p. 6 | Signs of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 34. (8/23/1905)

Question Corner

By Editor

1707.—Flesh and Blood. 1 Cor. 15:50.

"Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood can not inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption." 1 Cor. 15:50.

Does this verse mean that flesh and blood can not enter or go to heaven?
Did Adam in creation possess flesh and blood? If not, when did he come into possession of flesh and blood?
If Christ redeemed flesh back to heaven by taking flesh upon Himself, why did He take blood if He did not aim to redeem it back to heaven?

Read the context of the above scripture. Note that the resurrection is the subject of the chapter. Note also the contrast between the two heads of the race, the two Adams. In the first Adam all die; in the second, all shall be made alive. Verse 22. The first Adam became "a living soul," the second Adam was "a life-giving Spirit." The first was "natural," the second "spiritual." "The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second Man is of heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy; and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." Verses 44-49. Then follows verse 50. Now in reply to the questions:

Is not that what the text says—"flesh and blood can not inherit the kingdom of God"?
Adam in creation possessed flesh and blood, and spirit, too, was placed on probation to form a character in which the spiritual life would be dominant over the blood-life, the life of the flesh. Lev. 17:11. When that spiritual character had been formed, and the time of trial passed, man would have become spiritual, and his life spiritual life.
Christ never redeemed human flesh back to heaven, for it was never in heaven. He became human to redeem to God human character. But when He took human flesh, He took it with all its infirmities, its corruptions, its life; He must do this or He would not be man. But He did not possess blood to redeem blood. He became man to redeem man, and to demonstrate that humanity, even in its corrupt state, could receive enough of spiritual life to overcome the carnal life, the life of the flesh. The culmination of His sacrifice was to pour out the life of the flesh upon the cross. That life was given. He was raised by the spirit of God. Rom. 1:4. Even so is the child of God now quickened, and by that Spirit will he be raised. Rom. 8:11. Then shall the righteous inherit the spiritual, the heavenly, because children not of him who became a living soul, but of Him who is a Life-giving Spirit.

WHERE MEXICO LEADS.

WHILE Mexico is generally deemed—from this side of the line—as behind the great American Republic in what popularly passes for Christianity, she has some points to her credit. Writing from Puebla, under date of the 6th inst., Mr. F. S. Borton says:

Mexico is taking vast and rapid strides forward in temperance work. Mrs. A. N. Fields, of the W. C. T. U., was here for three years and succeeded in interesting the governors of several states, as well as the mayors of many cities in the great work. In Mexico City the regulations governing the selling of liquor are very strict, and any infringement of the police regulations is severely punished. Such a thing as a "pull" is unknown here, and the law is law, stern and relentless for all alike. Mexico City is probably one of the best governed and best policed cities of the world. The way of the transgressor (of the law) is hard down here, mighty hard, and the American saloon-keeper here who would "make it all right" with the "ward boss" in the United States, finds that he has to "walk softly" when it comes to trying anything of the sort with the Mexican police. Here there are no "bosses," no "ward heelers"—all those elements of modern United States civilization are absolutely unknown in Aztec land. Law here is spelled with big capital letters.

THE SPREAD OF THE DRUG HABIT.

By Australasian Good Health

ONE of the most threatening of the sociological questions which the influence of the physician calls him to meet, is the astonishing spread of various drug habits. The rapidity in the increase of the consumption of those substances whose influence upon the nervous system leads to their habitual use, is truly horrifying to those who are interested in the physical welfare of the nation. The statistics collected by the committee on drug habitues of the American Pharmaceutical Association are of ominous portent. According to the report there was an increase of over 57,000 lbs. in the amount of opium imported into U. S. A. in 1902 compared with the figures of the previous year, and at the time of the publication of the report, the figures of 1903 bade fair to surpass those of 1902. Still more astonishing are the figures for the consumption of salts of morphine. The amount of this alkaloid consumed in the first nine months of the year 1903 was nearly 120,000 ounces, considerably more than twice as much as the amount imported for the twelve months of 1901. Nor has this increase in the consumption of drugs been limited solely to preparations of opium. The amount of cocaine imported has increased in the past two years about fifty per cent., while the consumption of chloral is more than six times as large.

SUNDAY LAW EXEMPTION CLAUSES.

By G.

In several of the states the Sunday laws have exemption clauses which provide that the penalties do not apply to persons who religiously observe any other day as a day of rest. Such conditional exemption is unjust, because it is unequal in its requirement. No Sunday law requires men to religiously or conscientiously observe Sunday. A formal observance is all that is required; but one who observes another day must make it a matter of religious conscience. Thus the state makes it necessary for the courts to judge concerning the consciences of those who choose to rest upon any other day than Sunday.

Another point in these exemptions is equally unjust, because unequal: It is always required of those who rest upon other days than Sunday, that their Sunday labor must not in any way disturb those who rest upon that day. Now it is not required of Sunday observers that their labor on the rest-day of others shall not disturb any one who rests on such

day. Those who observe another day for rest and worship must take their own chances on being disturbed—according to Sunday-law logic—while the Sunday-keepers must needs be protected by special law.

It would appear, however, that those who keep Sunday are more easily disturbed than other people. Somehow Sunday-keeping, in its more conscientious phase, has a tendency to make people nervously intolerant, abnormally susceptible to being disturbed. A few years ago four of our brethren were arrested on charges of Sunday labor at Olney, Ill. At the trial, one of the witnesses, an old lady, testified that she lived about a quarter of a mile from where one of the accused was plowing, and that she was very much disturbed by the noise. She was also much disturbed to see a "good boy" working on the day she was taught to keep as a sabbath. She was so troubled over the Sunday work that she could not sleep at night.

Another witness who lived some distance away was so disturbed that neither he nor his family could rest at night. And still another, who had himself hived bees on the previous Sunday, was so disturbed by the Sunday labor of others that he could not rest. Moreover the two chief prosecutors had been themselves convicted of disturbing a singing-school.

On such testimony as this the accused persons were convicted, altho the Illinois Sunday law has an exemption clause for those who observe the seventh-day Sabbath. Thus the exemption clauses of Sunday laws may be entirely nullified through the requirement that those who labor on that day must not disturb people whose religion consists in being disturbed by their own prejudices.

HYPNOTISM IN COURTS.

By Editor

The Devil to Be a Helper in Reform.

WE have given favorable comment in times past on the Juvenile Court of Denver, Colo., as an earnest effort to reform the young. But we wish to take all back if the method proposed in the following news item is to be followed:

DENVER, July 28.—Hypnotism is to be adopted by Judge Lindsey as a distinct feature in the work of the Juvenile Court, in which work he has won prominence. This fact was announced to-day by the judge on his return from Portland, Ore., where he has been attending the International Convention of Charities and Corrections. The manifold possibilities which lie in this new method, which is undoubtedly the most sensational ever introduced in any court in any place, were discussed at length by Judge Lindsey. He is under the impression that he will be able to do more good, which will be lasting good, by this mode of treatment than he has ever done heretofore.

"My intention is," said he, "to practise myself, so that I may become proficient. I shall also have my other workers study the subject. I shall endeavor when I am away to secure the services of prominent hypnotists to take my place in dealing with the children. When I take it up, as I have determined to do, I shall go into it for all that it is worth."

While the children are in a hypnotic state the cessation of objectionable behaviour will be suggested to them and they will be released.

The Lord Jehovah created the mind free. All the effort put forth by Him through all the ages has been for the purpose of freeing men from bondage and establishing that freedom. Even the Creator will not enter the sacred circle, which He has placed around humanity, to compel man to do right. "Choose ye" is the only way Infinite Love can deal with man, and the only true way. Only by free choice is character rightly developed and the will properly trained and strengthened.

But hypnotism—suggestion to enslaved minds—has ever been one of the potent means that Satan has ever used for the weakening and enslaving of minds. The Creator's plan was and is that man's mind should be subject to one will alone in all the universe, and that is the will of his God and Saviour, in the subjection to which he finds perfect freedom. But hypnotism subjects the human will to that of the human, to the creature, weakens its resisting power, and leaves the soul a prey to the devil for all time to come.

For it is well known that a person who has been once hypnotized more readily yields to its influence the next time, and still more easily the next time. The power to resist the influence is finally destroyed, and the soul is left a derelict on the sea of irresponsible mentality. And all such will be used by the chief hypnotist in all this world, the devil; men may subject souls to their own will by its influence with the best of motives, but by that very means they are weakening that soul's will, they are destroying its resisting power, and are rendering him a much easier prey to the master of hypnotism—the devil. And therefore he who is using this means—he be judge or physician or teacher or minister—is acting, the unconscious to himself, as an agent of the devil. If that is the method of this Denver court, whatever its temporary result, it will reap a fearful harvest in the judgment.

"TAKE HEED HOW YE HEAR."

By G.

This is a very important injunction, for the reason that hearing the truth adds to one's responsibility. The more one knows, the more he is to blame if he does wrong. Of itself, "knowledge puffeth up." Those who have had educational advantages, without the wisdom that adheres to humility, are apt to consider themselves superior to those who are not so endowed. But knowledge does not justify any one; unsanctified, it strengthens guilt, adds to the condemnation of the guilty. A hearer of the truth who does not practise it, is self-deceived. So the Spirit says, "Be ye doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves."

Along with this counsel is a promised blessing to those who heed it: "Whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty [considering its requirements], and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed."

As Jesus was teaching the people on one occasion, "a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted Him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou? And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself. And He said unto him, Thou hast answered right; this do, and thou shalt live."

Now that lawyer's knowledge of the law had not been of any advantage to him; for in spite of it he was presumptuous enough to "tempt" the One who had given the law. And if, after this information of the Saviour, this essential gem of Gospel truth, he still neglected or refused to do that which he knew, his condemnation would be the more certain.

"Take heed how ye hear." G.

PROTESTANTISM AND CATHOLICISM IN GERMANY.

PROF. GEORGE H. SHODDE, PH.D., one of the best informed Americans on German affairs, tells us that the "era of good feeling" which prevailed some ten years ago in the land of Luther is passed. He says:

"It seems not improbable that Cardinal Weisman's prophecy is to prove true, who declared that the great apocalyptic battle between Catholicism and Protestantism is to be fought to a finish on the sands of Berlin. Nowhere else are the conditions more favorable for a struggle between the two on an equal basis than is the case here. In Germany Roman Catholicism is at its best and at its worst. It is at its best, because through its contact and competition with Protestantism it stands spiritually, intellectually, and socially higher than it does anywhere else."

But about the same thing can be said of Protestantism, that it stands at its best and at its worst in Germany, and the saddest part of it is that the worst seems to have the greater influence. Germany is the home of Higher Criticism, and a large number of influential thinkers stand on that side. These men have deprived Protestantism of all power by taking from it, in the minds of the people, its source of power, the Bible.

All that made Protestantism what it is in Germany was simple faith in the Gospel of God. Turning from that Gospel, the source of her life, Protestantism is bound to fall. She has nothing positive to present to the people. She is like a great, magnificent hulk on the theological sea, without chart or compass or rudder, elated with her own learning, wealth, and numbers, yet drifting on to destruction. Week by week the empty forms are repeated, and nominally the memory of Luther is cherished, but the living principles which ruled him and which made the Reformation and made Germany are almost wholly wanting. How can such a body as that meet the coherent harmony of Roman Catholicism, which, erroneous tho it may be, has a positive force and holds before the people a tangible something? Would to God that Germany would return unto her old-time principles, casting off all alliance with the state and with worldly power, and standing for the Word of God and that alone. Then could she hope to meet Roman Catholicism; but on any other grounds "Protestantism" will wage a losing battle.

DRIFTING TOWARD ROME.

No PROTESTANT ever went over to Rome at one deliberate bound. There was a time when Judas would have spurned the idea of betraying Christ. So it is gradual departure from the faith, a following of the wisdom of the world, the traditions of men, that carry Protestants over to Rome. When Dr. Briggs first became a recognized theological teacher in the Presbyterian Church he would not have said, as he says to-day, that "a more thorough study of the Bible has shown that the Reformers were, all of them, greatly mistaken in their interpretations."

He had to drift a long way toward Rome—drift clear out of Presbyterianism and a good way into High Church Episcopalianism—before he was ready to take that stand.

But he has reached that point; and it is but a logical inference that, if the Reformers were all wrong, Rome was all right. In a recent article in the North American Review Dr. Briggs refers very hopefully to a prospective reformation by the Catholic Church throughout the world, that will erelong prove to be "the greatest revival and reformation known to history."

There is one utterance in his article, however, which contains a considerable degree of truth, at least with reference to a very great number of professed Protestants. He says: "The common doctrine of the present Protestant theologians would not be recognized by any of the Reformers. The dogmatic differences with Rome either no longer really exist, or are in different forms, and concerned with different questions."

Surely a man holding such views, and others equally partial to Rome, will not long see the propriety or expediency of nominally maintaining the imaginary line between High Church Episcopalianism and Romanism. The great revival that Dr. Briggs sees arising on the theological horizon will no doubt be enlivened by the song, from professed Protestant ranks, We are coming, father Pius, three hundred million strong.

SUNDAY ENFORCEMENT NOTES AND COMMENT.

RESOLUTIONS condemning the postal authorities for keeping the post-offices open during certain hours on Sunday, were adopted by the ministerial association of Lewistown, Pa., on June 4. The business men of Lewistown have labored for two years to have this condition brought about, and now they are opposed by the ministers.

THE deputy prosecutor of Dana, Ind., recently told a complainant that if he wanted violators of the Sunday law prosecuted, all he had to do was to make affidavit of information, or go before the grand jury.

SUNDAY excursions and baccalaureate sermons are irreconcilable, according to Rev. Douglas Sutton, of St. Andrew’s Rectory, Livingston, Mont. It seems that a Sunday excursion was included in the celebration of the graduation of the senior class of the high school at that place recently. This caused the Rev. Sutton, who was doubtless the minister who had been asked to preach the baccalaureate sermon, to enter a protest in the Livingston Enterprise, in which he presented this interrogation:

"Is it not a farce to ask any minister of the Gospel to preach a sermon to young people on the occasion of their graduation, setting forth, as he must do, for their serious consideration the very highest ideals of the Christian life and the obligations they are under to observe God’s law, when on the previous Sunday they have been encouraged to break that divine law and desecrate the Lord’s day?"

He declared that he could not "but regret the influence that sanctioned and approved such a breach of God’s commandment when our young people were about to celebrate one of the most important events of their lives." Rev. Sutton overestimates entirely the value and importance of Sunday observance morally and religiously. Failure to observe Sunday is no breach of moral or religious duty. It is not a breach of divine law theologically, say nothing of morally and ethically.

CLERGYMEN of Atlanta, Ga., are carrying out their plan announced early in the spring to prevent the Sunday operation of the Ponce de Leon amusement park, a summer resort of that city. At the instance of the ministers of Atlanta the amusement features of Ponce de Leon have been closed for half the day on Sunday.

By a ruling of the Supreme Court of Ohio the omission of the word "necessity" from all Sunday ordinances renders them void. In the Sunday ordinance of Ashland, which was passed in 1898 and is based on the state law which is older than the state, that word is omitted. Mayor Winbigler has ordered the closing of cigar stores, ice-cream parlors, cigar departments in drug stores, fruit stands, meat markets, clothing and shoe stores on Sunday." The mayor’s order was issued upon the request of a committee representing the citizens’ league, which demanded that he enforce the old and obsolete law in regard to Sunday closing, and the members of which pledged themselves to swear out affidavits in cases of violation. There was considerable indignation on the part of dealers and their patrons at the order.

INDIAN TERRITORY seems to be suffering from a pretty general epidemic of Sunday enforcement of late. The latest is a stringent ordinance passed by the city council of Claremore.

The police of Warsaw, Russian Poland, have begun a campaign against Jewish Socialists. Two hundred and fifty of these were arrested on August 10, and the Russian report has it that they were armed with revolvers and daggers. Bombs continue to be thrown at frequent intervals. Gangs of revolutionists, armed with revolvers and bombs, have attacked the treasurers of three different cities, resulting in hard fighting with the police, numbers of whom have been killed or wounded.

The north-pole expedition, financed by the late William Zeigler, of New York, and under the direction of Anthony Fiala, was rescued by the arctic steamship Terranova, sent out for the relief of the expedition. The Zeigler-Fiala expedition did not succeed in reaching the north pole, and they lost their ship the first year, it having been crushed in the ice. This expedition departed in July, 1903, and the highest latitude reached was 82 degrees and 13 minutes.

The terrible scourge of yellow fever continues to spread in the city of New Orleans, tho the health authorities seem to have been quite successful in confining it to the vicinity of that city. Up to August 10 there had been a total of 747 cases, with a total of 124 deaths. A prominent Catholic, Monsignor Chappelle, succumbed to the disease on August 8.

The Chinese boycott of American goods and American business continues to grow and to become more of a menace to American commerce in the Orient. Chinese merchants in ports of other countries are taking up the boycott, and canceling their orders for American goods. It is said that the boycott has now gone beyond even the control of the government.

Twenty-four religious denominations, representing, it is said, 18,000,000 communicants, have each appointed from five to fifty delegates to meet at an inter-church convention at New York City on November 15. The object of this conference will be to discuss church federation, in the hope of effecting a federation of the Protestant churches of America.

China is perfecting arrangements for the establishment of a first-class army and navy. China’s fleet will be thoroughly reorganized, and plans have been laid for raising the necessary funds. A ministry of marine will be formed and naval schools organized under the direction of Japanese instructors.

A squadron of the French navy is now visiting English waters, returning the recent visit of the British squadron to French waters. The French squadron and a British squadron have been reviewed by King Edward, and every mark of hospitality is being shown the visitors.

A large department store of Albany, N. Y., collapsed on August 8, burying a large number of the employees and a few customers in the ruins. The dead bodies already taken from the debris number 13, and others are known to be still in the ruins.

Sweeping reductions have been made by the government in the rates charged for transportation across the Isthmus of Panama, in order to bring about an exchange of products between western South America and eastern North America.

The Japanese Government has despatched one naval squadron to Kamchatka and another to Okhotsk. They are now engaged in carrying out their instructions, which probably means that they are invading Russian territory.

It is reported that John D. Rockefeller has decided to give to the University of Chicago $50,000,000, with the intention of making that the greatest university in the world.

The total number of men who lost their lives in the explosion on the gunboat Bennington, at San Diego, Cal., on July 21, is 66, the last victim having died on August 8.

A great conflagration swept the waterfront of Hoboken, N. J., on August 7, destroying shipping and wharfage property to the amount of a million and a half dollars.

EDUCATED CRIMINALS.

By The Commoner

PROFESSOR WILLIAM JAMES, of Harvard University, in a recent address, said: “There is not a public abuse on the whole eastern coast which does not receive the enthusiastic approval of some Harvard graduate.” And he added: “Fifty years ago the schools were supposed to free us from crimes and unhappiness; but we do not indulge in such sanguine hopes to any such extent to-day. The education frees us from the more brutal forms of crime, it is true that education itself has put even meaner forms of crime in our way. The intellect is a servant of our passions, and sometimes education only makes the person more adroit in carrying out these impulses.”

President Roosevelt, in his speech at Harvard, brought substantially the same indictment against the well-educated lawyers. Unpleasant as it may be, the truth of these statements must be admitted. If our schools train men and then leave them to prey upon society, we are going to find a decreasing interest in education.

What we need just now is to cultivate a moral purpose in our students which will make them employ their talent and their training for the benefit of society rather than against it. In other words, ethical development must accompany intellectual development or our country will find itself at the mercy of a lot of well-educated criminals trained at public expense for public harm. And it is just this ethical training that is likely to be neglected by a college which asks for an endowment from the trust magnate and the market speculator. As long as our colleges are looking to the big criminals for endowments, the professors can not take the position they ought to on sociological and economic questions. — The Commoner.

FORETOKENS OF OUR LORD'S RETURN

By Prof. George W. Rine

THE UNIVERSALITY OF GRAFT.

(Concluded.)

The "Loan Shark" Graft.

ONE of the most brutal and remorselessly avid class of grafters peculiar to our day is the fraternity of pawnbrokers, or popularly stigmatized by the phrase "loan sharks." The tales told by the victims of these rapacious wolves, regarding their mad clutchings, seem positively incredible. Once in their gripping power, the victim is looted to a finish. In one instance—in New York City—the borrower was compelled to pay $31.50 interest on a loan of $19.75. Another paid $36 interest on a loan of $25. One victim, after paying back a loan of $25, with $15 interest, had all his furniture, including the baby's cradle, seized for default of further payments, and was politely informed that he was still indebted to the lender in the sum of $16.50.

The editor of a conservative San Francisco journal told his readers that the lending Shylocks of that city invariably extort, from their helpless borrowers, interest varying from twenty-five per cent. to one hundred per cent. on all loans, even when made for only a month or two. Notwithstanding the competition among these ravenous lenders for business, their exactions grow constantly greater as the days go by. What is true in New York and San Francisco relative to this species of graft is equally true in every other important center of population.

A Type of Corporation Graft.

A few years ago a corporation was launched, with some of our most conspicuous and respected rich men as its directors. At first the stock was quoted low, and remained in the hands of the directors. Presently they declared a generous dividend; at once the market value of the stock almost doubled. The expected result was realized—the public said: "Here is certainly a most promising enterprise, profitable already, and backed by some of our ablest financiers." The directors detected the "psychological moment," sold out, and retired. In the proceedings begun by one of the new stockholders, it was shown that the dividend had been "faked," not earned. When this stockholder convinced the directors who had sold out that he was in earnest they quieted him and forestalled criminal prosecution by paying back to him the "fake" dividend. "But—they did not pay back to the public a penny of the money they had stolen by selling out at the high price made possible by the fake dividend."

Does not this wretched thing simply mean that those conspicuous and respectable men are, in plain truth, guilty of grand larceny? "But," says Mr. Lorimer, "they are losing no sleep over it. They have not lost standing." They are simply so many millions "to the good." On Sunday mornings, of course, they piously sit in their luxurious pews and deplore the increasing wickedness of society.

It would be easy to give multiplied illustrations of this species of "refined" graft. "Wo unto him who increaseth that which is not his."

Graft and Municipal Taxes.

The Era Magazine tells its readers that the New York City budget is greater by seventy-five per cent. than the entire cost of the state government. Competent authority places the amount of taxes, in that city, at $28 a year for each man, woman, and child, or $150 for each family. These taxes are not all paid directly, but they are inevitably paid in rent, food supplies, and in every other necessity of life. What makes these taxes so exorbitant and the civil administration wretchedly bad? A system of boodle, of politics for the benefit of the spoilsmen, which the World has characterized as a "system of organized graft." It is confined to no branch of the city government. It flourishes wherever graft is possible, wherever money must be appropriated, or the agencies of official routine come in touch with the business of the people. It is a system that wrings money from the pockets of the citizens for good government, and then gives the worst by selling all public-service franchises to a ring of despoilers, and sacrifices nearly every public interest to individual private greed. The Street Cleaning Department was paid $600,000 the past winter to be used for clearing the streets of snow. Only one-sixth of the amount was expended for that purpose. "Men scarcely able to pay for a mouthful of bread were forced to pay for tickets [graft] to stand in line to plead for snow-shoveling jobs they never got." I give this as an illustration of the deadly plague of graft that is gnawing at the vitals of every important city government in the nation.

Especially are city Police departments graft-eaten. With the connivance of their chiefs, policemen levy tribute on keepers of vile saloons and dives in return for immunity; they have blind eyes for places of ill-repute in return for certain "considerations;" they countenance flagrant misdemeanors for a fat share of the "swag." They have even been charged in the public press with abetting robberies, with sharing the "loot" of crooks and thugs, and of actually holding up prisoners in the police cell for a part of their stolen plunder. Well, this whole satanic business simply spells g-r-a-f-t!

Yet do not despair, good citizen. For do not practically all our optimistic brethren of the cloth wax eloquent in telling and retelling us that "the world is growing better"? Still, it might be profitable at times to give ear to Paul: "In the last days perilous times shall come." "Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived." 2 Tim. 3:1, 13.

Pay Graft, or Carry a Hod.

Mr. Will Payne tells the readers of a certain journal that a few years ago an ambitious young lawyer left his village home to begin his professional career in a large city. After waiting many weary days, he got a case of some little importance, the winning of which was to turn upon the prompt service of an attachment in 61st Street. Having procured the attachment and delivered it to the sheriff's office with minute instruction as to service, he went to his office and waited word from his client who was keeping watch in 61st Street. A long time elapsed, the impatient client telephoned to the lawyer, and the lawyer telephoned to the sheriff's office. He received a vague, unsatisfactory reply; so he went over to the sheriff's office, swollen with indignation. He found the deputy and began criticizing him, when the deputy arose from his desk, and in ringing terms denounced the lawyer for a lobster, a rustic, etc., and quickly convinced him that the rule, "No 'boodle,' no service," was in force in that office. The young lawyer saw the point, and sadly produced the only bank-note he had, and poisoned again the wellsprings of public office. Of course the attachment was instantly served. Telling his story to an experienced legal friend, the latter significantly answered:

You could have gone to the court and complained, and the court would no doubt have ordered the process served. Or you could have gone to a newspaper, and the newspaper would have roasted that deputy, the chief deputy, the sheriff, the board of county commissioners, and, very likely, the court itself. Or you could sue the deputy to recover the money you paid under duress. But if you did any of these things, being a young and unknown lawyer with other processes to have served, you would probably find it profitable to drop the law business and get a job carrying the hod.

That lawyer is now older, has more worldly wisdom. This case is not an exception. It is typical of the universal condition.

Why Significant to the Child of God.

The sinister phenomenon briefly pictured in this discussion was fully foreseen and foretold by the prophets of God. In verse 3 of the 7th chapter of Micah, the prophet gives a graphic forecast of the prevalence of bribery in the time when Christians would be looking for the appearing of "the God of my salvation." Verse 7. Note: "Their hands are upon that which is evil to do it diligently; the prince asketh, and the judge is ready for a reward; and the great man, he uttereth the evil desire of his soul; thus they weave it together." A. R. V. His thought intent upon the time when God will gather His saints, David prays: "Gather not my soul with sinners, nor my life with bloody men; in whose hand is mischief, and their right hand is full of bribes." Ps. 26:9, 10.

Is not the evidence of the present-day fulfilment of these prophecies positively overwhelming in its magnitude? And this striking fulfilment is one of the multitude of reasons why the Author of prophecy could give His children the comforting assurance, "But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief." 1 Thess. 5:4. May He grant this to be the happy experience of every reader!

Faith and Belief

By A. P. Barton

FAITH heals, while belief allows the work to be done. Faith can not exist in degrees—it is absolute. It is the point in the progress of belief, in its conquest of the mind, where the last vestige of doubt goes out. So long as there is the least taint of doubt about the ability of the Word to do the work, it is not faith. But just as soon as the last shade of shadow is removed from the focalized point of the ray of truth, and it is allowed to shine clearly, even to the meager measurement of a grain of mustard, the efficiency to do the thing desired, the thing toward which the Word is directed, is absolutely resistless.—A. P. Barton.

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