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Review and Herald, Vol. 79, No. 34.

The Daffodils

Review and Herald

Aug 26, 1902

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 26, 1902

The Daffodils

By William Wordsworth

I WANDER'D lonely as a cloud That floats on high o'er vales and hills, When all at once I saw a crowd, A host of golden daffodils, Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine And twinkle on the Milky Way, They stretched in never-ending line Along the margin of a bay: Ten thousand saw I at a glance Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced, but they Outdid the sparkling waves in glee. A poet could not but be gay In such a jocund company! I gazed and gazed, but little thought What wealth the show to me had brought;
For oft when on my couch I lie In vacant or in pensive mood, They flash upon that inward eye Which is the bliss of solitude; And then my heart with pleasure fills, And dances with the daffodils.
— Wordsworth.

The American Standard Edition of the Revised Bible

No. 170
No. 170
No. 173.
In the course of the joint labors of the English and American revisers, 1881–1885, it was agreed that, respecting all points of difference, the English companies, who had had the initiative in the work of revision, should have the decisive vote, while the American preferences not adopted, should be published as an appendix in the Revised Bible during a term of fourteen years. During these fourteen years, encouraged by the approval of scholars, both in Great Britain and in the United States, the American Revision Committee have been actively engaged in preparing an edition of the Revised Version. In addition to the correction of errors and inconsistencies, great care has been used in the selection of marginal references and concise topical headings.
In their preface to the New Testament, the Committee express their lofty purpose thus: “The present volume, it is believed, will, on the one hand, bring a plain reader more closely into contact with the exact thought of the sacred writers than any version now current in Christendom, and, on the other hand, prove itself especially serviceable to students of the Word.”
The first edition of the American Revised Bible was somewhat unwieldy, being large and heavy.
No. 167.
No. 167.
A more convenient size has just been issued, 8x5 1-4 in., printed in Bourgeois, a large, clear type, like the sample here printed.
Of this American revision, The Interior says:—
“By remarkably unanimous consent America now possesses the most excellent translation of the Holy Scriptures ever published in the English tongue. There has been neither party nor faction discernible in the welcome paid by Biblical scholarship to the American revision of the Bible.”
The London Quarterly Review admits:—
“It is a noble work, destined to become the accepted Bible of the majority of the Anglo-Saxon race.”
The numbers of the chapters are given in figures instead of letters. The book contains twelve maps with index, and will be sent postpaid at the prices given below.
No. 160. Cloth Boards, red edges ........................................ $1.00
“ 167. Egyptian seal, limp, round corners, red under gold edges ........ 1.75
“ 173. Egyptian seal, divinity circuit, leather lined to edge, round corners, red under gold edges ........ 2.75
“ 174. Persian levant, divinity circuit, leather lined to edge, silk sewed, round corners, red under gold edges ........ 3.75
No. 160.
No. 160.

That Blessed Hope

By Editor

Editorial

That Blessed Hope

THE coming of the Lord has always been the hope of the church. It is the consummation of all the hopes of all the centuries. This generation has seen the close of the long prophetic period at the end of which the sanctuary was to be cleansed. We are now in the hour of God’s judgment. While we do not know the day or the hour when our Lord will come, yet we do know that he is near, “even at the door.” While we are praying and working to hasten his return, we are watching for the first signal of his appearance, “looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.” This is the hope which cheers every faithful, believing soul. To see him as he is, and to be made like him, will be the highest joy of “all them also that love his appearing.” Let every one give himself fully to the work of preparing the way for the coming of the Lord, that we may soon experience the fullness of “that blessed hope.”

The Precious Promises

THERE is some promise of God which is just adapted to every need and to every trying circumstance. Let us think of some of them. Here is one which has brought comfort to many a troubled soul: “I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” Who has not stayed his soul upon these promises? “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.” When every earthly help has seemed like a broken reed, there has still remained the sure promise, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” When the scoffers ridicule the idea of his return to this earth, then we turn with assurance to his own promise, “I will come again, and receive you unto myself.” And Christ is the certainty of all the promises. “For how many soever be the promises of God, in him is the yea: wherefore also through him is the Amen, unto the glory of God through us.” Through the precious promises we share in the divine nature. “Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, according as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” Upon all the promises we may rest with confidence. “There hath not failed one word of all his good promise.” “I’m standing on the promises of God.”

In Him

CHRIST in the flesh was the representative of humanity. He became man. As man and for man he wrought out a perfect character in the flesh. As man and for man he paid the penalty for sin. As the representative of humanity he was raised from the dead, and ascended on high, and took his place at the right hand of the Majesty on high. Our personal salvation depends upon our personal acceptance of his experience in our behalf, and upon our complete identification with him as the representative of humanity. Thus our standing before God is based upon what Jesus is, and upon what he has done, and upon the fact that we have been made “accepted in the Beloved.” By this means all ground of condemnation has been removed. “There is now therefore no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.” Through this union with him we obtain that wisdom which is salvation. “But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who was made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption.” This union with him means a new creation. “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new.” This union with him is our hope of righteousness. “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” Through this union with him every lack is supplied. “Ye are complete in him.” Through this union with him we are exalted to the heavenly courts. He “hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” O that each one of us may “be found in him”!

Power with God

By Uriah Smith

“AND he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God, . . . and hast prevailed.” Gen. 32:28. These words were addressed to Jacob, when standing as a representative of the people of God in the earth. Jacob is represented as having the quiet virtues of resignation, patience, and caution; but there are not attributed to him that spirit, vigorous temper, and fire that would generally entitle him to the character of a “prince.” This title he derives from having “power with God.” This is a sublime attainment; for it leads to the attainment of every other kind of power. Hence it is no wonder that, after the declaration, “As a prince hast thou power with God,” it is at once added, “and with men.” When Jacob had prevailed with God, he had no reason to fear Esau; nor, if we have power with God, have we reason to fear the power or the forces of darkness in whatever form they may come.
The patience of Jacob was one of his princely virtues. We sometimes think of patience as the characteristic of a weak, feeble, and infirm person; and not by any means as being the characteristic of a prince. But Jacob was a prince because of his power with God; and one of the things that commended him to God was his patience. A great prime minister of England was once asked what was the most important virtue of a prime minister, and his ready response was, “The first is patience; and the second is patience; and the third is patience.” As we read this, we think of the final characteristic of the last church on earth: “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.”
Hopefulness was another of Jacob’s regal virtues. And here are words which are applicable to the last church: “Prisoners of hope;” and the promise to give them, “a double portion” of theblessings of the gospel was made to them. Zech. 9:12.
But it was in prayer especially that Jacob showed himself to be a prince with God. Read all the triumphs of faith recorded of the ancient worthies, in the eleventh of Hebrews. But in the case of Jacob, his twofold name exhibits before us the paradox of the contradictions of his nature. The life of Jacob was made up of most marvelous diversities. He was the hero of faith, but also the quick-witted schemer. To him the heavens were opened, and he beheld a ladder, and the angels of God ascending and descending on it (on the Son of man). See “Desire of Ages,” page 311. Gen. 28:12.
But his wisdom passes into the wisdom which is of the earth, earthy. The character of Jacob is a type of that which is found among the Gentiles no less than among the Jews. There are in our own day “prudential vices,” marring what would otherwise be worthy of all praise. And what makes them most formidable is that they are temptations of the religious temperament. The man who begins to look upon worldlings with the feeling that he can thank God that he is not like them, or like other men, is in a fair way to fall short of even the excellences which they possess. But fortunately the religious temperament, with all its faults, may pass into the matured holiness of him who is not religious only, but godly.
This power with God cannot consist of physical force. “Hast thou an arm like God?” Job 40:9. It cannot be mental energy. “Declare, if thou hast understanding.” Job 38:4. It cannot be the power of magic. He “maketh diviners mad.” Isa. 44:25. “Use not vain repetitions.” Matt. 6:7. It cannot be meritorious. “If thou be righteous, what givest thou him?” Job 35:7. This prevailing power proceeds from God’s goodness, and his tenderness at sight of our sorrow and weakness. A soldier was about to slay a child; but his weapon was stayed when the little one looked up, and cried out, “Don’t kill me, I am so little.” It springs from the relationship of grace. “Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him.” Ps. 103:13. It can be exercised only through faith in the Lord. “He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also.” John 14:12. Faith is the prevailing grace.
“It treads on the world, and on hell; It vanquishes death and despair; And what is still stranger to tell, It overcomes heaven by prayer.”
Faith must be exercised in accordance with God’s will. “If any man . . . doeth his will, him he [God] heareth.” John 9:31. There must be a fixed resolve. “I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.” Gen. 32:26. The whole heart must be poured out. “Yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed: he wept, and made supplication unto him.” Hosea 12:4. This power is the successful means of winning souls to Jesus. “Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.” Ps. 51:13. This shows that men who have power with God for men, will have power with men for God. What, then, shall be the fate of them who not only have no power with God, but even lift their puny arms to war and fight against him? U. S.

Studies in the Gospel Message

The subject of the Sabbath-school lesson for September 6 is, The Revealed Secret. God gave a dream to Nebuchadnezzar. God gave the interpretation of the dream to Daniel. The purpose of all this was to preach the gospel of the kingdom in Babylon, and that in such a way as to make an impression upon that idolatrous nation. Neither Nebuchadnezzar nor his subjects believed in the inspired writings which made up the law and the prophets and the psalms. It would be of no use to read to them from the sacred rolls, even if the captives had brought them from Jerusalem. The truth of the gospel must be revealed as a fact, and not merely talked about. The living epistle and the living sermon are required in Babylon.
The gospel is simply Christ revealed. The gospel is not an argument about the existence of God, but it proves his existence by the actual revelation of his presence. It is not a mere speculative philosophy, made up of bold claims and shrewd guesses, but it is an actual experience in seeing and dealing with the invisible. To preach such a gospel is to establish the fact of a real fellowship, a real union, between God and man, and to make known the truth that “the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
The kingdom of Jerusalem stood before the world as the professed representative in the earth of the kingdom of heaven. The God of heaven had made known special truths and committed special gifts to the people of his choice. It was his design that they should share these truths and gifts with all the people of the world, revealing divine principles in clear rays of light which should lighten even the dark parts of the earth. Instead of meeting his purpose in this respect his people turned from the invisible to the visible, became like the nations around them, and lost the light of his presence from their hearts. Then the Lord used “Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant,” as an instrument with which to humble the pride of Jerusalem, and to bring his people to feel their own weakness and their need of him. At the same time the Lord will reveal to Nebuchadnezzar, and to all the world through him, that no kingdom of the earth has any power in itself to stand, but that “power belongeth unto God.”
The facts of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream are briefly stated by Daniel in his interpretation of it. The God of heaven is the source of all might and dominion. “The God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory.” Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom will come to an end. After his kingdom there will be a second, and a third, and a fourth, and each in its turn will pass away. But the kingdom which succeeds these four will be of a different kind. While the others are overthrown one after the other, this one “shall never be destroyed.” It is an eternal kingdom. “It shall stand forever.”
When the king had heard the interpretation, he said to Daniel, “Of a truth it is, that your God is a God of gods, and a Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, seeing thou couldest reveal this secret.” There is no expression of surprise or disappointment because Daniel foretells the downfall of his own kingdom, but there has been made to him such a revelation of the eternal principle of the fifth kingdom in the experience of Daniel himself that the whole thought of the king is centered upon this principle. It is the God of heaven whose servant Daniel is. He is the one, according to Daniel’s own statement, who reveals secrets, and yet Daniel is the mouthpiece through whom the secret things are spoken. The conclusion is irresistible. There is a real union between the God of heaven and the man on the earth. The heavenly Revealer and the one through whom the revelation was made have fellowship one with the other. Daniel’s God dwells with flesh. A testimony has been borne to the reality of “the mystery of godliness” which convinces the heathen king, and the record of it ought to convince all the doubters of this time.
Although Daniel did not put into words the central truth of Christianity, God’s gift of his Son to the human family, yet in himself he revealed the fact of this mystery, this union of divinity with humanity. And thus he made known the mystery of the kingdom of God, and why it was that this kingdom, composed of the same class of beings as were found in the other kingdoms, should yet “stand forever.” This is the revelation of the secret of the eternal life manifested in the flesh, which will culminate in the gift of immortality. And the gospel which Daniel thus proclaimed in Babylon has been clearly expressed for our benefit. Let us read it. “For the life was manifested, and wehave seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us; that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.” And the glorious outcome of this mystery of fellowship with the eternal God is thus stated: “Behold, I show you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” And thus shall the fifth kingdom “stand forever.”

“By the Grace of God”

By W. A. S.

ONE of the later English Reformers, John Bradford, I believe, was one day preaching by the wayside when the officers of the law came by, leading a criminal to the place of execution. Pointing toward the sad procession as it passed on, the preacher cried out, “There, but for the grace of God, goes John Bradford.”
We shall keep in closer and more sympathetic touch with sinful men and women if we bear in mind continually the fact that the sins of even the most reckless or indifferent are natural to our own flesh, and that only by the grace of God are we saved from seeing the evil tendencies break out in our lives.
So, too, as we meet opposers of the truth, it is needful to remember that but for the grace of God we ourselves would be in the ranks of the opposition, instead of having the blessed privilege of being workers together with God. The more vivid our consciousness of dependence upon God’s grace, the more patiently and lovingly we can deal with the erring and sinful.
This was one of the secrets of Paul’s soul-winning ministry. He knew that he, the chiefest of sinners, had been saved by the chiefest of Saviours. Facing the infuriated mob, as he stood on the steps of the Roman castle in Jerusalem, he reminded those who sought his life of the time when he himself was “zealous toward God, as ye all are this day;” and when he wrote to the church in Corinth of the days when he “persecuted the church of God,” he added, “But by the grace of God I am what I am.”
These remembrances of his own past, and the sense of his present dependence upon the grace of Christ, helped him to feel for those who persecuted and reviled him. When he was stoned at Lystra, how vividly it must have brought to his mind the part he had acted in the stoning of Stephen. And the knowledge that he himself had “obtained help of God,” enabled him to work with all courage for the most violent.
In all our labors for those stumbling in darkness, let us remember that we also were bondmen in the land of Egypt. Too many old believers have too little patience with beginners in the way. Too many parents have forgotten how children feel and think. He who has the keenest sense of the evil from which grace delivers his soul will get closest to sinners, and will be of greatest courage in pursuing those who may seem most helpless, with the loving ministry of the word.
John G. Paton, missionary to the New Hebrides, tells the short story of a native teacher who accompanied him to dark Tanna. The teacher had narrowly escaped death at the hands of a native priest. Mr. Paton urged him to remain at the mission house for a time, instead of venturing into the remote parts of the islands; but he replied:—
“Missi, when I see them thirsting for my blood, I just see myself when the missionary first came to my island; I desired to murder him, as they now desire to kill me. Had he stayed away for such danger, I would have remained heathen; but he came, and continued coming to teach us, till, by the grace of God, I was changed to what I am. Now, the same God that changed me to this can change these poor Tannese to love and serve him. I cannot stay away from ‘Shem,’ but I will sleep at the mission house, and do all I can by day to bring them to Jesus.”
It is the same old story of missionary zeal inspired by a knowledge of personal indebtedness to divine grace. The fruit of grace is just the same, whether in these home lands or among the souls who are waiting for us in the dark lands abroad.
Let me quote two paragraphs further to show that the true spirit of the martyrs glows in many a native heart in the islands of the South Seas, where still much pioneer work remains to be done. This teacher was one day savagely assaulted, and left for dead. Recovering consciousness, he crawled to the mission house. Mr. Paton says:—
“On seeing him, I ran to meet him, but he fell near the teacher’s house, saying, ‘Missi, I am dying! They will kill you also. Escape for your life.’ Trying to console him, I sat down beside him, dressing his wounds and nursing him. He was quite resigned; he was looking up to Jesus, and rejoicing that he would soon be with him in glory. His pain and suffering were great, but he bore all very quietly, as he said and kept saying, ‘For the sake of Jesus! For Jesus’ sake!’ He was constantly praying for his persecutors, ‘O Lord Jesus, forgive them; for they know not what they are doing. O, take not away all thy servants from Tanna! Take not away thy worship from this dark island. O God, bring all the Tannese to love and follow Jesus!’ To him Jesus was all in all, and there were no bands in his death.”
He passed from us, in the assured hope of entering into the glory of his Lord. Humble though he may appear in the world’s esteem, I knew that a great man had fallen there in the service of Christ, and that he would take rank in the glorious army of martyrs. I made for him a coffin, and dug his grave near the mission house. With prayers and many tears, we consigned his remains to the dust in the certainty of a happy resurrection. Even one such convert was surely a triumphant reward for the missionaries whom God had honored in bringing him to Jesus. May they have many like Namuri for their crown of joy and rejoicing in the great day! W. A. S.

Saving the Sabbath

By L. A. S.

A RECENT issue of the Homiletic Review calls attention to “High-Handed Desecration of the Sabbath” in this country, and the Pittsburg Christian Advocate joins with it by reprinting its utterance. We quote some paragraphs:—
Thoughtful observers have frequently been startled of late by flagrant instances in high places of growing disregard for the Christian sabbath, and open defiance of the civil law and the Christian sentiment on which that institution rests. When King Edward VII lately shocked his English subjects, Dr. Joseph Parker said: “If the king goes to a Sunday concert, as he did recently, he deals a deadly blow to the Englishman’s Sunday. The king cannot attend a nonconformist place of worship, but he can go to a Sunday concert. If the king, who is the head of the church and defender of the faith, can violate the English Sunday, what can the people do but follow in his steps?”
When Prince Henry visited this country as the representative of Christian Germany, neither he nor the public officials having his reception in charge deigned even to notice the existence of such a thing as the American sabbath, carrying the fêting, feasting, and journeying, graceful and disgraceful alike, right through its sacred hours and across the continent. What the leaders did and permitted to be done was naturally and inevitably copied by the common people. It will take many a day to remedy the demoralization of it.
At about the same time the Christian people of the town of Aiken, S. C., were reported as having been obliged to protest to the authorities against the shocking desecration of the sacred day, by the unseemly doings and games of the multimillionaires who have so largely taken possession of that beautiful region, and whose swollen money bags have made them feel quite as independent of God and his government as do the king and the prince and the American officials.
Naturally and inevitably there hasarisen a demand among the common people—especially among those of the baser sort—for equal “rights and privileges;” and Sunday games and concerts and plays and saloons are widely clamoring for an “open Sunday,” and taking it despite all laws to the contrary. And good men are asking, with bated breath, Where is it all to end?
It may well be that disregard of the “English sabbath” by England’s king is a “deadly blow” to that institution, and that disregard of the “American sabbath” by leading and influential American citizens is likewise a severe blow to this institution, since both depend upon the laws and customs in their respective countries for their support. But the point which the good men who are looking on with bated breath ought to see, is that the true Sabbath cannot be affected by such influences, since it is neither English nor American, but is declared upon divine authority to be the “Sabbath of the Lord.” As such it rests wholly on the example and word of Jehovah, and therefore has a foundation which can never fail. No one need worry over the question of what is to become of the “Sabbath of the Lord”—the seventh day. The Lord is abundantly able to take care of all that is his own. Heaven and earth and all terrestrial things—the “English” and “American” sabbaths included—are to pass away; but the law of God is unchangeable, and the Sabbath of that law will stand with it. We wish these good men would see that the thing for them to do is to cut loose from a sabbath that depends on human laws and the example of kings and rich men for its maintenance, and lay hold on the Sabbath of the Lord, the observance of which is the sign of allegiance to the God who made heaven and earth. But the remedy which they propose is this:—
In the name of this Christian nation and of Christendom, which owe all that is best to the sabbath and the Christian institutions it embodies, and whose very life depends upon the continuance of these institutions, it is high time for every pulpit in Christendom to call a halt in this shameless degradation of God’s day.
And they are ready to go further than this, and call upon this “Christian nation” (whose unchristian character they deplore) to save the “American sabbath” by a resort to civil law. In their zeal to effect the fancied salvation of an institution, they will attack and oppress their fellow beings, and subject them to the treatment of criminals; but the truth is that the Christian’s business in this world is never the salvation of institutions, but the salvation of men. The Jews killed Christ to save the temple, but Christ was greater than the temple; and the human soul is greater than any institution that can be set up or destroyed by man.
L. A. S.

L. A. S

By L. A. S.

RECENTLY there was held in Chicago the first convention of the American Catholic Federation, of which we have made mention a number of times. The sentiment of the convention was voiced in an address by Bishop McFaul, who said he regretted much that the federation was not in existence at the time of the outbreak of hostilities between the United States and Spain, so that papal sentiment could have been more effectively expressed at that time. However, already, he said, the expression of “public opinion” through the Catholic press, stimulated by the formation of the federation, has caused the repeal of “the odious marriage order issued in Cuba by General Brooke,” and has “inclined the administration to a proper regard” for Catholic “rights.” It is the purpose of the federation, he declared, to “keep up the agitation,” and thus “aid the administration” in settling affairs in the new possessions. The organization is “deeply interested in obtaining just treatment for the friars, who have suffered under so many cruel calumnies,” and is also watching “with eagerness the educational interests of the Filipinos.” It has already taken action in this matter. The bishop said:—
In response to a protest and a petition addressed to his excellency, the president of the United States, the War Department sent the federation two letters containing information as to the total number of teachers employed, the number sent from this country, and the institutions whence the teachers came. It was denied therein that proselytism was either committed or existed in the schools.
The federation finds fault with the government for not sending Catholics to teach in the Filipino schools. These schools are under government control, and must therefore be unsectarian, if regard is to be paid to the fundamental principles of American government. To employ Catholic teachers would be to introduce Catholic teaching into these schools, in every instance where the teacher would do what a good Catholic believes to be his (or her) duty. To unite religion with the state is a Catholic principle; to divorce the two is a Protestant principle. This makes the difference, which is a vital one, between Catholic and Protestant teachers who remain true to their principles. And this federation is determined to bring all its pressure to bear to compel the administration to put Catholic teachers rather than Protestants in its public schools in the Philippines. It is determined to force the government to violate the most fundamental and sacred of republican principles of government.
The bishop made reference to “one of the letters received by the federation from the War Department,” which stated that “it is the purpose of the Philippine government to maintain in the archipelago the same kind of free non-sectarian instruction which exists in the United States, and which has proved to be for the interest of religion and all religions.” Of this the bishop said that it was “an astounding assertion, since every one knows that the American public school system has been one of the chief factors” in “the dechristianizing of America.” But the bishop did not mean by this that he would have the public school system contribute toward the making of Protestants. He would have no religion taught in the schools but that of Rome.
These quotations clearly show the spirit by which this federation is actuated, and the objects it has in view. As the bishop stated, “it is its aim to protect the interests of Catholics, whether at home or abroad.” The American government can have no proper concern with “the interests of Catholics,” as such, but only with the interests of people as citizens, without any reference whatever to religious belief.

L. A. S

Note and Comment

THE Almighty cannot be blamed for not admitting into the society of heaven those who have all their lives shown an aversion to the gatherings of his saints on earth.

Trusting in Christ Rather Than Ourselves

THE devil points individuals to their “strong points,” in order that they may fall by trusting in themselves; the Lord points out their weakness, in order that they may stand by trusting in him.

Vatican Appoints Filipino Bishop at Taft's Request

At the request of Governor Taft, the Vatican has appointed a native Filipino bishop. The Vatican has deferred to the governor also in the selection of an “apostolic delegate” at Manila. In this transaction the civil power in the Philippines appears in the light of a quasi-dictator in the affairs of the chief religious power in the islands. This, one American journal truthfully observes, is “a novel method of separating church and state.” It is in just this way that church and state are being “separated” in American affairs to-day.

Coffee Heart: A Note on Coffee Drinking

HERE is a note of interest to coffee drinkers, which we reprint from the Literary Digest of August 16:—
“Medical examiners for life-insurance societies have added the term ‘coffee heart’ to their regular classification of the functional derangements of that organ,” says The Dietetic and Hygienic Gazette. “Its effect is in shortening the long beat of the heart. Coffee topers, they say, are plentiful, and are as much tied to their cups as the whisky toper. The effect of the coffee upon the heart is more lasting, and consequently worse, than that of liquor.”
Continue reading: Words to Lay Members