began to talk it to his neighbors; he loaned the book to a friend by the name of Loganin, who, upon reading the book, and carefully comparing it with the Bible, was convinced of the Sabbath, and began to keep it with his family before he had finished the book.
The next week after Brother Evans came to our home, I visited these people, holding meetings among the settlers, Brother Evans acting as interpreter, as he can speak the English. He lives several miles back in the woods in a scattered community of Finnish homesteaders. Following a trail of several miles through the deep woods, we came to the house of Brother Loganin, with whom we spent the afternoon and night in studying the Bible.
In tears, this man said, through the interpreter, “Surely God must have some great message to give, that he would move upon the heart of an Englishman to tramp through the woods in the rain and mud, to look on the poor Finn.” He said he did not feel worthy that I should come under his roof. He wanted me to tell him the message God had sent to him. I assure you it gave me pleasure to give him the third angel’s message and see the joy with which he received it.
The same report tells of a growing interest among Finnish communities in several parts of northern Michigan. Providence has surely guided many souls across the sea to find the truth in this new land. Let us make use of the means provided for working in behalf of the strangers at our gates. W. A. S.

A Solemn Message

The mark of sin has been upon this race since the fall of man. All have borne that mark. It is seen in man's weakening vitality, in his shortened years, in his diminishing power to resist temptation, and in his inherent proneness to choose the broad way that leads down, rather than the narrow way that leads upward to light and liberty and endless life. We see the mark of sin in constitutions unable to resist the attacks of an ever-increasing number of diseases.
But there is coming a day when the author of sin himself will place his individual mark of identification upon every soul in the world save those only who have refused to do his bidding, and whose names therefore are recorded in the “Lamb’s book of life.” While we may not know just what that mark will be, or how it will be made, yet it is possible for those who wish to do so to know the characteristics of that mark so they may be able to identify it when it comes. Against the reception of that mark the last and most solemn warning in all the Bible is directed; for those who receive that mark can have no part in the everlasting inheritance of the saints. It is the last great test over which men will decide their destiny, will decide whether they will be loyal to God or will join in the great confederacy against him.
Those who constitute that company which stands upon the sea of glass, having the harps of God, are those who have triumphed over that power which would place upon them that disloyal mark identifying them as the enemies of God and his government. Of these it says: “And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire; and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God.” Rev. 15:2. This is the company whose destiny is everlasting life. They have listened to God’s warnings, and have triumphed over the things against which he warned them. Here is that warning, the most solemn that has ever been given to this world; for it is the last warning contained in the Book of God, and it ushers in the last epoch of his work in the earth:—
“And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb.”
The beast, the image, and the mark,—these are the things against which God warns his people, the things over which the redeemed triumph; and they are the stones over which the great mass of humanity will finally stumble. That a mighty concourse go down to ruin over the worship of the beast and his image and the reception of his mark is shown by the following scripture:—
“And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him [the beast], whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. . . . And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.”
In the warning of God against the beast, the image, and the mark, and in the insistence of that beast power that its worship and its identifying mark shall be accepted by the world, we see the great lining up for the final conflict. There will be no neutral ground. God will know who will be loyal to him, and that company of faithful ones will be sealed, having the name of the Lamb and of the Father written on their foreheads. See Rev. 14:1. By what sign shall we know the mark against which we are warned? In the first place, it is the mark, or badge, of authority of a power opposed to the government of God. It demands worship—a thing prohibited by the first and second commands of the decalogue. The people who are saved are spoken of as keeping “the commandments of God;” and it is this company against which the beast power is specially incensed, and whose death it decrees. Therefore the beast power which is seeking to enforce its mark upon all the people of the world is a power opposed to the commandments of God as they stand, and opposed to those who keep them. So when we see a power which persecutes and threatens those who keep the commandments of God, we have located a power which will have a mark to enforce. That mark will have to do with the law of God in some way. We know what power has attempted to change the law of God; we know what power has sought to abrogate and trample under foot the Sabbath of the decalogue; and we may know that this culminating test will come through the instrumentality of that same power which has for so many centuries trampled upon the law of God.
But the world will have been warned, faithfully warned—is being warned now. It will be easier to yield to the demands of the beast power than to withstand it and triumph over it; but upon those who yield will come the judgments which God has in store for the power to which they yield. To the loyal there is trial, but after the trial everlasting life. C. M. S.

A Sixtieth Anniversary

SUCH is the uncertainty of life that it is granted to comparatively few couples to celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of their wedding day, but this privilege has been enjoyed by Mr. and Mrs. J. L. Prescott, of this city, the father and mother of the editor of the REVIEW, familiarly known to many of the readers of this paper as “Father and Mother Prescott.” To unite with them in the observance of the occasion there were gathered twenty children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren—a large family circle, including nearly all their immediate descendants and their families. Owing to “Mother Prescott’s” rather feeble condition, it was not deemed advisable to have any general gathering of the friends of the family, or to provide any formal program, but all the members of the family sat down together at the anniversary dinner, after which there were brief informal talks, and a presentation to the worthy couple of a bronze bust of Abraham Lincoln, as a souvenir of the occasion, the jointgift of all present. The presentation was made by Mr. A. L. Prescott, of New York City, the eldest son.
Previous to the dinner a picture of the assembled company (reproduced herewith) was taken in the parlor of the home, constituting a group which it is not easy to duplicate. In the front row are six of the great-grandchildren; seated in the center are Mr. and Mrs. J. L. Prescott; sitting at their right is Mr. A. L. Prescott, of New York City, and at their left their only daughter and her husband, Mr. and Mrs. A. J. Bristol, with whom they make their home; standing in the rear, beginning at the right, are Mr. and Mrs. C. H. Prescott, of Saco, Maine; Dr. and Mrs. W. D. Tracy (Mrs. Tracy, a granddaughter), of New York City; Mr. and Mrs. J. E. Prescott (father and mother of the great-grandchildren), of Passaic, N. J.; Mr. and Mrs. W. W. Prescott and their son, Lewis W.; and Dr. and Mrs. M. C. Tracy (Mrs. Tracy, a granddaughter), of New York City. It is not often that twenty-two members of the same family are thus brought together.
THE FAMILY GROUP AT THE SIXTIETH ANNIVERSARY
THE FAMILY GROUP AT THE SIXTIETH ANNIVERSARY
“Father Prescott’s” experience with this advent movement began with the preaching of William Miller previous to the great disappointment of 1844. As the appointed time drew near, he joined with his father in leaving their crops unharvested in view of the expected event, and tasted the bitterness of the disappointment, and bore his share of the ridicule which followed the disappointment. On Dec. 23, 1847, about three years after the passing of the time, he was married to Harriet M., daughter of Jeremiah and Chloe Tripp, of Epsom, N. H., Elder Gorham P. Ramsey, a Freewill Baptist minister, officiating. Later “Father Prescott” was ordained as an Adventist minister, and took a prominent part locally in the promulgation of the advent truth as held by those who were still seeking to readjust the prophetic periods to make them reach until the second advent, but in 1859 he began the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath, and afterward embraced all the views taught by the Seventh-day Adventists. In this faith he has maintained a firm confidence until the present time. “Mother Prescott” began the observance of the Bible Sabbath at practically the same time, and thus for nearly fifty years they have walked together in the way of the Lord’s commandments. For many years they have taken a deep interest in the advancement of this message, contributing their means for this purpose as the Lord has prospered them, and have been readers of the REVIEW since they first embraced the Sabbath. Their hope is still bright, and their courage good, looking for the glorious consummation.
The ancestors of “Father and Mother Prescott” were among the early settlers of New England, and their own home was always in New Hampshire and Maine until 1894, when they removed to Battle Creek, Mich. There “Father Prescott” took an active part in pastoral work, and many will remember the profitable seasons enjoyed with him. Soon after the removal of the denominational headquarters to Washington, they came to this city, and have since resided at Takoma Park. Although their health has been rather uncertain for quite a number of years, yet, “Father and Mother Prescott” still enjoy the best things of life—a conscience void of offense toward man or God, the association of many faithful friends, and the comfort of “that blessed hope.” We know that we voice the desire of a goodly number of well-wishers when we express the hope that they may be spared until the dawn of “that crowning day.”

Note and Comment

A Striking Likeness

The work going on in this country at the present time, designed to enforce a religious practise by law, partakes of the same nature as the inquisitorial work of the Dark Ages and possesses the same characteristics. We have mentioned many of these characteristics in the past; we will mention two more.
In an article in the Northwestern Christian Advocate, of Dec. 11, 1907, Dr. W. F. Crafts, in speaking of the new Idaho Sunday-law, says:—
“The Pacific Coast secretary of the International Reform Bureau combined in this bill the best elements of forty other State Sunday laws. It is especially a model to be studied and copied in that it provides that any executive officer found guilty of neglecting to enforce it is ineligible for any public office for two years. Every politician will see genius in that penalty, and will not be surprised to hear the law is well enforced.”
Note the striking likeness between the penalty laid upon civil officers for failing to enforce the above law and the penalty laid upon civil officers in the days of the inquisition for failure to enforce the judgments of the inquisitors. The following rule was adopted: “Any civil officer who refused to co-operate in the work [of the inquisition] was himself excommunicated, and all who would hold intercourse with him. Next, the city of his residence was laid under interdict. If more stress was needed, the officials were deposed.” Is it too much to say that the same spirit inspired both these provisions?
Again: During that long reign of terror “a system was devised by which men with traveling orders, were to spy out and correct all forms of heresy.” In the year 1229, in the Synod of Toulouse, “it was agreed that each bishop should appoint one priest and from one to three or more laymen to inquire after heresy, under oath and with the greatest secrecy.” At the present time a very similar arrangement is being carried out in Indiana County, Pa. In that county one is employed to go from place to place to appear as prosecuting witness against any whom he finds doing work on Sunday or conducting themselves in a manner out of harmony with his idea of how Sunday ought to be observed. To make the likeness more complete “secretaries” are appointed in every town to report upon all cases of Sunday work. In the days of the inquisition these “secretaries” were Jesuits disguised as mechanics, tradesmen, laborers, and even beggars, and they mingled with people in every walk of life to hunt out heretics and report them for trial to the officers of the inquisition. The plans laid for the enforcement of the Sunday sabbathbetray at once its lineal descent, and show as plainly as anything can be shown that the inspiring spirit is identical in the two cases. If the work of the inquisitors and their hired spies was unchristian—antichrist—so is the work now going on in this country to enforce the observance of Sunday upon the people.
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