Earlier text: The Sabbath—The Day—The DutyReligious Sunday Laws in Ambush.
By C. E. Leland
ANOTHER effort has recently been made in Sacramento, Cal., to educate the people up to the point of securing a Sunday-rest law at the next session of the state Legislature. Thru the efforts of Rev. G. L. Tufts, District Secretary of the National Reform Bureau, the campaign was again opened with meetings in a number of churches and the Y. M. C. A., closing with a mass meeting in the Congregational church. Preliminary steps were taken toward the permanent organization of a state Reform League whose duty it shall be to carry on the fight which has been commenced. As the Sunday-rest bill was defeated at the last Legislature thru the efforts of the Religious Liberty Bureau, and other forces, they are adopting new tactics, carefully avoiding any allusion to the Sabbath, or the religious phase of the movement; stating that it is not a Puritan movement for rigid Sabbatarianism, but aiming simply at securing one day of rest in seven for those who wish it; that it is not a religious question in the interest of the churches, but insuring a day of rest for the laboring men, and granting them the opportunity to attend church when they desire to do so. In criticizing the movement, being religious legislation contrary to the provisions of the federal Constitution, the answer was that the federal Constitution, as well as the constitution of every state, California not excepted, recognizes Sunday as a “governmental holiday,” giving to Sunday the true “American stamp.” That is all the stamp any “governmental holiday” requires. The true Sabbath, which means true rest, and was made for man, not the American only, has the stamp or seal of God, which is better than any earthly governmental stamp. The people of California are not yet fooled altogether respecting this so-called holiday, posing as a beneficent gift to the poor toiler, granting a day of respite from the treadmill of labor and the grasp of unscrupulous employers, but are able to see behind the apparently harmless Sunday-rest law, a Sunday-enforced law. Solving the “Empty Pew” Problem.
At the first meeting held in the M. E. Church, the chairman in introducing Rev. Tufts, and stating the object of the meeting, said, “Once we have the Sunday law secured, the problem of the empty pew will be solved;” showing that the real aim of the movement is to fill the “empty pews.” The subject of the first meeting was “Jesus, King of California.” I suppose Rev. Tufts will have Jesus for civil king, as he is discussing purely civil questions. That is the mistake the Jews made at Christ’s first advent. Again, to show that the agitation is in the interest of religion, the statement was made that the law shall be so framed as to prohibit all business and every kind of employment not necessary to the health and convenience of the people, and to prohibit every kind of public amusement on Sunday,—to enforce a Sunday rest,—and then offer as an excuse for this law man’s physical needs for one day of rest in seven, and call it a “governmental holiday.” But the winds of strife and persecution are still held that the honest hearted may see the truth and find real true rest in Jesus before it is too late. Those who would oppose the truth only help it forward, as in this case. The Moral Condition of the City Attacked.
Rev. Tufts took up a personal attack on the moral condition of the city, saying he had never met such a low type of civilization and such a low degree of morality as he had seen on the streets of Sacramento, which roused the editor of the “Bee,” the leading newspaper of the city, to write several stinging editorials, scathing the Rev. Tufts from the standpoint of an American citizen, and taking a noble stand in defense of the Seventh-day Adventists. The following extract will show the position taken by the editor: “The people of this state will not tolerate a Sunday law that, behind the ambush of providing a ‘day of rest’ for the laborer, would make that day one of dreary and monotonous discomfort, by depriving it of almost every form of innocent outdoor and indoor public amusement and fun to which he had been accustomed, which he craves and which he needs. The people of this state will not be slaves to the churches. They will not tolerate interference with the right of the Jew and the Seventh-day Adventist to spend their Sundays as they may see fit, in decency and propriety; nor will they permit one set of11Christians to dictate how another set of Christians shall spend the first day of the week.”
The meetings were very poorly attended, and the mass meeting closing Rev. Tufts’ work here was almost a failure, only about fifty persons present, largely clergymen and their friends. But there is a persistency about the movement that shows that there is a determined class of men organized to commit this country, and thru it all the rest of the world, to religious legislation. And when the desired sentiment is aroused there will follow religious tyranny and all its attendant horrors of persecution. Those who see the threatened danger should arouse to the most vigorous, the most vigilant, and the most continuous action. C. E. LELAND. The Twofold Basis of Sunday Laws
OUR Sunday-law friends are continually asserting that the Sunday law is not a piece of religious legislation, not at all; it is all in the interests of labor, etc. Just now they are exalting to the skies a judge in Kansas City, Mo., Mr. William H. Wallace by name, who has made himself famous in the enforcement of Sunday observance. How does he regard Sunday laws? Let him answer; we quote from the “Christian Statesman” of February: “Upon the two doctrines that the constitution of man requires and the Word of God commands one day in seven as a day of rest are grounded the Sunday statutes of the several states of the Union. With rarest exceptions our judicial decisions, whose name is legion, rest on precisely the same foundation. Ministers and priests could not have pronounced the Sabbath more sacred than have the judges. Sunday laws have been declared constitutional by practically every state in the Union. The Supreme Court of the United States, Justice Brewer rendering the opinion, has decided that we are a religious people, and that Christianity is part of our law.” The above is a frank statement by a Sunday-law advocate and judge, printed in the premier Sunday-law journal of America. This basis is worth brief examination before we build on it. The Chinese Nation Disprove It.
1. Man doubtless requires physical rest, but it yet has to be determined that he would not live just as long if he worked every day. The Chinese have been for centuries a sabbathless nation, but they compare favorably in longevity with Western peoples. But granting the whole contention that man needs a day of rest, should the civil law enforce it? Man needs to wear healthful clothing; should the government prescribe it, provide it, and enforce the wearing of it? Man needs proper wholesome food; should the government prescribe his bill of fare? Man needs to exercise, labor, as well as rest; should the government enforce labor? That would perpetuate slavery. What is the difference between that and the enforcement of idleness? But physical labor is rest to some men. To him who has been shut within the confines of factory or office during six days, no rest is so sweet, so interesting, so helpful, as to work in his garden, fix up his premises, with wife and children about him or in mind. Another who has worked at hard physical labor would prefer to attend church perhaps, perhaps a ball game, perhaps sleeping, visiting, a good dinner. Others prefer to go out of the city into the country. A dozen classes of men would prefer a dozen different modes of resting, all of which would demand exercise prohibited by the civil Sunday law. Of course under the law they would be prosecuted as criminals, while their neighbors, who were no better citizens, and perhaps a thousand times worse in the sight of God, rest from physical labor, and go to some kind of meeting, are considered good citizens. No just Sunday-observance law was ever enacted. There can be no just Sunday law in the nature of the case, whatever courts may say. All courts, thank God, have not regarded them as just and constitutional. 2. “God does command a weekly day of rest, to be kept holy unto Him.” But that is no reason why it should be enforced by man. God commands all men to repent and be baptized; should the civil law enforce it? God commands in the same law which enjoins the Sabbath, “Thou shalt not covet;” should the state seek to enforce it? There are many things God commands; should the state enforce them all? That would be to put the state in the place of God. It has been well said that no government ever persecuted but for infractions of what it was pleased to term the law of God. God’s “law is spiritual,” and no civil power can enforce a spiritual law. Again: “God commands one day in seven as a day of rest.” He does, but He has not left it to man or governments to decide as to what day of the seven is to be kept. He is a God of order, and to prevent confusion He chose the one day of the septenary cycle around which, above all others, clustered the great facts of creation setting forth His eternal power and Godhead, and He made that a sign between Himself and His people forever. Gen. 2: 2, 3; Ex. 31: 17; Eze. 20: 20. What right has man to choose a day upon which God did not rest, which He did not bless, which He did not sanctify or set apart, and put that day into statute law and enforce it as of God? Can the counterfeit ever become genuine? Can the false ever become true? Once more: God’s command to man is, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it HOLY;” not to make it holy, but to keep holy what God has made holy. Only a holy man can keep a holy day holy; and God only can make both day and man holy. What unholy presumption it then becomes for government to put itself in the place of God and seek to do what it never can do. It is not God’s day which needs the legislation; it will survive whatever man may do; and the counterfeit which man is seeking to put in its place shall perish despite the combined effort of all the Legislatures and courts of the world. “Every plant,” says Jesus, “which My heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.” The leading Sunday-school men of the country to the number of sixty, met in Boston, Jan. 2, 3, to consider the lesson system and its related interests. This body comprised the Lesson Committee, the Sunday-School Editorial Association, and the Lesson Publishers, and members of the International Executive Committee. Twelve of the great denominations were represented. They formally and unanimously expressed their conviction (1) That the system of a general lesson for the whole school, which has been in successful use for thirty-five years, is still the most practicable and effective system for the great majority of the Sunday-Schools of North America, and recommended its continuance and its fullest development. (2) That the need for a graded system of lessons, expressed by so many Sunday-schools and workers, should be adequately met and that a thoroly graded course of lessons be prepared covering the entire range of the Sunday-school. In a recent speech by Justice Harlan of the Supreme Court to the Navy League, the speaker referred to two “yellow perils,”—four hundred million Chinese whom he characterized as strong physically and mentally as we are; and another nation, Japan, whose people are aggressive and ambitious. He continued, “We will some day see a skilled army in Japan of from five million to ten million men. They will say, ‘You claim Europe as your country. This is ours. Get out.’” He declares there “will be a conflict between the yellow race and the white race that will shake the earth.” The Holy Scriptures tell us that this will be when the kings of the east shall come up to the great battle of Armageddon. The kings of the east and the kings of the west will there meet in the great battle of the day of God Almighty, and that will end all of earth’s battles. The next event in the world’s drama will be the second coming of Jesus Christ. The Belfast (Ireland) Morning Express of January 9 intimates that Lord Ashtown, who is endeavoring to do so much in the way of agriculture to help the people of Ireland, is preeminently a persecuted man, and that because of the enmity of the priests. The Express declares that his success means discredit to their teachings, danger to their influence, and when no other means can prevail against his determination, his murder is recommended in a print practically under clerical control. The government sends down its policemen, but they do not dare to displease the clergy. Lord Ashtown, it tells us, is trying to lead the people to independence and liberty, but they bring false charges against him and endeavor to murder him. The farm wealth of the United States is estimated at the close of 1907 at $7,412,000,000; the mineral products, $3,000,000,000; live stock, $3,194,000,000; wheat crop, $500,000,000; cotton crop, $675,000,000; corn, $1,350,000,000; hay the same; dairy products reach the vast sum of $73,765,000; while poultry and eggs climb to $6,000,000,000. The lumber products amount to $550,000,000, while the national assets are estimated at $1,500,000,000,000. These are colossal figures. According to data compiled by bonding companies, the embezzlements of the first six months of 1907 amounted to $5,482,687, nearly $2,000,000 more than the year previous. Bankers and trust companies were the worst sufferers. Beneficial associations had their funds depleted to the extent of $400,000. Court trust funds were stolen to the amount of $253,000. Most of this money went into Wall Street speculations or gambling on races. According to Dr. Frank Billings, president of the National Tuberculosis Association, one million people in Illinois alone are suffering from tuberculosis in some degree. During the last eleven months, 4,076 have died in Chicago from this disease. In Vienna between 60 and 70 per cent of all the patients in hospitals are tuberculous. The disease is well called “the great white plague.” are said to be at a low ebb, so much so that it is stated that the pope can not afford just now to help the sufferers from the Calabria earthquake. It is hoped that the jubilee offerings will increase the treasury. Simple, unostentatious living would, it seems to us, help very materially in this respect. A Change Not for the Best
A paper that is published in the interests of young people in San Francisco gives us this information, “A year or so ago candy and gum figured as the principal purchases of the city’s juveniles, but now the spare nickels of the young are passed into the ticket window of the moving-picture show.” passed over Mississippi, January 31, doing damage to the extent of $300,000, and destroyed ten lives. Very heavy storms are reported from the East. For a Sunday-rest Law.—
By Editor
The Berkeley (Cal.) Independent of January 29 gives a friendly and evidently inspired report of Dr. G. L. Tufts’ lecture in behalf of a Sunday-rest law. Dr. Tufts is a representative of the International Reform Bureau, an organization which has had for its purpose for years placing Christian laws and usages on an undeniable legal basis. He tells in his lectures of the splendid Sunday law that he induced Idaho to pass, and he is in California for the same purpose. According to this report, many saloonkeepers are well satisfied to have a weekly rest day. Just as tho they could not have it from their nefarious business without a law! He also tells us that the law to be introduced to the next California Legislature will be based upon the personal rights of all classes. “It will not be a religious statute, and it will not forbid Sunday labor on the part of those who regularly observe another day of the week as their rest day.” But the very exemption that it gives shows that it is of a religious character. Try to hide it as men may, it is religious in its nature, and the sentiment behind it is wholly a religious sentiment. It is demanding that one class of religionists shall be favored by the law to the extent of supporting by statute law a religious dogma held by them; and, conversely, if carried to the ultimate it would brand as criminal those who are opposed to the class tenets. No Sunday law was ever framed that was equable or impartial. Like all other religious laws, in the very nature of the case, it can not be. It may make hypocrites of men; it will never make them better citizens or change their moral natures. A Kansas City paper of January 15 has an article headed “‘Crime Rampant,’ says Wallace; ‘Disregard of Sunday Laws Results in Lawlessness; Never Knew Times so Bad; Courts Powerless to Punish Wholesale Violators.’” Judge Wallace is quoted as saying: “Crime is more rampant in Kansas City to-day than at any time since it was merely Westport Landing. I have been in the city practising at the courts the greater part of my life; for four years I was prosecuting attorney, and I have prosecuted and defended hundreds of criminals; but I have never seen the time when there was as much lawlessness here as there is now. The situation is getting worse every day. There seems to be everywhere an utter disregard of the law. There are fifteen men now waiting to be tried for murder. Just recently forty-two men were sent in one body from here to the state penitentiary, the greatest single consignment to that institution in Missouri history.”
All the above is doubtless true. We have no disposition to dispute the judge as to facts within his observation. What we do wish to say, however, is that the judge’s remedy, the enforcement of Sunday laws, will never stop the tide of crime. We are living the life of Rome over again. Men like Judge Wallace saw the increasing tide of crime then. They endeavored to put themselves in God’s stead and legislate for Him. They said that if the Sunday was protected, and the theaters, which came in competition with the churches, were closed, times would be better. But out of that legislation grew all the persecutions of the Dark Ages, all the horrors of the Inquisition. Our state laws have been molded to some extent to the same principle, while the opposite is asserted in the state constitutions. The federal Constitution separated all religion from the civil law, by declaring it to be no part of the work of the legislative body. The treaty with Tripoli declared that Christianity was no part of American law, and in 1829-30 Congress declared the same thing. Judge Wallace and others of similar mind are doing a work which will carry us back to persecution for conscience’ sake, the rejuvenescence of the Inquisition and the Dark Ages. They are sowing what is to them sweet zephyrs; are they willing to reap the whirlwind? A despatch from Rome dated February 1 makes the statement that the government of Italy regards itself, or the Italian people, as the real owners of the Vatican, including its art treasures, libraries, gold and silver, jewels and antiquities. The principle is stated in a despatch sent by the late Premier Crispi to the Italian ambassador in Berlin. This despatch has just come to light. The German government inquired what Italy meant to do if the pope decides to demand entrance fees to the Vatican museums, and the Italian government, thru its premier, replied, “Report to the German government that this is a matter of politics and that we will discuss it only as a matter of information.” “Since the pope is no longer king of Rome, and the Vatican palaces, with all they contain, are now the inviolable property of the Italian nation, the pope has no right whatever to charge admission to the museums, for under the law of guarantees he is but the beneficiary of the Vatican properties, our tenant. The establishment of entrance fees to galleries, owned by the Italian government, is equivalent to levying taxes, and in levying taxes the pope, being no longer a sovereign, is assuming rights that do not belong to him.” And this may make it easy in the near future for the powers of Europe to decide that the best place for the Papacy is outside of Italy. In such a case, where could headquarters of the church be found which would better suit the Papacy than in Jerusalem? Sunday Prosecution and Rest.
We clip the following from the Idaho Scimitar of Jan. 4, 1908, which credits it to the Owyhee Nugget. It is a fairly good illustration of how Sunday laws are regarded: “A few Sundays ago a farmer drove over to the county attorney’s office and demanded the arrest of a near neighbor’s thrashing crew that was violating the Sabbath, says an exchange. The county attorney was pulling weeds in his garden and he suggested that the complainant go before the justice of the peace of his township, but he was informed that the justice was fixing his windmill. He was then asked to telephone the sheriff and have him attend to the matter, but he was loading cattle at the stock-yards. The farmer was exasperated and resolved to saddle a horse and go for the constable, but his good wife, who was canning fruit, informed him that the boys had driven the horse to town and were playing ball.” A Boat Needed for the Eastern Polynesian Mission
By B. J. Cady
MANY who read this have heard of Pitcairn Island, an isolated spot of land in the Southern Pacific Ocean. It is 300 miles from there to Mangareva, which is the nearest inhabited island, and 1,200 miles to Tahiti. The island has about 150 inhabitants. They can grow the tropical fruits and vegetables in abundance, but there are many of the necessaries of life which must be obtained from the outside world, such as clothing, soap, coal-oil, flour, sugar, books, etc. On account of their isolated condition they often lack for such things as these. About all the market they have for their produce is on passing ships, and that is all the way they have of getting money or any foreign goods, excepting when they are visited by a trading vessel from Tahiti, which is very seldom. Sometimes we have had to wait two or three years for an opportunity to send mail to them from here. They raise and prepare arrowroot, and find a ready sale for it here in Tahiti when they can manage to get it here. They have been quite faithful in setting apart a tithe of their arrowroot and other products for the Lord. The tithe of their bananas they dry, so as to be able to keep them until some way is found for selling them. They have sometimes had tithe arrowroot and dried bananas on hand for three or four years waiting for a chance to dispose of them. Now, if they had a way to market their produce, it would be a great encouragement to them, and would be an inducement to lead them to greater industry. They raise a great many sweet potatoes, melons, and pumpkins, for which they might find a market here in these islands. As it has been, they are never sure of a boat calling at their island, and often have considerably more fruit and vegetables than they can use, and have it spoil on their hands because no boat happens to come along for months at a time. What they need is a small schooner to make about two trips a year from Tahiti to Pitcairn, to take them what they need, and to get their produce and bring it to Tahiti and these other islands to sell. A few years ago, the British Government helped them to get a very small cutter, which they had about a year, and with which they made one trip to Tahiti and several to the island of Mangareva. They were planning to make a second trip with it to Tahiti, but were forbidden to come by the British consul, as the boat was then not considered strong enough to undertake such a long voyage. At last it went down in a storm near Pitcairn, and one young man was lost with it. Then they began to think of getting another boat. A Captain Stubbs of England, a friend and acquaintance of the Pitcairn people, began to solicit funds for this purpose. While we were away in Australia, another boat was bought for them, which was small and also very old. After two trips between Tahiti and Pitcairn it was condemned as unseaworthy, and was sold for about $292. Now we believe that our Pitcairn friends need help in this line. If we had a small schooner belonging to the Eastern Polynesian Mission, it could not only be used for Pitcairn, but with it we could also reach other isolated islands in this field which are very difficult of access, and could take to them the truth. As it is now, if we should have a chance to go to some of the out-of-the-way islands, we might be compelled to remain there a year or so before we could get away or hear anything from the outside world. We have so few workers in our field, we can not afford to have one of them shut up on one little island for so long. He might find, after being there a while, that it would not be profitable to stay more than one month, and yet he might have to remain much longer. If we have a boat, we can take our workers to such places, and bring them away again when they are ready to come. There are a great many islands in this field: the Society, Cook, Austral, Tuamotu, Marquesas, and Gambier groups, besides Pitcairn and a few other isolated islands. Only a few of the largest of these are easily accessible. Now if we had a boat of our own, we believe it might be made self-supporting thru what it could make in carrying freight and passengers. We have a twenty-five-ton schooner which is five years old offered to us for the sum of $1,600. This is a strong boat and in good order. We have some money on hand which we can use for this purpose, and enough more promised to make up $1,000, but we shall need $600 more, and we do not know where that will come from unless our friends will help us. We have just put up a meeting-house on the island of Huahine, and are working hard to get enough money to build a church on Raiatea, which we hope to have finished by next June, so as to hold our conference meetings in it. Our people here are taking hold well and helping in the church for Raiatea, but times have been very hard in these islands since the tornado of two years ago, and most of the people are unable to help very much financially, besides that, our numbers are small. So we find it hard to do so much alone, and we would like very much to get the schooner in time to make one trip to Pitcairn before our conference in June, and bring some of our Pitcairn people out to attend the meeting. They have very few opportunities for getting such help as we shall have at this meeting, as we expect Brother O. A. Olsen will be with us at this time. We only have a conference like this once in two years, and to us it is what the camp-meeting is to our people in the States. Because of our needs as briefly set forth here, we ask that if any who are able to do so feel called upon to help in this line, they may send their donations to the Pacific Press, asking them to apply it on this boat fund, and we who are in the field and know the need will be very grateful for any help received. TWENTY-ONE members were added to the Stuart, Iowa, church, January 11. BROTHER J. W. McComas reports five new standard bearers at Humboldt, Iowa. FIVE members have been added to the church at Carbondale, Pa., thru the labors of Brother C. S. Wiest. THE Decatur, Neb., church is rejoicing over fourteen of the children and youth who have given themselves to the Lord. ON the first Sabbath of the new year, Brother G. F. Haffner baptized eleven at Shattuck, Okla. Nine others also united with the church. BROTHER L. A. Gibson has spent the last three months laboring in Spokane, Wash., and six have stepped out into the light of present truth. DURING the week of prayer, twenty-five of the students of Walla Walla (Wash.) College went forward in baptism. Elder J. N. Loughborough conducted the evening meetings. JANUARY 3 Brother J. R. Bagby buried thirteen in baptism at Wewoka, Okla., where a church of nineteen members has been organized. Brother C. M. McDonald gave the message of which this is the fruit. (Continued on Last Column of Next Page.)13 (Continued from Page 12.) THE Pacific Union Conference was held at St. Helena, Cal., January 17 to 25. Brethren A. G. Daniels, W. W. Prescott, F. Griggs, and several missionaries from foreign fields were in attendance. The following officers were chosen: President, H. W. Cottrell; secretary, J. J. Ireland; treasurer, E. A. Chapman; auditor, J. J. Ireland; Conference Committee: S. N. Haskell, president of California Conference; G. W. Reaser, president Southern California Conference; H. G. Thurston, president Arizona Conference; S. G. Huntington, president Utah Conference; M. C. Wilcox, J. R. Leadsworth, H. G. Lucas, J. O. Corliss, H. H. Hall. AT the meeting of the California Conference at Fresno, Cal., January 31 to February 5, the following officers were elected: President, S. N. Haskell; secretary and treasurer, E. A. Chapman. Conference Committee: S. N. Haskell, H. Shultz, E. D. Sharpe, G. A. Snyder, B. L. Howe, J. H. Behrens, W. E. Whalin. Conference Committee appointments: Missionary secretary, A. J. S. Bourdeau; Sabbath-school secretary, Mrs. Carrie B. King; field secretary of Religious Liberty Association, J. O. Corliss; corresponding secretary of Religious Liberty Association, A. J. S. Bourdeau; superintendent of church-schools, I. C. Colcord; state canvassing agent, W. H. Covell; treasurer tract society, C. E. Olcott. Board of the legal body of the California Conference Association: H. W. Cottrell, W. E. Whalin, E. A. Chapman, E. E. Parlin, M. H. Brown, L. M. Bowen, W. E. Chinnock. THY neighbor?—It is he whom thou
Hast power to aid and bless,
Whose aching heart or burning brow
Thy soothing hand may press. Thy neighbor?—’Tis the fainting poor,
Whose eye with want is dim,
Whom hunger sends from door to door:
Go thou, and succor him, Thy neighbor?—’Tis that weary man,
Whose years are at their brim,
Bent low with sickness, cares, and pain:
Go thou, and comfort him. Thy neighbor?—’Tis the heart bereft
Of every earthly gem;
Widow and orphan, helpless left:
Go thou, and shelter them. Thy neighbor?—Yonder toiling slave,
Fettered in thought and limb,
Whose hopes are all beyond the grave:
Go thou, and ransom him. Where’er thou meetest a human form
Less favored than thine own,
Remember he thy neighbor is,
Give bread instead of stone. O, pass not, pass not heedless by;
Perhaps thou canst redeem
The breaking heart from misery:
Go share thy lot with him. LET us brighten the way for others,
As onward thru life we go,
Bearing the heat of the burden,
Lightening some other's wo. Loving each other better
And more and more each day; Remembering love and kindness
Will brighten many a way. Never forgetting to care for
Those who are sick and sad;
For the bread shall return “after many days,”
Making our own hearts glad. The Building of a Home
By L. D. Avery-Stuttle
By Mrs. L. D. Avery-Stuttle The Duties of the Mother.
I AM afraid you have placed so many duties and so many cares on the head of the poor father that you have not left us mothers anything at all to do,” says some ambitious little woman. But if you will listen for a few moments, I think you will agree that enough work still remains for even the most ambitious and aggressive of mothers. In fact, the duties of the mother are so many and so varied that a mere enumeration of the half of them would occupy much more time and space than I have at my command. I shall therefore undertake to name but a few of the more important ones. To the mother, more than to any one else in all the world, belongs the sacred duty of caring for those tender little beings whose frail lives are so often cut short by the unjustifiable ignorance or wilful folly of her whose chief thought should be the care and comfort of the little ones entrusted to her by Him who claims them as His “heritage.” What, then, shall I say of the culpable conduct of the mother who, shirking or ignoring this sacred responsibility, leaves her babe to the entire charge of a hireling, that she may be free to cater to the demands of fashion; that her days may be spent in idle vanity, and her evenings at the pleasure party or the theater; or, worse still, that she may have more time to give to the care of her lap-dog or poodle! But the majority of mothers, I am happy to believe, are not of this class. “No, no!” exclaim a multitude of earnest, true-hearted women with a shudder, “we are anxious to do our duty by our little ones, but we don’t always know just how. We can’t agree as to any certain age when we should begin to insist upon obedience. When ought we to begin to train our children?” Perhaps we all remember the answer of the physician to a similar question put to him by an anxious mother: “One hundred years before the babe is born, madam,” smiled the doctor. Prenatal influence is indeed great. But, seriously, the training of the child should commence as soon as the little one begins to take notice of anything—or even before. A child carefully trained to obedience and virtue from the very cradle, by a godly mother, and with the voice of prayer constantly echoing in its ears, will not be likely to break that mother’s heart in a few years by choosing the path of destruction. Ah, the great majority of those poor girls whose lives of shame and folly are the curse of this unhappy land, were not brought up by true Christian mothers,—something essential in their training has been neglected,—there is no doubt about it. Of course there are exceptions. But O if parents could be made to understand the vital necessity of surrounding their children from their very birth with an atmosphere of prayer never ceasing, if mothers would teach their girls and boys to confide in them, if all their intercourse with them might be marked by love unchangeable and ceaseless, how much anguish of spirit might be saved. Of how many among us, my sisters, could the testimony be borne by our children: “Mother never gave me a cross word in my life. She never spoke to me with a frown on her face; she never punished me in anger. Mother made my life at home one of peace and innocent happiness.” Ah, I tell you, it is the home life that counts. One morning my husband called me into the garden. Pointing to a large vine whose fine green leaves were sadly drooping, he said: “See; my vine is dying. I can not imagine the cause. I water it every morning, and there is no insect to be found among the leaves or on the stalk, but the plant is dying.” The next day he came to me, bringing a section of the root in his hand. He had discovered the cause of all the trouble. Hidden away in the ground, and even creeping up the hollow rootlets, were myriads of tiny parasites. As tho ashamed to be seen in the broad light of day, where the searching eye of the gardener would discern it, the insect had hidden itself, that it might the better carry on its destructive work. It was at home only in dirt and darkness. O let us rid our homes of everything which we well know can never stand before the all-seeing eye of the heavenly Gardener. The worm at the root is the careless word, the unjust reprimand, the ungenerous remark, the scolding tone, every unkind or harsh word you utter in the privacy of your own home, every prayer neglected, every injustice done to husband or children,—these, my sister, are worms at the root, which will ruin those tender vines which your heavenly Father has planted especially for your love and care and happiness. These small shortcomings, as we are prone to call them, are the little foxes that finally spoil the vines. Do you remember the other day you saw the pastor coming in at the gate while you were giving little Mary a scolding because of some childish irregularity? How suddenly your sharp tones were lowered, and how quickly the puckering frowns straightened and smoothed themselves out! You hoped the pastor didn’t notice, or hadn’t heard. If he had, he kept quiet about it. But I can tell you who did notice, and who did hear: the recording angel was there with his pen. And, my sister, your little Mary noticed the sudden change, and looked up in astonishment. Ah, she was learning lessons in deceit from her Christian (?) mother. And there was still another record written, besides that of the recording angel,—written in ugly characters upon your fair brow. The lines are still faint, perhaps, but every day they are growing deeper,—lines of ill-nature and deceit. Do not lay these lines to the finger of Time. The lines he curves upon the calm brow of beautiful old age are too sacred, too divinely fair to be confounded with such a shameful forgery. Do not forget to teach the children to pray. Spend more time in this manner than in endless rufflings and tuckings and flutings. Make your home bright and beautiful and attractive, but do not give so much attention to this that you neglect the preparations for the one to come,—“eternal in the heavens.” Intemperance in British Lands.
According to the Auckland (New Zealand) Free Press, temperance people are waging a strong fight in New Zealand for prohibition, and look with encouragement upon the progress made in this country. In the issue of the Free Press of November 23 is a very striking article, “The Cry of the Children,” by Mr. Geo. R. Sims. He refers to the vast number of deaths of infants under twelve months in England and Wales, but points out very clearly that the real difficulty in all this is alcoholism. Many times the drunkenness is on the part of the mother of the child. Every year between 500 and 600 infants are killed by overlaying or suffocation in bed. Mr. Sims writes this not from hearsay, but from actual experience in it. The same issue calls attention to the slaughter of an innocent family by a drunken wretch, which does not particularly affect the public, and asks, “What would happen if some drunken, demented person should shoot a drinking, smoking bishop instead of an innocent woman and the mother of a family?” It also reports the sad fact that the labor unions of New Zealand are hostile to the movement. Bad as capital is in many of its phases, a thousand times greater curse to laboring men is intemperance.