p. 2 | Review and Herald, Vol. 79, No. 15. (4/15/1902)

Review and Herald

Apr 15, 1902

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Michigan · Apr 15, 1902

Luther at the Wartburg

THE WARTBURG CASTLE, NEAR EISENACH, GERMANY

“About one hour before midnight they (the guards who had captured Luther) reached the foot of a mountain. The horses ascended slowly. On the summit was an old castle, surrounded on all sides, save that by which it was approached, by the black forests that cover the mountains of Thuringia. It was to this lofty and isolated fortress, named the Wartburg, where in former times the ancient landgraves had sheltered themselves, that Luther was conducted. The bolts were drawn back, the iron bars fell, the gates opened; the Reformer crossed the threshold; the doors were closed behind him. . . . ‘It was there,’ says Mathesius, his friend and biographer, ‘that the doctor abode, like St. Paul in his prison at Rome.’”—D’Aubigné’s History of the Reformation, Vol. II, pages 277, 278.

Reading Matter for the People

THESE BOOKS CONTAIN A MESSAGE FOR THE WORLD

Heralds of the Morning.

Takes up the marvelous record of the nineteenth century—the wonderful advances in science and art, and the development of natural resources; the prevalence of crime; the perfection of death-dealing instruments of war, and the pent-up anger of nations; together with the disturbed condition of the elements—and points out to the reader the fact that in this are signs that declare the coming of the Son of man. 280 pages, 100 illustrations.

Price……$1.25 and $1.50.

Order of your State Tract Society.

Marshaling of the Nations.

By ALONZO T. JONES.

This pamphlet briefly outlines the course of Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, and Greece; treats of the division of the Roman Empire into the ten kingdoms, and from these the gradual development of the great powers of to-day, and accounts for their strategical position on the map of the world, and their role in the Eastern question, and the dismemberment of Turkey, and notices the rise of the United States as a prophetical nation. The part that each government is to act in the last great conflict is tersely considered, and the whole is calculated to give a general idea of the part each nation is to act in fulfilling prophecy.

44 Pages……$0.10

Order of your State Tract Society.

Sound an Alarm.

Bible Student’s Library, No. 167.

This tract strikes at every root of the great labor question now being agitated by all classes of our country’s inhabitants, and shows that in the great state of restlessness which is permeating all society, are signs of our Lord’s return.

16 Pages, illustrated……1 cent.

Mothers’ and Teachers’ Manual.

Mothers and teachers should have a copy of the “Mothers’ and Teachers’ Manual,” written by Prof. O. C. Lewis, and especially designed to assist in the home and church schools. It contains valuable suggestions for mothers and teachers, and the prices are within the reach of all.

Paper cover, postpaid……$0.35

Cloth “ ”………………50

Order of your State Tract Society.

Manual for Canvassers.

We have a small vest-pocket book, nicely bound in leather, containing a compilation of the principal matter written by Mrs. E. G. White upon the canvassing work, gleaned from the Testimonies and the “Gospel Workers,” combined with unpublished manuscript compiled under the direction of the author, and arranged in convenient form for reference. It is indispensable to the canvasser, and good for all who are interested in one of the most potent factors in the dissemination of the third angel’s message.

Order of your State Tract Society.

Guide to Correct Language.

A Ready Reference Book.

By PROF. G. H. BELL.

A treatise convenient for the use of all people in all callings and professions, and especially helpful to printers, teachers, students, and those who write for the press. It contains facts that everybody wishes to know about the correct use of the English language, and these facts are so arranged that they can be instantly found.

Substantially bound in cloth. Size, 6 x 9¼ inches.

Price, postpaid……$1.00

Order of your State Tract Society.

“The Marvel of Nations.”

ALTHOUGH this excellent book has been published in the English language for a number of years, and is accomplishing a wonderful work, it has never been printed in any of the foreign tongues until the present time. It is now in type in the Danish, Swedish, and German languages, and the printing and binding are being hurried as fast as possible.

The time appointed for its completion in all three languages is May 1, 1902. It will be issued simultaneously in the three languages. Agents are assured the books will be ready for delivery May 1st.

This book tends to revive the old-time energy in the canvassing work. It contains the message for this time, as is evident from its power to stimulate believers, and to attract the attention of the public. It has accomplished good wherever it has been placed in the English language, and there is no question but it will be the means of bringing the message to thousands of our foreign neighbors.

Object of this Book

While the book contains many interesting and profitable facts for the people of this country, facts that easily attract and hold their attention, the special object of the book is to call the attention of the public to the future of this nation, and to the second coming of Christ. It should be placed in the homes of all the German, Danish, and Swedish people in this country in the immediate future. All our foreign members should push the circulation of this book during the coming season. It is an easy book to sell, and our lay members can readily learn to sell it.

Prospectus

The prospectus is a full English book in the best binding, with sample pages in all the foreign languages bound in. This arrangement is convenient in exhibiting the book in any one, or all, of the languages, as circumstances may require. With the combined prospectus, the canvasser may solicit orders for the book in all the languages. The price of the prospectus is 60 cts., postpaid.

Prices

The prices in the foreign languages are the same as the English prices,—$1.25 for the plain edges, and $1.50 for the gilt edges.

Place all orders with your State Tract Society.

A Chart of the Week.

A splendid display in chart form showing the unchanged order of the days, and the position of the Sabbath, as proved by the combined testimony of 159 ancient and modern languages.

This chart is substantially mounted on rollers, and is printed on paper, on cloth, and in the original languages. It is eighteen inches wide and seven feet long. It is an excellent argument to have in presenting the Sabbath. The regular original price of the chart is $1.00, but for a short time we will send it, postpaid, for 45 cents.

Order of the Review and Herald Publishing Company.

The Great Controversy.

By MRS. E. G. WHITE.

A book that the people should have, especially at this time. In this book is represented the severe contest between truth and error, and the tenacity with which Satan holds to his position. The warning this book contains, and the dangers pointed out, are what the people need now. It is published in the English, Danish, German, and French languages. Price, $4.50, according to style of binding.

Order of your State Tract Society.

Looking unto Jesus.

Christ in Type and Antitype. An exhaustive treatise on the subject of the sanctuary, in a neatly written and nicely illustrated book of 160 pages, on the work of Christ as revealed in prophecy from the beginning, by Uriah Smith.

Prices:

Plain Cloth, postpaid……$1.00

Presentation Edition, postpaid……$1.25

Order of your State Tract Society.

A New Tract.

Revelation the fourteenth chapter of the eighth verse, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink the wine of the wrath of her fornication,” is the subject of the new tract entitled “The Fall of Babylon,” by Elder R. C. Porter. It is published in the Bible Students’ Library, No. 169. It has an appropriate illustration, contains 22 pages, and sells for 1½ cents; with usual discount to tract societies.

Order of your State Tract Society.

Miraculous Powers.

The Scripture Testimony on the Perpetuity of Spiritual Gifts.

Berean Library, No. 9.

The belief that Spiritual Gifts still exist in the church is here supported by means of historical evidence and a compilation of testimony from the writings of eminent fathers and the greatest religious writers of every period of the Christian dispensation. Every Seventh-day Adventist needs to be thoroughly versed in regard to this great point of doctrine, and the volume will be a source of the greatest assistance in this respect.

128 pages, price……15

Order of your State Tract Society.

The Master’s Greatest Monosyllables.

In commendation of the new book by Pearce, entitled “The Master’s Greatest Monosyllables,” Elder W. E. Frederick says, “The writer, in a concise way, has developed truths that are especially applicable to us at this time.”

Those who fail to read this book will miss a great blessing. If the chapter headings were read and heeded by each one of the workers, the gospel would soon be carried to all the world, and our blessed Lord would come. May the Lord wake up his people that they may become efficient workers.

Price, postpaid…………50

Order of your State Tract Society.

Every State Tract Society is an agent for the Review and Herald Publishing Company, and will supply these publications at the prices indicated.

The Falling Away

By Editor

Editorial

The Falling Away

IN speaking of the circumstances which led up to the great Reformation of the sixteenth century, the historian D’Aubigné says: “The church had fallen, because the great doctrine of justification by faith in the Saviour had been taken away from her. It was necessary, therefore, before she could rise again, that this doctrine should be restored to her.” In this brief statement is found the whole philosophy of the falling away, of which the church was warned by the apostle Paul, and of the movement under Luther and his associates for the restoration of a pure gospel.

A Living Principle

THE one fundamental and vital doctrine, the essential principle of Christianity as opposed to heathenism under any guise, is a personal faith in the gift of God’s righteousness as the power of the gospel which saves from sin. “This article of justification,” said Luther, “is what creates the church, nourishes it, edifies it, preserves and defends it: no one can teach worthily in the church, or oppose an adversary with success, if he does not adhere to this truth. This is the heel that shall bruise the head of the serpent.”

The Power of the Reformation

THE light and life which brought about the Reformation began to be revealed to Luther in his early experience as a lecturer on the Bible before the students of the University at Wittenberg. “In the retirement of his quiet cell, he used to consecrate whole hours to the study of the divine Word; this epistle of St. Paul (the epistle to the Romans) lying open before him. On one occasion having reached the seventeenth verse of the first chapter, he read this passage from the prophet Habakkuk: The just shall live by faith. This precept struck him. There is, then, for the just a life different from that of other men; and this life is the gift of faith. This promise, which he received into his heart as if God himself had placed it there, unveils to him the mystery of the Christian life, and increases this life in him. . . . This powerful text had a mysterious influence on the life of Luther. It was a creative sentence both for the Reformer and for the Reformation. It was in these words God then said, Let there be light! and there was light.”

Another Falling Away

THE work which was begun by Luther and his fellow workers was not carried to completion. In the course of years the very principles which had wrought the Reformation were gradually abandoned in large degree. The same subtle working of the mystery of iniquity, which was the cause of the original falling away, manifested itself again in substituting a creed for “the Word of God . . . the palladium of the Reformation,” an elaborate ritual in the place of simple heart worship, and the traditions of men in the place of the commandments of God. This has brought about another falling away, and the logic of the situation demands a return to genuine gospel principles.

Another Reformation

AND this final reformation, which is to prepare the way of the Lord, must be wrought by the very same vital principle which revealed its power so gloriously in the sixteenth century: “The just shall live by faith.” We must proclaim “the righteousness of Christ, which is made manifest in obedience to all the commandments of God. . . . This is the message that God commanded to be given to the world. It is the third angel’s message, which is to be proclaimed with a loud voice, and attended with the outpouring of his Spirit in a large measure.” The providence of God is just as much calling now for men like Luther and Melancthon, men who will devote their lives to the principles of truth, and give themselves to God to be used mightily in the restoration of the pure gospel in this our day, as it called for them in their day. The hour is ripe for a new reformation. Let it begin in the hearts of even a few, and it will soon spread to the ends of the earth.

For men who are full of that divine courage which is born of a personal fellowship with God, there is now the greatest possible opportunity for valiant service in the cause of truth and righteousness; but, as Luther himself said, “Let him that will not, or who cannot, risk something with confidence in God, take heed how he undertakes anything.” “Who then is willing to consecrate his service this day unto the Lord?”

Behold He Cometh

By Uriah Smith

“Behold, He cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.” Rev. 1:7. The startling cry of a herald, uttered in the ears of a world in deadly peril! It proclaims the second advent of the Son of God, an event which will eclipse the record of every event that has gone before it in the whole history of the human race, from the beginning of time,—an event surpassing all other events in such glowing intensity that even the holy and beloved prophets, Daniel and John, fell as dead men before the angel that showed them the view of it, till they were strengthened by his angelic touch,—a day before which the most dazzling brightness that the chemistry of man can produce, will hide its head in utter blackness,—a day fraught with the most abrupt changes and world cataclysms that have ever overwhelmed humanity. Such a day is coming. Many will be startled by its opening scenes, then sink into death, from which they will not awake till a thousand years have rolled their slow length around. But every eye shall see Him,—every eye of the kindreds, tongues, and peoples that are living when he comes. But the declaration goes further than this: “And they also which pierced him.” This carries the mind inevitably back to the day of the crucifixion of our Lord, and the work of those who drove the cruel spikes through his hands, and thrust the spear into his side. And this text asserts that these

men will see him when he comes in his glory. But these men have already been sleeping in their graves for nearly two thousand years; and how, then, do they appear on this occasion?—By a special resurrection. We know that the resurrection of the dead takes place in two grand divisions, a thousand years apart,—the righteous, in the first division; “the dead in Christ shall rise first” (1 Thess. 4:16); and the wicked, in the second resurrection; and “the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished.” Rev. 20:5.

But while the dead are set apart in two great divisions, the Scriptures do make special provision for the resurrection of those mentioned in Rev. 1:7. See Dan. 12:1. This chapter introduces the great time of trouble, when Michael stands up, “the great Prince which standeth for the children of thy people.” The next verse (Dan. 12:2) reads as follows: “And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” This cannot be the general resurrection; for that is a classified resurrection,—the righteous and the wicked by themselves, respectively; but the resurrection here spoken of is a mixed resurrection, some righteous, raised to everlasting life, and some wicked, raised to shame and everlasting contempt. Now apply Rev. 1:7. Here are the ones raised at this time to shame and everlasting contempt,—the very ones who pierced him, that is, who had a part in his crucifixion, now raised to see him come in his glory. Would not this be fitting and appropriate? And among those raised in this promiscuous resurrection will be some raised to everlasting life. These will be some of those entitled to antecedent rewards, who will doubtless receive the stamp of eternal life when the final resurrection of the righteous takes place. Those who perish in the partial resurrection will perish again, in the second death, in the final closing up of the controversy with sin. Rev. 20:12-15. Most of the wicked experience death only twice; the death they die after the second resurrection is, and is called in their cases, the second death. But here are some of these exceptional cases who experience death three times. These remarks are offered to meet a query that might arise in some minds. But we find nothing inappropriate, inconsistent, or unjust in finding a place for these applications of the Scriptures.

He Surely Cometh

The Lord himself bears witness as to the manner of his coming, the same as in Rev. 1:7. See Matt. 24:30: “And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.” Again: “For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” The herald cry, “Behold, he cometh,” breaks upon the world when every conceivable effort is being made to discount the doctrine of the second coming, and make it appear that it has nothing real and tangible about it, and that no such event will ever come to pass; notwithstanding all the declarations, as plain as language could, or can, make it, that such an event is sure to take place, in all its glorious and minute particulars. It is astonishing what denials and sophistries and fallacious reasonings and contradictions are resorted to, to deaden the consciences of men and lead them to put far off the evil day, and even to persuade themselves that it will never come. But the text asserts that “every eye shall see him.” They will not simply think about him; but their eyes, every one, shall behold, and be fixed upon, him. And to them that look for him his appearance shall be without sin, for their salvation. Heb. 9:28. But the text includes all others, who also will see him; but he brings salvation only to those that look for him.

This should be the note to be proclaimed everywhere and every day, and to be affirmed with all assurance. Every token he gives of his approach, as the sending of this gospel of his kingdom to be preached in all the world for a witness to all nations, is an evidence that he is moving, and is even now on the way. The Lord will not suffer his branch of the work to lag behind. “Then shall the end come”! People may now scout the idea of the coming of the day of the Lord. But when it opens upon the world, as described in Rev. 6:14-17, then they will all exclaim in concert, “For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?” The Lord himself says, “Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.” Rev. 22:12. It would be well for us now to make our own the question which the Scriptures reveal to us that the great and mighty men of earth will ask in that day, and see how we can answer it: “Who shall be able to stand?” That will then be the absorbing question. It will occupy the whole mind. The miser will then forget his gold; the worldly man his pride of life and his pleasures; the man of influence and of power his schemes, and advantages of cheating and of fraud; there will then be something of more importance to think of; and that is, how to be able to stand. Then all other thoughts will be merged into this: How shall we be able to stand? Let us, reader, ask ourselves the same question. Will you be able to stand? Shall I be able? The sorrow that men will feel on that great day will, in a great measure, arise out of the Lord’s glory. All men will then see what they have lost by rejecting it.

Since we must all see him, and answer at his judgment bar, why not now look to him and live, while he may be found? In the spirit of the apostle, can we acquiesce in the decisions of that day? Can we say, “Even so;” that is, so be it, “Amen”? U. S.

A Gracious Invitation

To every one who is in trouble the Saviour says, “Come unto me.” No matter how weary you are, or how heavy your burden seems to you, Jesus says to you, “Come unto me . . . and I will give you rest.” This is no formal invitation, no empty promise. From a heart which pities us and desires to help us comes the call, “Come unto me.” From a heart which knows what the struggle with temptation and sin means, comes the promise, “I will give you rest.”

“Come unto me!” It is the Saviour’s voice— The Lord of life, who bids thy heart rejoice; O weary heart, with heavy cares opprest, ‘Come unto me,’ and I will give you rest. “Weary with life’s long struggle, full of pain, O doubting soul, thy Saviour calls again; Thy doubts shall vanish, and thy sorrows cease; ‘Come unto me,’ and I will give you peace. “O dying man, with guilt and sin dismayed, With conscience wakened, of thy God afraid; ’Twixt hopes and fears—O, end the anxious strife!— ‘Come unto me,’ and I will give you life. “Life, rest, and peace, the flowers of deathless bloom, The Saviour gives us,—not beyond the tomb,— But here and now: on earth some glimpse is given Of joys which wait us through the gates of heav’n.”

Does not this bear a message to your heart? Have you tried to carry your own burdens, and found them very heavy? Have you sought peace of mind and rest of soul in some other way than by coming to Jesus? Are you trying to satisfy the longing within your heart by some other means than by giving your heart to Jesus, and accepting him as the complete satisfaction of every right desire? O let his word reach your heart to-day! Let not the deceitfulness of sin shut you out of heaven here and hereafter. Hear the Saviour saying, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him.” Ah, when we come to him, he comes into us! And “he is our peace,” and he is our rest. For his sake, and for your soul’s sake, listen to his gracious invitation.

Studies in the Gospel Message

THE subject of the fourth lesson in this series, the one for April 26, is The Two Mysteries.

There are two expressions in the Scripture which stand over against each other in marked contrast, each one of which is found but once in the whole Bible. The one expression is ‘the mystery of godliness,’ and the other is ‘the mystery of iniquity.’

In writing his first letter to Timothy, his ‘own son in the faith,’ the apostle Paul says: ‘And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.’ In the Revised Version the passage reads, ‘And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness; He who was manifested in the flesh,’ etc. It is only necessary to read this verse to see clearly that ‘the mystery of godliness’ is more than an abstract doctrine, more than an article of faith in the ordinary meaning of that term, and that it includes the personality of the incarnate Son of God. When ‘the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us,’ then the mystery which had been hid from ages and from generations was made manifest. The Son of God manifested to the world as the Son of man is ‘the mystery of godliness.’

This union of divinity with humanity in the person of Jesus Christ in the flesh constitutes the rock upon which the church is so securely built that ‘the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.’ It is through this provision in their behalf that sinful men may become ‘partakers of the divine nature,’ and herein is found the only basis of hope for a successful Christian experience; 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.’ This is the fundamental truth of Christianity. ‘The just shall live by faith.’

The same apostle Paul, in his second letter to the church at Thessalonica, uses the expression, ‘The mystery of iniquity.’ Here is the passage: ‘Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; . . . for the mystery of iniquity doth already work.’ It is equally as plain from these statements that ‘the mystery of iniquity’ is not a mere false teaching, not a mere lie, but it is a false teacher, a liar. It is the incarnation of wickedness as opposed to the incarnation of righteousness. It is Satan taking complete control of the flesh, and working against the manifestation of Christ in the flesh. It is ‘that man of sin . . . showing himself that he is God,’ claiming to be the vicegerent of the Son of God, when he is in reality the vicegerent of Satan.

This is ‘the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.’ This is the crowning effort to pervert (instead of to prepare) the way of the Lord. ‘The mystery of godliness’ is the Lord’s own revelation of the truth, and his provision to make that truth an experience in the believer, that ‘the just shall live by faith.’ ‘The mystery of iniquity’ is Satan’s effort to pervert this revelation to serve his own ends, and to teach man to believe in himself instead of in God. The one is the personal revelation of the truth of justification by faith; the other is the personal revelation of the falsehood of justification by works.

The ‘falling away,’ of which the apostle Paul wrote, has come. The man of sin has been revealed. The mystery of iniquity has been manifested. That divine grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, but was made manifest by the appearing in the flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ, and which is the very corner stone of our Christianity and the Lord’s own provision for the revelation of his righteous character in us, has been perverted by Satan into a system of fleshly works through which he has manifested himself and revealed his own character. This utter perversion of the gospel of Jesus Christ, by which ‘the mystery of iniquity’ is substituted for ‘the mystery of godliness,’ is popery, and the system through which it has been revealed is the papacy. ‘It is a system of unrighteousness so set forth as to seem that system of righteousness which God has revealed for the salvation of the world.’

All this effort to misrepresent the character of God and to pervert the gospel of his grace has been plainly revealed in prophecy. This is the one great theme of the symbolic prophecies of Daniel and John, which are linked together by the brief but remarkably clear picture drawn by the apostle Paul. By the light thus thrown upon history we can plainly see that in the papacy and its workings we have the historical interpretation of the first beast of the thirteenth chapter of Revelation. This is that world-power ‘which reigneth over the kings of the earth’ to whom the great dragon, ‘that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan,’ gave ‘his power, and his seat, and great authority.’ This is that power to which ‘all that dwell upon the earth . . . whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb’ were, according to the prophecy, to yield obedience, and in so doing they would worship the beast, and in worshiping the beast they would worship ‘the dragon which gave power unto the beast.’ Satan.

The beast from the earth, the second symbol in this same thirteenth chapter of Revelation, finally adopts the same false principles as those revealed by the beast from the sea, the first symbol, and says ‘to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast’ from the sea. Thus these two powers join hands, and become the twofold and world-wide channel through which, while pretending to reveal saving grace to the world, Satan works to pervert the pure gospel in the final stage of the controversy between Christ and Satan. It is to unmask this deceptive working, and to reveal to all men what the mystery of godliness really is, that the closing message of ‘the everlasting gospel’ of justification by faith, the righteousness of Christ, and salvation by grace alone, must be proclaimed with a loud voice ‘unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people.’ It is certainly clear then that the creative sentence, which was the life and light and power of the Reformation in the days of Luther to overthrow the false gospel of the papacy, must also be the life and the light and the power of this third angel’s message, which is to carry the same work to a glorious and final triumph. ‘The just shall live by faith.’

At the Northwestern Union Conference

By William Ambrose Spicer

THE Spirit of God has definitely called for a rising, broadening, enlarging policy that shall blend in one every branch of Christian truth and effort, and set the circle of the earth itself as the compass of God’s work. His Spirit is quickening and enlarging the hearts of his people to rise to meet the call of the hour. That is the encouraging feature of this spring’s union conferences.

The tender spirit of love and service has taken possession of the brethren and sisters of the Northwestern Union Conference, now in session in Des Moines. I am writing too early in the meeting to speak of business accomplished. The reports of the States represented show growth of the missionary spirit as related to the work abroad. Contributions for missions have increased, and the conferences view with satisfaction the lengthening list of workers leaving their borders for more needy fields beyond. No suggestion brings heartier amens from the congregation than the expressed determination of these States to do still more. We are only beginning this process of sending the laborers forth to the world-wide harvest.

The book work in this union conference shows room for development. Far more can be done. There is a disposition to take advantage of the crusade for the sale of “Christ’s Object Lessons,” to secure a large staff from the

rank and file to push forward the distribution of literature. One encouraging feature of the book work appeared in Nebraska’s report of increased sales, notwithstanding the severe drought of last season. Sales amounting to over sixteen thousand dollars, or about sixteen hundred dollars more than those of the preceding year, were made.

These conferences help to emphasize the truth that we can meet the issue that faces us to-day only by rallying all the forces of this people to take up active service with the aim of pushing the frontier of the work outward and ever onward. The loyal hearts of a united people, beating strong with love for the world which Jesus loves, are, under God, the bulwarks of our work. The home work must be everywhere strengthened at once to bear the burden of the world’s evangelization. “Lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes,” is the ringing command from heaven. The stakes must be driven strong and surely in these conferences at home in order that the cords of God’s everlasting love may be quickly flung out to the uttermost parts of the earth. W. A. SPICER.

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